Unusual Dreams and Tragic Memories

DISCLAIMER: All...You know what? Screw it, you oughta know the drill by now.

The fox named Miles Prower shot up and out of his bed, hitting the floor of his hut hard. He was wide awake before he landed. When he realized this, he started scratching his head not out of itchiness, but of confusion. This was the second night in a row that he'd had the dream. That weird, unusual...perverted dream. He didn't even know what "perverted" meant, but he could tell it qualified as the perfect word to describe anything of that particular nature. He thought to himself,

How is it possible for me to be dreaming about anyone, let alone her, like that? I need to tell someone about this.

Almost immediately, the answer popped into his head:

Loopy.

Of course! He'd understand! Miles opened the door to his hut and stepped out into the modest midnight majesty of Knothole Village. As he walked toward the western side of the main area, the only huts by which he passed without so much as a glance were those of Sonic the Hedgehog and Princess Sally Acorn.

If I told either of them about this dream, they'd skin me alive. The very thought put butterflies in his stomach bigger than Robotropolis. So, he continued on towards his final destination: the Power Ring Grotto.

Presently, he took a left turn, and there it was-serene, quiet, beautiful, and completely empty, save 1: The person for whom Miles had been searching was kneeling at the water's edge.

He was tall and slightly chubby in the midsection, and had a boyish face wreathed in hair that was such a dark shade of brown, it was almost black, as well as a pair of eyes that were also brown, but a shade of brown similar to the color of root beer-what Miles assumed to be perfectly normal for an 18-year-old human being.

"Hey, Loopy!" called Miles. Loopy turned around and smiled.

"Greetings to you, as well, Tails! To what do I owe this very late pleasure?"

"I'm sorry to disturb you, Loopy, but I desperately need to speak with you," said Tails.

Loopy gestured to a pair of tree stumps near the entrance to the grotto. When both were seated, Loopy said,

"Very well then, Tails. Speak; you have my full, complete, and undivided attention."

"Thank you very much," replied Tails. "You see, I've been having this really weird dream the past two nights, and it's freaking me out."

"The same dream on both occasions?" asked Loopy. Tails nodded his head.

"Do you remember anything from the dream?" continued Loopy.

"A vast majority," replied Tails.

"Tell me everything you remember," said Loopy. Tails didn't miss a beat:

"In the dream, I was working on a new toy plane in my hut when I heard a knock on my door. I went to open the door and on the other side was Aunt Sally. We did our usual greeting; you know how it goes, right?"

"Indeed, I do," said Loopy. "Continue."

"Well, she asked me what I was working on, and we got into this long-winded conversation-"

"How long-winded?" asked Loopy.

"Must've been hours, we switched topics so many times. Anyways, it eventually ended up where we were discussing our next mission. I asked her who was going, and she said it would just be me and her. I was psyched."

"That's understandable at your age," said Loopy wisely. "Please, continue."

"Anyways, but then I remembered where we were going and told her, 'You know, it's probably best if you go alone-if we have to split up, who'll watch your back?' She told me that we wouldn't have to split up; this way, she could make sure I didn't get hurt. I asked what she meant by that, and she hugged me, but not like the motherly hugs she usually gives me; rather, it was like what someone would get from their-" Tails paused, apparently unable to find the right descriptive term. Loopy decided to help him out:

"Lover? Spouse? Fiancee? Any of the above?" he asked.

Tails looked Loopy dead in the eye and said,

"Take your pick, they all work fine. After about ten seconds, she pulled away just enough to look me in the eye. Five more seconds went by, and then she said something I thought she'd never say. Her exact words were, 'I love you, Miles.'"

Loopy stiffened, even more than was usual for him. He was now straighter and more unyielding than the metal door on a safe.

"Buckle up, Loopy; this is where it really gets weird," added Tails in a slight rush. "My eyes went wide, and then...the unimaginable happened. ..."

"What was it?" asked Loopy, severely intrigued. After all, there were millions of ways this could end up.

"Out of absolutely nowhere, she leaned in and kissed me...square on my mouth!" Tails exclaimed in a whisper. Loopy thought for ten seconds, then asked,

"What type of kiss was it?"

