A/N: I just felt that I should get this story out there. Unlike what I usually write, it's not M rated. I hope you enjoy
THE MANIFESTATION OF DARK TAILS
Darkness.
He could feel it spreading inside him, slowly consuming him. He knew what the costs were, if he let it consume him fully. He would hurt. And he would kill those closest to him. Now how long before that moment would come?
That is what Tails felt as he sat in his living room. He was hunched over his chair, breathing heavily through his nose, trying desperately to suppress the dark energy in his body. It was a slow battle he would always eventually win. But not tonight. Tonight, it just would not let up.
Knuckles had told him that he should never let dark energy build up inside your body to dangerous levels, lest you want your dark side to come out. Tails had always kept his in check. He was told that the dark energy is fueled by anger, most especially anger that has been held in. Tails could not remember feeling angry at someone that long. Or could he?
-*- FLASHBACK -*-
Eight year old Tails was brutally pushed to the ground, his clothes getting stained in the mud. He looked up with pleading eyes at the Mobian lion that just pushed him down.
"Look at you, Miles. A complete freak! What kind of Mobian has two tails?" He hissed.
"Why are you doing this? I'm not bothering anyone!" The fox pleaded. He only got backhanded to the cheek in response.
"You're bothering us!" a hyena snarled. "What's with you, huh? You trying to infect us with your mutant DNA?"
Tails tried to get up, only to be pushed down again. Tears were threatening to fall from his eyes but he had to be strong. He could not let these bullies see him break.
"Look at him. He's gonna cry." A Mobian otter taunted.
The lion hoisted Tails up by his shirt. "Freaks like you don't belong in this world. Even the circus is too good for you!" He threw him back in the puddle and walked away, accompanied by his two laughing friends.
Tails picked himself up from the mud. His eyes looked up, straight at the receding backs of the bullies. He could feel his hands slowly clenching into fists in the mud. His hurting feeling slowly gave into a feeling that was mostly rare to him: rage.
-O-O-
Tails collapsed from his chair, his fangs bared and clamped together. He rubbed his hand over his head and took deep calming breaths. He needed to relax. Maybe something a little classic music can take care of. He grabbed the remote for his theatre system and turned on the stereo.
A relaxing classic melody started to play and Tails could already feel himself relaxing. His breathing returned to normal and for the first time that night, a smile graced his face.
That all changed when the song ended and in its place, a sad, romantic song began to play (think of the lyrics yourself). It only served to remind him of his own tragic romantic life.
-*- FLASHBACK -*-
Fifteen year old Tails was feeling pretty good tonight. It was date night and he was on his merry way to pick up his girlfriend. He had it all planned out, in the usual cliché: dinner, a movie, hanging out at his house.
He soon arrived at Leena's apartment and walked the short flight of steps to her door. Initially, he had thought of knocking but then a thought crossed his mind and he decided to surprise her. He tried the knob, fortunate to discover that it was unlocked and ventured inside. A short hallway led him straight to the living room.
But now, what he saw in the living room quickly made him wish he had knocked. Or better yet, should not have come at all.
His girlfriend, Leena currently had her lips locked with a leopard; she was a pooch. That fortuitous moment instantly had Tails' heart shattering into a thousand pieces.
"Hey, Leena, who is this chump?" The leopard asked impassively.
"Um… he's… he's nobody. Just some stalker, I think." Leena replied.
OK, to say Tails' heart was broken would be an understatement. It was ground into powder.
"Leena… why? How could you?" Tails sobbed, his eyes already starting to water.
"Wait, Leena, you're dating this dude?" The leopard asked incredulously. Then he burst into laughter. "Look at him! What's with the two tails? You like your men freaky? You into the freaky shit?" He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.
"Leonard, I told you. He's probably just a stalker. Who needs to leave before I call the police." Leena reached for her phone.
Tails did not have to be told twice. He ran out of the apartment and into the hallway. It was bad enough that she was cheating on him, but she had to act like she does not completely know him. That made him angry, no, it made him so enraged, he burned with the emotion. It felt like a fire and his blood was the gasoline letting it spread, enveloping his whole body…
Tails let out a scream of rage, right there in the building's hallway, a scream so loud, some of the neighbors yelled at him to shut up. A few poked their heads out their doors to see what the deal was.
