Chapter Text
Tails hadn't had an excuse to visit the old workshop down in Mystic Ruins in what felt like ages. It was a pretty lengthy train ride from the city his bigger lab was currently growing in, inconvenient for getting supplies, but this far from the city also meant a dark sky zone perfect for aiming a telescope at space.
Or a radar dish or two. This was Tails, after all.
"...We were having fun with just individual pages, but then Cream's mom showed us her collection of scrapbooking stuff and we got a little carried away, so that's where the journal came from." Amy babbled on while pushing the mop, wiping up several years worth of dust. "Turns out sewing a whole book is pretty easy. Cream did the stickers and the bookmark, but the rest I'm pretty proud of!"
"Ahuh." Tails wiped his screen clean, checking the plugs before switching it on. It lit up blue, flashed some console code, and then cycled into startup. The last time he'd left he had put everything into deep sleep for long-term storage, but it never hurt to run a quick diagnostic just in case.
"I'm still not quite sure what to put in it, but we figured out how to add pockets so I was thinking some pressed flowers or maybe some photos..."
"Photos are nice." Tails left the computer to finish scanning and stood up, stretching before heading for the roof ladder. He needed to check the roof antennae too. And then the servers, then the wires, then that one gutter that always threatened to leak, then...
Amy was still babbling, happy to raise her voice so he could hear her from the upper floor.
"I even found more film for my retro camera! Wouldn't it be fun to record some of our adventures? Ooh, like pictures of the night sky! I bet your telescopes could get a great closeup of the moon or--EEK!"
Tails nearly fell down the ladder. "What!? What's wrong?"
Amy pointed from the chair she'd somehow balanced on. "Spider."
"Gross." But he climbed back down, fetching a dustpan. There were some pretty interesting spiders living in Mystic Ruins, but Tails generally preferred they keep outside of his workshops. Besides, some of them were venomous. He did his best to nudge the little guy onto the dustpan without it losing a leg and gingerly carried it out the door Amy had so helpfully thrown open for him. Into the nearest bush it went.
"Is it gone?" Amy asked when he returned.
"It's gone," Tails confirmed.
"My hero." Now she climbed down from the chair and trotted over to the door to retrieve the mop she'd used on the door. "Aheh. Uh, sorry about that. It surprised me."
"Don't worry about it," Tails said. "Trust me, this place has seen far worse. Did I ever tell you about that time Sonic went out in a storm and came back through the east wall?"
Amy gave him a sheepish grin. "Can I still use your telescope to look at the moon?"
"The moon? Pshh, I can do one better! Help me clean these antennae and I bet we can get some shots of the ARK from here."
It took the better part of half a day to get the workshop dusted, de-spidered, and oiled up, but between the two of them it felt like light work. Amy had always been good at housekeeping and Tails was glad to have her along, even if it meant he learned more about bullet journaling than he ever thought possible. Some of it sounded useful for his own notes but the rest sounded like Amy had gone on a serious research binge.
They actually did manage to find the ARK. Tails set a radar to track it and Amy unpacked her camping gear for a makeshift kitchen while they waited for proper nightfall. She was just putting the kettle on when there was a knock at the door.
Both of them froze.
"Weird. I wasn't expecting anyone."
"Neither was I." Amy hefted her hammer with a questioning look. Do you need me to start swinging?
Tails shook his head. Not yet. He crept to the door, wishing he'd thought to install cameras back in the day, and opened it a crack. Then flung it open wide.
"Aw, Tails, you're looking great," said Rouge the bat as she strode in, dragging a highly unamused Shadow with her. "Love what you've done with the place."
"Wh- Rouge! How did you know we were here?" Amy asked, putting her hammer away.
Rouge winked at her. "Oh I have my ways. Do you have a seat Shadow can borrow?"
"I don't-" Shadow started.
"Hush, you. He blew a rocket skate out in the field--"
"I'm fine."
"--And your workshop was closest by. Hope you don't mind."
Tails was already scrambling to clear supplies off the little corner sofa. "Of course not! Sit down!"
"Do you need the first aid kit?" Amy asked, unpacking two more mugs.
"I'm fine," Shadow repeated, but he was limping as Rouge helped him to the sofa. Sure enough, one of his shoes was scorched and trailing faint wisps of acrid black smoke.
