Chapter 7: Prepared for The Consequences

"Hey, would you mind me asking for another chili dog, Rotor?" Sonic asked from his stool at the bar. "For some reason, I'm really hungry today."

A walrus perked his head up, away from the grill at which he was currently grilling. His relaxed face turned to the blue hedgehog, boasting a smile that was hidden beneath his tusks.

"You sure you don't want to make it two, Sonic?" He asked, his voice sounding chill and nonchalant.

"Nah, I got a run to do later today." Sonic denied Rotor's request. "Two more of 'em, and I'd be down and out by the time I got off my stool."

Rotor chuckled to himself as he turned back to the grill, scooping up his currently cooking ingredients. "That'd be a new record."

"Y'know, considering the last few nights consisting of running laps around Knothole and still having headaches when I'm even close to falling asleep… you wouldn't be wrong." The blue blur answered somberly.

Rotor slowed his cooking, now concerned with Sonic more than the meal.

"Sounds like it's been a rough few days then." The walrus's voice came off gruffer than before.

He set the food back down to heat up some more, leaving the area to lean against the bar opposite Sonic.

"Well, it certainly has been." Sonic stated. "I mean, I told you everything that happened, and… needless to say, I'm still a little in shock. At least I think I am. It could be the speed… or maybe it's both.

"Don't let it worry you too much, man." Rotor's optimistic words stepped into Sonic's thoughts.

"I'm trying to." The blue blur replied calmly. "Guess I'm not good at it."

"Hey." Rotor grasped Sonic's shoulder, getting Sonic's head to perk back up. "The only reason you're not good at it is 'cause you haven't done it enough. Least that's how I see it."

A smirk returned to Sonic's face again.

"Thanks, Rotor."

The walrus nearly gasped. "Is that a smile I see?"

"No!" Sonic chuckled to him. "It's a smirk."

"Nah." Rotor aptly argued.

"It's a smirk, totally different!" Sonic nearly laughed.

"You need to look in a mirror to figure out what a smirk looks like. That is not a smirk!"

"Hey, guys." A little voice sounded from Sonic's right.

The boys turned their heads to see Tails pulling himself onto the stool.

"Aye, Tails, you made it." Sonic said, bringing Tails into the fray.

"Yeah," Rotor began to snicker. "This hog's been waiting for you for the last hour and has been bothering me ever since."

"It wasn't an hour…" Sonic replied with a smile. "And I didn't bother you… for too long."

"Sonic, any time is too much!" He laughed aloud, returning to the grill and putting things aside for Sonic's chili dog. "Want anything, Tails?"

"I'll also have a chili dog, thanks." Tails jumped on the band wagon. He eagerly turned his attention to Sonic. "You seem to be getting along with Rotor."

"Yeah." Sonic admitted. "I'm glad you introduced me formally to him. He's a nice guy. Honest, too."

"So, what's up?"

Sonic swiveled his seat to face his friend. What had happened last night was too much for just small talk.

"Well, a lot." Sonic responded honestly. "You remember the trial run from yesterday?"

"Of course." Tails nodded.

"Well, during my run, there was this girl… a pink hedgehog… she was looking at me, but not like the other people out there. The others were almost in awe, but… she seemed pretty serious."

"Did she know something about you?" Tails asked.

"She thought I was important. You see, last night, 'round midnight or so… she had broken into my house."

"What?!"

"No, no, she didn't steal anything." Sonic attempted to quell the yelps from Tails while continuing his story. "Far from it. She wanted to talk to me. She wanted my help with something. I won't get into it for her sake, but she's got a personal vendetta against Kintobor. And she wants me to help prove his guilt."

The little fox was blown away by this. His elbows leaned against the bar's surface, and his hands flew up to his forehead.

"Wow." He simply said. "That is crazy."

"Yeah." Sonic repeated. "It was crazy."

Tails took a few moments to process before letting his hands leave his forehead and turning back to Sonic.

"So… what? Why are we talking here?" The kitsune asked before things began to click in his head. Sonic progressively nodded as he got closer. "Do you guys need my help? Are we seriously going to find Kintobor?"

"Maybe. I wouldn't know for sure, but… we plan on hitting up the warehouse I met him at later tonight. We'd be meeting at my house after dinnertime." Sonic explained. He extended his fist towards Tails. "You up for it?"

The fox bumped his friend's fist in return. "Yeah… I mean, yeah, sure, I…" Tails leaned against the bar, taking in a deep breath.

"I know, it's a lot to take in." The blue blur admitted.

