Back at Chaotix manor

"I-I don't understand! How could she do this to me?!" Vanilla wailed, while sitting on the couch. " She has never gone against me like this! I just don't know what went wrong!"

"There, there, darlin'. It's gonna be all right!" The crocodile put his arms around the sobbing mother, trying to comfort her. "You did the absolute best you could."

Vector, Espio, and Charmy were trying to be there for Vanilla, who was sobbing her eyes out following her daughter's 'rebellion'. They all knew what needed to be said to the poor woman, but it was hard to tell the grieving mother what she needed to hear. Finally, it was Espio who finally worked up the courage to speak;

"Miss Vanilla, I do not mean to be rude, but..." The chameleon swallowed hard, before continuing. "... have you ever considered while you might have had the best of intentions, you might have been a little... overprotective of her?"

"W-what...?" Vanilla asked, shocked by what Espio had just said to her. "What do you mean?"

"Face it, Vanilla! You were waaay too bossy With Cream!" Charmy blurted out, with all the tact of a bull in a china shop. "She told Tails and I that you were smothering her."

Vanilla then thought for a moment remembering all the times she had criticized her daughter about her clothes, music tastes, and manners, even when Cream was trying her best. She thought about how she forbade cream to go on dates, or go out with friends, or do anything but be at home with her, and go out to save the world with sonic. Had she been too hard though? After all, Cream was only eighteen, and-

Vanilla stopped, running that thought through her head again.

Her daughter was eighteen now, a grown adult, and she had never allowed her any freedom at all during her teen years. Vanilla had kept seeing Cream as that little eight-year-old girl, and not as the growing teenager she had been. Cream had never been allowed to have any freedom, and it was all Vanilla's fault.

The full impact of what she had done to her daughter, hit the poor woman like a tidal wave.

"OH NO, I'M A HORRIBLE MOTHER!" Vanilla wailed even louder, burying her face in Vector's scaly chest. " VECTOR, I WAS TERRIBLE TO CREAM! I'M A MONSTER!"

With a sigh, Vector and the others realized this was going to be quite a mess for them to work through...

...

"Hey Ray, could you go over two aisles, and get the spaghetti sauce?" Mighty asked his little buddy. "Trip and I'll get the pizza and the ramen."

The trio were currently at the nearby grocery store, picking up a list of supplies that Vector and the others had asked them to get. Mighty was having a field day, picking up new foods and flavors, and eating better than he had when he and Ray had been world traveling. Since marrying Trip, she had already worked to improve his diet and worse habits, but there was stuff here that his wife was piling into the cart in bulk.

"Umm, honey? Are you sure we need all of this stuff?" Mighty asked Trip, pointing down into the cart. "I mean, do we really need seven different flavors of pancake mix?"

Trip frowned at him sadly, before looking down at the groceries.

"But dearest, neither you nor I even eat raspberry flavor!" The armadillo protested. "And besides, how many pancake breakfasts can you make?!"

Trip's frown worsened, turning into a pout.

"Honey, please... I don't think you're going to burn as many pancakes as you used to." He reached into the cart, and took a few of the pancake mixes out. "Aw, come on, you sure I can't put a few of these blueberry mixes back?"

The sungazer glared at him in annoyance, and Mighty threw his arms up in defeat.

"Okay, okay, you win! I'll leave the stuff in the cart." He sighed. "Please leave my 12-pack of diet dr. chaos cola in the cart, that's my guilty pleasure."

With a soft laugh, she gave him a pack on the cheek, and smiled.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll go get the milk." He laughed, heading around the corner. "Be right back in a sec."

He had only been gone for a second, when a dark shape walked up behind her.

"Well well well, look what we have here." A familiar voice from the past hissed, sending shivers up the sungazer's spine. "Long time no see, girly."

Trip spun around, and saw an islander than filled her with revulsion, disgust and hate. It was a male jerboa with purple and white fur wearing a stetson hat, and a pop gun holstered at his belt. His smile revealed a single sharp tooth sticking out of his mouth. The sungazer knew very well who this was, even though she had not seen him in over fifteen years.

