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“Are you sure you want to go up there alone?”
“Relaaax, I’ll be fine, you know I have all the chaos emeralds little bro.” Sonic was sitting on Tail’s desk, leaning over to look at the computer screen. “I probably won’t have to use them though, seems like a pretty half scrambled plan he’s got this time.”
Tails sighed and rolled his chair away from the desk. “That one’s overused, if you’re gonna keep fighting him solo you better look up some new material. You know he’s no good to riff with.”
“Ugh you’re right” Sonic jumped off of the desk and set a finger under his nose. “You know, I’ll miss you up there. I always enjoy having you around but tomorrow should go so smoothly you’ll barely even have time to miss me!”
Sonic went to ruffle Tails’ head before the fox jumped away frowning. “I’m not doubting your abilities, I’m just worried. Doesn’t everything feel a little too easy for you right now?” He walked over to the window and stared up at the sky. “Sure, you can go super if you need to but then that means we have to get the emeralds again and-”
He was interrupted with a hand on his shoulder. “It’ll be fine, I promise.” The normal upbeat tone in Sonic’s voice had changed to something more somber, but also reassuring. “He’s gotten a few good punches in the past, sure, but you know there’s nothing that can keep me down. Especially when I have the world's best little brother to pick me back up when I need it!”
“I swear I think you sometimes run into more trouble just because you know I can catch you. You’re gonna be all alone up there so you better not mess with him for no reason.” Tails left the workshop and walked over to the Tornado, setting a hand on the frame of the body. “I don’t see why I can’t just be up there with you but I’ll respect your choice, even if it doesn’t make me happy.”
Sonic sighed and scratched his head. “It’s not that I don’t want you there, you know that right? Besides, you’re still gonna help me get up there in the first place. I might be able to go fast, but you’re the only one who can fly, don’t forget that.”
“This was your plane though, it still is your plane, you just let me pilot it. I’m just worried that at some point you’ll get tired-” Tails stops as a hand is placed on his head and he looks back up at Sonic.
“You know that I will never, ever leave you, right? I never took you in because you were useful to me, you’re here with me because you’re my brother. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise, even yourself.” Sonic poked Tails’ head and winked.
Tails bit his lip and closed his eyes. “You’re right… I’m sorry it just sometimes feels like I’m not doing a lot for you.”
Sonic jumped back. “What? No way little dude!” He wagged his finger and smirked. “You’ve saved my butt so many times and you know that. Just because I can’t take you into space this time doesn’t mean we can’t go together the next time.”
“Promise?” Tails held out his pinkie with his brows furrowed.
Sonic intertwined their pinkies and smiled. “Of course! Like I said earlier, this is just gonna be a quickie so there’s no need to waste your time getting on the egg floater nine thousand or whatever he wants to call it this time, okay?”
Tails nodded and hugged Sonic. “You better stay safe up there.”
“You know I will.”
“You should really let me run some tests on that new form of yours. Who knows what’s actually happening in your body right now.”
Sonic raised an eyebrow and shook his head. “No way little man, we don’t have any time for that right now. Besides, nothing has happened so far, why should it matter?”
Tails crossed his arms. “Because this is your health we’re talking about. You’re transforming every night and I know it’s not easy. Not to mention the fact that you need a break! You haven’t slept within the past week.”
“Oh come on, I feel fine! Turning into the werehog probably makes it so I don’t have to sleep.” Sonic pursed his lips and looked away from Tails. “Probably.”
Tails threw his arms up in the air. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about, we don’t know if what you’re doing at all is healthy. I get that you like to go with the flow but you can’t do that if you end up dying somewhere!”
“Look, I feel fine, and the world needs to be put back together! I’ll let you poke and prod me to your heart's content after all of this is over. I just need to finish what I’ve started first.” Sonic went to place a hand over Tails’ head before having it waved away.
“You know this probably wouldn’t have even happened if you just let me go with you onto Eggman’s ship in the first place. Why can’t you let me help where I can?” Tails looked Sonic directly into the eyes and sighed as his brother took a few steps away.
“I understand now that I probably shouldn’t have gone in alone. You were right when you said things seemed too easy. I get that, I really do. You’re also being a huge help right now by piloting the tornado. We just don’t have a lot of time right now to be doing tests and talking. We only have this break right now because Chip is out getting lunch.” Sonic shook his head and sighed before looking at Chip flying in their direction. “Speak of the devil. Hey look, I promise you can get at least three blood samples from me next time before I start running, okay? Let’s just fix the world and get some grub first?”
Tails frowned and sighed. “Okay, you know I’m holding you to these promises though.”
“Of course! I wouldn’t expect anything less.” Sonic turned to Chip and waved a hand. “Chilidogs for me, nice you remembered!”
“Okay, he’s finally asleep, Chip, can you keep an eye on him for me while I go out?”
Chip looked up from his chocolate bar and gave a salute to Sonic. “I’ve got you! Though you don’t wanna take a nap with him? You’ve been going non stop.”
