When morning swung around in the city of New York, the first thing Sonic did was jump off the couch and go straight to his phone. He looked on social media, curious to see what the buzz of that day would be and sure enough he found it...

"Two dead after mysterious killer breaks into Mount Sianai hospital and threatens to murder hospital patient... What the..."

Sonic reads the entire article. By the time he's done, Tails is up and shuffling his way down the steps while wiping his eyes.

"Morning Tails!" Sonic greets.

"Mmmm, morning..." The fox grumbles.

"Hey did you hear about this psychopath who broke into a hospital and killed two people?"

"Nope... I'm literally just hearing it from you" Tails responds, he opens the fridge and pulls out the orange juice, then he closes it.

"... Well the guy threatened to kill that grump I knocked off the stage a few nights ago. Says he doesn't want anyone talking "shit" about me and he's saying you did it. Pffft, like you're capable of murder"

Tails lets out a dry chuckle, "Yeah"

"So what's on the agenda?" Sonic asks.

"The city at night. It's one of the last few things I want to document before we return to our world. I also read that New York is the city that never sleeps... So I wanna see if that's true" Tails says.

"That sounds cool! But uh, it's 8:28 in the morning... What are we gonna do the whole day?" Sonic asks.

Tails almost immediately gets an idea, "Hair Gel!"

Sonic is baffled by what the fox suggested, "Hair gel? As in the stuff humans put in their hair to make it look more swanky and cool?"

"Mhm! But we have fur!"

"I have have quills... And fur..."

"O-Oh right"

Tails gets a black bag from a cabinet and shows it to Sonic. Inside there's a whole lot of hair gel, bottles of the stuff. Sonic is takes one of the bottles and takes a sniff of the liquid, it pleases his nostrils so he takes a few more.

"Whoa, that smells good" Sonic says with a satisfied smile.

"Um... Ok..." Tails says, the fox is bewildered by Sonic's odd behaviour.

"Let's have some fun!" Sonic shouts, jumping up excitedly.

Tails face flushes a bit, it was always Sonic's enthusiasm that he loved the most.

"Yeah..."

Tails and Sonic spent all day playing around with eachothers fur, Sonic took selfies with himself and Tails in various hairstyles. They laugh and play around all day until the sun finally sets. Tails, who's sporting a curly windswept hair type of hairstyle at the moment, is looking down at his phone. There's is a hairstyle he really wants to try with Sonic, he looks down at the phone and sees a man with a very suave, somewhat formal hairdo, all of his hair slicked back with a small little curl in the front.

Both of them are sitting on the bed, Sonic laughs, "Well, what are ya waiting for?"

"N-Nothing" Tails responds, then he stretches his fingers out and prepares to run them through Sonics head of quills and fur.

Tails spends the next few minutes carefully crafting the hairdo, Sonic takes a few videos for Instagram while he lets Tails fix up his head. When he's done, Tails crawls back to admire his work, he holds up the picture of the man next to Sonic and looks between the two, they both look almost the same.

Tails heart starts to beat faster, the blue blur suddenly looked more handsome to him, more charming, his hear was pounding like it had never done so before. Sonic poses for an Instagram post and takes a selfie for him to post.

"Dang Tails! You're good at this!" Sonic says, genuinely impressed at how much more attractive he looked.

"Y-Yeah... I guess I am" Tails says, looking away from Sonic as he posed for the many selfies he'd take, then out of no where takes one with him and Tails as the small fox looks down at the floor, when Tails realises what he did he looks up at Sonic annoyed with what he did.

"Hey!"

"Sorry pal! You looked so adorable though!"

His face becomes a cherry, "I-Im not cute!..."

"SUUUUUURRRRRREEEEE"

Tails squeezes his fists as Sonic laughs and posts the picture. He sighs and shields his face in embarrassment, the remark did leave a tender flame burning in his chest however, the flames of passion.

"So how do I look?" Sonic asks, playing around with the curl hanging above his forehead.

