It all started with the death of Super Sonic, and with him, the Chaos Emeralds.

Sonic and I had ran to an unfamiliar water-filled Zone, where Eggman was waiting to challenge us.

"Hohoho, Sonic! Today is the day I best you! Right here, with your weakness out in front of us, you have no chance of victory now!" Eggman chortled, readying the deadly laser on his Eggmobile.

"That's where you're wrong as always, Egghead! You think a bit of water can stop me? I have no weaknesses!" Sonic laughed in reply.

Using all the Chaos Emeralds we gathered, he transformed into Super Sonic and started to fly right up to the Eggmobile, until small Silver Sonic-esque robots flew from the wall and homed in on him. With each one he destroyed, more popped out, but he was clearly having no trouble taking them down.

But that's when Eggman started to laugh louder, "Hoho, Sonic, I wasn't referring to the water! I was referring to your friends!" And with that, he aimed his laser at me, to which I started to run and fly frantically avoiding it.

But after flying away from it for a while, I got tired and couldn't stay up, and started to descend while simultaneously losing my balance and mobility in the air, and that's when a laser hit me and vaporized one of my tails.

Without the second tail, I couldn't fly and fell helplessly into the water. I was immense pain, and I couldn't concentrate on trying to swim out or look for an air bubble. At that moment, I was seriously thinking I was going to drown.

"Heartless bastard! I'll... I'll make you pay for that!" Sonic saw it happen, and immediately blasted all the robots around him and dove after me in the water, his Super form giving him better mobility in the water. But it was here I would learn his Super form wouldn't be able to relieve him from the dangers of drowning.

Sonic grabbed my other tail and threw me in the direction of land, where I landed. I was still in immense pain, add on to that the force and landing from his throw, and the water that was still in my lungs as I coughed relentlessly.

Eggman saw this as an opportunity and fired the laser at Sonic underwater, who used an energy beam of his own to counter it. But this kept all of Sonic's concentration, and he couldn't move for an air bubble or fly or teleport out of the water. He started to let up his energy beam and the laser struck him hard, with him visibly showing pain and letting water enter his lungs.

I could see Eggman panicking on his Eggmobile, knowing what was about to happen, but try as he might he wasn't able to make the laser let up, and it vaporized Super Sonic's drowning body.

All this as I stood helpless on the land, trying and failing to regain my breathe and composure after losing a tail. At that moment, I passed out.

I woke up later in my same spot, and all I saw were Sonic's shoes, somehow floating on the water's surface. The emotion I felt in that very moment was indescribable. I didn't scream, I didn't cry. I just stared at his shoes, internally crushed, knowing my incompetence as a sidekick and best friend lead to his demise. I grabbed them and left the Zone, devastated and dreading to tell my friends what I witnessed.

Mostly everyone was understandably sad, and especially felt bad for me knowing that Sonic was like an older brother to me, but Amy went insane.

"WHAT THE HELL, TAILS? YOU CALL YOURSELF A SIDEKICK? DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU'RE TELLING ME RIGHT NOW? My poor, darling Sonic...DEAD at the hands of his nemesis, while you stood helplessly and watched!"

"Amy, I TOLD YO—"

"I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT...*sniff*... I'll never get to see him again... *sniff*... and it's because of YOU! Sonic is DEAD because of YOU! DON'T EVER SPEAK TO ME AGAIN, HEAR ME? NEVER! AND DON'T COME AROUND HERE LOOKING FOR CREAM EITHER, BECAUSE I KNOW SHE WON'T WANT TO SEE YOU EITHER AFTER THIS MESS!"

"I-I brought you his shoes, maybe you wan—"

"What? Wanted to keep his shoes and make my heart ACHE and YEARN for something I can never have? KEEP 'EM, as a reminder of your failure as a sidekick... *sniff*... your failure as a brother."

And with that she slammed the door on me, and our friendship. And in my heart, I knew she was right. I couldn't blame her for feeling that way.

Shadow was more concerned with the Chaos Emeralds than Sonic, though he wasn't nearly as pissed as Amy.

"Damn it, Tails... you what this means, don't you?"

"N-no... no more heroes?"

"What? No. I'm still here and I always will be. You're still here and I know you'll be here for a long time. The echidna is still around too. I'm talking about the Chaos Emeralds."

"Oh, yeah... did they really leave with him? They wouldn't just scatter or lose power?"

"I can't feel their energy anymore, Tails. And I guarantee if you go talk to the echidna he'll tell you the same. Without them, there is no more Chaos Control. I can only teleport, I can't travel through time like the Emeralds would've allowed for us to undo this. And this means we'll never be able to access our Super forms again. Defeating world-ending threats is going to be much more difficult for anyone who doesn't share my power."

"I'm sorry, Shadow, really. I had no idea all of this would be an issue too..."

"It is what it is, Tails. I know you're grieving as well, and I know your smart enough to reflect on your mistakes and what went wrong today. This untimely demise hurts you more than it will anyone, I'm well aware. But it isn't the time to be weak. This is the time for strength, mentally and physically. Become as strong physically as you are smart, and push beyond your limits as a person. Only then can you become the best hero you can be.