"It's not just that, I mean…" Tails began, still trying to grasp his ever-running thoughts, "… we're still kids, Sonic. We're still going to school, we're still… learning how the world works. Do we really know what we're getting ourselves into?"

Sonic's gaze seemed to lower as he pondered Tails's question. The kid did have a point. On one hand, it's great that they're taking a step in figuring out this underlying mystery that is Kintobor. But on the other hand, they're still kids, going to school and making mistakes. And even with the intelligence and the speed to back them up… is this really something that they should be doing? Is it worth the risk?

"I'm not trying to discourage the idea." Tails added on, breaking Sonic away from his thoughts. "I mean, I already said I'd help. I just… want to be careful."

Sonic nodded. "Yeah. So do I. That's what I told the girl last night."

"What's her name?" Tails inquired.

"Amy. Amy Rose."

"Amy… Rose?" Tails repeated.

"Uh… yeah?" Sonic answered.

"Like, the Amy Rose?" Tails insisted on a better answer.

"I mean, there's really only one." Sonic further explained.

"Dude…" Tails began to nearly fanboy over the whole idea. "You ran up her dad's tower yesterday!"

Sonic chuckled a bit to himself. Of course Tails would find that funny.

"Yeah, I certainly did.

"Chili dogs for you, my men!" Rotor called out from behind the bar, walking over with two plates with individual chili dogs.

"Perfect. Thanks, Rotor." Sonic said, grasping his plate while handing Tails his own.

"No problem." The walrus replied as he began to walk to the other end of the bar to take requests from another customer.

"I can't believe we're gonna be working with Amy Rose. That is so awesome."

"What, you got a crush on her or something?" Sonic snickered before taking a bite of his dog.

"No, heck no! She's not even my age." Tails reasoned. "I'm excited because she's the daughter of one of my favorite cybernetic creators on Mobius. Dr. Rose is amazing. It's a shame he's not higher up in regards to the leaders of robot innovation."

As the kitsune took his own bite, Sonic kept thinking about the Roses… and what Kintobor might've done to them… what he might've done to Amy's mother.

"Yeah…" he finally replied. "A real shame."

The doors slid open, and the light from the sun seemed to flood into the room for the first time. But upon the first few footsteps of the doctor entering the room, the doors began to slide hut once again, omitting the sun from the hidden home once again.

"Thank you for the idea, Scratch." The doctor smiled whilst petting the metal beak of the perched pet on his shoulders. "I needed a walk. These days have been stressful. It's a shame that I have to head back to the city in a few days, but… I did promise them I'd be back. The things you have to do to move ahead in the human hierarchy…"

He patted his seat, and Scratch hopped his way down from the doctor's arm and dug his claws into the farther corner of the chair's back.

"At least you don't have to put up with those antics." The doctor smirked before taking a seat down in his chair.

His monitors showed aerial views of Central City, specifically over some warehouses, Rose Tower, and the mammoth of a building that was Kintobor Industries. Looking close enough, one could see the cars driving by on the streets, surrounding the buildings and forcing your attention to their presence.

The doctor seemed to smile at the sight of his own structure, but a sort of disdain became present on his face upon viewing Rose Tower. It was not so much disdain for it being the tower of Mr. Rose as it was… a beacon… a beacon of his fault… the thing that made him secretly feared.

"I am happy that most people have passed it by…" he reasoned to himself, "… but… that night… it makes me shiver just thinking of it."

The doctor felt a nudge from Scratch's beak, and his somber feeling started to lift a little.

"I know… I shouldn't dwell on past mistakes… even if they really weren't mistakes."

The doctor then eyed the bird's eye view of the warehouses, noting the one with a broken ceiling glass window.

And then there's this one… he started to enter the spiral again.

"Remind me later, Scratch, to deactivate the camouflage on that missing energy projector tonight. I'll need to send some bots over to retrieve it for me. The police have already left the building vacant, but I don't want to risk any sightings. We have to be quick about this."

The doctor reclined back in his chair, a hand perching itself underneath his chin. He furrowed his brow upon looking at the warehouse once again.

"And if anything goes wrong…" he continued, "… then we must be prepared for the consequences."

"Alright, Mily, you have everything you need?" Ms. Prower called down into the basement.

Tails scurried into view at the bottom of the stairs.

"Yeah, I think I'm good." He replied back.

"Good. Just remember, I'll be working late tonight at the hospital, so don't worry if I'm not home when you expect me to be. They may keep me a while." She began to walk towards the front door.