"The kind you see in the movies. Last night, I woke up just after she made contact. Tonight, I woke up right after I felt something weird touch my lips. In both cases, for reasons known not even to Mother Nature and Father Time...I gave as good as I got," finished Tails.

Loopy did not speak for a long while. He was deep in thought. After a few minutes, he asked,

"Has she done this to you in reality?"

Tails thought for a minute, then said,

"Not like in my dream. In reality, it was always just a short peck, if she did kiss my lips."

Loopy said nothing, but thought for a while.

"What should I do?" asked Tails after six minutes.

Loopy's response was simple, short, and to the point: "You have to tell Sally about this tomorrow, first chance you get."

Tails' response was immediate: "I can't! She'd skin me alive! Alive!"

"I assure you, she will do no such thing," said Loopy reassuringly, and with a hand movement right out of "The Cool, The 'Bot, and The Cowardly", he revealed his lightsaber to Tails, who immediately got the message.

"But the reason for that has nothing to do with my lightsaber," added Loopy. "She cares for you more than you can ever know. I mean, after all, she is your aunt-"

"You know, that's another thing that's been bugging me for the longest time," interrupted Tails. "I have to ask you this question, and don't say you don't know the answer, because I know you do."

"Ask away," said Loopy, but Tails' question caught him off guard:

"Am I, in any way, shape, or form, related to Sally Acorn?"

"Aw, damn," sighed Loopy. "I wasn't hoping to be the person to tell you this, Tails."

"Still, is Sally really my aunt?" pressured Tails.

Loopy's eventual reply was, "Yes...but not by blood."

"What do you mean?" asked Tails. Loopy inhaled, then told Tails the full story:

"Neither of your parents came from royalty, originally. However, your mother, Rose P. Minnit, was showing signs of amazing mechanical abilities before she'd learned to walk, speak, or even crawl. Many thought she was born with a pair of safety goggles over her eyes and a socket wrench in each hand." Loopy chuckled, then continued:

"Among those many people was King Acorn, who had her brought before him. She showed him what she could do with a hunk of metal, a bunch of wires, and a welding torch, and at the tender age of four, she was made Head of R&D.

"By the time she'd reached twelve, King Acorn had begun to look upon her as one of his own offspring. And so it was that on her 13th birthday, Rose was adopted into the Royal Family, and took the name of Acorn. Sally worshipped her, almost literally." This elicited a giggle from Tails, as Loopy continued:

"She was fifteen when Robotnik took over, and managed to escape before she was discovered. From then until about a month before she turned 18, she lived a nomadic existence. During this time, she went under a variety of aliases, but always remembered her true name, and always considered herself an Acorn. Then, three weeks before her 18th birthday, she met your father: Jonathan Prower."

"Were you close with either of my parents?" asked Tails.

"I never got many opportunities to speak to your mother, but your father was my closest friend and ally," replied Loopy with a reminiscent smile.

"What was he like?" pressured Tails.

"He was the most honorable man I'd ever met, and he had an incredible vocabulary. He once told me that when he was in school, he'd read and memorize every word in every dictionary and/or encyclopedia he could get his hands on, just for the hell of it." There was a slight gleam in Loopy's eyes as he continued:

"A few years after I met your parents, I was out on a mission in Robotropolis. Somehow, I was detected and hit by some sort of laser on my way to the gates. It completely ripped all of my abilities from me. I managed to get outside their range, and then I collapsed on the forest floor. I was almost certain I was done for. It was Jonathan who brought me back to his village and began to help me recover. At that point, I knew I could trust him with my life."

"Did my father ever tell you how he ended up married to my mother?" asked Tails.

"Yes," replied Loopy. "He didn't believe in love at first sight, but according to him, the moment he looked twice, he knew he'd found his soulmate. They were married by the end of the year. She was 18. He was 23."

Up until this point, Tails had been listening to Loopy with rapt interest. Now, however, he realized he still had one more burning question:

"When, how, and by whose hand did my parents die, and why was I spared?" he asked.

The natural, yet powerful question hit Loopy harder than the stinger on a BuzzBomber. He slowly got to his feet, walked back to the edge of the pool, and stared at the rippling surface.

"Loopy?" asked Tails, and walked up to him.

Loopy did not respond; he merely kept staring off into space.

"Is there something wrong?" asked Tails, curious but slightly worried.

