A/N: This is my first attempt at a steampunk fic and it will also contain a lot of western elements in it as well. I will be recycling one of my OCs from The Grid Protocol and will use her as a character for this story. Also, certain characters from the comics and Sonic Satam might appear in this fic but they will be used like OCs. As I am still working out kinks in the plot so any ideas you have are welcome.
Chapter 1: Into the Wild
(Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the hedgehog or any related characters.)
Tails woke up and looked out the window of his workshop only to be greeted with the sight of an abandoned dark city completely devoid of any sort of life. Tails got out of bed and walked downstairs to cook himself breakfast. The sight of a dead Station Square was enough to depress anyone. For Tails however, it brought determination, determination find someplace else that wasn't dead.
It had been eight years since the outbreak, eight years since the world died. Human and animal, both anthro and regular had all died from the outbreak. Everyone was dead within one month. Where the disease came from, Tails did not know. He only knew that he, now at the age of sixteen, was immune. For some reason Tails had not been affected by the virus like everyone else. Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, Cream, Big, Vanilla, the chaotix, and everyone other person Tails knew of was dead. The only person Tails who had not seen dead was Shadow and he was nowhere to be found. For eight years Tails had tried to reach Shadow and any other possible survivors by radio but so far no one had responded to his broadcasts. After eight years Tails had given up and had decided on something else. He built a gateway that would allow him to warp to another universe. There he would start a new life among its inhabitants. He had finished the portal yesterday and planned on making his voyage today.
Tails got down to the kitchen and searched through the fridge for some eggs and found none. Tails instead grabbed some pre-cooked bacon and ate it cold. After he was done he went into his garage and checked on the Master Emerald which Knuckles had given to him to guard when he fell ill.
Tails entered his garage and saw the Master Emerald sitting in a corner with the other seven chaos emeralds. The Master emerald was now about the size of a soccer ball due to a trick Knuckles had shown Tails in order to make it portable.
In the other corner of the garage was a large steel archway laced with copper cables. Next to the archway was a computer which monitored the voltage and other properties of the archway. This archway was the portal through which Tails had built and planned to use to escape his world.
Tails grabbed a large leather bag and stuffed all seven Chaos Emeralds and the shrunken Master Emerald in the bag. Tails dragged the bag over to a motorcycle, which used to be Shadow's, and put it in the storage compartment. Tail scanned the motorcycle and made sure he had everything he needed. All in all he had the Chaos Emeralds, the Master Emerald, two weeks worth of food, one hundred rings, a survival kit, a nine millimeter pistol with thirty bullets, and a tent. Tails would have brought more supplies but nothing else would fit on the motorcycle.
With nothing else to do Tails took one last look around his work shop, walked over to the portal and turned it on. The portal hummed as a membrane of what looked like water spread across the portal. The computer beeped in confirmation that the portal was working correctly. Tails walked over to the motorcycle, put the key in the ignition, and started it. The motorcycle revved to a start.
"Goodbye Mobius," Tails said, and was momentarily surprised by the deepness of his own voice. It had been a long time since he had used it.
Tails gunned the motorcycle toward the portal and went through the barrier. Tails immediately found himself momentarily suspended in darkness and cold. He tried to breath but found no air in the darkness. Luckily for him the sensation only lasted a few seconds. The next thing Tails knew he was falling. Tails looked down and saw a cactus filled desert rapidly approaching him. Tails tried to jump off of the motorcycle and fly with his namesakes but his foot got caught on the transmission pedal of the motorcycle. The motorcycle crashed into the ground with Tails still attached to it. Tails hit the ground hard and his world went black.
Tails blinked his eyes and tried to get up but was stopped by a stabbing pain in his leg. Tails looked down and saw a piece of sharp metal sticking out of his leg. Tails pulled the piece of metal out of his leg and felt red hot pain shoot up his leg. Tails looked around and saw the rings he had brought lying scattered on the ground. Tails reached for one of the rings and brought it to the wound on his leg. In his world rings had healing abilities, Tails prayed that it was the same in this world. When the ring touched the wound on Tails' leg it dissolved into mist and the wound healed.
"Phew," Tails sighed, at least his wound was healed.
The next thing Tails heard was a slow pat of hooves on the soil of the desert. Tails looked up and saw what appeared to be five bearded cowboys on horses surrounding him. Four of them were armed with revolvers, the fifth held a double barrel shotgun
"Well look what we have here," the leader of the cowboys said, "What is a furry like you doing so far away from that wretched city."
"I'm not from around here," Tails said, "I'm not trying to cause trouble."
"Where ever little fur balls like you show up there's always trouble," the leader said, "Given that you're out here in the middle of nowhere with a pile of smashed metal and a bunch of gold rings you're probably up to no good. So tell me little fox where did you get the gold."
"These aren't made of gold," Tails said pointing to the rings, "Their made of a special alloy and are meant for healing wounds."
"Nice try little fox," The leader of the cowboys said, "But witchcraft was abolished long ago. There's no way such a power exists."
"Boss will you stop askin' him pointless questions and just shoot him already," One of the other cowboys said.
"Hold your tongue Charly," The leader said, "I wanna know what a two tailed fox is doing all the way out in the middle of the desert."
During this small exchange Tails had begun to reach for his pistol but stopped dead when one of the cowboys saw it and pointed his pistol at Tails.
"Don't even think about it little man," the cowboy said.
Tails stopped reaching for his pistol and returned his hand to his pocket.
