PART 1

TAILS

1.

An unspecified number of millennia ago

It was a sunny day in the zone who, in a distant future, would be known as Emerald Hill. The local animals were scavenging for food; one creature in particular was struggling in the attempt to grab a very rare and juicy fruit which, apparently, was out of its reach. This peculiar animal was a member of the Canine species, a vulpine, a fox, to be more accurate. In this part of the land, foxes were the dominant species, the top of the Food Chain. Things, however, weren't easy for them; a recent storm happened to destroy most of the forest in which they used to live. As a direct consequence of Mother Nature's latest outburst, most of the common fox's natural preys were forced to leave the zone. The results of this tragic event are still considered by today's scientists very improbable, or, as many used to say, blaspheme. The vulpine, a carnivorous animal species by Nature's choice, instead of leaving for a better place, changed its alimentary habits and became omnivorous. That was the very first step for a whole new race to arise.

And another giant step was about to take place in this very sunny day.

The fruit this particular canine wanted to eat so badly was definitely out of range for a common fox to pick… this animal, however, was not your common small sized quadruped fox. It was bigger, stronger and even more intelligent, it was also the only one of its kind at the moment, as a matter of fact. The other normal foxes had rejected it; they feared it and isolated it, not wanting to be anywhere near this "horrible freak of nature". This "freak" was sick and tired, the juicy fruit he tried to grab was still out of its reach. That's when an idea came into its primitive mind; it knew it was born different from the other vulpines, not only it was bigger, but its appendages were different as well, the legs had a whole new articulation system and… knees. Within a lot of efforts, this peculiar Australopithecus was able to stand on its feet, in a bipedal and surprisingly stable position, and now its Sacred Graal was finally at its height.

The creature put its arm forward in the motion of actually grabbing the much deserved meal, only to notice something it didn't notice before: its paw had a new appendage, a thumb, for the sake of clarity, and with this new "finger", the animal was actually capable of holding the fruit in its brand new five-fingered hand.

Satisfied by this new discovery, the not so feral fox ate his lunch and then he walked away… on his two feet. That was pretty much it. The inexplicable scientific miracle of Life, Nature and Evolution at its best. A whole new race has arisen, the first ever anthropomorphic fox… the first Kitsune.

And this was just the beginning.

Several millennia later

Fire. Explosions. Death. That was all that was left of Emerald Town, a once quiet city in the center of the Emerald Hill Zone, now reduced into dust and burnt corpses… Kitsune's. Someone, however, was able to escape this hell and take cover inside an ancient undiscovered cave. In this improvised refuge, Amadeus and Rosemary Prower, a young married Kitsune couple, stood in silence and fear hoping not to be found, hoping to survive that fatal day, above all, hoping that their precious cargo would live through all of this…

Rosemary Prower was, indeed, very pregnant and close to giving birth to her and her husband's child. Her belly was like a ticking time bomb; luckily, before leaving their home, Amadeus brought all the necessary equipment needed for the fortunate/unfortunate event.

On that stormy night, a night that seemed to be filled by hopelessness and misery, a cry could be heard, a childish cry, a baby's cry… once again, Life and Will to Survive have prevailed despite the condition in which they would have to prove themselves.

This world was not a safe place anymore. Through the course of ages, humans and anthropomorphic animals (better known as Mobians or Anthros) have managed to live side by side; but of course things weren't as easy as they looked. They never are. Humans and Mobians have fought many battles for supremacy, for the desire of being the dominant race, that is until a truce was somehow reached and the world was equally divided between the two species. But, sapient beings, as we know, are not bound for Peace, they are driven by the irrational will to fight those who are different or even those who are similar just for the heck of it. Mobians were not different as they inherited from humans a certain "quality" that has defined them as a species: Racism. Mobian sub-races (such as Echidna and Hedgehogs) fought each others through the centuries for whatever reason. The absence of a common enemy was the key of the separation between cultures.

That is, of course, until a couple of years ago.

A new enemy has risen. A human - or, as many Mobians used to call'em, an Overlander. Nobody knew the origins of this new menace, not even his people. He had no background or family members whatsoever; he simply came out of nowhere attacking a small village in the Green Hill Zone with an army of animalistic robots, thus making his presence known.

The rotund evil scientist called himself… Doctor Eggman.

Over the last couple of years the combined forces of G.U.N. (Guardian of the United Nations, the military organization of the human country) and some spare Mobian armies have barely been able to contain the advance of the so-called "Eggman Empire", but it's robots, it's "Badniks", as he called them, seemed to be quite powerful and sooner or later they would have been able to overcome.

