Fire ignited the night sky in a grand burst of color and heat, reflected by the cold metal surface of the airship that had unleashed it. The forest life below braced itself for the coming battle, as parachutes opened above the airship, dropping a group of beings onto the vessel. The war cries of the desperate echoed through the night until fire had extinguished all but one, who fell to the ground as the airship sailed away, and silence dawned on the forest below.

Sonic the Hedgehog's eyes shot open as the sun penetrated the lush canopy that sheltered him. His cobalt colored skin was stained with blood, and his previously white gloves were torn and dirtied. His only other articles of clothing were a red backpack and bright red sneakers, with a white stripe painted across them, and golden strap.

He rose from the ground, struck by the pain from cuts and bruises all over his body. He checked his injuries and began rummaging through his backpack. He pulled out a package of bandages and got to work on his various injuries along his arms, chest, and back. He then pulled out his timepiece, a little trinket he had found in the rubble of Springyard. It was gold plated with almost no discernible wear and showed the time and full date, something he had found quite handy during his travels. A wave of panic hit him. It read May 17th.

I've been out for a whole day?!

He leapt to his feet and began running at speeds that most people would assume were impossible for any living being to attain. The jungle scenery quickly became just a blur, it's beauty lost at such high speeds.

Sonic had been on a trek towards the Freedom Fighter's base in the past six weeks since he had disabled Scrap Brain. He could sprint at full speed and be there in less than a day, but the threat of robot patrols and mobile roboticizer machines forced him to be cautious. If captured, he could be roboticized less than a minute after capture if they had a mobile unit.

Yesterday, Robotnik's army had finally caught up with him, but so had a small group of the Freedom Fighters scouts. They had tried to escape, but had eventually been forced to defend themselves.

Was I the only survivor? I remember boarding the ship. . . then nothing up until now.

He eventually escaped the shadow of the forest canopy and came upon a stunning sight. A huge valley with waterfalls feeding into it, forming a winding river at the bottom. Rolling hills dotted the valley floor, rising from the river at various points. He had heard of this place. Emerald Hills, if he remembered right. The location was a popular vacation spot before the war.

Sonic's stomach suddenly rumbled, unhappy with him for going without food for over a day. He reached behind his back and grabbed a piece of bread from his backpack and nibbled at it, struggling to maintain the willpower to ration what food he had left. Since Robotnik's army was made of robots, they had no food for Freedom Fighters to steal, so they scavenged from abandoned settlements, learned how to hunt feral animals, and even ran a farm back at the hidden base.

Sonic shoved the bread back into his pack and fell to his stomach as he spotted a Buzz Bomber patrol squad. Nasty things, Buzz Bombers. They were the backbone of Robotnik's aerial attack force during the assault. The patrol models however usually couldn't get more than a few yards off the ground. They resembled wasps, were about the size of a toddler and fired energy pellets from their stingers.

Sonic rose into a runner's ready position. He knew he would have to take them out before they relayed his position back to their command post. He reared back, then pushed off with such force that he created two divots with his feet. He dashed behind the first bomber, leaped up, and grabbed it's stinger. Sonic pulled himself up onto the Bomber, jamming his fingers between it's abdomen and it's head, and pulled it's head clean off. He then used the body as a spring to the next one. He repeated the process with the second one and tried to spring off of it as well, but the third one destroyed it with it's stinger blasts, causing Sonic to crash to the ground.

The Bomber rose up a few feet higher to recharge it's stinger, but Sonic leapt onto a nearby palm tree's trunk, then used it to reach a higher point on another tree's trunk, then jumped back on top of the first tree. He jumped at the machine, but the Bomber noticed him early enough to dodge him. He landed hard in the grass, scraping his shoulder and side on a small rock.

The Bomber was about to begin shooting again when a paper airplane suddenly appeared and collided with it. It got stuck in between it's head and abdomen. For a moment, nothing happened. Sonic laid there watching it, wondering if he should start running. Instead of continuing it's attack, it simply fell to the ground, disabled.

Sonic walked over and smashed the head under his foot. He looked around for the origin of the plane, but didn't see anybody. "Well, I don't know who threw that, but you shouldn't be playin' out here. It's dangerous." He heard a rustle in the trees above him. He looked up and saw nothing.

"Hi."

Sonic jumped from the voice, ready to defend himself. He turned around and saw it was a child. A fox. "Kid, what are you doin'?"

"I. . . Thought that, well, you needed. . . help."

Sonic scowled and lowered his guard. "Help. Yeah, right! I had it under control. As soon as he started to shoot at me he would've been scrap."

"Why wait?"

Sonic stared at the kid. He didn't like kids. Especially curious ones. They were the kind that went and always got themselves roboticized. "Because I wanted to see what it would do."

