Sonic is relaxing at the beach of Turquoise Hill, an area just northeast of Green Hill.

Sonic's nearby radio finishes a tropical tune he was enjoying and proceeds to news on the weather:

"Good morning everyone, Michael here with the morning weather report. It's a pleasant day in South Island, a beautiful blue-sky day, partly cloudy. Temperatures ranging from 70 to 75 degrees, nothing but perfect weather predicted for the rest of the day. In fact, the rest of the week will reach a high of 78 degrees while the lowest expected temperatures will be 68 degrees, with no rain expected all week."

Sonic wags his foot as he reclines on his beach chair, sunglasses on. Most times, Sonic is a very active guy, but for right now, he just wanted to chill for a bit. Besides, he promised Tails a day at the beach.

Knuckles opted not to come since he prefers to stick with Angel Island, his home and sworn duty. But he did give an invite that the trio could hang out some time. With such a nice week ahead, maybe Angel Island will be on the agenda sooner than later.

For now, though, Sonic is just sipping lemonade and enjoying relaxing.

---

A map of South Island, the location of Sonic 1 (SEGA Genesis), Sonic 1 (Megadrive), Sonic 2 (Game Gear) and Sonic Chaos (Game Gear)

https://tinyurl.com/m77zm2fs

(Source: https://www.deviantart.com/fol...e-hedgehog-583107307 )

A big shadow passes over Sonic for just an instant.  A quick glance in the direction of the sun shows the Tornado biplane doing a sweeping turn to line up for a landing.  Not surprising is that it is outfitted with pontoons for landing on the gentle ocean waters.  What's different this time is that there is no hum of the engine.  But the plane looks to be operating just fine.  A few minutes later the plane is pulling up on shore with no more noise than the whoosh of a window fan.

Tails weighs anchor, hops out, flies up to Sonic, lands, and strikes a triumphant pose.  With a proud grin he asks, "Notice something different?"

Sonic didn't expect Tails to show up in his plane. But given the obvious new tech, it was clearly an irresistible thing to show off.

Sonic acts all cool, watches the plane land, then when Tails walks over to Sonic, he peers over his sunglasses at him with a smirk. "Haircut? Looks nice on you, Tails!" in a clearly teasing manner.

In the blink of an eye, he's on his feet. He waits for Tails' reaction before saying, "Yeahyeah! I noticed the plane's quiet." he grins. Then looks up at the plane with a look of marvel. "I know I'm hearing clearly, so... how'd you do it?"

The radio in the background continues playing nice, tropical music.

Tails blink-blinks and reaches up to check his hair.  Maybe the wind messed it up?  "Not on purpose...  Oooh.  Heheh, you got me, Sonic!"

The young fox puts on an apologetic look at first, but on noticing Sonic's marveling instead of disappointed with the change, he brightens right up.  "I finally took the plunge and went electric!  Took out the whole engine and replaced it with a salvaged motor!  No more burning fuel and making lots of noise!  Ah.  Erm.  Kinda.  So turns out the birds really need that loud noise to know to steer clear.  So I have a looping track for the PA system to emulate the old engine's sound.  But with a flip of the switch, stealth mode!"

Tails takes a dracula pose, arm hiding his nose and mouth, to further punctuate "stealth mode."

Sonic put his sunglasses on Tails. "Guess you should be the one wearing these, eh little guy? And very good thinking for the birds. I'm glad we can still have the ol' biplane sounds whenever we like."

Sonic looks at the biplane, shading his eyes with his hand. "Waaay past cool."

He then looks back at Tails. "Still performs the same? Wanna give it a test run? Like... do some aerobatics with me riding on the wings?"

Biig smile on Tails' face upon his hero's approval and sharing his sunglasses.  When asked about performance, though, his heart sinks.

Feet shuffling and eyes downcast, Tails reluctantly admits, "It's not going to perform quite as well as a gas engine, unfortunately.  Even factoring in the weight of a full tank of gas.  The trade-off for going with electric is that although it's better for the environment and has the stealth mode option, there's less acceleration, top speed, and range.  Oh!  And electric's more reliable!  Far fewer things can go wrong with the motor than the engine.  I have a couple ideas for compensating for the difference in performance.  Still a work in progress.  But there's no harm in going for a spin!  Battery's all charged up!"

His eyes suddenly go wide as he has an eureka moment.  "Oh.  Wow.  I just figured out how to make electric several times better than gas!  If I install a treadmill for you to generate electricity for the motor!  Can't do that with gas!"

Sonic holds his hands up, "Wo-hohooo there, Tails. Sounds like I'll need a chart to see the pros and cons. And that treadmill will take a while to set up, but sounds fun. For now, though, I'd still like to take a nice, chill cruise through the sky. I was just layin' about staying still anyway. Why not do so up in the sky for a bit?"

He starts hopping aboard the biplane, as if to get Tails movin'.

Tails gives a nervous chuckle.  You know you're getting ahead of yourself when Sonic tells you to slow down.  "I didn't mean right now..."

And there he goes hopping on without a giving a chance for much of a reply.  Sometimes Sonic's impatience is not a good thing.  Not this time!  Now Tails doesn't have to explain himself and can just get to the fun!  With a big smile Tails hops in the pilot's seat.

"Alright!"

The biplane takes off and flies as Tails would expect. No problems. In fact... the quiet seems to be pleasant for Sonic as he spreads his arms, turns to face Tails, closes his eyes with a smile on his face, enjoying the breeze to his back. "So calming... This is really cool, Tails..."

But even while Sonic's facing Tails, Tails can see past Sonic is another flying vehicle of some kind, headed towards the biplane. It is a distance off at the moment, so no emergency yet. But notable since nobody tends to fly around this area of South Island besides Tails, really.

The lil fox is so happy his hero likes the new and debatably "improved" Tornado!  Since Sonic was enjoying calming, Tails had the throttle at cruise speed.  Noticing the incoming flying object, he eases back on the throttle to bleed off a little altitude.  With a little luck, the other plane won't think to descend at this altitude.  Either way, need to warn Sonic.

