SUMMARY: Three years after Robotnik's death, Tails wakes up with a gun under his pillow and a bag of stolen jewelry under his bed. Problem is, he doesn't remember having those things when he went to bed the night before. Suddenly, Tails is on the run from the authorities, Shadow leading the manhunt for him. Then it all gets worse when Dragon steps into Tails' life again and starts wreaking havoc for Tails while he's on the run. Can Sonic and Tails' father find him and the evidence they need to exonerate Tails? Can they get to him before Shadow does? And how did Dragon survive the bomb?
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, first off, I'd like to tell any readers that are reading this that this is a sequel to my first Sonic story, Final battle. So, if you read this without reading that story first, this will make very little sense to you. Secondly, to any readers who have read the first story, sorry if this story isn't totally at the same quality as the last one. I rewrote this like three times before I finally saw it as fit for posting, but it still feels a little shoddy to me. I'm hoping that it'll get better as i write it more, but I'm kind of blocked right now, so I'm waiting for that bit of inspiration to really get this story going. Okay, one more thing in this long author's note. The first two chapters are a bit slow as they're mostly to set up the story and vaguely fill in the gap of what's happened between the three year gap of the two stories' settings. So, now, please enjoy.
Sonic rolled over in bed and felt his arm fall on the soft fur of the body that lay next to him. He turned over onto his side and moved closer to the squirrel next to him. He put his arm under her head and kissed her on the cheek. She was still asleep.
Sonic saw the sunlight flooding the room through the floor-to-ceiling window of the master bedroom of his new, Mobotropolis apartment. He liked this apartment better than the one he had in Station Square. It was nicer, bigger, and he liked Mobotropolis better than Station Square. He had bad memories back in Station Square. The funeral, the bombing, the shooting. He remembered Knuckles in the casket at his funeral. He remembered the pool of blood on the ground around Tails as he lay on the cement, passing out and losing blood after he had just been shot by an assassin. The only good thing that he could remember about that city right now was when he looked out on the horizon and saw the mushroom cloud from the bomb that had killed Robotnik. He even hated that memory because it brought everything else that had happened to the surface.
"Good morning, Sal," Sonic whispered softly into the squirrel's ear as he pushed the bad memories to the back of his head. The squirrel stirred slightly, groaned softly, and put her arms around the hedgehog's neck.
"Sonic, let me sleep," she said tiredly with a yawn. "It's Saturday morning. Just because we just got back from our honeymoon doesn't mean we have to jump back into normal life so eagerly. Why don't we pretend that we're still in that five-star hotel and stay in bed all day?"
"I wish," said Sonic with a chuckle. He looked at the shiny, new wedding ring on his ungloved hand. He held Sally's hand and looked at hers next to his. He smiled and brought her hand to his chest. "But you know me. I could never stay in bed all day."
"What about that first day in the hotel last week?" asked Sally softly with a smile.
"I had something to do," said Sonic with a chuckle. He put his hand on her cheek and brought her lips to his. A few moments later, Sonic pulled away and climbed out of the bed. "I've gotta take a shower and head out."
"Head out where?" asked Sally curiously.
"Shadow said he had a job for me," said Sonic from inside the shower in the next room.
"What kinda job?" asked Sally as she climbed out of the bed.
"I don't know," said Sonic. "He just said that he had something that might be interesting to me. Called me yesterday. I told him I'd be in this morning to talk to him about it." She walked in and smiled at him through the clear, glass shower wall.
"Okay, so are you gonna be long in there?" asked Sally. "'Cause I need a shower, too."
"Well, if you really need it, you can always join me," said Sonic with a smile. He opened the glass door and held a hand out to her
Miles "Tails" Prower woke up to the sound of his alarm clock. He heard the annoying buzzing of the clock and groaned as he turned toward it. He looked at the alarm clock. Seven in the morning. He concentrated hard on the snooze button and blinked. The alarm stopped as he heard the click of the snooze button being pushed by nothing. Tails smiled as he closed his eyes, thinking about how he could do that. Push the snooze button with nothing but the blink of his eyes.
Since the whole mess with Dragon and Robotnik three years ago, Tails had been studying and experimenting with psychic abilities. He had just made a huge breakthrough about a month ago. He finally had learned how to use Telekinesis. The breakthrough had been an experiment that involved him being able to roll a pen across a table without touching it. Since then, he had been practicing and exploring the newfound ability nonstop. He could feel himself getting stronger with it. The day before, he had successfully opened his bedroom door from his kitchen. But he had trouble closing it again. But he knew he was getting better with his new power.
