Under Suspicion
Tails sighed and adjusted his rucksack. The straps heavily weighted down on his shoulders. No surprise here, the bag was full of technical equipment, or rather what would become parts of technical equipment. Cables, material for transistors and capacitors, stuff for isolation… In short, it was full of a lot of parts he needed for the Tornado. His trusty biplane was undergoing a complete overhaul at the moment.
For now satisfied with the contribution of weight on his back, the two-tailed fox continued his walk, heading back towards the railway station. The streets of Station Square were rather empty at the moment. Also the shops had not been too full. The morning rush hour was just over and by noon he would be long gone again. Tails preferred his shopping trips that way; it spared him a lot of useless waiting time and he would be back home faster.
He stopped at an intersection, watching the cars slowly drive past him, looking for a good moment to cross the road. He had already put one foot on the pavement of the street when a voice called from behind him.
"Miles Prower?!"
Tails stopped and withdrew his foot, turning over his shoulder in surprise. Nobody called him by his real name. It was always just 'Tails'. "Excuse me?"
A tall white bear held out his wallet at him, briefly flipping it open. If it was meant to actually show him anything in it remained obscure to Tails; all he could glimpse in the short moment was something reflecting the sunlight in it. "Lieutenant MacDim, GUN. We have a few questions. You are to follow me immediately." His tone made clear he wouldn't accept no for an answer.
"Uh, okay… What's it about?" Tails turned fully around, his namesakes beginning to nervously play behind his back. He didn't like being with strangers much, authoritarian strangers even less. I wish Sonic was here, he thought. The hedgehog would surely have some wise-crack comeback that would sufficiently silence the GUN guy.
"I am not authorized to tell you," was the only reply Tails got to his question. The bear led him silently along the road and up to a parking lot. He stopped next to a rather large, black car. Even the windows were black, not allowing Tails to catch a look inside. The GUN Lieutenant opened the back door of the car, gesturing to Tails to get inside.
The fox gulped. Should he refuse? After all, GUN weren't exactly close friends, what if they were up to something bad? But… something about this whole thing had made Tails curious. After all, Sonic wouldn't hesitate to hop in the car, would he?
No. And he wouldn't either.
Tails nodded to no-one but himself and slipped past the bear into the fond of the vehicle. In trying to handle his large rucksack he ended up flopping into the leather cushioning of the seats. He looked around and his eyes stopped on the person sitting across of him on the rearwards facing seats.
She was an unusual sight to say the least. Her fur was snow-white, her ears twice as big as his own, also not particularly small ones. Her face wore a smug smirk, with lip-gloss glittering around her mouth and her turquoise eyes twinkled in what looked like distant amusement. Instead of some sort of everyday clothing for Mobian females, her shaped body was dressed in a black jump suit and her feet stuck in white long-shafted, high-heeled boots.
"Rouge!"
The bat's smirk grew to a smile. "Correct. Good morning, honey."
"What's going on?", Tails asked, distractedly noticing the Lieutenant had also climbed into the car and now took a seat next to Rouge.
The treasure huntress and part-time GUN agent shrugged, crossing her legs leisurely at the knees. "It happens my superiors are throwing a real riot about finding that blue hedgehog pal of yours."
"Sonic?" Tails blinked.
Rouge lazily waved her hand. "Unless you happen to have any other blue hedgehog friends, yes, Sonic. You haven't seen him recently?"
"What do you want?", Tails asked instead of answering her.
"Sonic the Hedgehog is suspect to have stolen GUN top secret material," MacDim cut in before Rouge had a change to reply.
Tails' jaw dropped for a moment, then reproach managed to slip onto his features. "Sonic doesn't do such a thing!"
"You are not in the position to decide that," the bear gave back harshly. "You might as well be a comrade of his."
Tails sucked in a breath. "I –"
"Have you seen Sonic?", Rouge interrupted, her tone still calm and with this typical superior professionalism in it Tails had never seen on anyone else.
"What was it that was being stolen?" Tails simply skipped on the bat's question.
MacDim was about to get at the fox again, but Rouge shut him off with a wave of her hand. "A bunch of top secret data sheets about the construction of Chaos Drives," she informed Tails.
The young fox felt his eyes widen. "Of Chaos Drives," he echoed. "And… what makes you think Sonic did that? What would he even want with that sort of data?"
"We captured evidence of his deeds on a surveillance camera," the Lieutenant said. "By the way, where were you yesterday evening?"
Tails' double tails thudded the seat next to him. "At my house in the Mystic Ruins. I'm working on the Tornado; I'm doing a complete overhaul of it and-"
"Anyone can prove that?"
