Corrosion

Disclaimer: It's not mine...oh well.

Chapter one

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Entry number 317

date: sometime in late April, I don’t care.

-

It seems that my study of Chaos energy has reached a dead end.

Here I was monitoring the wavelength pulses of the emeralds when the stupid machine flatlines on me! It’s going to take weeks to fix the blasted thing! And you know I have limited patience for faulty machines.

Sigh...it’s going to be a loooong day.

Ja, Tails.

-

Miles Prower, aka “Tails” signed off his journal and disconnected his headset microphone with a heavy sigh, sinking back into his large cushioned computer chair. He twitched his two tails in irritation and glared at the offending energy monitor.

Tails couldn’t help but growl in frustration. The systems seemed to be fully functional, all of the delicate wiring was in place and intact, and each and every circuit and board were all practically brand new...but the blasted piece of equipment that he had spent over a month in it’s design was blatantly refusing give him the pulse readings. And he only had it in operation for a day.

It took nearly all his willpower to keep from screaming, so he settled for smacking his forehead into the inactive control panel.

At that moment, his good friend Knuckles wandered into the lab. “Hey Tails, what’s up?”

All the echidna got in response was a low growl.

“That bad huh?”

“You have no idea Knux.”

Knuckles gave a small snort and smiled. “No, I don’t. But if you’re hungry, we’re having dinner in about an hour, ‘k?”

“Gotcha.”

The red echidna shook his head and left the fox boy to his computer problems. If there was one thing he had learned about Tails in the time he had spent living at the workshop, it was that when he threw a fit at something and you prodded too much...well, let’s just say it was never pleasant.

Climbing up the three flights of stairs to ground level and walking into the living room, Knuckles noticed a very familiar pair of triangular blue ears peaking over the top of the sofa in front of the wide-screen plasma tv. As he approached, the ears twitched at the sound of his footsteps and a white-gloved hand waved in greeting.

“Hey Knuckles, how’s it goin’?”

“Well enough, ‘cept Tail is in a snit over something, you might want to keep your distance.” Knuckles sat down on the couch next to his hedgehog friend, Sonic. “So who told you that you can just waltz in here without knocking? And where have been for the past four days?”

The blue hedgehog gave Knuckles a small smirk, “I kinda live here too ya know.”

“I know that you bonehead, so where’ve ‘ya been?”

Sonic shrugged “oh you know, out and around. Ran around a bit, got chased by fans in Station Square, did a little sightseeing in the Ruins, found a chaos emerald, you know, the usual stuff.”

Knuckles blinked at him. “You found an Emerald? Why didn’t you say so sooner?”

“I don’t know Knux. Maybe I’m just tired or somethin’, does it matter?”

Knuckles’ twitched. “I swear, if we weren’t friends Sonic...” he started, but calmed. “honestly, you usually rub something like that in my face. Something wrong?”

The blue hedgehog’s expression was unusually distant as he pulled the red emerald from his spines. “Don’t know Knux. I guess running into Shadow over this thing might have something to do with it.”

“You met Shadow? You two knock each other senseless again or something?”

Sonic gave him a half shrug. “Maybe him more than me, he gave me one hell of a kick to the side of my head.” he said, tapping his left temple and suppressing a wince. “It’s been an hour now and I still can’t see straight.”

Knuckles sprang out of his seat in alarm and moved around to inspect his friend’s left side. “Oh hell Sonic,” he hissed.

“I’m alright, just a little dizzy. It’s nothing serious...”

At that moment, Tails made his presence known. “Sonic, for you, ‘a little dizzy’ is serious. Knuckles, let’s get him down to the med bay, he probably has a concussion...we all know Shadow has an attitude problem and metal-edged shoes.”

Before the hedgehog could get in another word, Knuckles had scooped him up and carried him down to the second level of the workshop.

“Dammit Knucklehead! Put me down, I can walk!”

Tails cuffed his ear roughly, “Oh shut up! There’s no way you’re walking any further till we’ve gotten you patched up. Now don’t make me knock you out.”

Sonic quieted down as Knuckles set him down in one of the soft beds. “Okay, okay. You win little buddy.”

It turned out that Sonic’s short, dense fur disguised bruises and small cuts extremely well, but not well enough to hide the gash just above his left temple.

“Jeeze, is Shadow sharpening those shoes of his nowadays?” asked Knuckles as he pulled out some antiseptic and began cleaning the dried blood out off.

“Good question, but I don’t think so” replied Tails, checking the medical scanner. “Looks like it’s nothing serious, but he should take it easy.”

“Yeah, but what did you do make Shadow kick you in the head, Sonic?”

Sonic answered with his eyes closed. “I...don’t know, but he’s got better aim than you, Knucklehead.”

Knuckles just shook his head slowly and continued his work. “Honestly Sonic, you’re gonna get yourself killed someday with your stupidity.”

Tails looked up at him. “And you’re just now realizing that?”

Sonic glared at them both. “I’m so gonna kick your tail for that bud.”