Amy fetched the kit anyway. And the fire extinguisher.
They managed to peel off the damaged shoe with some hissing from Shadow and a lot more acrid smoke. Nobody complained when Tails moved it outside to cool off completely. He took the good shoe too, for good measure, but that one immediately went into the lab for a good cleaning and a scan.
"You're lucky this wasn't worse," Amy was saying as she cleaned charred bits of sock off Shadow's foot. "With how bad your skate looks I thought for sure you'd have some second degree burns at least, but this looks all minor."
'Hmph," said Shadow.
"I can't say I'm all that surprised though." Amy smeared on burn cream next. "You should see how fast Sonic goes through shoes."
Shadow twitched. Amy paused and glanced up.
Shadow reluctantly set his foot back down.
"...Look," she said, unwrapping a spool of gauze. "I know being the ultimate lifeform means you think you're better than Sonic--"
"I am."
"--And sure, your shoes did last a lot longer than any of his, but they still wear through. You speedsters practically live on your feet, you have got to take care of them. Rest once in a while! It's a good excuse to stop and check on your gear." She patted his now bandaged foot. "There. Keep off that for the time being. The burn cream should dull any pain, but you're still hurt and this needs to be kept clean."
Shadow glared uncomfortably at the corner.
Amy started packing the medkit away, knowing from experience the broody hedgehog didn't like opening up all at once. Besides, the kettle was starting to boil.
"...I messed up," he finally said, softly. "One of the doctor's robots was on the train, the passengers were hostages. It threw some overboard. Rouge went after them but it shot her out of the sky. I went after her..."
"Let me guess, you landed wrong?" There was the clattering of kettle on camp stove, then Amy reappeared at his elbow with steaming mugs.
"I landed perfectly," Shadow snapped. "I just... didn't see the electric rail in time. Omega had to take over."
Amy hissed through her teeth. "Yeah, the rail's new. They just replaced the tracks a few months back, installed 'em all over Station Square. Tails was super excited to see the new train cars on our trip over. You know, you're really lucky," she added, holding out a mug for him.
Shadow grunted at it. Amy kept it held out.
"I'm serious! Do you know how high voltage those things are? Shadow, you're lucky you didn't get electrocuted. Or worse. Was everyone else okay? I mean, Rouge looked fine, so you must have caught her before she touched the rail."
"The passengers were fine," Shadow said. He finally gave in and took the mug, cradling it in his lap. "We... stepped in before anything too serious happened."
"Sooo..." Amy leaned closer.
Shadow slowly turned to look at her. "What."
"So you still saved the day! Sure you got burned, but you still rescued the train and nobody got seriously hurt thanks to you. Honestly, with the look you're wearing you'd think it was some giant defeat just because you lost a shoe!"
Shadow opened his mouth. Rouge took that moment to barge in from the side room.
"Found 'em!" She hefted the box under her arm. "Whoof, Amy you were right, that boy must have a hundred spares at least!"
Amy's smile spread to a wide, smug grin.
Shadow was not amused. "Tell me those aren't--"
"We have shoes~ for you~" Rouge sang, wiggling the box towards him.
"....No."
"Amy dear, weren't you just telling Shadow how he needs to keep his poor foot clean while it heals?"
"Why yes I did!"
"Stop helping her," Shadow snapped.
"You can't go barefoot the whole time Tails is fixing your skates," Rouge chided. "It's just for the time being."
"And what if something happens in the meantime and you can't run because you were being stubborn? What if you make your burn worse?" Amy chimed in.
"Why that would just break my poor heart. You worry me so much, Shadow. So much."
Shadow aggressively slurped his tea.
"If you won't wear Sonic's then you're stuck with my spare boots," Amy offered.
"Give me the goddamn box."
Tails had a rough blueprint by the time his tea got cold. The rocket skate was laid out on his workbench mostly in pieces, each one carefully cleaned, catalogued, and labeled. He hadn't tried reassembling it yet but it was obvious the "good" skate wasn't that far from exploding itself. How in the world had Shadow lasted so long running on fumes like that?
"Tails?"
The fox dove for his tea, choking it down in one painful gulp.
"Oh good, you didn't forget your tea this time!" Amy cheerfully strode over. "You and Sonic are so alike, I swear! Always forgetting to take breaks when you're working..."
