It is finally here! :3 The awaited sequel to Sonic: Before Heroism is here! However, before reading on, I must give you a few warnings. First, this is mostly a rewrite of The Two-Tailed Fox, but this is told through Sonic's eyes, rather than Tails'. Second, since this is a direct sequel, this will have some unexplained references to the first book, Sonic: Before Heroism. If you haven't read it, but you wish to continue reading this story, I would seriously recommend that you read it first. Otherwise, please refer to The Two-Tailed Fox, a version where all references to Sonic: Before Heroism are explained. Anyway, enjoy!

How to Be a Hero, by Sonic the Hedgehog

Prologue: The Two-Tailed Fox

"Yo, Eggbelly! Guess who?" Another day, another "battle", if you want to call it that, with Eggman. Yeah, I find these little fights fun. Maybe it's just because I'm always the one who wins, but whatever. No matter what that round mischief maker is up to today, I'll be able to stop him! Like I said, I always win! "Why, hello, Sonic," says Eggman with a smirk on his face. "How wonderful to see you! And by wonderful, I mean completely horrid." His smirk disappears after that. That's just who I am, though. I'm that bloated buffoon's worst nightmare.

I make an exaggerated frown as I respond, "Aww… And I was hoping you'd be happy to see me. Oh, well, time to beat you down!" Good thing this robot that he has isn't a flying one. The last couple ones have been, and it's been more than annoying. I mean, yeah, I can still beat them, but it's just irritating. Anyway, I digress… I heard that Eggman was attacking this island, Westside Island, and it looks like I got to him just in time to stop him before he got to the city on the island. His robot's interesting to say the least. It has two missiles for arms, and Eggman calls it "Missile Wrist".

"Now, Missile Wrist, attack Sonic! Make sure there's nothing left of that pesky blue hedgehog!" After fighting him for five years, I've noticed something about all his robots. There's one thing that he never can build them to withstand, and that is my speed. Missile Wrist launches a missile at me, and I notice as I hop away from it that it's attached by a long chain to the inside of its body. It can retract them. I think I can actually use that to my advantage, but first, time to taunt Eggman!

I run further away, and Missile Wrist launches another missile at me, but I hop on top of it, and it launches its other one right at me. Perfect! I hop from one to the other repeatedly, dancing and just plain taunting as I do so. Eventually, I stay on one of them as it retracts, and when it arrives back to Missile Wrist, I pull my lower eyelid down and stick my tongue out at the robot. I know Eggman doesn't program most of his robots with feelings, but hey, it's still fun messing with them. It begins to bring its other arm down onto me, and I jump right off, and it ends up smashing both its arms in one shot.

"All right, then!" exclaims Eggman, obviously irritated with li'l ol' me. "Fire rockets at him!" As I'm still in the air, three rockets shoot vertically toward me. I lightly jump on two of them, making them explode, and then, I grab onto the third as it flies upward. When I'm high enough up, I kick the rocket away, making that one explode as well, and curl myself up in a ball, hurling myself straight toward Missile Wrist. I land right on its head and shred through its inner circuitry, and shortly after I come out the other end and run a safe distance away, it explodes.

Eggman is currently covered in soot from the explosion, and I laugh because of my victory… and because he looks pretty hilarious when he's covered in soot. "Damn…" muttered Eggman under his breath. "No matter, because one day, I will defeat you!" I smirk. There's no way he could ever defeat me. I've come close to losing before, but I've never actually lost. "Just keep thinking that, Eggdork!" The bloated man lets out a small "hmph" before flying away in his hovercraft… UFO… thing. "Bye, see ya later!" I yell as I wave toward him, but I don't get any reply back, which is part of the fun.

"Ah!" I exclaim as I stretch. "That was a good workout, although Eggman should work on making those things last longer." My stomach grumbles in protest to its empty feeling. "Man, I gotta get me some chili dogs!" I look around, trying to see the city on this island, and I eventually see it in the distance. The island is huge, though. I can already tell that much, but it should only take thirty seconds to get to the city, if that. I speed off, feeling the wind caress me.

I don't know why I start thinking about this, but I wonder how Milly's doing. It's been two and a half years since I left. I wonder if his new parents are treating him nicely, unlike Frank did to me. I still hate that man more than you can imagine, but I try not to think about him, otherwise I start to get depressed, and I don't want to get depressed now, so I'm not going to say anything more.

I look down at my shoes, which are still looking new despite all the wear and tear they've gone through over the past three and a half years. Milly really did make those things indestructible. If they weren't I probably would've torn through them within the first year I had them. I remember Milly telling me one day, "I made it so that, no matter what you do, you can't destroy those shoes. That way, you won't have to keep coming back to me to fix them if they were to get torn up." Man… I miss the vermillion raccoon… but I'm not going back to Christmas Island for a while… Not until I've had a lot of time away…

When I arrive at the city, I race through, trying to find a chili dog stand, but instead of finding a stand with the delectable food, I find a crowd of children in a park, watching something that I can't quite make out from this distance. As I get closer, I can hear them cheering, and when I eventually make it close enough to see what's going on, I see a couple of kids beating a poor orange fox with sticks. I try to make my way through the crowd, but when I can't, I ask someone, "Hey, why are they beating up that poor kit?"

