Tails the Mercenary 3
One fine Spring day, a fishing boat sped across a large, shimmering lake on the recovering planet of Mobius. It had been two-and-a-half years since the devastating orbital bombardment, and life had returned swiftly, thanks to seed and embryo banks on Mobius' colony worlds, and to massive radiation cleanup units. The buzz of the two-two-five outboard motor echoed throughout the surrounding countryside, and gradually lowered in tone as it slowed down and entered a cove. Sitting in the two seats were Tails and his fishing partner Big the Cat. Big had invited him earlier that day, and since Tails had nothing on his schedule, decided to go ahead and acquiesce the offer. The two rose from their seats, grabbed a couple of fishing poles, stationed themselves at opposite ends of the boat, and cast their lines. The huge feline caused the vessel to tilt forward considerably.
"So, how've things been going in your world, little buddy?" asked Big in a light, innocent tone as the fishing lines whistled from a gentle zephyr.
Mildly irritated at being referred to as 'little', Tails shrugged it off and answered, "Not much, Big. Not much at all." He felt a faint tug on the line, but nothing more.
Big smiled and replied, "I suppose that could be a good thing. I haven't been up to much, either. If only Froggy was still here, I wouldn't get so lonely, though." Silence prevailed for a few seconds, and Big continued, "Hey, speaking of loneliness, I met this cute girl at the grocery store yesterday."
"Oh really?" queried Tails as he felt another brief tug.
"Yeah, we talked for a little while, and she's nice. I think she likes me," said Big while blushing unnoticeably. His line suddenly jerked, and he set the hook, reeling in a fairly large fish afterward.
Tails looked back, grinned, and said, "Nice fish. Good luck with that, by the way." His line jerked as well, and he caught a fish of similar size to Big's.
"Ooh, that's a keeper!" exclaimed Big as he observed it.
"Heh, not too shabby for a person who rarely fishes, huh?" said Tails a second before his built-in arm-phone began to ring. He quickly put the fish in the live-well, plugged the extendable earpiece into his ear, and dried his hands as he pressed the talk button with one of his tails. The caller identification showed the caller to be Sonic, so Tails answered accordingly, "Hey, Sonic. What's happenin'?"
With a particularly distraught voice, Sonic responded, "Tails, another assassination attempt was made on Sally's life just a few minutes ago. The bullet appears to have passed through her liver, and she's bleeding pretty bad. It's hard to say if she'll make it." His voice cracked and wavered at the end, and faint sounds of sniffling could be heard.
"I'll help you find whoever did this. I'm on my way right now," consoled Tails. He ended the call, hailed his ship, looked at Big, and said, "Sorry, friend, I am needed elsewhere. Of all days, too."
Big smiled again and responded, "I understand, two-tailed friend. You have important things to do and people to help. It's been fun!"
Tails' ship arrived shortly thereafter, and he bid his friend farewell, hopped into the craft, and departed for New Knothole.
During the flight, a montage of Tails' past experiences with the Freedom Fighters flashed through his mind. He remembered how Sally had always been there for them, and had altruistically done so much to preserve freedom and stability for both the people and the former kingdom. The thought of losing her brought a tear to his eye, and he knew that he would probably enjoy destroying whoever committed this heinous act against someone so innocent. Conversely, he was moderately frightened that he would enjoy it too much, possibly to the point of vengeance-fueled sadism, and made a mental note not to allow such a thing to happen. He was hard, but not that hard.
A few minutes later, he arrived at the bustling city, and gently set his ship down near the investigation site. The door on the side of the craft opened, and he stepped out onto the soft, verdant grass. The place smelled so pleasant, much like an exotic flower garden or a freshly-cut lawn on a brilliant Summer day. This pleasure, however, was quickly overshadowed when he saw the large red stain on the sidewalk where Sally had been shot. He had expected to see Sonic there, but apparently the cerulean erinaceidan''' had decided to be near his wife during her surgery, and understandably so.
Tails approached one of the investigators, knelt down next to him, and asked, "Found anything?"
