Equal Footing
Chapter 6: End of an Era?
Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic and co. are owned by Sega.
Tails was in a foul mood when he returned home. He felt hurt and betrayed by everyone. All he wanted was stay sixteen so he could use his developed brain and muscles to help everyone but they all turned on him. Is it really so bad that didn't want to be Sonic's number two?
When he was younger his was bullied for his second tail and when it seemed that there was no one in the world who would give him the time of day, his blue hero burst into his life and it was never the same again. Sure he had to deal with a crazed doctor on a regular basis but in return he got friends, each just as special as him, and a person who he could talk to about anything and would never leave him no matter what. Or so he thought...
Earlier on today he came across shards of Time Eater's core which after he put them in contact with the Chaos Emerald which aged him so he was the same age as his big brother. Since then things had gone downhill. Being older had its perks, his brain and muscles had fully developed and it was apparent that if this was his body from the future that he takes care of himself.
Then came the problem. Ever since then Sonic has been distant, like there was something on his mind that he didn't want to talk about. Although it hurt him a little that he felt he couldn't talk to him about, this situation had happened before but this time it annoyed him for some reason. In fact a lot of this about his best friend had rubbed him up the wrong way, things that he would normally take in his stride or ignore altogether.
Things had only got worse once they left the house. He felt jealous of his blue idol getting all the attention from Eggman and had tried to claim it, which lead to in fighting between them, the pair being forced through glass doors and him blowing up at their friends before running off here. And the worst part was there was still more fight left in him.
It wasn't long before Sonic entered. "Tails, you there?" he asked as he turned on the light, only to find the fox stood in the kitchen doorway turned away from him. "What was with the dark?"
"How I felt" he answered back before asking his own question. "Why don't you like me anymore?"
The speedster was taken aback by this. "It's not like I don't like you, it's just that you're being hard to like."
"In what way?"
"What sort of question is that?" the hedgehog said, raising his voice. "The arguing, you blowing up like that by something Cream said, Cream of all people."
"Just because I want to be my own person!" Tails snapped, turning to face his best friend as he did. "You shot me down as you want me to stay nothing more than your sidekick forever. Well, I'm not the little kid that title used to impressed by that title."
"How can you say that? I let you build a workshop underneath our home just so you could be your own person. It's you who seems to have the problem with me for some imaginary reason which just happened to appear after your age changed."
"You're saying that this is my fault?"
"If the glove fits" Sonic said in his matter-of-fact voice.
Tails glared at him for a few seconds before starting again. "Fine, have it your way as usual" he grumbled before speaking to the hedgehog. "You've been your head for way too long today."
"And? You practically live in your head some days."
"You calling me antisocial now as well."
"That was not what I meant by that and you know it."
The fox putting his head in his hands and gripped in with frustration. "You only do that if there is something big on your mind. But instead of telling your best friend and supposed brother you keep it to yourself."
"I don't have to tell you everything" the speedster protested before his mechanic friend interjected.
"Because you think I can't help or take it, like I'm some useless kid who you keep around just to feel better about yourself."
"That's not..." Sonic's statement would be finished as the fox's rant continued.
"I think I know what this is all about. You're threatened by me now."
"What?"
"You won't even admit it" he said, pointing his finger at the blue Mobian. "You're afraid that now that I'm all grown up that I'll take your spotlight because now I can."
"Yeah right" Sonic said under his breath but due to his good hearing Tails still heard, and it made him fume.
"I can't believe this; you're still not listening to me."
"How can I not with you shouting at me?" Sonic retorted before he threw his arms up. "Listen, just go back normal and everything will be back to the way it should be."
"That's my point right there" Tails shouted, mirroring the hedgehog's action. "I said that I am staying like this!"
The hero narrowed his eyes. "And I said you aren't!"
"Listen well Sonic as I'm only going to say this once" the fox replied, also narrowing his eyes. "I do not follow you around like a lost puppy anymore, I do not take orders from you anymore and I do not need you anymore."
If the speedster had anything, it was his pride. A national hero, fastest thing alive, he just liked being liked and needed. Smashing robots started out as a matter of life or death but now it was almost relaxing, but while being Tails' big brother is the most rewarding endeavour he had ever undertaken it had also become harder.
He'd watched him grow up into the kind mechanic he turned out to be, only to end up a teenager with an attitude. But he always felt needed: whether it was forcing him to take a bath, making sure he ate well, comforting him during lightning storms or just being there if he needed to talk to someone to. He felt needed and he liked that so he dreaded the day that the fox would no longer need him, which due to Tails' superior intellect was going to be quite soon.
