Sonic S: The Tale of Tails
Written by Virtus the Protector
Starring characters copyright of Virtus the Protector, Sega and Archie Comics, used without permission by the two later.
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Chapter 01: A New Friend and An Old Enemy
Westside Island could be considered the twin island to South Island, with its own variety of tourist resorts, such as beautiful beaches, interesting water-filled ruins, sparkling theme parks, high mountains and mysterious dark caves to explore if you was curious. The island was considered so beautiful, that it had gained the nickname of "the Island of Illusion."
A distant sound of a rotor blade hummed throughout the skies of Westside Island, as the sun arose in the horizon. The clouds seemed to part as a red bi-plane with white letters on its sides, both sides forming the word "TORNADO." In the pilot's seat, the uncanny sea of blue quills revealed the pilot's true identity.
On this very day, the blue hedgehog known as Sonic had arrived to obtain the chaos emeralds on Westside Island, sensing that they somehow had hidden themselves on this particular land, seemingly at their own accord.
Nevertheless, with Robotnik outside the coast of South Island, looking for the six chaos emeralds that the doctor thought the blue hedgehog had left at his sinking blimp in desperation as Sonic fled his doom once again, getting the magical gems back would be a lot easier time around.
(Author's Note: Check out "Sonic S: The Beginning" for further details concerning this incident.)
But Sonic was both right and wrong in his assumptions. It wouldn't be as easy as he suspected, but it would not be "seemingly impossible" as last time, thanks to some unforeseen circumstances.
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Sonic seemed to be a skilled pilot as he landed the biplane with the ease of a professional. The flight vehicle slid to a stop in the beach's sand, sending small clouds of dust in the wake of the tracks of the biplane's wheels.
Sonic jumped out of his plane and touched ground. With his eyes at the jungle before him, the blue hedgehog revved up into a spin.
"Six chaos emeralds, coming up!"
Suddenly, a rumbling sound from within Sonic's stomach alerted him of sudden hunger. He didn't break out of his spin, but his mind switched its target from chaos emeralds to more important matters.
"But first, some diner." Sonic decided, and burst off into the jungle.
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The trees were luckily filled with many different edible fruits for the blue hedgehog to gulp down in haste. The blue hedgehog simply had to jump into a treetop and either bump into the tree to shake the goods, or he could be creative and jump into his spiky ball form to cut down the fruit at once.
Sonic soon found a nice and cosy tree to rest beneath, while he chomped down a large yellow fruit while some of its red fluid leaked out from his chewing mouth. He wiped the juice of from his lips with the back of his gloved hand and then rested his back against the tree, gazing up towards the sky.
"Robotnik's probably still poking around at the bottom of the ocean. And the chaos emeralds are not going anywhere, so why don't I just relax for a few days? After all, I think I've earned myself a vacation."
As the blue hedgehog leant back against the tree, he was unaware of the pair of eyes watching him with utter curiosity, hidden in the bushes.
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The next couple of days, Sonic built himself a small hut at the beach from tree logs and palm leaves, spending the daily hours watching the sky, and the nights sleeping peacefully in the hut without a care in the world.
One particular day, while he was out collecting fruit for lunch, he stumbled upon a slightly odd phenomenon occurred as he bumped his shoulder into the tree to get some food to come down with the pull of gravity. But a mass of fruits fell down slightly quicker than Sonic had expected and bounced of his head. When the assault had subsided, the blue hedgehog rubbed his forehead to dampen the headache, and as he looked on the fruit that had "attacked" his head, he noticed that at least half of the fruits spread out over the ground was half-eatened.
A sudden rustle in the leaves above him alerted the hedgehog that he wasn't alone. He looked up, but there were no more sounds that could give the intruder away. He scratched his head in confusion, but he soon switched to shrugging of the possible theories with his shoulders.
"Probably just a hungry Flicky." Sonic thought.
The blue hedgehog picked up the fruits without chewing marks and dashed back for his hut with his arms full of food for the evening.
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That night, with the stomach full of fruit, the blue hedgehog had a nightmare of an extra-large Dr. Robotnik hitting him over the head with a large wrench repeatedly.
When Sonic awoke the following morning, he could've sworn that the clanking still rung in his ears. A few seconds of sleepily blinking eyes later, he suddenly realized that he really WAS hearing the repeating sound.
Sonic went from sleepy to alert in a matter of seconds with his now wide-awake eyes and ears tracing the sound's source to behind his biplane, the Tornado.
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When he arrived at the Tornado's location, Sonic found that the noise had ceased upon his arrival, and no one seemed to be there. But a wrench that lie scarcely thrown into the sand, with a trail of footprints leading from it to behind the flight vehicle.
