Hey all you readers! It's The StoryBook Tree again. I'll add a romance story before I start working on chapter 2 of "Heroes of Mobius". This is a Sonic the Hedgehog romance story so don't judge me. Tails and Marine. Why you ask?
Because why the heck not! and also, they spent so much time together that they might have developed feelings for eachother.
Their quest ended before they could come to terms with it... probably... Enjoy!
I'll get the disclaimer over with: I do not own Sega, Archie Comics, or the Sonic Team.

The Rift

It was a nice morning in mystic ruins and Tails the yellow two-tailed fox was sucking on a butterscotch as he watched the sun rise over the horizon.

Tails likes candy, Butterscotches in particular, because he doesn't like coffee(it made him throw up when wave tried to give him some him some) or energy drinks(They give him a migraine headache) so he eats sugar filled things. They keep his mind sharp and keeps him awake off the rush.

As he was looking out across the horizon when something shiny caught his eye. It was only there for a second then it was gone.

"What was that"? Tails thought aloud. "Sonic's never up this early". "I think I'd better check it out".

Thus, after breakfast, he fueled up the Tornado. Recently, Tails has been looking for reasons to take it out. He loves flying in it, it goes faster than he can go and it just gives him a new feeling of freedom, a way to forget the bad hand in life he has been given... He never talks about it... about how his life started going downhill since he joined sonic and the freedom fighters.

Life's treated him better than others he knew. He lost track of his family ,though, right after he met sonic and Knothole was burned to the ground by Eggman. He lost old friends and family that day and he left the ashes behind to try to make a difference. He maid new friends and lost half of them along the way...Revenge?
...That'd be good too.

Sometimes when he was alone, he often thought about those he lost... some of them didn't even die... There was just a whole DIMENSION of difference between them. "Marine". Tails said. He wished desperatly to see her again. ever since the Sol quest he couldn't get her out of his mind. Tails didn't like having down time because it started these invading thoughts that always led back to her. So, he kept himself busy so he coudn't think about her... Her orange fur... it smelled slightly like tropical fruit... her eyes... how they glittered like the sea... Her ears... how they curved cutely over her head...
even her accent... "No, stop"! "I just can't think about her". "Because, if I do, then i'm lonlier than ever... it feels like i'm the only person in this dimension..." His eyes were welling up with tears over the "Loss" of his one feeling of true beloning, his feeling with Marine.

He'd accepted the fact that he was never going to see her again. He thought of hundreds no, Thousands of plans and inventions that might take him to her but in the end they all had obvious faults, this one being the biggest: The laws of physics don't like to be broken. So, after attempt #3012, he gave up.

He upgraded the tornado to be more resilient(It's pretty much a flying fortress, so to speak) faster, more agile, and he even installed cupholders. He was living off the hero money he maid saving mobatropolis over and over again. His "Hut" Was now a decently sized house on a cliff area overlooking the whole Mystic Ruins area. But all the money in Mobius couldn't give him what he really wanted. "Oh, crap"! Tails yelled as he left his thoughtful trance to realize he was overflowing the fuel tank on The Tornado. He quickly stopped pouring his energy juice(a concoction he invented by accident after dropping the green Chaos Emerald in Fruit Punch after a party) and ran for a rag to soak up the juice. About ten minutes later he had all the juice soked up and was in his plane prepping the enjines. Tails had a clear view over mystic ruins from his mini-hangar/garage. He saw something flash again and he wasn't going to miss it this time. Tails turned key and the engine came to life along with the propellar and within one minute he was out of the garage and into the sky.

Whatever it was, it was shining over a small pond down below him, way down on the surface. He found a nice flat area to land and he did so. He got out, took off his flight gear, and walked over to the small resevoir. At first he didn't see anything in the crystal blue water. Then he saw it; a Silver locket. It had an R on one side and another R on the other side. He ,at the time, had no idea what these meant. He tried to open it then something pulled him into the water. Then the Locket seemed to be so heavy that it dragged Tails deep into the once shallow resevoir. He tried to scream but no noise was made and water entered his mouth. his lungs stung from lack of air. He thought he was going to drown. He would have already if it wasn't for marines water training. "I'm going to die. he thought I'm going to die here at the bottom of some strange pond by drowning". "I wasn't able to love once". "Fitting end I suppose". "I finally decide to go out and do something myself and I drown in my own misery. He closed his eyes and let his life flash before his eyes as he felt is lungs screaming for air. Then he didn't feel anything and he let the images flow before him. He saw when he was just a pup, about 4 years old, playing with his mother and father in the knothole playground. Thats where he met Sylvia Squirrel, his first true friend. Then he was 6, sitting on a couch eyeing his mothers distended belly while his father explained that he was to have a sister from now on. Then he was 7 and it was his birthday party. He sat with his hat on at the table as at least quarter of the few residents of knothole sang happybirthday to him in a grand choir, giving him nutberry cake with seven candles on it. Then his visions started taking a turn for the worse. He was 8; He woke up to the of screaming and explosions. His parents ran in grabbed him and his sister and started running outside into the forest. It was his fault...
The reason the missle man(Eggman/Robotnik) saw his family out of the burning trees was because he saw his two tails. He shot missles at the nearest tree and it fell.
His father dropped him and he rolled to the other side of the burning tree just before it came crashing down. His screams and crying was drowned out by the burning and other villagers screams. Then he saw him, he saw Sonic the Hedgehog. He found a way to hurt the missle man and his flying machine. Then he twisted his Tails to fly after him. Finally he was reliving every victory and loss against Eggman.
He Finally he hit the bottom. Although it wasn't the bottom he was expecting. It was soft. He decided to open his eyes before he drowned to death. He looked down and there was Sand! The water was warm, Tropical warm... The fox looked up and he was a few feet from the surface. He decided he'd rather breath in this strange place than drown. Tails then realized how much he needed air. He swam to the surface in about 2 seconds flat before he passed out. When he reached the surface,
he took the longest, deepest breath he had ever taken in his life. The air tasted salty and he could see an island in the distance. The island scared Tails... it looked familiar... Really familiar... so familiar it was scary.

All of a sudden he heard something that sounded a lot like a motor boat without the stuttering. He looked to his left and saw something Orange cutting through the water at high speeds barraling towards him. Tails almost screamed but it hit him too fast for that. It hit him and knocked him to the side and all of a sudden it lost its momentum. It stopped and Tails was finished catching his breath when he heard an all too familiar voice; "What the boody-" "Tails!" Marine said in a shocked voice. "Marine!" Tails returned in the same shocked voice. A million thought were racing through his mind when the locket he had forgot about became heavy again and dragged him down. This time it threw him onto dry land and out of the strange pond. One thought went through his mind that resparked his desire to carry on. Tails just saw her. He just SAW MARINE. He had hope and this little silver locket represented that. Tails didn't know how or why this happened to him, but there was something he did know: He had to go back!

And that's it for chapter 1. Hope you enjoyed. Chapter 2 soon :D