Incest
Yes, at long last, it is finally a new update for this story! And, even better on my part, nobody I knew died in between the last chapter and this one! (Sorry if that's morbid, but it's almost become a recurring theme this past year unfortunately...)
Anyways, you wouldn't believe how long and hard I had to think about this story before I could even start writing this new chapter. So many changes and important events are coming up in this and future chapters that I literally had to outline the story's entire plotline to make sure I didn't screw up with anything as I wrote. But, that just makes it all the better for you readers, though! ;) I will apologize, though, for the sappy title to this chapter. If it doesn't make sense to you after reading this, though, don't worry about it. It's not too important. Now, enjoy this nice, long chapter I worked so hard on just for you! Yes, that's right... you.
Disclaimer: I still don't own Sonic, Tails, or any of that official stuff. Yep, it's true; Sega is being pretty stubborn. But, they don't own Mysty either, so I still have a bargaining chip I hope. XD
Chapter 7: Budding from the Ashes
Mysty breathed deeply in the crisp, pleasant noon air as she walked up the now familiar path through the woods towards Tails' house. Thanks to some good directions and a growing sense of familiarity with the surrounding area, Mysty actually found the short hike calming and enjoyable, a welcome relief after yesterday's events. Luckily, she'd also been just as relieved last night as well once Sonic had taken her home to Mrs. Vanilla's safe and sound, especially upon finding herself welcomed back with open and concerned arms despite the horrible revelation at the party just earlier that day. Cream had still been obviously very curious and full of questions to ask Mysty, but kept them to herself due to a no doubt strong warning Mrs. Vanilla had probably given her before now. As for the mother rabbit herself, if she'd even heard about Mysty's past occupation at all once she'd ran off from the small gathering, which she surely did from somebody present at least, Vanilla's expression and hospitality had never shown it. The mother rabbit had simply fed her a good, hot meal and sent the still slightly emotional fox upstairs to bed, promising things would feel better in the morning.
And why does it seem Mrs. Vanilla is always right, too? Mysty thought as she truly did feel much more stable today, at least as far as her emotions where concerned. Her deplorable past had been revealed, true, but she hadn't been immediately tossed out, either. She didn't particularly understand why still, but Tails, Sonic, and everyone seemed to still love her despite what she was, a feeling she'd truly never experienced before on the cold, hard streets of the alley she'd once called home. She hadn't been sure where to go from here, though, until once again the lovely maternal rabbit came to her rescue by suggesting she go check on Tails for her today and see if the heartbroken fox was feeling any better after yesterday's endless memories and sorrow, though not quite in those exact words, of course.
So Mysty now found herself at the doorstep of Tails' house once again and gave the solid wood door a few quick knocks. To her surprise, for the second time the door merely swung open at her soft knocking. Stepping into the darkened house once again, Mysty seemed to recall nothing as being different from when she'd intruded into Tails' home yesterday during the middle of his grieving. Worried that this meant Tails might still be exactly the way she'd found him the day before, Mysty hurried upstairs to check the male fox's small room for signs of the absent kitsune.
Like before, the door to Tails' room stood open halfway, but the inside this time was dark save for the light coming in from the room's small window across from the fox's unmade bed. Confused, Mysty slowly and delicately searched the other rooms of the house for the wayward fox, finally coming to the conclusion that Tails simply wasn't home. A bit saddened and concerned for Tails now, Mysty closed the front door behind her as she left the male fox's house and prepared to hike back to Mrs. Vanilla's with the news.
Just as she started to walk away, though, Mysty's gaze happened to spot the hangar structure just off of the main house that Tails had parked the X-Tornado in once they'd first arrived at his home a couple days ago. Of course! Mysty thought with a bit of renewed excitement as she hurried over to the unchecked structure, sure that she'd likely find the missing fox working on something inside.
Opening the door, however, proved just as disheartening. Inside, the workshop was dark and uninhabited. The X-Tornado sat precisely where Tails had left it a couple days ago, and there was no sign that the male fox had even touched it since then either. Just about to leave once more, though, Mysty's large triangular ears caught the faintest sound of something unusual coming from the workshop. It sounded like a constant hiss, yet at moments almost lost in the punctuated popping noises also produced. It was greatly muffled, though, and seemed to originate from somewhere lower than the actual floor she stood on now. Confused, Mysty started to check around the walls of the hangar for perhaps some door that she'd never noticed before to some secret stairwell or anything of the sort when her hand briefly fell upon a short lever. Immediately, her accidental touch activated a well disguised lift that began lowering the portion of floor she was standing on into an underground elevator shaft.
Scared at being so suddenly trapped in an enclosed space without warning, Mysty naturally stepped to the center of the elevator car and held herself in fright, wondering what she'd just gotten herself into this time. Luckily, nothing else about the elevator ride seemed overly sinister as it finally halted a minute later and some automatic doors opened up to show Mysty a sight she could have never been prepared for.
