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          One day Miles “Tails” Prower approached his computer/TV with the hopes of wasting his life way before his vibration-wracked speakers and a Plasma TV hooked to a CPU.  He was going to play Runescape, his favorite game.  Upon logging in, he discovered that somehow his parental controls were activated.  Tails sometimes used these controls for limiting his time when he needed to go somewhere important.  But this was strange; he never had activated a one week ban before.  This worried him slightly but he typed in his password to release the ban… it didn’t work.  Feverishly he tried again, making sure to hunt and peck each letter TECHNOFOX38497/I_AM_COOL… still nothing, a red invalid password continued to flash on the screen.  This was not good, he would not be able to kill a single giant or demon or even a giant rat for possibly a whole week, maybe longer.  “Ah, what am I so worried about” Said Tails to the mostly empty soundproof game room, “I can handle a few days without Runescape” and got up and strode confidently out the door and into his room, where he began to draw out a blueprint on his work bench. 

            In the room across the house, Shadow and Sonic the hedgehogs where crouched beside a small TV, observing through the eight hidden cameras, the scene in Tails’ room.  “I’ve got to hand it to you Sonic, this is getting good already” said Shadow, sitting back and smiling maliciously “and thanks for the help with the tech end of it Rouge” he continued to a cell phone propped up on a cup.  “Don’t mention it boys” came a husky female voice accompanied by the image of Rouge the bat “but Shadow, I still expect you’ll hold up your end of the bargain on Saturday this week” she cooed “Remember, I’ll be waiting at the movie theater at 5:30 sharp, see you there” and ended the call.  Sonic was still watching Tails doodle absently on the blueprint he was making up.  “Hey Shadow, you better get outta here, or Tails might suspect something’s up” he said as he unplugged and handed Shadow the tiny TV.  “OK, I’ll see you tomorrow to take tonight’s CD” and out Shadow rushed out through the window and skated down the street.

            Hours later, Tails was finished, doing nothing, he had started working on a simple never burn toaster, but the precise lines and angles had begun to curve, and very soon Tails had drawn an accurate representation of what his screen would look like right now if he could play Runescape.  After drawing this, he seemed to come to his senses and immediately proceeded to push the desperate drawing into the paper shredder.  “Sonic aught to be back from the store by now” Tails realized, and went upstairs to find him.  Sonic was sitting in the living room, watching one of his favorite documentaries, the one regarding the space colony ARK incident not one year ago.  “The ARK was falling to earth at nearly 2,000 miles per hour, and had it hit, it would have devastated the entire planet, but it was stopped by Son—“Sonic paused the DVD, looking over at Tails with his usual cheerful smile.  “Hi Tails” he called as he got up “I made dinner for us so we can eat, were you playing that Runespace thing?”  He asked as he walked into the kitchen and uncovered several hot dogs, some chili, shredded cheese and lettuce.  “It’s Runescape Sonic” sighed Tails as he picked up his plate and put together his chili cheese dog.  “And no I didn’t” he said as he sat down and began to eat halfheartedly “Alright! Trying to beat your addiction to that thing?”  Said Sonic as he sat back and gobbled his chili dog with enthusiasm.  “NO!” Tails shouted, almost making Sonic drop his next chili dog “Someone hacked into my account and locked me out for a week, and I can’t do anything about it!”  He was half screaming, half crying and began to bang his fist on the table.  “This is nuts, what exactly could he be missing that’s more fun than the real world?” Sonic thought to himself, “I’m going to bed” said Tails as he stomped off, leaving Sonic to finish his and Tails’ uneaten chilidogs and clean up.

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It was about 2:00 in the morning, and Tails was still awake, still thinking about his Runescape account.  He thought of the levels he had obtained over the last 8 months.  He thought of each one and how he achieved it, and also the places he was when he achieved them.  He tossed and turned in his bed, holding himself and using his tails to push himself from side to side, brooding about his second life in the Runescape.  It was not an hour later that he pushed a little too hard and fell off the bed, flopping down onto the carpet in a small, depressed heap on the floor.  He began to shiver, but from cold or withdrawal he did not know, but he could not summon the energy to get up and get back into bed. 

            In the morning Tails had figured out why he was shivering the night before, it was cold, and he had developed a slight sniffle.  He came down the stairs to find Sonic having a bowl of cereal and he sat down too, again eating rather halfheartedly.  “What’s up Tails?” asked Sonic as he observed the fox’s dull-eyed and shadowed face “oh, nothing Sonic, just missing my game” replied Tails, making a brave attempt at a smile.  Sonic got up and walked to his friend’s side.  “Well, if you miss your game so much, why don’t you investigate who may be responsible for locking you out?”  Tails thought about the blue hedgehog’s words and the wheels of thought in his super mind where set in motion.  “You know, I think I will, thanks Sonic!” he shouted, leaving the kitchen at a fast walk.  He decided to begin his investigation into his computer’s records.

