The pitch black sky shook violently with thunder, lightning occasionally illuminating the rough underbelly of the endless storm clouds. The sound of heavy rain pelting metal wings and the roar of a powerful engine filled my ears, and the potent smell of gasoline settled deep into my gut. Concentration was a valuable resource at the moment, and I intended to preserve it lest the world be subject to crisis and malignant dominion. Eggman held six of the chaos emeralds, and the seventh was set in front of me, shining a brilliant red in the center of my control dash. A gargantuan airship sporting the deep color of blood was stationed above the channel that ran between the isles and the mainland. Eggman had been camping in the ruins of the postancient city of Londol, but he had finally shown his face now that he was certain he would claim victory.
"You ready for this, Tails?" I glanced into the rearview mirror to find the determined face of Sonic.
"Of course." I checked for the fourth time that all my lights were off—a sneak attack would be otherwise impossible. I removed the emerald from its compartment and passed it back to him. "Remember the plan?"
"Yeah, sneak around. No excitement," he grumbled.
"Until you're spotted, then go all out." He gave a satisfied hum. "We're getting close, now. I'm gonna fly in close. Ready?"
"You bet!" The airship was drawing nearer. Before long, I was flying circles above it. I finally dropped low to its deck and opened the blast shield. The rain began to soak my fur and sent a shiver down my spine. It wasn't long before Sonic was out of the cockpit, though, so I shut it back and turned the heat up to thirty. Now I just had to wait.
x
Several minutes passed in silence before, without warning, a golden figure burst through the deck of the ship, and I knew Sonic had succeeded. Cannon fire appeared from every possible surface of the ship, all directed towards him. That was my queue to take action. I dove in to take turret after turret. All was going well until a barrage of missiles appeared somewhere from the ship's starboard. They moved far too quickly for me to shoot down or evade for long, and there were too many for even Super Sonic to defend me from. He apparently shared my sentiments about the situation, but there was one thing he knew he could do about it—a last resort reserved for emergencies that I'd forgotten all about. From across the ship came Sonic's booming voice.
"Chaos Control!"
A blinding light engulfed my view, and the maelstrom of missiles disappeared in front of me. As did the rest of the world that once existed outside of my plane.
x
In front of me was a bright, blue sky and a soft summer sun. No storm, no aerial warship, no missiles, no Sonic. He had sent me through time. I hadn't traveled through space, though; I was still flying above the channel, and both the island and mainland were in sight. My shock wore off rather quickly, and I decided to fly to the island. I had one question that took precedence over any other: when was I?
As I approached the land, I noticed several humans frolicking and relaxing on the otherwise desolate beach. Not long after I crossed the border between land and sea, however, my radio began to beep, indicating a transmission. Happy to learn that I was in either a late postancient or modern time, I accepted the message.
"Sie betreten den Britischen luftraum. Kehre um oder lande sofort!"
I flinched at the violent sound of the words. I had never heard the language before, so I confirmed that this was late postancient. Or far in the future...
"Stai sconfinando nello spazio aereo britannico. Torna indietro o atterra immediatamente," the voice continued.
This language was more familiar to me, but not quite recognizable. Maybe French? I wasn't sure. More likely than not, this was another language that didn't survive to modern times.
「おまえは英の空域に不法侵入しています。すぐに戻るか着陸していますよ！」
I recognized this as Japanese. I was about to request English in my limited Japanese vocabulary, but I realized that I should simply ask in English if they knew it.
"Français? русский?"
I pressed the button to reply.
"Do you speak English?"
"Oh, you're American! You're trespassing on British airspace. Turn back or land immediately!"
"I'm what?"
"Trespassing!"
"American, I mean."
"Turn back or land, or we'll be forced to shoot you down!"
"Right, right! Is there an airport nearby?"
"We'll have military planes escort you to a remote landing strip. Begin flying circles until they arrive."
"Got it." I did as he instructed. "Okay... So, what do you mean by "American?""
"From America. I don't know of any other English speaking country that uses an American accent. Are you not American?"
"I'm from the United Federation. Westside Island."
"Unless that's some obscure region of another country, there's no such place as the United Federation."
"Right... I have some explaining to do... Will I see you in person?"
"I'm just an air traffic controller, you'll be explaining to a Customs representative."
The aforementioned airplanes appeared over the horizon.
"They're here," I told him. "By the way, what's the date?"
"July 6, 1940."
The planes drew near and formed a triangle around me; one in front and two behind. They led me west.
- - - - - -
So? What do you think? I've always wanted to do something with Tails's dogfighting skills, so here we are. If you recognize the date, that's exactly what's gonna happen in a few days. In case you're wondering about this new author's note format, I'm now publishing through the app instead of Google Docs. The app doesn't support the line break, so I'm using some dashes and centering it. Anyways, I've got four stories in progress now, so I'll need to see which one is more popular. If you want to vote, I'll have a poll on my profile.
See you next chapter!