Soon December had arrived and so did more danger for the uneasy alliance between Team Sonic and The Four Seasons, perusing a lead as the identity of the assassin groups most recent client. Their lead led them to an abandoned power plant in Hakicho, a town outside of Nightstar City.

Team Sonic stands across from The Four Seasons as they have a stare down, Shadow accompanying them, hoping that maybe he can get another chaos emerald out of this encounter.

"So you guys beat us to the punch" Sonic says.

"It's only natural for people of our calibre" Winter responds, adjusting his mask.

"So what did you find" Shadow asks, his voice showing just how annoyed he was.

Spring pulls out a metal stick and pushes a button on the top of it, a holographic screen appears showing a blue dot and a red dot on a geographic map along with some data.

"I created this program that detects the unique frequency chaos energy emits. I'll spare you the details because the fox is the only one who knows how it works, but the short version is that its a chaos energy detector"

"That's impressive" Tails says, his eyes glowing with some interest.

"Gracias" Spring says, then she throws the device at Shadow who catches it and takes a look at the readings, it didn't even take him a while to get the hang of using it as he's already figuring out exactly where the emerald is.

"The emerald is in the basement" Shadow says showing it to the others, "Instead of splitting up we're staying together, the last time we barely held our own against those murder drones"

"I agree" Summer says, pulling his foldable machine gun from his belt.

"Well then, if there's nothing else stopping us, let's move in" Sonic says.

With that the group goes in, Winter and Sonic leading the group as the both force open the weathered doors to the building, the site their greeted with was a room with a large empty room with a crumbling tiled floor, cob webs in the corners of the walls, rust covered metal beams ready to check out any time they want, damaged machinery way past its prime in shambles from being neglected for so long.

Broken glass and wood crumbling beneath their feet as they stepped further inside, Winter opens an interface in his glove and turns on the air filter in his mask, the other three assassins do the same, Sonic raises an eyebrow when he hears the hissing sound come from their masks.

"Do you want to get sick and die from the asbestos in the air?" Winter asks him, feeling his gaze on his yet not looking his way.

"Huh... Well I never thought about that really"

They didn't think about it... But Tails did, the fox lagging behind on purpose so he can attach a mask with an air filter to his face, everyone turns and looks at Tails who's less than impressed that his friends wouldn't think to listen to him before they left the hideout without the air filtered masks he made.

"I tried to tell you the air might no be safe for us to breathe but ohhhh Tails is the one who likes to overprepare-" The fox grumbles audibly, signalling to everyone how annoyed he was, he reaches into his bag and hands everyone some more of the masks, "-the next time I say something, just listen to me for goodness sake"

Tails zeros his gaze on Sonic before shoving past him into the cave, the assassins step out of his way as he stops by a flight of crumbling concrete steps going down into the underbelly of the building and turns on his flash light showing it around as the others attach their masks to the faces, Tails and Winter starts slowly descend down the staircase, the fox pulls out his trusty Miles Electric and uses it to start scanning for chaos energy.

The further down they go, the stronger and louder the beeping sound coming from Tails' device becomes. Winter and the other Four Seasons came much more prepared this time, after the near disaster in Kanasaki it was inevitable that they would have to take a little more just in case things went upside down.

"Give me that" Shadow says, extending his hand and gesturing for Tails to give him the device.

He reluctantly hands it to him, and shadow starts reading the information the device is displaying, he also seemed to be familiar with how to use Tails' device too.

So he's not a complete dumbass... Good to know...

Shadow tosses it back to Tails, who narrowly catches it. Tails sighs and looks up at Winter who's silently cursing at Shadow, the wolf looks down at him and sees him glancing at him for a moment. Tails feels it again, like he's familiar to him and he just doesn't seem to know why he is so interesting. Winter wonders why he's looking at him the way he is but he knows he needs to stay in character.

"The hell are you looking at?! The sooner this is over the sooner we can all carry on with our lives! Quit gawking at me!" Winter snaps.

Tails shouts and steps back a bit, not expecting him to react like that. Winter does feel bad for doing that but he can't show any weakness, not in front of his siblings especially. Winter scoffs and starts walking ahead, the others follow behind him, Tails too after his take a moment to let his heartbeat slow.

I'm sorry foxy... I had too...

Then Winter sees a giant door at the end of the staircase, unlike the rest of the building, it looked shiny and almost new, like it had been there long after the building had originally been decommissioned.

"Spring, when did this power plant shut down" Winter asks.