            “And you’re sure you covered yourself up in the computer’s records?  Asked Shadow as he gathered the CD’s of the event from Sonic.  “I’m absolutely sure Shadow” replied Rouge over the cell phone in a clipped businesslike tone.  “He shouldn’t have any evidence for anyone even touching his computer two nights ago” 

“Well good” said Shadow “thanks again for that, and I will be at the theater tomorrow night” he continued.

“Alright” Rouge replied playfully “and Shadow, wear something nice, I know you boys aren’t big into clothes but I don’t really wanna be walking around with a naked hedgehog all night… Bye!” and with that she cut the line.  Shadow was very concerned with her last words, but took no heed of them, dismissing them as a witty comment.  “You know Shadow, I think she has a special interest in you” Sonic winked knowingly.  “Just shut up and put these new CD’s in the drives!” growled Shadow and he shot away. 

            At this point Tails was losing his sanity, and he knew it.  He was fighting with his grip on reality, suddenly flashing into the middle of Gnome Village, into Varrock, into the outskirts of Lumbridge.  He was fighting as hard as he could but eventually…

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He lost…he became enveloped in the world of fantasy created by Jagex® ltd. and all became lost.  He got up from his bed gibbering and salivating, his eyes had gone blank and stared into empty space, he was then imagining himself not in his cozy little room under his and Sonic’s house, but in his player home in Runescape.  He staggered off to his workshop, calling up all the technical data he would need from his computer.  His maniacal laughter filled the room as each of his many work tables filled with sparks from the torches of his robot assistants, and the soundproof walls hid every sign from the sleeping blue hedgehog that might have been able to save the world again, before it needed saving…

            The next morning Tails was in a cheerful mood despite the fact that he was tired and had been working all night.  The plans from his shattered and fragile mind were nearly complete, and Sonic would be the first to suffer, and as the world’s greatest recognized hero, he would make a good hostage… 

            “Hi Sonic!” said Tails as he entered the kitchen. 

            Sonic greeted him in turn “Hi Tails! Guess what?”  He asked. 

            “What?” asked Tails in return as he sat down, hands together. 

            “Eggman is planning to attack Central city today! This’ll be so much fun!” he yelled, jumping up. 

            “Yeah, I’ll fly you there in the Cyclone” Tails told Sonic “Of course! What a fool I am!” thought Tails, “Eggman will be competing with me too!” and of course even that fat man had never given up, even when beaten down hard, but It was lucky he only kept himself going using robots, human troops would be much harder to eliminate. 

            “Let’s get on patrol Tails” said Sonic and rushed to the garage and the Cyclone full transport unit. Tails radioed his final instructions to his helper robots

            “Continue working, as fast as you can, keep all completed units in the high-capacity storage chamber and run full system checks there, I want no mistakes”.  An acknowledgement came through the speaker, and Tails boarded the Cyclone.

             On patrol, they noticed what looked like an advanced version of the Egg Carrier, it had many more missile pods and advanced laser turrets.  But all were bells and whistles compared to Sonic.  He grabbed a ring and he was off, Tails going to land somewhere else.  He settled the super-advanced craft down and began to focus his mind.  His resentment at his lack of game time, his revenge plans against whoever shut him out of Runescape and the wrath he would soon unleash.  His Golden fur became a purplish, Smokey black, and a shade of purple fire wreathed him as his eyes disappeared into his white rage.  This was Dark Tails form, and with it he had calculated he was more powerful than all of his friend’s super forms combined, for those who had them.  Using his ultra enhanced senses, he confirmed that Eggman was on the bridge of the battle cruiser.  He took off, not with his tails however, but with the pure will that such a rage gave him.  He was moving much faster than Sonic ever could on foot, and as he shot past, he amused himself at how Sonic was having trouble with the carrier’s advanced targeting and weapons systems.  This was good; Tails would have more time with Eggman.

            “HO HO!” boomed Eggman as he observed the dilemma of the speedy hedgehog on his monitors “So my advanced weapons are much more effective to deal with that blue pest!” he chuckled at his own genius, the secret to his weapons is that they predicted and learned, not mindlessly targeted and fired like his previous designs.  Suddenly he heard a crash of smashing Plexiglas and the cries of astonishment from his robot assistants.  “What! Sonic here so soon?!” thought Eggman as he turned around to face the intruder, it was not Sonic of course, but a short fox hidden in shadow against the sun.  “HO HO!  Very clever Tails, so Sonic caused a diversion did he? Well I am more than ready fo-” he stopped mid sentence as the fox approached him, hovering slightly.  Eggman gasped, he couldn’t help it, he’d seen this sort of thing before, and he had helped Sonic escape from its terrible grasp.  “Tails?” he questioned timidly

            “NO!” replied a cold, cruel, and slightly robotic voice “I am TECHNOFOX38497!  And you shall bow before me, or be destroyed!” the insane fox continued to hover towards the frantically retreating man. 

            “NO!” shouted Eggman, scared but defiant “I want to take over the world, and that’s what I’ll do, I will let nothing stand in my way, much less you”! 

            Tails considered him for a long moment, head cocked slightly, the dark fire still emanating around him, then, in a blur of speed, he grabbed and pinned Eggman to the wall, holding him there by the collar of his bright red jacket.  “Then doctor, we have nothing more to say to each other, goodbye” an energy ball gathered at the tips of Tails’ fingers… charging… CHARGING. 