The investigator responded, "Not really. We're still trying to figure out where the bullet came from," and pointed to the small gash on the sidewalk where the bullet had ricocheted. Tails quickly got back up, reentered his ship, and returned to the crime scene with a small device. He set the device down over the gash, where it analyzed the parameters of the impact point and emitted a bright laser beam following the bullet's path. The investigator expressed his astonishment as Tails walked away, jumped into the air, and used the rockets in his right foot to travel to the top of the building where the assassin had been positioned. The dust on the roof had been displaced, showing an imprint of where someone had been lying. He used another device to scan for any hairs, clothing fibers, and other clues, but nothing was found, and this surprised the orange vulpine considerably. Whoever the assassin was, he or she was very thorough. Tails even got down on his chest and sniffed around for any scents, but inconclusiveness continued to plague him. As he began to become agitated, he noticed something a few feet away: a boot print. He examined it, and found that it was exactly the same as a spare pair of boots in his ship. The design was new and military-esque, so Tails traveled back to his ship, found the brand name of the boots in question, and reported his findings to the investigator before departing to the place where he had purchased the boots.
It was an outlet store for the manufacturer itself, not simply a military attire dealer acting as a conduit for the manufacturer. Due to this, the prices were quite reasonable, and coupled with high-quality materials and superior fabrication, it was Tails' first choice out of all suppliers. The large building came within view, so he decreased his speed accordingly, landed in an adjacent field, and journeyed into the main office.
The lupine manager looked up, recognized the fox, and said, "Hey, I've seen you before. Didn't you help defeat the Führer?"
"Yes, but digressing to the main point, I am currently here on a mission," said Tails. "Sally Acorn was just shot by a sniper, and I found some boot imprints that match a pair I bought here recently. Did you see anyone suspicious?"
The manager showed both surprise and amusement, "Heh heh, we get a lot of customers. A few of them probably have looked rather shady, but I wouldn't remember them. I'm not sure how I can help you."
Tails pondered for a moment, but then asked, "Do you mind if I scan your surveillance files? It won't take more than a minute. My scanner can quickly pick out familiar faces."
The manager was reluctant at first, but went ahead and granted Tails his request. The scanner hummed for around thirty seconds before displaying a truly familiar face. The face was that of Bark the Polar Bear. Tails thanked the wolf, left him a small roll of cash, and went on his way.
While flying back to New Knothole, Tails thought, "I didn't know Bark was still alive. I thought he was still with Nack when the bombs fell."
He visited a few more places before tracking Bark to a club in the big city of New Mobotropolis Secundus. After setting down in a vacant lot, he casually walked toward the club's main entrance. There was one person guarding the door -- a hulking tiger with a nametag that read "Maimer," so Tails was rather certain that this was an exclusive club.
He made a bee-line for the door, but the bouncer stepped into his path and said with a deep, menacing voice, "Hey, cyborg, you got a reservation?"
"Tails is my name," the orange fox responded.
The striped feline flipped through his list, then looked at Tails with a smug countenance, "Nope, sorry. Access denied. Take a hike."
"Tails is my name," the hero repeated.
The tiger grew more aggressive and answered, "I don't care who you are. You could be an interplanetary hero for all I care. You're not getting in, and if you don't leave now, I will make you."
"Then make me," challenged Tails.
As the muscular cat attempted to grab him, Tails grabbed his arm and threw him clear across the street. Enraged, the tiger raced back at him, but stopped when Tails pulled a gun.
"You can either keep coming and lose the remainder of your lives, or you can leave and survive another day," warned Tails.
Maimer scowled, spat on the ground, and lumbered off. Tails put the gun back in its harness and entered the club with a contented smirk. He was immediately assaulted by flashing strobe lights, lurid alcohol fumes, and blaring, thumping techno music. In a corner, he spotted Bark, two of his trophy girlfriends, and two armed accomplices. He tried to maintain a low profile as he maneuvered through the writhing crowd. As he got halfway there, Bark himself just so happened to recognize his face as it passed through an open area. He quickly stood up, pulled a nine-millimeter pistol, and fired a few shots at Tails before sprinting for the rear exit. Tails took cover behind a vending machine and returned fire as his henchmen did the same. One thug was hit square in the forehead, killing him instantly, and leaving a red starburst on the wall behind him. The other thug panicked and made a dash, but Tails blew out one of his kneecaps, causing him to tumble to the floor and throw his gun in the process. By then, everyone else had left the room. Tails sprinted toward the exit, but Bark detonated an explosive, causing a partial structure collapse, blocking the exit, and blowing the two-tailed fox to the floor. The sound of a ship taking off could be heard moments later. With only one lead left, Tails got back to his feet and approached the thug, gun in hand. Terrified, the thug tried in vain to scoot away.