-O-O-
Tails let out a scream at the memory as he threw his remote straight at the player, stopping the music but also damaging his theatre system. Great. Now he was going to have to fix that. But now the question was: where did he find the strength to throw a remote straight through a DVD player? He looked at his hands and was horrified to see his claws out. He sheathed them back in and once more took deep, relaxing breaths.
When he was sure he was calm, he reclined in his chair and sighed. Leena. She seemed so sweet when they met and even sweeter when they started dating. Who knew she would turn out to be such a bitch? And Tails never set a foot wrong in the relationship to warrant a cheating. Her lame excuse for her actions was that he was nothing but a stalker. And that leopard added more kerosene to the fire when he brought up his two tails and the whole "freak" thing. Now, the very thought of them made him want to…
Tails tried to calm himself down once again as he felt his dark energy acting up again. If music was not going to calm him down, then maybe some late night work might.
Tails walked out of his house and made his way to his workshop/lab. He flicked on the light, illuminating the mess that was his workshop. Various wrenches, metal bars, nuts and bolts littered the floor and the tables were filled with blueprints that he either already worked on or had not even started.
What to do, what to do?
He could always work on his Tornado. That always helped to ease his stress. Tails grabbed a wrench off the floor and flew into the cockpit. He could tweak a few things here and there, maybe the steering system or the targeting system, whichever he fancied. But before he could get to work, he saw a white handkerchief in the seat. It had a kiss mark in the centre and smelled of feminine perfume.
Rouge.
Tails remembered the incident that led to her doing that.
-*- FLASHBACK -*-
"Make sure you keep the Emerald safe, Tails." Sonic instructed as he handed Tails a blue Chaos Emerald.
Tails scoffed. "Sure I can. I won't let anyone take it." Sonic gave him the Emerald and sped off.
Tails trusted the security of his workshop. Unbeknownst to the rest of the gang, he was keeping something very dangerous in his workshop's safe. He considered telling them about it but thought better to keep it a secret for now. If they knew, then somehow the wrong people might also know.
He put the Emerald on one of the tables and decided to get to work on his gadgets. Pretty soon, he was so engrossed in his work, he forgot about the Emerald altogether. After about an hour of working, Tails was exhausted so he decided to curl up on the couch in the workshop and take a short nap.
The sound of a clanging metal woke him. That was when he remembered the Emerald. He quickly rushed to the table he left it on.
It was not there.
"You know, you should really learn to lock your doors." A sultry female voice taunted from the roofs. "Or you might just get robbed blind."
Tails looked up and saw Rouge standing near one of the workshop's higher windows. He flew up to her. "Hand it over." It was pretty clear what he was asking for.
"You forgot the magic word." Rouge teased with mock sweetness.
A growl issued from Tails' throat. "Why do you keep doing this? I thought you had grown out of it."
"Old habits never die." The bat replied. "Besides, I always like teasing my little foxy."
"I'm not little anymore! I'm sixteen!" Tails shouted, losing a huge chunk of his temper.
"Yet you're still cute." Rouge teased.
That was it. Tails lunged at her but she was just too quick for him. She flew out of his way, leaving him to grab at thin air. Tails looked around and saw that she had landed on the ground, casually waiting. He divebombed after her with his hands outstretched but at the last possible second, she flew out of his way. He almost crashed to the floor but stopped himself in time.
"Oh, stop it. You're just so adorable." Rouge giggled.
Tails growled and lunged himself at her again. Rouge merely sidestepped him and grabbed his wrist, twisting it sharply and causing him to flip over on his back. She sat on him to keep him from getting up.
The bat sighed with content. "You know, I really do enjoy our little get togethers." She pulled out the Emerald from her pocket and dangled it tauntingly in front of his face. "And the fruits they bear. But don't worry. You can get something out of it too." She pulled out her handkerchief and kissed it in the centre. Then she pressed that part to Tails' lips. "Mwah." She made a kissind sound.
She got off him and flew out the window. Tails did not even bother to chase after her. He was seething with himself.
-O-O-
That was two hours ago. Rouge should really learn to stop toying with his feelings. The rage he had felt afterwards was surely enough to let his dark side consume him. It had taken him a whole hour to calm himself down again. Now, with those memories at the forefront, the darkness was threatening to burst forth. He suppressed it good but now he knew that he was on the brink of losing control. Soon it was going to consume him.