Somehow, below the entire wooded mountain Tails lived on, the fox had constructed a monstrous, impossibly huge hangar, which, to Mysty's even further amazement, was also almost completely filled by an equally impressive in size giant, metallic ship. The mammoth vessel, marked as the Blue Typhoon on its sides, seemed to resemble most closely an aircraft carrier crossed with a jet fighter, and it seemed more than large enough for a small population to fit inside and live comfortably as well. The beauty of the wondrous creation was marred heavily, though, by numerous burnt, twisted, broken, and otherwise destroyed sections throughout the hull, which only begged Mysty's imagination to think of something that could possibly do so much damage to a ship of this size in the first place. A shower of sparks from the side of the giant vessel at what must have been nearly a quarter of a mile distant from where she now stood finally caught Mysty's wandering attention from the spectacle in front of her to the figure manipulating a welding torch at the open lip to one of the large holes in the damaged ship's lower hull. Two tails swishing carefully to one side of the distant figure to avoid the showering sparks instantly excited Mysty as she knew she'd finally found the individual she'd been looking for. In order to cover the distance without taking over ten minutes, though, Mysty broke into a jog to go greet the working fox.
Tails, meanwhile, stared through the tinted glass of his welding goggles as he carefully led the torch across mutilated sections of steel and infrastructure, cutting the twisted and compromised components away so he could replace them with new ones to patch the large hole caused by one of the Metarex dragon tentacles piercing the vessel at this spot two years ago yesterday. It was a painstaking process to say the least, one he'd already completed for several other similar sections of the Blue Typhoon already, and many times Tails wondered how the ship had even made the trip back to Mobius safely in this condition after that final epic battle had been concluded. How he'd managed to build this giant monstrosity in just under six months before also shocked the busy fox as it was now over two years and he still was only around halfway done restoring it from the beating it took out in space. True, he only worked on the Blue Typhoon for a day or so a week now, though, instead of every waking moment back then, but the project still seemed like it would never be completed. Then again, what would he do once it was anyways? Before the gloomy mood this line of thinking was leading Tails towards could take hold, however, he heard someone shouting his name over the noise of his lit welding torch.
"Huh?" Tails responded curiously as he pulled the torch away from its current path through a metal beam and looked over to the source of the noise. Seeing someone approaching at a jog now, Tails quickly killed the gas to shut off his torch and moved his goggles up to his forehead so his eyes were unhindered to greet the unexpected visitor. "Mysty?! How did you get down here?!" Tails asked in amazement and surprise as the female fox finally came to a halt in front of him, panting slightly at the deceptively long distance she'd just traveled.
"I… was looking for you," Mysty replied, slightly out of breath still for the moment. "Your house and workshop were both dark, but I heard noises echoing from down here and somehow bumped into an elevator by accident, I think," Mysty explained, not really sure how she'd managed to find this secret location herself either.
Tails just laughed light-heartedly for a bit at the confused expression on Mysty's face while she tried to explain her search for the elusive fox so far today. "I guess you must be pretty lucky like me, then," Tails reasoned as he doubted from what Mysty was saying that anyone had informed her of this massive underground hangar or the elevator in his garage yet.
"Maybe," Mysty hesitantly agreed as she looked up once more at the impressive vessel towering over them right now. "Tails, did you… make this all on your own?" she asked impulsively, the sheer magnitude of the creation striking her as unbelievable.
"Actually, yeah…" Tails truthfully answered while holding a hand back behind his head in mild embarrassment. "I know it looks really big, but it wasn't that hard really because of the tools I had and all," Tails tried to play down his role in such an incredible one-man construction project.
"Don't say that, Tails!" Mysty objected as she witnessed the male fox trying to deny credit for his greatest creation. "Look at this thing! One person building something like this on their own is something to really be proud of!" Mysty stated as she was still lost in the fact that this one male fox alone could make something so gigantic and elegant without any help. The size and complexity of the project just made a one-man construction crew sound completely ridiculous.
"Well, yeah, I guess you're right, Mysty," Tails reluctantly agreed as he never really enjoyed having someone sing his praises, even if he truly deserved it. "I'm just sad that you couldn't have seen her when the Blue Typhoon first took off on our adventure into space two years ago. She's all torn up now…" Tails admitted as he remembered the former glory of the now junked space vessel back when he was its captain.
"Does it still work, though?" Mysty had to ask as she was still intrigued at the massive behemoth Tails had created and now kept secret underneath his entire hillside that he called home.
"Not really," Tails answered, a bit of sadness leaking into his voice as he acknowledged the figurative death of his largest creation. "It took a lot of power to operate, so we had to use the Master Emerald just to get it to take off. But, once the Master Emerald shattered in our last fight and Knuckles took all the pieces back to Angel Island again so it would heal itself, there's never been enough power to turn it on again."
"That's sad," Mysty sympathized with Tails as she also considered it a shame that the Blue Typhoon likely would never fly again.
"It's OK, really," Tails countered Mysty's sympathy as he noticed she was trying to say things just to cheer him up. "She's too beat up to go anywhere now anyways. Plus, I doubt we'll need to be going on another adventure into space anytime soon, either," Tails reasoned as he demonstrated that fixing the aging and broken ship was more a mindless hobby for him than anything else.
