I've rated this T because it involves an innocent fox that doesn't now any better, smoking :)
Chapter 1 - Tails starts a bad habit
Tails was sitting at a table in his room straightening out some papers, he looks up at the readers. "Hello! Didn't hear you come in. I was just sorting out the story that I'm going to read you." He Checks the papers again. "Give me a few minutes, I need to write an ending." He sits there for a few minutes twiddling
his pen and gives up. "I'm sure I'll think of something later." The room goes all blurry.
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It was a Thursday morning on the planet mobius, it was sunny and peaceful. There had been no trouble for years since the defeat of eggman. Tails was just waking up in his bed. "Guess I should get up..." He tossed and turned around in bed trying to get comfy, but the sunlight shining through the curtains wasn't making it easy. "Damn sun, Go away!" Tails threw the covers over himself then Sonic came in.
"Humph, he's put the covers over himself again..." Sonic walked up the bedside. "Come on, we gotta go lil buddy." Tails showed no sign of moving. "So you're going to be awkward again huh." Sonic put his hands on-top of the covers and shook him. "Come on get up!" He shouted, but still no sign of moving. He was about to try again then Tails poked his head up from underneath the covers.
"Let me lay here for a few more minutes..."
"You know we gotta go to town today --"
"But we do this every week!" He put his hands behind him and propped himself up from his lying position, "Can't you let me sleep in for a change?"
"You now I can't do that, we're a team. And as a team we have to stick together."
"But Goku and Vegeta are a team, they hardly stick together!"
"They're fictional characters in a story though, they don't count."
"And we aren't?" They both look at the readers.
"Anyway... You promised you would come. You wouldn't break a promise to a friend would you?"
This got to Tails, as he would usually keep promises. At least up until this point in the story. "Ok, I'll come." With that out of the way Sonic left the room and went downstairs. "Why does he do this every week... It must get so tedious. I mean he's always the centre of attention and no one even pays attention to me. It's all Sonic, Sonic, Sonic..." Tails rolled out of bed and onto the floor. He bent down to put his sneakers and gloves on, then sat on his bed. He placed an arm on each of his knees and dropped his head.
"Yo Tails you up?" Sonic shouted from downstairs.
"Yeah, I'm coming!" Tails sighed. He left his bedroom and walked downstairs. Sonic was standing at the front door tapping his foot.
"About time. You're getting worse for sleeping in every week. It's 10:00am and we're late." Sonic cracked a smile. Tails shrugged off the comment and left the house with Sonic. The duo arrived downtown where there was a market place currently set up. People from all over would setup a stall to sell things. Sonic stopped in the centre of the market place and Tails landed next to him.
"Let's see..." Sonic looked around the various stalls. "Ah, there it is." He ran over to a small stall and sat behind it. "Over here!" He shouted. There was a sign above it that read 'Meet Sonic the hedgehog, the Hero of Mobius.' Tails walked over and sat behind the stall.
"I hope it isn't going to be another slow morning, I hate slow mornings." Tails moaned. He crossed his arms flat on the table and rested his chin on them.
"We aren't doing this for fun, we're doing this for the fans." Tails raised his head up and faced Sonic. "What 'are' fans, really? They only come here because you're a hero. If you weren't, you would just be another hedgehog." He said exploding in anger and annoyance. What he was angry at, even he doesn't know.
"Jeese Tails, you sure are been controversial today."
Tails was caught off guard by what was just said. "Since when do you use controversial in a sentence?"
"I read the dictionary of course!"
Tails almost burst out laughing, "Sonic, plus a dictionary... That doesn't add up."
"Ok fine! I was eating a chocolate bar and it said the word and what it means on the back..."
A kid came up to greet the duo. "Sonic my man, how are ya today?" He said with high spirits.
"Doing good Alex, how's business?"
"Terrible, no one seems interested in buying Gublets."
"Well they do look like pieces of poop, and they smell really nasty."
"True... But they taste great!"
"If you say so..." He sarcastically said
"Really! I'll give you a free sample." He walked towards his stall, motioning Sonic to follow him.
Tails dropped his head onto his arms, "Sonic has left me again, does he even care about me? It's always about him." A young boy came up to the stall. "Is Sonic available?"
Tails raised his head up, "No, he's not here at the moment ---"
"Ok I'll come back later then." The kid turned around and skipped off.
