Advance 15

[Mecha]

“All elites, report to meeting room E.”

Eggman paced the room, arms behind his back, and Mecha stood by, looking straight ahead. They were all already gathered, only waiting for one more badnik.

Mecha looked at Sigma, standing across the table from him, and the mechanic privately messaged him.

{How are you holding up?} Sigma asked. {You’ve been listless lately.}

Possibly true; Mecha had been confined to base for several days now, for no given reason. He suspected Eggman had simply forgotten about him, now that he was back. {How am I? I should be asking you that, given… this.}

Neither of them looked down at the table, which contained the remains of another elite. Sigma, being much taller, was able to keep it out of his field of vision, but Mecha was not so lucky.

It was another member of the Mecha line of robots, built in the image of Knuckles the Echidna. The robot was still mostly in one piece, but that was only because of some preliminary repair work done by Sigma until… the Doctor ordered him to stop.

Next to Sigma was E-100 Alpha, or ZERO or whatever its name was. Mecha was confused to see it here, since he was pretty sure it was destroyed months ago. The blank-eyed cylinder didn’t respond to message pings and simply sat there, faintly puttering. Mecha wondered what its deal was.

On Sigma’s other side was an E-1000. The model was being phased out, but a few of them were still around, and some of the surviving examples had stuck around long enough to develop into less of an idiot. The unofficially-designated E-1001 was the most successful of these, enough so to have gotten some upgrades into an actual Elite, if just barely. Privately, Mecha doubted it would be around much longer.

Mecha was alone on his side of the table. Before Eggman’s most recent campaign, he would have been joined by Mecha Knuckles, but, well. That wasn’t an option now. The only other badnik, the one they were waiting on, was--

Metal Sonic opened the door, stepping into the room with an air of absolute confidence.

Eggman scowled. “About time you got here, Metal. What took you so long?”

“I was reviewing the footage of your battles with Sonic, as requested.” Metal marched to the table, taking his place between Mecha and Eggman’s position at the head.

Mollified, the Doctor grumbled. “Yes, yes, of course. And your analysis is going well?”

“I am confident that the next time we meet, I will crush him.”

“Excellent.” Eggman took his seat and glared at the remains of Mecha Knuckles. “...Sigma, why is this scrapheap still here?”

“You left him there, sir,” Sigma said cautiously. “Forgive my assumption, but I thought you wished to take over his repair, when you had me stop.”

“Why on earth would I want to do that?” Eggman asked. “Mecha Knuckles was an abject failure. He barely slowed the real Knuckles down, and didn’t present an obstacle to Sonic at all.”

Mecha saw the footage. The robotic echidna put more than one scratch on the blue blur, which was more than most badniks could say.

Sigma looked like he was going to say as much out loud, but ultimately decided against it. “Yes, sir. What should I, er--”

“Throw him in with the rest of the scrap,” Eggman said dismissively. “Hm, I need to find a safe place to dump my junk. My hold is getting full… No matter. Moving on to business. Metal.”

The blue doppelganger somehow managed to straighten even further, awaiting orders even as Sigma shouldered Mecha Knuckles and carried him out of the room.

“This last conquest was a failure, but that’s fine. Its success was only a possible bonus. Its true purpose was on getting you up to speed and showing you how Sonic operates at a basic level. I want to jump right into working on my next plan; if I move quickly enough, those rodents will be caught off guard!” The Doctor grinned, imagining horrible things.

“Am I to be deployed against Sonic?”

Mecha didn’t like the eager tone in Metal’s voice. It was the only emotion he’d ever heard from him.

“No, not yet,” Eggman said. “I want you focused on watching and learning how I operate. Eventually, assuming I don’t win outright, I plan on having you lead the other half of a two-pronged assault. As fast as he is, Sonic can’t be in two places at once! He can go after me, or you, and whoever isn’t being harassed will be able to carry out the plan without issue while the other is distracting him! But you aren’t ready yet.”

