It wasn't long before the gang was fighting off Eggman's next batch of robots. The bots lobbed attack after attack as the team dodged and darted about, weaving between the blasts until it was time to bring the hammer down. Soon the ground was littered with broken machinery.

"You bring 'em, we'll break 'em, egghead!" Sonic boasted.

Sticks batted away a Moto-bug with her boomerang. "Anyone know where Tails is?"

"He was just finishing a new invention when this fight started," Joe answered. "He should be here any minute." He brought down his blade, cleaving a Crab bot in two. He was about to advance on a Moto-bug when he slipped comically on a banana peel.

"Dammit, who put that there?!"

"Language," Knuckles frowned.

"Sorry." Even lying on the ground, Joe managed to slash the Moto-bug before windmilling to his feet.

Knuckles punched another Badnik into scrap metal, only to notice too late that a Bee bot was aiming a shot right at him.

He was saved, however, when Tails flew directly into its path, a thin yellow aura covering his body. The blast bounced off him and hit the offending Bee bot, destroying it instantly.

His friends gawked at the sight.

"Huh, so that's what you were working on," Joe observed.

"Yep," Tails grinned.

A Crab bot tried its luck next. It reached out to pinch him, but its pincers had no effect. Tails responded by jumping up and stomping on it.

"A personal deflector shield? That's not fair!" Eggman complained.

"I don't wanna hear about fair play from a villain!" Sticks said, chucking her boomerang in his direction.

"Seconded!" Amy smashed a Crab bot.

Sonic grinned as he spin dashed another Moto-bug. "That's pretty cool, Tails!"

The gang smashed and slashed until, eventually, all the robots had been destroyed. Eggman ran off as per usual, leaving them to revel in their victory.

Knuckles was the first one to point out the obvious. "Uh, Tails? You can turn the shield off now."

"Oh, right." Tails moved to press the shield's generator button, which was mounted on his utility belt. However, this did nothing because the shield itself got in the way. "Uh…"

"Hold on, let me try." When Sonic attempted to press the button, the shield zapped him comically for several seconds.

"Congrats, Tails," Sticks said sarcastically. "Your shield works well…Too well."

"Why would you have the shield cover the generator?" Amy asked.

"Because otherwise it'd be vulnerable to attack from the enemy," Tails explained.

Joe shrugged, "Makes sense to me."

"So, uh, does it ever run out of charge?" Sonic asked.

Tails rubbed the back of his head. "Eventually. It'll probably last at least a few days."

"I'll handle it," Knuckles grinned as he reared back his fist. Ignoring all his friends' frantic objections, he threw a hard punch, hitting the spot where the generator was. The shield itself remained intact, but couldn't stop the force of the punch entirely, resulting in the generator cracking down the middle. Tails's body sparked all over before he was engulfed in a big flash of light.

When the gang opened their eyes, they were shocked. Tails was now transparent, tinted turquoise blue, and flickering like a faulty TV.

"Huh, that's not what I thought would happen," Knuckles remarked.

"What exactly did happen?" Sticks asked.

"I'm not sure," Tails said, looking himself over. "We'd better do some investigating."

One short trip later, the group was in Tails's lab. The fox tried to grab one of his inventions out of a box, only for his hand to phase through it. "Uh, Joe? Would you mind?"

Joe walked over to the box. "Let me guess, you want that thingy you scanned me with when I first showed up?" Tails nodded, so Joe grabbed it from the box and waved it all around his roommate. When the scan was complete, he checked the results. "Yeah, this is a bunch of technobabble. Tails, how 'bout you read it?"

Tails looked over the readings on the device's screen. "Alright, it seems like—"

He launched into a detailed explanation, which the rest of the group interpreted as, "Blah, blah, blah, science stuff. Blah, blah, more science stuff. Blah, blah, blah."

Tails took one look at his friends' faces before concluding, "You guys didn't understand a word I just said, did you?"

They all shook their heads, making him sigh.

"Look, the good news is that this is fixable," he said. "We just need to…connect me to a really strong energy source."

"I assume you have something like that here in your workshop?" Amy guessed.

Nodding, Tails led them over to what looked like some kind of large battery. "This should be able to provide a lot of the necessary energy. Sonic, would you mind charging it up with your speed?"