Tails sighed and thrust his hand up into the air. The blankets on top of him flew off his body and into the air, landing on the floor at the foot of his bed, leaving the bed totally uncovered. He climbed out of bed and opened his door with the wave of his hand. He walked out, waved his hand again to close the door, and walked to the kitchen of his house. For some reason, he felt completely exhausted. He wasn't tired. In fact, he felt wide awake. But every part of his body was sore. Every step he took sent a dull, aching pain through his body. He felt like he had just done a full-on workout through the night.
He walked into the kitchen, opened the freezer, and took out a couple of toaster waffles. He slipped them into the toaster and sat down at the table behind him. He put his head in hands and sighed. Then he smelled something weird. The strange scent was coming from his arm. Tails took a sniff of his arm and pulled away from it immediately after inhaling the strong odor that was emanating from his arm.
"Oh, god," said Tails in disgust. "What the hell is that?"
"Miles, watch your mouth," called a voice from the living room.
"Dad?" Tails called back in confusion. "What are you doing up?"
"I always get up early," replied Amadeus Prower from the next room over. Tails peeked in and found his father sitting on the couch, watching TV.
"I know, I just thought you'd wanna sleep in this morning," said Tails. "Seeing as you're leaving today for a long-term G.U.N. job at noon."
"Couldn't sleep in," grumbled Amadeus. "I woke up at five and couldn't go back to sleep."
"Oh, that sucks," said Tails as he went back into the kitchen.
"So, what's the swearing about in there?" asked Amadeus, not moving from the couch.
"My arm's got this rank smell on it," said Tails. "And it's kinda wet and slippery."
"What's it smell like?" asked Amadeus. Tails took another sniff of his arm.
"I think... lighter fluid?" said Tails uncertainly. "I don't know. I think it's lighter fluid, but..." His voice trailed off.
"Well, whatever it is, you might wanna wash it off," suggested Amadeus.
"Well, yeah, I know that," said Tails. "But it begs the question: Why does my arm smell like lighter fluid?"
"I dunno," said Amadeus. "But, like I said, you might wanna wash it off."
"Good idea," said Tails as he retrieved his waffles from the toaster. "I need a shower." He cut through the living room to head to the bathroom, but he was stopped by his father.
"Whoa, Miles," said Amadeus quickly. "What's that sweet gash in your shoulder blade about?"
"What gash?" asked Tails as he tried to reach for his shoulder blade and twist his head around to look at it. He walked over to the mirror and turned around to look at his back. Sure enough, there was a long slash going down his back from his shoulder blade. Dripping down from the gash was a trail of congealed blood that was caked in his fur. "Holy sh-"
"Miles!" interrupted Amadeus sternly.
"-Izznits," Tails saved himself. He felt the dried cut. It didn't look very deep. "How did that happen? I know it wasn't there before I went to bed last night."
"Does it hurt?" asked Amadeus.
"No, but that blood is gonna be a pain to wash out of my fur," said Tails frustratedly.
"Go check your sheets," said Amadeus. "Maybe you did something in your sleep or something. Whatever happened, it doesn't look too serious. It's not very deep or wide. Just let it heal."
"Okay," said Tails as he headed for his bedroom. He opened the door with a wave of his hand and picked his bed sheets off the floor. They were clean. Not a trace of blood. He looked at the sheet on his mattress and found little bits of congealed blood, no doubt from his fur, but no stains. Tails waved his hand and his pillow was yanked off of the bed. He gasped at what he found under it.
He didn't find blood under his pillow, but he did find a gun. A black gun. A black pistol. A real, black pistol, in his bed, under his pillow.
"What the...?" Tails whispered absentmindedly as he grabbed one of his gloves off the nightstand by his bed. He was surprised to find that it was damp. But it wasn't that it was damp that confused Tails, but, judging by the smell, it was damp with lighter fluid.
Tails dropped the glove out of surprise and looked back at the gun. He reached out to it with his mind and picked it up. It slowly floated into the air in front of him. He watched it quiver slightly in the flimsy grasp of his Telekinesis.
"Miles!" The sound of his father's call made Tails drop the gun in surprise. The gun dropped onto the bed with a soft thud. He heard his father's footsteps coming down the hallway to his room.
"Oh, damn," swore Tails worriedly as he tried to think of what to do with the gun.
"Sonic!" shouted a voice in the crowded G.U.N. office. Sonic turned toward the voice that he recognized so well. He saw the black hedgehog through the crowd of agents in the office.