"I'll be sure to remember, mom!" Tails called back. "Have fun!"

Ms. Prower chuckled as she opened the door. "As much as they'll allow me to. Bye, honey!"

"Bye bye!"

The door shut, and Tails retreated back to the center table in his room, snatching up a wrench and focusing back on his big engine. The thing was 2X bigger than his head; how he constructed it on his own would baffle anyone without a talent regarding mechanical innovation. Sure, twisting bolts and welding pieces onto the contraption was itself a chore, but Tails always found some sort of joy and satisfaction from completing a piece of a project, let alone the whole thing. And fortunately for him, his engine was almost done.

But as Tails screwed in another bolt, the front door closed once again. His ears perked up, and he began to hear footsteps above. In only a small moment, the little fox's heart started to race, but only for that small time as the next sound calmed him deeply.

"Tails?" He heard a brash voice call out.

The fox took a big sigh of relief before calling back, "Down here!"

A rapid flurry of footsteps led to Tails seeing Sonic near his desk in only 2 seconds.

"Gosh, you're getting fast." Tails pointed out.

"Yeah, I'm hearing that a lot." The blue blur agreed.

"What, from the news?" Tails assumed.

Sonic nodded, beginning to take a walk around the room, investigating the packed bookshelves.

"It's not like I don't like them talking about me. It just… feels weird. I don't know how to describe it."

"Well," Tails began to consider, "you've never encountered yourself being this popular and so talked about. Makes sense for you to feel a little uncomfortable."

Sonic began scanning the book spines, intrigued to see what Tails had interest in reading. His mind was so preoccupied with that now that all he could reply with was, "Yeah."

His eyes darted over dozens of titles that ranged in subject from mechanical engineering to aviation studies. His mind lit up when he remembered Tails's project.

"Have you read any of these books?" Sonic asked.

Tails's head slightly perked up from his project again. He wasn't used to people besides his mother asking him about his projects, let alone in his basement lab.

"Uh, not all of them." He gave an honest answer. "Some I have there in case I forget something or come across something I haven't seen before. Doesn't happen too often; once you get the basics of engineering down, it's just a lot of common sense from there on out."

Sonic scoffed as turned back toward Tails and his engine, walking around to Tails's side.

"It's weird hearing the words "common sense" coming out of a 14 year-old's mouth." Sonic pointed out, now beginning to chuckle to himself.

Tails looked over at the hedgehog, a smile brewing on his face.

I'd say I wasn't proud, but… I am, Tails thought to himself.

"I pick up on those terms pretty quickly." He explained. "Comes from reading textbooks and listening to my mom talk to people around the village and at the hospital."

Sonic turned his head at Tails's last words. "Your mom works at a hospital?"

"Yeah. The one in Central City. She's a nurse for patients there. She said she'd be working late tonight, so… shouldn't have to worry about her noticing me being gone when we head to the warehouse tonight."

"Right." Sonic remembered the coming investigation. He took a look down at his watch.

3:32 pm… Sonic read. Okay, still have loads of time.

He looked back up at the fox, who was putting one of the last few bolts he had laid out near the engine. There was something nagging Sonic, in the back of his brain. It was a question that was still bothering him from today's lunch…

Do we really know what we're getting ourselves into? Tails's words continued to ring in Sonic's head. Maybe his frantic mind was trying to get him to talk about this question. Maybe this wasn't a question that Sonic needed to answer…

"Hey, Tails…" Sonic started, a feeling of guilt beginning to well up in him again, a familiar feeling from the past few days returning once more. "Listen, I… I'm a bit concerned. Actually, very concerned."

The kitsune turned in surprise. He hadn't expected Sonic to bring up something like this now. "What are you concerned about?" He asked, lowering his wrench from the engine.

Sonic placed a hand on the corner of the work table, looking down at the smooth oak wood.

"I guess I'm… concerned about you." He finally admitted. "I mean, I don't have much to lose from trying to find Kintobor, but… you do."

Tails turned his full attention towards Sonic. Clearly, this had been brewing in his mind for a little while.

"You have this lab, you're working on this big project, you have your studies, you have this home… you have your mom. I just, I don't know… Amy told me about how Kintobor may be involved with her mom's disappearance… and… I don't… want you to put any of this in danger… just because I invited you to."

Tails was left speechless. This was the second time that Sonic had let him know something like this. Tails had never had any of his friends respect him as much as Sonic had for the past few days. Perhaps it was because Sonic had lacked friends for so long that… he knew how valuable they really were? The fox had never been regarded as an outcast himself, so he wasn't sure. But he certainly felt something he hadn't felt before from a friend in his 14 years of life.

