Chapter Text
Sonic and Tails kept what they liked to call Eggman Attack Bingo Cards. "Ho-ho-ho-ho" was obviously the free space. "Eggmanland Mention," "Blasted Hedgehog," and "Betrayed By Otherworldly Entity" were all on there, too. "Accidentally Reuses Badnik Name" was one that hadn't happened yet, but Tails was hopeful it would someday soon.
"Eggman Gives Metal Sonic His Old AI Back" was not on either of their cards.
Metal Sonic making an appearance was already out of the ordinary. Eggman usually liked to save his premier robot for special occasions, so bringing Metal out just to help him nab the fourth Chaos Emerald that week was already a surprise. But the way he moved, the way he looked Sonic in the eye with such raw rage, it was easy to tell that this wasn't the same old Metal Sonic.
"How sweet of you to notice!" Eggman boistered from inside his mech. It was an anglerfish design this time; a fun choice, Tails thought. Big gaping maw, four foot long needle teeth, big glass dome on the forehead where Eggman could pilot from, a lure that was a robotic arm with an electric zapper on the end... the works. It was even lava-proof, as if it were specifically designed to delve into the magma-filled caves of Hilltop Zone. Heck, maybe it was. Tails didn't know Eggman's design process.
Unfortunately susceptible to lava was Sonic, held aloft above a bubbling pit by Metal Sonic's hand clamped around his neck. The fourth Chaos Emerald was in the grip of the Egg Angler's lure, Eggman was gloating manically from inside his bubble, and Tails was standing on one of the few chunks of rock still floating in the underground lake, struggling to breathe in the scorching hot air.
"Metal Sonic and I have worked out an... understanding," Eggman said gleefully. His voice sounded tinny through the Egg Angler's speakers, which just made him sound more annoying than usual. "He gets his Neo Metal Sonic AI chip back—sans shape-shifting because I'm not an idiot—and I get his complete and undying loyalty! Seems like a fair trade to me."
Sonic wrapped his fingers around Metal’s grip and tried to pry him loose enough to talk, but Metal wasn’t budging. He gasped, sucking down a quick gulp of air before Metal tightened his grip, and Sonic let one of his hands fall to his side, twitching.
“What’s that, Sonic?” Eggman jeered, leaning in over his mech’s control panel. “You want to see the Egg Angler’s beautiful titanium teeth up close? Why, but of course! Metal Sonic, would you do the honors?”
Tails almost missed what Eggman said, too busy looking at Sonic’s free hand. It wasn't just twitching, but he was moving it in rhythm. Was he… fingerspelling? Tails couldn't see clearly through the hot, hazy air, but he thought he caught Sonic say R-O-C-K and H-E-A-D.
Tails stole a glance upward at a giant stalactite hanging right over the Egg Angler’s head. Not bad, Sonic. See? Sign language lessons had been a good idea, after all.
As Metal Sonic flew down towards the mouth of the Egg Angler, yawning out of the lava, Tails took off and flew up towards the roof of the cavern. He planted his feet on the side of another stalactite, aimed his body just right, and kicked off, balling himself into a spin that he hoped would be enough to knock the giant stone spear off the ceiling.
The maneuver didn’t make it past Metal, whose gaze locked on Tails the moment he took flight. Instead of leaving Sonic to the Egg Angler’s teeth, he launched upwards, kicking Sonic towards Tails like a cannonball.
Neither of them were ready for the impact. Sonic ragdolled into Tails, who was just about to make contact with the stalactite, and they both hit the ceiling hard. A half second later, Metal Sonic himself slammed into them, using his jet turbine to launch himself like a spinning buzzsaw. The ceiling cracked and split from the impact. Tails went flying from the force of it, barely catching himself with his twin tails before he crashed back down on the small island where he started. Sonic landed with a thud on the Egg Angler’s head, above where Eggman’s Eggmobile was docked. The stalactite above them, already loose from the first impact, broke free on the second.
“Whoa!” Eggman yelled as he shunted the Angler into reverse, barely backing out of the way in time to avoid a direct hit. The massive stalactite clipped the front of the mech, slamming into the Angler’s lure holding the Chaos Emerald. The lure erupted in a shower of sparks, which was dwarfed only by the wave of lava splashing up from the stalactite’s impact.