"But do you want to talk to me instead?" He sighed. "Ok that's it, I'm off. I don't know why I even bother coming here every week. It's always the same deal." Tails checked to see if Sonic was still at Alexs stall. "Great, he's still chatting to that guy." Tails stood up, looked around once more and ran out of the town centre
At Alexs stall Sonic was on his fifth gublet. "Wow they are quite nice!"
"See? I told you they were good!"
"Ok man I got to get back to my post, fans are waiting you know." Sonic wiped his mouth and made his way back but Tails was gone. "Where'd he go? That's not like him."
"I'll just head back home and watch TV for the rest of the day. At least that way nothing bad can happen to make me feel worse then I already am." Amy then walked around the corner. Tails almost jumped at the site, he looked around for a place to hide and noticed a nearby alleyway and went inside. "I don't think she spotted me." Amy walked by. "Phew..." He looked at the floor and noticed something white with a brown back to it. "Hmmm what's this? A cigarette?" Tails picked it up, "Screw it. I'm so annoyed right now I just don't care anymore." He put the cig into his mouth and as luck would have it there was a lighter next to his foot. He reached down, picked it up then lit the cigarette. He took the smoke into his small lungs and started to cough violently.
"Heh you amateur..." An unknown voice said. Tails looked around to see where the voice came from. Two rat kids stepped out of a dark doorway. The guy looked around 12 years old. He was around the same height as Tails. The girl was a little older, maybe 13-14 years of age and looked a little taller then the guy. Tails panicked and quickly put the cig behind him. "Don't worry I'm not spying on you, I smoke just like you." He waved the cig around in the air.
"Who are you guys? I haven't seen you around here." Tails asked.
"Well we try to keep a low profile since we're wanted by a few people."
"You committed a crime?" Tails had a semi-shocked look on his face.
"Well not a crime but pretty close." The rat kid approached Tails who backed off a little." Don't worry I'm not going to attack you or anything. My names Zi." He then turned around and pointed to the girl he was with. "This is Daisy, my girl friend." Daisy waved at Tails, "So what's your name?" Zi asked, he took a puff of his cig and blew it into Tails face. He tried not to cough as the smoke from Zis lungs flowed into his.
"Me?" He thought for a second, "...Tails."
"I guess you just started right?"
"Started what?" He had a confused look.
Zi rolled his eyes. "Smoking of course."
"Oh right! Yeah. I was just trying it out." Tails took another puff and coughed, but not as violently this time.
"It's cool, that's how we all start. It's the curiosity that gets you."
"Actually it wasn't curiosity, it was a mixture of angry feelings." He thought
Daisy Approached Tails. "I've never seen a fox with two tails before." She walked closer, bent down and stared at them. "Are they real?" Tails was blushing a little because Daisy was reaching out to touch them.
"Yes they are real." He moved back a little pulling his tails away from her reach.
"Why'd you back off? I only wanted to see if they're real." She looked disappointed.
"So..." Zi interrupted. Tails looked his way. "What do you do around here? Do you have a job or anything?"
The fox dropped his head a little as if he was thinking. "I can't tell him I'm Sonics friend and that we go around saving people..." He pulled his head back up to face Zi. "I fix things."
"What do you mean 'fix' things?"
"Anything, I can fix anything."
"Oh really? You don't need to lie, I know you're Sonics little side kick."
"How'd you know?"
"Is this kid for real... jeese..."He rolled his eyes. "Well you guys don't exactly keep a low profile do you?"
"What do you mean?"
"Never mind..." Zi looked at his watch, "Ok man, I gotta go, me and my boys have a job to do. I hope we meet again." Zi put out his cig and ran halfway out of the ally and stopped, he began to whisper into Daisys ear. Tails was wondering what they were talking about. "How'd you like to meet the gang?"
"You mean your friends?"
"Yeah, we think you would fit in."
"Someone is actually accepting me as a friend..."Tails looked like he was about to cry.
"You ok?"
"Yeah I'm ok, I'll be here tomorrow!"
"Cool, catch you later!" The two rat kids ran out of the ally and around the corner.
"Zi huh..." Tails sat down on the bare floor, "That Daisy sure looked nice." He looked at his cig and took another puff. He coughed some more, "Ok I've had enough... Cigs are horrible, I don't now why people smoke 'em..." He dropped the cig and walked back to the stall where Sonic was at. But it seemed someone he knew was already there. He took cover behind a car and looked on.