"I'm not saying you can't go with Amy and me to the warehouse." Sonic added on. "I just… want you know that you have a choice. That you don't have to come."

Tails peered down, away from Sonic's eyes, now lowered into deep thought. This was something he hadn't expected to hear today, especially after their chat at lunch today. He switched his wrench over to his left hand and placed it down on the table, now looking back up at the blue blur.

"I think I do." He simply said. "Want to come, that is. Yeah, I… I thought about our talk today, and... I know that I may be putting my family in jeopardy, and I know I'm only 14 years old and I have lot to do other than this. But… I don't know, Sonic. This just… it feels important to me. Not because I have some big grudge against Kintobor, but because Kintobor may have some big grudge against our world. I want to travel in my plane… see all the things Mobius has to offer… and if people like Kintobor are trying to ruin the planet I love and the people I respect, then… I think it's right for me to try and protect it."

He then began to smile as he remembered who he was talking to.

"And I also think it's right for me to protect my friends. Especially if they want to protect me too."

The blue blur felt that weight of guilt begin to lift itself from his shoulders; all he could do in response was grin back at the two tailed fox he now called friend. He finally thought of some words to say.

"Thanks, Tails… I didn't expect you to say yes, but… I'm glad I was wrong."

Tails nodded in silence, still smiling.

"I got your back, Sonic." Tails reassured the moved blur.

Sonic gulped down this joy… this strange little joy that those words brought to his heart.

"I got yours too, Tails."

"Is that all you heard?" A woman asked of Rotor the Walrus.

"I'm positive." He replied. "There gonna be meeting tonight. Something about heading out to a warehouse."

The woman only seemed to nod in response, as if nothing more needed to be said. She leaned against her desk, at the edge of her chair.

"Do you, uh, want us to do anything about it?" He finally asked after a thoughtful silence.

"No." She firmly stated. "At least, not yet. I don't want to jump the gun. We need to see what they can do. I'd advise keeping a safe distance again. We don't want to come on too strong. It may falter their desires to even try this for themselves."

"I mean, he's told me so much about the past couple days." The walrus pointed out. "And the kid's helped him through a lot of it. Even that doctor's daughter wants get revenge… at least that's what it sounded like. It wouldn't be very easy to steer them off this path if we even tried."

The woman kept a stern look on her face, ensuring that her decision was final. "Rotor… play it safe. I'll let you know when the time is right."

"But when will that be?" He inquired.

"Soon. I assure you… it'll be soon." She turned her seat away, looking out her office window, filled with a grand view of her village of Knothole.

Rotor seemed reluctant, but he knew that she had a better mind for decisions like these. He had been her right-hand Mobian for several years now… why would he doubt after her being right for so long?

He clasped his hands together behind his back, returning to a more formal state… despite his voice sounding as chill as ever. "Anything else, Ms. Acorn?"

The chipmunk chuckled in her seat, turning her head to look at him again with a little smirk. "Rotor, you know my name's Sally. It's not like we're strangers in public."

"Right, sorry. Can't help myself." Rotor seemed to blush at his mistake… one that had made many times over those several years.

"But no." She answered, beginning to peer down through her window. "That's all I needed to hear. You should back out there; it looks like things are getting busy down at your work."

"Oh, shoot, you're right, I should go. Have a good day, Sally!" The walrus called out as he huffed and puffed his way out of her office and down the hallways and stairways within the Acorn Tree.

"You too, Rotor." She replied normally, looking down at the pathway below as she saw a blue hedgehog and a fox with a stopwatch, heading off for another time trial once again.

Hello, everybody, and thanks for reading this chapter!

Sorry for not updating on Friday like I promised. The last chapter I posted was one I had started several months before but never finished because I lost interest. I got it done fairly quickly because half of it was finished. This, on the other hand, was a whole new chapter. I had to find its own direction. And I can already tell you this: I did not plan for this chapter to be this way when I was doing the story before… but dear god, do I think it's better! But I do recognize that I'm releasing this late. I need to get back into the swing of writing and get a feel for it again. Let's hope I keep up with the schedule again. Expect a chapter next Sunday.

Anyways, I hope you're liking this story's direction. Lots more intrigue than originally planned and a lot more depth than I thought it would have, but I know you guys will love where this all goes. I promise you: excitement and surprises are in store next chapter.

Thank you all for enjoying this, and I'll see you in the next chapter.