The crowd cheered, seeing that Eggman had once again been defeated. While the crowd would usually focus their cheering on the whole group, everyone cheered for one of the heroes in particular. Tails, hopping out of his plane, gave the crowd a wave. The young kitsune turned to the passenger in his plane, a young female fox called Zooey, and he held a hand out to her. Giggling, she accepted it and he helped her out of the plane. Before anyone could say anything else, Eggman shouted to them from his vehicle.

"You haven't seen the last of me!" he called down to the crowd. "I will be back with a bigger, badder robot and I will have victory!"

No sooner than he said that did he take off for his base. When he did so, most of the crowd dissipated, returning to doing what they had done before the attack. Sonic and Tails' other friends came over to him, showering him with compliments while Zooey just watched on from by the plane.

"Nice one, bud!" Sonic praised his 'little brother'.

"You were amazing out there, Tails!" Knuckled commended, patting the much smaller fox on the back.

"Way to go, Tails!" Sticks shouted, hugging him.

"That was incredible!" Amy cheered.

"Guys, please!" he laughed heartily. "No need to be quite so surprised! Also, Sticks, could you loosen up? You're crushing me a little." Sticks obeyed, letting go of Tails.

"Are we going to get an introduction?" Amy asked.

The kitsune looked over at the yellow vixen by his plane, seeing that she seemed to be waiting for him.

"Oh, of course!" the young inventor brought his friends to Zooey, who looked a little nervous. "Zooey, this is Sonic, Knuckles, Amy and Sticks." He pointed out his friends as he said their names. "Guys, this is Zooey."

"Nice to meetcha," Sonic greeted, extending a hand to her.

"The pleasure is all mine," she greeted back, shaking his hand.

"Actually, you guys, I think I'm gonna make sure Zooey gets home okay." Zooey's ears perked up at hearing this. "Would you mind making sure my plane gets back to the workshop okay?"

"Oh, how sweet of him," Amy cooed, cupping her hands together while Tails blushed, "you are so adorable!"

"Don't worry, Tails, we'll get it back to the workshop for you," Knuckles smiled, giving Tails a thumbs up, "just don't be out too long." This made Tails' blush grew, much to his amusement.

"And don't let her control you for the government," Sticks said, random as ever.

"Don't worry, I won't," Tails replied, scratching the back of his head in confusion and amusement.

Sonic stuck around a little longer than the others, giving his 'brother' a hug.

"Go get her, bro," he told him, Tails nodding with red cheeks before they went their separate ways.

"Your friends seem like a lot of fun," Zooey admired, a slight look of amusement on her face.

"Yeah," Tails replied, "couldn't ask for better friends. A bit annoying at times, but still really great people." Zooey giggled, making Tails' heart skip. "So, shall I walk you home?"

"Sure," she replied. They walked together for about five minutes, neither one sure of how to start a conversation with the other. When they got to Zooey's house, they stopped at the door, looking into each other's eyes. "Well, here we are."

"I guess I should get going," Tails told her, still mystified by her beauty. "The others might need help with something." Before he could leave, she grabbed his hand. He looked back at her, confused. "Zooey?"

"I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you so much for saving me. Had it not been for you, I could have been hurt or worse..."

"Zooey, don't worry about it," he told her softly, "you're safe now. I was just doing my job."

"It would have also been Sonic's job, or the rest of your friends' job, but you chose to save me alone. Why?"

"Well... I, uh..." his blush started to grow as he tried to find the words.

"Are you okay?" He nodded, but she wasn't certain that he meant it. "I've been a bit worried about you lately, Tails."

"What do you mean?"

"You've been acting kind of weird lately. First you were pretending to be some care free loser, then there was that muscle head act, then you tried that big speech up to my window and then that weird dance. I thought you might have gone... crazy."

"Zooey," he sighed, letting go of his worries for a second, "my friends suggested that I should do those things to impress you, because... well, they knew that I kind of..."

"Yes?"

"Well, what I mean is that I, uh... I..." he kept his head low to try and hide his blush.

"Tails?" His head perked up. "Do you... like me?" He gave a small, sheepish nod. She blushed. "Wow. It's just that... I've kind of... liked you for a while now too."

"Really?" His shock was written all across his face.

"Why not? You're a heroic, sweet, handsome guy who is willing to put everyone else before himself. You're amazing, Tails!"

"No, Zooey, you're amazing. You're beautiful, funny, kind and so, so much more." He grabbed her other hand. "I really like you, Zooey, and I was wondering if you'd... like to go out with me some time?"

"I'd love to," she replied. She heard a ring from inside her house. "I need to get that, but do you want to see a movie this weekend?"

"That'd be perfect."

"Great! Come by at around five and we can go see something together." She placed a soft, delicate kiss on his cheek. "I'll see you then." She entered her house and Tails just stood there, entranced with his hand covering the cheek she had just kissed. A smile grew wide on his face as his eyes grew a little heavy, as if he was dreaming. He walked home like this, not thinking about anything else but Zooey.