Tails is caught off guard by the question. He needs to choose his words carefully in order to keep Sonic from figuring out his feelings for him...

"Cool" He blurts out.

Sonic is perplexed by his friends answer, he expected a more exciting answer from Tails, the hedgehog raises his eye brow and looks at him still puzzled by he awkward response. Meanwhile, Tails absolutely feels like he wants to die because of how thorny the situation had become.

"Cool... That's it? I expect something more on the nerdy side... Are you okay?"

"I'm alright. Don't worry about it..." Tails answers sheepishly.

Sonic doesn't bother trying to force it out of Tails and moves on, "If you think it looks cool... Are you sure you're alright?..."

The hedgehog tries to keep a smile on his face, but it's hard knowing that Tails is keeping something bottled up inside of him, but what he worried about the most was his personality change. Tails was always excited and ready for anything, but whenever he interacted with Sonic things sometimes would get awkward, it made Sonic antsy just thinking about the secret his little brother was hiding from him.

"S-Sonic..."

"It's fine Tails... It's okay, really"

"It doesn't seem that way-"

"Well it's fine... Relax"

Out of panic, Tails grabs Sonic's hand. The sudden act takes Sonic by surprise and makes him flinch a little. He can feel how warm his hand is in his, Sonic looks up at Tails, the tips of his ears are pink and he's blushing like crazy, doing his best to hide his crimson filled face from Sonic's green eyes.

"I'm sorry... I don't whats happening to me... I'm confused, I'm scared, I'm jumpy. Please, don't worry so much about me" Tails says, his chest feels heavy, it's hard to breathe.

Sonic feels him squeeze tighter, that's when it clicks in his head... 'Does he have a crush on someone? Who does he like so much he's so scared to tell?'

He doesn't feel like it's a good time at the moment to ask Tails that question however. In the state he's in somethings bound to make the little fox lose his composure even more.

"Whaddya say we just take it easy until it's time to head out?"

Tails nods reluctantly, Sonic puts his other hand on his head and messages it gently. Tails slowly starts to relax as Sonic continues to run his hand on his head gently.

"That's it... Calm down"

Tails can feel his chest easing up, it's easier to breathe now. Sonic's touch was always going to calm him down, it was relaxing, made him come back to reality. Tails releases his hand after a moment of Sonic soothing his head with the message.

---

By the time Tails was feeling back to his regular self, night time had already fallen upon New York. The dark cloudy sky made for quite the mood that night, the city lights setting the mood for a night of exploring.

"They have taverns here" Sonic says pointing at a bar full of humans laughing and drinking together inside.

"That's a bar Sonic" Tails says looking down at his phone.

"Oh... Right" Sonic says.

The hedgehog takes a selfie of him by the bar and posts it on Twitter and Instagram, when the likes start flowing in Sonic does a happy little dance. Sonic wants to go inside the bar but Tails stops him.

"Remember the last time we had alcohol"

Sonic pauses and reconsiders, "Yeah you're right-"

Tails takes his arm and pulls him away from the bar, knowing him he would try and go inside and possibly get himself wasted again. Sonic watches the humans inside laugh themselves to death as they get drunk and socialize with each other, he wished he could join them. Tails takes some pictures on a small camera he brought with him. Sonic looks around and sees all the couple's holding hands, all the children playing around, it was peaceful and that's how he liked it.

His thoughts are interrupted however when he hears a scream, his ear perks up and he dashes away from Tails.

"Hey! Where are you going?!" Tails shouts.

Sonic runs for a bit before coming up on a dark alleyway. He takes a peak and sees a woman with curly brown hair struggling to keep a taller more sturdy man with messy hair and unkept clothes from touching her, a psychotically passionate smile is on his face.

A smirk grows on the hedgehogs face, it's a perfect opportunity to show his social media that he's real and that he's out there, he gets his phone and starts recording just as Tails arrives behind him, "Check this!"

He runs forwards and throws himself into the man knocking him quite the distance away from the woman.