Sonic took slow steps to sneak up on the intruder who was surely hiding behind the biplane. With a quick tilt of his head over the other edge of the plane's nose, he got his first good look at the one who had been making the metallic sounds. The sight surprised him greatly.
There, behind his own red biplane, a small orange fox sat curled up in his own tail, trembling slightly like a little child. Which was exactly what he was as he couldn't possibly be older than the blue hedgehog himself. With only a pair of white gloves and red and white shoes on, he didn't seem to be much of a threat.
That looks could be deceiving was a lesson that Sonic knew by heart.
"Hey, yo!" He exclaimed.
The fox jumped to his feet at the sudden surprise, and turned his gaze towards the blue hedgehog, who was patting his foot against the ground impatiently.
"Kiddo..." Sonic said, moving his head from side to side slowly.
The fox nervously tugged at his own fluffy tail to remove hairs that weren't there while he nervously stroked his foot in a circular motion against the ground.
"Haven't your mom taught you not to play around with other peoples toys?" Sonic said, glaring at the fox like an owner glared at his dog when it had chewed up his favourite pair of shoes.
The fox quit tugging at his tail and put it behind his back, along with his hands in a nervous manner.
"T-there... were some loose screws in the left wing, and a ventilation drum in the engine had melted..." The fox nervously began, but seemed to get more confident as he kept on explaining.
"Hold it." Sonic said, and the fox converted back to his shy nature.
"A kid who knows mechanics?" The hedgehog seemed unconvinced.
"It's true..." The fox replied while crossing his fingers and looking at them to avoid Sonic's gaze.
"Oh really?" Sonic said with a warm smile and walked back to the other side of the biplane, motioning for the fox to follow him.
The fox reluctantly followed the hedgehog behind the flight vehicle and saw Sonic pick up his wrench from the sand, and was suddenly greeted with the hedgehog's hand reaching out against him, offering the fox his tool back.
"Show me." The hedgehog smirked while looking at the fox with anticipation.
The fox looked into Sonic's eyes and then back to the tool he held in his outstretched hand, before grasping the tool in a hand that seemed used to the wrench.
Fifteen minutes later, the plane was in better shape than the first time the young hedgehog had laid his eyes upon it. He pulled the newly oiled lever backwards with relative ease, amazed by the young fox's skills. The blue hedgehog jumped out of the plane, down to the fox that was filled with pride.
"What's your name, kiddo?" Sonic asked.
"Miles Prower." The fox replied.
It was then that Sonic suddenly noticed what would become this fox's most prominent physical feature with wide eyes. As the fox slowly wagged his tail back and forth, it was suddenly clear that it was really two tails he wagged back and forth.
"But my... friends call me Tails."
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The two new friends spent the rest of the day bonding between each other. The blue hedgehog learned more about the strange mutation that Tails had been born with, giving him an extra tail that led him to being teased by his fellow foxes through his growth, while the fox learned more about Sonic's quest for the magical gems known as the chaos emeralds.
"Is it true that the gems contain unlimited power?" Tails asked curiously.
"More or less. Robotnik was able to power a couple of his bases with just two..." Sonic replied.
"Robotnik?" Tails wondered.
"Mechanical genius with superiority complex. Friends of yours, maybe?" Sonic smirked.
Tails looked slightly dumbfounded.
"Just kidding, Tails." The blue hedgehog reassured his fox-comrade.
Suddenly, the ground violently shook beneath the two friends, almost sweeping them of their feet. A red light shone and bathed everything in hues of the same colour as an enormous explosion was both heard and seen from the other side of the island.
Robotnik had arrived, no doubt about it.
"Speak of the devil." Sonic spoke under his breath, and in the blink of a second he had dashed away towards the explosion.
As the blue hedgehog ran towards another race for the chaos emeralds at sub-sonic speed, his ears picked up a flapping sound from behind him that seemed to come nearer. As he threw a glance over his shoulder, his eyes went wide in surprise.
Tails, the two-tailed fox was spinning his signature tails in the manner of a propeller, effectively flying by his own power, keeping up with the blue blur with minor difficulty.
"You can fly?" The amazed Sonic exclaimed.
"Yes." Tails simply answered in a cheerful manner.
"You're just full of surprises, aren't you?" The blue hedgehog smirked, and together the two newly established allies sped ahead to find the chaos emeralds before the vicious doctor could.
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Author's Notes: "Here they come to save the day..." Just kidding around. XD
To N. Harmonik: There are lots of reasons for someone to look in a mirror...
To NUTCASE71733: Thanks for the heads-up. There's no doubt now, next entry in the Sonic S will introduce the Freedom Fighters.
Please review, but no flames!