"A Story Of Dark Tails" By RLS0812
Things were slowly returning to normal after the latest defeat of Dr. Robotnic and life seemed great . It was a beautiful day in Green Hill, as Sonic and Tails ran in and out of the trees, playing a game of tag. Off in the distance a faint heartbeat-like 'thu-thump' could be heard.
"Did you hear that?" asked Sonic as both of them skidded to a dead stop to listen.
'Thu-thump' could be heard a little bit louder this time.
"Ya I heard it," replied Tails, "what could it be ? ".
"It could be Robotnic up to no good again." replied Sonic, who was looking around attempting to figure out exactly were the noise was coming from.
Meanwhile in the Chaos Temple on Angle Island, a tear appeared in the fabric of reality, spilling out dark shapeless mist all around.
'Thu-thump'
The hole became a little bit bigger.
'Thu-thump'
Two red specks of light could now be seen through the widening tear.
'Thu-thump'
A ghostly misshapen head could be now seen.
'Thu-thump'
Energy begun to radiate outward from the hole, as the darkness it's self reached out.
'Thu-thump'
A deep laugh could be heard from many unseen mouths while the undefined body of the creature tried to force it's self across the worlds.
'Thu-thump'
Both Sonic and Tails felt a sense of impending danger while they heard the noise getting louder and louder.
"I'm going to check out what Robotnic is up to this time," said Sonic, " please go back home and get ready in case I need you in a hurry!"
"OK, I guess," replied Tails in a gloomy voice, "I wish I could come."
"This may be very dangerous," cautioned Sonic, "besides, Robotnic may try another sneak attack on our town, and you can help defend it with the X-Tornado !"
"Alright, I'll go it." Said a much happier fox, as he ran off back to his home. As Tails disappeared over the horizon, Sonic turned and ran off in the direction of the noise, beads of sweat forming on his forehead.
'THU_THUMP'
It was hours since the noise had stopped, and as each minute slowly ticked away, Tails became more and more worried about his friend. Finally the fox had enough of waiting, and ran out of his house back toward Green Hill to look for Sonic. Along his way he ran into Knuckles walking the other direction, with the usual annoyed look on his face.
"Hay, whats up?", asked the Echidna, stopping to look at the panicked fox running by.
"Have you seen Sonic?" panted Tails, "He went off to see what Dr. Robotnic was doing this time around, and hasn't came back yet."
"If that hedgehog is as good as he claims he is, he'll be alright." replied Knuckles in a dry tone.
With out another word he turned and continued walking past Tails not seeming a bit concerned about anything. The fox stood still for a few seconds until he stopped panting, than dashed off into the horizon.
Tails was very tired as he reached the borders of Green Hill, having ran as fast as he could for over 40 minutes. He stopped to catch his breath, and noticed something a little strange. All around there was silence. No insects humming, no birds chirping - no signs of life. Tails decided to jog for a while, since he was too tired to run. As he went, the fox noticed that in spots plants were torn to shreds, and trees were knocked down. The further he went, the more common it became, to the point he had to walk at a slow pace so he could climb over fallen trees.
Soon he discovered a small lump of red and gray fur laying before him. Upon closer inspection, Tails was mortified at what he found. In front of him was a small gray squirrel, it's chest had been ripped open and all internal organs were missing. Both of it's eyes were gone! Tails moved along as quickly as he could, trying to get the sight of the mutilated animal out of his mind. It wasn't long before the fox came across his next sight. This time was a bear cub, it's intestines had been pulled out of it's stomach, and used used to hang the poor thing from a low tree branch like a noose. Both of this animal's eyes were also missing.
Tails 'eeped', trying not to vomit as he went on, almost too afraid at what he would find next. On and on he went, going past more and more mutilated animals, until he was forced to stop by a large pile of dead forest creatures. All around the fox was unspeakable brutality. Through teary eyes, Tails could see a badger with it's spine ripped out, one bird that was used to stab another bird in the back, a snake that had been force fed it's own tail until it chocked to death, a cat with it's head twisted backward, and a bunny that had it's skin pealed off. All the creatures had their eyes gouged out.
