A/N: Yeah, here's the newest chapter. Be happy, the few of you that read it.

Chapter 4: If You Can't Hang

They had reached the edge of the island when he appeared again.

"Ye devious fox! How dare ye oppose me?!"

"Very easily." Tails replied offhandedly, "But I still don't know what you're talking about."

"You lying waste of fur!"

"Tails, confronting Mrothtar here could cause problems. I could do something to get rid of him, but that would let him know for sure that you have me. He's just assuming at this point."

Tails took this in stride, "How do you know I'm lying, creep? Really, what makes you think I have that Jet thing?" He asked.

"Thou... Do not knowest what you are?" Mrothtar asked.

I've got a few ideas, based on what I've already been told by a couple of jewels... Tails thought to himself.

"No...?"

"How odd..."

"Feel free to explain some time today. I have things to do."

"Thou art the last survivor of the companions of the Knuckles tribe. Ye were destined to protect the jewel as long as the Knuckles tribe protected theirs."

Everyone was staring at the two, but Tails only cocked an eyebrow.

"...For some reason, that just seems hard to believe. I'm a mechanic, not a Guardian."

"Only now, fox. Had your parents survived, you'd be protecting that jewel with all the knowledge of your ancestors."

Tails gave him a suspicious look, "You know an awful lot about me and my parents... Who are you?"

"I am Mrothtar of the Nomadic Hawk tribe. Please, if ye would, help me locate the Jet. I need it to accomplish my life's goal."

"How do I know you're not going to kill me as soon as we find it? You seem like the kind of guy who'd do that sort of thing."

Mrothtar frowned to himself. This fox was clever.

"Very well. If thou will not help me, I will have to be rid of you and your friends."

They were suddenly encased by a bright grey light. Tails was getting pretty tired of getting trapped, so he tapped into the Jet's power, like it'd taught him, and the grey flashed out to white. The rest of his friends were unconscious, including Snow, but Mrothtar was giving him a shocked look.

"Okay, Mrothtar, I have one thing to say to you. Leave me the Hell alone. I have a lot of things I need to be doing, and you're making it extremely hard. And yes, I do have the Master Jet, but I'm doing my job and protecting it by not letting anyone but Knuckles know about it. Now, scat!"

On the last word, he let out a great pulse of the Jet's power, which sent Mrothtar flying off the edge of the island. Tails stood there for a moment, still suitably irritated. Knuckles woke up first, and regarded him with wary eyes.

"You got rid of him?"

"Yes. For now."

"Okay. I hope you can continue keeping that jewel of yours safe with him around."

"He'll never get his hands on it, not as long as I'm still breathing."

As everyone woke up, Knuckles headed back to the shrine and left them to find their own way off the island. Tails got to work on fixing the Tornado, mostly for Sonic's benefit, since he could just fly down by himself.

To his dismay, he also had to give Scourge, Fiona, and Amy a ride as well. Luckily, Sonic didn't mind having to ride on one of the wings, and neither did Scourge. Amy and Fiona sat in the back seat. They were all cautious of each other, but Tails was largely ignoring the fact that there was anyone with him. He set the plane to autopilot them to his workshop, and everyone could go their separate ways from there.

"You've shown quite a talent for channeling my powers, Tails! That was amazing. I've never had one of my Guardians pick up on it that fast."

Tails smiled slightly. "Heh, thanks. I try."

Once again, those present shared a look.

"He's talking to himself..." Scourge and Sonic said.

He realized they were actually paying attention to him, so he added, "Just trying to ignore you lot. Talking to myself makes me forget you're here."

Sonic pouted, "I'm strangely insulted by that remark."

"Don't be. It's nothing personal, it's just that I'm thinking about what Mrothtar said."

"Speaking of the creep-o, he said something about getting rid of us, but when we woke up, he was gone. What happened?" Amy asked.

Tails visibly stiffened briefly, but relaxed again, "I, for some reason, wasn't affected by that little trick he pulled. So I knocked him off the edge of the island when he wasn't looking. I just hope I don't run into him again. I've found people are very uncharitable after you knock them off high places."

Scourge stared at him in shock for a second before laughing, "You're more and more like Miles every day!"

Tails rolled his eyes, "In your dreams, Scourge. I'm still me, just a little more grown up." He considered the remark again for a second, "But then again, it really was a Miles like thing to do. And I thought it was funny as hell, so... Maybe you're right... If you are, though, I will be very put out."

Scourge only chuckled at the last remark. Sonic rolled his eyes, while Amy just looked un-amused. Fiona was surprisingly deadpanned throughout all of this, but she cracked a smirk at the end.

They finally landed in front of Tails' house a few minutes later. Scourge and Fiona were surprised to see him living so far out of Knothole, but Sonic only hopped off the wing and headed toward the door. He waited for Tails to get out of the plane and help Amy down patiently, and when Amy took off to wherever she was going, Tails joined Sonic at the door.

"You get that invention of yours stabilized before we got stuck up there?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah. I'm assuming you want to see it?"

"Well, duh!"

Scourge and Fiona joined them, but Tails didn't mind. Just two more people he could stun with his newly acquired inventing prowess. He unlocked his door, which he only rarely locked, and let everyone inside.

"Woah, you built that? Great job Tails. Let's just hope you don't turn out like Miles... We'd all be in trouble. A lot of trouble." Sonic said.

The robot he'd built just in case Sonic would ask was still sitting where he'd left it. Its memory disk was pulsing a little faster than it should, but that was quickly fixed.

"It's still relatively unstable, but it seems to be simple enough to fix it when it starts going nuts."

"Going nuts?" His three visitors asked at the same time.

"Yeah, going nuts. It'll start acting like Omega about destroying Eggman, except it won't just be Eggman it wants to destroy. If I could program it to do that, by gods I would!" Tails said, laughing a bit.

Sonic grinned, "Man, when'd you get so good at this? One day you're crushing on Fiona, the next you're building killer robots... You're growing up too fast! Stop it."

Tails laughed openly. "Maybe if you didn't leave so often you wouldn't have missed me getting my education. Rotor's got his work cut out for him as a mechanic now. I read all the books he had on engineering in three days."

"Yeesh." Scourge said.

Tails just raised his eyebrows and dropped them quickly in sequence with his lips pressed together. He kept an eye on the robot for a moment before turning to the others. "Well, as much as I enjoy your company..." He put heavy sarcasm on the statement and gave Scourge and Fiona a pointed look, "I've been sleeping on top of a pillar for the past three days, and I'd like to get to bed now."

Sonic waved him off, "Hey, no problem, buddy. I actually wanna get home and into my own bed too." He yawned, "Even I get tired after a while."

Scourge and Fiona shuffled out after him. Fiona turned and winked at Tails. "See ya, Tails."

Tails deadpanned. "Don't flirt with me, Fiona. I'm twelve."

He turned away and walked toward his room. He heard Fiona say something else, and a response from Scourge, but didn't quite catch it. He flopped down onto his bed and pulled out the Master Jet.

"Man, you're a handful. If I'm not careful, you'll get stolen. Especially with Scourge and Fiona around."

"Don't worry, Tails. I trust you to keep me safe. Go to sleep, I'll be fine for today."

And so Tails fell asleep with the Jet pulsing gently in his hand.

A/N: Why won't anyone read this? *sniff* :'(