HELLBOUND {Sequel}

Forty-two

__While lots of armed G.U.N soldiers hid in the shadows to keep an eye on things, the other Freedom Fighters were trying to quietly evacuate the citizens. This was where things would get difficult because half of them were going to have to join them in neighboring cities. At least they had lots more allies alerted and on the ready. Tails would be lying if he said he wasn't a little scared. Usually, he wasn't nervous at all about fighting Doctor Eggman, even with Sonic gone. But after all the losses they received, things were different. He didn't want Sonic to get upset again. He had to prove himself and prove to the others that he didn't need Sonic to back him up like he had on his day off. He knew that had annoyed and upset many of the other Freedom Fighters. It just showed them that he wasn't willing to fight his own battle. It definitely didn't help that the others still think he was just a sidekick. This was all so upsetting.
__Once the citizens were evacuated, Tails chose a curb outside a small cafe and sat down, ignoring the freezing touch on his ass. Tails could not just shake the feeling that the others hated him even more than they already did. T-Pup had gone to sit down beside Tails. It hadn't detected anything at all today. It was all the more confusing that Doctor Eggman hadn't made any more attempts to spy on them, even if they already knew what he was doing.
__Cream was walking down the sidewalk. She saw Tails and went to sit down next to him while Cheese sat by T-Pup. She looked concerned. "You okay?"
__Tails leaned his head back as he made a big inhale before turning to Cream with a big grin. "Yeah! Just not liking how quiet the city is now."
__Cream did not look convinced. "Everything's going to be just fine. I promise."
__Tails's smile went away instantly as he looked back down at his shoes. "I don't think anyone trusts me anymore."
__Cream gave Tails a light shove. "Don't be ridiculous. We wouldn't be here if we didn't."
__But Tails shook his head. "They have to. Sonic was the one who told them to listen to me. That doesn't mean they trust me with their lives." Tails then stood up, shivering from the amount of fur that he lost frozen to the curb. "Oh well! I got better things to focus on." He went to pick up T-Pup and started walking away.
__"Hey! Wait!" Cream grabbed Cheese and started running after the fox. "We can still talk if you need to!"
__Tails didn't look at her. "I'm done talking. I've done way too much talking all this time. It's time I focus on this war."
__"But..." Cream had given up trying to convince Tails.
__Tails had straightened up when he saw Bunnie and Antoine running towards them. He felt excited and ran over to meet them. "Hey!"
__Bunnie ran on ahead and handed Tails a heavy sack with a tired smile. "We got 'em!"
__Antoine was panting excessively as he caught up and rested his hand on Bunnie's robotic arm. "We still do not know if we got zem all, zough."
__Tails opened the sack as T-Pup flew up to look in and counted four Chaos Emeralds. He could feel his two Tails wagging happily. "This is perfect! Rouge told me a few days ago that Eggman only had three. As long as we keep these safe, he can't gain any more advantage over us."
__Bunnie and Antoine turned to each other and gave a well-deserved high-five. Bunnie then looked back at Tails. "How's Avery been?"
__Tails threw the sack over his shoulder and smiled. "All the kids have been well taken of. We even sent them with the others to evacuate. All's well."
__Antoine was now looking concerned. "I got a text from Rotor. Did Sonic really get mad at everyone?"
__Tails flattened his ears and avoided eye contact. "Y-yeah... I had to tell him about Sally and... I may have blabbed a little too much. He just got mad for my sake."
__"Sounds 'bout right," Bunnie muttered while nodding.
__Cream looked nervous as she looked at the sack. "Uh... how did you two find these so quickly?"
__Antoine turned around and pointed at the small group of birds. "We had ze Babylon Rouges help us out."
__Tails just groaned as Wave made eye contact. "Well, isn't that nice," he said sarcastically. He shook his head and smiled at the coyote as he turned back. "We're getting ready to group back up. I'll be giving out orders for the next phase of the plan."