The young woman gasps as she see takes a glimpse at Sonic, he's familiar to her but she can't put her finger on it. The man growls and gets back up from the pile of rubbish Sonic tackled him into.

"You little blue cocksucker!"

Tails feels his hands clenche his camera tightly, you can hear the sound of the plastic covering creaking and cracking. Sonic laughs the insult off, "Yeah I'm little and blue!... But I'm probably not that last thing"

The man then pulls out a black object from his coat, it's a gun and he's pointing it at Sonic. Sonic yawns as if he's at a boring birthday party, the man pulls the trigger and the bullet flies towards him. Sonic dodges it and runs at the man jumping towards him and slamming his red shoes into his face knocking him over and making him drop his gun. When the agitated man gets back up, Sonic slams into his back forcing him to drop the gun, it's slides forwards and stops in front of Tails who looks down at it.

"You guys seeing this?!" Sonic shouts talking to his followers.

The man pulls out a knife, Sonic jumps up and spin dashes into him knocking him into a puddle of water, he drops his knife and lays there groaning. The curly haired girl stands there recording Sonic's heroics, when the man is down she squeals excitedly because she realises who just saved her.

"You're Sonic The Hedgehog! No way this is happening!" She says excitedly.

"That's right!" Sonic says proudly.

The woman reaches out and plays around with Sonic's ears, "Wow, they feel so real"

"Lady, I am the real deal" Sonic responds.

She raises an eyebrow and smiles, "I'll take your word on that! Oh! I have a ton of friends that love Sonic The Hedgehog! They'll definitely wanna meet you!"

"Oh fan meetup? Sounds awesome"

"You could call it that!"

"I'm down! Let's go!"

Sonic and the lady take a selfie with the moody criminal, then he leaps onto the woman's shoulder and lets her walk him out of the alleyway to the street. Once they're out of sight, Tails looks back at the grumbling robber and picks up the pistol he dropped on the floor. He takes a moment to examine it, he picks up a plastic bottle and cuts off the bottom part with a small laser cutter.

The man looks up at Tails and when he sees what he's doing he starts to try and stand up so he can make a run for it, the fox attaches the top of the bottle to the barrel of the gun and checks the magazine before loading the first bullet into the chamber.

"Whoa! Wait kid! Let's talk about this!"

Tails looks up at him, his eyes are as cold and empty as the Arctic, he looks tired yet the fury is still boiling inside of him.

"What did you just call my brother earlier?" Tails asks.

"W-What? I don't what your talking about you little psycho!"

"Since you have a foul mouth and you want to use it to call people shit you shouldn't be calling them, I'm gonna correct you... My way"

He points the gun at the man who's heart is beating louder and harder as if it's begging Tails to spare his life. Meanwhile, in Tails heart there's nothing, not a single ounce of mercy, regret, worry, nothing but a blank and somewhat chilling expression on his face.

"No! I'm sorry ple-"

Tails squeezes the trigger, there's muffled boom sound, tears stream down the mans face as he collapses to the floor, blood oozing out of his chest onto the damp floor below. He looks up at the barrel of what used to be his weapon while Tails still looks down with the same ice cold look on his face.

"Please! I'm sorry! I got a family man, c-cmon p-please"

"Do I give a shit?"

He shoots him again but this time in the back... The man gasps for air as Tails turns around and walks away from him. Ripping off the plastic bottle and tossing it away, he puts the gun in his bag and looks back one more time as the man, in agonising pain, wheezes and tries to call out for help. Tails turns the corner and takes a handkerchief from his back, using it to wipe the blood off his face.

Now that the fox was done with that he had to find Sonic. He searched all over the area for him until he spots a gathering in the bar they passed not too long ago. He peaks through a window and makes out Sonic's hand holding a glass of beer.

"No no no no no..." Tail says to himself.

He goes into the bar, it's loud and everyone is cheering as Sonic regails a tail of him and Tail's destroying a space station Eggman built about a year ago, the crowed of humans was sitting there listening intently to and recording Sonic on their smartphones.