Sonic was back up on his feet in a flash, jumping backwards towards the Angler’s tail to avoid the spray. Eggman wasn’t as lucky, as his glass bubble got pelted with giant globs of molten rock.
“Grr! Watch it, Metal!” he yelled, slamming his fist on his control panel. Tails could barely see inside his cockpit now with the lava glooping over the glass. “Or this little test run will be over before you know it!”
“I dunno Doc,” Sonic coughed, taking just a second to catch his breath. “I think Metal is doing great. Keep it up, Metal!”
Tails got up on his feet just in time to see Metal Sonic explode out of the cavern’s ceiling and fly towards Sonic, claws out. Sonic dipped around him, skirting around towards the front of the Angler again, feet struggling to find purchase on the smooth exterior of the mech.
Tails zipped up to the top of the fallen stalactite, still floating on the surface of the lava. He kept watch on Sonic and Metal out of the corner of his eye, but what he was really looking for was… yes! The Chaos Emerald was still in the Angler’s grasp. The lure was flopping about violently, like an escaped garden hose that shot out bolts of electricity instead of water.
Sonic skidded to a stop right next to Tails, sticking a three-point landing and breathing hard as he dodged another of Metal’s attacks. “Hey bud! Wanna cut in? I’ve got a date with an Emerald, and you know how I feel about being late.”
Tails smiled. Sonic believed in him to go toe to toe with Metal. He wouldn’t let him down. “Sure, but be back before curfew, young man!”
Sonic gave a quick salute and dipped, doing a flip off the edge of the stalactite and leaping towards the wildly whipping Angler lure. Metal Sonic landed in his place, taking a similar three-point stance, but stopping hard on a dime rather than sliding.
Tails wasted no time and spun, slamming his twin tails into the side of Metal’s head and knocking him forward. “Hey! Eyes up here, bolt breath!” he goaded. He spun again on his heel for a follow up attack with even more momentum, but Metal’s red eyes glowered up at him as he grabbed one of his tails and pulled.
Tails was knocked off his feet, spine tingling from having his tail yanked, but he used the sudden movement to sweep out his leg and kick out Metal’s ankle. Metal stumbled, released his tail, and Tails scrambled back up into the air. He was glad Sonic believed in him, but he didn’t think he could hold Metal off for long.
He didn’t have to worry about that, though; his short-lived tussle had bought Sonic just enough time to get on top of the Angler’s lure and get a hand on the Emerald. He yelled wordlessly as the lure whipped him through the air, successfully grabbing Metal Sonic’s attention again.
“Sonic, watch out!” Tails cried as Metal’s jet booster glowed white hot, just a brief moment before he took off.
Sonic planted his feet on the lure’s grabbing claw, holding the Emerald with both hands. He smirked. “I think it’s time to go, Tails!” he said as the Emerald started to glow. “Been a while, but let’s give it a try! Later, Metal! Chaos Contro—”
At that exact moment, Metal slammed into Sonic and the Emerald like a freight train. The lure burst in a huge explosion of electricity, and Tails could feel a painful thrum in the air, something akin to nails on a chalkboard, as the Chaos Emerald overloaded and everything went white.
Shoot. "Crazy Explosion" was a bingo square that Tails had been hoping he wouldn't have to tick off today.
When the light cleared, it took Tails a few seconds for his eyes to readjust and for the ringing in his ears to fade. He was in midair still, pushed further back into the cave from the blast of energy, but still a healthy distance above the lava, which was rippling and bubbling more than it was earlier. The walls and ceiling of the cavern rumbled unhappily, and he could see cracks forming along some of the other large stalactites hanging from the roof. The Egg Angler was floating a ways away, tipped onto its side by the waves, and Tails could see that its electrically-charged lure was in shambles. Bits and pieces of it were scattered across the surface of the lava, and he could just barely make out the glint of the Chaos Emerald before it got swallowed up by the Angler’s gaping maw. Dang it. That made the score 4-0 Eggman.
More importantly, where was Sonic? Tails’ eyes darted around for him, briefly landing on Metal Sonic lying, unmoving, on top of the floating stalactite, before he found him. He was equally still, lying on his back on a smaller rocky island. “Sonic!” Tails gasped as he flew through the hot, statically-charged air.
Tails touched down and ran to Sonic’s side before his heels were even solid on the ground. Sonic was breathing, which was good. He was also unconscious, which was bad, as the lava was still churning violently and small stones were starting to fall from the ceiling.