Sonic looked uncertain. "Uh, Tails? The last time you had me charge something up for you, it exploded."

Tails smiled. "Yeah, but an explosion would also provide a lot of energy, so it's a win-win. We might wanna take this outside, though. I don't want my lab to get too busted up."

The group filed out the door, lugging the battery along with them. Once outside, Sonic began charging it up by winding a hand-crank attached to the base. He got so into it that his arm became a blue blur.

As the battery's meter filled up, it began to rattle, and the air around them began to feel hot; those team members who had fur felt it standing on end. Sticks whispered to the rest of the group, "Anyone see this workin' out well?" None of them raised their hands. "Yeah, me neither."

As she figured, the battery exploded, and unfortunately that didn't instantly fix the situation. Tails still looked like a hologram, but now he was a darker shade of blue.

"Uh, did that help?" Sonic asked, scratching his head.

"Let's test it out." Tails walked over to Sonic and poked him. He grinned when his finger made contact. "Alright, now we're getting somewhere. A few more charges should do the trick. Hey, Knux? Could you grab some more batteries?"

Tails's tone and choice of words raised a few eyebrows, but Knuckles, who didn't seem to notice any change, went into the lab and came out with a couple more batteries. If any one of them had been in a good mood, it was ruined when the echidna tripped on a banana peel and fell flat on his face, dropping the batteries and breaking them.

"Well, that fucking figures," Joe deadpanned.

"Language," Amy scolded.

Joe lowered his head. "Sorry."

"Eh, no big deal," Tails shrugged. "I'm sure Sonic can whip up a few more of those in no time."

Sonic blinked. "I'm sorry, what?"

Tails stared at him. "You know, build stuff? Like you do all the time?"

"Uh, last time I checked, that was your thing," Sonic replied, scratching his head in confusion.

"What? Our whole dynamic is I'm the fast one and you're the smart one," Tails said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Did you hit your head or something?"

Sticks stepped forward. "Alright, I gotta test this out." She looked Tails in the eye. "Tell me about an adventure we had earlier this week."

"Okay, weird ask." Tails put a hand on his hip. "Well, just the other day—"

Flashback

A Moto-bug rolled menacingly forward, only for what looked like a yellow blur of energy to zigzag through the air and smash into it. The dust cleared, revealing the blur to be Tails.

The fox crossed his arms. "Don't you ever get tired of this, Eggman?"

"Not on your life, fox!" the doctor shouted angrily. "And speaking of your life, I'll be taking it with this!"

He moved his Eggmobile to the side, revealing a new robot. This one had spherical torso with a V-shaped crest near the top and an unblinking red eye in its center. Its arms looked like large metal tubes capped with flat lids, bad for grabbing but excellent for punching. The arms were attached to the torso with diamond-shaped pieces of metal which protruded from the bot's upper sides. Its body stood on some sort of platform, as if it were displaying itself.

"Wow, that thing looks like a bad piece of modern art," Tails snarked.

"Dibs on smashing it!" Knuckles yelled as he ran toward it. He leapt into the air and brought his fist down on its eye.

Nothing happened, and the robot raised its arm in retaliation.

"Oh boy." The echidna dove to the side, narrowly avoiding being smashed himself.

Joe and Amy went next, attacking the bot in a pincer maneuver. The human slashed at the left arm while the pink hedgehog aimed for the right shoulder. Like with Knuckles, their attacks didn't even leave a mark.

"Aw, come on! What's that thing made of?!" Joe complained.

Eggman chuckled and kicked his feet up on the dash of his pod, snapping his fingers. At his command, the new robot lowered its arms straight to its sides and launched them at the team like a pair of siege towers.

One of the arms headed for Joe, but before it could reach him, Sticks lassoed it with a vine and swung it into the other arm. The arms recovered for a moment before turning tail and returning to the robot.

Joe couldn't help but take a moment to taunt her, "Aw, you really do care."

"Don't push it," Sticks replied.

"Oh, I will push it," Joe said defiantly. "I'll push it real good."

Even Tails, whose speed strike had shattered a robot into a thousand pieces just minutes ago, wasn't able to leave a mark on their new enemy.

"Okay, that didn't work either," he said to himself. "Any ideas, Sonic?"