"... Now Tails!... Oh boy, he's scared out if his mind because he's all chained up to the wall and has this huge laser pointed at his face. So I come in.... Swoosh! He's no longer in danger of being turned into ash. I mean don't get me wrong-"

Sonic takes a few gulps of beer and slams the glass on the table, taking a gasp afterwards, "-But Tails can be a bit of an airhead sometimes"

The crowd has a moment to laugh at Sonic's stories and then he continues again as Tails pushes his way through the crowd, the forest of legs in front of him, around him and behind him.

"Oh and then Eggman one time created a giant device that was supposed to suck up all the water on the planet... And all I had to do was flip a switch and the entire thing stopped working" Sonic says.

The crowd errupts into laughter yet again.

"Like, you may be a pretty smart scientist. But adding that switch there sure wasn't the smartest idea you've ever had Egghead!"

The laughing continues as Tails finally make his way on top of the wooden bar table where people's drinks are. Some of the cameras point to Tails who dashes over to Sonic and takes him by the arm taking the blue blur by surprise.

"Remember the last time we had alcohol! Why are you drinking more?!" Tails shouts.

"C'mon Tails, this is my first glass!"

"I told you, no alcohol! Come on! We're leaving!"

"Hey is that Tails?!" Someone shouts.

"Yep! That's my little bro..." Sonic responds, with a lazy chuckle.

Tails can feel how warm Sonic's body is, his concern starts to heighten when he realises is tipsy, yet again. Meanwhile, the crowds attention turns to Tails who's still trying to get Sonic to walk with him, the fox can feel their excited stares on him as he continues to try and walk him out of the bar.

He feels something on his head, a hand from a young looking man, "He's so soft"

Tails grumbles and keeps walking, but other hands begin to come at him, patting him all over his body, it makes him uncomfortable but he's more focused on getting Sonic out of the bar.

"Are you done?" Tails growls, starting to grow annoyed of the constant patting and touching.

"Mmmmh... Did I ever tell you me and Tails did it once. Mmm, it was an experience like no other-"

Tails face turns into a peach, he couldn't believe Sonic just said that out in front of a whole crowd.

"Wait?! What?!" One of the bar goers shouts.

"He's gay?!" A girl shouts.

"No, I'm not gay! He's drunk!" Tails shouts trying to defend himself.

"Oooooooo..." The whole crowd goes as Tails aggressively pulls Sonic out of the bar. The crowd starts to converse discussing what Sonic and Tails could have possibly been doing.

"Whoa, easy there pal..." Sonic says.

"Shut up!" Tails snaps.

Sonic just laughs as Tails drags him out the door into the street. Once they're clear of the rowdy bar. He takes a syringe from his bag and sticks Sonic with it.

"Ow! Hey!" Sonic shouts.

The hedgehogs head starts to clear up, when he comes to his senses he looks over at Tails who's winding his hand back, it collides with his face throwing Sonic backwards onto the street.

"What did I do now?!"

"You told an entire group of people what we did! Now they're talking about it in the bar!" Tails shouts, face as pink as a peach.

Sonic's eyes go wide and he quickly scurries to his feet, "Tails... I'm sorry..."

Tails screams and paces around rubbing his hands through the fur on his head, he is upset but he can't bring himself to hate Sonic or get too upset with him for his blunder, so he just hugs him tightly, Sonic expected something worse but he couldn't argue that a hug was the one thing his companion needed at the moment.

"Sorry for slapping you..."

"I kinda deserved it anyway, I got myself drunk again"

Tails lets go and laughs dryly.

"What did you poke me with?" Sonic asks.

"A combination of chemicals that expels the harmful chemicals in your bloodstream and in your liver. I developed it after what we did that night to prevent it from happening again" Tails explains, showing Sonic the syringe.

"You'll come up with a solution no matter how hard it is to solve, that's one thing I really like about you pal"

"Yeah, thanks..." Tails replies, blushing a little.