Metal didn’t answer, which Eggman took as acceptance.

“Now that that eyesore is gone, I want to introduce you to some foes of interest. Some of these you might remember.” Eggman pushed a button under the table, and a holographic display lit up, coalescing into the images of Sonic’s friends and allies. “Tails the Fox has become much more skilled than the last time you faced Sonic. I hate to admit it, but his intellect is occasionally troublesome. Knuckles has been venturing further afield, more willing to leave Angel Island in order to help. He’s all muscle and no brains, easily tricked. That pink hedgehog girl…” Eggman grumbled. “I’m not sure what she does, but she somehow keeps ending up places and making trouble.”

Mecha’s optics glitched as the next image lit up.

“This mouse girl, I haven’t learned her name.” The Doctor growled. “But I’m not happy with her. According to a recent news article, she created a robot butler for some rich idiot. And I can just tell she’s copying my technology to do it. I won’t stand for that.”

The Doctor continued, listing out a handful of lesser nuisances like the big cat and the bat, while Mecha thought furiously.

Metal absorbed the information stoically.

“For my next plan, I think my best course of action is to remove these pieces from the board,” the Doctor said eventually. “If I can capture Sonic’s allies, I can use them against him while also robbing him of their paltry skills. Let’s see him track down the Chaos Emeralds without Tails around, hohoho!” He grinned nastily. “Him and that mouse girl both. I remember their firepower on the ARK. Perhaps I can make use of that myself. The girl in particular seems to have poor impulse control. I bet I can trick her into doing some of the dirty work for me…”

Metal glanced Mecha’s way. “It… could work,” Metal said. Mecha thought he sounded uncertain.

Eggman sat and murmured to himself for a few minutes, no doubt formulating a plan of action in his head.

“I recommend a blitz, Doctor. Striking all at once and without warning would be the best way to secure the assets. Furthermore,” Metal intoned.

“Yes, yes.” Eggman flapped a hand, not really paying attention. “It might also help to capture some civilians. Sonic styles himself as a hero,” he sneered, “so a few innocents in danger might slow him down. Mecha!”

Mecha jumped, snapping to full attention. “Sir.”

“You won’t be involved in this. Instead, I have a special task for you.”

The words carried the threat of don’t screw it up or else, but Mecha still relaxed a little. “Am I to be reassigned to Shadow, sir?”

“No, I’m working on someone else for that,” the Doctor said, dashing his hopes. “No, since you’ve failed so thoroughly at finding a moving target, I’m going to send you back to the ARK to collect some samples of a corpse. Not even you can screw that up.”

Taken aback, it took a moment for Mecha to realize what he meant. “...I see. Are you sure that’s wise? It nearly destroyed the world last ti--”

Eggman slammed his fist on the table, silencing him. “Don’t you question me, you miserable bucket of bolts. I know what I’m doing.”

Mecha nodded rapidly.

The Doctor stared at him. “…Well? What are you still standing there for?”

“Now?”

“NOW!”

Mecha hurried out, desperately hoping that G.U.N. had managed to get inside the pyramid base in the past couple months. He’d take any excuse he could not to touch the BioLizard again.

--------------------------------------

[Tails]

Part of Tails had been a little worried when Eggman started moving again. Alright, a lot worried. Perfect Chaos had been a lot to deal with and the entire Eclipse Cannon thing had freaked everyone out. He’d been afraid for a bit that Eggman would somehow find a way to escalate again, and frankly? After how close the last adventure was? Tails wasn’t sure they’d be able to win if he did.

Thankfully, that hadn’t happened. Eggman attacked South Island again in a way that was almost nostalgic, and while he certainly hadn’t been relaxing, the relatively low stakes meant he could enjoy the adventure almost as much as Sonic.

It was almost weird, actually. Eggman barely gloated at all and they never figured out what his ultimate plan was before they beat him. It was almost like Dr. Eggman wasn’t giving it his all. But maybe he wanted to take it easy too, after everything.