While the humans' strength was based more on technology and weapons, the Mobians' true strength was in their fighting skills, a gift from their feral ancestors, many scientists supposed, and the result of centuries of evolution and training. But even with that physical advantage over the humans, they were not capable of standing against this new and ferocious metallic army and its sadistic and megalomaniac commander.

Their natural habitat had been compromised. Nature had to find a way once again…

The young Kitsune couple hidden in the cave, despite everything, was happy. Their baby (a male fox) was sane and quiet in his mother's arms. Although, something was worrying the new parents, something about their child, his tail to be precise… his other one. The new born kit was the very first two-tailed Kitsune in history. For such vain reason, his life was bound to not be easy. A cruel and inhospitable world was awaiting him but his loving parents swore that they would never abandon him no matter the difficulties.

A thunder exploded in the distance, scaring the kit in an unimaginable way. The instinctual reaction that followed his sudden fear was something that neither one of his parents was expecting. The little fox cub, alive for only a few minutes, rose in midair. His two tails were spinning like a helicopter allowing him to actually fly. After a while, the cub got tired and slowly descended once again into his mother's lap. The miracle happened again. On that very stormy, merciless night, a new hope was born: a naturally gifted warrior in response to the hostility of his habitat.

And he would not be the only one.

8 years later

Fear was the key word, for this young unfortunate girl who happened to be in the proverbial wrong place at the proverbial wrong time. A new kind of robot, different from the old animal based Badniks, was dangerously approaching her. Its red visor was scanning the little frightened kid and its mechanical A.I. was deciding the right way to proceed. Its metallic, humanoid body stood still like a cold-hearted predator ready to jump on its victim. All of a sudden, the anthropomorphic bot spoke.

"Subject - Mobian Rabbit. Priority one - Bring to Dr Eggman. Kill if resists."

Despite her mother's warnings, this six years old, tan colored bunny ended up wandering in the ancient forest, far away the relative security of the big city. Tears formed in her big brown while her gloved hands automatically clenched themselves over her orangish kindergarten uniform. Her long bunny ears were still like iron bars. She found herself unable to either move or cry, such was the level of her untainted fear. She had heard the rumors, whispers of horrible experiments and tortures that the Mad Doctor himself did to his victims, whispers of innocent creatures transformed into the Badnik's main source of energy after countless hours of sadistic experiments, and she didn't want to be one of them. Then again, there wasn't anything that she could do by herself against this metallic monster.

As if on cue, something happened to the robot or, for better choice of words, someone happened. Before the enhanced metal soldier could do anything, its head was severed from the rest of the body by a sudden aerial roundhouse kick that came out of nowhere… on land, that is. The lifeless parody of a human corpse fell into the grass and the SWATbot (such was the name of the mindless android) was no more. The young rabbit girl looked up to face her savior.

She was mouth agape and almost speechless when she found out that her hero was a kid just like her - maybe a couple of years older -, the only difference being that he was one of a different race, a fox, but the fact that really shocked her was that he had two tails instead of a regular one. Two large and fluffy looking tails of royal canine quality.

He was a couple of inches taller than her (which, for human standards, made him as tall as a Hobbit), his fur was of a golden-orange color, except for the pure whiteness of his belly, his pointed vulpine ears looked large and sensitive to all sort of sounds. He wore nothing but gloves and white/red snickers… the genuine, animalistic thickness of his "natural clothes" were able to cover the rest. The Kitsune looked back at the bunny and smiled. He had big, blue caring eyes.

She was still a little taken aback; she had heard the stories that other kids, older and meaner kids, had told her: the stories about rabbits being the natural prey of foxes. In a certain way it was true, the feral ancestors of these two Mobian races used to behave in that way. This, however, was a matter that didn't concern the two kids, because although being a rabbit and a fox, they were still Mobians. They were a whole species of sapient beings despite the obvious differences - basically, in human terms, they shared the same kind of difference that intertwines between Americans and Canadians. The fox kid knelt before the rodent girl, looked into her scared eyes and spoke.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you. You're safe now." The utter simplicity of his speech seemed to have the desired effect on her. She started crying, finally releasing her distress, and hugged the boy tightly.

"I-I-I thought I was gonna be a B-Badnik!" She sobbed.

"It's okay, it's all over now… My name is Miles Prower, but you can call me 'Tails'. What's yours?" Not wanting to be impolite, the girl released him from her hug and answered.

"I'm Cream. Thank you for saving me, Mr. Prower."

"Mr. Prower? Gee, I get that I seem mature for my age but that makes me feel old! Just call me Tails, will you?"

