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“So Sonic, since Antoine’s gone, what should we do?” Sonic looked up from his phone to find his girlfriend staring at him from the kitchen.
“Dunno,” he said, shrugging. “What do you want to do?”
Amy smiled at him. “I was thinking about going to Vanilla’s for some tea. I’m just baking some cookies before heading there.”
Sonic noticed the smell of freshly baked cookies in the air and smirked. One of his favorite things about having Amy as a girlfriend was always the food she made. She occasionally taught Sonic how to cook various dishes, like soup, spaghetti, and even chili. He didn’t consider himself a good cook, though.
“That sounds fun. But you know, I’m not much of a tea guy.” The blue hedgehog wiped his nose as the cookie smell wafted through the air. “You got any other drinks?”
“Vanilla has other drinks at her house. Are you going to come?” Amy answered as she took the cookies out of the oven.
Suddenly, Sonic’s phone went off. He began to check the notifications when he was caught off guard by one he had failed to read. It was a text from Tails! It said, “So you're still going to come over?” Sonic jumped from his seat. “Crap! I forgot. I told Tails I’d be visiting him!”
Amy looked back at him. “You don’t have to come, then. I know it’s been a while since you last saw him.” Sonic smiled as Amy continued, “You can take a cookie, though, if you’d like.”
Sonic quickly hopped up and took a few cookies. “I gotta give some to Tails, too. Enjoy your time with Vanilla,” he replied as he snuggled Amy.
“I will. Say hi to Tails for me, alright?” Sonic’s voice muffled in response as he stuffed a cookie in his mouth. He held Amy’s hand as a goodbye before heading out the door.
“Alright, Emerald Town...” Sonic muttered to himself as he ran through the streets with his cookies. Emerald Town wasn’t that far away, but it had been a while since he’d been there. Hopefully, he still remembered the way.
Luckily, he had an amazing memory. After a few minutes of running around, he eventually turned into the street that Tails’ lab was on. “Tails, I’m here! Where’re you at, buddy?”
Silence. Still holding the cookies, Sonic carefully opened the door to his friend’s home. He knew Tails wouldn’t mind. Inside, Tails was fixing up a little toy plane, while a little roadrunner Mobian was staring at him in curiosity.
“Here you go, kid. Next time, don’t throw your plane at a wall, alright?” The roadrunner nodded. “Do I owe you anything?” he asked.
Tails smiled. “Nah. Kids don’t need to pay. But it’s highly encouraged!” Grinning, the kid began to walk away.
Tails’ face lit up as he saw Sonic. “Hey! I didn’t hear you walk in. How are you doing?” He asked as he put his tools away.
“Great. I brought some cookies!” Sonic smiled at the roadrunner as he left, then proceeded to hand Tails a cookie. “Thanks,” the fox replied as he took a bite of his cookie.
“So, it’s been a while.” Sonic looked around at the lab, noticing various items scattered around the place. Toys, household items, and a few robots. The hedgehog didn’t understand it. “Hey Tails? What’s with all the stuff?”
Tails gasped. “Oh, right. Since we last met, I decided to start a little repair shop. Mobians from across town can come to me if they need something fixed. They can send their broken item to me to repair it long-term, or if the damage is minor, I can simply fix it while the client is here with me! Isn’t that neat?”
Sonic nodded, replying, “And you’re making money from this?” “Of course, but children can get their stuff fixed for free. Some of them do tip me, though,” Tails answered, finishing his cookie.
The hedgehog looked at him, grinning. “You didn’t just bring me here to talk about your job, right?” Sonic began tapping his foot, not out of impatience but just because he needed to move.
“Of course not,” Tails replied before turning to type something on his computer. “Sonic, are you aware that Eggman’s robots have been wandering around lately?”
Baffled, Sonic crossed his arms. “Yeah. You think I’m just going to sit by and let them? I’ve been taking them down, and Antoine decided to come along for the ride.” He smiled.
Sonic watched as Tails’ face lit up. “Antoine? It’s been years since I last saw him; how has he been?” The fox’s tail tips began to twitch.
"Oh, y’know, around. And before you ask, he’s the captain of Sally’s army now. He’s been pretty smug about it,” Sonic grinned. Tails smirked a little before falling into a straight face. “I bet. Anyways, haven’t you noticed anything strange about the Badniks you’ve fought so far?” Tails asked.
Sonic closed his eyes for a moment before answering, “Now that you mention it, yeah. Usually Dr. Eggman is at least around when his Badniks are out. But these ones don’t seem to have any traces of him at all.”
Tails continued typing. “Right. And unless Eggman somehow managed to sneak a remote into the prison he’s in, I’m assuming they’re being controlled by someone else. Maybe even more.” Tails began to show Sonic a chart, which had a few nearby towns, along with the Kingdom of Acorn. Red dots were scattered across the towns. “Sonic, these red dots represent the Badniks that people have seen and reported. There might be many more unreported.”
Sonic stared at it in curiosity. “Yikes. That’s quite a lot of robots.” Resting his chin on his hand, he began to think. If the Badniks were being controlled by someone, it definitely wouldn’t be Eggman. Snively, Eggman’s nephew might’ve been the one. No, I doubt Snively would do that, Sonic thought. He was usually stuck with fixing the Badniks while Eggman organized his army and made plans for his future amusement park, as well as taking out Sonic and his friends. Snively never was a planner. Perhaps Orbot and Cubot were leading the armies? From what I’ve seen, they are definitely not smart enough. Eggman could’ve gotten another henchman to run the Eggman army while he was gone, but if he did, he would’ve hired them ahead of time, before he went to prison. Suddenly, Sonic realized something. “Tails, do you think the robots are controlled by more than one guy?”
“I’ve thought about it,” Tails replied. Going back to typing, he continued, “I’m going to need more research to figure it out. Has anyone else seen anything?”
“Yes, actually!” Sonic responded. “During some of Shadow’s missions, he fought a few robots. Although once he did find the Death Egg Robot.” Tails looked up. “What? And you never even told me? Why didn’t you tell me?”
The hedgehog shrugged. “Dunno, I guess I forgot. Anyway, when Shadow destroyed it, he apparently saw a hedgehog step out of the cockpit. With the same quill style and everything. They even acted like me. It obviously wasn’t me, though.”
“I see. Let’s just hope that you don’t get framed again!” Tails replied, holding back a laugh. Sonic let out a sigh. “Of course, I don’t want a repeat of when me and Shadow met.” After a short period of silence, Sonic spoke again. “So are we done here?”
Tails looked around awkwardly. “I guess so. You can leave if you want.” Sonic chuckled. “I’m not going yet. We gotta catch up! I know we haven’t seen each other for a while.” The fox’s face lit up in excitement. “Sure! I’ve really missed you.”