"We've got incoming, Sonic," Tails answers, wishing he had time to respond to Sonic's compliment instead, "With any luck, they'll simply pass over us.  But I'm kinda worried.  Normally it'd be rude to take an intercept course on purpose...  Unless something's really wrong."

Tails flips on the engine noise just in case whoever it is wasn't looking where they're going and need to hear where they're going.  Then for good measure he turns on his broadcast radio.  "This is the Tornado biplane headed west at 1,200 feet and falling hailing incoming aircraft: please climb.  I repeat, please climb."

Sonic looks over upon being told about the oncoming craft.

The oncoming flying vehicle also begins to descend even as Tails descends. There is no answer from the plane.

Sonic yells over the now-activated noise, "Tails, steer to the side and I'll try to hop aboard when we pass 'em! I wanna see what's goin' on!"

Should Tails follow Sonic's instructions, Sonic does as he said he would and hops onto the other plane! But Tails is able to see as he passes the other plane that the pilot is an unconscious human child.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:06, Fri 15 Apr 2022.

Tails gives Sonic a thumbs-up then nudges to the right.

"I'm turning to YOUR left.  I repeat, I am turning to YOUR left."

The fanboy knew Sonic could easily handle hopping from one moving plane to another going the other direction at these crazy speeds and changing trajectories.  Still.  Not a stunt they've ever tried before.  Heart pounding for more reason than one.

Tails doesn't like to have to pull dangerous stunts without good reason, but being ready to pick Sonic back up before the plane he's in crashes into the water's a good reason.  So full throttle, pull up vertical, barrel roll, stall, drop back down, regain speed, then level off to start catching up to Sonic.  Doing all that instead of a slow bank turn should save several precious seconds.

"I'm hardly one to complain about a kid flying solo, but... it is pretty unusual."

Sonic always assumed Tails did such moves because Tails is epic. But if he knew it was because Tails is a flippin' genius who at the snap of the fingers knows this would work better... he'd still assume Tails is epic. So no change of opinion really!

Sonic surprisingly manages to guide the plane towards the beach for a crash-landing, figuring it will be easier to clean that up than if the plane parts were under water. Besides... free parts for Tails, right?

Meanwhile, he grabs the boy, holds him tight and then oh-so-deftly hops back onto the Tornado. He smirks over at Tails and gives a thumbs-up with his left hand (his right hand occupied with holding the boy)

"Sweet moves, Tails!"

And then SMASH! The boy's plane crash-lands on the beach, shredding itself into a 100-foot long smear of mechanical parts.

(( And now we know why all the bandages wrapped around the shoes.  They make for a convenient way to strap an airplane's control stick in place so it flies where you want it to without a pilot. ))

Tails does the responsible thing and reports the emergency to the authorities even though he knows Sonic'll have everything handled long before they ever show up.  He is rather proud of the fact that the Electric Tornado was able to catch up to the other plane in time for Sonic to hop back aboard with the rescued kid.

"Thanks, Sonic!  But you're one to talk hopping from plane to plane midair like it's a game of hopscotch!"

Tails cringes at the crash landing of the other plane.  No way to have prevented that, really.  Holy cow Sonic's aim making the crash happen on the sand was absolutely perfect to minimize damage to the environment!  Line up for a landing, being sure to keep plenty of space between the Tornado's final mooring and the wreckage.  No avoiding that it'll be a bumpy landing with a sudden lurch at the end when the pontoons dig into the sand, but nothing the superhero can't handle.  Weigh anchor out of pure habit.

"I've got a first aid kit, but it's mostly for cuts and stuff.  If he passed out from exhaustion, I doubt there's any treatment for that besides just rest."

Sonic grins, winks and thumbs-up at Tails' comeback compliment.

Sonic lays the boy down in his beach chair. "What could be his story, I wonder? He seems OK, aside from being unconscious, but I'm no doctor."

The boy starts to stir awake. "Uuuuhh.." he peeks his eyes open a little and says, "H... help... Gigapolis..." is all he manages before fading back to sleep.

"Wow.  Pushed through exhaustion and risked his life to deliver that message.  We gotta do something!"

Tails checks his mobile device for the latest news from Gigapolis.

"I have a feeling that whatever it is hasn't happened just yet, but is about to.  What would be the quickest way to get there and still be of most help?  Hard to say what I'd need to bring without knowing the nature of the threat, which suggests a 'Take everything on a giant flying fortress' approach."

Sonic watches Tails pull up the news. There doesn't seem to be anything special, Gigapolis just telling about a puppy fundraiser, weather, and some little league baseball game.

Sonic says, "I'll be in touch." and zooms off! Gone so fast, he disappears over the nearby cliffs in about two seconds! At the speed he's going, it should take him 3 to 5 minutes to get to Gigapolis.

Tails can easily reach Sonic and continue talking with him via his com-watch.

The boy remains unconscious, but breathes steadily, indicating he is OK. Tails is able to calculate easily that given the distance to Gigapolis and the particular plane the kid was piloting, it would have been a 25 to 30 minute flight from the southwest-most part of the city. So why was the kid so tired after only half an hour? Either something made him tired, or he was pulling an all-nighter (something Tails would be personally familiar with).

Even having braced himself, Tails stumbles from the sudden gust resulting from Sonic's departure.  Being essentially alone now, Tails talks out his thoughts.

"If this is Robotnic, he'll be monitoring all frequencies.  And if I call the Gigapolis authorities, that'll tip old Eggman to the fact that we've been warned.  But what would a kid in a plane know of an evil genius' future schemes?  Probably not Eggman.  So I'll risk using the airways."

Tails looks up the Gigopolis police's number and calls directly rather than go through 911.  "This is Tails Prower, friend to the famous Sonic The Hedgehog.  He's on his way and will arrive in a few minutes.  We just got a tip that Gigopolis is going to need saved in the near future.  From what exactly, we don't know yet.  Which is why I'm calling.  I need you to put out an APB for anything suspicious that might hint at a city-wide threat.  Like maybe a warehouse that gets lots of deliveries, but there's no sign of anyone working there.  Or a bunch of mysterious trucks parking outside the fundraiser.  Underground maintenance in lots of places all at once.  Things like that.


