Tails excitedly pulls a yawning Sonic along through the halls of their base. Since he didn't get to show Sonic his latest project the previous night, he decided to show it to him today. Tails leads Sonic inside the aircraft via the loading ramp and giving him a tour of the machine. Sonic was impressed with his work, Tails had shown him some pretty neat things, but to him, this was the icing on the cake.

"So what do you think?" Tails asks, his eyes dancing around excitedly.

"I love it! Awesome job!" Sonic responds, the hedgehog starts to ask Tails some questions. After all, he was the leader of the group and he wanted to know what the aerocraft was capable of.

"So uh can this thing still jump dimensions?" Sonic asks.

"Well duh, we may have taken the blueprints from Eggman but that doesn't mean he'll try and design another one" Tails responds.

"What kind of weapons does it have?" Sonic asks sitting down on one of the co-pilot seats.

Tails sits close to him in another seat, "High density lasers, sound cannon, heat seeking missiles, torpedos, the whole shabang!" Tails explains.

Sonic likes his enthusiasm so he smiles lazily. Tails stands up and goes to one of the consoles and flips a switch. The lights dim and colour changing LED lights installed in the ceiling and under the control panels begin to glow. Sonic slowly stands up and looks around as the colours shift slowly and smoothly, "Awesome" he whispers.

Tails heart starts to pound sort of like a jackhammer, he's alone with Sonic, everyone else is asleep... It's perfect, he has a shot. He slowly reaches into one of the storage compartments and pulls out a box of candies. The fox swallows and lets out a shaky breath, he nervously extends his hands to Sonic. Sonic notices Tails'offering and takes the box with a warm smile on his face.

"Isn't it a bit late for Valentine's Day?" Sonic asks, looking down at the box of candies.

"That's not what it's for. Today's the day I first met you so I thought I'd get you a gift. It's not a chilli dog but it's something I put a lot of work into" Tails responds, scratching his arm and blushing like a nervous child.

Sonic takes one of the candies and pops it in his mouth, he loves it.

"Tails! These are delicious!" Sonic exclaims, still chewing. The hedgehog pops another piece in his mouth.

"Really...?" He says with a happy smile.

"Mhm! Mmf, soooo good" Sonic says while enjoying the treats.

Eventually he stops eating them and saves the rest for later. Tails surprises Sonic with a loving hug, he chuckles a bit and hugs him back, Sonic puts his hand on his head and chuckles a little. It made Tails happy to know Sonic loved his work, when Sonic praised Tails for his hard work it made him happy and warm inside. So whenever Tails worked on something he always put 100% of his effort into it whether it be repairing his plane or building a new invention of his.

The bittersweet moment wouldn't last however when Cream came into the workshop looking for Sonic...

"Sonic! Where are you, this is urgent!" Cream says.

Sonic looks out the window and sees Cream wandering around the workshop. Tails heart sinks a little when Sonic seperates from him to go meet Cream. The fox squeezes his fist and watches from the cockpit as Sonic walks over to her.

"Hey Cream, what's wrong?" Sonic asks.

"Amy called an emergency meeting! She wants you there" Cream explains.

"I'll be right there, Tails! Come on down soon! It's probably Eggman again"

"I'll be there soon, go on without me!" Tails shouts back.

He watches as Sonic and Cream run out of the room. Then he falls backwards onto one of the seats and moans in disappointment. There was something else he wanted to ask Sonic but when Cream came to talk to Sonic the opportunity for him to ask Sonic out on a walk by the beach that afternoon was ruined.

Tails digs around the drawer where the candies were and takes out a picture of him and Sonic together in the Green Hill Zone. After Sonic saved him from Robotnik, the two started working together as Robotnik plans got bigger and even more twisted. He stood by Sonic, did anything in his power to keep him safe, to help him the best he could. He missed the days when it was just him and Sonic to him. Those days were the better ones and he wished it could be him and the hedgehog for life, but those days were gone and he was probably never going to get them back.

In the picture Sonic lost an eating competition. And as a bet if Sonic lost he had to kiss Tails on the cheek and that's exactly what was happening in that picture. Tails was smiling like an excited child while Sonic was sweating nervously as he squinted his eyes shut and got it over with. Everytime Tails looked at the picture it would make him laugh and smile because of Sonic's goofy behaviour that day, it was one of his favourite memories of him and Sonic together when it was just the two of them.

He puts the picture back into the drawer and closes it so he can go to the gathering of the others. The room is interesting, the walls are made of the stone they carved out with lights hanging from the cieling, there's a screen on the wall opposite to the door and a desk and it's displaying a city on fire. Tails opens the door and when he sees the fire, it immediately makes him jump back a bit. The others look back at Tails and then back at the screen.

"What's happening, where is this?!" he asks.

"A city on South Island" Amy says, she stands up as the camera pans upwards to a large flying airship that's releasing small robots to wreak havoc on the city below.

"What's he doing...?" Tails asks.

"We think he's after the crystals below the city. A whole bunch of them were discovered about a year ago after a mining accident" Shadow explains.