A warning shot was fired, and Tails shouted, "Stop wasting your energy! Now, tell me where Bark flew off to." The thug boldly remained silent. With a raised eyebrow, Tails said, "Huh," and shot him in the foot of the same leg that had been shot before. The thug howled in pain and held his foot tightly, and Tails continued speaking after blowing the smoke from the hot barrel, "Look, I don't want to have to do that again; this isn't something I enjoy. Please, tell me where Bark went."
Voice disparting, the thug muttered, "I...I cannot."
Tails fired a bullet into his shin this time, and the thug was beside himself with agony. "You are wasting a considerable amount of my valuable time, sir. For your sake, and for the sake of my friend who was almost killed about thirty minutes ago, obviously by your boss, I ask you again. Tell. Me. Where. Bark. Went."
In tears, the thug responded, "To...aughk...to a sssmall c-compound...five m-miles east of N-New Knothole. It is well guarded and in a g-g-grove of trees...rrrrrgh. I am sure your sh-ship can find it w-with a scan."
Happy, Tails put his gun away and replied, "You have done the right thing. I regret that it went this far." With that, he left the club, entered his ship, and headed for the target location. He used the vessel's sensors to follow the ion trail left by his fleeing quarry, and its superior, home-modified engines to quickly catch up.
Bark's proximity alarms went off, and he checked his rearview cameras, seeing his pursuer. "Great, he survived. No matter. I doubt he'll survive this," he said as he summoned three backup fighters, which quickly ascended from a hangar near his compound and intercepted Tails' ship. Tails rapidly performed evasive maneuvers and dodged every shot, returning many. One ship increased its altitude and entered a cloud, while the other two trailed the valiant protagonist. Tails' ship jolted from being hit by the shockwave of a small rocket blast, so he activated his retro-firing autocannon and unleashed a salvo of glowing ammunition back at his attackers. As he eluded the twin fighters, the third made a nosedive from above, nearly colliding with him, and launched a retro-fired incendiary missile. The other two ships split up as the fiery blast nearly blew Tails out of the sky. He rapidly regained stability, locked-on to one of the foes as they passed by, and launched a small, agile missile that took them down with ease. The morale of the remaining aggressors dropped, but they kept at it. Various offensive and defensive tactics were used amongst the contenders over the course of a few minutes, until Tails finally got a bead on one of them and tore a hole through their hull with a well-placed kinetic energy projectile. The ship subsequently spiraled into a mountain and exploded. Before the last ship could do anything else, it broke apart as flak projectiles began detonating all around them, emanating from artillery batteries situated around the compound. Tails could only evade for so long. His ship was hit by peppering after peppering of what sounded like high-velocity rain, and went critical as the reactor was breached. He tried to eject, but the ejection mechanism had somehow been damaged as well. Persisting with his unwillingness to give up, he decided that if he was going down, he'd go down on top of the enemy's head. At least Sally's assassination attempt would've been avenged. He directed his swift descent in the direction of the compound's central building, but instead skidded across the ground next to it. The craft disintegrated, jettisoning Tails into the air. His mechanical arm shattered just above the elbow against a tree, and he tumbled a few hundred feet before activating the rockets in his foot to slow his momentum and fly behind a bush just outside of the compound's fenceless boundary. It was a good place to rest, as Bark and his comrades most likely (and understandably) assumed he had died instantly in the crash.
Almost his entire body was in astonishing pain, but even more so in what remained of his prosthetic arm. Hundreds of sparks darted from the severed electrical connections in the mangled stump, and though he wanted to grasp it, he dared not. The battery in the upper part of the arm still contained a considerable amount of energy, and he would probably be electrocuted if he touched one of the wires. Since there was no way to cut the power, he simply left it alone, though with great difficulty. The hemorrhaging power was interacting with the wires still connected to his nerves, and this was why it was so excruciating. Tears streamed down his face as he clawed the ground, growling and making sounds signifying intense discomfort. He sat there for about five minutes, contemplating a course of action while trying to ignore the ripping pain. He knew he couldn't sit there forever, and he eventually gathered the willpower to get back to his feet. With his remaining hand, he drew his gun, activated the silencer, and prepared to shoot anyone who got in his way.