            “Tails?” came a voice from the smashed window, Tails whipped around to meet this new threat, and saw Sonic… Tails fled down the corridor at the back of the control room.

            “What was that? Who was that?” thought Sonic as he approached Dr. Eggman triumphantly, “Beat you again doctor” he joked in a cool voice “better luck next time”

“Sonic…” replied Eggman

“I know, I know, you little blue pest, most annoying thing alive, blah blah, blah…”  Sonic cut him off. 

            “SONIC!” Eggman bellowed “this is no time for games, your friend Tails has gone off the deep end!” 

            “Doctor, you wouldn’t be able to tell if someone was batty if Rouge was here” retorted Sonic. 

            “Listen Sonic, Tails has tapped into the power of his dark energy, you nearly left us too when you went like that”.  Sonic remembered, he had gone insane, had wanted to rip the entire world apart to save his friends, and yet it felt so good, until Eggman of all people had brought him back to his senses. 

            “Sonic” Eggman spoke again “I’m leaving now” he tossed something small and black to Sonic “this is the remote detonator for the self-destruct of this ship, I’m getting out of here, Tails was planning something big, I don’t know what, but I sure don’t want to be here to find out”

            And with that he sat down in his command chair, which immediately became an egg-pod and shot out of the roof.

            Sonic pondered Eggman’s words as he handed the detonator over to the G.U.N agents arriving on the scene, on the run he took back to the cyclone, and then there he was.  Tails had his feet propped up on the console of the Cyclone, reading that month’s issue of POPULAR MECHANICS

            “Hi Sonic, back already?” Tails inquired, putting down his magazine. 

            “Yeah, it was kinda harder this time, but I still got through OK” Sonic spoke without even thinking about what he was saying, and climbed into the back of the Cyclone with great unease.  They flew back to the house, and little more was said, and both Sonic and Tails retreated to their respective rooms.

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Down in his lab Tails observed the work of his robots, it was very impressive, and if the system diagnostics were accurate, then he was almost ready, “Excellent work, now expand the lab, I need more construction facilities, more rooms, more deployment zones, and build me a vehicle with the specifications I have here” he pointed out a file on his computer, “now, go!”. 

In his current state of mind, Sonic felt almost tired after his battle with Eggman. But it was not fatigue, it was worry, had that been his own best friend Tails who had so viciously attacked and almost killed the doctor?  He had responded to the name when Sonic called it…but why?  These questions chased themselves around Sonic’s head as he sat on his bed and thought. 

            A few hours later, Tails came up into Sonic’s room and sat down next to him “You looked kinda tense Sonic” said Tails

            “Yeah, I had a lot on my mind” replied Sonic glumly. 

            “Well, I made you some cookies down stairs, so why don’t we head downstairs and eat?” Tails hovered off and down the stairs.  Down in the kitchen Tails had a rather large plate of delicious-looking chocolate chip cookies and a quart of milk with two glasses. 

            Sonic poured himself a glass and took a cookie, “So Sonic” Tails began “I think you have been acting very strange lately” he looked over his clasped hands at Sonic, who was biting into the cookie so as not to seem rude.  “You’ve been very on your toes lately, always alert, almost…seized up with tension”

Sonic was about to reply but he found his jaws would not move

“What are you so worked up about? No, wait, don’t answer that” laughed Tails as he strolled past the now worried hedgehog.  “Is the cookie good?” inquired Tails jokingly as he plucked the half-finished cookie from Sonic’s hand.  “I got the idea from Black Doom you see, except his little poison gas paralyzes everyone else but me, and me alone”  he showed Sonic the miniature device hidden in the cookie “This is the device that activates the little canisters of gas to shoot right into your mouth” explained the cheerful fox.  “And I think it makes a great taste, don’t you?”

Sonic was still speechless, but from the gas or shock he did not know. 

“And I think the rest of our friends should try it too, don’t you think?”

Sonic did think, but only to find a way to escape

“In fact, I think we should have a little party, one with lots of smoke machines, if you take my meaning” Tails laughed maniacally.

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Chapter 5

                        A day later, Shadow had finished his outing with Rouge, who had taken him to the movie presentation of Twilight, and having read the book out of curiosity, Shadow now understood even less why teenage girls and older women alike fell in love with the series.  It was also painfully obvious that Rouge was trying to snuggle against the white plume on his chest in the darkness of the theater, and especially during the romantic scenes.  This could have been a very suggestive action, and maybe she was trying to be cute.  He had tolerated it at least until the end of the movie, and when the lights came on, everyone stood and cheered except Shadow, who sat and huffed.  He had gone home after that, Rouge agreeing that he had fulfilled his promise, and she unlocked the near-invisible handcuffs that had bound them together almost the whole night.