"Shadz!" Sonic shouted back. He walked up to Shadow.
"Come with me," said Shadow shortly. Sonic nodded and followed Shadow to his office. Shadow dug a file out of his desk and gave it to Sonic. Sonic looked through it and found a series of papers full of writing, but what shocked him was the photograph at the back of the folder.
"Is that...?" Sonic asked in disbelief.
"Yes, it is," said Shadow quietly. "I got it a week ago. I thought it best not to interrupt your honeymoon unless I was sure. So I did some research, but I didn't come up with anything conclusive until last night."
"Why?" asked Sonic, looking up from the file. "What happened last night?"
"There was a hold up at a jewelry store last night," said Shadow.
"A jewelry store that's open at night?" said Sonic with a cocked eyebrow.
"Apparently," said Shadow. "I did some digging and found the witness statements of the few people in there when it was held up. The suspect was a fox. And one witness that was outside the store said he saw two things that caught my attention. First thing was that the fox that walked into the store had two tails."
"So why isn't Tails' house being invaded by press and cops?" asked Sonic. "And why haven't I got a call from Tails about him being arrested or something?"
"Because the witness is a well-known junky," said Shadow. "Totally whipped up last night. He could have said that the suspect had two heads and we would have ignored it. But then I read what he saw next."
"And we're getting to this now?" asked Sonic impatiently, holding the picture up to Shadow's face.
"Yes, because that was the second thing he saw," said Shadow. "The witness saw him go down the alley next to the store at the same time that the suspect entered the store."
"So, the robber is Tails," said Shadow.
"Maybe," said Shadow. "But I wanna ask Tails a couple questions. This could all be him-" he pointed to the picture. "-playing us. We can't rule out anything when it comes to him and you know that."
"But he's dead, Shadow," said Sonic. "A building fell on him. Who could survive that? Or the blast from the wall of sound that was generated by that sonic-bomb."
"Like I said," said Shadow. "We can't rule anything out with him."
"So, let's go to the Prowers'" said Sonic. He put the photograph back in the folder and took one last, fearful look at it. It depicted a black dog in a leather jacket and jeans walking down a city street with his hands in his pockets. Dragon.
"Miles!" called Amadeus again as he neared the doorway to Tails' bedroom. Tails waved one hand at the gun and it was thrown off the bed and onto the floor. He thrust the other one at the door and it slammed shut right as Amadeus came to it. "Hey! Miles, what gives?"
"Don't come in," said Tails nervously.
"Why not?" asked Amadeus sternly.
"I'm uh..." Tails froze. Then he blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "I'm naked!" Tails immediately face-palmed himself after saying that.
"You're always naked, Miles," said Amadeus in annoyance. "By the way, that's something I've been meaning to talk to you about. You should really consider wearing some clothes. It's not very decent for a seventeen-year-old fox to go around nude all the time. It may have been okay when you were a kid, but a shirt or even a zip-up jacket or hoody wouldn't hurt you." Tails rolled his eyes at the lecture his father had decided to give him now, of all times. "Okay, I'm coming in now." Tails immediately focused all his attention on the door to keep it shut. His father turned the knob and pushed on it, but it wouldn't budge. "Okay, what gives here? You don't even have a lock on your door. What'd you do? Install a bolt for it?"
"Yeah," said Tails, thankful that his father was practically giving him a good cover-up. Tails grabbed the gun with his mind and lifted it up to waist level. He didn't want to touch it anymore than he had to. The less of his fur on it, the better.
"When did you do that?" asked Amadeus from the hallway.
"About a week ago," said Tails.
"Okay, well let me in now or I'll go get my sword and slash the door down," threatened Amadeus. "And then you can live without a bedroom door until you can buy a new one yourself. And you know I'm not bluffing." Tails knew he wasn't. He had about a minute before his dad started hacking his way through that door.
Tails hid the gun under the bed and found something even worse beside it. It was a sack full of jewelry. Real jewelry. Jewelry he had never seen before. Then he looked up in surprise as the door opened and his father came into the room. The brown fox didn't look very happy.
"Okay, I'm not stupid, Miles," he said with a frown. "You're hiding something and I know it. I can always tell."
"How?" asked Tails with a cocked eyebrow.
"Well, two things," said Amadeus smugly. "First, there's no bolt on that door." He pointed behind him to the bedroom door. "Second, you're a horrible liar. Naked, Miles? Really?" Tails looked down sheepishly. "Tell me now or we can do this interrogation style where I lock the door with a chain, sit you in a chair, and grill you with ruthless psychological warfare techniques until you crack." He smiled somewhat evilly.
