HELLBOUND {Sequel}

Thirty

__Tails, Knuckles, and Cream were walking through town. They were going to check in on Antoine and Bunnie while also getting ready to meet with Shadow and Blaze. Antoine and Bunnie were in charge of setting up defenses. Tails wasn't worried about them, though. He knew they always did well and beyond. But he still had to check in anyway just in case. Knuckles had wrapped up training for the day. He told Tails that the trainees were making great progress and that they themselves felt ready for battle. The Freedom Fighters were doing good. Tails still couldn't help but worry, though. They still couldn't figure out what Doctor Eggman was doing.
__Knuckles could see the concern on Tails's face and started to elbow him. "You feeling all right?"
__Tails scoffed and started smacking Knuckles' elbow away. "Oi! I'm good, man!"
__Knuckles then wrapped an arm around Tails and started pulling him in. "Naw, you ain't! You look stressed and your face feels warmer than usual!"
__They all had to stop while Tails tried pulling out of Knuckles' grip. "Bruh! Why do you know my temperature? That's weird as fuck!"
__"No it ain't! I know everything that needs to be right with you, dude!" He started laughing as he started reaching around for Tails's ass. "Your prostate, too! Need me to check?"
__Tails was laughing as he moved his ass away and started pounding on Knuckles' chest. "Stop it, bitch! That's not how friendship is supposed to work!"
__"That's how homieship works!"
__Tails finally kicked Knuckles in the shin and watched him fall on his knees. The two were still laughing hysterically as the normies were staring in disgust and confusion. "Sorry, Knuckles! Only Sonic can fuck me!"
__Knuckles continued to laugh as he stood back up. "Is that how this works? I guess he fucks you, you fuck me, and I fuck him in that endless cycle!"
__Tails clicked his tongue as he leaned back and pointed at the echidna with both of his pointer fingers with his thumbs up. "Exactly!" Tails then felt his face heat up when he heard Cream giggling behind him. This made him turn to her with his ears flattened. "Fuck! Sorry!"
__Cream continued to laugh while shaking her head. "No, no! You're fine! That's just how close you are."
__Usually Tails wouldn't care about any of his other girl friends seeing him act like this, even if he felt embarrassed about it. But now he was noticing how flustered he was acting around her. Anything he was doing in front of her now made him uneasy, and he didn't like it.
__Tails felt someone tap on his shoulder and turned around. He stifled a groan when it had been Soar the Eagle. "You gotta be kidding."
__"Hey there, old friend!" The eagle greeted in a friendly manner. He was accompanied by a camera man behind him."Don't worry it's just us, but I'll still ask for a moment of your time. The people demand to have some questions answered."
__Tails was feeling a bit uncomfortable as he looked around at all the normies that stopped to stare at them. What he did know about the past few days was that the normies have continued to fight amongst themselves. Some normies that were against the Freedom Fighters had actually been making aggressive remarks at them each time they came across one. This would also cause the reasonable normies to lash out at those normies while the Freedom Fighters left them alone. Tails really wished he thought first before calling out the normies, because his focus had been on the war. This movement had been something he had hoped the people and the government could work out themselves, like they've always had. But nope. Everyone has to have insider knowledge now, which was understandable, but he and the other Freedom Fighters were trying to get ready to fight and defend. Still, Tails checked the time on his phone and saw there was still enough time to meet up with Antoine and Bunnie. "Fine, but you only have five minutes."
__"Great! Roll the camera!" Soar was urging his cameraman to get started as he got himself ready. When the cameraman gave the okay Soar started speaking. "This is Soar the Eagle coming at you live with none other than Freedom Fighters' Tails the Fox himself." He then dramatically wrapped an arm around Tails and pulled him in. "He was so generous enough to stop by for a quick chat!"
__Tails grunted as he pulled out of the eagle's grip. T-Pup was quietly growling beside his feet, so Tails pushed it away with his foot as he dusted himself off. "Four minutes."
__"Yes, yes! Of course!" Soar was now making eye contact with Tails. "So, Tails, what is the current status of the war?"
__Tails had to think carefully before he answered. "Neither side has the advantage, nor the disadvantage. But we are working very hard to make sure everyone is safe when we have to fight."
__"Ah, so goes the usual." Soar started laughing, but Tails didn't see what was so funny. "Second question, why did you decide to rise up against us normies?"
__"Rise up? Uhh... I wouldn't call it that." Tails stopped to clear his throat. "Well, in all actuality, I just got tired of my friends and all our other partners getting shunned away for trying to be normal or when we needed help. Basically we want to be able to live peacefully with everyone here without being cast away like we're pests just because they think we don't need them."
__"But you don't need us, though," Soar remarked in curiosity. "Didn't the Freedom Fighters establish your own government and hospital?"
__"That was only because society figured we would be better off for whatever reason," Tails said while trying not to groan. "We had no choice but to establish a way to survive and get what we needed done without trouble."
__"So then," Soar said slowly. "Do you really blame our hospitals for Queen Aleena's death?"
__This made Tails sigh as he crossed his arms. "It's hard to not say that I do since I don't at the same time. But Prince Manic has stated that she was in the same hospital as other cancer patients who didn't have it worse than her and that the doctors left her to fight it on her own in her last days. He and... Queen Sonia had the legal proof to cause for a sue, but they wanted to follow their mother's good faith in the people even after they abandoned her."
__"It is true that Queen Sonia has also recently passed? Who is to take the throne now?"
__Tails stifled a growl of annoyance as he shook his head. "Next question. You got one minute." He then made his growling audible when he heard Knuckles mimicking him from behind while Cream and Cheese were laughing quietly.
__"Rumor has it you're the one in charge of the Freedom Fighters as of this moment," Soar said with a smirk on his beak. "How has that been for you so far? You're usually the sidekick, are you not?"
__Tails had to eye Knuckles to keep him quiet when the echidna leaned in with an offended look on his face. "Sidekick is not a term we use anymore, but everything is fine right now. There hasn't been any complications we weren't able to fix as of late."
__"I've known you and the others for a while now, and this is the first time you've had to lead the other Freedom Fighters. We can understand Sonic's disappearance, but doesn't Princess Sally usually run things with you all?"
__Tails's ears drooped down as he checked the time on his phone. The Freedom Fighters made sure to keep Sally's death to themselves to keep the normies from panicking to eventually bring that over to Sonic and Amy, and he was still not ready to talk about it on the air. "Time's up. No more questions."
__Soar was confused as he tried to make Tails turn back with his cameraman following closely. "Hey! Hold on! You could at least answer the last one!"
__But then Knuckles came in. He moved Tails away from the news reporter and shoved the camera away. "He said no more questions. We're done." He proceeded to put an arm on the fox as the two started walking with Cream.
__"Too bad!" Called out a smug looking tiger among the nearby normies. "Could've used a celebrity guest, like Tommy Thunder himself, to make things spicy!"
__Tails was not in the mood. "Shut up, Irwin! No one's buying your lame ass TV act anymore!" He tried to ignore all the loud laughter that came after that remark as the tiger hid himself in the crowd. No more fucking interruptions!