Tails glanced up and to the left, pinpointing the tunnel they’d come in from before the whole fight started. It was high up, near the top of the chamber, and on the other end of the lake of lava. Could he carry Sonic all the way over there? He wasn’t sure. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to find out.
He spotted Eggman scooping Metal Sonic into the Angler’s maw with what was left of the lure’s grabber arm. He was laughing, and probably yelling something insulting, but Tails couldn’t hear him well over the chamber’s rumbling.
“Sonic?” Tails called out. He saw the hedgehog’s eyelids flutter. “Sonic! Are you okay?”
Sonic gasped and shot up, nearly scaring the fur off him. He was breathing heavily, eyes wild, and his spines were bristling so much they were practically ramrod straight.
Tails deflated with relief. He was okay. He placed a hand on his shoulder. “Sonic—”
Sonic jumped like he had just been given another electric shock. He scrambled back on his hands and heels, and Tails could see him shudder with every quick breath.
“What—” he gasped. He was barely looking at Tails, eyes flitting about every which way.
Another rumble shook through the cave, and another stalactite came down into the lake. Tails cursed under his breath. There was no time for this. “Sonic, the cave’s coming down! C’mon, we gotta go!” Tails took to the air, hovered around behind Sonic’s back, and lifted him up onto his feet by his armpits.
Sonic landed, shaky, and stared down at his own feet. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” he mumbled. His mouth snapped shut and his eyes went wide. He didn’t move; he was probably still shell-shocked.
“Come on,” Tails said, taking a hold of his forearm and starting to pull. “We’ve got to—”
“Don’t touch me,” Sonic sputtered, ripping his arm out of Tails’ grip. That made Tails stop. Sonic stumbled backwards, hands and knees shaking. He looked almost like he was going to throw up. “I’m not—”
He was cut off as a giant stalactite, easily ten feet across, smashed into the ground at their feet, barely missing them. Sonic stumbled back again, and Tails made another grab for his arm.
“Will you shut up and run?!” he yelled, pulling Sonic in the direction of the exit.
Sonic gulped and, for the first time, looked him in the eyes. “Lead the way.”
Tails nodded. They didn’t have a lot of time. The ceiling was coming down, and the lava was rising up to meet it, sandwiching the two of them in the middle. What little path there was across the lake was shifting and sinking rapidly, and more and more rocks were falling from above. Tails took off without hesitation, zipping through the hot air towards the exit.
Thankfully, Sonic still knew how to work his legs when he was frazzled and confused. He followed Tails’ lead, keeping up easily, and hopped from boulder to stalactite to boulder. He launched himself with a spindash off a falling rock, spinning into another boulder directly above him and shattering it. He tried to jump to a third, but the boulder crumbled before he could find his footing. He dipped, just a foot or two, before Tails was able to swoop in and grab him by the hand.
“Just a little further!” Tails shouted over the din. “Once we’re in, keep running ‘til we hit the surface! I’ll be right behind you!”
Sonic didn’t respond. He was staring down at his feet again.
Tails threw Sonic into the tunnel, giving him a head start with some extra momentum. He didn’t wait before taking off, and Tails was right at his heels. The burbling of rising lava echoed through the tunnel alongside the sound of their pattering feet and the distant crashing of rubble. The tunnel twisted and turned, leading them up higher and higher, before they were spat out into a vertical loop-de-loop and flung off a ramp to a different hilltop.
Sonic landed hard on his feet while Tails hovered above him. The gurgling lava crescendoed as a red-hot geyser erupted from the loop-de-loop, shooting into the air before crashing and fumbling back down as it cooled over itself.
Tails looked down at Sonic, who was greedily sucking down air with his hands on his knees. “Sonic, are you okay?” he asked, making Sonic jump again. His eyes, still moving frantically, seemed to take in every detail of Tails’ face as he stood there, shocked. A moment passed in silence. Then two. Sonic swallowed hard, coughed once, and seemed to shake off what was ailing him.
“Yeah, I’m okay, bud.” He still sounded shaky and out of breath, but he at least sounded like himself. “Thanks for the save back there!”
Tails sighed with relief. "I'm just glad you woke up when you did. I don't know if I could've carried you that whole way. What happened?"