"Ok, Mr. Tails."

"Sigh… well, that's an improvement. What were you doing out in the forest all alone, don't you know it's extremely dangerous?"

"Well, I was trying to catch my pet, Cheese, and I found myself alone in the forest."

"Where are you from?"

"Station Square."

"I know the place. I will accompany you to it, ok?"

"O-ok, thanks again, Tails." The young courageous kit took the rabbit in his arms, spun his namesakes and rose in air. Cream was utterly stunned for the discovery of such improbable event.

"YOU CAN FLY!?"

"Yep, it's a birth gift. It really comes in handy sometimes, especially when you have to deal with mean robots. Hold on now, this will be quite a ride." When he gained enough height, he started to fly relatively fast in the direction of the city. Cream was enjoying the tour.

Station Square was the biggest city in the country and, idealistically speaking, the "Great Melting Pot" of this planet. Humans and Mobians of every race used to live side by side in this huge metropolitan community. Having to deal with a common enemy reinforced their relationship and the city grew strong. Of course there were still problems, there will always be problems; it's just the way things are. However this doesn't concern our story.

The vulpine escorted the rabbit to her home (he also managed to find her little pet in the way) and, after the thankful tears of joy from her mother and politely refusing a dinner invitation, the Kitsune left the city and headed to his operational base.

Miles Prower, better know as "Tails", in his mere eight solar cycles of life, had become a really important person. For his first four years he was just a kid who's been teased and beaten by others because of his physical difference. Things changed when he saved an entire family of Mobian squirrels from a small army of Badniks all by himself. As the Chaos that ruled our life would have it, this family was none other than the former royal Acorn family, Maximillian and his daughter Sally. After their city-state was taken by the Eggman's pawns and transformed into their own headquarters a few years earlier, these two were the only survivors of the royal line and they had been missing for quite a while.

It turned out that the Acorns were hiding themselves in a secluded place known as Knothole, only to be casually found by some flying Badniks during a routine patrol session. The place was burnt and the two were captured. Luckily for them, the little group happened to encounter a very young Kitsune on their way. When he saw the impending danger, something inside him snapped and before any of them could register it, the kit was, somehow, out of pure luck or whatever beyond-logic explanation, able to destroy all five mechanic bees - yes, they were robot bees - that were desperately trying to zap him.

The news of such unbelievable act of courage spread all over the land and Miles Prower became a national hero, which was a thing that he, due to his shy personality, despised.

After a while, Miles discovered he had a peculiar ability with machinery and a superior intellect. Some said that his I.Q. was even superior to that of Dr. Eggman himself! That was one of the reasons why the doctor wanted his two tails on a silver platter. Tails and his family were forced to leave their home in Westside Island and move to the most secure and protected zone known in the Mobian country: the Mystic Ruins, a large, almost impenetrable ancient forest right beside Station Square. Tails's family lived peacefully in their sweet little home just outside the almighty shadows of the giant sequoias. The zone also happened to be one the hidden operational stables of a private and famous militia created by Sally Acorn right after her rescue, the Freedom Fighters! Sally personally wanted Tails to be a member of the group due to his intelligence and skills. Despite the obvious reluctance of his family (they didn't really wanted their child to be hurt or worse, just like any caring parents), the boy accepted the offer and joined the FF.

The Freedom Fighters Militia became, in a short time, a large group that was able to spread all over the Mobian country, or "Mobius" for shorts. It even successfully cooperated with G.U.N. to achieve important victories over the Eggman Empire and freeing some cities from its grip. That, of course, didn't please the fat scientist, who decided to lay low for a while. In the meantime, Tails, as young as he was, became a fully trained fighter, a mechanical genius and an excellent pilot. His most prized creation was an airplane known as the X-Tornado, a combat designed jet capable of achieving impressive speed and other peculiar stuff.

As of now, Tails was running back to his base before heading home. By running, I mean he was using his namesakes to propel himself and moving forward at an impressive speed. Speed, indeed, was another gift that his appendages had given him. He was, by no means, the fastest thing on two feet (or should I say, tails) in Mobius. Or, at least, he thought he was… but that's another story

Somewhere in the south-west side of the Mystic Ruins

She was running. Running with all her might. Running faster than any normal Mobian could possibly hope to run. She wasn't, however, a normal Mobian. As a matter of fact she probably wasn't even a common earthly creature. One thing was clear though, she was scared. She was scared to death that they would capture her, torture her and even kill her… just like they did with her parents. Similar to a certain vulpine, she was the only one of her kind. And she needed help.