Meanwhile the other group consisting of Knuckles, Sonic, Summer and Spring had run into a similar problem as the others... Albeit, much worse. The four of them had already began punching and beating the crumbling robots around them. The four found themselves inside another room within the wearhouse similar to the one Tails and Winter were stuck in.

Sonic spindashes into them, hitting them ling a ping pong ball, Summer crushes two of them together with his bare hands, Spring uses her rope and blade to keep them from getting too close to her and Knuckles does what he does best and smashes them to pieces with his fists.

"There's no end to them!" Knuckles shouts as one of the servant bots swings at him with it's sharpened blades, the echidna punches it away from him. Sidestepping another one that takes a swing at his face.

"Killer robots... Why do I have the feeling I know who's behind this..." Sonic says as he throws his fist three one of their heads.

Summer smashes on onto the ground and then jumps on it chest, "I personally don't think its Eggfuck. Doesn't he usually build his stuff in house? These don't have the traits his robots have"

Spring slices a wave of them and examines some of them as they crumble before her, "They're too destroyed to be his"

"Fair point" Sonic says, scratching his chin.

He hears the garbled and glitched chatter of one of the attacking servant bots and dodges it as it swings at him, Sonic of course is too fast for it and spin dashes into it.

"We need to find the others" Sonic says, he spins around the others, quickly smashing a few of the other robots around them before noticing a chained up door in the corner of his eye, he aims himself at the door and throws it open, coming to a stop within the dark hallway, "This way!"

The other three see Sonic and run towards him, the rusted and bloodthirsty servantbots in tow. Summer and Knuckles quickly close the door while Spring and Sonic push two heavy metal crates towards it to keep them inside the room while they ran to find the others.

"Man, I had the feeling this was gonna be a trap but I didn't think it would be this bad. I'm sorry for getting you guys into this" Sonic says to Summer and Spring.

"We owe you for what we did, you don't need to apologise mi amigo" Spring says, shooting Sonic a thumbs up.

"Ha you guys aren't so bad after all" Knuckles says with an exhausted grin.

"We're glad to be of service" Spring says, pulling some knives from her belt as they continue to run down the hall towards the noise of struggling and machines whirring.

Sonic and Knuckles chuckle while giving her a thumbs up back.

Summer growls quietly to himself, still not believing that they were really after the person who employed them to do the job, the job he wanted saw through until the end, the job they could have gotten money from.

I can't believe we're getting chummy with these pricks now...

---

The five others work long and hard to keep the attacking servant bots at bay, Autumn had bought foldable sub machine guns with her while, Winter warded them off with his superior strength and martial arts skills... His own pistol too. Shadow teleports around the room smashing them to pieces, Amy hits them away and smashes them, while standing close to Autumn. Tails and Winter do their best to work as a team and keep themselves from getting sliced up into sushi.

Tails jumps out of the way and attacks with his tails, using them as clubs. He flies up while dodging servant bots launching themselves at him, he has a trick up up his sleeve... His inventions. Today he had something special, combat drones...

"Ahhhh this is getting annoying!" Tails shouts as he smacks some more of them away with his namesakes.

The fox takes his backpack off and opens it, tossing several little black metal orbs in the air. Instantly they start floating, an orange lights emitting from slits built into the frame, a red light shining as the machines began to assess the threats. Almost immediately they begin firing lasers at the servant bots, one of the lasers cuts one of the servant bots in half just before Shadow was about to take it out. The black hedgehog looks around and sees several of these drones firing lasers at or slicing the machines in half with laser beams.

Winter dodges a swing one of the robots takes, grabs hold of it and throws it at the machine which slices it in half, it's rusted exterior and damaged interior crumbling before him. Winter couldn't help but admire Tails' contraptions as they whizzed around the room destroying the robots.

It's not long before all the servant bots are pieces of sliced up scrap metal on the ground. The drones return to Tails' bag and disengage, the fox sighs closing his bag and looking towards the others, Winter is at a loss for words, so are Autumn and Amy... Shadow on the other hand isn't happy with almost being singed by the robots.