He never expected that it would be today. It felt like a knife through his heart. "Funny how Eggman had tried to do this for years but in the end the one to really hurt was my bro" he thought. Any other time he would have ran off and though about it alone but his temper was flared already which changed everything. Taking way his need to help was wounding him and what does a wounded animal do when angered, attack back.
"I never needed you" he replied after a moment of silence, his face full of rage.
"How dare you?" the fox growled.
"It's true. I never needed to take you with me back then."
"But you did. You put a child in danger just so you could inflate your ego."
"Well right now I wishing that I left you to burn in that orphanage" he shouted. A heavy silence followed.
Now it was Tails turn to feel backstabbed. "Everything he did was just a lie. He used me just so he'd have a sidekick and now he says he never wanted me. You're just the same as everyone back in Emerald Hill, but at least they were clear that they hated me" he thought through his dumbstruck brain.
"I hadn't needed you for a while now" the fox quietly said after a minute past. "But I only claimed so you'd stick around. What a mistake that was."
"We'd both know that without me you'd be thinking so much you would starve."
"And without me you would still be running around Eggman's amusement park with no clue what to do."
They both glared at each other with pure rage in their eyes.
"It's time I got a best friend who actually listens to me" Tails growled.
"It's time I got a brother who won't stab me in the back" Sonic retorted.
"I hate you."
"I hate you more." Another staring contest occurred for several long seconds before the hedgehog closed his eyes, looked away, spun of his heel and headed for the door.
"Hey, we're not done yet" the fox shouted as the blue Mobian opened the door.
"Yes I am. I'm not sleeping here with you like this" he replied not even turning back as he did. He then walked out the door and into the middle of the clearing with Tails staying at the door.
"Things get too real for the great Sonic the Hedgehog and he does what he does best, run away. But where will you run to?"
Sonic stopped in the clearing's middle and spun on his toes so that he was facing the fox. "If you must know Amy offered me her sofa bed because unlike you I still have friends."
"Keep them. You always need people to survive even back when you were little."
This shocked the hedgehog a little. "How do you know that?"
The mechanic folded his arms smugly. "I pried a little. But I don't need anyone, I can exist by myself."
"If you believe that then you really aren't as smart as you think you are" Sonic replied pointed at his former friend.
"You do know that the sofa literally has your name on it."
Usually signs of just how much Amy adored him put him off seeing her but tonight was different. "Still beats being here. But don't get too lonely, I'll be back when you realise I'm right to get my apology so things can get back to how they should be."
The hedgehog's trademark cockiness did nothing more than rub Tails up the wrong way. "You know what, don't bother. I'm evicting you."
"You're evicting me?"
"It means I'm kicking you out" Tails said in a condescending tone which just annoyed the speedster.
"I know what it means Tails. Just wondering why you can evict me because I'm older."
"Look again Sonic, you're not. Besides this is Tails' workshop so technically it's mine and I don't want you near it. Come back tomorrow to get your stuff and your plane then stay out of my life."
Sonic thought for a second. "No, you keep the Tornado so every time you look at it I want you to remember were you got it and how I made you."
"That's it. You're stuff is now mine so I can destroy it when I think of you" he growled.
"Fine. I've got everything I really need on me" he replied flippantly. "Gloves, shoes, socks and the Chaos Emerald" he said pulling the azure gem out from his quills.
"How'd the...?" Tails started before he remember that the hedgehog had pulled out the jewel from the closet before they left for Station Square. He must have had it with him the entire time. "Give me the emerald Sonic" he demanded.
"I'd like to but finders keepers."
"I said give me it" he shouted only for Sonic to shake his head. This made the fox go berserk. "Sonic!"he shouted as he lunged at the hedgehog. Just as he was on him though Sonic made his move.
"Chaos Control" he shouted, surrounding him in a green light. Tails jumped at the speedster but ended up hitting nothing but the floor.
Staying on all fours, the fox clenched his fist. "He left me for good this time" he thought. When he first started travelling with the hedgehog Tails was always scared that one day he would wake up and find that his hero had dumped him like garbage. It never happened and over time he knew that it just wouldn't happen. Until know.
Picking himself up the fox walked back to the workshop in silence, went inside, closed the door, locked it and lent his back against it before he slid down the floor with his knees against his chest and his namesakes curled around him. He looked at the now lifeless living room. "This place looks bigger with only one resident."He then felt something wet hit his arm, reaching up to face to find that tears were pouring out of his face. Whether they were tears of sorrow or frustration he didn't know, but he did know that this time there would be no blue streak with a concerned look on his face asking 'what was wrong', not anymore.
