“You know, I’m glad everything is working out so far,” Miles said, taking a sip of his drink.

He and Melinda sat on the balcony of their home, a two-story house on the edge of town just barely outside the woods. It was just starting to get dark and was thankfully shaping up to be a mild night that was just cool enough to be comfortable in the cold night air.

“So am I, even though it’s not over yet I can tell we’re gonna pull through this and put things back together,” Melinda took a bite of Pizza, she’d figured they’d just order in and enjoy the evening after the stressful last few days.

“It’s not gonna be easy, though,” He took a small bite of his own slice.

“No, but it’s worth what ever hell we have coming if it means neither one of us having to uproot ourselves and leave everyone behind,” she looked up at the darkening sky.

“Mom, am I the only reason you went through with all this? Telling them, I mean.”

She looked over to catch his somewhat nervous stare and smiled at him.

“Miles, you’re my son and I’d never do anything to hurt you like making you abandon your friends and life here”

“I just feel like I’ve maybe put you in danger or been a burden because you couldn’t just run away,” He fiddled with the straw in this glass.

“Please try not to think of it that way because that’s not how it is it all. I didn’t make this decision out of obligation or guilt, I made it because I love you and I care about all the friends we’ve made here. I don’t think I could run out out on Val like that that, and I know I didn’t want to leave behind that poor kid. You saw today how upset she was, Amy to. I’m even starting to get kind of close with that stubborn blue hedgehog.”

“Thanks mom, I know I shouldn’t worry but sometimes it’s hard to not to,”

“No problem, no matter what happens we’ll go through it together,” She grinned, “besides, the look on Knuckle’s face alone when it dawned on him who I was was worth it all.”

“I think he’s still steamed about it,” He chuckled.

“He probably thought I was some vengeful tribal spirit that was going to whoop him for losing those emeralds so many times,” she laughed at the thought.

“I’m sure he’ll come around,” he said, “but still, I keep thinking about that story he told. That must have been horrible.”
“It was one of the worst nights of my life and I can still remember the moment that poor kid stopped breathing and went limp in my arms,” she trailed off.

“Are you oka?,”

“I’ll be fine, that was 200 years ago and the monster that did it is long buried even if I don’t know when or how he kicked it. I’m also sure that kid is at peace now and I had to learn to let go, to,” she gave a mournful smile, “besides, things are finally going good and we don’t need to let my past ruin the evening.”

“Okay, “ he smiled back.

“Did you even finish what you were doing with the plane?” She fished another slice out of the box and took a bit.

“Well, I’m been trying to convert the engine so it doesn’t need fuel at all and can run solely off a Chaos emerald,” He took a sip of his own drink.

“How do you keep those things from frying the plane, anyway? It must be like hooking it into the main line of an entire power station,” she took a drink as well.

“I found out chaos energy functions enough like electricity that you can convert it into a less intense current, kind of like what a power adapter for a cell phone does,”

“So basically you stuck something like the mother of all voltage adapters in there, then?”

“Exactly, I figured I could replace the fuel injectors with these things that shoot small energy pulses into the pistons and simulate the engine firing by pushing them up,”

“And?”

“Err, it turns out I need either weaker pulses or a stronger material because it melted the bottoms of the pistons, snapped the arms, and somehow bent the camshaft.”

“I hope you have a spare engine,”

“Yeah, I was installing it when you showed up, I’ll head back over in the morning and finish up.” He yawned.

“You seem like you’re ready to crash,” She stood up from her chair.

“It’s been a long day.”

“Why don’t you head in and get some sleep, I’ll get this cleaned up,” she closed the lid of the pizza box and crouched down next to the his chair

“Thanks,” he climbed down out of his chair and hugged her, “Goodnight”

“See you in the morning, and Miles: I’ll be right here for you no matter what, okay?”
“Love you to, mom.”