Then Sonic gets an idea, he scoops up Tails in his arms holding him like a bride.

"Hey!"

Sonic winks at him and starts running, a few minutes later he's on top of the Queensboro Bridge with Tails.

Tails sees they are at the top of one of the bridge's towers. Sonic takes a few pictures of the breathtaking view and one with him and Tails shoulder to shoulder smiling like happy children, he types...

Going back home soon, I'll miss you all! 💙🧡💙

He posts the picture and then looks over at Tails who's amazed by the view. The night sky made for a relaxing atmosphere, the sound of the vehicles passing below them was somewhat more calming then it usually was, the night sky was nothing short of a vibe.

"I hope we get to do something like this again sometime soon" Sonic says watching the city lights.

Tails looks at him for a moment and then back at the view of Manhattan in front of them. He couldn't agree more, "Yeah... I hope so too"

The two sit there gazing at the massive city in front of them, the different lights and sounds made for a somewhat calming mood. Tails looks and sees Sonic is really into the view, he can't help but bring his camera out and take a picture of Sonic enjoying the view, the hedgehog notices but doesn't mind.

It takes a moment for him to notice, but Tails sees a helicopter flying towards them, at first he thinks it's just a tour helicopter, something him and Sonic wanted to do but never got the chance to, but then he sees something sticking out on the side... Ballistic rockets.

"What's wrong?"

A bright light suddenly shines on the two, Sonic looks up at the helicopter. His heartbeat jumps when he realises that the humans spotted them.

"Hands up in the air! Now!" A voice shouts over the loudspeaker.

Another helicopter approaches from behind them, and then two more from both sides, they're surrounded.

"We need to get out of here... Now!" Tails says to Sonic.

Sonic seeing no other option, he grabs Tails by the hand and runs down a support beam. When they get to the road there are Humvees on the road, soldiers dressed in uniform opening fire on them, Sonic takes off still holding on to Tails. Coming towards him is a small convoy of Humvees, Sonic immediately banks right and jumps over traffic and off the bridge.

"Who are they!?" Sonic shouts.

"The military! They're here to take us I bet!" Tails shouts back.

Tails grabs both his hands and starts spinning his appendages. The two make a somewhat graceful landing on the balcony of a flat, Sonic dashes over and pulls the door open and runs in with Tails, he slams it shut and closes the curtains. The two lean on the door for a second out if breath, their little hearts beating a million miles per hour.

"I think it's time to go home" Sonic says still huffing and puffing.

"Couldn't agree more!" Tails adds.

Sonic opens the door to the apartment and looks both ways. Nothing but fancy wallpaper, a bugandy rug and a table with a vase. He signals to Tails that it's clear for them to come out.

"So what's the plan?" Sonic asks.

"We need to get to the subway. Maybe we can lose them in the tunnels, it's risky but it's worth a shot" Tails suggests.

There's the sound of glass shattering. Sonic looks behind him and sees the shadowy figures of soldiers landing on the balcony of the flat.

He takes Tails by the hand and dashes down the steps with him. When they reach the ground floor, Sonic immediately runs to the station with Tails in his arms, when they get there they're greeted by a row of escalators and two lifts on opposite walls, Tails sees a metal door and runs over to it using a small lock pick to unlock the door.

"This way!" Tails shouts, opening the door to an access stairway.

Sonic runs in with him and closes the door. They find themselves in a damp room with eroding concrete everywhere they looked, the musty smell was making Sonic nauseous but he did his best to try and stomach it.

Tails looks down the staircase, it's dark and barely lit. Tails takes a flashlight and turns it on from his bag and starts going down the steps with Sonic in tow.

"What do you think they'll do if they catch us?" Sonic asks.

"Probably experiment on us like lab rats, which is why we need to avoid being seen right now" Tails says, he clenches the flashlight a but because of how uneasy he is.