A red echidna approached Sonics stall. "Can I have your autograph please? You're cool!" Knuckles said.
Sonic was totally speechless, eyes wide. "Ummm, come again? Was it just my ears playing tricks on me or did I just hear you say I was cool?" That sure wasn't like knuckles at all!
Knuckles pulled Sonics ear to his mouth and began to whisper. "Listen up, I'm trying to impress my new girl friend by getting your autograph. She isn't aware that we know each other, so if you ever repeat what I just said to anyone I'll kill you. Are we clear?"
"Ok, ok." Sonic pulled out a piece of paper and wrote on it. "Here you go." Knuckles gave Sonic a death stare then walked back over to his girl friend.
"Wow I can't believe you got it!" She said.
"It was easy, I just told him who I was and he knew not to mess with me."
"You're so cool..." The pair walked off.
"Well that was interesting... I never thought I'd hear those words in a million years."
Tails wiped the tears from his eyes from all the laughter and walked up to the stall. "Hey pal, welcome back. Where have you been?"
"No where..." Tails tried to think of an excuse, "One of my friends called me over."
"You don't have any friends though, do you?"
Tails looked Sonic in the eye. "I do now." He looked up at the sky, "Do I?"
Amy came up to the stall. Sonic saw her coming and ducked. "Hey Tails, have you seen Sonic around?"
"Yeah, he's right down ---" Sonic yanked on his friends twin tails before he could reveal his location to Amy.
"He's where?"
"I said he's right down ---" He yanked his tails again. "Ok, ok..." He thought for a moment, "He's not here..." Sonic was looking up at Tails from under him, giving him an evil stare.
"Damn... I really wanted to see him."
"I'm sure he isn't far." Amy sighed and turned around. Tails then looked down at Sonic who still had a death hold on his twin tails. Amy walked away to another stall; I mean she isn't just here for Sonic right?
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The next day Tails woke up in bed as usual and looked at the clock, "9:46am..." He pulled the covers over himself then Sonic came in and jumped onto his bed, this made the mattress Tails was sleeping on spring up and down. "Alright then! You ready for that run?"
Tails pulled his head up from under the covers. "I'm not really in the mood..."
Sonic had a shocked look on his face. "But you love training day. What's up?" He jumped onto the floor.
"Nothing... I just have a lot on my mind."
"Oh I get it now..." He walked closer to the bedside, "I thought I saw you doing something in the alleyway yesterday, I didn't want believe it." Tails started to panic but tried his best not to show it. "You've met a girl, right? I couldn't make her out from where I was though."
Tails closed his eyes and let out a deep breath of relief. "That's right! And that's what I was thinking about." He thought for a moment. "That's why I can't come on that run."
"Oh no you don't! I won't let you miss a day of training, come on!" Sonic threw the covers off onto the floor and took a-hold of his friends foot, then started dragging him across the floor.
Tails struggled, pulling on his leg, hoping he could break free but couldn't escape Sonics grip. "Please, I have to see her again!"
Sonic turned around. "I don't know... We're on a strict training program."
"This will be the last and only time." He really was trying his best to get out of it.
Sonic thought for a second, letting go of Tails foot. He held his ankle as it hurt from the grip Sonic had on it. "Well l guess I can let you miss one day of training since you just met this girl. Next time though, no slacking off! Remember the promise we made?"
Flashback
Sonic came back after a long run, and was standing in-front of his house doing various stretching exercises. "Sonic how do you run for so long without getting tired?" Tails asked running out of the door to greet him.
"Easy! I follow a strict training program and no matter what, I stick to it."
"So if I follow your training program I can be as fast as you?" He had glitters of hope in his eyes.
"Well anything's possible pal, but it took years and years of training for me to get to this level of speed."
"I don't care! Let me train with you, please!"
"You better not back out, once you start you can't stop."
"I promise."
"That's not good enough..." Sonic thought for a moment. "Spit on your hand."
"Spit on my hand?"
"Just do it..." Tails spat onto his hand, Sonic did the same.
"Why am I doing this?"