The yellow hedgehog I asked turns to me and replies, "No reason really, other than the fact that the fox has two tails. It's hilarious just to watch him get the crap beaten out of him by Rascal, the brown fox over by Puny Two Tail." Why would anyone find this entertaining? I seriously want to punch that hedgehog in the face right now, and I almost do, but I need to keep it together right now, so instead, I yell at him, "That's not right! Do you take some kinda sadistic pleasure in watching a poor and defenseless kid suffer? Would you wanna get hurt like that?"

The yellow hedgehog stutters, "Well, I… um… I-I… w-well… No, but…" I don't even let him finish. "Then why on Mobius would you watch a fox cub get beaten up and get joy from it out of all the other emotions?" I've gotten the attention of pretty much the whole back half of the crowd, but the people in the front and the bullies up by the tree that the orange fox is hanging off of can't seem to hear me. "You people are all sick! Sick, you hear me?"

Unfortunately, there's not much I can do for the poor little fox. Man… these people remind me so much of Frank, just deriving a perverse delight from a young boy's suffering. I can defend him with my words, though. "What did he ever do to you?" I ask. "If one of you can come up with a good answer, then I'll maybe let this slide!" Silence ensues, except from the front half of the crowd, which is still cheering, "C'mon, beat him up!" I wait for a few seconds, just to make sure I get my point across.

"Y'see? He did nothing, and yet all of you are watching him get beaten up! I'm going in there to stop this!" When I try to run in, though, someone grabs me by the arms. "Let go! Don't you know who I am?" I look up at the black rabbit who's holding my arms with amazing strength for his age, and he looks about ten years old. He smiles, and his smile is kinda awkward, as it's quite crooked. "Yeah," he replies. "I know who you are. You're Sonic the Hedgehog, but that's all the more reason why I need to keep you from saving the fox kid. If Rascal weren't able to stand up to you, then he'd be a weakling, and nobody'd respect him. Got the gist of it, hedgehog?"

I struggle against his grip, but then I hear a splatter from over where the bullying is taking place, and I see two red and white tennis shoes sticking out of a trash can, each attached to a thin orange leg. Oh, great… The fox fell in… A red cat closes the lid on the two feet and picks the trash can up. She carries it over to a hill, sets it down on its side, and releases it, sending it rolling down toward a tree with a large trunk. Within thirty seconds, the trash can hits the tree, sending the orange fox flying out of the trash can. He gets up on his knees and starts to vomit, and after he's done, he looks at the crowd, and he looks about ready to cry.

He actually does start crying, and the crowd, along with the bullies and the boy holding me back, start laughing. "Exactly what do you guys find funny about that? Making somebody cry is no laughing matter! Believe me! I'd know! I've cried enough to fill up the Chun-nan Sea!" I probably shouldn't have said that, but oh, well… I need to defend that poor kid. The whole crowd falls silent for a second, and then the black rabbit starts laughing. "Sonic the Hedgehog cried? Oh, that's rich! C'mon, we know you haven't cried that much. You're just trying to get us to sympathize with the fox."

They're really making me angry… I bring my foot up to kick the rabbit in the crotch, and he releases me after I do exactly that. "And guess what else? I was bullied, although bullying doesn't even start to describe what it was, because it wasn't peer-to-peer! I was abused! I know exactly what this kid is going through! Tell me this: Would you want this to happen to you?" I show them the scars on my arms, and they really look shocked. I once again get no answer. "Now, I want you all to go home and think about what you've done to the poor kid!"

They all nod and disperse, except for the three bullies, who are now surrounding me. A brown fox, a red cat, and (I really should've guessed this one) the black rabbit. Once everyone's gone, they look around to make sure that the orange fox isn't watching, and then turn their attention back to me. "I didn't like that little speech you gave there, Blue Blur," says the brown fox while cracking his knuckles. I smirk and reply, "Really, because I thought it was very moving." The brown fox shakes his head and chuckles. "Whatever you say, Sonic… Y'know, I figure we might as well introduce ourselves before we beat you up. I'm Rascal, the red cat next to me is Jack, and the black rabbit is Robb. Now, on with the beating…"

Rascal makes an obvious attempt to punch me, but it's so obvious that I catch his fist right in the palm of my hand. "Wha?" he exclaims in surprise. "Unless you want me to break your fist," I start. "I'd suggest you go now. I don't want anyone to get hurt, and I don't normally hurt people, so please, go if you know what's best for the both of us." He tries to swing at me with his other fist, but I catch that one as well. "I'll give you one more chance. Go." He starts to try and wrestle free from my grasp. "I really didn't want it to come to this…" I squeeze as hard as I can with my right hand, and within only a few seconds, I hear a crack, and I feel several of his bones give way.