"Okay," said Tails awkwardly. "Well, I came into my room and I found this under my pillow." Tails watched as he raised the gun in the air with his mind. His father's expression turned from smug concern to utter surprise.
"What is that?" asked Amadeus slowly.
"It's a gun," said Tails quietly.
"Yeah, but why is it floating?" asked Amadeus.
"Because I'm holding it there with my mind," said Tails more quietly than before.
"What?" asked Amadeus. "What are you talking about?"
"Telekinesis," said Tails. "I know how to use Telekinesis."
"Um... okay," said Amadeus slowly. "How?"
"I've been teaching myself how," said Tails quietly. "It's a long story."
"Okay, next question," said Amadeus. "Why do you have a gun?"
"I don't know," said Tails. "I found it under my pillow. And I found this under my bed." Tails laid the gun on the bed and lifted the bag of jewelry into the air and laid it next to the gun.
"What is that?" asked Amadeus worriedly.
"A sack of jewelry," said Tails sheepishly.
"Where'd you get it?" asked Amadeus worriedly.
"I don't know," said Tails nervously. "I just went to hide the gun under the bed and found it there." Amadeus was about to reply when he was cut off by the sound of the doorbell. He left the room to go answer the door. Tails quickly stashed the gun and jewelry under the bed.
Amadeus opened the door to find Sonic and Shadow.
"Sonic, Shadow," said Amadeus welcomingly. "What brings you two here? Congratulations again, Sonic. How was the honeymoon?"
"It was nice," said Sonic as Amadeus let them both in. "Sally and I went to a nice hotel in downtown Mobotropolis and just hung out together. Nothing big."
"Oh, that sounds nice," said Amadeus.
"Okay, General Prower," said Shadow. "Not to rush or anything, but we really need to speak to Tails."
"He's in his room," said Amadeus as he started for the bedroom.
"No, General," said Shadow. "We need to be alone with him. Sorry."
"No complaints from me," said Amadeus with a shrug.
"Thanks," said Sonic as he started for Tails' bedroom.
Tails was hiding the gun and jewelry under some junk under his bed when Sonic and Shadow walked in.
"Sonic!" Tails greeted happily when they walked in. "Shadow! What are you guys doing here? Aren't you still on honeymoon, Sonic?"
"Got back yesterday," said Sonic.
"Cool," said Tails. "So, what do you need?"
"Tails, we need to talk," said Shadow plainly. "There was a jewelry store that was held up last night. Do you know anything about it?" Tails heart skipped a beat when he heard the word jewelry.
"No, why?" asked Tails, feigning confusion.
"We think that Dragon might have had something to do with it," said Sonic shortly. Now Tails was genuinely confused.
"I thought he was dead," Tails said slowly with a look of disbelief.
"Yeah, so did we," said Shadow, handing the file to Tails. Tails looked through it and dropped his jaw in surprise when he saw the photograph inside.
"This has to be fake," he said, somewhat in denial. Shadow shook his head.
"Nope," said Shadow shortly. "I sent it to the photograph analysts at G.U.N. totally real."
"Where'd you get it?" asked Tails.
"I found it taped to the door of my office a week ago," said Shadow. "I think he put it there himself. I think he wanted me to find it. That means he has a plan. He's planning something and it's probably something bad and you're the most likely target."
"What does that have to do with a jewelry store robbery?" asked Tails. Shadow showed him the witness statements in the file. Tails took a minute to read over them. He looked up at Shadow in shock when he had finished. "It couldn't have been me. I was here all night." Shadow's eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"Turn around, Tails," he said quietly. Shadow's eyes widened in shock when he saw the slash in Tails' back. "Where'd that come from, Tails?"
"I don't know, why?" asked Tails worriedly.
"Because the owner of the store, while unable to provide an accurate description of the suspect, swears he slashed the suspect's back with his knife," explained Shadow. "Can you explain that cut?"
"No," said Tails nervously. "I just woke up with it. I woke up this morning and it was there. I was trying to figure out how it happened when you two came."
"Okay then," said Shadow as he pulled a pair of tweezers and a plastic bag put of his quills. He plucked something off the bed and stuck it in the bag. "There's blood at the store. Here's your blood." He showed him a piece of congealed blood in the bag. "I'll just compare them. That'll be enough to put you away, Tails."
"Hold on, Shadow," Sonic spoke up. "You said we were here to get his side of the story and that we need to get him some protection. Dragon's out there, probably hunting Tails."
