Writing two stories at once is quite weird . . . They're both so different that I can keep the plots straight, but sometimes it can be a bit hard to go from a felon's mind to something completely different, per say, Sonic! But once I got used to it, I had fun! . . . until the end . . . **sniffle** Ah well, plot progression and all that garbage that prevents Tails and Sonic from frolicking into the sunset.

By the way, has it ever bothered anyone besides me when they bathe or brush their teeth? I mean, they look WAY too sparkly clean at the end of a level (when you get the rating) to have just smashed up a bucket of bad guys and been running around ridiculous places to boot! I think that they just have someone touch up their appearance in Photoshop so we see them looking dandy, but, in reality, it's a different story . . .

Racing through the tangled undergrowth of the forest that shielded Tails's workshop was so cleansing that the only shadows that crossed my mind, for a precious snatch of time, were the ones hid plant life I could stumble over—granting Tails close in a few yards distance behind me.

Is he behind me? My peace is disturbed when I can't find the confidence that would prevent me from even consideringa question like this before—if Eggman can kick the bucket, then why couldn't Tails catch me up? He became stronger every adventure we went on together in every way, who is to say that he couldn't make use of his new tail muscles to push him ahead?

A willow makes a surprise appearance next to my nose. Had it been another tree, I would have the bark with an impression of my face, improving its appearance considerably, but this willow didn't have a good sense of aesthetics. It had a curved trunk that acts as a ramp, launching me into the sky.

Up above the world so high, like a blue Chaos Emerald in the sky . . . Rotating myself as I shoot up, I gained extra air and caught sight of Tails—he was still behind the usual debris that gets kicked up when I hit Tails says is warp speed, but what I call a warm up. Interestedly, I watch Tails adeptly dodges the wreckage still rising and falling around him. Although I'm watching from a distance, his progress is clearly visible—he nicely smashes through any plant life that would inhibit watching his abilities. Even as I start to feel gravity, he catches up enough to get in range of a homing attack so, naturally, I unleash one.

"Ahaahhh!" Tails hollers in surprise, like a spikey blue bullet whirred at him in a dead-on course before grabbing hold of his ankle or something. My mouth widens into a smile before he recovers to kick his feet up into a backflip, launching me upwards once more.

Laughing now, I shoot another homing attack. "Not going to work, buddy!"

"Really?!" Tails spins to show me the bottom of his shoes, using them launch off of my attack, pushing me backwards and propelling himself out of range from another homing attack.

Well played. I think as leaves dash from under me—I had fallen back into the jungle. It wouldn't be hard to catch up on land, I hit the ground and start bustling, but what I wanted was another go at goodie two shoes in the air.

Five seconds later, I had covered enough distance to hold the lead once more and changed my course into a compact circle, dashing through the course so fast and furiously that it inspired the air to take the same route, and then the foliage got in on the party, too. Try to get past this! Some helpful logs hovering in the air offered themselves to me until I was soaring on the winds as much as any of the riders did.

I spotted Tails struggling against being sucked into the gale that I'd whipped up. "Nice weather we're having, don't you think so?" I have to yell above the raging winds.

"Sure, Sonic," he dodges a metal plate zinging through the air. "I'm sure the Tornado loves the sight of what it was named after!"

I chortle, "Yeah, I whipped up a large enough gale to be seen just about anywhere!"

"No, bolt head!" Tails glares at me, "It's ripping at my workshop as we speak!"

"Oops." I lower down to the earth and speed in the opposite direction of the winds, dispersing it. As the debris settles back into the earth clearing the air, I see that his workshop indeed had been within homing range.

Tails lands roughly onto a mushroom, but I dash up the hill to write "Sonic was totally here first!" into the dirt that covered the workshop's outer walls before returning to help him up. "Alright?"

"Probably better than my workshop . . ." His voice was down cast, making it occur to me that Tails had been looking forward to seeing his workshop after all of the time he'd spent away from it.

"Nah, it's never been better looking! Just, ah, wait here for a minute, okay?" I "warm-up" speed back up to the workshop. It was coated with dirt, but five seconds later found it sparkling as an Emerald from some shine I'd found in a cabinet, except for the bit I'd written on. There were also metal shingles missing from the roof, but they were easy enough to find as they glinted under the sun and soon they were back in place, freshly cleaned. I'm just glad that all of the doors stayed on their hinges and that the Tornado couldn't see my own from inside of the garage.

Tails reached the top of the stairs on the hill a moment later, "Not your best cleaning job, but it has been a while."

"I must be too sped up from vanquishing a whirlwind to care about the little things; see, it looks like I missed a spot." I grin mischievously, pointing to the message I left for him and then morph the double exclamation marks into a smiley face with the tongue sticking out.

"Ha. Ha." Tails's smiley tone made his sarcastic laugh sound happy. "Let's just get rid of that!" He swipes his tails across the window, but they were too dirty to do any more than add some shading and smear the words.

"Guess being in a tornado gets you a little dirty, huh?" Now that I looked, the pearly sheen of my gloves, shoes, and blue fur had all gone ruddy.

"Just a little bit."

"Ah well." I open the door to the workshop, but Tails grabs my arm, stopping me from getting any further.

"Nuh uh! First we're going to take a bath in the spring nearby. No way you're taking that filth into my home!"

"Baths lose priority when you're saving the world!" Was the last thing the black aliens experienced before I'd taken out hedgehog body odor? No more than they deserved—but gross! And everyone whose opinion I gave a ring about was in that enclosed shuttle with me on the way home, too . . . how had I not noticed?!

"That's true, but when you meet with Shadow tomorrow you don't want to suffocate him before he can talk to you."

"Oh . . . right." I had forgotten all about tomorrow.

"Oh . . . right." The happy energy that had hovered around Sonic evaporated, and he slowly started walking down the steps.

Out of view behind him, I whipped my head with my tails, cursing my stupidity. I had said it trying to be funny, make light of a heavy situation and be happy like he so often did, and I thought that he had been doing just that at the time. Why hadn't I realized that tomorrow weighed too heavily on Sonic for him to be so joyful unless he had forgotten about it? He had a moment of bliss and I had stolen it.

I snap myself in the back of the head again and started to follow him. Way to go, Tails, way to go. My hero had been enjoying the silence before the storm and I'd taken it. Another tail slap. But maybe I can still make it up to him at the spring, give Sonic a back massage or something if he'll stay still long enough. I stop staring at my own feet to catch a glance at how Sonic was acting. His slow pace and countenance were nothing like how gleeful he'd been during our air skirmish. Tail slap. Way to go, Tails . . . way to go . . .