In all the excitement, Tails almost forgot what the date was, but Sonic didn’t. Once Amy and Knuckles left, Sonic took Tails to another island they’d found, and they just let loose. There were running tracks, loops, corkscrews, canyon walls for climbing and jumping off and flying through; Tails wasn’t the speed freak Sonic was, but he enjoyed a good run, and for one amazing day, it was just the two of them, charging ahead and not worrying about anything. And then a great day turned into a great three days before the wanderlust hit Sonic again and they finally split up. 

They’d need to remember that island. It was a good one. Tails was going to call it ‘Canyon Run Isle’ on his map.

He landed his plane outside his Mystic Station workshop and towed it into the hangar. Amy told him that Humi and Heyu’s place had gotten a major overhaul, and he was excited to see it.

It looked like his friends had been keeping the place clean like they said they would. Most of his food was gone, with only the non-perishables left. He’d need to stock back up. His bed was made, his tools were dusted, they’d even done his laundry at some point. Tails really needed to thank them properly for all this.

Someone knocked on his door. Tails smiled; he’d made a point of flying over the cliffs when he came in, so someone probably saw him land and came to greet him.

He flew down from his sleeping nook and pulled the door open. “Hello?”

“Tails!”

He blinked. “Oh. Hey, Amy.”

The pink hedgehog pouted. “What kind of greeting is that? It’s like you’re not even happy to see me.”

“No, I am!” he said hurriedly, waving his hands. “But I just saw you a couple days ago, so--”

“Relax, I’m just teasing.” She laughed to herself and leaned into the workshop. Tails figured she was looking for Sonic and would lose interest when she didn’t see him, but she just gave a tiny disappointed frown and then got back to smiling. “Have you settled in yet?”

He pointed a thumb over his shoulder. “Pretty much… There’s a few small chores to do before I can get started on anything, but nothing urgent--”

“Great!” She grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the building and towards the stairs. “Then come on, there’s no time to waste!”

“Whoa!” Tails dug his heels into the dirt in a futile effort to slow her down, but she was way stronger than him and could not be denied. “Amy, what the heck?” He managed to snag his doorknob with one of his tails and shut it before it got out of reach.

Amy winked. “You’ll see!”

“But--okay, I guess I don’t mind.” And he didn’t really. He had half an idea of what this was about. “You can let go now, I can walk.”

Amy beamed cheerfully. “Nope!”

“...” Tails spun his namesake and lifted off, pulling Amy off the ground.

“Hey! Okay, okay, fine, I’m letting go!”

---------------------------------

[Heyu]

I took a sip of the faintly bubbling concoction in front of me. It didn’t smell objectionable, and wasn’t unpleasantly thick like some of Shelldon’s drinks, so it went down pretty easily. My second sip I let sit in my mouth to figure out the taste.

Shelldon clasped his hands together, staring expectantly. “So? How is it?”

I hummed. “A little sweet, but not too much. Tastes a little like strawberries, but not quite. Maybe a hint of kiwi?” I smacked my lips. “No, I’m imagining that. Though… hm, pear? Whatever this is, it’s not bad. I think I prefer a regular cola, but I could drink more of this.” I took another sip. “Yes, I think I like it a lot.”

Shelldon took some notes and nodded happily. “Good, good. I want to tweak it a little bit to bring the flavor out more, but I think I’m on to something!”

“What’s in it?” It was definitely some sort of fruit juice that he’d put through carbonation, but it wasn’t like anything I’d had before.

Shelldon smiled. “Dragonfruit!” He reached under the counter and pulled on out to show off. “I found a bunch of them deep in the jungle and just knew I was on to a winner…” He rubbed his chin, and I shuddered as he squished it like a stress ball. “I prefer natural flavors, but I might have to figure out a syrup recipe for this. Farming the fruits would be hard, not to mention relocating all that cactus.”