            The next day, Shadow received an E-Mail from Sonic, it read:

          < Hey Shadow!  I hope I haven’t interrupted any of your dark brooding, but I was going to get the gang back together for a little food and fun, better yet, it’s not going to be invaded by news hounds, so we can party any way we want!  I really hope you can come, it’s tonight, 7:30 at mine and Tails’s place, come as late as you want and you can leave anytime after 8:30, only Mobians are invited so this will include Knuckles, Tails, Rouge, Vector, Vanilla, and all their friends, and then even more than that!  Food is provided assuming you eat, and the DJ will be Vector (He does take requests) I really hope to see you there.

                                                  Your pal, Sonic

P.S: How’d your outing go ;) >

“Well, I don’t have anything else to do” thought Shadow, and sent a confirmation: 

                       < To Sonic, in response to “PARTY AT MY PLACE!!!!!! : ) : ) : )”

            Yes, I would be glad to come, and it was fine, the movie was just as bad as the book, and Rouge also had me literally handcuffed the whole night, giving her an excuse to do that snuggling thing she seems to like.

                                          See you later, Shadow >

      It was perfect, one by one Tails used Sonic’s E-Mail to send word to every Mobian in the contact list, and one by one he was getting confirmation E-Mails from almost everyone, Cream, her mother, and the Gizoid Emerl had decided to stay at home because Vanilla did not think that this would be quite the right sort of party for her daughter.  But that was alright, they would not be too much of a threat to the plan.

            Later that night, everyone started arriving, almost every known Mobian on the planet had come, and it was a bewildering mix of species including foxes, echidnas, hedgehogs, cats, and of course Vector’s team Chaotix, made up entirely of non-mammal animals.  All under the tent Tails had set up in the back yard.  It was all going according to plan, and everyone had arrived by the time Tails got done counting. 

            “Ladies and gentleman” said Tails into the mic clipped to his chest “I would like to welcome you to the largest recorded get-together of Mobians in history on earth, and I now would like you to meet the hedgehog who brought us all together, Sonic!” 

            Tails clapped along with everyone else as the automatic curtain went up behind him, and the still-frozen Sonic was revealed in what appeared to be a rather striking pose of him resting up against the rear pillar, hand pulling down on the brim of a hat.  The smoke machines went off, and the music was playing, and everyone kept cheering and shouting, until they all froze. 

            “What?” asked Tails as the tent went completely silent, “oh I see, you must be worried about Sonic right?” no one responded to this.  “Well, he’s ok, he’s just a little stiff is all” Tails walked over and kicked Sonic in the rear towards the crowd, causing him to fly to the front of the stage and collapse, face forward in front of everybody. 

            Sonic was still stuck in the position he had been frozen in, legs propped up on the table, with a cookie a few centimeters from his eyes, which had given him that casual look when Tails had propped him up with the hat hours before.  Everyone was shocked, but could only fix their eyes on Sonic as he stared right back, waving his eyes to show he was ok.  “Now nobody stands before me!” Yelled a triumphant Tails.  “Goblins! Take them to the trophy room, and be sure a steady supply of food and gas reaches them, I want them alive!”  Several thin, short figures stumped into the tent, battle axes and maces swung from their sides, and a shield almost as large as themselves glinted on each back as they took the paralyzed Mobians away, down into the deepest levels of the new fortress under Sonic’s house.

           They where all placed on little pedestals and had a small nutrient tube stuck in their mouths.  The gas itself had 5-6 projector units in the room, releasing just enough gas to allow the frozen Mobians to talk and to eat, but not much more.  Tails laughed insanely as he exited the room, and as he did so, the TVs in the room came on at a quiet volume, allowing the trapped and helpless saviors of earth to watch Tails’ plan unfold.

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At 3:00am Tails had everything set out.  His house was closest to Central City, so he would attack there first.  His drop units flew into the middle of the town at exactly 4:00, causing panic among the late-nighters.  The diminutive dragons were built along the design of the baby dragons of Runescape, and being robots made them all the more deadly.  They flew every which way, each ridden by two Goblins who jumped off at exact intervals to clear an invasion corridor.  The police of Central City where coming out in force now, laser rifles blazing but only pinging off the scales of the dragons and the shields of the Goblins.  Then the heavy infantry came along, the most common high threat monster of Runescape.  The 12 foot tall robots were built after the Lesser Demons, and each squad of 6 was lead by an even taller and more brutal Greater Demon, the small army of nearly 180 demons charged down the streets, smashing windows and cars, and shooting fireballs at all opposing forces. 

After his forces had cleared the square in the middle of the city, Tails arrived, but not from the air.  A great rumble shook the ground around the city, quite close to a magnitude 3 earthquake, and a tower appeared from out of the ground in the middle of the square, surrounded by a pulsating red shield which was tunneling the ground ahead of the giant thing coming out of the earth.  When the rumbling stopped, it was a giant castle, not unlike Lumbridge Castle in design, but it was much bigger.  It was effectively Tails’ complex of rooms that he had had under his and Sonic’s house, but with indestructible stone brick walls and large robot factories concealed inside, along with the trophy room that housed the trapped Mobians.  Each of the six towers where also giant engines and the outer wall could rotate on the repulsar tracks that kept it connected to the castle so that it could propel it forward at great velocity.