"Soon as I see our informant safely in the hands of first respondents I'll be on my way myself.  You can reach Sonic through me.  1-555-Go-Sonic"

Time being of the essence, he picks up the boy by his belt, flies him into the Tornado, pulls up the anchor, and heads for Gigopolis.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:21, Fri 22 Apr 2022.

A masculine voice comes on the call, "This is Officer Jenkins. We hear you, Tails. I'll make sure the G.P. keep a look out. In the meantime, I'll be assigning an officer to you in case you need any kind of immediate backup. How do we reach Sonic so I can patch him into the call?"

Sonic comes through on the com watch, "Yo, Tails. I booked it double-time, so I'm already here. I'm not seeing anything immediately wrong. Pains me to say it, but you have GOT to try to wake that kid up and get more details. Whatever is wrong, it won't be obvious until it's too late."

Judging from the sound of warping wind funneling in the background, Sonic is not wasting time and is searching even as he asked this of Tails.

Times like this Tails wishes he went with voice command tech instead of insisting on button pushing.  Oh well.  Engage auto-pilot, release controls, punch buttons on wrist com to turn separate calls into a 3-way.

"I've got you all on the same call now.  Sonic, this is Officer Jenkins of the Gigapolis Police.  Thanks for taking this seriously, Officer.  Sonic's got so much experience saving the day he can feel when a tip is real.

"Sonic, I can give it a try, but I don't think he's waking even if I dump water on him.  (We both kinda already did get a little wet from take-off, and he's still out cold.)  I'm guessing someone at the airport knows about him.  May have heard his story and helped him out.  It's not easy to just take someone's plane.  I'd probably have heard of this boy if he owned his own plane.  At the very least, they'll know about his take-off and whether or not he was cleared.

"Speaking of landing.  I'm going to have to land on the river.  Haven't outfitted my pontoons to be able to double as landing gear yet."

Sonic asked that he try, so he's gunna try.  He unbuckles, turns around to face the back seat, and pat-pats the boy's cheek.  "Hey!  Wake up!  Save Gigapolis from what?  Where's the crisis?  Sonic can't find it!"

The boy slowly opens his eyes to look at Tails. Seems to take him energy for every word he speaks, so he takes a breath between words. "Under... ground.. entrance...  private... airport... closest... to us..." he is fighting to keep his eyes open, as if waiting further questions. He seems barely there, but trying his hardest.

Officer Jenkins says, "So it turns out there were reports of multiple planes taking off from the private airport he's referring to, assuming he means the one closest to Turquoise Hill. However, those planes were back within a few minutes, and none of them were on the main airways, so it wasn't alarming. This all happened about 30 minutes ago."

Sonic cuts in with, "I'm at the airport and searching it for secret passages. Tails, if you were to keep a secret underground passage in your own airport, where would you put it?"

"We're on it, buddy!" Tails encourages the boy, figuring if the shoe were on the other foot, he'd really want to know his warning was taken seriously, "Where in the airport is the entrance?"

A couple of guys having a fun outing in private planes together off the main airways is nothing out of the ordinary.  But for them to only go flying for a few minutes?  And not notice one among them is a kid flying toward the beach, never to return?  That's weird.

The boy's eyelids are heavy as he gazes at Tails. "Entrance..." he starts. "ih... inside... where... they keep.. airplanes..." he struggles as if trying to find the word and starts to cry. "If I was there, I could point to it!" he yells in frustration. He smacks himself, leaving a red mark on his cheek. He seems to be hyperventilating.

Officer Jenkins says, "He's describing a hangar, I think?"

Sonic says, "Thanks to Tails, I can show this kid what I'm seeing. Putting watch on visual, Tails! I'm in the hangar."

Tails is receiving the video feed of the hangar. Sonic is clearly pointing the watch outward from himself.

Tails takes off his watch and turns it to face the boy.

"You're doin' great, buddy!  As you can see, Sonic's almost there!"

Whatever it is must be super urgent for a kid to beat up on himself like that.  A secret entrance under the hangar?  What could be the crisis?  Well whatever it is, Sonic'll save the day with time to spare!

The boy looks. "Forward... to the plane on your left. Between there and... the back wall the floor opens up. That's the entrance."

Sonic goes to the spot indicated and begins quickly checking each floor panel. "Warmer..." the boy says. "Hot. HOT!"

Sonic uses his spindash to pop open a floor panel. "Well would you look at that..."

Sonic shows Tails a ladder that leads down to a door. He slides down the sides of the ladder, landing on the bottom and opens the door. As he enters, the connection to Sonic begins getting interference. "Yo Tails... as I thought, this place is interfering with our connection. If you don't hear back from me in the next... 2 minutes, then I probably found trouble."

Officer Jenkins says, "I'm sending some squad cars that way now."

"You did it, buddy!" Tails cheers!

He turns and buckles back in.  What a hair-raising experience.  That's the longest he's ever flown blind.

"Rodger, Sonic.  I'm closing in.  Will land as close to airport as possible.  Officer, it would be a huge help if you could get some E.M.T.s to where the river is closest to the airport.  I don't want to just leave him with the plane, and carrying him all the way to the airport will slow things way down."

The boy stares for a moment and says, "Oh... right... my name... is Maverick." before flopping back in his seat and conking out.

2 minutes come and go, but no word from Sonic. Most assuredly, he has found the trouble he was looking for. But no major explosions or alerts come through.

10 minutes later, Tails is able to land at the river. Still not at the airport, but at least it means his plane trip didn't take too long. There are EMTs waiting and they drive over to the closest spot to Tails, rush out and take hold of Maverick.

There is also a squad car and out of it peaks a cop. "Tails! Over here!" he brings something to his mouth and Tails hears on his com "It's me, Officer Jenkins. I'm the one waving atchya. Come get a ride to the airport, bud."

Whew!  I'm no Sonic, who coulda pulled that off without even being in the plane, but boy was that a good landing! Tails is thinking after having successfully landed the tornado just so that he had just deep enough water to not damage the pontoons, soon enough that he didn't risk going under a bridge, not so soon he'd have a long way to go to get to the EMTs, and just close enough to the shore that a little tail rudder sticks him in the shore for a quick and convenient mooring.  Still, weigh anchor out of habit.

