"Ok let's do this." Sonic took a deep breath. "You ready Tails?" His eyes flicked over to the fox.
After a moment Tails nodded as he looked up from the miles electric. "As ready as I can be right now." His tails swished slowly behind him. "And you're sure Super won't go crazy and attack me or anyone else?"
Sonic crossed his arms. "Wasn't it your idea to have us train?"
Rubbing the back of his head, Tails nodded again. "Yeah… I'm just worried is all."
Sonic waved off the concern. "Don't worry. I have a good feeling about this."
One of Tails' ears flopped down as he shot Sonic an unconvinced look. "If you say so. Let's do this."
Nodding Sonic relaxed himself as best he could. "Ok Super, uh do your thing I guess?"
"Ugh, finally." Sonic heard Super reply in his head before things went blank.
"This is weird." Super glanced at Tails as he suppressed the urge to leave and go hunt down someone. Probably Shadow, but as he thought about it anyone but the fox would do really. Ugh, Sonic must be affecting him more than he thought if he was mentally exempting Tails from being a target.
Tails flicked an ear and nodded. "Yeah…" Slowly he approached and checked on the arm band around Super's arm. "Is Sonic still..?"
Super tilted his head to the side. "Ayo blue, you aware in there?" There was no response. Super shrugged and looked back at Tails. "Guess not."
The fox shot him a concerned look. "You guess not? Is… there a way to make him aware?" He tried, backing up a little.
"Probably." Super shrugged again, taking a couple deep breaths to try and keep himself… civil. "I think that's more on him than me though."
"How so?" Tails perked up in minor interest.
Super sighed in mild frustration at the small spark of satisfaction that look gave him. "Well it's not like Sonic gives me permission to be 'aware' when he's in control, so there's not much I can do. He's stubborn enough that he'll figure it out eventually I'm sure." Super started floating and leaned back with his hands behind his head, crossing his legs and closing his eyes. "For now? I guess we can just wait. As much as I want to, I'm not trying to overpower him or anything."
Tails hummed in thought. "So there's nothing you can do to help? We… just have to wait for Sonic to figure it out?"
"Best I can do is not get in his way." Super cracked one eye open. "You might wanna get comfy."
"Ah, right." The fox sat down, crossing his legs. He pulled the miles electric into his lap and began tapping away at it. "Also uh just in case." Tails started, and Super looked down at him. "You're able to give back control to Sonic quickly right? Just in case anyone comes over?" The fox rubbed the back of his head. "We uh, haven't exactly told anyone else about this plan."
Super scoffed. "That seems like a bit of a risk huh? If I decided to break our deal no one would even know until it's too late." Tails frowned and shot him a serious look. "Fine, fine." Super glared. "Yes I can give Sonic back control quickly. Happy?"
"Very." Tails nodded and relaxed a little more. The two sat in silence for a while with Super occasionally mentally prodding at Sonic to see if he'd figured it out yet. Honestly he was starting to feel a little annoyed at just how long it was taking the hedgehog to do this, but he couldn't let himself get too upset. He didn't want to risk breaking their deal; for now anyway. He'd prove he could be better than that liar Shadow. Eventually he got something back from Sonic after one of his prods. A general sense of grogginess that was fading quickly. Guess he'd just woken up.
"Heads up runt. Sonic's finally decided to wake up." Super stated, opening his eyes and allowing himself to gently touch down on the ground.
Both the fox's ears perked up as he looked up at Super. "Oh! That's great news."
Super scoffed. "Told you it was only a matter of time until that annoyingly stubborn hedgehog figured it out."
"I'm gonna go ahead and take that as a compliment." Sonic's voice rang out in his head, a bit of an amused tint to it.
"Of course you would." Super grumbled as Tails shot him a confused look. Super gestured to his head. "Sonic." Is all he said in the way of explanation.
Though the fox seemed to understand since he nodded. "So he's talking to you now?"
"Unfortunately." Super crossed his arms and frowned.
He could almost imagine Sonic placing a hand on his chest dramatically as he gasped. "Unfortunately? C'mon I'm sure there are worse people to have stuck in your head."
"The list is incredibly small." Super conceded. "But that still doesn't mean I enjoy being the only one that can hear you like this."
Tails was watching the one side of the exchange he could hear with interest. "Huh." He placed a hand on his chin. "Well this is a start. Can we try switching back and see if Sonic can come around faster this time? It would be good if he could be aware right after the switch."
Super hesitated but eventually rolled his eyes. "Fine. You better figure this out quick hedgehog."
"Yeah no problem. I know more of what to expect now. Let's do this." Sonic replied enthusiastically.
Super rolled his eyes once more before hesitantly giving up control. He was looking forward to never having to do this again.
Sonic flopped down in exhaustion. Maybe he wasn't as tired as he felt, but Super's own feelings of exhaustion were hard to tell apart from his own at the moment. Who knew that swapping between the two of them could take so much out of you?
Tails looked down at him in sympathy. "I think that's good for the day. You both did great. It should be maybe another day or two before we can go take care of Eggman."
"I'll be counting the seconds." Super grumbled. Sonic got the distinct mental image of the other hedgehog crossing his arms with a disgruntled look on his face.
"We'll be ready before you know it." Sonic waved a hand weakly.
