The sound of an alarm clock wakes Winter up and he wipes his eyes, he look to his left and sees Nine didn't let himself out and was still laying there sleeping peacefully. He smiles and kisses his cheek before jumping out of bed so he can brush his teeth and brush his fur.

When he gets to the lavatory he goes in and turns on the light. He picks up his toothbrush and squirts the toothpaste on it, before he puts the brush in his mouth he hears the door close behind him so he turn around.

Standing there, with soulless eyes and a displeased expression on his face is Tails. Winter knows who he is and knows that he needs to tred carefully, he reaches into cabinet below the sink, so Tails in response aims his blaster at him.

"Move your fucking hand" The fox says with a threatening aura.

Winter reluctantly complies, putting both his hands on the sink, he sighs shakily and looks into Tails' emotionless eyes, nothing but a blizzard, impossible to read.

"What do you want?" Winter asks.

"Who the fuck are you?" Tails asks almost immediately.

"W-What?" Winter responds, completely thrown off by the question.

Tails smacks Winter in the face with the blaster and he falls ontop of the toilet, "Do I look like I'm in the mood for your act?!"

"I don't know what you want!" Winter shouts.

Tails grabs him by the hair and presses the blaster on his head, "Who the fuck are you?! What are you planning on doing to Nine?!"

Winter grunts as Tails pulls on his long curly hair even harder, "Answer me! Now!"

"Can you be specific!?"

Tails throws him to the floor and presses the blaster on his head while restraining his arms. Winter admires at Tails' strength, he looked small but he was pretty tough, able to keep him down like a weight on a feather.

"I have pictures of you running around Aldcliffe City stealing crates with machines and parts from a company that I co-own, and judging by your skill it isn't your first time doing this... So tell me, who the flying fuck are you?!" Tails says.

Winter at this point can't take it anymore, if he refused to divulge the information Tails wanted, the fox was going to kill him... And the last thing he wanted was to die... And have Nine find his body.

"I-I'm a project!... I'm a project! I was grown in a test tube! Ugh, are you happy now!?"

"Who's project?!" Tails shouts.

"Doctor Ivo Robotnik!" Winter shouts under pressure from the aggressive Tails.

The room falls silent, nothing can be heard as Tails takes a moment to process what Winter just said to him. The doctor who he saw die... Was still alive. He shudders and lets go of Winter's hair running his fingers through the fur on his head, this news was the last thing he needed to hear, the one obstacle he needed out of his way to make his dream of marrying and finally settling down with Sonic was back, and he knows he needs to get rid of it fast.

The rage in Tails' chest finally boils over, like  hot lava spewing out of a volcano and he just screams loudly, "FUUUUUCK!"

He breathes heavily and punch's the mirror in frustration. Winter looks up at him in genuine terror, Robotnik had warned him of Tails' psychotic behaviour and now he was getting to witness it first hand. Tails swiftly turns around and presses Winter's face on the cold tile floor aggressively.

"Three things: One, you're not going to tell anyone that I was here. Two, you're not going to tell Eggman that I found out you work for him. Three, you're going to leave Nine out of whatever the hell you two are scheming... If tell anyone that I was here, or let Eggman know, which I know how communicate with him, hurt Nine or cause him any heart ache, I'll cut your corpse up and feed you to fucking sharks! Do you understand me?!"

Winter moans and nods shaking and crying a bit from how roughly Tails was handling him. Tails releases his face and stands over Winter with the same cold eyes he gave him earlier.

"Keep mouth of yours sealed... For your sake"

Tails turns off the light and the room goes dark, Winter scrambles to his feet hoping he can subdue Tails before he escapes. But when he gets the lights on again... He's not there, as if he was a ghost.

Nine comes toward the bathroom and sees Winter's face all bloodied and bruised, his heart sinks and he immediately runs over to him to see if he's okay.

"What happened?" Nine asks, his face full of worry.

"I slipped and fell... It was fucking scary" Winter responds.

Nine laughs nervously and kisses him passionately, when he stops he puts his hands on his face and smiles, "Clumsy"

Winter laughs nervously as Nine embraces him affectionately, looking down at the floor with the fear Tails instilled in him still present in his face.