__They made it to central town a little later than Tails had planned. Bunnie and Antoine had been sitting patiently at a bench. There were a few other Freedom Fighters with wispons either standing or walking around as if they were patrolling.
__Tails left the others and quickly made his way over to the couple. "Sorry I'm late!"
__Bunnie held up her normal hand and shook her head. "Don't you worry 'bout nothin'. Yer fine." She set her hand down on her lap and looked around. "All defenses are good. Nothin' else to report on that. Everythin's good to go."
__"We are still waiting on Her Highness and Shadow," Antoine added.
__Tails was feeling relieved as Knuckles and Cream caught up to him. "All right. That's great."
__"Why doncha sit down, hun?" Bunnies suggested. "You look tired."
__Tails let out a sigh and nodded. "Yeah, I think I'll do that." He decided to sit down on the ground where he was. T-Pup had immediately sat in his lap as Knuckles put a hand on his shoulder and sat down beside him. Cream sat on his otherside, but she kept a bit of distance as she held Cheese in her arms.
__Antoine then started to straighten up his posture as he looked off the the right. "Ah! Zere zey are!"
__Everyone turned and saw Shadow and Blaze the cat walking towards them. Every Freedom Fighter and normie around stopped to stare at Blaze as she walked. Tails didn't know if it was out of respect or suspicion. Cream had immediately got up and ran over to Blaze. The two girls pulled each other in a tight hug while giggling. When they pulled away Blaze was looking around in confusion. "Huh. I figured Sonic, or even Amy at least, would be here."
__"Did I ever say they would be?" Shadow asked rhetorically while refusing to look at her. "No."
__"Hmph." Blaze crossed her arms and looked over as Tails stood up. "So, Eggman has finally stepped way out of line. As soon as Shadow explained everything I was more than happy to come back and help."
__Tails smiled as he held out his hand to her. "That's good to hear! Your help is greatly appreciated."
__Blaze smiled back and went to shake his head. "Likewise."
__Tails pulled his hand away and clapped his hands together. "All right! Let's all head back to HQ." But just as everyone got ready to start walking Tails turned and bumped into the yellow vixen that he didn't know was behind him. He gasped and backed away immediately. "Shit! Sorry, Zooey."
__The yellow vixen was giggling as she waved him off. "Oh, you're fine!" She then started groaning as he herd of simps started coming in and began praising her existence. "I'm not, though."
__Tails couldn't help but tittered awkwardly. He found himself looking at Cream. She was not taking her eyes off of Zooey, and she looked rather nervous. He then looked back at Zooey as he started rubbing the back of his head. "Uh... how have things been? No more... bad things?"
__Zooey snorted as she shook her head. She was giggling. "Nah, not since these guys have been following my every move. But is it weird that I kinda miss it?"
__Tails took a step back. "Man, I thought you were crazy just because we were both drunk. You're the weird one for missing something as horrible as that."
__Zooey continued to laugh as she gave Tails a gentle shove. "Fair enough." She then leaned her head past Tails. "Hi, Knuckles!"
__The echidna awkwardly waved at her. "Hi."
__"So!" Tails moved back into Zooey's view as she straightened up. "Need something?"
__Zooey shook her head. "Oh, no. I just wanted to say hi. It's been a while since we last talked, and we didn't get a chance to talk when you called us out. By the way, me and my fans here are on your side until the end!"
__Tails nodded slowly. "Appreciate it. Now, not to be rude, but we have to go."
__"Yes, of course." She moved out of the Freedom Fighters way and had to glare at her simps to get them to move.
__Tails waved Zooey goodbye as he led his friends back to Headquarters. He then looked over as Blaze went to walk next to him. "Wassup?"
__"Who is she?" Blaze asked with a smug grin on her face. "She's very pretty."
__"Zooey. It's not what is seems like, Blaze," Tails groaned. "She's my ex-girlfriend."
__Blaze just laughed quietly.
__"You okay, sweetheart?" Bunnie had put her hand on Cream's back.
__Cream nodded, but she refused to look at anyone. "Yep! Why wouldn't I be?"
__"You looked a little upset, honey. I'm just wonderin'."
__"I'm not upset!" Cream started stuttering.
__"All right then."
__Tails was trying so hard to ignore Cream right now. But despite Knuckles talking right into his ear, Cream's voice was just loud and clear in his head. He didn't want to indulge in anything with her right now, and he was scared about it. He just needed to focus on the war right now and everything would be just fine.