Tails shut his eyes as tight as he could, and ran forward, hoping this was all a bad dream. This seemed to work for a short time, until the fox ran headlong into a tree trunk and was knocked down. When Tails opened his eyes, there was blood and dead bodies of forest creatures everywhere.
As he was clearing his head, he looked off into the distance and spotted a hill, with a blue dot on top of it.
"Sonic?" he yelled several times but received no reply.
Tails stood back up, and ran toward his friend, ignoring all the chaos and death around him. As he neared, Tails sensed something was wrong and stopped. Before him, Sonic was standing still, with his eyes closed.
"Sonic?", Tails asked again, a slight tremor in his voice.
"Sonic!", he said a bit louder, as he reached out and touched his friends shoulder.
Sonic's eye lids flew open, and Tails knew he was in a lot of trouble. There were no eyes ! There were just two bleeding eye sockets, with small red glowing orbs in the middle. Sonic leaned forward opining his mouth to speak, revealing all of his new blood soaked fangs.
"DO YOU WANT TO PLAY A GAME?" Sonic asked in a deep demonic voice.
In reply, Tails passed out.
It wasn't long before Tails regained his senses, though he wished he didn't. Everything around the poor fox was on fire now. Tails picked himself up off the scorched ground and started running, knowing he had to get out of there fast ! It on and on the fox went, trying to escape the inferno he was trapped in.
Out of no were, his former friend appeared before him, hovering in the air, and smiling down at Tails. "FOUND YOU!"
Tails skidded to a halt, and reversed his course, as Sonic flew forward at him. All the running had left Tails exhausted, his legs felt like lead weights! It wasn't long before he tripped over a charred tree branch, landing on his rump. All the fox could do was sit and cry, knowing these were his last moments to live in his short 8 year life.
Sonic appeared next to him, roughly hauling the fox to his feet. The former hedgehog stared intently into Tail's eyes, than a dark energy shot out of his eyes. At first Tail's vision was filled by pure white, than changed to pure black as both his eyeballs ruptured! Tail's screamed as a dark energy entered the his body through his eye sockets! The fox ran out of air in his lungs, but continued to try to scream anyway while fiery pain filling his entire body. From his ears, to the tips of his toes, he felt like he was being burned alive! Suddenly the fox lost consciousness.
Tails soon re-awoke as he heard demonic voices in his head.
"WELCOME TO MY WORLD!"
The fox tried to run, but found he could not move at all.
"I LOVE HAVING NEW PLAY THINGS. WE HAVE ALL OF ETERNETY TO GET TO KNOW EACHOTHER VERY WELL."
Fresh pain shot through Tail's body, not relenting in the slightest. He tried to scream out, but could not. It seemed like hours before it stopped, when the voice returned.
"WHAT OTHER TOYS DO YOU HAVE?"
A vision was shown to Tails, that he recognized as the surprise birthday party he and his friends had thrown for Sonic.
Tails was hiding in another room with the cake. The fox could hear the front door open to Sonic's house, and every one yelled 'surprise', which was Tail's cue to come out. He came out in a hurry, and tripped on the corner of the rug. Down he went, face first into the cake. A collective gasp could be heard from every one, followed by many angry murmurs.
"What have you done?!" demanded an angry Sonic, "You have ruined my birthday !
"I'm sorry," replied Tails, his head hung low.
"I do not want to be your friend any more. Get out of my house!" bellowed Sonic as he was turning red in the face from anger.
"That's not how it happened!" yelled Tail's in his head.
A new vision was shown to the fox, this time it was of his own mother tied to a stake and burning.
"No, No, Noooo!" Tails screamed as loud as he could in his head.
"INTERESTING. YOU ARE MORE THAN YOU APPEAR !" stated the demonic voice, "FEED ME YOUR PAIN AND SUFFERING. GIVE ME ALL OF IT!"
Another vision popped into the fox's head for a brief moment. It was himself, but he was changed. The fox's fur had turned to a sickly shade of gray, while both eyes were gone. In their place were two small red orbs like Sonic had. Out of Tail's eye sockets leaked dark blood. That vision quickly left the fox's head, as his gained his sight. He could see clearly, but everything was tinged red, confirming the vision he had of himself was real. There wasn't much to see were he was now anyway. Everywhere the fox was able to see, was nothing but gray mists being blown around by winds he could not feel.