"Yeah...Clumsy"

---

Tails sits in his workshop, head down and grumbling audibly. He takes his blood covered gloves off and tosses them in a drawer. As he puts on a fresh pair Sonic comes in with a tray of food for Tails to eat.

The fox boy looks up at Sonic who has a satisfied grin on his face. A welcoming sight for him

"Only you would get up at 7 in the morning just to start working on your inventions" Sonic says as he sets the tray down on the table Infront of Tails.

Tails stands up and squeezes Sonic tightly, the hedgehog is taken by surprise when he feels how tough he's hugging him and he also knows something is off with his small little lover.

"What's wrong?" Sonic asks.

"Nothing... I just really need you right about now" Tails responds, closing his eyes and letting the smell of Sonic's gel covered fur soothe him.

Sonic wraps his arms around him and pets his head gently. Tails wants to tell him, to scream that Eggman is still alive but that would mean having to tell Sonic how he got the information or tell a lie he couldn't make stick. So for now he just embraces the one thing that makes him happy, the one thing he needs.

"Tell me when you're ready okay?" Sonic says.

"Mm" Tails moans, he kisses Sonic's cheek and finally lets go of him so he can eat the food Sonic made for him.

On the tray are two plates with waffles and fruit on them. Tails sits down while Sonic sits across from him and takes one, Sonic puts s strawberry in his mouth and looks Tails in the eyes trying to get a read on what was making him so antsy.

"So... When do you wanna go back to Earth?" Sonic asks.

Tails finishes swallowing a piece of banana when he hears Sonic's question, "Everything should be ready about now actually. Had to build some new gear incase we run into trouble"

"What kind of trouble?" Sonic asks out of curiosity.

"Shadow... I don't think that place back in England will keep him contained long" Tails responds.

Sonic sighs, "Yeah, I don't think so either. And honestly, I'm not sure if I'll be able to fight him again"

"What do you mean?" Tails asks, a bit concerned about what he just said.

"He basically handed my ass to me Tails. If you hadn't swooped in and saved me, I would have probably had it much worse... Way worse" Sonic responds.

Tails puts his hand on Sonic's and looks into his eyes, "We weren't prepared for him to appear like that. This time we will be, and I have just the thing to help you out if we encounter him again"

"What is it?" Sonic asks, curious to know what he's talking about.

"You'll see" Tails answers, picking the fork back up and putting a piece of waffle in his mouth.

"Y'know I think it's already gonna be good" Sonic responds, with a laid back smile.

"What makes you say that?" Tails asks.

"You're good with surprises" Sonic responds.

The fox chuckles, "Are you teasing me?"

"Maybe" Sonic responds with a wink.

The two laugh and eat their food, while cracking jokes and having that sweet bonding time Tails needed the most. When they're done eating Tails heads back to his room and spends some time writing in his diary.

Things are getting more complicated every day, I have 3 issues on my plate and I really have no choice but to get rid of them as soon as I can.

The first one, Cream, pretty obviously she's starting to become a thorn in my side, but it's not just that, ever since she's come out of her coma she's been watching me, hiding from me and being annoying non-stop. I don't get why she thinks I'll ever forgive her for what she did to Sonic that night in Cloudpuff City, her obsession with me is the worst, most annoying thing right now. I don't live her at all, I'm not interested in her, but she keeps on persisting like a dog begging its owner for forgiveness. I've also been studying her behaviour and I feel like she's plotting something. She better cut it out because it's only a matter of time before I lose my cool with her... But soon she won't be a problem anymore.

The second issue, Shadow. Ever since our showdown in London. I've been preparing for him to suddenly come back so he can try and kill me, but he won't because I just finished a few weapons that'll give me and Sonic the fighting edge against him. If he does show his rat face again, I'll just turn him into a sushi dish.

And finally, Winter... Nine's new boyfriend. I've done some research, He's a genetic fuck up Doctor Eggman made before he died. Locked in a test tube on the ship I thought I killed him on. With this asshole back in the picture I've never been more paranoid in my life, and I'm debating if he's an even bigger problem than little miss sunshine Cream. Either way, tracking down and finally killing this leach is one of my highest priorities right now.