The blue hedgehog fidgeted with a souped-up tablet topped with a miniature Tesla coil. "I've scanned this thing half a dozen times, but I can't find a weak spot," he reported regretfully.

"Then I guess we'll just have to make a weak spot," Tails grinned. "Guys! Get in a circle around it!" Once his friends got in formation, he zigzagged through the air in a bright yellow blur. He bounced off the robot and flew toward Sonic. "Sonic, hit me!"

Trusting his friend, Sonic pulled out a wrench and swung it like a baseball bat, whacking Tails back at the robot. He bounced harmlessly off the bot again, but each of his friends knocked him back at it with their weapons or, in Knuckles's case, his fists, almost like a game of pinball. This cycle went on and on until Tails decided enough was enough and landed on the ground.

The armored robot shook in place for a moment before simply falling apart.

Sonic smiled. "Ah, I get it. All those strikes caused the robot to vibrate, and those vibrations weakened its joints until they couldn't take anymore."

"Grr—All that armor, and he still left it in pieces," Eggman muttered to himself as he flew away.

Tails gave a cocky grin as his arch-nemesis flew off. "Well, that was fun. So, who's in the mood for chilidogs?"

Flashback end

The rest of the gang were dumbstruck. Tails's description of what happened was completely accurate, except that he'd put himself in Sonic's place, and vice versa.

"So, the main hero of the village?" Sonic asked, expecting an answer.

"Me," Tails replied.

"And I've been crashing at whose place since I got here?" Joe went next.

"Sonic's," said Tails.

Knuckles twirled a finger against his head and whistled "Cuckoo."

"Is this pop quiz gonna go on for much longer? 'Cause I've got places to go," Tails said, sounding bored. "Let me know when you guys have found a way to charge me up." He spun his tails and flew away before anyone could protest further.

"Okay, we've gotta fix this," Sonic said worriedly. "Tails can't go on thinking he's got my role. I'm the star of this show."

Joe put a hand on his friend's head. "Easy, tiger. Let's just calm down. So what if he thinks he's the team leader? It's not like he'll do any harm. I say we take some time and think of ways to get some more energy. Anyone with me?"

The gang exchanged a few glances before deciding he was right.

Amy hummed to herself as she stepped outside to get ready for her walk. She waved at a blue blur as it sped onto her property and skidded to a halt on her front lawn. Her good mood transformed into pure confusion when she saw who it was.

"Tails? Where's Sonic?"

"I saw him on his way here, but he slipped on a banana peel. Joe and Sticks are helping him out," Tails explained. "So, ready for that walk we talked about going on?"

"Uhh, sure? Let's go."

Amy had to admit, the walk was actually pretty pleasant, even though it wasn't with the company she'd expected.

"So, where do you think those banana peels keep coming from?" Tails asked.

"I'd love to know that too," Amy replied.

Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of thunder. The two of them looked up to see that storm clouds had gathered overhead.

"Huh, you'd think we would've noticed those sooner," Tails remarked.

Amy shrugged as she headed for cover. "Guess we were having fun!"

"Hmm, energy sources," Sonic repeated to himself as he nursed his sore back. He was drawing a blank trying to think of ideas as the rain came down outside. Ideas like this were really Tails's area of expertise, so he was in a bit of a bind.

He was shaken from his thoughts by a familiar voice.

"Hey, buddy. What are you doing here?" Tails asked. Before Sonic could answer, he held up a hand with a teasing smile. "Wait, don't tell me, you heard the thunder and came to hang with your bro."

Sonic groaned. "I'm not afraid of thunder, Tails. And let me guess, you're over here 'cause you think this is your house."

"Funny, I was gonna say the same thing to you," Tails shot back.

Running a hand down his face, Sonic decided he'd had enough. "Okay, I'm gonna be blunt here, Tails. I'm the confident, laid-back leader of the team. You only think that's you because that exploding battery messed with your head."

Tails crossed his arms, unconvinced. "Uh huh, sure. And your proof is?"

"Well, for starters, I can do this!" Sonic zipped around the room for a few seconds before spin dashing back to where he'd started.

"Whoa," Tails said, his eyes wide.

"How's that factor into your memories?" Sonic asked smugly.

