Chapter 3

"Ah! Easy Tails. You're not exactly a Certified Medical Assistant."

"Sorry, Sonic. I'm doing my best."

"I'm surprised you even know what that is, hedgehog."

"I've been to a hospital before, Shadow. I'm not dumb."

After the group had escaped from Eggman's base, most of them had gone their separate ways. Silver and Blaze went back to their dimension. Cream and Cheese went home to their mother. And Knuckles had taken the Chaos Emeralds back to Angel Island for safe keeping.

Everyone else, naming Sonic, Tails, Shadow, Rouge, and Amy, had gone back to the home of Sonic and Tails. He would never admit it, but Shadow was a little worried about that syringe the doctor had injected Sonic with. He had told Tails what had happened, and as soon as Sonic's wounds were taken care of and he was resting his legs, Tails had taken it upon himself to take a blood sample and try to study whatever poison Eggman had flushed into the hedgehog's veins.

"Alright, that's it." Tails said as he pulled out the syringe from Sonic's arm and placed a bandage over the prick. "Now I just need to put this in the analyzer and we'll be able to tell what was in that syringe."

"Good, 'cause I'm dying to know." Sonic frowned as he rubbed his arm. "He said it was going to boil me alive, and for awhile I thought he was telling the truth."

"What do you mean?" Amy asked as Tails put the vial of blood in the analyzer.

"Well, as he was injecting me, I did start to feel really hot. It was like I was boiling from the inside. I felt like I was being burned alive. It…" Sonic hugged himself, his ears lowering a bit. "It scared me."

"Aw, you poor thing." Rouge frowned in sympathy, hugging him from behind and petting his ears.

"I was able to stop the injection before he could receive the last drop, but we should still be wary. We don't know if even a little is deadly." Shadow looked over at Tails expectantly. "Fox, the results?"

"One second." Tails watched the printer as the analyzer started coding down the findings in Sonic's blood. A large sheet of paper printed the results and Tails grabbed it, scanning the ink over quickly with his eyes. The more he read, the more his eyes widened. This was not a good sign.

"Tails?" Sonic asked wearily, noticing his look. "What is it, little buddy?"

Tails shook his head in disbelief as he finished reading the results, turning his gaze to his older brother. "Well… you're not gonna like this, but according to these results…" He trailed off, his gaze turning to look outside to the shining afternoon light. Sonic loved the outdoors. It would break his heart if he could never enjoy it again.

"Yes?" Sonic's voice brought the fox's attention back to him. He couldn't do it. He couldn't tell him the possibility of what he may have. Besides, without the last drop, he was sure that it would wear off. He shook his head. "Nothing, I was looking at these wrong. You're fine. Without the last drop, it's not strong enough to stay in your system. It'll wear off on its own."

"Phew, that's a relief." The hedgehog chuckled. "You really had me going there, Tails with that look of yours."

Tails chuckled nervously, balling up the sheet and throwing it away. "Well it's nothing to get upset over. Everything is fine."

"Oh that's such good news." Amy grinned happily, looking at Sonic. "I bet that boiling sensation you felt was just a scary placebo effect."

"You know what, you're probably right, Ames." Sonic chuckled. His gaze then turned to the window. The bright, beautiful warm sunlight of the summer afternoon was still shining. "You know, there's still plenty of light left, and it is summertime. Why don't we all hit the beach?"

"Really? Are you sure?" Tails asked nervously. "You should be resting your legs, Sonic. You can barely even walk, if at all."

"Ah, you know me, Tails, I hate being cooped up on a nice day." The hedgehog waved him off. "Besides, it's not like I'll be swimming. I'll just be lazing in the sun, working on my tan."

"Now that's my kind of afternoon." Rouge smirked. "Sounds ok to me."

"Me too. I'll even see if Cream and Vanilla wanna come." Amy agreed.

"Sweet! I'll start packing everything up." Sonic grinned, wobbly standing up from the chair and carefully walking out of the room to start packing the beach bag.

"But… but…" Tails stuttered as Amy and Rouge left to get ready as well, but nobody was listening. At least that's what he thought.

"Let them go, Fox."

Tails turned to Shadow and squeaked. The black and red hedgehog had the results in his hands, unfurled as much as he could. A glare was on his face as he stared at Tails, proving that he understood what they were saying. "Nobody will listen to you unless you tell the truth."

Tails lowered his ear, his two namesakes trailing on the floor. "Don't you see? I can't."

Shadow growled and threw the paper away again, approaching the younger Mobian and leering down at him angrily. "Then he will burn because of you."

With that, he stomped away from the fox and out the door. He was beyond mad. He couldn't believe that Tails was gonna let Sonic suffer like that. Well he wasn't gonna let that happen.

He didn't save Sonic just for him to boil alive afterwards. He was gonna help, but he would have to be sneaky about it.