"Garanamen Industries Hachiko Power Plant, opened 16 April 2019, closed down after the Ogami Riots on 7th February 2067 because of how damaged it was after the clean up. The building was scheduled to be demolished in 2089, but Garanamen stopped them from demolishing it, they want to see if it's possible to reactivate the site area. They're still fighting the government to get the building back" Spring explains.

"This door looks way too new" Winter says.

"Why don't we open it" Knuckles asks.

"That's not a good idea Knuckles, what if it's a trap" Amy responds, crossing her arms.

"And that's where we come in" Autumn says, walking up to the door, her mask scans for any potential threats behind it, when it doesn't find any she turns to the others and nods.

Winter walks up to it and tries pulling it open... To his surprise, it's unlocked... Almost as if whoever put it there didn't lock it on purpose.

When the door is open, they all peek inside... It looked to be a makeshift robot workshop, purpleish lighting illuminating the room as they all filed inside slowly, across the floor and on several tables were parts of servant bots, tools, scattered blueprints and other stuff. In the corner farthest from the door was a containment cabinet with something inside that definitely wasn't a servant bot, it looked to new to be a servant bot actually.

Winter keep an eye on those as everyone looks around the room. Spring notices an open laptop with a paused video recording and slowly wall, the device looked to be almost a whole century old which amazed even her.

"Hey Hermano"

Winter turns his head to her and sees her pointing at the laptop, "Play it"

Spring taps the space bar om the keyboard and what appears is a dark unrecognisable figure standing in the very room they're in, it looked to be another mobian one with a similar physique to Amy.

"So you've managed to survive my horde in the city" A distorted voice says, he then proceeds to clap as if he's just enjoyed a satisfying performance at a theatre, "It's unfortunate to see the mercenaries I hired fighting with the very people I hired them to eliminate. You could have been rich, you could have used that money to retire, live on an island, buy an exotic pet. But you failed to follow through on your task, to satisfy your own client"

Winter crosses his arms as the message continues to play on the screen. Sonic and Shadow move closer so they can have a better time hearing what this mystery stranger had to say.

"I'm going to admit something, I've got issues, one of a kind ones at that. Say for example, a fly lands in my tea, the tea is then no good... Instead of getting a new cup, I took my cleanliness complaints to the manager and when he didn't listen, well... Let's just say I felt rather... Violent"

Amy and Tails shift a little as they continue to listen to the messages, Summer and Spring, meanwhile are as still as stone.

"When things don't go my way, I get violent. It's something I've come to understand about myself... So naturally, when you failed to complete the job I hired you to do, I was rather livid... And of course, violent"

A hissing sound makes everyone turn around, it appeared that the cabinets with the mysterious robots inside were opening, their red eyes turning on as they come to life.

"Oh fuck..." Summer goes seeing just how much danger they were all in now.

"So naturally, I'm going to want you dead for failing to complete the job I assigned you to do, which is fair enough if you ask me... My friends behind you will make sure you meet a swift end, don't worry... It shall be painless... Enough"

A malevolent chuckle follows and then the screen shuts off, the mysterious client. Winter came prepared this time, equipped with two laser knives, Summer readies his laser blaster aiming it at the two robots as they emerge from their case, the robots speak in garbled mechanical chatter as they analyze their targets and prepare to attack them, they open their arms and show their mechanical claws

"It's just two robots, you guys are freaking out over nothing" Knuckles says, slamming his fists together.

That being far from the truth was an understatement, both robots fly at Knuckles so fast they're practically a blur, the first one hits him in the jaw, the second one delivers a crushing blow to his lower chest making the echidna gasp for air.

Knuckles crumbles to his knees, clenching his wound tightly, it felt like he'd just been burned by lava, Sonic dashes over and pulls Knuckles back.

"You had to say something" Sonic goes, crossing his arms.

"Ngh, shut it-" Knuckles wheezes.

Winter and Autumn jump in and attack the robots, Spring follows with her staff and together the three of them do their best to fend off the incoming robots. Winter takes a series of swings, all of which the machines effortlessly avoid, as if they could track his movements. However with Autumn and Spring also fighting alongside him, the robots do take a few blows. Spring gets her staff out and starts taking swings while Autumn uses a laser knife to try and damage them. Winter slices a hole in on me of them, spins around and severs the machines left leg, Amy jumps and smashes it with her hammer finishing it off.

Tails wanting in on the action, pulls his blaster from his back and fires several shots at the machines, the laser rounds don't seem to do much but when one of the laser bolts strikes the robots camera lens, the robot zeros in on him and launches itself towards him. He narrowly avoids being struck in the face, the metal fist inches from his nose.

