Hello everybody. I decided to make my third chapter of my story 'The Growth to Bravery'. After completing this chapter, I will go to Japan during the 4th of July and I will probably be there until the 14th of July. So I won't be able to work on my fanfiction during those periods of time, but enjoy and goodbye.

Everything is owned by SEGA.

Words in italic are thoughts of a character

"Sentences in between quotes means that the character is talking".

It was 2:34 A.M, Tails slept soundly and peacefully before he started to shake, sweat, mumbling words, his body was terrified because he was experiencing another nightmare. Inside his nightmare, he was hooked up to the same chair as before with no way to escape. But this time, it wasn't Sonic that was being tortured, it was all of his friends in each sequence. First Knuckles, then Amy, etc. They were either tortured to death, or images appeared as how each of his friends died during their fight to free Sonic. Tails felt anger, fear, all of this was driving him mad. He saw Eggman in front of him, mocking him, laughing at his despair and pain. Then it happened, Tails broke out of his chair and bit Eggman in the neck, slashing him with his claws. Eggman tried his hardest to get Tails off, but due to the bleeding in his neck, he died from blood loss. Tails could only look at Eggman's dead corpse, half of his neck gone, blood in his hands and mouth. He freaked out as he had killed Eggman, something he didn't want to do ever in his life. Then he heard it, thunder. The room was flashing with light, the sound becoming even louder to the point that he started crying.

"Tails, wake up, you're having a nightmare" said a young girl's voice.

Tails was confused as to what was happening, but he focused and saw that it was Cream who was standing next to his bed. He had been crying, sweat was all over the bed, shivering as his memory of his nightmare played on his mind. Cream was next to him, worried as she hasn't experienced Tails like this. He has tried so hard to act brave that it was rare to see him scared and in this state. Tails also didn't like anyone to see him like this, except Sonic, because he still fears that the others will judge him and bully him like those before he met Sonic.

"Tails, please calm down, it was just a nightmare."

Tails started to calm down and steadily controlled his breath. Cream hugged him and stroked his back. This shocked Tails a bit, but he quickly responded by hugging Cream back. He didn't know why he felt weird hugging Cream now, they had hugged before, but why was he blushing now. This thought faded as he heard thunder outside, he wanted to instinctively jump and scream due to his phobia of thunder, but he remained still. He was still afraid, but he remembered that Cream was hugging him, she had also heard the thunder and the lights went off, making the entire house dark. Cream got scared and hugged Tails in a bear hug and put her face into his chest.

Tails' face got red as a tomato and was having trouble concentrating and breathing as he felt his ribs being crushed again for the third time of the day. He then heard Cream crying a bit because she was scared of the dark, so the only thing that Tails was able to do was to hug Cream back and caress her head. After some time, Cream was calm, she still had tears in her eyes, but she was able to talk with Tails.

"I don't want to sleep alone Tails, I hate the dark"

"Ok, I can join you in your bed and sleep with you if you want," Tails said as he remembered that his bed was soaked in sweat from his nightmare.

"I would like that a lot, Tails." said Cream as she and Tails walked to the other side of the room with caution. Tails didn't know that Cream was sleeping near the bed, so he felt a little guilty to have woken Cream up due to his actions, but he felt much better going to sleep.

When Tails and Cream were in the bed, Cream snuggled into Tails neck, she was knocked out in a few seconds with sleep, her worries vanished from the dark. Tails was still blushing, but he also found sleep easier with Cream near him. He closed his eyes, taking the serenity of sleep with no nightmares this time.

Tails woke up with Cream due to a sound of giggles and flashes of light, when they both focused on who was making that noise, they found Amy with a phone taking pictures, while Vanilla, Knuckles, and Shadow looked at them. Knuckles was laughing and giggling, Shadow was indifferent, but Vanilla was happy to see them together because she saw them as brother and sister. Tails and Cream shot up, both blushing.

"Hey, you two should kiss." Knuckles said, chuckling, a harmless joke that only got disapproved glares by both Amy and Vanilla.