"Did you put any thought into the fact that you're not in this room alone!?" Shadow shouts.

"The robots are designed to attack specific targets, there was no way they were going to hit you Shadow" Tails says, picking up his bag.

"Well one of them almost did hit me!" Shadow shouts.

"Alright! Enough! The fox's machines did their job, be happy and move on!" Winter shouts, looking Shadow's way.

Shadow growls, but then suddenly stops, his ears perking up.

"Shadow what's up?" Amy asks, finding it strange that he'd go silent the way he did literally 30 seconds into being angry with Tails.

Shadow looks down, he can feel a massive amount of chaos energy beneath him, it was almost like it was a whole ocean of it, he was sure that's where the source of it was, where whoever controlling the robots was. He flies up into the air and then flies down, smashing into the ground. The resulting dust cloud was intense enough to make the others cover their eyes, Winter and Autumn's being shielded by their masks didn't react at all, when the dust settles there's a huge deep hole in the ground and Shadow's gone.

Tails looks towards the white killer standing near him, he feels his sense of curiosity take over. He looked so familiar, yet with the mask on, it was almost impossible to discern his identity. Winter notices him looking his way, he wants to say hello and see how he's doing after the fight they just had, but Tails isn't supposed to know who he is so he puts on an act.

"What fox" Winter says in a slightly threatening tone.

"Wha?! Oh uh... Nothing" Tails says, taking a step back, his heartbeat jumping for a little.

Winter looks down at the hole in the floor Shadow created, he can feel Tails' gaze still on him.

"You're a mystery to me. But for some reason, I feel compelled to get to know you" Tails says, the fox slowly moves closer to him.

"I don't want to know anything about you" Winter responds.

"I know... I just thought that - you know, since you kill people for a living you don't have a lot of friends" Tails says to him.

Winter turns his head slightly, the fox's smile was relaxed. Then he blushes a little... "You know, I had just discovered someone I wanted to get close to, and because you spared us I'm friends with them now... Thank you"

Winter grumbles and blushes a little, Tails beaming him a greatful smile, "I-It was the right thing to do"

"Mhm" Tails responds, wishing he give him some way to show his appreciation.

Just then Sonic and the others arrive out of breath from the running, Sonic sees the hole in the floor and looks at Amy.

"So you guys got attacked too" Sonic says.

"Yeah, Shadow might be looking for the source of where the chaos energy might be coming from" Amy responds.

"Yeah well he better hurry up, there's a lot more of those crazy servo bots likely on their way here right now" Summer says, readying his shotgun and pointing it down the dim hallway.

A loud banging sound can be heard echoing through the halls as the servant bots stuck in the other room in the wearhouse starts banging and shoving against the door like a horde of zombies trying to break it down.

Shadow eventually can be seen flying back up to the surface where the others are, when he returns everyone can see he's holding a yellow chaos emerald. Sonic's mouth drops when he sees it, The Four Seasons meanwhile are just plain stunned since they'd never seen one before, it was like a glowing ball of beautiful light.

The moment however is short lived, as the destroyed pile of servant bots on the ground start letting out loud beeping sounds, red dots in their chest flashing in rapid succession and in sync... That could only mean one thing...

"Bombs!" Summer shouts.

"How do we get out of here!?" Winter shouts.

Knuckles and Amy try to run down the corridor the second group came inside of before, but a large heavy metal door shuts quickly Infront of them.

"Well that couldn't get any worse..." Knuckles says.

As a matter of fact, it does get worse! The servant bots Sonic and Spring's team fought previously finally manage to break out of the room they had previously been trapped in, and Amy could see them coming in the distance. Their chests also blinking red and beeping signifying they too had bombs implanted within their rusty interiors.

"You just had to say something?!" Amy shouts, not happy that Knuckles just jinxed them.

Knuckles raises his hands, Amy's anger was like fire, one even he couldn't stand.