"It's an ancient ritual, it means whatever you say while we shake hands you have to stick to it or awful things will happen." Tails been Tails, he didn't believe it, so he went on and did it anyway. "Ok now shake my hand." Tails slowly took Sonics hand in his and cringed as the saliva mixed.
"I promise that no matter what I will follow your Training program without fail..." Tails said and let go of Sonics hand.
"Remember, if you break it bad things will happen." Sonic wiped his hand on the back of his leg in an attempt to get the saliva off his hand, "Ok let the training begin!"
End Flashback
"Yeah I remember... But I really like this girl and I want to meet her again." Tails lied.
"Ok, I understand. I'll go running by my self then, won't be the same without you though... Well Cya pal, good luck!" Sonic dashed out the door.
"He bought it..." He then made his way to the alleyway hoping he would meet his new friends. "What's this weird feeling I got in my lungs... I've never felt like this before..." Tails waited for another couple of hours then Zi and Daisy Came walking into the ally.
"How's it going?" Zi pulled out a cig from coat pocket and lit it.
Tails stared at the cig Zi had in his mouth. "Hey Zi..." He turned to face Tails, "Can I maybe... Have a cig?"
"Heh, sure thing. You're part of the gang now." Tails took the cig and lit it. He took in the smoke, coughed but was relieved. The weird feeling he had before was gone.
"So when do I get to meet your friends?"
Zi looked at Daisy, who nodded, "Well we can meet 'em now if you want." He took out a mobile phone and rang a number, "Hey you guys, remember that fox I was telling you about? Well he's in our meeting place right now. Get down here quick." He then put the mobile away. "They will be here in a few minutes."
Tails took in some more smoke but didn't cough as much this time. "Now you're getting the hang of it." A few minutes later two rat kids walked into the ally and stood next to Zi and Daisy. "This is Butch. He's the muscle, he's only 11 but he gets the job done." Butch was very fat but strong, he was taller then anyone there. "This is Trev, he's our tech guy." He wore glasses and was very small and thin for a 13 year old. He didn't look very strong though, infact, it looked like the wind would blow him over at any minute.
Tails finished his cig and walked up to Zi, "Can I have another cig?" Tails shyly asked.
"I can't supply you with cigs all the time you now. Don't you have any money?"
"No..."
"Hey gang get over here a minute." They began to whisper amongst them selves. A few minutes passed. "Ok we have a proposition for you." Zi walked closer to Tails, "We're going to collect some money that is rightfully ours."
"You mean steal?"
"Steel is such a forward word... I'd use reclaim."
"I don't know about this..."
Zi put his hands on Tails shoulder. "Listen, you aren't doing anything bad. All you're doing is distracting someone. You aren't 'stealing' anything, so there's nothing to worry about. After we've done this you will get some money for helping, then you can buy all the cigs you want."
Tails felt that strange craving for cigs again. "Ok I'll do it..." Ignoring all common sense and the fact he would practically be committing a crime! He agreed to help Zi and his gang.
"That-a-boy, we can meet here about the same time tomorrow and we'll get this done." The gang of rats left the alleyway.
Tails was now left alone in the quiet alleyway, he sat down on the floor tapping the ground with his fingers, then looked up at the sky. "I am not doing anything bad am I? I'm only distracting someone so I'm not stealing anything..." Tails was trying to reassure himself but it wasn't working. He sat in that same alleyway for hours until it was
dark, then headed home.
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The next day Tails awoke in his bed. "Argh...That damn feeling is back again, I need a cig..." Tails rolled out of bed and onto the floor, he made his way downstairs to talk to Sonic. "Hey Sonic can I borrow some money?"
Sonic was lying on the sofa reading his favourite comic. He moved his feet to the side so he could see Tails, "If you want some money then why don't you get a job or something?"
"Get a job he says... The only reason he doesn't work is because he's a hero. I saved this guys life plenty of times, yet, he doesn't share in any of the fame or any of the money for that matter."
"Hey bud are you ok? You look a little upset."
"Don't call me bud!" Tails stormed out of the house.
"Hmmm what was that all about..." He continued to read his comic like nothing happened.
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Tails was once again waiting in the ally way for Zi and his pals. He was walking up and down kicking pieces of rubbish that got in is way. "Stupid Sonic, I'll show him..." Tails muttered. He kicked a can out of the ally and it almost hit Zi and his gang. "Whoa, careful." Daisy said dodging the can.