"Thanks a lot, Shadow."

"You're welcome."

Knuckles was about as sad as I was, but he was always good with putting on a brave face. He also looked to the future. I told him what Shadow had told me, as well.

"Is it true, Knuckles?"

"Unfortunately, it seems like it. But as long as we stick together, we aren't gonna need Emeralds. We have to stick together now, all of us, now that he's gone. We have to help each other get through this and continue protecting the world. It's what he would want."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right."

"You know what this means for you too, right, Tails?"

"Huh? I mean... I guess I'm a sidekick left without a hero. I could always join Shadow but I know he works alone or only with Rouge so—"

"That's not it, Tails. This means you have to step up now. You have to be the hero."

"But I could never be Sonic. He was a lot of things I wasn't, it's part of the reason I looked up to him. That inspiration is gone now..."

"You don't have to be Sonic. You have to be YOU. A good hero with a good heart is all that matters at the end of the day. Even if he's gone, he lives on in our hearts. Keep his fighting spirit in your heart every day from now, and aim to become just as great, even better, than he was, even if through different means.

Knuckles' words would inspire me as following events would transpire and leave the world in the state it's in now.

I learned from Full Metal Sonic what became of Eggman. Apparently, after Sonic's death, Eggman went to permanently deactivate Metal Sonic, since he felt he didn't need him anymore. Metal Sonic would have been complicit had he beat Sonic himself as his programming intended, but he questioned the Doctor on how Sonic died. Eggman told him the truth, and Metal went berserk, killing Eggman as revenge for permanently preventing Metal from ever facing Sonic again and proving his worth. I can only assume that Eggman knew what Metal would do to him when he told him that, and it's weird to think that Sonic's death could push Eggman to do something like that. From there his inferiority complex developed into a superiority complex, claiming that he was the world's newest unstoppable force as he proceeded to kill every living thing on the planet. He started off with the foot soldiers of the Robotnik army, killing every animal and destroying every metal shell they were encased in to symbolize his new rejection of his creator. He took data and parts that he cherry-picked from other Sonic robots, like Silver and Mecha Sonic, while keeping his own personality throughout to stay "himself". He now dubbed himself "Full Metal Sonic", as he now considered himself the apex of a Sonic robot model. This is where his killing spree began.

Normal civilians were no problem, of course. But he sought out more power and with the Chaos Emeralds gone he went to Angel Island. Poor Knuckles fought valiantly but stood no chance. Metal tried to absorb the infinite power of the Master Emerald for himself, but as he could not find a way, he simply shattered the Emerald and destroyed the individual pieces, something I didn't even know was possible. Angel Island fell, land was flooded, and civilians died. It was due to this flooding that I would travel to Angel Island and find the bodies of Knuckles, Vector, Charmy, Big, and Froggy.

As I said before, Metal sought to destroy other creations of Eggman to symbolize his rejection as well as assert his superiority among all of Eggman's creations. E-123 Omega was among his robotic victims. Like Metal, Omega wasn't animal-powered, strange for an E-series bot, but robots like these were Eggman's best work, and Metal wasted no time destroying him.

The next huge death would come soon after. Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat had been sent by G.U.N. to deal with Metal once and for all, and to avenge their fallen comrade, Omega. Once Metal got Shadow off his back for just one second, he was able to swoop in and brutally murder Rouge. Seeing the death of his best friend and apparently romantic interest made Shadow go berserk, and Shadow removed all four of his Inhibitor Rings to obliterate the robot. In fact, had Shadow remained in control for a few seconds longer, he may have dispatched of Metal for good. But something unprecedented happened to Shadow after a few minutes of battle in his Dark, Uninhibited State. The constant overflow of power began to overtake him, mentally and physically. It was so painful he couldn't even stand. Slowly, his body began to mutate, his features becoming more muscular yet more jagged. His fingers sharpening to claws, his arms and legs extending, his body turning redder in color permanently. Metal took this chance to escape, and Shadow finally regained enough control to put back on his Inhibitor Rings. After this display, Shadow was never seen again, but as far as I know he's alive and in hiding.

Metal realized he still had competition in the likes of people like Shadow, and flew to the North Pole to get the strongest magnetic reaction he could. Using his own electrical power with the enhanced electromagnetism of Earth's pole, he gathered every ring on the planet and brought it to him. Once they were all gathered in a spot above him, he sent a powerful electric shot through them and broke them all, converting them into raw energy and absorbing this energy for himself. It overloaded his processors and gave him new, unparalleled power. Nobody stood a chance.

As I witnessed him steal every ring, along with everyone's hope for a savior, I finally decided to step up. I took Knuckles' words, Shadow's words, and Sonic's death as motivation and inspiration. I put on Sonic's shoes both symbolically and physically, in hopes of inheriting his heroic demeanor, unyielding attitude, and blinding speed. I had to be the new hero because there was nobody left. I was no longer the frail, useless sidekick "Tails". I was now the strong, heroic savior of Earth, Miles Prower.