Chapter Text
Home is where your friends are- That's what they say, and I'm inclined to agree. And that's Green hill- where the best skies, palm trees, and mints are just the tip of the iceberg. We've saved this place countless times from Doctor Eggman. And... sometimes Shadow. The point is- it always works out in the end. When you've got a crew backing you like Sonic's- there's nothing that will get in your way!
So no, Tails wasn't nervous facing Dr.Robotnik in the cave. He'd handled himself against the doctor before, not to mention it was impossible to be scared with friends like his backing him up.
No, that wasn't why the fox was nervous. Between Sonic ignoring the kit's warnings, falling for Dr.Robotnik's trick, and now not even showing up to battle? It's like he was trying to let the doctor win. Of course, there was a reasonable explanation for the first two, and that trend would most likely continue into the third. That fact unfortunately wouldn't ease his nerves or irritation, but Tails didn't have much room to talk when it came to consistency.
For Tails to complain would make him nothing more than a hypocrite. Years of the fox going back and forth from being a hero worthy of standing alongside the blue blur and a wuss barely worthy of looking at him. Sometimes he didn't understand why Sonic would even keep him around, but that was a question for some other time.
Doctor Eggman knew they were there, staring at the Paradox Prism with power hungry eyes, Semmingly mesmerized by the gem. "Shouldn't that wretched blue rat be here by now?" The doctor's attention snapped towards Tails, as if he knew where his brother was at the moment.
"I think Sonic's finally realized that you aren't a threat anymore. I mean- when's the last time you posed a real challenge to him?" The fox scoffed, landing soundlessly on the cave floor as Rouge perched herself on a stalagmite. None of them knew where the hedgehog was at the moment, but it wasn't like they were just going to tell him that.
"Wha- I am too a challenge! My intellect can compare to nothing else! You all will have no choice but to watch me use the Paradox Prism's power to transform the world from your silly little green paradise into something more... me." As the doctor went on, it transformed from a flustered rant into one of his evil genius plan reveals, complete with his iconic evil laugh.
Amy set her hammer down, leaning against the handle as she shot a questioning look to the doctor, humor laced in her tone as she spoke. "Oh really? Nothing compares?" She left a pause for Tails' snicker before continuing on. "Besides, You won't be doing anything to Green Hill if we have anything to say about it!"
"To be fair, sir, Tails does compare to your intellect, making your statement incorrect." Orbot added on before Dr.Robotnik could say anything. "Yeah- And Tails is smart too!" Cubot added, Orbot shaking his metallic head, Eggman staring at him blankly.
Eggman went back to glaring at the group, muttering something entirely incomprehensible to himself before turning back to his bots. "FINISH THEM!" The doctor dramatically pointed towards the group, and they geared for battle. Guess they were really doing this without Sonic, weren't they?
Things went oddly smoothly without the blue hedgehog at first, Tails taking to the sky and covering everyone's backs from the air, Knuckles and Amy taking care of the badniks on the ground, with Amy taking extra precautions to make sure the critters got out safely, while Rouge payed special attention to keeping the badniks away from the prism. She was probably going to try and make off with the gem once they had made sure it wasn't going to be in Robotnik's hands, but they would cross that bridge when they got to it.
Tails wasn't quite sure when everything started going wrong.
His Miles Electric ended up getting smashed as he was trying to get a reading on the prism, resulting in some kind of taunt from the doctor that the fox didn't quite get as he was slammed to the ground by one of the badniks. His head was swimming as he was starting to get a migraine, forcing himself up and finding Knuckles by his side, wordlessly covering his back while he was down.
By the time Tails had gotten up, the two of them were swarmed, Amy fighting a losing battle on the opposite side of the cave, and Rouge was crumpled on the ground in a corner. At some point Robotnik had gotten into his mech and aimed some sort of custom ultrasonic frequency generator at her, explaining why the fox's headache refused to cease. Another bad thing about him being in his mech and Rouge being downed, he was currently trying to pull the prism out of the ground, and there was nobody trying to stop him.
"Knuckles-" Tails locked eyes with the echidna, Knuckles instantly understanding what the kit intended. After bashing away the nearest badnik he picked Tails up without question, only being interrupted by Amy's concern.
"Tails don't- you said yourself, we don't know-"
"What other choice do we have? Our priority is keeping Eggman's hands away from the prism." It was uncharacteristic for the fox to stop Amy from finishing, but they didn't have time to argue, and he didn't see any other options.
"You pests have thwarted me for the last time! I will come out victorious!" Eggman taunted, smiling widely at the others fighting amongst themselves. Maybe he shouldn't have called attention to himself, the bickering seeming to stop after his exclamation.
Seeing just how close Eggman was to victory, neither of the two had any more argument for the fox. Tails gave a nod to Knuckles, and he threw the fox at the prism with all the strength he could muster.
Tails curled into a ball, using the force for a strong spin dash, fully intending to break the gem. The last thing he saw before the blinding light of the prism shattering was two figures at the entrance of the cave. No doubt the extremely late figures of Sonic the Hedgehog and- Shadow?