__The two followed them into the town square where all the other Freedom Fighters and some allies have gathered around. There was already a commotion. By the looks of it, Scourge was getting into an argument with some of the Freedom Fighters. The Desteuctix had joined behind him, but they stood still regrettably. Scourge looked real annoyed.
__"Is it really so hard for you guys to be fucking professional?" He snapped at a group of background characters. "I'm acting on orders here! You should be, too, so quit you're bitching and go do what you're told!"
__"What gives you the right to boss us around, moebian?" One of them retorted. "Leave this to the real heroes!"
__"Right, cause real heroes are racist mother fuckers!" Scourge growled. "I never once called myself a hero! I don't even wanna be, but I'll gladly fight for my friend now just like last year!"
__"We didn't even want you here in the first place!" Shouted another.
__"Why don't you go home!?"
__"Ex-fucking-scuse me!?" Scourge shouted back.
__"Hey! Hey!" Tails was hurriedly walking over to get in between them. Tails had looked at Scourge and shoved the sack against the hedgehog's chest. "It's all right, man. You're not doing anything wrong. Here, keep this safe for me, will you?"
__Scourge reluctantly hugged the sack of Emeralds while mumbling angrily.
__Tails then sighed and turned to look at the others with his arms crossed. "As for you lot, this is his home whether you like it or not. And I'm the one who gave him his authority. You'll do as he says."
__The Freedom Fighters were also muttering angrily as they walked away. Tails could hear them talking about how stupid the fox was being. He tried his best to forget.
__Tails turned back to Scourge and let his arms drop back down to his sides. "What happened?"
__Scourge rolled his eyes. "Just as you said I was making sure everyone was double checking that the city was empty of normies, but they just refused to listen to reason." Scourge then pointed his thumb to the Destructix. "Didn't help that I had to openly tell my boys to stay still in front of them."
__Tails felt bad for Scourge. "Man, I'm sorry. It sucks ass that you have to deal with so much disapproval."
__Scourge shook his head. "I don't need their approval. As long as I have it from the handful of people I consider friends I'm happy. Don't worry about nothin'."
__Knuckles came around and started clapping his hands together while shouting loudly. "That's enough! Hurry and gather around and await directions!"
__Tails moved his way to the center of all the people. Scourge, Cream, Bunnie and Antoine followed him closely. T-Pup had descended from the air and sat down close to Tails's feet while looking up at the fox. Tails felt a little nervous with everyone looking at him. Tails never experienced stage fright before until now. Just proved how introverted he had become.
__"All right!" Tails had shouted. He could still do this. "We have to get serious now. Just because the citizens are out of the way does not mean things will get easier. Eggman may have been silent since the attack, but that doesn't make it a good thing. Shadow will let me know when Eggman will launch his attack, and when that happens I will signal to you all from my communicator. So make sure you all keep your communicators on you at all times."
__Scourge had walked over and stood next to Tails while he held up the bag of Chaos Emeralds. This made Tails gesture to the bag. "We posses four Chaos Emeralds while Eggman only has three. But he will still be dangerous, especially with those magic crystals. We will use the ones we have, but we'll have to be extra careful and make sure Eggman and Sage can't get their hands on them." Tails stopped to breathe before looking at all the mobians and humans. "Our fliers will take the skies and the buildings' roof. Our runners will stick to the ground. Our gunners must stick to the shadows with the exception of half of you joining our runners. Those robots will be stronger than they have been in the past. Stay sharp, and do not abandon your fellow comrades. In this battle, what matters most is looking out for each other. Otherwise, the enemy will pick off us easily. But don't let any of this discourage you! We've beaten Eggman many times before, and we'll do it again! This war has our victory all over it!"
__Many of them were cheering and clapping. There were some, however, that weren't rejoicing as eagerly. There were still a few others that didn't believe in him. This didn't make Tails feel good at all. It wasn't a good sign for the battle to have them not trust him. While he couldn't make them trust him, he still needed them to trust his word. But there wasn't much he could do until the battlefield to try to convince them. He just had to hope for the best until then.