Tails was practically ecstatic. "That was awesome, Sonic! Did you learn that from watching me?"

The question made Sonic choke on his own breath. "What? No! I do that all the time! It's how I smash Eggman's robots!"

"Dude, calm down." Tails put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "We all know you can fight like the rest of us. You don't need some fancy new move to prove it."

Sonic's eye twitched. He'd hoped that using his spin dash might disrupt the history Tails had constructed in his head, but all it had done was earn him some brotherly advice…from his little brother. "I—You—But… Ugh, why don't you go, uh, beat Knuckles at gofer ball or something?"

Tails held up his hands defensively. "Alright, alright. Let's talk when you're in a better mood."

With that, he flew out the door.

"I'm dying, man. I'm dying," Joe gasped, struggling not to collapse.

"Well, we're done, so I guess you get to live another day," Sonic said, amused at his friend's theatrics.

"You sure your back is okay?" Joe asked.

Sonic grinned. "Come on, I didn't fall that hard. And if they'd gotten to see it, I'm sure they'd agree with me," he said, pointing at you people reading this.

Joe didn't see anything where Sonic was pointing but decided not to question it. He took a deep breath to get his wind back. "I'm going home. See you later, man."

"Not if I see you first!" Sonic took off.

Before Joe could leave himself, another blue blur arrived on the scene.

"Hope you're ready for your legs to get sore!" Tails said with a grin.

"Oh, hell no," Joe muttered to himself. "Come on, man, I just finished my rounds."

That made Tails's smile fade. "Wait a minute. Did Sonic beat me here?" Joe nodded. "Ugh, he's been acting kinda weird lately. He thinks he lives in my house, and he made you run laps before I could drill you. Heck, not too long ago, he told me he was the leader of the team."

Joe nodded with a blank look on his face. "Uh huh."

"I think we might need to talk to him about this. Sonic can't go on thinking he's got my role. I'm the star of this show," Tails finished.

That little echo made Joe's eyes widen a bit. "Hehehehe," he started chuckling. He clutched his head as the chuckle evolved into an unnerving laugh.

Tails cringed as he took a step back. He reached for his communicator. "Uh, guys? We have a problem. I think Joe just went nuts."

"This is overkill," Joe deadpanned. He was seated on the porch of Sonic's house, his entire torso tied up with vines, courtesy of Sticks, who'd been all too eager to help restrain him.

Knuckles patted him on the head. "Shh, don't worry, buddy. We'll get you better in no time."

"Sometimes I laugh when I get stressed!" Joe protested. "That doesn't mean I'm going nuts!"

Sticks narrowed her eyes at him. "A likely story."

"Laughing when you're stressed is a real thing, guys," Amy said as she walked over, untying Joe despite the others' objections.

"Well, if we're done playing psychoanalyst, anyone have any ideas on how to charge me up?" Tails asked.

"You could try sticking your finger in a wall socket?" Knuckles suggested.

The group stood in silence for a moment.

"Wow, that… actually sounds like a good idea," Sonic admitted. "You heard him, Tails. Get inside and zap yourself."

"While I zap the rest of you!"

Everyone looked behind them to see that Eggman had arrived on the scene.

Sonic and Tails put their hands on their hips. "Three times this week? You must really be bored."

"They're onto you, boss," Cubot whispered from his sidecar.

The blue heroes' grins dropped when they realized they realized they'd spoken in unison. "Look, buddy, you—" They paused again. The two glared and got in each other's faces. "Stop saying what I'm saying!"

The rest of their friends facepalmed while Eggman just tilted his head. "I feel like I'm missing something here. But then again, I came here to destroy you all, so I guess it doesn't matter. I hope whatever you're dealing with is extremely disruptive. Enjoy my latest creation!"

Team Sonic braced themselves, only for nothing to show up.

"Uh, where's the—" Joe was cut off when something behind him swiped his legs out from under him.

From the ground, Joe could see the offender was a tall, slender, white robot. Its waist was thin, but its legs and upper torso were thick and angular. The robot had no proper feet and its arms were a pair of blades. Its head resembled several boomerangs stacked on top of each other.

"Let me guess, you went for speed over strength with this one," Sonic said, unimpressed.