"HAVE FUN MY LITTLE TOY"
Tails felt a new wave of agony course through his body as the voice left.
The fox lost all sense of time, as he was assaulted by constant pain and distorted visions of his past. The voice returned to him from time to time to taunt him, but for the most part, it was silent.
"I HAVE FOUND A NEW PLAYMATE FOR YOU", it unexpectedly announced, as the pain in Tail's body subsided.
A new vision slowly took shape inside of the fox's head. He was looking out at the destroyed fortress of Scrap Brain at Knuckles who was wondering around look for something. Soon the echidna discovered what looked like a mutilated animal, to Tail's surprise he didn't seem to pay much attention to it. As Knuckles went on, more and more dead critters littered the floor. He came to something, Tails couldn't quite see, and stopped to examine it. All of a sudden Sonic appeared behind the echidna, slowly creeping up behind him.
Knuckles appeared startled as he spun around, yelling words that were too muddled for Tails to clearly hear. Knuckles took a swing at Sonic with his digger claws as the former hedgehog vanished before the punch connected. Sonic than reappeared behind the echidna again, and in response Knuckles spun around with another punch. It was apparent after a while that Knuckles was becoming frustrated at playing this 'game', as he started spinning while throwing wild punches, faster and faster. It wasn't long before the echidna stopped paying attention to were his feet were, and slipped on a mutilated carcase of a small critter. Sonic caught Knuckle's fist before the echidna hit the floor, and brought him with in inches of his demonic face before pouring dark energy into the Knuckle's eyes.
Tails watched in horror as Knuckles eyes ruptured!
Tails vision faded out, replaced with the voices in his head. "ENJOY YOUR NEW PLAYMATE !"
Suddenly knuckles appeared a distance in front of Tails. The echidna's fur had turned a sickly shade of green - pink, both his eye sockets were weeping dark blood with red orbs in the middle, and Knuckle's trademark dreadlocks were also weeping blood. The poor fox did not have long to ponder the condition of his former friend, as Tails was plunged back into a world or pure pain and misery !
What seemed like a long while later Tails heard demonic chuckles in his head as the pain in his body subsided. The young fox's vision shifted to what looked like a partly built factory with Dr. Robotnic running around giving orders to his minions. As time went on, the expression on Eggman's face turned from one of bold confidence, to that of confusion and concern.
Robotnic reached a flight of stairs, and yelled something unintelligible down. A few seconds later he yelled something else, cupping his hand to his ear as if trying to hear a response. The roboticist walked slowly down the stairs, looking left and right. When he reached the landing, Robotnic bent down to examine something small laying on the floor. It was another mutilated woodland creature with it's eyes missing.
Eggman yelled something else into the distance as he started to run down another flight of stairs. As he went, more and more dead creatures and smashed robots littered the floor. Faster and faster the Doctor ran down the stairs, until finally he tripped on a patch of bloody fur and fell down the rest of the stairs slamming face first on the hard floor. Sonic appeared in front of the unconscious Dr Robotnic, easily lifting the very large Doctor up so that he could stair into his eyes. Dark energy entered the limp form of Eggman when the vision faded from Tails. As expected, the shadowy form of Robotnic appeared in the distance of the void world. It seemed like quite some time has passed for the poor fox, before the demonic voice returned to his head.
"IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE I HAVE GIVEN YOU A FRIEND TO PLAY WITH. HERE IS SOMEONE ONE I KNOW YOU'LL LOVE!"
The voice receded and a vision presented it's self of Amy walking around in Aquatic Ruin Zone with a worried look on her face. From time to time she would call out something, but Tails could not hear what it was. It was heart breaking for the fox to see his close friend about to be turned.
Up on a hillock stood a normal looking Sonic, next to a giant silver shimmering portal. Amy spotted her friend, and immediately ran up to Sonic. The blue hedgehog quickly jumped into the portal before Amy could reach him. With out hesitation, Amy jumped in after him.