With a twist of his body and the hardening of the muscles in his tails, he throws the robot into the shelf knocking over all the chemicals on it, Tails turns the intensity up on the blaster and fires again at the murderous machine, this time holes were made in it's exterior some of which even go threw it's metallic figure. Sonic finishes it off by spin dashing into it smashing it into pieces, when he stands back up he looks at the others.

"Well that was easier that I thought" Sonic says.

Suddenly without warning the doors to the room slam shut and lock, the computer screen turns on again displaying a count down for 2 minutes.

"Fuck" Winter says, as he looks for anyway to escape the room, Autumn and Summer join him while Spring fumbles around in with the innards of the machines they destroyed, looking for anything that could help their investigation proceed.

"Easy huh?!" Tails says, crossing his arms.

"Shut up, it's not like I knew this was going to happen!" Sonic shouts.

"Hey idiots! Now is not the time to be doing thisn!" Winter shouts, annoyed with their bickering.

Tails notices a faint hissing sound coming from the vents, a foul smelling gas. Amy shouts and looks at her arm, it looked like her skin was sort of melting, Knuckles pulls her away from the vent above her head as she groans in agony.

Summer's eyes go wide when he sees what's happened to Amy, he snarls and cranks up the power on his laser rifle to the maximum.

"Winter move!"

Winter sees him ready to fire and rolls out of the way, Summer fires a laser bolt so big and so powerful it makes a dent in the door, he looks at the battery charge on the rifle... 74%

He fires again, the dent in the door becomes bigger, a hole starts to form... 37%...

A third shot, there's now a sizable hole enough for them to squeeze through, so they start to go threw it one by one, they make haste running up the rickety rusting steps in a mad dash to get to the top and exit the building, Knuckles carrying Amy on his back...

30 seconds left on the clock...

"Gah! We're not gonna make it!" Winter shouts, he grabs Sonic and Autumn by the wrists and spins his tails flying upwards.

Tails seeing Winter do that, grabs hold of Knuckles and Summer, Spring grabs Summer's arm as Tails begin to fly up. Knuckles slings Amy over his shoulder as they both fly up with all their might...

5...

4...

3...

2...

1...

The lab errupts into a fireball, the whole building shakes as Winter and Tails continue flying up. Despite the explosion causing dust and debris to fall on them as they carried their friends to safety the two make it to the top with their friendsjust as the building starts to crumble. The sound of old metal groaning, concrete cracking and crumbling, fire crackling... It looked like something out of an intense action movie.

As they run to the exit a large steal beam with plenty of concrete attached to it begins to fall and it looks like it's going to land in front of the entrance. Summer takes aim and fires his blaster and max power incinerating the hazardous object, which threw debris every which way.

No more time is wasted as they all run out of the crumbling building, the first out is Sonic, then Winter and Tails... Summer and Spring, Autumn jumps and dodges making it out behind her two siblings... And just as a heavy chunk of concrete collapsed, Knuckles, with Amy still slung over his shoulder.

As the giant building crumbles in front of them, they shield their faces. Knuckles shields the injured Amy with his left arm and his eyes with his right...

They breathe a sigh of relief, until they realise...

"Whoa! Hang on a second, where's Sha-"

An explosion of dust suddenly cuts Sonic off as he asks the question out loud, it's Shadow his skin steaming from the corrosive gas, he lands in front of everyone holding none other... Than a chaos emerald, a purple one.

"Dude you scared me, I thought you got crushed under all that rubble" Sonic says, a hand on his side as he glares at his rival.

Shadow growls and walks past the group, everyone on Team Sonic removes their breathers as the watch Shadow walk off.

"Where are you going?!" Sonic shouts.

"Take a guess" Shadow says, in a flash he's gone.

Sonic sighs and turns around jogging over to Knuckle's who's gently laying Amy down on the ground.

"Amy, are you okay?" He asks.

"Gah... No..." She moans, "It feels like everything hurts" She moans.

Knuckles applies some antiseptic to her arm, the stinging sensation is so bad she starts screaming and he has to hold her down to keep her from flailing out on her.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" She shrieks.

Sonic takes her hand and she squeezes it tightly, Amy's pained eyes looking up at the blue blur as he looked down at her with scared eyes, the uncertainty if she'd ever be able to use her arm again knawing away at Sonic's mind... Still he doesn't leave her side, holding her good hand tightly.

"You'll make it through this... I know you can do it Ames"

Amy chuckles weakly managing a weak grin, "Thank you Sonic"

Sonic manages to smile back as they both continue to apply aid to her wounds.