Tails shrugged slightly nervously. "Uh, a thousand of disassembled aircraft parts in the workshop?"
Apparently not caring much about the given answer, the bear already fired the next question at Tails. "What are you doing in Station Square?"
"Shopping for stuff I needed to rebuild and improve my plane," Tails replied, trying to stay calm. This was getting ridiculous.
"What's in that bag?"
The fox groaned. "What do you think? The stuff I was shopping for. I was just about to head to the station to go back home."
MacDim's eyes turned piercing. "Why not use that plane you mentioned? Is maybe Sonic using it?"
"No, he's not." Tails shook his head, still trying to decide if he was more worried or annoyed. "I told you already. I'm rebuilding the plane. It's in pieces. No, it doesn't fly around. Not today, and not yesterday either. Okay?"
Leaned casually into her seat, Rouge giggled quietly. MacDim however skipped on Tails' input again. "Now have you anything to say to the subject's whereabouts?"
Tails exasperatedly shook his head. "And you're really sure it's Sonic? Just asking, 'cause you know, you guys already mistook someone else for him before…"
A smirk dashed over Rouge's face and MacDim ground his teeth. "Be careful what you say…"
"Do you have any idea what Sonic could be up to with the data?", Rouge continued the conversation, once again ignoring her colleague. If he even was that.
"You really think he did that?" Tails frowned at the bat. GUN, yeah, they weren't exactly all that smart. But he'd thought of Rouge in better terms, not particularly on her trustworthiness, but at least on her sense of realism.
She shrugged. "Not really. Actually, I think this is a stupid idea, but I was tasked with the investigation and they wanted me to investigate in this direction primarily, so… Let's just treat the question hypothetically, shall we?"
"Uh, okay." Tails scratched his head. Hypothetical sounded bearable, even if no less idiotic. "But really, Sonic wouldn't have any use for a Chaos Drive construction sheet or whatever you guys lost. He's not exactly an inventor. He wouldn't even know what to do with a data sheet. Sonic doesn't build stuff. That's my thing, actually."
"I told you," MacDim spoke up again, turning to Rouge. "He's involved in it! Maybe even the driving force! We have to arrest –"
"We arrest nobody right now, Lieutenant." Rouge shook her head, eyes for a moment trading the hidden mirth for a sharp glare that was only insufficiently concealed by her long eye lashes. "Am I clear?"
"Yes, Ma'am…", the bear grumbled, sitting back on his seat heavily.
A smirk was still playing around Rouge's lips when she turned back to Tails, the glare already faded to make place for that look that suggested she found at least mild entertainment in the situation. "Fine. If Sonic doesn't have use for this stuff, would you, just hypothetically again, have use for it?"
Tails firmly shook his head. "For a Chaos Drive? No thanks. The things are lame."
"What?", MacDim piped up again in spite of having just been ticked off.
Tails found a smirk form on his face now for the first time since he was here. Finally he was starting to feel a little more as if he had the situation in his hands. "Asking me if I could use a plan on how to make Chaos Drives is… like asking the inventor of a fighter jet if he needs a plan on how to fold a paper flyer."
Rouge stifled a laugh, but MacDim leaned closer to Tails, rubbing the back of his head. "You are implying?"
"He's implying he's playing in a different league than Chaos Drives…", Rouge trailed.
"I am," Tails nodded, inwardly grinning about the slow GUN Lieutenant. "I've been making own Chaos Emerald copies, with almost the same energetic properties as the real ones. A Chaos Drive isn't really interesting to me."
Rouge shrugged. "Actually, that is what I've been saying all along. Neither you nor Sonic really has a motive. Why steal a piece of glass if you have your own diamonds?" She paused for a moment. "You still haven't answered my question, though."
Tails sighed, but gave in. At least Rouge seemed on his side. He figured he could give her something in return. "No, I haven't seen Sonic. He left about a week ago for some sort of trip. I have no idea where he is when he goes on one of his runs."
"Oh well. I suppose it would have been too easy." She reached into her pocket and pulled a small card out of it. "Here, that's my number. Call me if you get to see Sonic. It's easiest for you if you find someone who's been with him yesterday evening."
"Okay… if you call me when you find out something about who really did it." Tails took the card.