Tails vision lost focus for a moment, and refocused on what looked like a chaos emerald warp zone that was redesigned by the twisted mind of a madman. High off the ground was Amy Rose precariously balanced on a platform while goal posts whizzed past at frighting speed. Another platform appeared in front of Amy as the one she was standing on began to wobble. She attempted to jump, but as her feet left the unstable platform, the second platform disappeared. Amy plummeted to the ground landing in a jumbled heap.
Before her was normal looking Sonic, which Amy reached out for help. Sonic smiled, and instantly turned to his true self, red orbs for eyes, and the too wide toothy grin. Sonic reached out his own arm toward the pink hedgehog while beams of dark energy shot out of his finger tips piercing her body. As Amy turned, her expression went from one of pain and confusion, back to her usual smiling self. Her fur turned to a sickly greenish pink. To Tail's surprise, her eyes did not rupture, but instead glazed over. The pink hedgehog joined the others in the distance of the void, with the holes that the the dark energy caused plainly visible all over Amy's body.
Tail's vision shifted almost instantly to another area, this time it was flat, and the ground looked like it was drawn by a child. Suddenly Cream appeared looking very confused, and missing her chao. She walked over to a power booster, triggered it, and ran off into the distance. Tails vision kept up with what was happening, watching her collect more and more speed boosts. Each time the rabbit boosted, she became a little faster. Soon everything was zipping along too fast to see. Suddenly an alarmed look crossed Cream's face, as she tried to stop running. It was no use, she could not stop.
She collected one more boost and promptly ran right into a spiked wall. Tails could clearly see spikes protruding from the back of the rabbit's body, and blood pooling under her.
Sonic appeared, pulling Cream from the spikes. Dark energy flowed from Sonic's hands into the rabbit's ruined body, restoring half of her body, while leaving the other half full of holes. After Sonic was done, Tails tried everything to block out the mental imagery of what happened to the 6 year old rabbit, but could not. There stood what was left of Cream, half her body was restored, with a sickening tinge, and the other half was left mangled from the spikes. Her left ear flopped limply over a ruined eye socket, while the other eye was glazed over.
Tail's vision blurred for a few moments, and than refocused on Sally Acorn, who was pacing back and forth constantly looking at a piece of paper in her hand. Suddenly a silver warp appeared, and normal looking Sonic jumped out. He motioned desperately for Sally as he jumped back in. The squirrel immediately followed her friend. The scene shifted to a small stone room with 4 walls, no doors or windows, with Sally in the middle. Suddenly 2 of the walls started to close in, giving Sally less and less room to move. She tried to jump to freedom, but failed. She than tried to push against the moving walls, but that did nothing. Tails watched as the room became smaller and smaller, trapping the squirrel in a space that was barely big enough for the Sally to fit into. Before he could mentally cry out, it was over. The walls violently jerked together, spraying blood in all directions.
Not-Sonic appeared on top of the walls looking down at the expanding pool of blood beneath. He pointed at the walls and they disappeared, leaving an unrecognizable pile of brown fur, bones, and entrails in a jumbled heap on the ground. Walking over, Sonic pointed his hand at what was left of Sally, and let the dark energy flow. The body of Sally was bathed on a dark corona, as it was slowly restored to it's former self. Tails watched as organs slithered back inside of the squirrel, bones knitted themselves back together, and skin reattached to were it belonged. After it was all over, Sally was standing before Sonic, her fur a green-brown color, and both her eyes glazed over. Sonic chuckled as walked over to his newest creation, producing a needle and thread from thin air. Quickly he stitched both of the squirrel's eyes closed, stepping back to admire his handy work.
Tails' mental vision dissipated as he regained his real sight. Instead of standing motionless in the void world, we was standing next to Sally and Sonic, along with every one else who was turned. He began to uncontrollably giggle as Sonic took Sally in his arms, giving her the same kiss as a lover would. Tail's felt an overpowering influence to chant and tried to stop himself - but could not. He soon heard the others join in. The demonic voice drowned them all out a few seconds later.
"I AM GOD" it said, followed by everyone else repeatedly chanting "He Comes!" followed by unintelligible words .