The two continue down the steps until they reach another door. Tails opens it and looks in, a gust of air hits his face as he steps further inside. It's a dark, barely lit subway tunnel. Sonic sees the graffiti on the wall opposite and looks around, the signal is displaying a red aspect which indicated a train had passed by not too long ago. Tails hears chatter from behind them.

"They definitely went down here! Let's go! Let's go!"

Tails and Sonic run through the door and Sonic shuts it. Tails uses his laser blaster to weld the door shut so the soldiers couldn't open it.

"That should buy us some time"

"I hope your right! Come on this way!" Sonic says, him and Tails jog through the tunnels as the soldiers pound on the metal access door behind them trying to get it open.

As they jog through the dark tunnels, Tails grabs a device from his bag and starts fiddling around with it.

"What's that?"

"Radio jammer, they're probably gonna try and shut down subway service so it's easier to catch us. This will prevent their messages from going through!"

"Good going!" Sonic says.

The two high five and continue to run through the tunnels until they come across a stopped subway train, there's a muffled explosion and then they see soldiers dashing towards them. Sonic jumps on the back of the train and extends his hand to Tails who grabs it just as the train starts moving. In the distance they can see soldiers running towards them, the men get smaller and smaller as the train continues to accelerate.

Sonic mocks them by waving goodbye, Tails just breathes a sigh of relief.

"This is squad 89! We need to shut down all subway service in the Queens area! We have unidentified critters roaming the tracks!" The team leader shouts.

All he can hear is static, "This is squad 89! Do you copy?!"

He still has static thanks to Tails radio jammer, "Damn it!"

Sonic kicks the door in so the two can go into the train cab. Once they're both inside Tails closes the door behind them and the two slump down on the walls and take a moment to recover their energy. Light from the tunnel lights occasionally but briefly fills the cab as the train continues down the track. The train makes a sharp turn filling their ears with the sound of flange, Sonic yawns and then falls asleep in the corner.

Tails climbs onto the drivers seat and looks out the window watching the underground sights as the train yet again rolls over a set of points. His eyes start to close as well so he leans back on the seat and let's his eyes close as the train continues to fly through the tunnels.

He dreams of Sonic and him in a sweet forest back on Mobius, the trees are lush and green like his eyes and he has a devilishly handsome grin on his face, he extends his hand to Tails and he takes it.

"We'll be together... Forever..."

"Yeah... Forever..."

The dream makes him smile a peaceful, happy kind of smile. He's at ease, he can relax, he can rest easy when Sonic's not driving him up the wall... As much as Sonic's habits annoyed him... He didn't care. His blissful dream however was interrupted by Sonic shaking him to wake him up.

"Tails! Wake up!"

"Huh? What's wrong?"

"We're almost at our stop!"

"Oh! Right!"

When the train arrives at Forest Hills, Sonic runs off the train, out of the station and straight back to the house. Once they're inside, Tails and Sonic run around packing all of their souvenirs and whatever else they felt like taking. While they're packing, they see Humvees passing the block checking to see if there was any sign of them.

Sonic checks social media one last time and sees all the goodbyes everyone sent him and Tails, to see people care made him feel a little emotional but he knew it wasn't the time to feel so at that very moment.

Once Tails organises everything he gets the device ready so they can return to Mobius, he's typing furiously doing his best as Sonic looks out the windows and watches as another military vehicles makes another pass around their block.

Tails finally manages to locate their universe and opens a portal, the light from the portal opens is noticeable and a Humvee that's passing by almost immediately pulls up in front of the house. Sonic looks back at Tails with a worried look on his face.

"Tails! They're here!"

"Hurry, get as much of our stuff as you can!"

Across the portal Shadow is walking into the room holding a box of parts for Tails. When he sees Sonic and him panicking he runs over.

"What have idiots done this time?" Shadow growls.

"We'll explain later! Just help us get all this stuff over to your side!" Tails shouts.

Knuckles comes inside holding a milkshake, when he sees Sonic handing Shadow a box of Tails documents he runs over, "Sonic!"

"Knux! We need your help! Jump over here!" Sonic shouts.