The white bat nodded at him. "Good, we'll call that a deal, cutie." She turned to MacDim and was already opening her mouth to say something to him, when a beeping noise sounded from some close to invisible pocket of her catsuit. Rouge fished a tiny sort of cell phone out of it and held it to her ear to answer the call. "Yes? … You are sure, Sir? … Of course not. … I have Tails with me. … Yes, I'm sure he didn't. … Yes, Sir. Bye." She put her phone away. She looked irritated, at least as far as Tails was able to read into her posture. "That was my boss. Guess who just broke into GUN's headquarters." She gave him a meaningful look.
Tails dropped back against the seat. "That's some kind of mistake."
Rouge shrugged. "I don't know. But for now I'm coming with you."
Tails opened his mouth to protest, but then figured it probably wouldn't help him at all. After all, Rouge was better than anyone else, right? "I can still go home?"
"Yeah. Nobody really wants to be accused of holding a minor, I guess. Just look at me like some random visitor, cutie." She smiled a little, moving to open the door of the car.
"Ma'am?"
The white bat gestured for the bear to stay as he was. "You have orders to stay here. Keep me informed in case something happens."
"Yes, Agent Rouge." The grumbling undertone said better than his compliant words that this totally didn't coincide with his plans. But apparently the bat was some sort of superior to him, Tails noticed with slight amusement.
Rouge obviously couldn't have cared less. She got out the car and waited patiently until Tails was all set with his full rucksack. "Shall we go?"
Tails nodded, surrendering to his fate. "Okay."
From where he stood at the island's edge, Knuckles could hear the waves crashing against its socket. Across the ocean, melting into a blurry horizon, he saw a coastline. The guardian tilted his head as he judged the distance. Probably a few miles. It could have been worse, but if he didn't want to swim all the way, he better started his glide from the highest position he could get.
Slowly the echidna turned around and headed towards the mountains in the formerly floating island's center, jogging. From what he could see, the forests hadn't sustained any serious damage during the fall, and the little animals had calmed down again. Knuckles hardly paid attention to the Flickies' usually almost enchanting songs or the beauty of the forests, though. He just couldn't get his mind wrapped around what just happened.
He couldn't begin to understand why it had happened. Why Sonic? He'd known the blue hedgehog for years. He knew his attitude, his cockiness, his impatience, his recklessness, his tendency to make fun out of everything… He knew him. Or he thought he did. Didn't he?
For the past years, Knuckles thought he shared something with Sonic he shared only with less than a handful of people. While it was true they had been somewhat enemies on first encounter, they didn't stay it for long. At first, it was mere coincidence that made them allies several times. Common enemy, common goals, all that.
Knuckles didn't really remember when he'd started growing attached to the blue spiky freak and his little two-tailed sidekick. At some point they'd suddenly been much more than allies in a fight against Eggman and his latest plan of doom. At some point, he'd come along on their adventures because he wanted to. At some point, he'd been almost looking forward to their visits, to their attempts talking him into coming along for something like another Extreme Gear Grand Prix or something similar. He'd never let in on how little strain they would really need to invest to make him join them. Because he, dare he admit it, enjoyed the company. He'd always been alone. He was used to it. Heck, he enjoyed alone time usually. But there was something about being with Sonic and Tails that made it, and if just sometimes, more desirable than being on his own.
In short, Knuckles had thought of Sonic as his friend. Damn it, he even thought to the hedgehog he'd been his best friend after Tails. He'd been along for so long… and while he usually didn't admit it, he valued it. A lot. And he'd thought Sonic did too.
Sonic. Thinking the hedgehog's name was disturbing. In the first instant after thinking it, it'd trigger the mental image of his face wearing the trademark grin, followed by a few random memories of things he'd done. Memories of stupid things, unimportant things, and memories of the times when Sonic had saved the world alike. Memories of how he'd only half-seriously said thank you after fighting that Metal Madness monster robot, how he'd asked him to take care of Tails and Amy, the ones he deemed himself responsible for, after falling out of thin air with his first chaos teleport ever, how he'd tried showing Knuckles how to ride a tight turn on a hover board and fallen flat on his face, but had just laughed about it along with everybody.
And then, cutting through these pictures, came the image of the spiky blue shape carrying the Master Emerald off, faster than Knuckles could follow, and jumping over the edge. Away, gone. All of it. Like cut from his life with a dull blade.
Knuckles tried in vain to gulp down the lump in his throat. He didn't understand. Why, after all these things they'd been through together, why would Sonic do that? Why turn his back on him like that?
That he'd just taken the Emerald behind his back made it worse to Knuckles. He'd not even given him a chance to fight for it. He'd not even bothered to confront him. Had not bothered explaining the why. Had Sonic been playing with him all these years? Had the smiles and the friendly little nonsense and all that been just show? Nothing but an act? Had he really been toyed with all that time without noticing? And Knuckles had fallen for it? Could someone, anyone, be that dumb?