Unless he could get it out.
Yes, there was a way he could remove the building dark energy inside him. But it was a very dangerous method. Worst case scenario, he might end up vaporizing himself. But the darkness in him was now getting stronger so that was his best and only choice.
Tails went to a section in the wall which looked like any other wall. He pressed his palm on a specific area. A red scanning light passed over his hand and soon, it turned green. The wall dissipated and revealed a safe hidden behind it. Tails placed his hand on a fingerprint scanner and was rewarded with a green light and an approving beep. He typed in the combination and the locks were disabled. The safe opened a crack.
Tails opened the safe the rest of the way and gazed at what it held: a Dark Emerald, gleaming with a purplish-black color.
Dark Emeralds were very different from Chaos Emeralds. In place of chaos energy, they contained dark energy. And unlike Chaos Emeralds, they could hold over five times the regular amount of energy, which meant Dark Emeralds had a lot. As a result, the energy always leaked out and the Emerald appeared to "pulse".
How Tails happened upon it was complete serendipity. In one of his "chaos hunts" as they liked to call them, he had inadvertently calibrated his energy sensors to search for traces of dark energy and not the usual chaos energy. That led him to a cave where he found the Emerald, hidden well under an underground river. When Tails had handled it in his bare hand, he could literally feel the Dark Energy flowing into his body. Another reason why there was Dark energy inside his body now.
That was when Tails realized he could not physically handle the Emerald and had to use protection when doing so. So he kept it inside a glass container. He pulled it out the safe and gazed at the Dark Emerald it held within, suspended in the middle of the glass by metal holders. He could see it pulsing repeatedly, almost having a hypnotic effect on him.
He shook his head and held the casing away from him. He had to get this over with quickly.
Tails carried the Dark Emerald to a machine in his lab and placed it in a compartment. He connected eight small pipes to the corners of the glass box that held the Emerald then moved to the keyboard and typed away.
"Energy siphon ready. Awaiting function." A computerized female voice said. Tails moved from the keyboard to a lever which offered two options. At the top, it read "siphon" and at the bottom, it read "enrich". Tails flipped the lever towards "siphon".
"Function acknowledged. Awaiting host."
Tails pressed "enter" and turned to the machine. Before he could walk, he felt one of his tails snag on something, too frustrated to even turn and look at what it was, he just gave it a hard yank and freed it.
Tails entered into a glass capsule and shut himself inside it. He pressed a red button in the capsule and could feel the machine coming to life.
"Commencing energy enrichment."
Wait. Energy enrichment? He set it at energy siphoning. He looked at the lever and saw, to his horror, the lever had dropped to the "enrich" function.
"Wait! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, abort, abort!" He screamed. But it was too late.
The Dark Emerald pulsed repeatedly as the energy was drained out of it. The pipes connected to its container started to fill with a dark color, the energy travelling through them.
Straight to Tails' capsule.
The fox was desperately pounding on the glass in his panic. He had wanted to siphon the Dark Energy out of him, not enrich himself with more. Unfortunately, it was not to be.
Tails was suddenly assaulted by blast after blast of black electricity. The Dark Energy. It was entering him. With every blast, Tails screamed and his struggling lessened more.
The entire workshop filled with the sounds of Tails' screams
-O-O-
"Energy enrichment complete."
There was silence in the lab. Silence in the capsule.
Then a heavy breathing.
A black furred clawed hand reached up, claws unsheathed and scratched at the glass. The fox inside the capsule slowly got to his feet, still breathing heavily. Then he looked at the glass. Baring his fangs and growling savagely, he raised his fist and smashed straight through the glass, shattering it all over the floor.
The fox stepped out of the capsule and looked around, surveying his surroundings. Then he noticed the machine. And the Dark Emerald inside its compartment.
It was no longer purplish black but colorless, the dark energy completely drained out of it.
Into him.
The fox looked down at his hands, once orange furred, now black. The claws were unsheathed and he did not have any reason to put them back in. He grinned.
"Yes…" He breathed. "Yes. Dark Tails… LIVES!"
The fox spun his tails and flew out the workshop window, crashing through it. He had no regard whether he got cut or not. Right now, there was one thing on his mind: revenge.
-O-O-
A/N: Well, I hope you like it. I had this story planned since January and now it feels good to finally get it out. Read and enjoy.
J.W.H. 10