"But you let it send a transmission."

Sonic chuckled, thinking it was impossible the kid could possibly know that.

"Oh, it did?" Sonic asked, the mocking tone in his voice apparently lost on the child, who was dead serious when he answered.

"Yeah, it sent a pair of coordinates right before I disabled it's CPU. You could tell because the red light behind it's stinger flashed."

Sonic's blood ran cold. The kid was correct, and he said it like it was common knowledge. How did he know this stuff?

"Well, if that's true then I gotta juice outta here."

"Wait!" The fox ran up in front of Sonic and looked up at him with pleading eyes. "Can I come with you, Mister?"

"Sorry, but I don't want you getting hurt. Besides, you wouldn't be able to keep up with me," Sonic said, secretly wishing the fox would leave him alone.

"Sure I could! I can fly!"

"Now you're just lying," Sonic said as he shoved the fox out of his path and began to walk away.

"No! I'm really not! Look, I have two tails!" Sure enough, the fox had two tails back there. Even more amazing, he began to twirl them like a helicopter until he became airborne. He flew over Sonic and dropped right in front of him. Sonic let out a long sigh of frustration. The last thing he wanted to do was babysit a kid.

"Don't you have some family?"

"What's a family?"

Sonic was dumbfounded. "You can't be serious. Who's taking care of you?"

"Oh. No one." Sonic began to realize that even if he left the kid, he'd still try and follow despite Sonic's wishes.

"Fine. You can come. But you have to promise to do exactly, exactly, as I say. And once we get to the Freedom Fighter base, I'm leaving you there."

The fox nodded excitedly. They ran into the forest and began their trek through the valley, avoiding any patrols they encountered.

As the sunset began to paint the sky in an array of oranges and reds, Sonic stopped to eat. He pulled out the rest of the bread, as well as some crackers and placed them on a log. Sonic and the fox sat of either side and began to eat. "This isn't a lot," the fox complained as he looked at his two crackers and loaf of bread.

"That's all we can have. I'm rationing it."

"What's that mean?"

"Means that I'm saving it so we don't run out of food."

"Oh."

They ate in silence for a few more minutes before Sonic spoke again. "Say, I don't think I ever got your name." The fox looked up, slightly embarrassed for some reason.

"Oh, well it's. . . Miles. Miles Prower," The fox said, blushing a little as he said it.

"Doesn't sound like you like it very much."

"No."

"Hmm." Sonic thought for a moment, remembering his two tails. "Well then I'll just call ya Tails. How's that sound?" Miles' face brightened.

"I like that! Thanks, Mr. Sonic."

"Don't call me Mister. Titles make my skin crawl."

"Okay. . . Sonic," Tails said, reaching for a hug.

"And no hugs," Sonic said as he pushed Tails away.

Another pause, then, "So how old are you, anyway?"

"Six." Sonic looked at him in astonishment.

"Six?! Only six?"

"Yeah- is that bad?" Tails looked worried.

"No, no. I just, didn't think you were so young."

"Why's that?"

"Well, you certainly don't talk like a six-year-old."

"I know. I got teased for stuff like that all the time. That and- other things."

"Like what?"

"My- well, I made stuff. Inventions. Like that paper plane I saved you with."

"You didn't save me, okay kid?"

"Sorry."

Tails looked somewhat hurt by Sonic's sudden harshness, but Sonic didn't seem to notice. "So anyway, you invented that airplane?"

"Yeah. It sends an electric current through robots and overloads their CPUs." Sonic sat stunned for a moment before speaking again.

"How did you even learn all this? You, you're six!"

"I like to take things apart. We found a broken bot near our shelter, so I took it apart. I even got it working. . ." Tails began to trail off, then got this weird look in his eyes. Guilty, that was what he looked like.

"So you got it working and what? You made do chores for you?"

"No. I forgot to." Tails suddenly began to cry, which made Sonic uncomfortable. He didn't like crying. He let Tails stop before asking another question.

"You wanna tell me what happened?" He wasn't asking out of a want to comfort the fox, but just simply out of curiosity.

Tails shook his head and got up, dropping his cracker. He went over to a tree and sat beside it, sniffling.

"Hey, it's nothing to cry about. I lost my family too. My parents disappeared when I was born. My uncle was kidnapped and never seen again. Half my friends are robots. You see me crying? No, I got over that long ago. Cause crying ain't gonna change it. Only action will. Action, against Robotnik." Sonic turned around and saw that Tails had already curled up and fallen asleep. Slightly annoyed that he had been ignored, he went and laid down in the grass. He laid there and watched the stars as dreams of rebellion and victory overtook him, and he slowly drifted to sleep.