Knuckles didn't know. He was aware he'd been tricked a lot. But he'd been younger. He'd been inexperienced, with people and their ways. Because people confused him. He'd never known people. But now? He'd been apparently fooled by the person he thought he knew best, by the person he thought he could trust best. How could he, after knowing he'd been tricked so many times already, still be foolish enough to trust anyone?
He'd been tricked a lot, yeah. But all of those former times, it had never hurt as much. It was as if he'd been kicked in the gut from a direction he would have never expected. This time, he wasn't just an Emerald guardian that had his Emerald stolen and had to hunt down the thief. He was disappointed, hurt, and yeah, alone. More alone than he'd even been before.
The echidna bit his lip. He'd never considered being alone as dreadful... But right now it felt just that.
Stopping his absent-minded jog upon reaching his goal, Knuckles looked down into the deep crater, down onto the blistering heat of Lava Reef. Against the opposite wall of the volcano crater, he could see the air flickering in the stream of hot air rising from the island's core.
For a short moment he closed his eyes, drew a deep breath that smelled of sulphur and ashes. He needed answers, and there was only one person that could give him answers. He had to find Sonic. And he'd make him speak, be it the last thing he'd do. He needed to know why his best friend had suddenly turned a traitor.
Knuckles opened his eyes, briefly flexed his muscles, then jumped clear off the ledge and out over the crater. His dreadlock-like spines flared, catching air to keep him in a stable glide. After just a second he hit the first thermal rising from the lava below, and his stomach suddenly felt strangely light when it lifted him up. Gliding circles, Knuckles let the thermals carry him upwards until they grew weaker and weaker and he could clearly see the land in the distance across the water.
Then he turned away from the volcano and glided towards the distant coastline.
A hard and steady, hot desert wind was pushing against Sonic from the left. It didn't actually match the strength of the wind the hedgehog's own speed created, but it was dry and carried a lot of dust and sand in it. Hard to breathe, like sanding paper down your throat.
Sonic slightly shook his head. It was a weird thing that came with being born the fastest thing alive. While you could get everywhere pretty fast, it still took hours to get somewhere you wanted sometimes if it was distant enough, and a journey like that brought along traversing through various different zones, even through various different climates and seasons.
While it had been spring in the zone Sonic had spent the night, the tropical region around the equator was like constant summer, hot and dry here, hot and wet in the jungles further north. And once he'd passed those and would come near to his goal, he'd find it to be autumn there.
Actually, Sonic liked autumn. He liked the colorful leaves in the forests, how the winds would whirl them around. He even enjoyed, at least if watching from inside somewhere, the storms, the thunder and rain. There was something fascinating about it, something… mighty. He just better didn't tell Tails about his opinion. The little fox detested lightening and storms, almost as much as Sonic hated water.
Thinking of Tails caused Sonic to speed up a little again and half an hour later he had left the desert behind, crossing into less dry landscape, with actual trees and lush green meadows. Sonic smiled. Not far anymore.
Sonic slowed down when he reached the first of Mystic Ruins' hills and jogged the last part of his way. Something about coming here was almost like coming home, as close as the free spirited hedgehog would ever come to this sort of feeling maybe.
Tails' house and workshop that was partly Sonic's home as well was a building of unusual style to say the least. Built on top a hill overlooking the blue sea, it stood in solitude next to a long blank space leading towards the cliffs. Tails' airstrip for the Tornado, their biplane. The house itself was a strange mixture of living quarters and workshop, with small balconies on its roof, small ponds of water at one side, with wooden mechanisms agitating them, a small door next to it and a large, old garage flair portal for the hanger.
Sonic walked up to the door, not bothering to knock. To his surprise, it was locked, what meant Tails wasn't at home. The blue hedgehog shrugged to himself. In that case, he'd just wait inside. He typed a password into the panel sticking to the wall next to the door. A tiny buzzing noise chimed up when it unlocked and Sonic stepped inside the house.
He ended up in the hangar and workshop, a large room covering the complete first floor of the house, with a stairway at the far end of it leading to the living quarters upstairs. Usually, Tails kept his workshop tidy and incredibly organized, but today Sonic found himself faced with thousands of single pieces, spread across the floor, the working tables… Even to Sonic it was obvious where they came from: There was nothing much left of the Tornado but a hull.
"Oh. Looks like someone got really bored while I was gone," the hedgehog mumbled. Still, there was a good thing about this mess here: It told him Tails would be back soon.