For the first time since he met Sonic, Miles Prower felt truly alone.
"I need to find a way to put traps in the sky" Knuckles thought. He had just arrived back at the ruins where his charge, the Master Emerald, was. The sight of the giant gem's glow did soothe him a little as it always did after he'd been away from it but he was still troubled.
He'd seen Sonic and Tails fight before and had even found himself in the middle of a few of them somehow but even he could tell that this one was big and it could take a while. That's why he mentally vowed not to leave the island until he received word that they'd put it behind them, but with Tails' 'new' attitude it could some time. A few days, a month or so maybe even years if they were really being stubborn. "Kid needs a better role model" shot though his mind to which he nodded at.
Worse part in his eyes was that he was counting on the fox give him a lift back to the island after settling the score with the EggRobos but he dashed off after saying he hated everyone. This caused him to have to get a ride with G.U.N. with Shadow's permission, a big gamble since the Ultimate life form was hard to read at the best of times, but then he had to wait for the military to clean up the destroyed robots which took some time. Afterwards he had decided to glide back to the emerald after they were close enough because he didn't fully trust them. The silver lining for this experience was that he now knew how Rouge and Eggman kept reaching the Master Emerald despite all the traps he had set up. "I should've thought of this before, now all I need is Tails to get back into his right mind and make some aerial traps."
His thoughts were interrupted as he heard a cry coming from above. Looking up he saw something falling from the sky heading towards the forest in front of him. The object looked like a blue blur and he recognised the voice, Sonic. "What's he doing here? I didn't hear the Tornado" he thought as the hedgehog hit the ground, followed by a few trees his impact brought down. The Guardian closed his eyes and sighed. "Better see if he's alright. If I'm lucky maybe he'll have damaged the part of brain that controls that smart mouth of his."
With that he dashed off at his own impressive pace. It wasn't a long distance at all; the first fallen tree he had to jump over was just thirty seconds after he started, so he quickly found the crater that the speedster had made. In the middle was Sonic's body trying to pull his head out from the ground. "How high up was he?" he wondered as the hedgehog was finally able to free his head from its earthy prison.
"I've really got to stop doing that" Sonic muttered to himself, thinking back to when he jumped off the Egg Carrier to get Eggman only to miss and fall to the ground and when the doctor jettisoned him into space after he first acquired his werehog form. He then found the light blue Chaos Emerald he had with him on the ground. "Good thing I didn't lose this. Last thing I want now is another lecture from Knuckles about how I need to take better care of the emeralds."
"Nice to know that they're starting to sink in Sonic" the echidna spoke up, making the hedgehog jump a little.
"Hey Knuckles. Sorry about the mess" he said turning to face his host.
He shrugged his shoulders. "For you, this is quite tame. But where did you fall from?"
"Sky Sanctuary" Sonic replied casually.
"What were you doing at Sky Sanctuary?" Knuckles asked sternly. The sanctuary was a floating garden that was quite some height above the rest of island despite being technically part of it. The Guardian didn't go there often as the only way to get there was a teleport gem, left over echidna technology, and it was not close to the Mater Emerald. The only he went there was to pick the fruit from the number of fruit trees that are planted there but since it reminded him of his fight with the Sonic robot that kept draining the Master Emerald's power in order to go super he never stayed too long.
"I used Chaos Control to come here but I ended up there so I decided to jump down."
"You... jumped down" the echidna said, one eye open wider than the other showing that he couldn't comprehend what his friendly rival had done. Not the first and likely far from the last.
"I didn't know how high up it is" he said with his hands behind his head before he quickly added "You know, when compared to island."
"That's not the point" the Guardian shouted, the hedgehog's ignorance for the actual issue starting to play on his short temper. "You know that you're not that great at using Chaos Control to teleport. You could have missed the island completely and end up in the sea!"
"And no one is as relieved that didn't happen than me" he answered.
Knuckles put his face in his palm and sighed. "You're impossible."
"I know."
"So, how did it go with Tails?"
The hedgehog's face darkened at his question. "It's over" he said quietly, closing his eyes as he did.
"So soon?" Knuckles replied, surprised. "I didn't think you'd make up for a long while."
"We didn't make up Knuckles, we broke up."
"What do you mean?"
Sonic's eyes opened slowly as he looked the Guardian in the eye. "I no longer have brother."