Sonic took a deep breath, finally coming down from… whatever that was. "I have no idea," he said with a shake of his head. "We both grabbed the Emerald, and he used Chaos Control, and—"
"Wait, both of you used Chaos Control? Can Metal Sonic even do that?"
Sonic blinked up at him, wide-eyed, like he was taking a second to even process what Tails was saying. "I mean, I… Maybe he did? It was weird. I don't know."
Tails frowned. "I suppose it's possible... Eggman's Badniks have powered up with the Master Emerald before... but, more importantly," Tails said, getting himself back on track, "are you okay? I've never seen you freak out like that before."
"Huh? Oh, nah, I'm fine," Sonic said, waving off Tails' worries with one hand. "Sorry to scare you! Just, uh, touchy, is all. That blast felt... weird."
"Hm. Well, hopefully it didn't do anything to mess you up too bad," Tails said. "It knocked Metal Sonic out, too. I saw Eggman scoop him up in the mouth of that big fish bot he was piloting, but once they went into the lava, I couldn't see where they went."
Sonic swallowed hard. "We should spread out to find them," he said. "They can't be far. Let's—" He took two steps away from Tails before his knee buckled and caused him to stumble.
Tails lunged forward and caught him, easing him down onto his knees. "Are you sure you're up for that?" he asked.
"M'fine," Sonic said between gritted teeth. "Just… dizzy, I think. Give me a few." He sat back on his knees and dipped his head into his chest, squeezing his eyes shut. "Have you ever been dizzy before? This sucks."
A small smile wormed its way onto Tails' face. Well, at least Sonic was able to be lighthearted about this whole thing. "Now you know how I feel when you drag me through too many loop-de-loops." He stood tall over Sonic, keeping watch in case of any danger. There were no Badniks around, thankfully. Eggman had just gone straight for the Emerald, rather than launching a full-scale assault on the Zone. Nothing dangerous around except lava and the shifting earth under their feet.
Tails blinked as his eyes caught on something off in the distance. “Wait, is that him?” he asked. There was a metallic glint in the flowing lava that burbled through Hilltop Zone like a river. It was hard to see so far away and amid the bright molten rock, but Tails could make out what looked like a huge fish with something sparking on its head.
Sonic gritted his teeth and looked up. “Eggman…” he muttered, almost lost in thought before he snapped back into himself. As ill as he looked, there was a fire in his eyes unlike Tails had ever seen. “He’s not getting away from me that easily.”
Tails hopped up and got some air, going ten or so feet up for a better view. The river of lava, like most in Hilltop Zone, pushed out towards the ocean surrounding Westside Island, expanding the landmass ever outward. “It looks like he’s trying to head out to sea!” Tails shouted, noting the Angler’s direction and speed. Swimming through dense rock and making the transition to chilly ocean waters without destroying itself would be an incredible feat of engineering, but if anyone could build a machine like that, it was unfortunately Eggman.
“If he makes it that far,” Sonic grunted as he pushed himself to his feet. Before he could even get upright, he was wobbling back down to the ground, clutching his head.
“Whoa!” Tails gasped. He dropped down to the grass and helped Sonic, who flinched at his touch, back down to a seated position. “Okay, idea. You sit and take five. Keep an eye on Eggman; that bot isn’t moving all that fast. I’ll grab the Tornado and swing back around to pick you up. Sound good?”
Sonic squeezed his eyes shut and gave him a thumbs up. Poor guy. Tails gave him a little fist bump of encouragement before taking off to the sky, jetting in the direction of the Tornado.
That blast must have really messed Sonic up if he was feeling that bad. It wasn’t often that he could barely stand like that. What had even happened? He hadn’t exactly used Chaos Control anytime recently, but he wasn’t that bad at it. Even if it was interrupted, it shouldn’t have done all of that. Did Metal Sonic really try and use Chaos Control, too?
The fact that Metal had been there at all was weird. Eggman had already secured three Emeralds on his own and was currently absconding with the fourth. Why bring out Metal Sonic, and with his older, more advanced AI no less? Unless… he was planning something big.
It didn’t take long to make it back to where they had landed the plane only a half hour earlier. They had touched down on one of the few straightaways of the mountainous Zone with a decent view of the village below. Tails pouted. It had been so long since they had been on Westside. They were planning to stop for an early dinner and some sightseeing after kicking Eggman’s butt and snagging the Emerald, but it didn’t look like things were going that way.