"Or Tails decided to partner up with that psycho," said Shadow. "That dog offered him the prospect of Telekinesis, you remember that? Maybe he contacted Tails after the bombing and Tails said yes this time."
"That's crazy," argued Sonic in disbelief. "Careful, Shadow, you're gonna hurt yourself jumping to those kinds of conclusions."
"Is it really that crazy, Sonic?" asked Shadow. "How often did you see Tails after that whole Dragon-Robotnik fiasco? Or were you too busy with Sally to pay any attention to Tails?" Sonic opened his mouth to respond, but couldn't find anything to say. It was true. After he started going out with Sally, he didn't spend very much time with Tails. He went whole months without seeing the two-tailed fox.
"Or, like you said before, it could be Dragon playing us," argued Sonic.
"Then consider me played," said Shadow. "All the evidence points to him, Sonic. The cut, the witness statement-"
"From a junky," interjected Sonic.
"Well, I'll be back with an arrest warrant, Tails," said Shadow as he eyed the fox. "You'll be safe in jail and we can make a good investigati-" He stopped and sniffed the air. "Is that lighter fluid?" Tails froze up. He didn't know what that could mean, but he guessed it wasn't good. Shadow bent down and picked up the damp glove.
"What does that mean?" asked Tails.
"Lighter fluid, cut, and a witness statement," said Shadow. "Tails, why is this glove soaked with lighter fluid?"
"I don't know," said Tails. "Just like the cut, I woke up and found my arm soaked in lighter fluid."
"The suspect used lighter fluid to set the store's electrical systems out back of it on fire to kick out the lights," said Shadow. "Tails, you're under arrest for robbery."
"You said you needed a warrant," said Tails.
"Probable cause," said Shadow shortly as he pulled a pair of handcuffs out of his quills and walked toward Tails.
Dragon was watching the scene unfold in front of him from outside Tails' bedroom window. He smiled evilly at the thought of what he was about to do. He focused all his attention on the fox and reached out at him with his mind.
"My little puppet," he said quietly.
"I didn't do it!" said Tails defensively.
"I'll find that out for myself," said Shadow as he neared Tails.
"Okay, slow down here Shadow," said Sonic. "You're actually getting ahead of me here. You're arresting Tails?"
"Yep," said Shadow. "Don't worry; he'll be kept safe in prison." Suddenly, Tails started feeling weird. He had the strongest urge to get the gun out from under the bed and shoot Shadow with it. Then he blinked and found that he was doing it. Everything had changed. He was holding a gun on Shadow and Shadow was holding a gun on him. He didn't even know he did it. He just blinked and found himself with the gun in his hands.
"Okay, Miles Prower, you're under arrest," said Shadow sternly. "Drop the gun and I won't drop you."
"Tails, where did you get a gun?" asked a very dazed Sonic.
"I-" Tails couldn't explain it. He didn't even know what was going on. He had no idea where the gun or jewelry came from and he had no idea how the gun had even gotten into his hands. He knew his best option was to put the gun down and explain everything he knew when things were less heated. But he felt so good holding it. He couldn't explain it, but he felt good holding the gun. He didn't want to put it down. He wanted to hold this gun. He wanted to pull the trigger.
"Pull it," echoed a soft voice in his brain. "Just pull it. You know you want to." He did, too. But he resisted. He didn't want to at the same time.
"C'mon, Tails, just put the gun down," said Sonic. He wasn't commanding him. He didn't sound angry or defensive. He sounded sad. Like seeing Tails with the gun broke his heart more than scared him. Tails almost couldn't believe it, but he actually thought the hedgehog was begging Tails to put the gun down.
Tails wanted to. He really did. It was like he couldn't. Like he wasn't in control. He couldn't do anything except keep himself from pulling the trigger. Then he did something that almost made him sick. He turned the gun on Sonic.
Amadeus was sitting on the couch in front of the TV. He wasn't paying it any attention, though. He was wondering what was going on with Tails. What was going on with him, Shadow, and Sonic in that room? What could they be doing? Then his train of thought was derailed and his heart was almost stopped when he heard the sound of a gunshot come from Tails' room
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Haha! I started the story off with a small cliffhanger. Who get's shot? Well, You'll find out eventually. And Dragon's back! And what's he doing to Tails? Well, anyway, I hope you enjoyed it and didn't think it was too bad. Like I said, it's being tricky with me. So, review, favorite, tell friends, alert, and always keep a cabbage in your backpack. 'Til next time!