"Nice try but no good," The leader of the cowboys said, "You've got to be fast not sneaky if you want to kill us."
Tails didn't answer but was quickly trying to think of a way to get out of this alive. If what the cowboy called Charlie said was true, they planned to kill Tails when they were done toying with him.
"I don't think he wants to talk anymore boss," Charlie said.
"Well of course not you just revealed that we were gonna kill him," the leader said, "Well since there's no point in toying with him we might as well kill him."
All of the cowboys aimed their weapons at Tails. Before they could fire however, a large shadow swept over the cowboys and gunshots rained down from above. Tails looked up to see a large black bat wearing a cowboy outfit with a lever action rifle shooting down. The cowboys began to shoot up at the bat and Tails noticed puffs of white smoke coming out of their revolvers, they must be using black powder instead of smokeless powder in their guns. Tails took the opportunity and grabbed his pistol. However by the time he had done so, he didn't need it since the cowboys were already dead.
The black bat landed next to him with a dull thump.
"Thanks for saving me," Tails said, "That was some impressive marksmanship. You killed them all before I could even get my pistol out."
"You're lucky I was on patrol when I was," The bat said, "It's foolish to be this far away from Pitt Stop."
"What's Pitt Stop?" Tails asked.
The bat froze and stared at Tails.
"How can you not have heard of Pitt Stop," the bat said, "Its only the last city that we anthros have. The humans have destroyed all of our other cities."
"I'm not from this world," Tails said, "I used some advanced technology to warp myself here."
"Normally I wouldn't believe that but the humans aren't from around here either, Their from another continent" The bat said, "I'm Rey by the way."
"I'm Tails," Tails said, "What's the problem between anthros and humans in this world."
"Look, it's a long story," Rey said, "I'll fill you in on the way back to Pitt Stop. You can tell me your story as well. Gather up your stuff and we'll head back."
Tails gathered what little he could. Most of his stuff was broken from the impact. The thing that disturbed him the most was that the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald were missing. Still, Tails wasn't surprised, the emeralds repelled each other after all and had a tendency to scatter. Thankfully no one in this world would know of their power so Tails could take his time collecting them.
Tails and Rey set off away from the dead cowboys. They would have taken their horses but the said animals had already run off.
"So fill me in," Tails said to Rey, "What's the story of this world."
"Well," Rey said, "I'm no expert on how world are supposed to work but this one was developing fine until the humans arrived on our continent. They obviously thought talking animals were inferior to them so they began to burn and pillage all of our villages. fifty years later, we find ourselves here, only one city of animals remains. That city is Pitt Stop. We are desperately fighting the humans in hopes that they will back off and leave us alone. However they seem pretty determined to completely wipe us out."
"What about your technology," Tails said, "What kind of tools does this world have."
"Well, since our only fuel resource is coal and oil almost everything is steam powered including our automatons. Those are steam powered robots. We have been trying for a while to make a oil powered engine but haven't been successful. We have electricity but it is dependent on steam generators. Our weapons are based off of the combustion of gun powder and smokeless powder though mind you the humans still use regular black powder. There technology is a little bit more primitive than ours."
"If you guys have more advance technology than how come you are losing in this war with the humans," Tails asked.
"The humans make up for it with numbers," Rey said, "Even with our automatons and Gatling guns we still have yet to make a sizeable dent in their forces."
"It sounds like you guys were going into an industrial revolution until the humans showed up," Tails said.
"It wasn't exactly like that," Rey said, "There was a brilliant scientist who lived in Pitt Stop a while back. He was responsible for most of the recent technological advancements so it wasn't necessarily an industrial revolution. So what happened to your world?"
"My world got hit by a deadly disease," Tails said, "As far as I know I'm the only surviving member of my race."
"I noticed that you were looking for something back there," Rey said, "Did you lose something."
"Can you keep a secret?" Tails said as he realized that Rey was talking about the Chaos Emeralds.
Rey nodded.
Tails explained the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald to Rey. He made sure to include the dangers that they posed if they fell into the wrong hands.
"So you brought them from your world for safekeeping," Rey said after Tails finished.
"Yeah, " Tails sighed, "The good news is that no one should be able to figure out what their capable of. If anyone finds them they'll probably assume their just oversized gems."
"I have one last question," Rey said, "Are you a mechanic?"
"You bet," Tails said enthusiastically, "I love building stuff."
"You'll fit well in Pitt Stop then," Rey said, "The whole city revolves around inventing and mechanics. Mostly this is because we desperately need something that can help us defeat the humans."
"Sounds like my kind of place," Tails said.
"I think you'll fit in well there," Rey said.
The two continued to chat as they made their way to the city Rey was talking about. Tails filled Rey in on the culture of Mobius and Rey filled Tails in on the culture of his world. After an hour of walking, they came to a large steel wall with a gate in the center of it. Sentries on the top of the gate opened it when Tails and Rey were close enough. Inside was a sight that made Tails jaw drop.
Pitt Stop was a beautiful Victorian era city with a cobblestone roads and large steam powered automatons that looked like metal balls with legs. Everywhere there mechanic shops and the air was heavy with the smell of oil. Down the center of the main street was a large courthouse like building with a large insignia of two crossed swords inside a cog. The sight of so much mechanic related stuff nearly made Tails explode in excitement, all of which Rey noticed.
"Welcome," Rey said, "To Pitt Stop."
Please review. And remember all ideas are welcome.