Tails hopped in the plane, kicking on the engine and running necessary pre-takeoff checks. The biplane's Chaos Drive was fully powered, everything was operational, and it looked like all systems were go. He turned the plane down the straightaway and got up to speed, feeling the telltale jostle of wind picking up the wings just as he started to run out of road. The Tornado lifted off the ground as the hill dipped away from him, and he kept at a relatively low altitude as he headed back towards Sonic.
It was only a minute or so before he spotted him. Sonic was pushing himself up to his feet again at the sound of the plane’s approach, and from Tails’ point of view, he looked to be a little more stable this time. That was good, since Tails couldn’t exactly land. Picking Sonic up mid-flight was usually a no-brainer, but he also wasn’t usually suffering after a post-Chaos Control explosion. Tails brought the plane down lower, skimming the tops of the evergreens that dotted the mountain, and Sonic jogged after him before kicking it up a notch into a run. He looked a little unsteady, stumbling as he ran, but he was able to get up to speed, connect with a spring, and launch high up above the Tornado. Tails smiled as he swooped in and scooped him up.
“Welcome aboard!” he cheered. Sonic didn’t say a word; he just nodded in his direction, kneeling with one knee on the wing of the plane and his fingers curled around the front edge.
Tails pulled up on the yoke and they pitched upwards, climbing up above the trees and into the sky. The wind whipped around his ears, and as they leveled out at a couple hundred feet, he found himself wishing he’d remembered to put on his goggles before taking off. They made short work catching up to Eggman, whose anglerfish sub was no match for a suped-up biplane. Tails flew them in close, and Sonic’s quills bristled as his muscles tensed.
“What kind of weapons we got on this thing, kid?” Sonic asked, adjusting his grip on the wing to look backwards.
Tails blinked up at him. “You sure you’re feeling up to this, Sonic? That blast must’ve been a doozy if you forgot which plane we took,” he said. Sonic should’ve been well aware that the Tornado II was sitting in the workshop, half assembled, as Tails was in the middle of upgrading it when Eggman decided to rear his ugly head a few days ago. The regular Tornado had no weapons; it just had speed and agility on its side.
Sonic frowned and turned to face forward. “I’m fine. Just get me in close, then!”
Tails nodded. He turned the Tornado wide, circling around and passing in front of the Egg Angler until they were speeding at each other head-on. They got close enough that Tails could see Eggman through the cockpit, scowling and slamming buttons, before Sonic jumped off the wing and slammed into the glass bubble. He rolled and leapt off the back of the sub, launching up and grabbing onto the tail of the Tornado.
Tails looped around to line Sonic up for another hit. The Angler’s whipping, electrified lure, or what was left of it, had been reactivated and was flinging itself around wildly. On top of that, they were running out of lava—once they were out into open water, there was nothing stopping Eggman’s ship from disappearing beneath the waves.
“I think I can manage one more flyby, but it’s going to be tricky!” Tails yelled over the rushing air and the loud electrical zaps from the approaching mech.
“Stay close to him! I’m opening that thing up and dragging Eggman out of there myself!”
“What?! I just said—”
“Do it!” Sonic yelled.
Tails hesitated. This wasn’t like Sonic—but then, as if on cue, Sonic turned his head towards Tails and flashed him a winning smile and a thumbs up.
“Don’t worry, we got this! Let’s rock and roll!”
Tails sucked in a breath and nodded. He pulled the plane close enough for Sonic to jump—and he did, curling up into a ball and slamming into the Angler’s glass again—and then pulled up and back, losing speed so as to not pass the Egg Angler entirely. He circled into a slow loop around the sub as Sonic careened his body into the top of it over and over again, spiderwebbing cracks into the glass.
“Get off, you annoying little pest!” Tails could hear Eggman yell from inside the mech; he had finally remembered to turn the speakers back on. Sonic got one more slam into the hull before the whipping lure caught him square in the chest. It happened fast; he shot towards Tails like an out-of-the-park home run, and Tails had to bank the plane down low and fly almost ninety degrees sideways in order to get at a good catching angle. He managed to intercept the trajectory with the wing of the Tornado, which Sonic scrambled to grip onto as his momentum tried to drag him off. Good, Sonic was conscious. That meant he had probably been lucky enough to avoid a zap.