All three of these problems pose a threat to my life. Funny huh? Karma must really not like me right now. I wish I could tell Sonic all this, just release all this emotion...

Tails sighs and taps the pencil on the page before continuing to write.

But I can't tell him. Who knows what he'll say if he finds out I'm the one doing all this killing. He'll definitely hate me, all the more reason for me to not let anyone find out that I'm the one who killed Amy and Knuckles.

"Hey Tails!" Sonic called from the doorway.

"Yeah?" Tails responds looking up at Sonic.

"So uh... Wanna go Earth now?" Sonic asks scratching the back of his head.

"Y-You wanna go now?" Tails goes, shocked he wants to go right now.

"Yeah, things have been pretty slow here. When I'm on Earth, I feel like things move at my pace" Sonic responds, hands still on the back of his spikey head.

"Wow, I thought you'd want to wait a day or two... Sure, I'll go pack my things" Tails says.

"Woooo! Adventure!" Sonic shouts jumping up and down excitedly.

Tails sighs and closes his diary, watching Sonic get excited just bought him the highest amount of serotonin possible. Sonic in his excitement grabs Tails and hugs him tightly, Tails laughs and embraces him back.

---

Sonic puts his bag down on the floor while Tails brushes his coat off and checks to make sure he packed the necessary inventions he made for the trip. Tails still couldn't believe they were taking their third trip to Earth and he sure couldn't wait to share his newest findings when he got back to Mobius, Sonic was hoping to find some action on Earth and maybe get a chance to be a hero again.

"Man I'm pumped, what about you?" Sonic says.

"I am too! I might have to buy another diary soon, mines getting full" Tails says.

"I'm sure we'll find you a cooler one on Earth " Sonic says, patting him on the head.

"Thanks... Come on, let's go, it's probably getting late over there"

"Yeah" Sonic responds while picking up his bag from off the floor.

Tails picks up the little Dream Jumper Mini device and aims it at the wall. Just before Tails opens up the portal however he hears footsteps behind him and Sonic so he turns around, Sonic does too.

Standing there carrying a small bag and wearing his original clothes is Nine, he scratches the back of his head and looks at the two shyly, "Got room for one more?"

Sonic and Tails look at eachother and then back at Nine, they grin excitedly and look over at Nine who's standing there waiting for their response.

"We sure do" Sonic responds.

Nine happy to hear that runs over to them and stands by Sonic who holds both him and Tails close excitedly. Tails puts in the universe code for Earth and opens the portal... However something's wrong, before Sonic steps on threw the portal begins to mutate and flash as if it's glitching.

"What the-" Tails says.

"Um Tails... Is it supposed to do that?" Sonic asks, worried about how stable it was.

Tails looks at the diagnostic screen on the device and sees it's glitching as well, Nine takes the device from Tails and starts typing a random destination, 3-2-1-5. Sure enough, it stops glitching but across from them isn't Earth... It's trees, giant luscious, healthy trees accompanied with all sorts of wild life and bioluminescent plants.

"Sorry" Nine says.

"It's fine... Now that I'm seeing this place... I'm kinda curious. What do you think we should do Sonic?" Tails asks, looking up at the blue hedgehog.

Sonic looks up at the trees and sees a flock of flickies flying from one tree to another, he notices there's barely any sunlight and the growth of the forest is out of control, but something, Sonic doesn't know what, is calling to him, telling him, Tails and Nine to come on in, so against his better judgement

"Let's give it a shot, maybe we can figure out how to get to Earth while we're here" Sonic says.

Tails raises an eyebrow, "Alright... On we go. To this mysterious world"

Sonic steps in, Nine and Tails follow behind him. As soon as they are a few feet in, the portal begins to glicth and distort again until it eventually disappears, the crackling sound it emits is loud enough to make all three of them turn their heads.

"I really hope we don't regret that" Nine says.

"Same" Sonic says as he looks around at the mamouth jungle around him and the two foxes.

"Shit!" Tails shouts, the fox is tapping the device aggressively, "...It died"

"Can you fix it?" Sonic asks.

