Rise For Me (Sequel to Scream For Me)

-7-

"Immediately," the surgeon assured him. "We do ask that any personnel who aren't required to perform the surgery please wait outside."

"Will do," Sonic said, taking one last look at (Y/n) before slipping out of the room with Tails and a couple other hospital personnel. He turned around, letting out a startled yelp as he came nose to nose with a certain panther.

"Fancy meeting you here," Tom said, leaning back to give Sonic space. The agent tilted his head, tapping his foot on the ground expectantly. "Well? Were you ever going to tell Shadow?"

"Of course," Sonic said indignantly. "But you know how he is! If he knew the whole situation, he would just make matters worse."

"Perhaps. But that's his girl in there. And she's about to go through something that could hurt her severely. I think he'd at least want to know, and he'd be sensible enough to know that barging in there wouldn't help her." Sonic glanced down.

"We just don't want him to do something he'd regret," Tails said quietly.

"I suppose that's a good point," Tom said. "But I also don't think Shadow regrets much of what he does."

"Where's the rest of the squad?" Sonic asked. "Not on their way, I hope."

"No. We split ways; with the tech Tails gave us, we figured we'd cover more ground separately. I've been tracking you since you brought her back to the workshop." Tails looked pointedly at Sonic, who had the shame to blush and look away. Tom planted his hands on his hips. "So how long is that surgery going to take?"

"Honestly, could be days," Tails said. "If they want to get that system out of her, they need to be careful and give her body time to rest."

"Starline's going to come for her in that time," Tom said. "We need to mislead him so that all these people here aren't caught in the crossfire."

"I didn't think of that," Sonic said, sharing a look with Tails. He turned to Tom. "What's your plan?" The panther smiled.

"Thought you'd never ask."

~

"So, we're not telling Shadow that his girlfriend's in the hospital about to be cut into?" Claire looked between the trio, fixing Tom with a particularly hard stare.

"Not yet," Sonic said. "We don't know what he'll do, and we need to be careful."

"Okay," the cheetah said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"We need you onboard because you and this clever little fox can disrupt the tracking signal from the chip on (Y/n)," Tom said. "And you always have a good plan and I've got this far, but you're the better planner." Claire eyed him, then rolled her eyes and dropped her arms.

"Alright." She turned to Tails. "What gear can you get here in five minutes?"

"Do you mean thirty seconds?" Sonic said with a grin. Tails shook his head.

"My computer," he told the hedgehog. "And that Chaos disrupter; we can rewire it so the signal it disrupts is the signal instead. He'll probably have robotic reinforcements, so we have to be on the lookout for those."

"I'll keep an eye out for any suspicious blokes," Tom said, flashing the trio a thumbs up before taking off around the hospital.

"So, computer and disrupter?" Sonic checked. Tails nodded. "Alright, be back in a moment."

The blue blur zipped off, leaving Claire and Tails alone. The cheetah pulled out a small device, lifting it and scanning the air when every light in the hospital suddenly went out.