"Fang the Hunter..." She hissed, gritting her teeth and clenching her fists. Bitter, painful memories of being yelled at, kicked around, and being told she was worthless and incompetent filled her mind. She had tried to be friends with this monster and Dr. Eggman, even though they had come to her island and caused noting but damage and destruction. Although Eggman had mostly ignored her, Fang had shown the sungazer nothing but contempt and cruelty, which she put up with until her dear friend Amy Rose came along, and showed her an act of Kindness. Trip then turned on the two evil villains, and with the help of Sonic and his friends, drove them from her island. She hadn't seen Fang since the battle with the dark dragon, and she had hoped it would have stayed that way,... until now.

"What do you want, you miserable little rat!?" Sher hissed, clenching the handle on her shopping cart so tightly, she almost broke it.

"Awww, is that the way you greet an old boss? What would your hubby think?" Trip went pale at that, and Fang's dark smile widened. "Yeah, I know all about your marriage to that idiotic armadillo, me and the boys fought him and the chaotix many times, back in the old days." Fang looked at her thoughtfully. "So, you and Mighty, huh? Man, he must have to wear a blindfold when you two do the horizontal tango, seeing how you're so ugly and scaly. That why i never laid a hand on you back on the island, you've might've given me rash or something. Wonder if I should tell him what an untrustworthy little reptile you really are?"

Trip's rage and fury burned even hotter than before, making her shy stutter disappear.

"You vile, chauvinistic piece of dung! I have never made love to anyone besides my mate, ever!" She gave a draconic snarl, her teeth looking almost like pointed fangs for a moment. "My husband means more to me than anything on this planet! If you so much as lay a hand on him, I swear I will take dragon form, and burn your worthless flesh right off of your bones!"

"Ah ah ahhhh... nice try, Toots! But we both know you can't go dragon, unless you got the chaos emeralds." Her took out his gun, and pointed it at her head. "And I ain't giving you the chance ta go out and find them."

Wanting to sob, Trip closed her eyes, emotionally sending her her husband a loving farewell, and prepared for the end. But at that moment a rush of wind suddenly went by her, and she opened her eyes to a flash of red and black.

"NACK THE WEASEL! GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY WIFE!" Mighty the Armadillo roared, his fist slamming into the Jerboa's face. "HOW DARE YOU THREATEN HER, YOU SON OF A WITCH!"

The jerboa was sent flying, by what felt like to him getting hit by a semi truck in the face. Fang was sent hurtling through the aisles like a rag doll, slamming through the store's front window,and landing in the grass outside.

"Honey... are you all right?" He took her in an embrace, which the relieved sungazer returned. "I felt you were in trouble, and-"

"I-I'm fine, don't w-worry about it." She looked at the broken window. "Let's go kick his b-butt."

As the panicked people from the store ran in every direction, Mighty and Trip went out though the hole made by Fang's speedy departure. Ray, who had heard the noise from elsewhere in the store, zipped around the corner, and was floating in the air above them.

"Whoah, what happened here!?" he asked in shock. "Hey, is that Nack the Weasel?"

"You stupid punks, my boys and I were paid by Nagus just ta keep you busy, but I think now we'll rub ya out!" Fang climbed onto his hover bike, the Marvelous Queen, that had been parked nearby, and flew up into the air. "Get em', boys!"

Mighty had barely taken a step, when he was tackled to the ground by a large polar bear, who began to wrestle with him, in a contest of strength. Meanwhile, a cherry bomb hit Ray from behind, sending him flying backwards.

"Ohhh, little squirrely boy boy got hit by boom-boom!" A green Woodpecker laughed manically, twirling a bomb on his finger, before running away. "Come and get me, little squirrely, before I make more boom-boom on innocent civilians!"

"Bean the Dynamite!?" Ray went racing after the woodpecker. "Hey, get back here, you blasted bird! You can't run around making boom-boom with bombs!"

"Well, well, well..." Fang hovered up on his bike, grinning wickedly. "Looks like it's just you and me, girly!Ready for a rematch?"

"Bring it on, rat-boy!" Trip snapped, leaping into the air to attack the deranged jerboa.

...

Meanwhile, back at the Chaotix mansion, the trio had finally gotten Vanilla off to bed, and were all hanging around in the living room.