"Thanks for taking care of him," Tails says to the EMTs, "His name's Maverick.  And judging from the fact that Sonic's taking more than 2 minutes, this boy just saved your city from a huge problem!"

Tails smiles and waves back.  He grabs his toolbox, flies over, gets in, and buckles up.  "Thanks so much, Officer Jenkins!"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:02, Thu 28 Apr 2022.

Gigapolis was the more human-populated area of South Island, so Jenkins and the EMTs being mostly humans (with one dog EMT) is not surprising. Jenkins is your stereotypical mustached cop.

"Buckled? Good boy." Jenkins says with a serious face, then drives towards the airport, sirens going so he can zoom there!

On the way there, Jenkins asks, "Why is it always you poor kids getting stuck in these horrible situations? Well know that the police are proud of you and the kid you rescued! Doing the right thing isn't always easy, but you guys are made of tough stuff!"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:48, Thu 28 Apr 2022.

Tails considers the question.  How would he have felt if an old man were in Maverick's place?  Maybe?  Grownup would make more sense, at least.  So why was it a kid instead?  Murphey's Law?

Tails shrugs.  "Dunno.  Maybe it's statistically the same for all ages, just more noticeable when it is kids.  And thanks!  I'd say I'm used to it by now, but that's not really true.  Even though I know Sonic will win, I still worry every time."

He fights the urge to call Sonic on the communicator.  If things are this dire, at best it's pointless because the signal's blocked.  But there's also the chance that getting closer will reconnect the signal and his call will distract Sonic at a crucial moment.

Jenkins pulls up to the hangar at the private airport and some men in suits are there. They proceed to have a legal argument with Jenkins, claiming he needs a warrant to so much as be on the premises.

Jenkins explains in a calm but stern manner, "The only "warrant" I need is a little boy who escaped from this place, pleading for help. You can cooperate, or you can act like someone who has something to hide. Neither is going to stop me and mine from searching the area he fled from to find out what is going on."

One of the suits reaches up to his ear as if listening to someone.

Tails keeps quiet while the adults talk.  All the while, he's fiddling with his handheld computer looking for a reason for the interference.  Most likely the underground passage was constructed with a faraday cage to avoid any detection, but you never know.  There could be something else here.  A mysterious wifi connection for remotely opening something, perhaps?  Relay for sending updates to the mastermind about the progress on their underground weapon?

"Please be sure to tell your bosses that the tip we got involves an imminent calamity level event that could destroy the entire city.  Ya know...  your homes and theirs?"

He's working under the assumption that both the guards and the rich people who own this place will want to not die.  And that his reputation as Sonic's sidekick will convince them that this is to be taken seriously.

But what if the rich people already know about the threat?  Like, maybe they're tunneling for gold and their geologists warned them that there's a 1% chance of hitting a fault line?  And they got legal permission to dig anyway because they blackmailed the guy at the permits office?  Still they kept the whole project secret because there'd be a huge public outcry if the citizens found out rich people were gambling with their lives.  Tails scans the airways to see if he can pick up what's being said to the guard on his earpiece.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:23, Sat 30 Apr 2022.

The men in black don't seem impressed. But they are also vastly underestimating Tails as he easily hacks into the signal the suits are receiving;

"... -all as much as you can. We have the hedgehog handled."

Meanwhile, the cop is headed for the panel, but the suits trip him and point guns at him. They are also sure to back up so they have enough distance to be at a stand-off rather than in melee range. They at LEAST didn't underestimate Tails or the cop in that respect.

Tails figures these guys are robots, or just really really dumb.  Like every villain.  Still doesn't understand how they shrug off consequences as if playing with fire won't burn you.  The bit about The Hedgehog being "handled" has him very concerned, though.  Did they blast a tunnel, trapping him inside?  No time to worry about that, need to think fast.

Tails switches his watch to transmit only, hoping the other officers will hear and raises his hands in surrender.  "No please don't shoot!  There must be some misunderstanding.  Officer Jenkins really is a police officer!  We really are searching this hangar to protect the city!"

Here's hoping that's enough to tip off the police, but not so much as to tip off the goons that Tails is giving his location.  He looks for some way to escape, but hesitates to think of what they might do to Jenkins if they panic.

Officer Jenkins frowns, holds up his hands and says, "Pointing a weapon at a police officer may be a crime, but make no mistake nothing can or will save you if you fire those weapons on us."

One of the men says, "Not our concern. If the boss orders it, we do it. Even things that end our lives."

Sirens blaring can be heard as multiple cop cars are driving to the scene. One of the men holds a hand to his earpiece.

Jenkins mutters to Tails. "Be ready for anything..."

Tails can hear on the com channel, "Kill the cop and if possible, take the fox hostage. Then meet me in the base."

Tails' eyes go wide and he gasps upon hearing the orders.  Yes, he can spin-dash, but at maybe one tenth the speed and power of Sonic, so there's no way he could take out all these guys before one of them shot Jenkins.  So instead he tries the oldest trick in the book...  with the legitimate shock and horror written on his face lending credence to his bluff.

"OH NO!"

He points behind the guys.

"I warned you!  RUN!"

Immediately followed by a spin-dash to Jenkins, grabbing him by the wrist, and using his momentum combined with a little extra burst with the spinning tails, tries to fling the officer to cover!

The old trick works! Instead of the typical "you think I'll fall for that?", both of the men briefly glance.

But a fraction of Sonic's speed is still outrageously fast as Tails manages everything he set out to do in a split-second! The men try firing at the thrown cop, but their aim is messed up by the suddenness and they even wind up firing a few bullets at Tails! They miss, but the danger was there.

The cop cars surround the area. The men are now focused on trying to capture Tails as they try gripping at him. But there is only two of them. Fighting through cities' worth of badniks makes dodging these guys a piece of cake. Now it is only a matter of whether to go into the base to try and rescue Sonic and hope the cops can be his backup in time, or flee to hide behind a cop car until the 2 suits are dealt with.

Tails was sooo expecting to get shot and thanks his lucky stars they missed.  He remembers hearing the orders to stall, so realizes that there's a chance that if he acts really decisively, the boss will be foiled.  So into the shaft it is!  For once it's an advantage to be small since he can just fly down.