"I can try" Tails answers as he puts the device in his bag and grumbles in frustration.

"We should start walking, who knows what kind of surprises are waiting for us" Nine says as he starts to stroll ahead of them.

Sonic and Tails follow behind Nine and so begin's their long walk threw the sprawling jungle. As they traverse the grassy hell, they come across a huge palm tree in an open area after, they had spent an hour on the move and all three of them were exhausted.

Sonic sits down on the grass while Tails takes a sip of water, Nine just straight up let's himself fall backwards onto the ground, sound of his body hitting the floor frightens Sonic and Tails.

"You okay?" Sonic asks.

"Yep" Nine responds, his face covered in sweat, Sonic notices he's breathing heavily.

"You've never walked that long?" Sonic asks, with a layed back grin.

"I don't think so" Nine answers.

"I can take you on a jog with me when we get back to Earth" Sonic says.

"I'll uh... Mm... Consider it" Nine says as he wipes the sweat off his face and unzips his hoodie so he he can let his chest breathe.

Sonic sees Tails fidgeting around with the Dream Jumper Mini so he wonders if Tails made any progress with fixing it.

"Did ya fix it yet?" Sonic asks.

"Nope... Damn thing won't even turn on. To make matters worse, there's no cell phone service here, which means-"

"No civilization... Man, we really got ourselves in a jam this time huh?" Sonic says as he messages his face.

"Yeah... And to matters worse I have barely any resources to fix it" Tails says as he tries to play around with the wiring in the device.

"Could this get any worse?" Sonic says.

Just as the hedgehog finishes saying that, there's a noticeable rustling sound coming from the thick brush around them, the trees blow in the wind and the , Nine and Tails glare at Sonic who raises his hands as if he was surrendering.

"...You had to say something" Nine says.

Sonic and Nine pick themselves up from off the ground, Tails reaches into his bag and pulls out his blaster, and aims it around. Nine pulls out his own and does the same, Sonic takes a defensive stance as he looks around. The three stay close as they look around trying to find whatever was stalking them.

"So uh who here thinks the natives are friendly" Sonic says, trying to lighten up the mood.

"We can't be certain" Tails answers.

Nine glues his eyes to a bush where he sees the rustling resume. He aims his blaster at the bush and anxiously awaits whatever is hiding in there. Just as he lowers his blaster slightly... Something orangish jumps out towards the three shouting some sort of titanic battle cry. The three jump away from eachother so whatever it was doesn't get all three of themat once, when they all turn around and looks at what's infront of them they are surprised to see...

"Hey Tails... Uh..." Sonic says, shocked at what he's looking at.

"What the fu-" Tails goes, still aiming his blaster.

"How?" Nine goes, probably more bewildered than the rest of them.

It was Tails... But well, different. His gloves were wrapped with leaves, a bandage on his right arm, he had what looked to be a green coloured belt with brown pockets, and his shoes were held together by threads and leaves. The most noticeable detail was the fauxhawk hairstyles with the vermilion coloured ends and his sharp fangs, the markings on his face, the sides of his head, and his arms, the fangs that he bared at all three of them sharp as knives.

"Tails... I think your may or may not have been trying to tell us something..." Sonic says as he slowly backs away from the dirty little feral Tails snarling at them.

"What about him?! He's clearly trying to tell us something!" Nine shouts, aiming the blaster at the snarling fox.

"Yeah and I know what he's saying... Run!" Tails shouts.

Sonic grabs both Nine and Tails and runs off into the trees, far ahead of the aggressive feral fox, coming to a stop near the edge of a tree that's near a steep drop. Sonic puts them down, and peaks from behind a tree. No where in sight is that aggressive fox.

"I think we're goo-"

Suddenly something lands on top of Tails, it's trying to bite him but Tails aggressively swings around and tosses the feral little fox off him.

"Shut up!" Nine shouts.

"How was I supposed to know he was fast?!" Sonic shouts throwing his hands up in the air.

He lunges at Tails again, Tails sidesteps the attack and throws a punch at his face making his head jolt. Nine and Sonic are watching with angst in their faces to see if it did anything... The scruffy little foxs head turns back to Tails, seemingly even more off the deep end now then he was before, he spits the blood out of his mouth and throws his own punch which throws Tails backwards into Nine who catches him.