--

Eventually things settled down and Tails went back to his work after the trio ate dinner. Sonic hung around, watching the fox tinker away.

“Hey, Tails?”

“Yeah Sonic?”

“What exactly are you trying to do here? I thought you’ve already studied the hell out of the emeralds.”

The vulpine pulled his head out of the computer casing he was working on. “You know I’ve made a fake Emerald once, right? Well, I’m trying to find this one energy wavelength I missed that time, it’s what caused the fake’s instability and lack of power. The machine here is working well enough, but as soon as I move into the upper wavelengths the thing flatlines.”

“Translation into plain English, if you will.”

Tails sighed. “This gizmo’s gone wonky on me, and I haven’t found the problem.”

The blue hedgehog smirked, as if he knew something the kitsune didn’t. “Give it time little bro, it’ll work out eventually.”

Tails dropped the tool he had in his hand. “That’s the last thing I’d expect to hear out of you Sonic, are you feeling alright?”

“I’m fine, just tired.” Sonic answered lightly. “I’m not nearly as impatient when I’m exhausted. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to bed.”

With that, he got out of his seat and headed upstairs. Three floors up to ground level, and then up another to his bedroom.

Sonic and Knuckles had moved into Tails’ workshop several months ago at the fox’s insistence, he had plenty of space and it was easier if they were nearby (that, and silence seemed to drive him nuts).

Knuckles had taken to the idea wholeheartedly, and seemed happy to escape his isolation. The Master Emerald seemed to do better when on his person, and Angel Island was perfectly fine at it’s original position in the jungle. There was really no sense in staying by himself anymore.

Sonic however, was harder to convince and refused to give his reasons why. Eventually he caved, agreeing only if he got the northeast corner room.

Said room had the best view of both the Mystic Ruin cliffs and the nearby mountains. Unlike the rest of the second story, there was little more than a fourteen foot drop to the ground from the balcony, a feature Sonic took advantage of frequently.

The hedgehog stepped inside without bothering to turn on the lights, the moonlight streaming trough the large windows was more than enough to see by. The carpet was a dark royal blue, and the walls were painted a light blueish-gray, partially obscured by various posters and wall scrolls. He suppressed a laugh as he remembered the first time Tails had seen his collection of silk ink paintings, his reaction was...interesting, to say the least.

-

Sonic was just opening a box when Tails poked his head in the room.

“What’s up Sonic?” asked the fox.

“Nothin’ really,” the hedgehog replied, not looking up. “Just gettin’ this stuff unpacked, finally. It’s been a week.”

“Four days Sonic, we still had to paint and put the carpet in you know. That sort of stuff takes time.” Tails berated from the doorway.

“Yeah, yeah, little bud. I get it.” Sonic groaned. “But why’d you wait so long to finish all the rooms? You could’ve done it months ago.”

“Well, I was more interested in getting the workshop functioning again. Building a house over a ten-level underground facility is a pretty big job, and computer networks don’t set themselves up after all.”

“Whatever.” Sonic said, taking a rolled poster from the box and standing up.

Crossing the room, he pulled a poster frame from another box, then gently unrolled the large paper. Within a few minutes he had the picture in the frame and hanging on the wall.

“Not bad, eh Tails?”

“I like it. Can’t go wrong with the Thunderbirds. Where’d you get this one?”

He shrugged. “From them, went flying with them once about a year and a half ago. I’ve got a jacket too, but I haven’t unpacked it yet.”

Tails gave a low whistle. “You’ve been flying with the Thunderbirds? Cool! Wish I’d been there. Was it any fun?”

“Like you wouldn’t believe, it was before I could break the sound barrier myself. They wanted to have a new poster made with a picture of me on one of the jets, but I turned them down.”

“Why?”

“Not my thing. I’m not into stuff with my face on it, drives me nuts.”

Tails laughed. “Heh, your groupies?”

“Them and their t-shirts that say ‘I heart Sonic’.” he said with a shudder. “Animal control should have ‘em rounded up and put down for rabies.”

“That’s not a nice thought.”

“But true, they’re all rabid.”

“Touche.”

Sonic turned back to the box of posters and selected another one, framing it like the last. Tails moved in to help, and between the two of them all the posters were framed and hung in under half an hour.

“Thanks for the help buddy.” Sonic said, ruffling the fox’s ears. “Now for the rest.”

Tails gawked at him. “Of what? How many posters can you actually have?”

“They’re not posters kiddo.”

-

Sonic shook his head. Tails’ face was absolutely priceless when he had pulled out the first scroll of his collection.

Regardless, Sonic found the ink paintings fascinating. The epitome of both serenity and energy, speed and precision, complete self contradictions, just like himself.

So far he had gathered fifteen paintings, most of them from a particular artist he befriended in Japan. The man was the very image of calm, but always eager to listen to the stories Sonic would tell of his adventures, sketching as he did so.

With a huff Sonic collapsed on his bed, kicked off his shoes, burrowed into the pillows. ‘What a day.’ he thought to himself. ‘Wonder what’s got Shadow in such a bad mood though...ah well, I’ll sleep on it.’

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