"How in the world am I going to handle something Sonic couldn't all on my own?!"

Desperate, he calls Knuckles.  "MAYDAY!  SONIC CAPTURED!  ENTRANCE IS THE PRIVATE AIRPORT IN GIGOPOLIS!  I NEED YOUR HELP, KNUCKLES!"

He keeps repeating the distress call down the tunnel till he's certain the signal won't get through.

Tails soon finds himself in a large indoors factory of some kind. The conveyor belts are still moving with random machine parts laid upon them.

There doesn't seem to be anyone present in the large room. A voice comes over the speakers, however, and says, "Ah Tails. Welcome! So glad you could come! Worry not! Soon, you will be joining your friend Sonic!"

With that, some automated cranes begin swinging towards Tails. Tails' comm picks up binary commands on the airwaves and informs him that the cranes are not the only things being given commands; there are some sort of lasers preparing to fire on him.

Tails is quick to duck underneath the conveyor belts.  Or some other expensive-looking cover if there's no way to get under the belts.  He's guessing that the automated defenses are programmed to keep damage to the machines to a minimum.  But just in case, he'll keep moving.

"Congratulations on making yourself a brief speed-bump to Sonic.  Not many can boast of inconveniencing him for more than a few nanoseconds.  But you don't really stand a chance to actually accomplish whatever insane long-term goal you're after here.  But since you're not Robotnik, I may as well ask: are you smart enough to realize it's time to turn yourself in to negotiate a reduced sentence?"

He takes in the area, looking for a likely place to try and hack the system in relative safety.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:45, Mon 09 May 2022.

The villain laughs. "Ah the diehard fan of Sonic! So adorable. Nay. My goal is almost here. And Sonic is unable to do a thing about it. But YOU, on the other hand... if you can get to Sonic and rescue him in the next, oh, minute, then YOU and ONLY YOU will bring a halt to my plans. You see... much if what you worship about your blue friend fails to see that he needs you every bit as much as you need him. Sonic fell right into the trap I prepared for him like a lab rat to cheese. And just like Sonic, you will dance just like a puppet of my own design as well. See... I will even give you a map to where Sonic is held. Along with a timer. Enjoy!"

Tails's watch beeps showing a minimap of the place along with seconds counting in the corner: 59... 58...

Don't lose your head.  Chances are he's lying.  About everything.  And even if he's telling the truth and using reverse psychology, panic won't help.

Tails takes a deep breath to calm himself and takes off his watch.  With a bit of gum he sticks his watch on the underside of the conveyor belt, hoping to trick the guy about his real movements.  He then starts stealthily following the power cables to what he's hoping will be a main fuse box.  Not much of a plan, but if he can take the power out, that'll hopefully buy some time.

Whoever this is, whether he is Robotnik with a voice disguiser for some weird reason, or just some other mad genius, he apparently employs the use of robots! An all too familiar scene for Tails as some robots enter the room, searching for Tails.

Tails spots a fuse box. But he would have to be out in the open with robots watching in order to reach it... it is about 30 yards from his current cover.

Tails would immediately recognize Robotnik's style of badnicks if that's what they are.  Either way, he's wanting to lend more validity to his false location and hopefully make a diversion while he's at it.  Quietly grabbing a rubber tube from his toolbox, useful for sooo many things besides this, he uses it to slingshot a small pebble across to where he's thinking his watch should be by now.  Or a small socket if a pebble isn't handy.  Inwardly he's patting himself on the back for making foam cut-outs for each individual tool.  The idea was to keep the tools from getting damaged, but stealth toolbox is turning out to be a great side-benefit.

Hoping the diversion worked, Tails spin-dashes for the fuse box!  30 yards never looked so far away.  If there's an obvious main power switch he'll reach out to switch it off.  If not he'll risk smashing the box with his body like Sonic would.

The fuse box is switched and the room goes dark. Then gets lit by dim red lights indicative of backup power. The mad scientist's voice comes through in a sarcastic tone, "Oh no! The fuse box! Not the fuse box!"

But given it shut off most of the machinery in this room, Tails may be onto something. Most, though, as the robots run on battery power like most free-roaming robots.

Speaking of Tails being onto something, he can also see the wiring and piping of this room seems to not branch off, so he is able to deduce there is really only one way to go from here to find the next room. The only downside right now is that his watch is elsewhere and the place is dark where the robots likely have the ability to see in the dar-

The robots turn on flashlights that are attached to their arms (think like how the SWATbots did that to see in darker places). Maybe Tails really is on a level playing field when he shuts power off. Either way, this room is clearly not where Sonic is being held.

Tails then hears a girl's voice inside his head, "Hello. I'm a friend. The map Dr. Brainstein gave you is technically correct, but the time limit is a lie. Your time IS short, but not 30 seconds short. He wants you to be reckless and stressed. And there are alternate routes to Sonic. You can do this."

"Yes!" Tails cheered when the lights went out.  Then immediately dove for cover again.

Kinda expected there to be back-up power.  I'd have back-up power if it were me.  Sarcastic taunts when the main power's shut down, too.  Maybe.  But this proves the villain had sense enough to have the intercoms tied into the backup, at least.

Oh!  A telepathic friend?  Uh... hi!  Nice to meet you.  And thanks for letting me know that.  Hmm.  Chances are, Dr. Brainstein has his robots' eyes tied into a wireless network so he can see what they see.  I could use that, but...  He was able to hack my watch, so I need to be especially careful trying to access...  Oh wait!  You're a telepath!  Can you hack Brainstein's brain and tell me how to get past his security?

Tails begins working on using his handheld computer to try and gain access to Brainstein's network.  Specifically looking for anything he can do to hinder the villain's ability to follow Tails' movements and react.

"Can't. The guy keeps me prisoner because he knows about my powers. So he has this helmet he wears that keeps me out of his head. But everyone slips up... his only concern was what I could do to him, so he didn't think about if I could talk to invaders. I at least know he knows you and Sonic and was prepared for your arrival, 'cause he bragged about it before you got here."