"A-actually, I was thinking of taking a break right now," Tails said, nervously setting the now empty mug down. "It's about time for dinner, right?"
"Yeah, actually. I made fried rice."
"Sounds great!"
Rouge watched the two of them close up the workshop for now, noting that Tails had stopped on the first reminder, and that Shadow was now unconscious on the sofa, so deeply asleep he almost wasn't scowling. Either she needed Amy's tea recipe, or she needed whatever self-help book the girl was writing.
She decided to wait until Tails was on his second helping of rice to mention the signal his antenna was picking up from the ARK.
"You could have said something sooner," Tails hissed. He held out a hand blindly to his side, waiting for Amy to pass him the handheld now that he had his cables sorted out. They'd moved to the roof in order to not disturb Shadow.
"Oh I could have," Rouge answered loftily. "But that rice was just delicious. You know how I get when I see something I like."
"Yeah but this is a signal from the ARK." Amy tucked her skirt under her and sat down besides Tails, making sure the toolbox was right next to her. "You already knew we were looking for it, but an inexplicable signal is a little more important than rice, Rouge."
"As I said, it was good rice."
They waited a while for Tails' handheld to pull its data. All of a sudden the fox tensed up, furiously typing away. Overhead a second radar dish swiveled to match the first one they'd set up.
"Oh that can't be good." Rouge pulled her legs back from the roof's edge and moved to hover over Tails' shoulder.
"It's a distress signal," he breathed. "It's really weak- I don't think anyone would have noticed if we weren't already looking at the ARK."
"Wait the signal's coming from inside the ARK?" Amy gasped. "But- but there's nothing up there! Last time we went we cleared out most of the artificial Chaos, and that Biolizard guy's been gone for years! What up there could possibly be sending off a beacon?"
Rouge picked at her nails. "There might be something... actually."
Tails actually looked up from his handheld, squinting at her. He spared a glance at Amy, figuring she was probably thinking the same thing he was.
"Rouge," Amy said slowly. "Tell me you didn't know about the distress beacon."
"What? No!" Rouge almost looked genuinely offended. "I told you, Shadow needed to be around some friendly faces while he recovers. This is complete coincidence."
"Coincidence that you happen to know what's signalling us from the ARK?" Tails asked.
"I said I might know. Fox boy, I worked there for months. Do you think I haven't toured the labs at least once?"
Tails and Amy glanced at each other.
"...What did you find?" the fox asked.
Rouge sat back down and folded her hands on her lap, looking solemn. "A lot of broken glass. Planetside, GUN tried wiping all evidence of the ARK they could get their hands on away, but the ARK itself was left a mess. Guess they figured if nobody was alive to remember it, no one would poke their noses in." She gave a bitter snort. "We all know how well that went over."
"So the ARK wasn't actually cleared out," Tails mused. "That explains why we had to fight so many robots... And the bigger ones like Biolizard were too powerful to destroy, right? They were sealed away instead."
"Correct!" Rouge said. "Though in the lizard's case I got the sense that GUN tried and failed to take it down. The records I found listed a lot of casualties. They got a bit sloppy after that."
Amy shivered despite the warm jungle air. "Does that mean... there might be another survivor up there?"
"I don't know for sure," Rouge answered her. "I wish I did." She sat back to stretch her legs out, watching Amy and Tails glance at each other again, knowing full well the silent communication happening here. They weren't the kind of kids who would just leave someone who needed help, even if that someone was a deadly government experiment. She waited until they nodded at each other before adding, "You know... there is still an old Eggman base down in the jungle. If you need to steal a rocket."
Amy leapt to her feet. "I'll get packing."
Tails made a final note in his handheld and disconnected it, also standing up. "Rouge, I'm sorry. I know I said I'd fix Shadow's skates first--"
"Lab 7, red hallway," Rouge said, shushing him with a finger to his lips. "The door lock's busted, don't worry about it, but there might still be some shrapnel when you open it up so be careful. You're looking for the crates in the lockers on the far wall. Those will have a lock on them but you could crack it no problem. Bring me back a souvenir."
Tails blinked, surprised. But he was a smart kid and took notes despite himself. "I'll see what I can find."
"Good boy." Rouge smiled and waved him off after Amy. "Have fun in orbit."
She waited until the kids were busy and freed the wristcom from her glove. It was time to make a call or two.