Winter sighs, feeling guilty somewhat. If he had just gone through with the mission they were given, if they had just done the job they were payed to do... She wouldn't be suffering right now...

NO!... She'd be dead. That's worse...

Spring taps him on the shoulder, he looks at her and sees her holding what looks to be a mechanical heart.

"What the-"

"¿Lo sé... soy un genio? I managed to snatch one of their hearts before the room exploded" Spring says, somewhat excited.

"Oh... Is that so?... Good job I guess" Winter says back to her, wondering if thats the response she wanted.

"De nada, hermano. I bet there's a ton of data on this that may help track down whoever that psycho is" Spring says as she examines it for traps.

"You do that I guess" Winter responds.

"I will..." Spring says, she turns and walks off to tell Autumn and Summer about her what she got.

Winter sighs and turns around so he can go back to being lost in thought, but standing there looking into his eyes is Tails, he can tell he's interested in making conversation, he wants to join in. But he has and act he needs to play in order for him to not suspect his identity.

"What, fox" Winter says, crossing his arms.

"I just wanted to say, I think we made a great team carrying everyone out of there like that" Tails says, rubbing his arm.

"We're not a team, and I'm not your friend" Winter responds, intentionally trying to be cold hearted so he'd leave him be.

"I know you don't wanna be my friend. We're technically forcing you to help us so yeah you've got every reason to be annoyed"

"Who said it was about that?" Winter responds, looking away from the fox.

"Well that's what I thought-" Tails starts.

"You see that's the problem, you thought that was why. Me and you? We're not alike, we never will be... Cut the bullshit and stick to your own affairs" Winter says, then he turns and walks off.

Tails opens his mouth to speak, but he chokes on his words. This stranger, he wanted to connect with him, he wanted him to be an ally, not an enemy, someone to rely on, someone to trust. He wasn't going to give up though... He knew that for sure.

---

The two groups go their separate ways. And eventually so do the members of The Four Seasons. Winter gets off the bus and starts walking home, the guilt from what he said to Tails earlier eating at his chest.

...Me and you? We're not alike, never will be...

"What the fuck is wrong with me?" He says to himself as he carrys a bag full of meat from the butcher that he picked up earlier on his way home.

The wolf turns the corner and sees a familiar sun coloured figure sitting in front of the front door to his house, shivering quite a lot. Winter stares for a second, not believing what he was seeing... Tails, sitting in front of his home like an abandoned puppy, rubbing his hands together to keep them warm.

"T-Tails?!" He says, shocked to see him sitting in front of his door step in such cold weather.

Tails sees Winter and manages a tired smile, his namesake wag gently as he lays his eyes on his favourite person in the whole world, "Hey Wolfy"

"Tails what are you doing sitting out here in the cold?! You don't have fur like mine! You'll get sick!" Winter says, audibly concerned about his health.

"Pffft, this is nothing I've survived Henley Mountain and it's not nearly as cold as it is over there" The fox brags, then as if fate willed it, a stream of snot leaks from his nose.

Winter gently karate chops him on the forehead making him flinch, "H-Hey!" The fox whimpers.

"Stay at the train station next time" Winter says, setting the bag of meat down next to him and leveling his eyes with his, "Actually better idea..."

Winter takes his right hand and drags him to the door, tapping a few buttons on the screen next to the bio lock. He takes the glove off his hand and scans it on the pad.

"New user handprint successfully saved and added" A computerized voice announces.

Tails gasps quietly and looks at Winter as he lets go of his hand and picks up the bag of meat on the floor, the wolf opens the door and puts the bag of meat inside before turning to Tails who was still frozen from surprise. Winter turns to him and sees him standing there with sparkling eyes.

"...Are you gonna come I-"

Tails throws himself at Winter, the wolf to fall backwards onto the floor as Tails squeezes him tightly. Winter groans and sits up, Tails' namesakes are wagging faster now, he was happy and Winter could see it all over his face.

"Heh heh, is someone happy now that he can come into my home now?" Winter says, messaging his face as Tails plants his head in his hands.

"Mhm" Tails goes, smiling like a happy child, his blush becoming more intense, "I feel like I have another home now... Thank you"

"Anything for you foxy" Winter responds, pulling him in for a hug, which Tails gladly reciprocates.

"Wanna watch some cheesy Christmas movies and drink hot chocolate all night?" Winter asks.

Tails kisses Winter on the face and touchs noses with him, "Definitely"

And so, they spend a chilly night together, holding hands while watching cony Christmas movies, the hot chocolate they drank may have been hot, but Tails' heart was even hotter.