Chapter Text
Unusually bright sunlight hit the eyes of an unsuspecting Tails Prower, offering, no, commanding them to come along and awake by its ever warming side, no matter how unwilling the nearly young adult fox was to do so.
" Can't I get another few minutes? " Their mind uttered so instinctively, any countering thoughts to fight procrastination and get on with the day obscured by the thick fog that rested in-between the mental realms of wake and slumber. After all, in an instance of strangely beneficial irony, things had finally begun to settle down for the Freedom Fighters after the incident that had occurred during the visit to the Mystic Ruins, which was now a month or so bygone. No sneak attacks from the Black Arms, and barely an ambush from any badniks, why, for what reason would Tails have to start their day now , out of all times?
"Attention all Freedom Fighters! Please report to the main room at your earliest convenience for a group meeting with Princess Sally and Prince Nicky! Attendance by all members is mandatory!" Resounded the voice of Nicole.
Ah. For that reason.
With that, Tails begrudgingly got up from their bed and grabbed their glasses with one hand and their pin of the non-binary flag with the other.
It seemed like today would finally be an eventful day, so Tails decided to pick out something less casual from their wardrobe, just in case they'd have to leave the Sky Patrol, which ended up being an outfit comprising of an off-white button up short sleeved shirt with pale yellow polka dots, a pair of dark brown flared khakis that were custom fitted with an amount of pockets that just barely teetered on being excessive, and a golden yellow zip-up hoodie that had large patches of two logos on it - one being the logo for Twin-Tail Electronics , Tails' personal logo for their hundreds of inventions made over the years - and the other being the logo for the Mystic Fox Armada , the space protection agency that was not only founded by the Prower family, but still lead by them to this day as well. Free promotion and all that, you know?
"So y'all finally got back together?" Tails overheard Bunnie say teasingly as they approached the Sky Patrol's main room, adjusting the non-binary flag pin that they had placed on the left side of the hoodie's chest area.
"See? I told you everyone would get it wrong if you worded it like that, Nicole!" Sally light-heartedly scolded, jokingly pouting towards the hologram projection of Nicole's mobian-esque avatar, which Tails saw casually sitting on the desk just below the giant smart screen display that was placed behind Sally as they walked into the room.
"Of course, my sincerest apologies. Perhaps I should re-calibrate my evaluation processors?" Nicole responded sarcastically just before she gave the princess a peck on the cheek.
"Did you guys seriously forget that I'm the prince of South Island?" Nicky questioned, possibly only half jokingly.
"It getz a bit, ah, hard to remember, with ze constant talk of ze "World'z Greatest Hero", you know?" Antoinette remarked.
"Ya know, I bet Sonic would've groaned from that-"
Nicky fell silent for a second, suggesting that he was listening to Sonic say something from within their system's innerworld.
"Aaaaand xe did," Nicky chuckled.
"Hey guys! Sorry that I'm late!!" Amy hollered as she came running into the room.
"We slept through the announcement, I'm afraid!" Tsunami added.
"Yep. Had to come in and wake 'em up!" Rotor testified as he entered the room as well. “Took a bit of assessing to figure out how to do that without waking Vanilla up. She doesn't get much sleep already, so I wanted to be considerate,” He added.
"I see, and I appreciate your careful planning, Rotor. I do believe that we have everyone now, right?" Sally then said.
"Looks to be the case!" Amy assessed.
"Should we perhaps invite the Freedom Trainees back aboard?" Tsunami suggested sincerely.
"I'd say we let them enjoy their hibernation in peace. They've done a lot already, especially for the untrained teenagers that they are," Sally answered.
"Were you all not once untrained teenagers at some point as well?" Nicole teased, causing Sally's face to blush.
"Shush, you know what I mean!"
"So, what's the occasion, Sal?" Tails asked.
"Well, at the beginning of the month, we were given approval from the Meropis royal family to have Vanilla move in with Coral so that she may start to work towards a cure for Vanilla's… condition…” Sally momentarily winced. “That just left us with setting up travel arrangements and waiting for a warm-ish day. Both of which we now have currently,” She explained.
"But as you all probably know by now, when we spent the night on Angel Island last month, it turned out that Espio had found a Chaos Emerald on the Island, and when we left, he and Knuckles allowed us to keep a hold of it in this here security chamber," Nicky added as Nicole sent the cylindrical container that held the shimmering Chaos Emerald, green in its hue, to the part of the chamber tubes that connected to the desk in which she sat upon.
"What we're saying is, we need someone to stay behind and look after the Emerald. Any volunteers?" Sally then concluded the explanation. Immediately, Tails' hand shot up into the air.
"My assistant drones can keep an eye on the Sky Patrol's exterior, I'm quite skilled at piloting the Sky Patrol itself, and that would give me time to finally file a progress report back to my parents at the Armada! It's an obvious choice to pick me, I believe!" They very convincingly argued.
"Sounds good to me. We'll be counting on you," Sally responded with a smile.
"I believe in ya, little buddy!" Nicky added with a thumbs up.
"Of course! I can even fly the Sky Patrol over to the Merop Shore if you'd like!" Tails offered, already beginning to head to the control panel.
"That would be wonderful, thank you!" Sally replied, knowing that even if she wanted to decline, that she simply wouldn't be able to - Tails' mind was already in motion.