"And it still looks like a bad piece of modern art," Tails followed up in an equally bored tone. He assumed a fighting stance. "Sonic, we'll try to deal with this thing. You scan it for weaknesses."

Sonic groaned. "I'm not the scan guy, Tails. You're the scan guy!" This prompted a full-on argument between the two over who did what on the team.

"Guys, the enemy's right in front of us. You need to pay attention," Amy said, trying to break the two up. Unfortunately, this left her open to an attack from the new robot, which swiped at her with its arm blades. She managed to raise her hammer to block the strike, but the force of it sent her flying into a tree.

Knuckles's eyes widened at Amy's defeat. "Our turn now, Joe!"

The human nodded and drew his sword as they charged in.

Eggman cackled, "You fools. Numbers won't help you defeat my Master Ninja!"

"That's a stupid name for a robot!" Joe shouted as he swung his sword down. While the ninja swiped it away, Knuckles went in for a low blow in the literal sense, hitting the bot between the legs.

Nothing happened. "Oh, right. It's a robot," Knuckles remembered.

Said robot raised an arm blade and brought it down hard. Joe raised his sword to block it, saving his coach from being chopped in half.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Eggman boasted. "And now you'll see how it got its name!"

The Master Ninja leapt back and hovered in place. To all the heroes' surprise, the robot split into five identical copies of itself. The copies all flew forward at high speed, their five sets of blade arms spinning rapidly.

Joe and Knuckles fended off the first two, but then a third headbutted Knuckles right between the eyes while a fourth swept Joe's knee. "AHH, DAMMIT!" These injuries left them open for the final ninja bot to jump up and hit them with a double bicycle kick.

As the pair faceplanted, the five robots rejoined into one. Suddenly, a vine lassoed around it, tying its arms to its torso. The Master Ninja turned to see Sticks grinning.

"I got ya now!" she said.

She was instantly proven wrong when the Ninja shot out a laser from its face, severing the vine and freeing itself.

"I don't got ya now!" Sticks said, pulling out her boomerang. She ran in to engage with the robot along with Amy, who'd recovered a bit in the time the rest of them had been fighting.

"I don't know how to use any of your gadgets because they're your gadgets!" Sonic was yelling.

Tails frowned. "Will you quit playing dumb and just—"

The two were cut off when they each felt a hand grab one of their ankles. They looked down to see that Joe had crawled over to them.

"In case you didn't notice, we're getting our asses kicked over here!" he growled.

"Language," they scolded in stereo.

"My point remains valid!" Joe shouted.

Taking the hint, the two blue heroes nodded at each other and joined the fight just as the robot knocked away Sticks and Amy. When they got in close, the Master Ninja took several swipes at Sonic. While the hedgehog dodged, Tails leapt up and tried to sucker punch it in the side of the head. The robot simply stopped its attack and held up a blade arm to block the punch.

The Ninja spun in place, forcing the duo back to avoid slashes. Sonic and Tails now found themselves on opposite sides of the robot.

"I'm guessing you have the same idea as me?" Sonic and Tails asked at once. This made them both grin.

The Ninja proceeded to use its clone move again, sending two copies at each of its opponents.

Sonic curled into a ball, smashing through the copies that came his way, while Tails zigzagged forward in a blur, destroying his respective robots as well. Then spin dash and wild rush met in the middle, crushing the Ninja and making it explode.

The rest of the gang cheered as the hedgehog and fox landed in front of them.

Eggman growled, "Heavy armor doesn't work, ninja powers don't work, even swarming doesn't work! How many times do I have to—"

"Deep breaths, Doctor. Deep breaths," Orbot said gently.

The team ignored Eggman as he flew away. They were much too focused on the state Tails was in.

"Dude, you're not hologram-y anymore!" Joe observed happily.

"And you're back to being yellow!" Knuckles added.

Tails nodded. "Yeah, was I not at some point?"

Amy raised an eyebrow. "You don't remember?"

"Not really. In fact…" Tails looked around. "How did we get here? Weren't we at my lab a minute ago?"

"So it's your lab again?" Sonic asked. He dragged his hand down his face, sighing in relief. Tails looked extremely lost.

"I'll explain it to you later, man." Joe patted him on the back. "Now, let's go home."

Tails nodded and walked with him, only to slip on a banana peel.