The screen then shows a crystal caverine. A few Mobians are present in the pictures as they marvel at the shining crystals underneath the city. Tails takes a notepad from the table and starts writing down the details. Sonic crosses his arms as he looks at the feed of Robotnik's ship over the city.

"Does Eggmans ship have any weaknesses?" Cream asks.

"It looks like the spot where the drones come out could be one. No doubt they'll be plenty of badniks though" Tails says.

Cream stares at Tails who's still taking notes, the rabbit loves how smart he is. Her companion Cheese notices her drifting off so he pokes her cheek, Cream blinks a little and then looks back at the screen. When Tails is done taking notes he sits by Sonic and looks up at the screen.

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

"You guys distract Eggman's robots for as long as you can, me and Tails will sneak into the ship and shut it down" Sonic says.

"Thats a good plan... There's just one problem, How are we going to get that huge ship clear of the city?!" Knuckles shouts.

"I'll move it away from the city and we can crash it in the woods or in the ocean" Tails says, a determined look on his face.

Sonic is surprised by Tails offering to do it. Usually Knuckles or Shadow would do something on that scale but to hear Tails wanting to do it? It really did shock him, it also made him uneasy and made him uptight.

"Um Tails, buddy-"

"It's okay Sonic, I'll do it-" Tails says.

Cream is impressed by the foxes bravery and blushes. Sonic shifts uncomfortably but doesn't want to have the subject stick around longer.

"Alright! Let's all get ready!"

"Right!" The others shout in unison as if they are soldiers.

They all go to eachothers rooms and get ready for the fight. Tails opens a drawer and takes out a blue and white scarf as well as a pair of goggles.

He's grabs a bag of tools and a few other inventions as well, the most notable ones he grabbed was a small blaster like weapon and a multi-purpose tool he created a year ago. When Tails is all done he does some stretching and then runs out to the aerocraft, everyones inside buckled in and ready to go.

"Alright guys! Time to show Eggman who's boss!" Sonic says.

"Yeah!" Everyone shouts... All except for Shadow who just closes his eyes.

Tails begins the takeoff procedures and they start fo lift off of the ground, the landing gear folding into the aircraft as Tails flies the jet like craft forwards and their journey to South Island begins. While they're flying there, Sonic unbuckles his belt and taps Tails on the shoulder, the fox turns around.

"Can we talk?" Sonic says.

Tails shifts nervously, but he was willing to listen to Sonic and hear him out, "Yeah, sure" Tails responds with an unsteady smile.

Cream takes the controls as soon as Sonic takes Tails down to the lower half of the plane.

Sonic stops and sits down on one of the sofas and starts messaging his head. Tails sits across from him.

"Why did you volunteer to crash his ship?" Sonic asks.

"Is that what this is about?" Tails groans.

"You gotta understand Tails, what your asking to do is risky. Like, very risky"

"Sonic... You don't have to be so worried about me-"

"But I do. You're like a little brother, one I never had. One I'd like to stick around for a while" Sonic explains.

Tails heart beats just a bit faster, but then a smile appears on his face. Sonic's grows more and more restless as Tails looks his way.

"It's gonna be okay-"

"No It's not-" Sonic says.

Tails takes Sonic by the hand, the hedgehog looks at Tails' light blue eyes, the fires of determination burn bright in there. Sonic sniffles and wipes his eye he sees theres no trying to convince him so he pulls Tails in for a hug, squeezing him tightly. Tails moans quietly while wrapping his arms around Sonic. The hug ends and Sonic turns back around and looks at the brave little fox standing there proudly, Sonic's happy to see how much Tails has grown... But the uneasiness is making itself known inside of him and it would only be a matter of time before it would come bursting out of him.

Tails looks back out the window, all him and Sonic can see are clouds as they soar through the sky.

"Listen Tails, it's not that I think your weak... Or that you that you can't do it. But I really do have my concerns about letting you do this... What if it all goes wrong?"

"It won't, I promise" Tails says with an assuring smile.

"You better be right" Sonic says.

There's this burning fire inside of Tails chest, whenever situations like this arose it was good for him to know Sonic actually worried about him. It made him feel fizzy inside to know that he cared, after all not a lot of people in his life really cared about him.

The moment however doesn't last as they approach the city. When Sonic sees it he's made uncomfortable by the sight of the city burning, buildings were crumbling and there were badniks and all sorts of other robots flying around causing terror below.

"No" Sonic says to himself.

He looks up at the giant ship above the city and squeezes his fist. Tails sees the destruction below and can't help but feel a sense of dread and uneasiness, seeing the burning city brought back memories of the time he almost died in that village... But that wasn't the only thing he remembered when he saw the the burning city... He saw a burning village and a shadow of himself standing in the middle yet when he saw this shadowy figure in the flames he didn't feel any sort of fear at all, but rather the memory made a smile slowly appear on his face.

"Tails!" Sonic says.

The fox snaps out of his daydream and turns to look at him. Sonic's on the ladder to the cockpit and looking down at the fox.

"Let's do this!" Sonic says.

"Right!" Tails says, saluting Sonic as if he was his superior in the military.