__"Shouldn't someone else hold on to the Chaos Emeralds?" Someone had called out. Tails couldn't see who had yelled.
__Scourge brought the bag down to his side and started scanning the crowd. "Who the fuck, huh!? Square up then!"
__Tails's flattened his ears and put his hands on the hedgehog's arm. "Hey! Chill out. We're done here. We can just go."
__Scourge was growling. "I won't take this disrespect! You wanna hold these emeralds, jackass!? Be my guest, and when you lose these to the enemy I'll beat your fucking ass!"
__Tails had to push Scourge away. "That's enough! Thank you!" Tails turned back to the crowd with his shoulders slouched. He let out a loud groan. "Look, none of you have to trust Scourge. Just let me do what I think is necessary. I've trusted him with my life and I still do. Isn't that enough?"
__That was a stupid question. There were now so many murmurs of disapproval. So many of the background characters were now upset and uncertain. Tails had just made it worse. How the hell was he supposed to keep everyone together now?
__"Ay! Ay!" Knuckles shouted loud and aggressively. "Shut your fucking mouths and listen to what your leader has to say! We're about to go into war! There is no time to be picky about the people you have to work with! If you're all gonna be like that, then be prepared to face the consequences on the battlefield! We will not have time to save so many of your immature asses! So man the fuck up already! It's everyone before yourself in the army! Remember that, assholes!"
__Everyone shut up immediately. Tails couldn't help but feel a bit envious. He was more upset than envious, though. Of course everyone would listen to Knuckles. When everyone thought Sonic was dead in the war against Infinite and Doctor Eggman, Knuckles had been leading the resistance while Tails went off on his own and suffered his own mental breakdown. This makes Tails believe Sonic should've just put the echidna incharge. Maybe then there wouldn't be so much disapproval and uneasiness.
__"Carry on then," Tails called out blandly as he stepped away. All of his friends came and huddled around him. Tails looked as Knuckles stood next to him and gave him a weak smile. "Uh... thanks, man."
__Knuckles crossed his arms. "You actually gonna do something in return?" He teased.
__This made Tails snort. "I'll suck your dick." That caught most of their friends off guard while others started chuckling.
__Knuckles was trying not to laugh. "Please!" He moaned.
__Tails started laughing as he shoved Knuckles away. He then simmered down and went back to frowning as he gazed at his friends. "All right, all right. I'm gonna have to rely on you even more to show the others how we do things. I'm well aware that they're starting to lose faith in me, and... I don't blame them at all. But we have to be able to stick together no matter what. We cannot afford to be divided now."
__"No problem at all!" Tangle called out a little too loudly. "We won't let you down!"
__Mighty had scoffed. "That goes without saying. We never slack off, and we won't start now."
__Tails felt great relief as the rest of his friends gave their assurance. He started nodding while trying not to shiver. "Thank you, guys. I know for a fact I couldn't do any of this without you. Jewel," Tails turned to look at the light blue beetle. "be sure to let the other nations know they will recieve word from Nicole when we're ready to fight."
__Once Jewel nodded Tails decided to take his leave. He was going to walk over to a group of G.U.N. soldiers when Scourge suddenly grabbed him and yanked him back. "Yack! Scourge!"
__Scourge quickly wrapped his arm around the fox's shoulders before pointing at Cream with his eyes. Tails shook his head. He had wanted some time to say goodbye to Cosmo before he told Cream about his decision. Scourge had pouted and buzzed his lips before letting go of Tails.
__Tails gave Scourge a slight smack on his ass before leading him over to the group of agents. He looked over at a brown haired male human with a digital clipboard. "Is there something you needed?"
__The human nodded before handing the clipboard to the fox. "We received word from Ms. Rouge. She relayed us some information on those crystals in the cave. The commander was even able to successfully acquire a large enough sample for us to bring back to you. It still emits energy."
__Tails was amazed as he read through the notes. It was obvious these were some other notes Doctor Eggman had written that Tails did not discover. They explained thoroughly about what the crystals are and what they do.