“Cactus? You found cacti growing here, in the wet, wet jungle?”

“I know, right? This place is weird!”

I shook my head and decided it was probably more chaos nonsense. I stood up and finished the rest of my glass. “Keep it up, Shelldon!”

“Will do!”

I stepped out of his bar into the sunlight. After Shelldon’s shack got destroyed during my little incident, we put together a more complete place for him. It was still very temporary, but it looked more like a bar than a lemonade stand now at least.

I stepped across the street to Fry’s place, where Iota was holding one end up while Humi changed the tires out.

The alligator watched from a ways away, working a grill instead of his usual stove. “Thanks again for the help, kid!”

“It’s no problem.” Humi squinted at something. “Iota, lift it up another foot or so.”

“Right.”

She crawled underneath. “I thought so!” Hidden under the truck, I folded my ears back as a cacophonous chorus of electrical drill bits rang out. A few minutes later, she crawled back out and signalled Iota to let it drop. 

“What was that about?” I asked.

“His suspension looked like it was about to give out. I fixed it.” She pulled her work gloves off and then put her regular gloves back on. “Fry should be able to make his way out of here whenever he wants now.”

“Ha!” Fry flipped a patty into the air. “Thanks, mouse. I owe you one.”

Iota loudly made a throat-clearing sound, and seemed to pout when he went ignored. “Surprise: As nice as it is for you to help Fry now, I would have thought you’d want to look nice for Tails’ arrival, Humi.”

She looked down at her overalls, covered in black residue from the tires and some greases from poking around under the car. She shrugged. “I figure I’ve got time. You know Tails; we always had to go to his place. Left on his own he’ll just putter around the workshop until someone goes to get him.”

I hid a grin behind my hand.

Humi caught it anyway. “What’s that look for?”

“Amy went to get him the second she saw his plane,” I said, chuckling.

Humi’s tail lashed. “Wh--What?! Why didn’t you say anything?” she demanded. “Why didn’t you stop her?!”

She ran off towards the house, and I called after her. “You think I can control Amy? I’m not superhuman!”

I chuckled to myself, then paused. Wait. Am I?

“Fry, am I superhuman?”

The gator shrugged. “I don’t know anyone else who can jump fifty feet straight up or hear a pin drop from a different building.”

I considered that. It’s been a crazy year. And it wasn’t even over yet. Nevermind.

Shaking my head, I took a look around. Amy really did amazing with the decorations. Yellow, white and blue streamers were hung between every raised area you could think of. Thankfully no one objected to having their houses used as decor, but I’m not sure Amy would have stopped if they had. The girl was unstoppable when she wanted to be.

My ear twitched, and I turned to see Knuckles and Gamma deep in conversation. Yeah, Knuckles I understood but I didn’t have any idea how Amy tracked down Gamma for his invite. Unstoppable.

“...not up for negotiation. I don’t need help guarding the Master Emerald.”

“I recognize you as a worthy guardian,” Gamma said. “You do no have to accept my help if you truly don’t want it. But if I am to search Angel Island, I would like to repay the favor you would be granting me by allowing it.”

“I haven’t agreed to that either,” Knuckles said warningly. “You still haven’t said why you want to come.”

Gamma drummed his fingers against his other arm. “...I began reviewing my memories to see if any of the Flicky’s remained. None did, but I found a file of Amy saying that the birds live on Angel Island. If I want to find them, that is where I must go.”

Knuckles folded his arms, grimacing. “...I don’t know.”

“Come on, Knux,” a new voice said teasingly. “Let him go. He’s been a very good boy.”

I shook my head as Rouge descended to land between them, then inserted myself into the conversation.

“Rouge, good to see you again. Amy invited you too?”

The bat’s face twisted. “Yyyyyes, and I’m not sure how. My address isn’t public information. I’m very interested in talking to Amy right now.”

“Good luck with that.”

