A take for the worst.

Catching up.

"Tails?...y-your! You're so tall now!" Amy exclaims before she then puts her hammer back behind her back,  her expression then softens into a faint smile. "Uhm..yeah. anyways, I need a favour." Tails says nervously as he takes a small step towards Amy, he then swallows back his anxiety before he looks back up at her to hear her reply.

"Yeah?" Amy raised a brow of suspicion and curiosity while she shifts her weight onto one leg. "What is it? Cause if you came back after all these years to ask for some sort of money you can go." The pink hedgehog warns as she narrows her eyes to make sure Tails knew the seriousness in her tone.

Tails gives a gentle nod of understanding before speaking. "It's not money, it's about DR.Eggman.he's back." Tails says before taking a few more steps closer towards Amy. Amy's eyes widen in shock for a moment before she shakes her head and recovers. "Yeah?" Amy pushes for more information, letting Tails continue.

"A virus was detected in one of his robots, it's gonna spread and we need to stop it. The only way i can is with the help of everyone." Tails finishes, letting Amy take a moment to process everything. "Everyone as in...knuckles and sonic too?" Amy says as the twin tailed fox then gives a gentle nod of affirmation. Amy exhales before she looks up at Tails with a determined look.

"Alright, then let's go find them. I'm sure the town can take care of themselves tonight, besides, as far as I know it's been days since I've seen any attacks." Amy spoke confidently and bravely, a tone that Tails was hearing for the first time.

The duo then make their way to Angel island, suspecting that it was the most likely place the red echidna would be. Both Amy and Tails were equally excited to see their old teammate and friend. In that time, Tails and Amy caught up with each others lives. Amy beginning with herself.

"So what do you do now? You with the freedom fighters still?" Tails asks the pink hedgehog, glancing at her while they walked side by side. "We're on good terms, but I'm not necessarily with them anymore. After we split, things sort of went downhill. I decided to focus on myself, improve on my skills and even style. I mainly just protect towns and fight badniks still." Amy explains simply to Tails, impressing the two tailed fox with how much she had matured.

"So anything about you?" Amy pries as she then raises a brow before giving a small smile. Tails returns the smile with a tired one of his own before he replies. "Well, I've been around. I work on planes for battles and wars, started designing some weapons and robots of my own." Tails says as he raises his eyebrows, proud of himself for the chance to brag about how he works on airplanes for battles. He couldn't wait to tell sonic.

"Hey maybe I've seen one of your planes before!" Amy says as she then looks back forward while she smirked before realizing the two had made it go their destination.
"Excited?" Amy asks before she nudges Tails forwards, encouraging him to continue walking. "Sort of, I wonder if he thought of us much." Tails says to Amy with a gentle shrug. "That knucklehead? Course he did." Amy says with a small chuckle to help cheer up the two tailed fox.

________

Knuckles the echidna stood near the master emerald with a grim expression. He had gained some weight and height over the years as he had bandages wrapped around his wrists and had carved out the covering over his spiked knuckles. The red echidna stood tall and strong, his appearance alone could intimidate a person. On his left, he had a metal arm from when his anger had gotten the better of him.

He looks over his shoulder to see the master emerald before he senses a strange and uneasy feeling of someone approaching. He took it as a sign to immediately trust in the master emerald.
The bulky echidna narrows his eyes once he sees the figures of two intruders. Knuckles then calls them out, cupping his gloved hands around his mouth to get his voice to travel further. "Hey! You two! Get out!" Knuckles yells out to the pair, they stop for a moment out of shock to hear the red echidnas strong tone. The duo then proceed and before knuckles knew it he realizes it's both his old friends Amy and Tails.

"Amy? Tails?" Knuckles murmured under his breath as he widened his eyes, the closer the two approached the more he realized how many years had passed. Tails looked tired and much taller, looking much more mature than the small eight year old boy Knuckles had met. Amy looked more serious and determined than all those years ago. Knuckles takes a step closer to his friends before he looks down at them, trying to process their presence. Amy then smiles warmly to see Knuckles while Tails looked to be admiring how big and bulky Knuckles looked now.

"You guys look...different." Knuckles murmured, causing Amy to give a short chuckle at Knuckle's disbelief. "Course we look different, you don't look the same yourself,y'know?" Amy speaks up, breaking the slightly awkward silence.

She sounded much more mature and older and it surprised Knuckles himself before he replies. "What are you doing here?" The red echidna questioned as he raised a brow looking down at the duo with both excitement and disbelief. "It's Eggman, he died and-" Tails could hardly finish his sentence before he was cut off by a shocked knuckles to hear that Eggman had died. "He died?!" Knuckles exclaimed, causing the two tailed fox's ears to swivel backward, away from the loud noise. "Yes, were you that isolated?" Tails says as he furrows a brow before continuing. "Anyways, a virus got out into his robots, the only way to keep them down and for me to have enough time to stop them is to get everyone back together. Are you with us?" Tails explains simply and quickly, knowing the guardian was still trying to process their appearance.

Knuckles keeps quiet for a few moments as he thought everything over, he would have to leave the master emerald, but he had also kept himself busy all those years. Over the ten years that passed he built traps and devices all over the island to protect the master emerald, devoting all his time and strength to keep it safe was what mainly kept him sane all those years.

"Alright...I'm with you." Knuckles decides as he takes a breath, this would be the first time he would have to separate from the master emerald from ten years. "Cmon, we all gotta catch up, next, we're gonna get Sonic." Amy spoke as she puts a hand on Knuckle's shoulder to encourage him to walk before he exhaled and follows the duo towards Sonics home.