Tails moans in pain, and squeezes his face, "He's stronger than he looks"

"Nothing I can't handle" Nine says, pushing the button on his belt to activate his mechanical tails.

Sonic takes Tails from Nine as he gets into a stance so he can fight the doppelganger.

He jumps at the fox and let's two of his mechanical tails fly at him, the fox catches them which makes Nine smirk, he headbutts the fox and uses the opportunity of him being disoriented to smack him into a tree with another mechanical attachment. Nine, not giving him a chance to get up, unleashes the red glowing threads within his black glove and whips them at him wrapping around him and making him shout in pain.

"Whoa, not even a few seconds and he's already being brutal" Sonic says pressing an ice pack on Tails' face.

Nine grabs hold of the ropes with his other hand and swings him around until he smashes him into the grass. At this point the feral fox is done, Nine yanks him aggressively towards himself and lets him fly into his fist which collides with his gut, he lets him collapse to the floor and releases the ropes from him and the coil back into his glove, it looks like he's out Nine turns to Sonic and nods, Sonic and Tails breathe a sigh of relief.

A fist flies into Nine's face throwing him backwards a bit, turns out their wild little friend wasn't out for the count.

"Did he just fake it..." Sonic goes.

"Interesting... He really knows how to fight" Tails adds.

Nine looks at him with pure rage in his eyes, the fox jumps at Nine and drop kicks him like a professional fighter, Nine is grabbed by the ears while he's still in the air and thrown over his shoulders onto the dirt covered floor. Sonic and Tails' mouthes drop open.

Nine scrambles back to his feet and dodges his attacks, but they keep coming in to fast. So Nine tries to use one of his mechanical tails to surprise him... It's caught which surprises Nine, he's thrown into a spin and tossed at Sonic and Tails knocking them over like bowling pins. All three are disoriented from being hit by Nine, Sonic shakes his head and check on Nine and Tails, who both look okay.

The feral fox let's out an aggressive roar and goes back to snarling at the three of them like a crazed dog.

"Okay, fighting him isn't working-" Sonic winces.

"Ya think?" Nine grumbles.

Sonic looks into the blue eyes of their assailant, he notices they don't make eye contact with him, the eyes of this "Tails" are darting around between Nine and Tails.

"I might be wrong, but I think he really doesn't like you two" Sonic says.

"Why do you say that?" Tails says.

"He's not looking at me for one, two I can see the the rage in his eyes, something's off about him, I just can't figure out what" Sonic responds.

Nine notices he's about to jump at them so he turns to Sonic, "We should split up, we'll meet back where the bioluminescent plants are"

"He's probably gonna follow one of us" Tails responds.

"Well then we'll just see which one of us he follows" Sonic goes.

He brings Nine and Tails close to his face, "See ya there"

"See ya" Nine and Tails say in unison.

The three get up and take a second to look at the growling angry doppelganger still eyeing Tails and Nine as if they're abominations that crawled out of the deepest pits of hell. The three do not hesitate to run this time, Tails flies up into the air in one direction, Nine does the same in another direction and Sonic hits the gas and dashes into the forest, a blue streak of light following behind him.

The messy, dirty little feral creature sprints after them. Sonic jumps, ducks and dodges as he runs threw the thick jungle and over a small ravine, the jungle is so thick, obstacles are plentiful and it's dark.

"Gah, this sucks... I barely have any room to open up the taps" Sonic says as he runs threw a hollow tree trunk.

The hedgehog eventually comes across a dead end in the form of a large erratic boulder. He tries to climb it but the surface is too smooth for him to scale so he slides back down to the ground, just as he's about to try and scale the sides of the ditch he's in... The feral little doppelganger drops in from behind him, Sonic turns around ever so slowly and smiles nervously.

"So uh... You maybe wanna talk this out?" Sonic says raising his gloved hands to the sky.

He snarls as he slowly approaches Sonic, bearing his fangs and looking at Sonic with piercing eyes.

"Okay... Maybe not..." Sonic says, his nervous grin turning into a fearful frown.