Knuckles glared at her. The look only intensified when she saw him staring and blew a kiss his way. Turning to Gamma, he said, “I’ve changed my mind. You’re allowed to come on the island and help guard the Master Emerald if you shoot her the next time you see her.”

Rouge let out an affronted gasp while I burst out laughing. A clink distracted me, and I looked to see Vanilla setting a cake down on one of the picnic tables.

“You made a cake for Tails?” I asked. I ended up automatically looking for Cream and saw her over by Spud’s shack, playing pattycake with Big. “That was nice of you.”

She nodded. “Amy asked me to. It was her payment for babysitting Cream while I spoke with the landscapers.”

“Ah, the Chao Garden. How’s that going?”

Vanilla beamed. “It’s going wonderfully! Mister Iota showed me the Mobini village and we found a spot not far from there that’s absolutely perfect, already with a shallow pond and fruiting bushes for the Chao. I’ll be able to start practically as soon as they set up the café and fence the area off.”

Apparently, Chao were a protected species. Not endangered, but their ambiguously sentient nature meant that a surprising amount of regulation went into preparing Gardens for them. Enough so that we couldn’t just have Fry build her a place, no matter what his past qualifications were. It had to be left to professionals.

“That’s great!” I said happily.

She started setting the table, and I moved to help, dragging the other table over to make one big one; we had more guests than I expected. I hoped we had enough cake. Gamma wasn’t going to eat, but who knew how much Big would take.

I glanced up at where Cream was somehow flying by flapping her ears, throwing a ball between her, Big and Cheese, and felt the need to ask. “So. Cream.”

Vanilla smiled. “Yes?”

“She’s really yours?” I winced; they looked so much alike I’d believe it if she said they were clones. Vanilla looked like she wanted to laugh. So I rephrased quickly. “I mean to say, she’s really five years old?”

“Almost six. Her birthday is in less than a month.”

I whistled. “I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that everyone noticed when you suddenly vanished from school after spring break.”

“I showed up for graduation,” Vanilla pointed out. “I know you were there, you were with the band playing that awful droning song they always did.” She sighed, sitting on the bench. “Cream was born just three weeks before that.”

“No kidding.”

Vanilla was a senior when I was a sophomore; that is to say, she was two years ahead of me. She was the girl who knew everyone. She was in almost every club, volunteered for everything, and was on track to be valedictorian… right up until she disappeared and left a gaping hole in the student body. No one knew what happened to her, though there were plenty of theories. None worth repeating. 

“The idea that you’d gotten pregnant was floated around, of course, but no one actually believed it,” I said, voicing my thoughts out loud.

Vanilla chuckled. “It was a surprise to me too. But enough about that.” She placed a wrapped present on the table. “What did you get the young man?”

I blinked. She got him a present despite never having met him…? “Uh, I just got him some fancy mints from a candy shop at Emerald Coast. The boardwalk’s got lots of cool stores down there.”

Tails was honestly hard to think up presents for. He could build anything he wanted and didn’t stay in one place long enough to bother with knickknacks for his house. But the kid loves his mints.

I picked up something, and Vanilla and I both turned to the mouth of the clearing where Amy and Tails were coming in. Amy was covering his eyes, and held them there until he was in the center of the… village. I guess you could call it a village now, though it was more of a cul-de-sac--nevermind.

He lit up once he saw the decorations. The streamers, yes, but also balloons with his logo drawn on them, hanging stars, and a respectable pile of presents waiting for him. “Wow, Amy…”

She cheered. “Let’s get this party started!”

------------------------------------

[Humi]

Humi stepped out, washed and changed into her favorite dress, to find Tails already there. Knuckles gave him a painful-looking noogie before Amy pulled him off of him, Cream asked him a question about his tails that he was happy to answer, even while Vanilla looked faintly embarrassed, and Fry was serving a heaping plate of fresh hot dogs and burgers.

Tails beamed when he saw her. “Humi! There you are! Come on, we’re just getting started!”