The network seems to be consistent with the map Tails was given earlier. And it is all very efficient. But as for blocking Brainstein from tracking Tails, the only sure bet would be to not carry networking devices. "Come now, Tails!" the voice comes over the com, "Surely computers are only a convenience for that magnificent mind of yours! You can find another way, you brilliant fox!"

Tails gets a smug smirk upon seeing what he found.

Efficient means a general lack of redundancy.  Smashing one hub will very likely take out the network if I can find it.  Getting you out...  I should be able to cross-wire any lock panel.  Yeah.  I can do this without my computer!

Tails removes the tracker from his toolbox and leaves the tracker and his computer behind.  Then heads for where he's guessing the girl is being held.

Tails' educated guess gets him to a room where there was sufficient energy diverted for a living space, but not much else, as per the efficiency. There, he finds a blonde human girl wearing some kind of silver tights with circles at various spots that seem to indicate locations to hook up wiring.

The girl looks hopeful at Tails. "You came for me first?"

Tails gives a grin and thumbs - up like he'd expect Sonic to do if asked that same question.

"I had a feeling that you'd be the easier rescue. And I doubt I can rescue Sonic without your help. Willing to lend a hand?"

The girl gets a bright smile. "I can help? Cool! Oh! My name's Liberty, by the way..."

As Tails anticipated, a simple crossing of wires and kerchink! The door opens! Liberty hops out and hugs Tails!

"My name's... woah oof!"

Tails returns the hug in that, "You're cute but we've got urgent things to do," kinda way.

"My name's Tails.  And yes.  For starters, please let Sonic know that I'm working on getting him out...  If you haven't already.  Pretty good chances the robots are already on their way here, so let's hide!"

Tails doesn't make assumptions about how fast the girl is, so he tries flying her to someplace where the two can escape the notice of any robots.

As it happens, there is a ledge those ground-based bots can't get to and is also easy to hide from their view so they don't inform anyone to send air-based bots. Liberty gasps at being grabbed and lifted to that spot. Once hidden, she continues talking to Tails' mind, "Sonic is.. unconscious. I've made several attempts to wake him, but I think Brainstein is artificially inducing unconsciousness to Sonic."

She looks about. "My telepathy only works with living creatures... so you, Sonic and I are it. But... I sense a lot of people above. Police."

On the one hand, worrisome that Sonic is out cold.  On the other, at least he's not suffering from being stuck in a boring holding cell.

Tails nods to Liberty and thinks at her the events so far, assuming her telepathy works as quick as thought.  He's got lots of questions floating around in his head, but tries to suppress them so as to not overwhelm Liberty.  Next step is to figure out what trap Brain Stain expected me to walk into.  And without the options of hacking or mind-reading, the only thing left is to scout.

Tails does his best to scout the path to Sonic without being spotted or falling into a trap.

Liberty seems to just smile at Tails when his mind goes wild. Either Tails was successful in suppressing thoughts, or this girl is hard to overwhelm. Or both.

The path to Sonic seems straight forward. It does have robots and the occasional semi-obvious trap. None of the traps appear to be lethal, though. As if the intent is only to capture and never to harm. Which is not consistent with Brainsteins earlier lethal order to "kill Jenkins"

Tails can see Sonic up ahead, suspended in a bubble of some kind, made of energy as if a force field. Under and above the bubble are technological rings.

Liberty telepaths, "I've informed Officer Jenkins that you're OK and that you found Sonic. The men who work for Brainstein have been arrested."

Oh!  Thanks for telling him!  Especially handy that your telepathy can get past whatever's blocking radio signals.  Non-lethal traps?  I'm wondering if this guy's project was to capture Sonic and somehow harvest his power all along.  Yours and mine as well.  Wonder if Maverick has a super power.  Commanding a plane to fly just from touching it, perhaps.  Do we have time to leave this place, get Maverick for his technopathy, then return and have Maverick mind control the robots.  Hmm.  Probably should just risk freeing Sonic now.

Tails does his best to alter a trap to work on the robots instead.  Preferably one that'll keep it still long enough for him to try and take the robot apart.

Liberty says, "Maverick doesn't have technopathy. But he is very good at stealth and being stubborn. He's my brother. But even if he had superpowers, I don't think we have time to leave and return."

The traps seem easily altered.

Stubborn is right.  Forcing himself to stay awake long enough to give the location of the entrance, for example.

Tails isn't quite sure what the plan is.  Step 1.  Lure robot into trap.  Step 2.  Use it to release Sonic, somehow.  Can't program it without a computer unless...  Nah.  Efficient Brain Stain wouldn't put a console into each robot.  Will have to figure something out.

I'll lure a robot to a trap so we can use it to rescue Sonic.

Tails tries the subtle approach first.  Throw a pebble where you want the robot to go.

Plan A begins to work out. Robot aggros Tails. Robot falls into trap. Over the com, Tails hears, "I commend you for keeping your cool despite that minute I gave you. If you are curious, you made it to Sonic in 4 minutes and 35 seconds. Why that's almost enough time for Sonic to reach Gigapolis from the shores of Turquoise Hill. But speed isn't everything. Sonic fell for my traps and you have yet to. Is Sonic stupid? Or do you secretly, deep inside, realize you have a coolness even your hero doesn't have? After all; a TRUE believer would have believed there is no way their own hero needs rescuing."

Liberty telepaths, "Blablabla mind games, blablabla I'm soooo smart. The only reason to listen to Brain Stain is in case he drops useful hints. I believe in you, Tails! SONIC believes in you or he wouldn't take you places! It is no wonder you know full well that as cool as Sonic is, *everyone* needs someone."

The robot has standard robot parts/salvage. Importantly, connectors that could be use to jury-rig an interface to the device holding Sonic.

Tails inwardly cheered when he discovered the robot parts could be used as an interface!  His face was already turning read from Brainstein's mind games, but Liberty's praise makes him blush all the more.

Thanks for the assurances, Liberty.  I'm puzzled by this villain.  On the one hand, his jabs are more insightful that Robotnick's...  On the other, because Robotnick's more honest about his own feelings...  I'm able to keep Brain Stain from getting to me because I know that he's a big fat liar.

He shows Liberty how to cross wire the door to Sonic's cell.