Loopy turned to his left, and collapsed onto all fours. Tails walked around to the side of his head and asked,

"Are you OK, Loopy?"

Eventually, Loopy turned his head to face Tails. The look on Loopy's face told Tails clearer than words ever could that Loopy was about to reexperience an especially painful memory. Then, Loopy turned the rest of his body towards Tails, put his hands on Tails' shoulders, and began his painful recollection:

"The eleventh of September, three-and-a-half years ago.

"I was laying in bed, beginning to recover from my mission a week before. Your father said I was lucky to survive, though I sometimes wish I didn't," said Loopy, his eyes watering.

"I was shocked awake by an explosion from outside. I jumped out of bed and ran out the door. What used to be Kitsune Village...was in ashes. I looked to my right and saw Jonathan and Rose on their knees, bound tightly. Before them was Robotnik with a laser gun in his hand," he continued, as he started to shake.

"I ran over there faster than Sonic himself, but I was stopped by SWAT-BOTs fifteen feet short. They bound me, as well. I tried bargaining with Robotnik-trading myself for them, everything...but Robotnik was having none of it," he managed to force out, but he was almost overcome with sorrow; clearly, this wound was still bleeding freely. It was also obvious that Loopy was actually reliving this horrible event in his mind as he recounted it, which made it all the more heartbreaking.

"The SWAT-BOTs literally forced me to watched what happened next-they held my eyes open and all of that. ...Robotnik slaughtered your parents...right before my eyes...in the coldest blood I've ever seen in any human...with five shots per victim. ...Jonathan took his lasers right to the head and died instantly...but Rose was shot dead in the heart. ...As soon as Robotnik was finished, the SWAT-BOTs freed me. ...I dashed over to Rose, who was, miraculously, still alive, but I could tell she was only going to have fifteen to twenty seconds for last words. ...She used those last what turned out to be 18 seconds to give me her dying wish, which was for me to watch over you...and to thank me for...all m-m-my...h-help-" It was at that point that both dams finally burst. Both Loopy and Tails burst into tears and threw their arms around each other-two young men sharing a moment of otherwise unendurable pain and sorrow.

Loopy was the first to calm down enough. He continued:

"I literally felt her spirit leave her body, at which point I collapsed on her corpse and cried my Jedi Master eyes out for what felt like eons. After I finally regained control of myself, I gave them a proper funeral. The next day, I came and got you, and brought you here to Knothole. The both of us have been here ever since," he finally finished, eyes still streaming.

The same was true for Tails, who was still sniffling. Eventually, he brought himself under control just long enough to ask,

"You seriously couldn't do anything?" It was not accusatory or sarcastic, it was genuine.

Loopy looked at Tails and said,

"If that attack had happened even so much as two weeks later, I could have. I know it!" At this, Loopy almost started crying again, but Tails put a hand on his arm and said gently,

"That whole sequence of events was not your fault, and don't you even think of telling me otherwise." That simple statement almost completely brought Loopy back to normal: a smile appeared on his face as he said,

"Thanks so much for hearing me out, Tails."

"No, Loopy, I should be thanking you for that," replied Tails, almost immediately, as they started making their way back to the main area of Knothole Village. "I should also be thanking you for making me realize that dreams are just dreams, especially the bad ones."

"Well, that's not always the case, but that's a story for another time," said Loopy.

"In the meantime, can you tell me what my dream meant?" asked Tails.

"I shall tell you tomorrow; it is time for bed," replied Loopy.

"OK," said Tails, who yawned. "Good night, Loopy."

"Sleep well, Tails," replied Loopy.

As Tails started making his way back towards his hut, Loopy watched him go with a feeling of the utmost respect.

Things are gonna be all right, he thought to himself. Then, Loopy retreated to his own hut, crawled into bed, and, before falling asleep, spoke five words:

"Good luck tomorrow...Miles Prower."

A/N: OK, a few things I need to say here. First off, this whole thing came to me while I was watching an episode of the original SatAM cartoon. Spooky.

This takes place right after that very episode - "Hooked On Sonics".

I actually almost made myself cry while writing this. No joke.

Challenge: I tweaked a movie title so that it would fit within this universe. It should be pretty obvious. See if you can find it.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you didn't run out of hankies!

END