The castle had now fully risen, and Tails stood atop it, remote control in hand, he had made the control module out of his and Sonic’s very own TV remote, and he could control all functions from the single device in his hand.  Tails considered his position, and found that a new plan was hatching, he would first have to collect the Chaos Emeralds, and then he could proceed with a planetary occupation.

Down in the dungeons, the Mobians had little to say, they all were watching the gruesome images being broadcasted from the TVs in their chamber.  Sonic watched in horror as the castle tore itself from the ground into the middle of the park and deploy thousands of Goblins and Demons, who immediately set about working on fortifying Tails’ castle, before the cameraman was found by a patrol, and the live video feed went dead.  Knuckles watched with eyes close to tears as the Demons infiltrated the Mystic Ruins, blasting apart the ancient temples that were his home, and snatching the Master Emerald. 

            Amy despite her worries, watched Sonic as he shut his eyes against the insane doings of his former best friend; it was all he really could do, with the immobilizing gas keeping them all in place.  Since the gas was let up a bit, the trapped heroes could talk,

“I hope Cream and Vanilla can escape” Amy said. 

“I think they will, what with Emerl protecting them” replied Shadow, still caught in a defiant “don’t mess with me” stance.  There was silence for a long time after that. 

“Speaking of robots, where’s Omega?”  Asked Rouge to the group, hoping that someone might know. 

“Last I saw him , he was going to go live in the Iron Jungle, where one of Eggman’s old bases was, but that’s all I know” replied Shadow again.  There was a much longer silence after that.

In the next few days, it was clear that Tails had built a very impressive robot army.  G.U.N, the United Federation of Nation’s advanced army, could not even come close to match the firepower and sheer strength of even a small battalion of Tails’ own Goblins, who indecently had not only axes and hammers but laser rifles and cannons, along with a wide array of single-man ballistics like missile, rocket, and grenade launchers.  The day after the Central City invasion, the Goblin army stormed upon the outlying G.U.N military base set up to guard one of the Chaos Emeralds.  The outer fences were smashed to bits on all four sides and Tails’ forces broke through, capturing all humans on duty and smashing all defense robots.  And the Chaos Emerald was retrieved without further incident.  It amazed Tails sometimes that he made a much more effective leader of a robot army than Eggman, and that this could be a very interesting regime.

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Dr. Eggman sat at his control console, resting his eyes, he needed to, for his eyes had watched so many video screens, seen so many images of Tails’ atrocities, he drifted off to sleep.

            “Dr!” One of his robots interrupted in a worried voice. 

            “What?”  Replied Eggman as he forced open his eyelids “What’s happened?  Has Tails reached Westopolis yet?” he questioned the robot monitoring a console close to him. 

            “Worse, master, he has also collected the Chaos Emerald there”. 

            This was a disturbing development; Tails had already had two Chaos Emeralds to start, his own and Sonic’s.  Then he had captured Shadow, who had another one.  Then he had destroyed the Central City military base, to number four in all.  And now this, this was very interesting, Eggman had never heard of Tails going super, but perhaps he would try it now.  Eggman too, had a Chaos Emerald, which he was saving for a special occasion to kill Sonic somehow.  But these were desperate times, which, as the old saying went; means “you have to resort to desperate measures” whispered Eggman. 

            “Robots! Attention Eggman robots!”  He yelled into his intercom “Prepare the Egg cruiser for exit of Earth’s atmosphere, we are moving to plan Sigma-Delta-325, gather all necessary supplies and data, then evacuate the base, we need to leave earth to save it!” The robots monitoring the screens all got up, except for the directors of security and cargo distribution, who stayed seated.  Eggman put his face in his gloved hands, wondering just what the world had come too, and how Tails could have gone so terribly, utterly insane.

            Sonic and friends had come up with a plan, and when their robot caretakers came into the room at 6:00 precisely, Espio was gone, he seemed to have vanished.  He had not of course, but had merely used his skills as a chameleon and a ninja to hide his presence, even from infrared and heat scanners.  The caretakers alerted security, and a full and thorough search began for the ninja.  In the meantime, E-123 Omega and the Gizoid Emerl had snuck in through the ventilation shaft of one of the massive engine towers, looking for the Mobian captives, and pretending to be one of the guards.  They were walking along, when suddenly…

            The search had ended, and Sonic decided he’d minus well have guessed that this might happen.  E-123 Omega had called Shadow on his phone, hidden among the locks of his quills, Shadow luckily had had the foresight to set the phone on voice command, and so Omega had relayed the plan, but he was late.  The search had ended and he still wasn’t here.  Then Tails came in, he was not in dark form this time but he bore a feral smile none the less. 

            “Hello Sonic” said Tails brightly as he came through the door with a troop of guards behind him “How are you?” 

            “Well” said Sonic as he pondered the presence of the guards “I kinda have to sleep standing up, the food is not quite as filling as I’d like, and I think you’re going to give us all serious muscle and bone problems when we escape”  he concluded with a smirk. 