Almost instantly Tails found himself back in the void, another mental vision taking shape. It never stopped for the young fox. He was shown vision, after vision of all the "games". Adults, children, it didn't matter to the shapeless monster, they were all his targets. Tails tried to fight off the mental assaults, but could do nothing. He tried to get use to what he was seeing, but even after watching hundreds get turned, the demons denied him apathy. He tried to enjoy what he was witnessing, but he was also denied insanity. Tails whole existence was turned into a constant living nightmare, in which all he could do was stand paralyzed and watch it all unfold.
Quite some time later, days, weeks, months, years - no one could tell time in the void world, Tails has just finished with a mental vision of Rouge the Bat being eaten by a giant emerald, when he noticed 2 specs of red light moving in the fog. He concentrated to try to make out what it was. He had never seen anything except Sonic move about in the void. As they neared Tails he was able to tell that they were not the harsh red orbs of demonic eyes, but something else - almost like normal eyes glowing a soft red. Closer still they came and the detail became more clear. The glow belong to a pair of oval shaped eyes. The eyes were attached to a shadowy figure, about as tall as a 12 year old human child. Closer still the shadow came, as details became clearer for the fox to see. The shape of the shadow was definitely humanoid, but sprouting from the head was a pair of what looked like fox ears, and from the rear swayed what looked like a bottle brush shaped fox tail. Finally the stranger came into full view of Miles, all of his features revealed. He was in fact no taller than an older human child, with rich auburn hair, fox ears, and a fox tail. His wore a dark blue kimono with leaf patterns imprinted on it, and on his back he carried 2 plain looking wakizashi swords. The appearance on the stranger's face was neutral, but looking into glowing eyes one could tell the creature in front of Tails was very powerful. The stranger looked at Tails for quite some time, seeming to be looking beyond the fox at something hidden.
"Interesting," he stated reaching out an arm to touch Tail's shoulder.
The feeling of calmness and peace radiated from that point where he made contact. Tails struggled as hard as he could to speak.
"Help ... me," Tails whispered, feeling very spent from his efforts.
The stranger withdrew his hand, and went back to inspecting Tail's body, looking very intently at certain spots.
"It is time I summoned your master, to see what I can do for you little one."
The stranger took a couple steps back from Tails, drew one of his swords, and raised it up high while it seemed to catch on fire.
"FOX RAGE!" the strange fox yelled while he released a blinding fire ball into the 'sky' of the void. After a few seconds Tails heard a large explosion in the distance, followed immediately by Sonic appearing next to the other fox. The demonic voice returned.
"Who are you, and why are you here in my domain, worm!" the monster demanded.
"My name is Shintou, and I want that fox child," Shintou stated as he pointed at Tails.
"What could you possible offer me for that?!" demanded the voice.
Shintou reached into the folds of his kimono and pulled out a pulsing white orb.
"How about I give you a pure soul of an innocent," he stated, allowing the orb to drift up and down in the palm of his outstretched hand.
Out of no were Sonic charged at Shintou, his mouth open and arms outstretched.
"How about I just take your soul instead?" asked the demon.
As the very last moment the other fox very quickly stepped aside of Sonic's charge, and than backhanded the hedgehog. Tails had seen how powerful Sonic could be, and was surprised at the sight of Sonic cartwheeling off into the distant fog.
Shintou turned to face the fog, a look of mild annoyance on his face.
"I am not here to play games. If you do not wish to make this trade, I could just destroy this world instead. You know I am capable of it."
There was a pause, and than a dark shadow creature appeared. "Be gone with you. I'll accept this trade, if it means you will leave my world!"
Shintou lazily tossed the orb at the creature while he extended an arm in Tail's direction. As soon as the orb was absorbed into the creature's shadowy body, a stream of blazing white fire shot out of Shuntou's hand right directly at Tails. The fox was enveloped in a sphere of pure white, as he lost consciousness.
Tails slowly woke from his slumber every part of his body hurt - he felt like he was made out of lead. The first thing the fox heard was running water near by, followed by the sounds of insects and birds flying around.
With some effort Tails managed to sit up, and attempt to open his eyes. After several minutes he realized that he had lost his own eyes long ago, and let out a long sigh.