Just as he gets ready to jump onto Sonic, the fox pounces on Sonic and bites down on his his arm, sinking his sharp teeth into Sonic's flesh. The firey pain in Sonic's arm makes him shout loudly as the fox tries to rip his arm off of him while jerking at his arm aggressively, "Ow, crap! You mangey little-"

When the doppelganger hears Sonic say that, his eyes go wide. Sonic noticing he wasn't trying to maul his arm, opens his eyes and sees the doppelganger looking into his eyes, Sonic could see how clear the little fox's eyes were, he could see all the aggressiveness in him fade away.

"...Huh?"

Something drips on Sonic's chest, Sonic looks down for a second and then back into the doppelganger's eyes, to his shock he was... Crying. His arm is released from his mouth and Sonic backs away from him a bit, the hedgehog can tell he triggered something in him. All the anger, intent to kill, gone... Just crying, which didn't look like it was going to stop.

"Uh... I'm... Sorry" Sonic goes trying to apologise for potentially upsetting the feral doppelganger even further.

Instead of glaring at Sonic however, when the mangy little fox looks up into Sonic's eyes, it was as if he hadn't seen someone in a while and he was finally just reuniting with them. Sonic freezes but maintains eye contact with the teary little fox... Who starts to run at Sonic, the hedgehog is impacted by him and thrown to the ground yet again.

"Whoa whoa! What's wrong, why are you suddenly so emotional?" Sonic asks, starting to feel concern.

He hugs Sonic's tightly and closes his eyes, Sonic can feel his ragged warm breath on his chest while he shakes in his arms, a truly confusing situation for him.

Sonic sits up and raises his hand slowly so he can see if he would let him touch his head, sure enough Sonic's hand does make it to his head and he gently messages him.

"You're not looking for a fight, you're just lonely... Aren't you?" Sonic says, continuing to try and soothe the feral creature squeezing him so tight.

The fox takes on hand and points to himself, then he puts his hand on Sonic's chest, all while still crying. It takes Sonic a minute to understand two things now: One, he couldn't speak well, and two Mangey was his name.

"Y-You're name is Mangey?" Sonic asks.

He nods and sobs some more as Sonic stands up, Mangey quick to stand up to so he could look into Sonic's eyes.

"Okay... You can't talk. That's fine, uh... I'm Sonic-"

Mangey nods swiftly as if he already knew Sonic's name.

"O-Oh you know? Okay... Weird"

Mangey embraces Sonic again and whimpers, Sonic reluctantly hugs him back hoping to try and calm him down, he can still hear him breathing heavily.

"How am I gonna explain this to Tails and Nine" Sonic says as he lets the feral Mangey sob and cry on his chest.

"Sonic!" Nines Voice shouts.

Sonic looks up in the sky and sees Nine and Tails descending infront of him. When Mangey sees the two coming he goes right back to being aggressive, snarling at Nine and Tails like a wolf.

"Sonic, are you okay"

"Yeah I'm fine... Guys, I don't think he wants to hurt us... He's just been alone for a long time" Sonic says as he tries to get infront of Mangey, but Mangey isn't having it and jumps infront of Sonic.

Sonic can see Mangey is even more aggressive this time, the crazed fox glares the hardest he's ever done at the two other foxes with disgust and hatred.

Tails slowly reaches for his blaster, Nine gets ready to lunge at Mangey with his mechanical claws. Sonic puts his hand on Mangey's shoulder so he can try and talk to him.

"Hey now, I know these two, they're not gonna hurt yo-"

Mangey reaches into one of the pockets of his belt and pulls out a brown little orb, throwing it at the ground and releasing greenish coloured smoke which makes them all cough and choke, he grabs Sonic by the arm and spins his tails to lift him off the ground, the hedgehog notices Mangey is carrying him away from the jungle floor and towards the canopy of the jungle all he can do is watch as Mangey carries him higher and higher.

When the smoke clears, Sonic and Mangey are gone, Tails immediately panics and looks around hoping to find a sign of wherever Sonic went, when he doesn't see anything his chest tightens.

"Sonic!" Tails screams.