            “But haven’t you tried escape already?” questioned Tails as he motioned for the guards to bring in their load.  They dumped the deactivated hulks of the two heroic androids at the front of the room, blank and staring photoreceptors looking back into nothingness.  Tails examined the prone forms of the super robots “I think they would be quite useful as my new dungeon guards, don’t you think everybody?”  He laughed when nobody replied, preferring to just reprogram the two and use them anyway; he couldn’t freeze them with the gas.  He left, and the contingent of Goblin guards followed.

            They all stared at Omega and Emerl, who stared straight back, and Sonic was loosing all hope of escape when the black android moved.  “Reactivating power core” said Omega in a low tone “Rebooting all files, confirmed, initiating greeting protocol: Greetings Mobians” said the robot as he stood and scanned the room for security devices for the 1,897^th time since he had been brought in, all seemed secure.  “Excuse me everyone, I have to reactivate Emerl as well” he continued in a matter of fact way.  Stumping over to the gizoid, he extended one of his data-interface probes and inserted it into the slot in Emerl’s neck.  Emerl immediately jumped up and stood to his full height, processing his mission directives and reviewing his acquired skills.  “Cream sends her greetings and apologies with me” said Omega, who was busy quietly deactivating the gas projector modules, and after successfully deactivating the first one, Emerl copied this skill and began working on another projector. 

            “What does she want to apologize for?” questioned Amy as she felt movement returning to her arms. 

            “She was concerned for your safety and merely chose those words to relay to you” replied Omega, deactivating the last of the gas projectors.  All the Mobians collapsed, it was the first movement they had made in hours, and all were quite relieved to have full use of their respective limbs.  Sonic, Shadow, and Espio were the first to get on their feet, and begin to assist the others.  “Hurry, we do not have much time” prompted Omega as he assisted Vector.  When the Mobians had recovered their strength, Sonic was eager to confront his best friend, but the others beat him down.  So they all began to run out of the base, moving at top speed and blasting guards that came to oppose them.  “Warning, massive energy source approaching, calculated as Dark Tails with his Chaos Emeralds” Shouted Omega.  They all redoubled their effort, Sonic and Shadow falling back to help the slowest runners.  They reached the front door, and after blasting it open with Omega’s rocket launcher, they prepared to jump out, but then they noticed something.

            The castle was no longer over land, but was flying with great speed out on the open Ocean.  Sonic was aghast, he couldn’t swim and he knew it, everyone else knew it too, so they all made hasty suggestions. 

            “You can hold on to me Sonic” said Amy hopefully.

            “I shall fly you above the surface of the water” interrupted Omega, letting down Big the Cat and Knuckles from his shoulders. 

            “Here, you can use these” said Espio, holding out a pair of water wings folded and hidden from one of the capsules in his glove. 

            Sonic decided to take the water wings and Omega’s offer, and just in time.  Dark Tails and a small force of guards that included lesser demons rounded the corner, and the entire gang jumped.  Falling into the water, they all formed a chain behind Omega, gripping his legs as he propelled them back to the nearest land, Sonic clutching Omega’s shoulder plates for dear life.

            Tails looked out the rear veiwport of his castle at the rapidly fading heroes, he considered chasing them, but decided against it; he had much bigger fish to fry, and fry he would.  “My lord!” a high ranking Goblin captain yelled as he ran down the corridor “there is a strange robotic life form that is tearing apart the castle!  Our forces have been unable to suppress it!”  Tails using his ultra senses again, found the disturbance, though as he got closer it was rather hard to miss.

            All the Mobians had reached the grounded Angel Island, and Sonic for his part was clutching the sand as though he would slip into the sea if he let go.

            “Thank you E-123” said Shadow as he sat on the beach, scanning for Tails’ castle. 

            “Don’t mention it” said Omega, as he contemplated the best way to get to the secret hiding place were he and Cream’s family now lived.  “I must now take you all to the Iron Jungle, we can hide there for now” he finally said after computing their course. 

            “Wait!” said Amy “Where’s Emerl?”  E-123 Omega paused for a brief nanosecond and then told the group where the Gizoid was.  Amy gasped, Espio recoiled slightly in shock, Shadow nodded his head slightly, and the rest just stared, not quite believing Omega’s words.

            “Get the intruder!” yelled a goblin guard to a contingent of goblins and demons, who went in and almost immediately were thrown back out again in bits and pieces.  Tails arrived on the scene, the black fire of his dark form still shrouding him. 

            “What is wrong?” demanded the fox “I know I built all of you to do better than this!” he watched again as several squads of soldiers went into the room that the intruder was in, only to be destroyed and thrown out again.  “Fine, I shall go in myself!” grunted tails as he accompanied the next group in.  An orange blur immediately cut them to ribbons in a near instant.  Tails of course with his enhanced senses immediately recognized the figure.  “So Emerl, tired of being a plaything to a four year old girl?” he jeered at the robot, who stood quietly in a combat stance, ready to make the first move.  Tails laughed, and the battle ensued, Emerl rushing forward at near supersonic speed with a crushing kick.  Tails merely caught the kick in the palm of his hand without moving an inch.  Tails was already getting bored, so he decided to end this quickly.  He took the other hand and grabbed the robot’s chest, ripping him clean in half, and dug around in his central processor for the deactivation switch that would shut the droid off for good. 