Tails ventured closer to the main building while trying to keep quiet, although the sparking was making an inconvenient amount of noise. It appeared that most of the guards were trying to extinguish the fires resulting from the crash, so this gave him an advantage. When nobody was watching, as he saw it, he sprinted as fast as he could, kicked the door in, and immediately shot three sentries who were in the room. This room happened to be the lounge, and as he wondered what it was with him and breaking into lounges, he heard two voices getting louder as they approached from a hallway. Tails hid behind a tall, potted plant, shot the foe who was further away with his pistol, and used his broken arm to quickly electrocute the closer one, denying him the chance to call for help by cupping his hand over his mouth after dropping the gun. He retrieved his weapon and made his way down the hall and to a closed door, where he heard Bark's voice conversing with another, almost melodic one. After kicking the door down with his powerful robotic foot, he saw Bark standing next to a cage...with Mina Mongoose locked within. His eyes widened, and he nearly let go of his gun, but subsequently pointed it at Bark's head.
Shocked, Bark exclaimed, "Okay, now there's no way you're here. You..."
"Died in the crash?" finished Tails, wincing occasionally from arcing energy filaments encompassing the end of his metal stub. "No, it takes much more than a simple crash to kill me. Speaking of kill, why did you try to assassinate Sally today?"
Bark noticed Tails' grievous injury, and stated, "Seems the crash almost did you in, though. Moving on, I attempted to kill Sally simply because failing to do so was Nack's only regret. I told him that if anything ever happened to him before he got the chance to finish the job, I would finish it for him. A promise is a promise." Bark also noticed Tails' expressions when he looked at Mina, and added with a mocking smile, "I'll bet you didn't expect to see her here, did you? I've been...taking good care her these past two-and-a-half years." Mina gazed at Tails with huge doe-eyes, and although she was malnourished and unwashed, she was still stunningly beautiful.
Filled with wrath, Tails growled, "What have you been doing with Mina this long? What purpose did it serve to keep her?"
Bark tactlessly responded, "I thought it was cool to have singer as a trophy."
Before Tails could pull the trigger, Mina asked, "Tails...is...is it you?" in almost a whisper.
His gun was shaking, both from pain and almost overwhelming emotions, and he answered, "I'm here now, my dearest Mina."
While Tails was distracted, Bark threw a knife at his good arm, puncturing it. He shouted and dropped his gun, and Bark went after him. The burly polar bear kicked the gun away, grabbed Tails by his shoulders, and slammed him into the wall with enough force to crack the sheetrock and disorient the orange fox somewhat. Tails broke free, slid under the beast, and zapped his leg, burning some of the fur off and cauterizing the skin slightly. Bark roared and backhanded Tails across the room, grabbing a crowbar after doing so. While lying on the floor, Tails removed the knife from his arm and flicked it at Bark fast enough to make it stick in his abdomen. This affected him in only a minor way, and he kept coming without relent. Tails rolled out of the way as the crowbar carved a small gash in the concrete floor, and he hopped to his feet, grabbed Bark's wrist, and touched the crowbar to his shattered arm. The electrical current caused Bark to drop it and bellow, but Tails was grabbed again, rammed into the ceiling, then the floor, and subsequently thrown a second time. Tails wasn't sure how much more pain he could take before going into shock, so he knew he had to end the fight soon. He stood up again, and as Bark lumbered toward him, he dove out of the way, swung around, and stabbed Bark through the heart with the sharp, telescopic barb on his prosthetic tail. Tails stood there panting as Bark fell to his knees, and finally his face moments later. Without further ado, Tails walked to his beloved, stumbling slightly, and released her. They embraced as Tails held his sparking appendage out at a safe distance.
"Tails...it's been so long. I didn't know if you had made it out before the attacks," said Mina in tears.
"I thought the same thing about you, Mina. I just wish I had known sooner," replied Tails as he tried in futility to hold his tears in. The two headed to Bark's small personal hangar adjacent to the main building, where they surreptitiously took his ship and flew back home. After arriving in New Knothole, Tails alerted the military of the militia's presence, and they immediately launched an operation to subdue it. Following that, Mina accompanied Tails to his workshop, where he had his arm replaced as she replenished her strength. He later found out that Sally was going to be alright, and Sonic thanked him fervently for discovering the assassin and dispatching him so quickly.
Tails and Mina were wed the following Autumn.
Fin.
Sonic characters and places are copyright of Sonic Team/Sega
Everything else is copyright of myself, NuclearCookout
Author's notes: Sorry about the choppy ending.
'''Hedgehogs are of the family Erinaceidae