I'm expecting there to be some trap triggered as soon as I try to release Sonic.  So touch those wires together if I get trapped inside with Sonic.  That should let us back out.  I hope.  OK.  Here I go...
This message was last edited by the player at 20:45, Thu 19 May 2022.

Liberty is really excited about being part of the plan. Even if she doesn't think it likely she'll be needed. She nods to Tails, acknowledging his plan.

Once Tails releases Sonic, just as he suspected, a backup happens to try trapping both, but Liberty immediately touches the wires! Sonic and Tails are released for half a second. JUST long enough for Tails to get out with Sonic. Who is still unconscious.

Liberty looks shocked / startled that she just helped. And that it worked. Sonic groans as if trying to wake. Liberty stares at him intently.

Tails was a lot more pessimistic about the plan working.  Was really expecting to only be able to wake Sonic just in time for him to zoom out the door dragging Tails rather than the other way around.  Either way, he pat-pats Sonic's cheek to try and wake him.

"Wish I could let ya have your beauty rest, but we're not outta the woods yet, Sonic.  I was only able to take down 1 badnick, and there's plenty more."

Huh.  No sarcastic remarks or shockingly accurate mind games from Brain Stain.  Did the cops find him?  Is he speechless that his plan failed?

Liberty keeps staring intently at Sonic and he says, "Woah... WOAH! OK... that was weird."

Liberty then gets a startled expression and then a smile. Sonic looks at her with surprise. Then looks at Tails and smiles. "Heh. Quite the friend you got there, Tails. Knew you'd come for me soon as this guy caught me. But I got worried when he predicted you would be on your way to rescue me."

He hops to his feet and gets that confident battle-ready smirk. "Alright. Well now that I'm free, let's find this bad guy and make sure to stop whatever it is Maverick warned us about. You know where the big bad is, yet, Tails? Where's your watch? And datapa-WOAH... w-warn me when you're gonna do that, girl... er... Liberty. OK."

Liberty smiles. Sonic nods. "Alright. She got me caught up on everything. Hang tight, Tails. I'mma grab your gear and come back here."

ZOOM! Off he goes!

Liberty looks over to Tails and gives a helpless grin and shrug. "Heh?"

Tails is super relieved that Sonic shook off his grogginess so fast, but isn't really surprised.  He giggles from the exchange.

"I'm gunna have to tease him about your mind being to fast for him, heh.  Thanks for speeding things along, Liberty!  Not to mention getting us outta that room.

"Now you mentioned you knew more about what kinda time limit we're working on.  When Sonic gets back, you should get us both caught up on what you know Brain Stain, his plan, his location, and whatever else could help."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:52, Fri 20 May 2022.

Liberty nods. "I've been here about five days. Lemme collect my thoughts so I don't miss anything and don't hafta fill your mind with... unnecessaries."

Liberty sits in a meditative pose, closing her eyes.

Sonic suddenly shows up and hands Tails his watch and computer. He looks at Liberty, then to Tails.

Liberty opens her eyes and Sonic and Tails feel a flood of thoughts. The parts of the factory Liberty has walked through, the location of Brainstein's office, the parts of the factory Maverick walked through, and what happened leading up to Mav going to find help:

When Brainstein's goons kidnapped Liberty, they were only after her. Maverick initially told the cops about her kidnapping, but unsurprisingly she wasn't found. But Maverick was intent on rescuing his sister. Frustrated, he wandered the city, "yelling" with his mind so Liberty could reveal her location. He had been up all day and all night before he made it to the private airport. Liberty sensed him, told him the way in that she knew about, so he sneaked in. When he learned there was a whole factory and that there was a project the scientist was working on, he looked and figured out it was linked to the whole city and to some kind of robot. Liberty told him to go warn Sonic and Tails, so he sneaked out, but due to having used a computer at all, Brainstein knew there was an intruder. Maverick managed to get to one of the planes and luckily, found the key still in it. So he flew towards Turquoise Hill Beach because he had overheard from Sonic enthusiasts that Sonic and Tails might be found there.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:45, Fri 20 May 2022.

Instead, she floods your mind with necessaries.

Tails tries to piece together Brainstein's plan from what he just learned.  (I'm assuming Brainstein isn't nearby and easily bonk-able right now from the fact that Sonic didn't already bonk him.)

"Kinda reminds me of the Metal Sonic plan.  The idea of kidnapping a telepath and Sonic to incorporate their powers together in one robot is a scary thought, though.  Considering he's got so much money and resources to throw around, I'm guessing making it big isn't the goal here.  Either conquest or revenge or both.  Either way, probably doesn't care one bit about how much damage he does to the city.

"He stopped taunting me as soon as I rescued you, Sonic.  So I'm thinking the taunts were actually attacks to get me to fail, and rescuing you when I did really messed up his plan.  Meaning that the robot's not quite complete, and doesn't have all your speed.  But he did have Liberty for 5 days.  So the robot can probably predict your moves.  If he's even got 3/4 of your speed that'll make it really hard to take down.

"I've got some ideas.  For fighting the robot, I'll set Sonic up with a sorta harmless remote control so I can remotely make Sonic occasionally throw the robot some unpredictable curve balls without Sonic having to even think about it.  I'm expecting one good hit to take it out since Brain Stain's robots are so much more efficient than Robotnic's over-built badnicks.  For getting to Brain Stain himself, Maverick might be key.  The guy will be distracted with the robot fight, most likely.  But even then it'll take an expert sneak to get past the sentries."

Since Liberty was captured first, is it going to be a girl robot?  Nah.  More likely it'll look like Brainstein.

Sonic thinks as Tails says his piece. "Well I'mma do a quick search for him. BRB, Tails!"

Sonic zooms off.

Liberty giggles. "...a girl robot..."

Liberty looks at Tails. "You can make a controller that controls people? Woah! Cool! Well in the meantime, I can't read a robot's mind. Normally, anyway. But if this robot is advanced enough to be a person, maybe I can... this Metal Sonic you mentioned. Is he still alive?"

Flashback to little Amy Rose rescuing Metal from the cold and snow, wrapping him in a bow and delivering him back to Eggman as a Christmas present to both Eggman and Metal.