Tails nodded even though he only heard Sonic. "Yeah, tomorrow we can work on those synced feelings you were telling me about Sonic. That could be useful."
"You got it bud." Sonic held up a shaky thumbs up
Tails hummed as he looked down at Sonic and frowned. He seemed to think for a moment before he lit up. "Wait here for a moment. I might have an idea to help you feel a bit better." Before Sonic could say anything Tails ran off, back towards the shrine.
"Trust me I don't wanna go anywhere right now anyway." Sonic said to the air, closing his eyes.
"As I much as I don't want to admit to agreeing with you…" Super trailed off.
It wasn't long until Tails came back, glancing over his shoulder. "Ok. I think we're good. Here." He held out something to Sonic. Blinking a couple times Sonic realized Tails was holding out the red emerald to him. While he felt a mild unease looking at it, the reaction was far from what it had been before figuring out it was likely Super causing those feelings. He shot the fox a confused look, but he could feel Super stirring at the presence of the chaos energy. "It should help charge up Super. I think that you're so tired because Super's low on chaos energy. As far as I can tell he can pull it in naturally, but I think that with what you've been doing today he hasn't been able to replace it fast enough."
"I guess that makes sense." Sonic finally agreed as he took the emerald from Tails. "I uh, don't know how he does that though, or if he even can right now."
"Just let me have control and I can do it. It'll be faster that way." Super grumbled tiredly.
"Yeah sure." Sonic yawned. "I'm gonna catch some sleep while you do that." Sonic let Super take over as he let himself rest.
Super held the emerald and slowly pulled the energy into himself. It didn't take long for him to start feeling better. He would take this slow though, just to make sure he could keep himself calm. Tails had sat down next to him, watching with interest. Occasionally the fox would glance at the miles electric. "What are you staring at?" Super glared as he pinned his ears down.
"Oh, uh you I guess? It's just interesting is all." He rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry if it's making you uncomfortable."
Super scoffed as he glanced at the fox. "You couldn't make me uncomfortable if you tried runt." He focused back on the emerald. "If anything I should be making you uncomfortable."
"I mean I guess you kinda do." Tails looked away. "But you had a lot of chances to just run off today and you didn't, so I guess I kinda trust you for now."
"I feel like that's a bad decision on your part, but I'm not going to try and change your mind." Super scoffed.
"Maybe, but if Sonic trusts you then I will too." Tails shrugged.
"Whatever." Super grumbled before tossing the emerald back to Tails. The fox struggled to catch it, but managed. "I'm good to go now. Sonic's sleeping so you'll have to drag him back yourself." The surprised look on Tails' face was rather amusing as he let his control slip.
Tails sighed as he dragged the sleeping hedgehog back. True to what Super had said Sonic had been passed out when Super gave him back control. Thankfully he was used to carrying Sonic so it wasn't too bad. It was a little more awkward since Sonic was asleep and Tails wasn't flying, but he'd manage. By the time he'd made it back to the shrine with Sonic the sun had set, and a quick glance around told him that everyone was resting somewhere. Good. No one would ask questions that Tails really didn't have any good lies for. "Tails?" Tails paused and turned to look at Shadow, who was shooting him a curious look. "What… are you doing?"
Guess he was wrong. Ok, now's not the time to panic. Just think of something believable. "I found Sonic passed out not far from here. Clearly he isn't listening to everyone's advice to rest. I figured it'd be better to drag him back here then leave him where he was. He looked pretty uncomfortable." Tails tried.
Shadow narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. "Really? You know you've both been gone all day. Surely you could have found him sooner? You are tracking him aren't you?"
"I could have… yes." Tails admitted, flinching. "But it's not exactly odd for Sonic to run off on his own right? Plus I have it set up so that if he goes too far I get alerted. It never went off so I knew he wasn't far. I only went looking for him when it started getting later."
"Right." Shadow said, uncrossing his arms. It was pretty obvious to Tails that Shadow wasn't buying anything he said. Finally the hedgehog sighed. "Here, let me help you with the blue idiot."
Tails blinked in surprise at the offer. Why was Shadow not calling him out? Was… was Tails reading the hedgehog wrong? No, it wouldn't take a genius to notice the unconvinced look on Shadow's face. "I appreciate the offer." Tails hefted Sonic up into a more comfortable position. "But I got him. Don't wanna risk waking him up since he needs the rest."
Shadow hummed. While Tails would normally be alright with Shadow helping he wasn't sure if the hedgehog could tell if Sonic had been letting Super take over or not. The fox was aware that Shadow was well versed with chaos energy, but wasn't aware of how fine tuned his ability to sense it was. "If you say so. Just try to keep him out of trouble." Shadow held his gaze for what Tails felt like was longer than necessary before walking off. Shadow was probably trying to get him to stop whatever crazy plan he thought Sonic had. Well Shadow wasn't really wrong. Sonic did have a crazy plan. One that Tails was currently supporting him in. It would be pretty hard to keep someone out of trouble when he was actively aiding in it.
After setting Sonic down somewhere comfortable, Tails sighed in relief. He'd keep the emerald on him for now; it would be better than trying to snatch it each time. Settling down next to Sonic, Tails closed his eyes. While he didn't work nearly as hard as Sonic, he was still tired. Time to get some sleep.
