The Hell We Live In

Nine

__Scourge was sitting in a chair inside of Tails's workshop. Tails was modifying the collar around his neck to give him some more range and to disable the electrical shock, instead replacing it with nonstop beeping and strong vibration. Scourge had to keep his head up, which was obviously uncomfortable so every so often Tails would pause and let Scourge roll his head. Tails would have preferred to remove the collar and work on it, but they knew if they did it would activate and shock him. Fiona was sitting in a stool in the room while watching nervously. T-Pup was acting more like a cat as it rubbed up against her leg.
__It took a while but Tails was finished. Well, he still needed to know for sure if it was going to work like it was supposed to. He finished writing his notes first about the last bits he did before looking at Scourge. "Well... now we have to test it. You okay with that?"
__Scourge nodded. Tails noticed whenever it came to the No Zone's technology he was always the one to volunteer first before Fiona. He knew that Scourge wanted to make sure it was safe for Fiona by taking the risk first. Tails had to admit that this was admirable for Scourge. It was obvious that this Evil Sonic counterpart went through a lot to get to this point of change.
__Tails led Scourge over to the garage door and pushed a button that raised the large door. When Scourge was next to him he pointed ahead of him to a stop sign. "You see that first stop sign at the end of the road? That's around seventy feet away. I've given you a fifty foot range. If you head over there you should hopefully only recieve a bunch of beeping and vibration from the collar. Ready?"
__Scourge didn't answer. He ran with his super speed and stopped by the stop sign. Tails was scared for a minute when he saw Scourge backing up while flattening his ears until he was back in the garage in less than a second and shaking his head. "Yep, it works. Shit's annoying as hell."
__"That's great," Tails said with relief. He then looked at Fiona. "Now we gotta work on yours."
__Fiona just grinned awkwardly.
__Once her collar was finished and tested they were all back in the living room. Tails had the TV on while he was texting Knuckles. The echidna was expressing his concerns.
__"Was this really your idea, too?" He had asked.
__"Yep. Those two were close to that monster and that thing betrayed them. You don't need to worry about them."
__"I'm not worried about them. I'm worried about you. You said they were staying with you."
__"I'm fine. They're being very cooperative and semi-respectful so far."
__"But what are they getting in exchange?"
__Tails took a minute to lean back onto the chair he was sitting in. When he was ready he leaned forward and started typing. "They're going to be staying here once this is all settled."
__Knuckles took a long while before replying. "Are you fucking insane!? Have you guys forgotten what they did!?"
__Tails felt regret as he typed this. "They have had a long time to reflect on themselves. They're willing to do as we say as long as they don't have to stay in Zone Jail. That place was horrible to them. They were going to let them die with these euthanizing watches if something happened. One of them also has really bad depression that was never taken care of. Just trust us on this."
__"Okay. Okay. Just be careful, little dude."
__"I'm not little anymore."
__Tails turned off his phone when he heard his front door beep. He got up and went to open it and saw Sonic holding some grocery bags. The plastic bags were being hanged on his arms where they rubbed off some of the foundation, showing a couple of his bruises. "Jesus, Sonic. Give me." He took all of the bags and set them on the coffee table in front of Scourge and Fiona. He identified the bags with food and drinks and brought those into the kitchen to put them up. When he was done he went back and looked through the other bags. He saw the shampoo and conditioner and looked at Sonic. "This isn't the brand I told you to get."
__"I know." Sonic simply said.
__Fiona had carefully taken the shampoo and examined it. She then slowly looked at Sonic. "You remembered the brand I liked."
__Sonic didn't look at her. He just nodded.
__Tails was looking through the bags to find the medication. "Were you not able to get any?"
__Sonic reached behind his head and pulled out a small paper bag. "Right here."
__Tails was staring at Sonic for a bit. "Were you keeping that in your quills?"
__"Yep!"
__"God, you're weird as fuck."
__"You only just noticed?" Sonic said while grinning. He then looked at Scourge and tossed him the bag. "Here you go."
__Scourge caught the bag and stared at it with confusion before opening it. He pulled out a small orange bottle of pills. "Wha...?"
__"Anti-depressents," was all Sonic said.
__"Oh." Scourge put the pills back in the bag and just held it.
__Tails was still looking at Sonic. "I didn't even think you were able to get any since we didn't send Scourge to a doctor or anything. How did you get them?" He then fake gasped. "You didn't bribe the pharmacist, did you?"
__Sonic just put a finger over his mouth. "Sh!" He tittered before talking again. "Did you get a chance to fix up their collars?"
__Tails nodded. "They can now be fifty feet away from either of us, and instead of being electrocuted and paralyzed they get beeps."
__"Nice."
__"So," Fiona said loudly to get everyone's attention. "What's the plan here?"
__That's when Sonic and Tails just stared at each other awkwardly.
__Fiona noticed this. "Are you fucking serious?"
__Tails was scratching his head in disappointment. "The Devil isn't here yet anyway. There hasn't been any news yet about it arriving."
__"You said he was creating genocide," Scourge pointed out in annoyance.
__"He is. He's on one of the next islands over."
__"But," Sonic interrupted. "I got off the phone with Shadow earlier. He said G.U.N. is working on getting more info on his location."
__"For now we just need to prepare," Tails said quietly.
__Scourge was staring at Tails. "Dude. You do know more people are gonna die the more we wait?"
__Tails said nothing.
__Sonic pulled out his phone. "It's getting late. I'm gonna head home." He turned to leave but Tails grabbed his little tail. "Ack! Dude!" He pulled out of the fox's grip. "You know you can't do that!"
__"I know. Perci did that to me before I put a restraining order on her." Tails said smugly. "Just wait a minute." He went into the bathroom and looked through his cabinet. He found his melatonin and went back into the living room. "Think fast!" He tossed the bottle over to Sonic.
__The blue hedgehog caught it quickly with one hand. "Always!" He then examined the bottle and frowned. "What?"
__Tails walked over to Sonic and grabbed his shoulder and pulled him in. "You, Mr. Hero of Mobius, need to get some. Fucking. Sleep! This is the same stuff I used to use and it works great. And you better actually take this! In the state you're in I can easily beat your ass!"
__Sonic pulled his shoulder out of Tails's hand and started laughing. "All right, bud. You make a good argument."
__"You bet your tiny ass I do!"
__Sonic's jaw dropped. "How dare you? I do more squats and excercise than you. Hmph!" He whipped his non-existent long hair and left the house.
__"Bark! Bark!" T-Pup started scratching the back door.
__Fiona looked at the robot dog with confusion. "You programmed your dog to go to the bathroom?"
__"Nope." Tails went into the kitchen and got a glass of water. He went to the back door and knelt down on one knee. For the first time in a while he patted his robot dog before standing up and going outside.