Knuckles puts the milkshake on Tails workbench and runs threw the portal and stops to look around at the world around him, "Whoa"

"Not the time Knuckles! We have a problem!" Tails says.

Red electricity surges around Knuckles fists, a smirk appears on his face. He can't wait to beat the living crap out of whatever was threatening Sonic and Tails. Soon the soldiers make it inside, Knuckles jumps at them and delivers a punch so hard it sends the team leader flying backwards into a wall, the soldiers start opening fire on him but he's too fast for them to hit, he jumps around smashing their skulls in, caving in their rib cages and breaking their backs.

He lands on one female soldier and headbutts her, she stumbles backwards as he jumps off and lands on the table. The last soldier tries using a knife but Knuckles grabs his arm, snaps his bones and delivers a chilling uppercut to his face knocking him to the ground.

Meanwhile upstairs, Blaze and Silver run threw the portal to assist Knuckles in defending their companions, Amy, Cream, and Espio help bring the boxes full of Tails and Sonic's stuff into Mobius. Their teamwork helps things go faster and as they start to finish up bringing all the stuff a huge amount of soldiers arrives.

"You guys better hurry!" Knuckles shouts from downstairs.

Silver uses his psychokinesis to break off a large section of another house and he rains the pieces down on the soldiers who start screaming for their lives as the debris falls on them. Blaze creates a literal line of fire to prevent any unwanted humans from getting close to the house. Knuckles punches a soldiers lungs inwards and lets out a triumphant battle cry.

"Guys! We're done!" Tails shouts from a window.

The three run back inside the house, the fire department arrives and immediately sprays water onto the line of fire so the soldiers could storm the building. The three Mobians get upstairs and run through the safety of the portal, Sonic and Tails suddenly follow behind him, however Tails drops something on the Earth side of the portal.

Sonic sees and runs back through the glowing portal to Earth.

"Sonic! What are you doing?!" Silver shouts.

The hedgehog sees Tails diary on the ground and picks it up as soldiers run into the bedroom opening fire, Sonic spin dashes into them sending them falling backwards like dominoes then he makes a sprint for the portal which is losing its structure and is beginning to close. His heart is aching, pounding with nervousness as he gets closer and closer then he jumps through... He makes it just as the portal closes up, skidding onto the floor in front of Tails who sees he dropped his diary.

Sonic groans and looks up at him with a relieved grin on his face, everyone cheers as Tails takes the diary from him as the others cheer the return of their friends. Tails is relieved too and smiles at Sonic. As sweet as it is however the moment grows dire, and quickly... Sonic sees blood on his fur, on the left side of his stomach is in excruciating pain, he wonders where it's coming from then he gasps and rolls over... He's been shot.

Tails smile turns into a desperate frown as Sonic groans and starts shake.

"Sonic!" Amy screams.

"Ngh, It's fine Ames... I'll be... Fine"

The hedgehogs hand drops and he passes out on the floor, the others begin to get desperate as Tails runs to the closet and gets an aid kit from there.

"Get a stretcher! Hurry!" Amy shouts.

Shadow and Blaze run off to get the stretcher, Cream and Espio run off to get some medicine, Silver stays with Tails to help him remove the bullet from Sonic's stomach.

"Why... Why is this happening... Is this my fault?"

"No! It was accident! It's not your fault!" Silver shouts, upset that Tails believed so.

"If you say so..."

Sonic's injuries ended up being minor which was a relief to the others. However he wouldn't be able to run for a while until he made a full recovery and judging by Tails calculations it was going to be months before he'd be seen in action again.

The fox sits in a chair by Sonic's bedside as he lays there with an oxygen mask covering his face. Tails takes his ungloved hand and holds it tightly, he just wanted this nightmare to be over, but at least he was happy Sonic had the guts to save his diary so he did his best to put on a smile and he looked down at the sleeping blue hedgehog and tries to fight back the tears pouring down his face.

"Thank you... Thank you so much..."