            Limp metal limbs clattered to the stone floor as Tails brushed some loose wires off his shoulders. 

            “Are we at Eggman’s base yet commander?” he questioned the goblin who came in with him. 

            “No master, we will reach our destination in 3 hours” the robot stood and saluted. 

            “Very well” said Tails “I will construct something in the meantime, I do not want to be disturbed for anything but the most important things, do you understand commander?”. 

            “Yes master”…

            “It’s very probable that Emerl is dead now” commented Shadow as Omega pushed the raft towards shore. 

            “He is” replied Omega “I lost contact with his signal 1 hour and 35 minutes ago.”  No one spoke; they were all contemplating the memory of the heroic robot, except for Big, who was fishing.  Hours after this solemn news, they reached land, not too far from a giant forest that held a secret hiding place were the Mobians could recover and regroup.

            “Just in time” thought Eggman as he slumped with relief into his chair, exactly one hour after the Egg-cruiser broke Earth orbit, Tails’s castle attacked the base in full force.  The bombings and laser strikes were visible even from space, and Eggman was sure he had left just a large enough picket force to keep Tails busy for the 5 minutes he needed for the Egg-drive to come up with a calculation of the course to the moon, the Egg-moon that is.  “Dr.” said the robot manning the sensor station “We have incoming”.  “What!” said Eggman as he ran over to stare at the sensor screen.  A near invisible black blur was zooming towards the cruiser. 

            “It’s Tails!” yelled Eggman “Charge main guns! Arm all missiles!  Fire! Fire! FIRE!”....

Chapter Text

Cream Squealed at the sight of all her friends returning safely, and she immediately ran to hug each of them, Cheese the Chao floating by her side.  “Oh Mr. Omega, thank you so much!” she said as she and Amy hugged. 

            “You’re welcome” replied Omega as he got a big hug himself. 

            “Yes, we were very worried about all of you” interjected Vanilla. 

After the greetings and tears, Shadow, Sonic, and Rouge all sat in a corner of the massive facility, talking about their part in the destruction of earth itself. 

            “Now I really wish I hadn’t gone along with your little scheme guys” pouted Rouge as she stared at the floor, shaking her head. 

            “Hey! I didn’t know he was gonna do this!” shouted Shadow, his voice echoing through the massive caverns. 

            “I think the only way to resolve this is to go to Tails and apologize” said Sonic after much hard thought “and besides, isn’t the week up?” he questioned the other two. 

            “I don’t know” replied Shadow “to be sure we should go apologize, but I have no idea how long we were in that crazy fox’s dungeon.” They immediately consulted Shadow’s phone, which confirmed them that Tails’ time was up, and there was a slim hope of him coming back to the side of good. 

            “We should go tell him, so we can end his whiney rampage” said Rouge leaping into the air. 

            “No!  That’s the worst thing to do” said Shadow, grabbing her boot and bringing her gently back to the floor. 

            “So what do you suggest Dark One?” Huffed Rouge sarcastically as she sat. 

            “The thing is, we need a backup plan, what if he doesn’t believe us, or flies into such a rage he’ll try to kill us all, what if he forgets everything and just goes back to his childish game, unconcerned about what his little goblin army does, I’m just saying we need a plan, and I think I’ve got one…”

            The ship had been reduced to a smoldering hulk, the last of the oxygen escaping through the many holes were weapons emplacements used to be, and dead robots floating in and out of the debris.  Tails hovered about 1 kilometer above his handiwork, surveying with his super-eyes, for the doctor’s body, though it was a sure thing he had fled in the flurry of escape pods headed for Earth.  Tails observed the Chaos Emerald held in his hand, and decided it was about time he showed the world (or at least his former friends) his latest creation.  Flying at top speed back to Earth, he laughed still more as he entered the castle, and all the way to his workshop at the core.

            Sonic, Shadow, and Rouge were flying the cumbersome transport they had found in Eggman’s former base.  They were flying toward the last known location of the floating castle that had attacked Eggman’s most recent base. 

            “This is a bad idea” commented Rouge as Shadow flew on. 

            “I know, but it’s the best idea I can come up with, If you have a better suggestion, then please share it with me, otherwise just let me fly!” replied Shadow, fists tightening on the controls as he sighted the Castle on the radar.  “He’ll have not only detected us by now, but the last Chaos Emerald as well, along with the fakes I brought from the base” said Shadow as he flew still closer. 

            Suddenly they were surrounded, all over there were dragons, all firing back-mounted laser turrets, and the little craft was hit hard.  Luckily, Shadow was able to crash land right in the recently repaired front door, just barely fitting through the gap.  The three heroes then ejected with the chaos emerald and its copies.  Rolling to a stop, the to a stop, they all grabbed two emeralds, Rouge making sure to get the extra seventh one for herself, which also was the real one.

            “Master!” yelled the commander “we have intruders!”

            “Really?” remarked Tails “how many?” 

            “Three master, Sonic, Shadow, and Rouge” replied the robot goblin.  “Interesting, well send no guards, I’ve had enough trouble repairing all of you after they broke out!” 