Autumn looks around with her masks systems scanning for any possible exit and eventually she sees an emergency exit behind a large crate, "Over there! That emergency exit might lead us back out to the front!"

"Get it open now!" Winter shouts.

"It's behind that huge crate, we need to move it out of the way!" Autumn responds.

Amy and Sonic close the doors to the room they're in, Spring runs over with a chain and wraps it around the handles just as the other wave of killer robots arrived, the sounds of them banging on the door was making everyone's hearts jump. At this point the beeping is getting louder and louder, the lights within the machines chest cavities flashing faster.

"Knuckles! Move that crate out of the way or we're all cooked... Literally!" Sonic shouts, him, Amy and Spring holding doors closed just barely as the massive amount of robots kept pounding against it with all their force.

Knuckles runs over and starts trying to push the big metal crate, his muscles working overtime to move it, but it just doesn't seem to budge.

"Summer! Help him! Now!" Winter shouts.

Summer growls and runs over to Knuckle's side. Being the strongest of the Four Seasons, it made sense that Winter called him over to help the echidna push the crate out of the way so they could get to the emergency exit. Slowly but surely they both manage to barely get it out of their way and Infront of them is a red door signifying it was indeed the way out of this hell the nine of them found themselves trapped inside of.

Knuckles kicks the door open and everyone starts running out into the weed infested car park, the beeping and flashing growing more intense as they do. The first one out is Sonic, the hedgehog grabbing Amy and Spring and running out while holding their arms, Shadow comes out next, Summer and Knuckles and lastly Winter and Tails...

But the fox trips on a piece of rusted metal and falls on his face, fear sinks into him like a knife through flesh, his eyes grow small as he realises he was going to be incinerated by the following blast, as the fox realises what just happened all he could think was...

Oh...

The fox closes his eyes and accepts his fate, it looked like it was going to be the end for him...

But Winter notices Tails trip and runs back to get him, scooping him up into his arms and dashing towards the door as the second wave of robots finally breaks into the room and rooms towards them at full speed, Winter moves as fast as he can, his legs burning as he gets closer to the door. The moment they get to the door, the robots finally start exploding...

KABOOM!

The others shield themselves eyes as pieces of debris fly all over the place, throwing some of them backwards. Launching Winter and Tails forwards rapidly, the wolf shielding Tails as they tumble onto the ground. Winter's mask shields his face from being scratched by the rough ground, but the rest of his body still hurts... Everything feels like it burns.

Tails' eyes open and he sees Winter laying there, some blood leaking from his forehead as he groans in pain, the fox looks at him his mouth quivering as he looks down at the white assassin, a tear pours down his face as he hugs him tightly. The hug made Winter to wince, but under the mask, he was smiling, happy his friend was safe.

"Thank you" Tails says, squeezing him tighter.

The others slowly pick themselves up and turn to watch the blazing inferno in front of them, Sonic squeezes his fist tightly, frustrated that they couldn't find anything worthwhile in there, anything that could have possibly led them to the person who hired the assassins to kill him and his friends.

"Damn it" Sonic says quietly.

Shadow grumbles and looks at the fire, hand on the back of his head, "It looks like whoever we're dealing with is smarter than we thought"

Tails helps Winter up, the wolf shaking his head as Tails leads him to the others. Autumn and Summer's heads turn when they hear sirens.

"Oi! The police and the fire department are coming! We need to leave!" Summer shouts.

"What do you mean you need to leave?!" Sonic shouts.

"The police don't know about us and that's how we would prefer things to stay" Spring explains, "We're hired killers remember?"

Sonic sighs and looks at Autumn running over to Winter and Tails, then he looks back to Spring, "Stay in touch with us incase either one of us finds something, got it?"

Spring gives Sonic a salute and her and Summer run off into the darkness across the street.

Winter stands up by himself while Autumn takes him to safety, Winter stops Autumn from carrying him for a second and looks back at Tails. His blue eyes looking ok expectantly.