Humi took a seat next to him, smiling.

“Oh, my, he’s nine?” Vanilla said. She held up a candle in the shape of an eight. “I got the wrong one.”

“It’s fine,” Tails said, not looking terribly bothered, but Heyu grabbed the candle and took out his box cutter, snipping away at the bottom half of the 8 until it looked like the correct number. “Oh, that works too.”

They sang happy birthday, and Tails got the first slice of cake, which turned out to be lemon so that it matched his fur. It was actually really good, Vanilla was a great baker.

The group talked while they ate. Tails did a checkup with Gamma to make sure he was still running right, and Big and Knuckles got talked into an arm wrestling contest. The match went on so long that Heyu decided to go ahead with the presents, handing Tails his bag of mints first. Humi ran back to the house to get her gift, and came back in time to see Tails opening the one from Knuckles.

The simply wrapped box rattled when he shook it, and once opened it turned out to be… a piece of brick from some old Echidna ruin, with a single character from their language carved into it.

Tails turned it over in his hands, perplexed. “Wow, Knuckles… This is… something. What’s the symbol mean?”

Knuckles smirked. “It’s the Echidna word for ‘tail,’ in fact.” He looked really proud of himself. Unfortunately, that made him lose focus, and Big finally pushed his hand to the table. “Aw, what?! No fair…”

Tails certainly looked more impressed by the rock now. “Hey, that’s actually really neat. Thanks! I’ll need to find a good place to display it.”

Humi put the bag with her gift up on the table and sat back down. Tails noticed and reached for it, but Rouge stuck an envelope into his outstretched hand. “This one’s from me.”

Looking only a little annoyed, the fox swiftly cut it open. “Oh, it’s money. Thanks.” He blinked as he pulled at least five hundreds out. “Actually it’s a lot of money, wow.”

She shrugged. “When in doubt, money is the answer to everything.”

“I don’t know about that, but I’ll definitely take it.” He set it aside for Heyu to take and tuck back into the envelope before putting it with the other opened gifts.

He reached for Humi’s present again, this time without anyone getting in the way, and Humi preened at the way he gasped when he pulled out the jacket.

“Whoa!” He stood up on the bench and slipped it on, to some appreciative ‘oohs’ from the rest.

Heyu squeezed his shoulder. “Humi made it by hand. It’s a little big, but you’ll grow into it.”

“It looks good on you, Tails,” Amy said. “But you might need some flight goggles to complete the look.” She held up her own box, and he took it.

Humi watched happily, glad he enjoyed it. The presents eventually came to an end, and Amy clapped for attention before declaring that she had some party games to try. Humi listened as she instructed Cream in Pin the Tail on the Donkey, wondering if she had super hearing on Heyu’s level. She could probably just hear where the poster was.

“Hey, Humi?”

“Hm?”

She turned, and Tails was frowning at her. “Are you okay? You’ve been really quiet.”

Oh no, was she? She was, she’d barely spoken since the party started. “I just don’t have much to say.”

That didn’t seem to assuage Tails’ worries much. “Is something wrong?”

“...” Humi looked away. “It’s nothing.” She didn’t want to bring him down on his birthday, of all days.

Tails actually scowled at that, sticking his hands in his pockets as he tried to figure out how to respond to that. Then he blinked, wrapping his hands around something in each pocket and pulling them out. “What are these?”

“Oh!” Humi perked up. “Those are my Y-Mis! I’ve been making them for my friends. Heyu’s got one, and now so do you! I made one for Sonic too, once you find him again.”

Tails held them up. One was yellow and had not one, but two wriststraps dyed to look like his tails. The other was blue, with the red of Sonic’s shoes on the inside when he opened it up.

“They’re phones?”