"Aw man, poor Vanilla." Charmy sighed, as he straightened up the pillows on the couch. "I feel so sorry for her, with Cream going all 'bad bunny', and all."

"It is sad, but she sort of had it coming, Charmy." Espio replied, leaning up against the wall. "But band-aid needed to be peeled off, and now both mother and daughter can begin to heal."

"I'm just glad we have a place for everyone ta live here now, with our team upgrading to this sweet mansion." Vector boasted proudly. "Just another testament to my great leadership skills!"

"Speaking of which, boss, I was wondering..." Espio asked, finally broaching a subject he had been putting off talking about. "How exactly did you afford this place and the jet? I know we have more work and an expanded caseload, but even that should not have paid for all of this."

"Oh, just though my know how of balancing the books, ya know?" Vector laughed nervously, scratching the back of his neck. "Save a ring here, save a red ring there... it's really not that hard to do."

Chamy and Espio looked at each other, then looked back at the crocodile suspiciously.

"Okay boss, we know your hiding something." The bee flew us in Vector's face. "Out with it!"

"Okay, Okay, I'll tell ya the truth." The crocodile looked back and forth between them nervously, then sighed. "Remember those goofy sonic cartoons that aired on television a few years back?"

"You mean that one that Had Robotnik chasing around Sonic and tails, like that Coyote chases the roadrunner?" Charmy asked. "The one where Eggman has three idiot badnik henchmen, and says 'pingas' all the time?"

"Then there was the one where Sonic and his close friends all lived with some human kid and his family in Station Square." Espio added. "That show portrayed the three of us as incompetent clowns, I wasn't very happy about it."

"Heh, that kid was Christopher Thorndyke, a major fan of Sonic. His wealthy parents helped sponsor the show, if the producers put their family and their household staff into the show." Vector began to sweat a little. "Welllll... I sorta kinda might've told everyone I had the right to negotiate for Sonic's story... and I sorta kinda might've sold the rights to use all of us in cartoons and movies to Breezie media."

At these words, Charmy and Vector's eyes almost bulged out of their heads in schock.

"Okay, first of all, having watched the show... I'm totally shocked that grandpa Thorndyke, Mr. Tanaka , Ella, and Sam Speed are all real people. Secondly..." A look of pure anger crossed Espio's face. "ARE YOU INSANE?! You sold the rights to our lives to Breezie?!"

"Sonic AoStH, Sonic SATAM, Sonic Underground, Sonic X, and Sonic Boom... all those came from a deal you made?" Charmy shook his head. "No wonder Tails and Amy couldn't figure out how Breezie could make those cartoons legally."

"Vector do you realize the damage you caused?! Sure, Sonic and shaodw may not give a care how the cartoons show them, but everyone else's private lives were put on the TV screen for all to see!" Espio snapped at him. "You've sullied the reputation of the royal houses of Ghianda and South Island, revealed sensitive information like Sonic's true parentage to the public, and made all of us look like complete idiots and fools over and over again to the children of this world who watched those cartoons!"

"Oh, man! Knuckles was sooo mad how that one cartoon made him look like a pumped-up meathead!" Charmy laughed. "And Amy hates how everyone thinks sonic has all these girlfriends now!"

"Geez, they're just cartoons!" Vector protested. "How could they hurt anyone?"

"Vector, it affects people more than you know. How do you think Tails felt watching Cosmo die all over again... and the series depicts him as the one who fired the shot that killed her! Sonic told his young Miles couldn't sleep for weeks after that!" Espio crossed his arms. "And how do you think your fiance Vanilla will react when she learns you were responsible for her and Cream being in Sonic X? She never told you about the harassment and paparazzi she and Cream had to deal with for months after that show aired!"

"Okay, okay... I screwed up, all right?" Vector sat down on the couch, and sighed. "After this drama is worked out between Cream and Vanilla, okay?"

"You'd better, Vector T. Crocodile." Espio warned. "Because if you put this off, I swear I'll tell everyone what you did."

Vector was about to reply, when the trio heard the plane landing outside on the mansion's airstrip.

"Huh, sounds like the girls are back." vector sighed, getting up off the couch. "Come on, let's go out to greet them."

NEXT: Team Hooligan vs the Chaotix! And the return of Bomb and Heavy!