He utters a yelp of pain and falls to his knees, holding his fist, and I can see tears dripping from the corners of his eyes. I didn't quite break anything, though. I wasn't about to be that mean. "Nothing's broken, but I've popped a few joints from their sockets and fractured a couple bones. Now, go, and if I ever come back to Westside Island, I'd better not hear anything about you bullying the little—DOH!" What the… That… hurt…

I wake up… who knows how much later and find myself to not be in the same place I was earlier. The back of my head hurts. Did one of them knock me out with something? As my sight adjusts, I realize that I'm not outside, but rather on a couch in a house. I try to get up, but the back of my head starts hurting like nothing else, and when I exclaim, "Gosh!" in pain, a red fox walks up to me and says, "Whoa, there. You need to wait a while. Those bullies hit you pretty darn hard. You were bleeding from the spot where they hit you." I plop my head back down on the pillow.

"What's your name, son?" asks the fox. "Ogilvie Maurice Hedgehog," I reply. "but everybody just calls me Sonic. Who're you?" I'm kinda uncomfortable right now. I don't like being with strangers. Not after what happened with Frank. I think the red fox can sense my discomfort, though, and he says, "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you, Sonic. My name's Paul Fuchs. I run a workshop here on Westside Island. I was walking home when I saw one of the bullies hit you in the back of the head with a branch. You looked like you could use some help."

I've had some trust issues with adults, but this man… he seems like Frank's polar opposite, kind of like Mrs. Mutti was. "Thanks. How long was I out?" Paul replies, "About forty-five minutes, but you must have amazing healing abilities, because by the time I got you here, you weren't bleeding at all." Yeah, I have an accelerated rate of healing. Don't exactly know when it started happening, though. "Now, why would you pick a fight with those bullies? I can tell you're new here, but they aren't exactly the type of kids who are going to let you out of a fight unscathed." I sit up, and this time, my head doesn't hurt as much. "They were hurting a poor little two-tailed fox. I couldn't just let that slip!" A smile spreads across the fox's face.

"I'm glad to know you have a conscience unlike most people on this island. All the kids on the island call the kit 'Two Tail'. I don't know his real name, but those bullies pick on him on a regular basis. Not many people on this island have the courage or conscience to do what you did. I'd do something, but I'm an old man, and good luck getting a bunch of kids to listen to an elderly fox." Many questions cross my mind at that point, but there's one in particular that I ask. "Why do they pick on him?" Paul sighs.

"There are a lot of reasons. The first and most obvious is because of his two tails. They're a birth defect, I assume, but I don't see anything wrong with having two tails. The second is because the kid is homeless. He wanders the streets of the city, always trying to get food, since he doesn't get much to eat. I've been debating on whether I should take him in or not, but whenever I decide to try, I can't find him anywhere." Oh, that poor kid… Nobody deserves that… I think I'm going to go help that kid before I leave the island.

I stand up, and my head starts to hurt, but it quickly passes. "Thanks for your help, mister," I say, and I'm about to run out of the house, but Paul stops me and says, "Hey, kid, you have a good heart. I think someone like you will do well in life." I smile. There's not been a single adult that's been this nice to me since I left Christmas Island. "Thanks. Well, I'll catch ya later! Gotta speed!" I run out of the house, trying once again to find a chili dog stand, but this time, it's not me that I'm trying to find it for.

I finally find one and say, "Four chili dogs with the works, pal!" to the white dog working behind the stand. "Four dogs, coming right up!" he replies back. I only have to wait a minute before he gives me a paper plate with four chili dogs sitting right on it. I pay him five dollars even and run off, eating two of the chili dogs right away. The other two, I'm saving for that poor fox, if I can find him. I run back to the spot where I left him, and he's still there, but he's starting to walk away from that spot.

I quickly run over to him and stop in front of him, and trying to sound kind, I say, "Wait a second, you're that fox that Rascal was bullying earlier, aren't you?" The young boy sighs and replies back with venom behind his voice, "Yeah, and so what if I am. Are you gonna laugh at me? Are you gonna make fun of my tails?" I'm not like them. I hope he understands that. I shake my head. "No." I hold out the plate with the chili dogs, but he looks at them funny, and I think I can guess why.

"Go ahead," I respond. "Take 'em. I was gonna eat 'em, but I heard about how you don't get much to eat, so here." I wait a few seconds, but he doesn't take them, but his palms are facing up, so I place the plate in his hands. I smile at him to reinforce the fact that I mean no harm. "Well, see ya later. Gotta speed, kid!" I then run off toward where I left the Tornado. Poor kid, though. Hopefully what I gave him helps. I kinda wish I were more of a people person. That way, maybe I would've talked to him and gotten to know him. Oh, well! This island isn't so bad, though. In fact, it's the best island I've been to. Maybe I'll have to come back sometime!

Yay for Sonic! He met Tails! Yay! Anyway, please review, and tell me how I did! This was my first time writing from Sonic's POV, so I want to know how I did! Please tell me if something doesn't sound like Sonic.

-Camobamo1