"Ah, I see you're finally awake little one," came the voice of Shintou, " what is your name?"
"I was Tails," replied the fox in a weak voice, wisps of the atrocities he had witnessed passed before his mind's eye. He attempted to stand up, but failed in the attempt.
"Don't try to spend too much energy right now, Tails. You need to rest and heal," replied Shintou.
Tails felt a cool touch on his forehead, and he lost consciousness again.
Tails had nightmare, after nightmare of what he had witnessed, as if he was back in the void world. He kept trying to escape, but that demonic voices kept chasing him down, showing the fox more horrors. Tails woke with a gasp, sitting bolt upright. Something was different now. He could see again ! Everything was blurry, and out of focus, but at least it was not tinted red like before. Tails concentrated as hard as he could until his sight normalized.
"Ah, I see your awake again. You were sleeping for quite some time," said Shintou, who was sitting on a tree branch above the ground were Tails was. His eyes were no longer glowing a soft red.
" What you see in your dreams, you'll never be able to escape, unfortunately. Remember to feed on your dreams to better yourself, not to tear yourself down."
Shintou jumped down from the tree, and approached Tails, sitting down next to him.
"Whats happening?" asked Tails, still very weak.
"Your world is slowly being devoured by a creature called ' the eater of worlds ' - 'Zalgo' in your language - in any case, he gathers energy from the pain and misery of the ones he turns. Whenever it has enough energy, it will create whats called a 'void crystal' some were in your world. When enough of these are planted, a gate can be opened to what I would assume to be the great abyss. I do not know the end goals of this creature, but that is what others say he does. With an army of demons, he could harvest all the souls from the billions of planets in your - what would be called 'plain of existence' ".
"How are we going to stop him, he's really powerful ?!" asked Tails, as he was thinking back at everything demonic Sonic was capable of.
"I could challenge him directly," replied Shintou, "but that would probably mean the total destruction of this and many other worlds. And there is no guarantee I could even win. We can fight this a different way and have a chance to try to save all those he has turned."
Tails looked closely at his savior, wondering what he was up to. "Don't mind me asking, but what are you? I have never seen your kind before."
"That's all right, little one," replied Shintou, "it's natural to be curious when your a fox. The question is, what are you?"
"Huh?" asked Tails, caught off guard by the question. "I am a just a fox.".
Shintou smiled at the response. "Ever wondered why you have 2 tails and no one else does? Ever wonder why you are so much smarter than the others your own age? Your not a normal fox, little one, you're known as a yokai were I come from. You have the potential to have great powers and abilities. This is probably why that demon was using you as a focus, instead of just harvesting your pain. Amplifying his own power, through you. As to your question, I am known as a yokai senin. Yokai can be translated out in your language as 'great spirit' or 'great demon', and senin can translate to 'god' or 'immortal' or 'all powerful' ".
Shintou paused and looked off into the distance, a wistful look on his face. "Make no mistake little fox, I am no god, I sure am not immortal, and my power is not limitless."
"It is about time to start your training, and begin the process of healing your world."
Tails slowly stood up on still wobbly legs, and made his way over to the stream that was nearby. He haven't had a drink of water for a very long time. When he bent over to drink Tails froze in his tracks. The reflection he was looking at was not the body he remembered from the void. His most of his fur had turned from a sickly color to jet black, the green - white areas were now golden white. His missing eyes were restored, the irises were the same golden white as his fur. He looked at himself in the water for some time, getting use to his new look. Intense thirst overcame the fox, as he plunged his head into the water, gulping down mouthfuls of cool water.
Sated, Tails stood up, faced Shintou with a fierce look in his eyes, and stated "Lets do this !".
[Author's Notes]
* Character ages are taken from the anime 'Sonic X'
* The characters 'Shintou' & 'Shintoa' belong to RLS0812
* This story inspired by:
Sonic exe ( fan fic )
Sally exe ( fan fic )
Interview of the Author ( fan fic )
Chronicles of Zalgo ( fan fic collection )
Journey of Shintou ( private fan fic collection )
Various Art Work & Fan Comics