Their faces only got redder and embarrassment between the two of them could be felt by everyone. "Okay, enough of this, we need to talk about how we should save Sonic" Shadow said, which got everyone to the topic. Tails was glad because he didn't want to be in the middle of the attention. He got up and put on his shoes before saying "hi" to Cream, but it was more awkward than it was supposed to be between the both of them. Tails checked the time and it was 8:12 A.M. So he went downstairs to eat some fluffy pancakes that Vanilla and Amy had cooked in what was about just a few minutes before the whole thing happened. He joined the table with the others, they had heard the news between Tails and Cream sleeping in the same bed, so Vector joked a lot at Tails as he sat beside him, making him more uncomfortable than he already was. Thankfully Espio stopped Vector as he saw that it was making Tails uncomfortable.

After eating breakfast, he gave thanks to Vanilla and Amy for their good breakfast before they met up in the living room. It wasn't the usual place to meet up for planning, but due to them being here already, they decided to do it here as it was time effective. Everyone talked about ways to find where Eggman had Sonic, how they will infiltrate the zone, defeat the badniks, and what Eggman's plan is with Sonic gone. During this discussion, Tails had made very bold ideas and decisions if their plan failed, but he knew that what Eggman was planning would be something big since he had someone important in his possession and his plan to rule the whole world could be much easier with Sonic gone. Tails knew that they would need the help of others to help defeat Eggman because they couldn't do it alone. He thought of other people who would be likely to help them, but was interrupted when everyone agreed on a plan that he wasn't listening to.

Tails reacts quickly as he is pulled by Amy and Shadow to help them in finding where Eggman was. Tails, slightly embarrassed about not listening to what they were saying, asked what they were going to do.

"Tails, I thought you were paying attention, you were going to make drones to scout the islands at a fast pace while Shadow, Knuckles, and I will go to other areas to try to find clues of where Eggman is and fight any badniks that were terrorizing the areas when Sonic was gone. "

Tails nodded at this and left for his workshop, he was anxious about getting the drones completed quickly and to not have any delay in their construction. He entered the workshop and locked every door and window just in case he were to be attacked by an intruder.

He grabbed his blueprints and started to think. He drew out various designs of different drones and modifications that he could do for each one, but to his concern, the process was taking too long. He drew, then wrapped the blueprint in a ball and threw it into the bin. This repeated for about 50 times until he finally snapped, taking the latest blueprint and ripping it in pieces. He was stressed and took some time to rest, checking the time, it was 3:43 A.M, he had worked all day, he hadn't eaten any food, nor drank any water during the time, but he didn't feel like eating because he was focused on trying to save his brother.

Why can't I think of building a simple thing as a scout drone, it's one of the easiest things that I can do, but why, now of all times, must I complicate and hesitate my designs. I never had this problem, I was always supported by Sonic… But Sonic isn't here now, I need to save him, but how can I do that if I can't even build a simple drone to scout the position. I can probably guess that the others have had a better result than him. Why do my friends not feel confident in him joining the frontlines? - Tails thought to himself. Everybody knew that Tails was capable of fighting the badniks and Eggman since he was with Sonic for most of his time, yet he is always treated as the small kit he used to be when Sonic met him. This made him mad because he knew that they were keeping him from his true potential, sure he can build the drones to scout the islands for Sonic or signs of Eggman, but after that, he was sure that they would tell him to stay back or to not come to some missions they thought that he was still young to go to.

Tails could only sigh and after some time, he finally got an idea of what to build. The drone would be small enough that it could be mistaken as a fly. Instead of the famous color yellow that Tails would put in some of his inventions, the drones will be painted gray with black stripes, representing an annoying house fly. He also made sure that the drone would not make any noise when flying so that Eggman and his badniks would not be able to listen and destroy the drone when they found it. He also made sure that the drones would record and capture photos of any clues or plans that Eggman has and to send it to the computer and keep a copy of everything on a USB stick. He also made sure the drone would self-destruct if it were captured.

After building the drone, Tails was tired, the bags under his eyes could be seen from 5 miles away. His fur was sticking out at a lot of places as he didn't bother brushing his fur and tails. His reaction to everything was so delayed that he tripped at one time and didn't do anything as he fell face first to the ground. After some seconds of pain, he gave up and decided to sleep on the floor. The floor wasn't as comfy as a bed, couch, or the chair that he had, but he was too tired to move and fell asleep almost immediately.

Thank you everybody, this is the third chapter of my story. I must say that I will be leaving on July the 4th to Japan and return after two weeks to the U.S, so don't expect for the story to continue until I come back. Goodbye and have a nice day.

All Characters are owned by SEGA.