"I want to help steal stuff." Tails declared.
"What crawled up your butt? Last time you didn't want to come."
"I've had a change in heart."
"You sure? It's a big step from been a goodie, goodie." Tails was tapping his foot, "heh, ok then. That's cool with me. Let's go!"
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The gang were standing outside of a general shop. "We're robbing a shop?" Tails couldn't believe it. "By the way you went on, I thought we were going to rob a bank or something."
"That's a little out of our league." Zi coughed. "A shop still has a lot of money."
"Whatever, let's just get it over with." The guys walked into the shop. The guard looked at them with concerned eyes like he knew something was going to happen, and he was right. Butch bent down in front of the guard. Grabbed his ankles and tossed him up into the air knocking him out on the ceiling, the unconscious guard fell and hit the floor hard.
"Don't even think about it!" Zi pulled out a hand gun and aimed it at the shopkeeper.
"A gun?" Tails was a little shocked.
"Hey don't ruin the mood, go with it." Zi turned to face the shop keeper. "Hand over all the money, now!" Zi demanded. The shopkeeper quickly took all the money out of the cash register and handed it to Butch. "Also all the cigs you have as well, oh and some chewing gum." They took their stuff and ran out of the shop. "Ok back to the hideout!" Everyone split up. "Tails since you're new to this you're with me! Try and keep up." Police cars arrived at the crime scene. Zi and Tails ran down an alleyway to a dead end.
"They went that way!" A cop shouted.
"Damn, looks like we're stuck." Zi looked around one more time for any means of escape, but to no avail.
"Grab a hold." Tails took Zis hand, raised his two tails into the air and started to spin them.
"What're you going to do? Blow them all away?" Zi joked. Tails began to fly and was gaining more height every second. "Wow! I didn't know you could do that!" Zi was looking down at the cops who were swarming the alleyway they just escaped. "You lose coppers! Me and my new pal Tails own you!" Zi shouted.
"Oh great now they know who I am."
"Head over that way." Zi ordered. The pair made it back to the hideout which was the same alleyway where Tails first met Zi.
"So this is your super cool hideout?" Tails said while dropping Zi onto the ground.
"Yeah." Tails let his twin tails come to a stop in mid air and he dropped onto the ground as well. "Yo guys we're back!" The three rats came out and greeted Zi.
"We thought you weren't coming!" Trev said
"We got a decent haul this time." Butch said.
"Here you go, for your trouble." Zi handed Tails a bag. He looked in it.
"Cigs?"
"Course." Tails looked where he was and what he was doing.
"This isn't me, I have to go." Tails exited the ally leaving the pack of rats confused. Five cop cars stopped outside the alleyway and arrested the pack of rats. Zi was dragged out of the alleyway pass Tails towards the cop car.
"Hey cop, he helped in the heist, arrest him!"
The cop looked at Tails, "This guy? No way, He's a national hero. Why this little guy saved our guys a few times."
"But he! ---" The cop shoved Zi and his pals into the back of the cop car and drove off.
Back at Sonics place Tails was at the front door and was about to open it, then Sonic jumped off the roof. "Hey lil buddy, what you got in the bag?"
Tails turned around. "Nothing..."
"Doesn't look like nothing to me." Sonic was ducking and moving around Tails to see what was in the bag, "Come on, let me see!" Sonic grabbed the bag and jumped onto the roof. Tails flew up after him hoping he could get to him in time before he opened it. "Cigs? Why are you carrying around cigs?"
"I can explain..."
"Are you smoking?" Tails looked down at the roof with an innocent look. "Don't try and pull that cute face trick with me, you now it doesn't work."
"I met some guys and we kinda started..."
"I'm disappointed... Just tell me one thing, are you hooked?"
"Sort of, when I'm bored I have this craving." Sonic took the bag and handed Tails a cig. "Why you giving me this?"
"I want you to smoke all of those cigs right now."
Tails eyes went wide. "You got to be kidding."
"I'm quite serious, the only way I can think of to get you off this is to experience how bad smoking can be." The screen went all blurry.
"Well that's how it was, we argued for hours and I ended up smoking the whole lot. You could say I learned my lesson but who really knows?" The room goes all blurry and you can just make out something white in Tails mouth
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Hope you enjoyed it ) and If you read, please review. Have a nice smoke-free day!