"Watch your footing next time fox" Winter says.

Tails nods and wipes his face, "I will"

"We have to go" Autumn says, carrying her brother along into the darkness.

Winter looks back and sees Tails' greatful smile, his dirty clothes, dust covered fur and face waving at them as the vanished into the darkness of the unlit street ahead. As Tails' hand drops back down to his side, he looks down at the ground and begins to wonder...

Who is that under the mask... And why are they so familiar...

Eventually the police and fire department arrive and the fires are put out, Team Sonic cooperates with the police and gives them the run down of what happened in there. Eventually paramedics arrive to treat their injuries which a majority of them were scratchses and bruises.

---

Winter returns back to Burning Hearts after Spring treats him with a medical stim and a concoction of herbs she created. By the time he's back, the dinner rush was in full swing, people coming out of work, dates coming out to eat, people who wanted to get drunk at the bar... All sorts of characters were moving about inside the restaurant.

The wolf watches from the corner by the kitchen as Alex flawlessly keeps the restaurant running, Winter smiles seeing how much the mountain lion was enjoying himself. He admired how good Alex was under pressure, it was the reason he hired him.

Carry on my friend...

The wolf changes back into his civilian clothes and leaves the restaurant from the back, exiting the alleyway and into the busy streets of Nightstar City. Winter decides to take the subway to Friendship Square Park in the bustling city, he sits on a bench on a hill under a light, a satisfying view of the lights, holograms, digital displays, and flying cars in front of him... His favourite place in the entire city to sit, especially after almost being incinerated.

He puts his bag down next to him on the bench and closes his eyes, the first thing he sees when he does close his eyes is Tails' greatful grin, he grumbles and blushes a little, his smile was heartwarming sort of.

...Clumsy fox

The wolf takes a deep breath and sighs deeply, trying to focus his mind on something that wasn't weird thoughts about his best friend.

He sees a sakura tree, he's sitting under it wearing a black suit and tie, petals gently dancing around as he sits there. It looks like he's waiting for something... Or someone. A figure approaches him, it's shorter than he imagined, a girl? No... It looked like this person was wearing a white suit and bow tie, a boy! They approach Winter and kneel down in front of him... Tails.

"Going to some fancy event?" Winter asks.

"Mhm... Our wedding" Tails responds, his big tails wagging excitedly.

"Wait what...? But we're just friends..." Winter responds, confused by what his friend was talking about.

"That's what I thought too..." Tails says, putting his hands on the wolf's muzzle.

Tails moves closer and closer to him, Winter's heartbeat jumps up, he's shocked, confused, was he really going to kiss him? What is going on?!

Winter shouts and stands up from the bench immediately gasping for air, his eyes were wide, his hands shaking, sweat dripping from his forehead. He moans frustratedly, why the heck was Tails in his dream... AGAIN?

The wolf messages his face and sits back down on the bench.

I need to get a grip...

"Winter!" A familiar voice calls out.

The wolf's ears perk up when he hears his name being called, he looks around and eventually sees Tails wearing a blue jacket and winter gloves running up the hill, the fox collides with him and squeezes him tightly, Winter surprised to see Tails here gasps.

"Hi" Tails says, rubbing his face on his chest as he continues to hug him, his wagging tails brushing the autumn leaves all over the place

Winter smiles at him, "Hi Tails"

"I thought I saw you come in here" Tails says, ears raising as he jumps on Winter.

Winter caught off guard by this almost drops him, Tails giggles as Winter grumbles at him, slightly annoyed that Tails almost made him drop him on the ground.

"Yeah, I did... You almost killed me you know" Winter says, carrying Tails in his arms, then he wonders how Tails knew he was here, "How did you know I was here?"

"Well... I wanted to ask you while we were having lunch but then we both got busy. So I looked around the whole city" Tails explains scratching the back of his head.

"What did you want to ask me?" Winter asks, tilting his head to one side.

Tails giggles and touches noses with him, "Wanna have a sleep over?"