Sonic chuckled and almost set a hand on Chip before realizing it was the size of the guy and stopping. “I’m fine, promise. I’m basically nocturnal in this form so I might as well get some work done finding those moon tokens to restore our next chaos emerald. I just don’t want Tails to wake up alone, little guy is already stressed enough.”
Chip nodded and flew around the werehog in a circle. “I’ve got you Sonic! If you’re helping me find my memories I can help you look after your, friend?”
“Little brother. Thank you, I should be back in a jiffy. Sure, I might not be fast like this but I can still pack a punch, and the next shrine shouldn’t be out that far.” Sonic, set a blanket over Tails and sighed before exiting the bungalow they were given for the night.
“Man, you sure have one cool brother.”
“Okay Sonic, you promised now sit still.”
Sonic closed his eyes and squirmed away from the needle in Tails’ hand. “Ugh I can’t believe I said I would let you take three blood samples. Remind me to never make promises that sleep deprived ever again please?”
The sun was shining in Tails’ lab, currently no major warnings were going off on Tails’ computer and he and Sonic were currently in the workshop. Said hedgehog was trying to shy away from the needle in Tails’ hand. Two test results from previous weeks showing up on the monitor. Game night was two weeks ago, so the cat, or wolf, was out of the bag. Sonic’s arm had healed up from the silver incident and now he was stuck as a lab hedgehog, again.
“You know this hurts a lot less if you stop trying to run away from the needle while it’s in your arm.” Tails rubbed down the crook of Sonic’s elbow with an alcohol swab and put the needle into position, tongue sticking slightly out of the kit's mouth.
“It would hurt if you didn’t poke me at all!” Sonic closed his eyes tight and pursed his lips, going as still as he had ever been in his entire life before letting out a breath and looking down at his arm as it was being wrapped. “Oh that actually didn’t hurt at all.”
Tails laughed and spun around in his chair, setting the sample into a machine and typing on his computer. “You said that the last two times.”
“And I will say it the next one hundred times you have to take my blood!” Sonic put a finger under his nose and stuck his tongue out. “Okay boy genius, got any interesting results for me?”
“I’ve got a lot, but I’m not entirely sure you want to hear any of it.” Tails scratched his head and then set his chin on his desk. “You probably should, it's just, not all good.”
Sonic jumped up from the chair and set a hand on the fox’s head. “No worries if it’s not all good information, you know I won’t blame you for it little buddy. Sometimes you just gotta take life’s punches and roll with the flow.”
“If you say so.” Tails pressed a button on his keyboard and grabbed a very long piece of paper as it was printed. “I’d say the biggest thing is your bone structure.” He flipped the piece of paper around to show Sonic. “While your skeletal system hasn’t changed much outside of your werehog form, the composition has. It confused me when I first saw it but it’s almost like bird bones.”
Sonic squinted and took the paper from Tails. “You’re gonna have to explain that to me, I’m not exactly a biology pro like you are.”
Tails stood up from his chair and searched his book shelf. “Birds have hollow bones so they aren’t too heavy when they fly. Your bones are a bit more porous too, probably to account for the fact that they become stretchy when they transform. This is a big deal too, increased appetite we both can handle, you’ve been like that since forever. But this? You’re going to have to be more careful, if you aren’t you can end up with a broken bone a lot more easily.”
Sonic’s ears folded back and he sighed. “Greaaat, I’m sure there’s more that goes with this too?”
“Of course! It’s like your entire DNA was recoded once the Dark Gaia energy hit your body.” Tails nodded and pulled out two books, one on animal biology and another on mythological creatures. “Things look different now, don’t they?”
“I mean yeah I guess? That book you showed me with all the weird numbers looked different from the last time you pulled it out.” He scratched his head and pursed his lips to the side.
“You’re colorblind! Normally dog and wolf mobians can see everything but it looks like the transformation focuses more on unevolved animals. That’s probably why you feel more comfortable running around as a quadruped in your werehog form too.” Tails opened up the animal biology book on the wolf page before continuing. “It shocked me when I started looking at everything, but it’s all there, and it all makes sense!”
Sonic groaned and put a hand on his face. “So you’re telling me Rouge actually had a point with all of the dog jokes?”
Tails nodded and pulled Sonic over to the open books. “I’m sorry but she was totally right. To be honest though? You’re lucky you didn’t turn into a hedgehog lizard or something.”
“So, I’m a hedgehog who acts like a dog now, great.” Sonic took the book off the desk and read parts of it. “Besides from the bone thing is there anything I should really be concerned about?”
Tails huffed and took the book back from Sonic. “Being colorblind is important too! You know you technically can’t get a pilots license if you’re colorblind.”
“We both never had one in the first place, and as far as I’m aware, we both still pilot the tornado.” Sonic sat back down on the desk and leaned up against the wall.
“I still pilot the tornado.” Tails opened up the mythology book and sighed. “The only other thing that should matter to you is your increased strength, in each of the tests I took it seems to increase closer to the full moon, however your base strength just after is still higher. Oh, and you probably shouldn’t have chocolate anymore.”
“What?”