Returning to present. "If not... if you can set up something that can read the thoughts of our opponent, I could handle that while you handle Sonic. You're used to his moves and speed, so you would be best for that, after all. But... Oh! And do you think you would be able to hack Brain Stain's helmet so I could get inside his head? That would be perfect in case he can't help himself and shows up to 'watch his victory' or something."

Sonic zooms back to the pair, some zapping cables in hand. "As predicted, he's not here, but I made sure to find the main power supply and cut it off. Easy for Tails to repair so he can hack the main computer, but stops any nefarious computations in the meantime."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:25, Sun 22 May 2022.

Tails is so used to Sonic's decisiveness and vanishing to go kick butt that it barely registers beyond the usual Sims plus sign over his head.  He looks a little surprised at Liberty's reaction to the idea of a girl robot, then realizes that the concept doesn't happen in real life but in very rare cases.  Happens much more often in his own imaginings.

"Well not really 'controls.'  More that there'd be a few recievers on Sonic like two watches and two ankle bracelets.  Each would give a tiny jiggle when activated.  Sonic's reflexes are literally faster than thought, so as soon as he got used to the idea of, 'right watch jiggle means to bounce off the right wall to attack from the robot's side,' and 'left ankle bracelet jiggle means circle around to the left side,' he'll be able to do what I'm asking him remotely without having to process it.  The real bottleneck is the one trying to do the controlling.  Which... probably should be you now that you mention it.  I'm decent at video games, but you're right I'd be better used focusing on hacking.  With Brain Stain distracted, I'll have a chance."

With Sonic returned, Tails smiles.  Rather proud of him for finding the main power supply (and probably smashing all the bots in the process) when he's not a techie.

"Thanks, Sonic!  I'll do my best!"

Sonic says, "Well I've cleared this place of dangers. Even ran over the rest of the place after clearing the bots in case there were traps. Activated a few. So I think we're good to go and can go out to meet the police."

He looks at Liberty. "You did good, Liberty! Thanks for helping my buddy Tails and consequently helping me!"

He looks back at Tails. "Thanks, Tails. You really stuck it to the bad guy and even threw yourself knowingly into the trap he had for you while outsmarting the trap by putting trust in your newfound friend. Now that's teamwork and solid hero-thinking!"

He offers Tails a high five and then Liberty (who gladly high-fives). Then guides the pair out to the cops.

The police take statements. Jenkins, of course, gives Tails a congratulatory speech about how heroic and brave he was. "I think we just got ourselves 4 new honorary police officers today."

Sonic grins. "Does this mean I can have one of those police badges dangling from my neck like the too-cool cops on tv shows?"

Jenkins nods, "Sure does."

Sonic pumps his fist, "Alright!"

Liberty slowly wraps her arms around Tails, snuggling him from beside him. She is smiling, but tears are rolling down her cheeks and she is shaking a little.

Tails high-fives Sonic.  "Alright!"

He blushes from all the praise, but is smiling.  Fantasies of being a private detective duo with Sonic immediately come to mind when honorary cop badges are offered.

"We still have a badguy to - woah!"

Tails returns Lib's hug and gives her a reassuring pet.  "Thanks so much for helping, Liberty!"

Liberty sniffles. "Y... you bet. Sorry... I don't know why I'm crying."

Jenkins says, "Because you were a kidnap victim, kid. It's natural."

Sonic says, "Sure we have a bad guy to catch. But our best bet at finding him will probably be one of his computers in the place we just left. And if he's got even a quarter of your brains, Tails, he will have thought to wipe his computer clean so we can't find him that way. But I'm open to ideas."

Liberty says, "He hacked Tails' watch, right? Maybe Tails can trace where the hack came from."

Tails whispers to Liberty, "Don't tell anyone... but I cry after surviving danger too."

Big boys aren't supposed to cry, but sharing that with her might help make her feel better about it.

"I'll try both," Tails answers Sonic.

He starts working on his handheld computer while flying back down into the evil lair.  Inwardly he's kicking himself for being scared to go in even though Sonic said he'd already cleared the place out of all dangers.  Nothing to be afraid of.  Just a creepy evil lair as silent as a grave.

Liberty telepaths to Tails, "Your secret's safe with me."

Anxious as she is to follow Tails around like a lost puppy, she looks at an officer and says, "Can you take me to my brother Maverick? None of this would have been possible without him and I have yet to thank him."

The cop says, "Sure thing, li'l missy. Right this way." and guides her into a cop car.

Sonic meanwhile, shrugs and says, "Got not much else to do, so I'll be making sure no surprises happen inside while Tails is hacking."

Sonic trots down into the factory with Tails. He gives a proud smirk to Tails.

Tails thought back at Lib, Thanks!

By the time he's at the evil lair's computer, he's done a fresh malware sweep of his handheld and watch, and wrapped them in foil.

"The foil acts like a faraday cage to prevent my handheld from getting hacked again while I work on this system," Tails explains.

Disconnect the base computer from any communications, wrap it in foil for good measure, (unless it's huge), boot up the computer on backup power using his own boot thumb drive that snoops for malware and suicideware, then get to sniffing for clues.  Tails is expecting to not find any clues on badguy computer.

While Tails runs the sniffer on the base computer he checks the results on his own.  "Unsurprisingly, he hacked my watch and handheld using the base's wireless.  Which must be hardwired to some outside network.  Unless he figured out how to magically bypass his own base's radio communications blocker.  Which wouldn't make sense for Mr. Efficiency when a simple solution is available.  In any case, this means that I can't track him from his hacking my handheld.  The only chance I have of finding his location is if he overlooked something on his computer or his router..."

He checks the sniffer's results on the base computer.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:18, Sat 28 May 2022.

Sonic zooms off.

Tails finds an incomplete wipe on Brainstein's computer (which is about the size of a small room). It can be concluded Sonic cutting off the power prevented the computer from completing the wipe. And because Tails is able to catch it, he is able to stop the wipe from continuing!

Meanwhile, on his own watch/computer, Tails is able to deduce the IP that hacked him was in fact the giant Brainstein computer he's staring at.

Sonic appears and says, "Double-checked. While there are no more robots or computers of interest, I think I found how he escaped."