“Mhm! More or less. They’re as unbreakable as I can make them, which is pretty tough. I haven’t made one for me yet, but yours already has Heyu’s and Sonic’s number programmed in,” Humi said, starting to ramble. “I haven’t tested them excessively, but they should be able to reach each other from anywhere, though you should tell me if they ever can’t. And they can connect to the regular phone lines too, since Heyu used his to call his friends in Empire City.”

“How tough exactly did you make them?” Tails asked, fighting the urge to crack one open to study its inner workings.

“I’m not sure. I tried to fit more features in by using a chaos drive to expand their insides, but it didn’t quite work. I think the energy did something though, because I asked Big to smash one with a hammer, and the hammer broke first.”

Tails looked impressed. “That’s pretty good. This is great, actually. Sonic’s never been able to use a phone because he either drops them at mach speed or they just break from the g-forces.”

“I’m glad you like them! I almost didn’t end up making them on time, after--” Humi’s mouth clamped shut.

Tails’ head snapped up to look at her. “After what?”

“Nothing.”

“...It doesn’t sound like nothing, if it made you not want to make something.”

Humi huffed, turning away. “I have other hobbies than just building things, you know. Like… uh.” She tapped her foot, thinking. “...Reading. Heyu got me a book about a vampire rabbit, it’s pretty good.”

“Humi.”

She fidgeted, and made the mistake of looking at Tails’ face. She saw nothing but naked concern, and she crumpled.

“...Do you remember that machine we made to make the fake Emeralds?”

Tails tilted his head, clearly wondering what that had to do with it. “Yeah?”

“Well… I had an idea to make an emerald without needing a real one to siphon from, and it… didn’t go well.”

Once she started, she couldn’t stop, and ended up spilling everything that happened just a few nights ago while Tails listened stoically.

“...and after I smashed the gemstone, everything went back to normal,” she finished, almost whispering. “I used Heyu as a test subject, and it turned out awful.”

Tails sat there, thinking, and Humi braced herself. She didn’t know what he thought about the whole mess, but it was best to be prepared for the worst.

“...Well,” he said slowly, and Humi screwed her eyes shut. “...Are you going to do it again?”

…

Humi opened her eyes. “What?”

“You made a mistake,” Tails said simply. “And you’re not going to make it again, right?”

“N--No, of course not!” Humi burst out. “It was awful and scary and I hated it!”

“And no one got hurt?”

“No--Well, Heyu got a little bruised, but he barely seemed to notice afterwards,” Humi admitted. “But he could have been--”

“But he wasn’t.” Tails stood up from the bench, pulling her up with him. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Sonic since we started adventuring together, it’s that you can’t let yourself get dragged down by the past. The only thing you can ever do is move forward, right? You can’t let one little mistake drag you down, when you can learn from it, and do better!”

“It doesn’t feel like a little mistake,” Humi murmured.

“Maybe not right now,” he conceded. “But a week from now? A month? A year? It’ll barely feel like a road bump.” He made a sweeping gesture. “And besides! You’re the only person I’ve ever met who I can invent with!” He grinned. “You’re not gonna take that away from me on my birthday are you?”

Humi laughed wetly, rubbing at her eyes. When did she start crying? “Y-yeah, okay. It’s just a lot.”

Tails pulled her into a quick hug. “Alright. C’mon, I think Amy found a pinata somewhere. Wanna bet I can hit it with my tails only?”

Humi wiped her face with a napkin, then grinned. “I’ll take that bet.”

-----------------------------------------

“Alright, everyone, gather round! Gotta take a photo of the big day!”

The blue cat herded them to the highest concentration of streamers and started fussing over their placement.

“Man Amy, you thought of everything,” Tails said happily, arm across Humi’s shoulder as he stood front and center. “Even a photographer!”

Amy was smiling, but her brow was furrowed. “I guess I did… I don’t remember doing that, though…”

The cat stepped back, framing them with her fingers, before finally seeming satisfied. “Alright, on three, everyone say cheese!”

“Chao!”

Vanilla pulled him back down. “Not you, Cheese.”

“Three, two, one!”

SNAP