“Are you okay?” Tails asked, turning in and pulling up on the yoke to try and climb as he evened the plane out. They were passing by the Angler again though, and before Sonic could get a word out in reply, the lure came whipping right at them.
In spite of Tails’ best attempts, the lure grazed the fuselage of the Tornado, and this time, they weren’t so lucky. Electricity jumped from the end of the lure to the biplane, delivering a shock to the system that sent all the gauges in the cockpit haywire before they fizzled out completely.
Their power was dead.
“Hold on!” Tails yelped as he switched the Tornado’s controls to the mechanical backups. Their propellor was slowing, and he managed to level out the plane with a good jerk of the yoke, but they were losing speed and altitude, fast.
“He’s getting away!” Sonic yelled from the wing, looking back towards Eggman. A quick glance, and Tails was able to see him ride the lava flow out to sea.
“We’ve got more important fish to fry here, Sonic!” Tails groaned. They needed a wide open spot to land, and fast. They were at the edge of the island, where the terrain wasn’t nearly as jagged and vertical as it was in the heart of Hilltop Zone, so there should be—aha, a nice long grassy strip growing from the fertile soil of old lava flows. “Hold on tight!”
It was a bumpy landing, for sure. Tails had control of the rudders and was able to land at a clean angle, but without an engine, their speed wasn’t ideal. They bounced and skidded across the grass, kicking up turf as the Tornado spun to a halt.
The two of them clambered out of the biplane, shaken up but no worse for wear. Sonic’s eyes were locked on the spot where Eggman’s mech disappeared into the sea as Tails popped open the plane’s engine compartment.
A puff of smoke poured out of it, and Tails coughed and waved away the rest of the smog still lingering around the plane’s Chaos Drive. It was a dull gray color, and the connectors on the end were fried to bits. He sighed. “Power supply’s cooked,” he called out to Sonic. “I told you hanging around within whipping range was a bad idea.”
Sonic huffed and walked over, fists clenched and expression grumpy. “Do we have a spare?”
“Nope,” Tails said. He poked around the inside of the fuselage a little more, but the majority of the damage seemed to be to the Drive. “I don’t think we’re too far from town, though. They might have a hardware store.”
“Do they… sell Chaos Drives?”
“Not as high-grade as this one was,” Tails huffed, passing the fried Drive to Sonic, “but they might have something that’ll at least get us airborne. If we can get back to the workshop, I’ve got plenty of spares there.”
Sonic frowned. He looked back at the ocean, eyes resting on the water for a moment. “Man,” he mumbled, voice laced with disappointment and frustration. He gave the Chaos Drive in his hand a casual toss in the air. “Can you grab what we need? I’m still not, uh… feeling too hot.”
Tails smirked at him. “Just don’t try and run into the ocean after Eggman,” he joked. “I’m not fishing you out if you drown.”
“I won’t, I won’t.” Sonic waved him off.
Tails took a deep breath in and out as he lifted off into the air, heading back up over the hills towards town. Hopefully that was the extent to which things were going to go wrong today. He spared one more glance down at Sonic. He was staring down at his open hand, flexing each finger one at a time.
Tails smiled. He would feel better after some food, he bet.
The town wound up being further away than Tails remembered, and with all the running around and flying he’d already done that day, the round trip took him about an hour. Not too bad honestly, considering he had to root through an entire hardware store with only a disinterested teenage employee for help. He managed to grab a couple of chili dogs to go on the way back, too.
He fully expected Sonic to have either run off or fallen asleep waiting for him. Patience wasn’t his strong suit, nor was being sick. If he could stand, he was probably off on a run; if he couldn’t, he was probably asleep in the Tornado’s bucket seat, feet kicked up over the side of the plane. So color Tails surprised when he found Sonic, present and awake, elbow-deep in the fuselage. He nodded when he saw Tails fly up, bags in hand, and smiled.
“Hey, buddy! Long time no see!” he said cheekily as Tails touched down next to him.
Tails almost had to laugh. “What are you doing messing around in the Tornado? I wasn’t gone that long.” He set the bags down on the grass and pulled out the new Chaos Drive he’d snagged. Its bright yellow core seemed to glow in the setting sun.