            “Yes master”

            “The break-in was very easy, almost too easy” thought shadow as he skated toward the core of the castle.  He, Sonic, and Rouge would have to be very crafty in order to ground this castle, and he and Sonic would have to use all their power to either defeat Tails or just plain kill him.  Rouge broke formation, throwing the Emeralds to the hedgehogs and heading toward her target, the engine-towers.  Rushing through the corridors, the hedgehogs spotted a lone figure in a large chamber. 

            “A knight?” questioned Sonic “well I’ve dealt with the likes of those guys, let’s take him out!” 

            But then Shadow spotted the six gleaming jewels in the chest plate, and the two sweeping black tails behind this “knight”.  “Sonic, don’t!” shouted Shadow “it’s Tails!  Both screeched to a halt, staring at the figure clad in armor. 

            “Hello gentlemen” came a cool voice from inside the helmet “like my runite armor?” and it was.  Not real runite armor, but a super composite made from melted down rings and with slots in the chest for placing the seven Chaos Emeralds.  The Master Emerald of course would be ridiculous to add to the armor as a whole, so it was serving another purpose elsewhere in the castle.  Tails also carried a runite scimitar, again from the same composite as his armor.  He now looked like TECHNOFOX38497, and all the menace this title held.

            Tails was slightly amused at how they had brought some fake Emeralds for him, for though a machine could not tell the difference, Tails could, and he was mocet pleased that he could now have 13 Chaos emeralds. 

            “Tails” said Sonic suddenly “we didn’t come to fight, even though we are prepared, we came to apologize.” 

            Tails was taken aback “Apologize? For what could you possibly have to apologize about?” 

            “It was us Tails, me, Shadow, and Rouge, we just saw how much you were addicted to that game, and we thought that your anger would make a funny video for Youtube or something, but we were wrong, and you can play again, because the week is up, you can go back now.” 

            Tails was overjoyed, but also he was furious, furious at these pitiful hedgehogs to mock him because of the love of Runescape.  He would have to make very sure that it never, ever happened again.  “Though I accept your apology, and am happy that I can play again, you will still DIE!!!” Tails yelled the final words as he charged forward with blinding speed to cut the hedgehogs in half with his sword. 

            But the heroes were way ahead of him, both dodging and going into super form at the same time.  Then the battle truly began, the three combatants flying up into outer space with the force of their punches.  Then they were in space, leaving the castle far behind, trading punches, chaos spears, and power blasts within microseconds of each other.  If any object was close to the battling super-Mobians, it would have been annihilated immediately.  Tails’ armor did not even dent despite the repeated blows of both his former friends, he had built it to withstand much more than that.  And the battle continued on.

            In the meanwhile, the rest of the Mobians had infiltrated the Space colony ARK, and were activating the emergency power supply Shadow had told them about, this generator would have just enough power to fire the Eclipse cannon at full power just once.  So one shot was all they had.  They had been informed of the plan, but things could always go wrong in plans.

            In the blackness of space, Shadow’s phone vibrated.  It was the timer he had set to bring Tails over to the ARK.  He slammed into the fox, driving him with full force towards the tip of the cannon.  The green energy shrouded the point at the nose of the ARK as it prepared to fire.  Shadow thrust Tails towards the flash point, and the cannon fired.  It had been aimed just so it would both hit Tails, and hit his castle on earth.  As expected, the green beam had mostly diffused, dumping almost all its planet-destroying energy into Tails, and having just enough power to destroy the castle.  Rouge watched the pretty green explosion; green like the Master Emerald clutched in her arms, and contemplated weather it was worth just stealing the Master Emerald here and now.

            After recovering Tails’ body, the super hedgehogs flew into the ARK and the shuttle that would take them home.  On the way all the Mobians used both strength and skill to cut apart and remove the fused plates of the armor, along with the embedded Emeralds in the chest plate.  On earth they brought him to his little room under Sonic’s house, which was still there despite the devastation.  They lay the still living fox in his bed, and waited for him to wake up.  They pondered what he would do when he awoke, would he immediately go back to being Dark Tails and kill all present?  Would he wake up to what he’d done and realize it was all for nothing, or would he just die, and leave his destruction as a reminder of his power.  They all waited for hours, days, weeks.  Finally, the fox opened his eyelids and stared at the Mobians in his room…

            It was two days later, and tails had had quite a time.  As it turned out, he didn’t even remember that terrible week, and had promptly returned to playing Runescape, saying that he had a lot to catch up on.  Sonic, Shadow, and Rouge all were looking silently into his game room, and all three agreed never to interfere with Tails’s account ever again. 

            Sonic went in, “Hey Tails, I think after 36 hours you really should stop” he said casually.  A black, eyeless face stared back at him

            “What?” asked Tails in a loud whisper. 

            “Nothing, nothing” replied Sonic hastily, backing out of the room…

And so remember, if you have a game lover in your home, never interfere; games can inspire horrible acts in the forms of either violence, or retribution against the person or persons responsible for the halting of their progress.  Gamers sometimes grow out of it, but only if you let them play for as long as they want, so that they get board, only then will they not play...