“Just cleaning up the wiring,” Sonic said, as if that was a normal thing he did on the regular. “The Chaos Drive overloading melted the jackets on a couple of the conductor cables. I wasn’t able to replace them, but I was able to shield them just with some electrical tape for now.”
Tails blinked. He looked inside at the wiring of the plane. He looked at Sonic. “Since when do you know how to do that?”
“Hm? Oh, uh, you know. I’m full of surprises.” Sonic shrugged. He pointed down at the Chaos Drive. “Is that our ticket out of here?”
“I sure hope so,” Tails responded with a shrug of his own. “Not exactly an extensive selection out here in Hilltop Zone. We’d have better luck finding something with more juice in Metropolis Zone, but that’s halfway across the island. But I figure this will be enough to get us airborne… once.”
Sonic crossed his arms and leaned against the side of the plane with a smile. “Once, huh? Guess we’d better make it count, then!”
Tails made quick work of inserting the new Drive, which clicked easily into place. He took a peek at Sonic’s handiwork while he was in there, and… wow, yeah, he didn’t do a bad job. Tails hadn’t even noticed the scorched jackets encasing the cables. Wild. Sonic wasn’t exactly a stranger to a wrench or a screwdriver, but Tails had never seen him even so much as poke at the electronics before. When the heck had he picked that skill up?
“Are we all set?” Sonic hummed, peering over Tails’ shoulder. “We should make tracks. Who knows if Eggman’s got the next Emerald tracked down already?”
“I don’t think he’s going anywhere fast in that busted up sub,” Tails said, closing the hatch of the plane with a thunk. “’Sides, I picked us up some grub.”
“You… you did?”
“Yeah! From that place you said you wanted to try on the flight over here." Tails reached down into his second bag and pulled out three cardboard to-go boxes: two chili dogs, and one large fries to share. “Got yours with extra jalapeños.”
As Tails stood back up, he saw Sonic’s face quickly shift into a wide grin. “Sounds great!” he said, giving an enthusiastic double thumbs up.
They sat in the grass with their backs to the plane, and Tails couldn’t help but notice when Sonic opened his takeout box with caution rather than ravenous hunger. He took a wary sniff, opened his mouth wide, and… got about halfway through chewing his first bite before he started coughing and gagging.
“Whoa, hey, you good?” Tails asked, clapping him on the back and skillfully avoiding the quills. “Jalapeños got some kick, huh?”
“Guh,” Sonic answered intelligently, blinking away tears as he struggled to swallow. He coughed again, wet and rough. “Yeah. Yep. That was—Yeah, I don’t think my appetite is, uh… Mm.” He shuddered as he tucked the rest of the chili dog back in its box. “I don’t think I can eat… that… right now,” he said with an embarrassed smile.
Tails frowned. “Dang… guess you’re more messed up than we thought.” He packed his food back up too, not that he’d gotten to take a bite yet. “No worries. I can eat and fly at the same time, and you can always microwave yours back at the workshop.” He stuck his tongue out. “Don’t know how you can stand reheated chili dogs, but…”
“Eating while flying, huh? That sounds unsafe,” Sonic joked, hopping to his feet. He took Tails’ food from his hands so he could do the same.
“So does standing on the wing while we’re flying, but you do that anyway.”
“I do do that,” Sonic nodded. “Even though I can’t fly. Which is stupid. Why do I do this?”
“Uh, I believe you said one time, sitting is for chumps,” Tails said. He gathered their things and tucked them into the Tornado’s small storage compartment before tossing the food up into the seat.
“Ah. Cool. Well, this chump has nearly fallen to his death like, three times today.” He hopped up on the wing of the Tornado and sat himself down right in the middle, with his legs dangling over the front end. “I’m not especially eager to make it four.”
“I hear you,” Tails huffed. He climbed into the bucket seat and clicked himself into the harness. “Today has been rough enough as it was. Let’s go home and track Eggman down tomorrow.” He snapped his goggles over his eyes and started up the plane. It took a second for the engine to turn over, but the cheap little Chaos Drive did its job and got the propellor up to speed.
Sonic gave him another thumbs up. “Sounds like a plan to me!”
As they took off towards the sky, Tails couldn’t help but steal glances at Sonic seated on the wing. He had a weird feeling in his gut, like something was wrong. He could just barely make out Sonic’s clenched jaw in the dimming sun, and he hoped it was nothing.
It was probably nothing.