A minute of silence passed as Mysty thought about how to reply and the conversation temporarily stalled. Finally, deciding that she should say something rather than have the two of them stare at each other endlessly, Mysty thought of an idea. "Could you maybe… show me the inside?" Mysty asked, not knowing what else to do if she was to be spending time with Tails right now.
"You want a tour? Well, OK, I guess," Tails accepted, seeming to be a bit enthused that Mysty showed so much interest in his work. "Just let me put this stuff away real quick," Tails told the eager vixen as he finally removed the goggles from his head completely and grabbed the unlit welding torch from the ground where he'd dropped it to hang both securely on his mobile welding unit. It was only now that Mysty first noticed the dark rings around Tails' eyes and slightly red cheeks Sonic had predicted on the otherwise perfectly normal behaving fox which betrayed the lingering extent of yesterday's sorrow. She tried to ignore the tell-tale signs, however, not wanting to bring back memories to the fox which he probably didn't want to go through again today as well.
"I guess we can just start here," Tails spoke as he turned back around from depositing his equipment to begin his tour. "Right through this big hole leads to the engine room where we had the Master Emerald powering the ship. You want a hand getting up there? Some of this steel is kinda sharp still," Tails offered as he intended to simply enter the ship through the giant hole in its hull he'd been working on seconds ago.
"I… Yes, I suppose," Mysty accepted the aid as she looked at the jagged and twisted metal along the edges of the opening and figured that she didn't really want to cut herself on any of that right now.
"OK, then just relax and hold still," Tails spoke calmly as he grabbed Mysty gently around her waist, an action that made her involuntarily jump in surprise, and proceeded to lift off using his spinning tails while holding on to her securely. Seconds later, Tails landed them safely beyond the dangerous opening in the ship's broken hull and let go, noticing that Mysty was now quaking in fear with her eyes clamped closed. "Sorry…" Tails apologized as he knew his contact with her had caused Mysty's great discomfort.
"No, it's… I'm OK, Tails," Mysty slowly responded as she willed herself to stop shaking and looked back up at the other fox gratefully. "I'll get over it; I promise," she stated as her frightened reactions to another person's touch, particularly males, now embarrassed her when she was just around Tails or his friends.
"Don't worry about it, Mysty. I think I understand," Tails reassured her as he then pointed to lead the way further down the long hallway into the expansive engine room of the Blue Typhoon. "You see, the Master Emerald went right there, and you could control its power and stuff from that observation post over there above it," Tails explained as he pointed out the important features in the room while Mysty looked on.
"But, where did you control the ship from?" Mysty eventually asked once she thought Tails was done with his explanation of the crucial engine room.
"Oh, that would be the bridge at the top of the Blue Typhoon's tower," Tails answered quickly. "Unfortunately, it got pretty destroyed in our last battle, and I haven't gotten to fixing it quite yet…" Tails explained as he scratched the back of his head again in slight embarrassment at the small oversight.
"Well, that's OK, then," Mysty responded, truthfully a bit disappointed as she'd have loved to have seen the nerve center of the ship where all the action and critical decision making took place.
Sensing her disappointment, however, Tails quickly offered Mystique an alternative. "But, there's always the secondary bridge we used once the first one got destroyed," Tails offered.
"Could we go there, then, Tails?" Mysty asked in an excited voice, happy that she might get to see what she wanted after all.
"Umm… Yeah, sure, why not?" Tails agreed as the two left the engine room and crossed the ship and up several decks to a lower portion of the Blue Typhoon's raised tower and into a barren room.
Mysty walked in and was confused, however, at the absence of any computers, controls, or displays of any kind in the blank white room. "How can you pilot a ship from a room like this?" Mysty asked Tails once she finally gave up on figuring it out herself.
"Heh, you're not the first one to ask that question, Mysty," Tails chuckled as he pressed a button near the door to the room and controls, workstations, and computer displays all popped out of rotating panels in the floor and walls of the room to reveal the backup operations center for the Blue Typhoon.
"That's incredible!" Mysty exclaimed as she only grew more impressed with Tails' ingenuity in designing this massive ship. A blank room that could convert into a pop-up ship's bridge in times of emergency proved not only Tails' creativity in designing the impressive vessel, but also his skill at having all this work flawlessly as well. "Was that your chair, Tails?" Mysty pointed out as she came closer to him in the back of the room and approached the most prominent and complex looking station in the center just against the far wall.
"Yep, that's it," Tails responded in a strangely flat tone, almost as if he despised the location greatly. Staring down at the controls, Tails momentarily saw himself sitting in them… Tears streamed down his eyes as Eggman's voice shouted to him over the intercom. Her voice inside his head, telling him to shoot… The final muttered 'I love you' he managed to say… And, finally, Tails' eyes settled on the small red button sitting atop the right hand controls. Craning his gaze up from the chair and its controls, Tails saw outside to the middle of the ship's runway and to the ruins of the Sonic Driver, the massive cannon that he'd overloaded with that one final shot…
Tearing his watery gaze away quickly from the almost overbearing force that held his eyes to the demolished structure directly outside the forward window, Tails turned abruptly for the door. Mysty, witnessing this suddenly, immediately followed Tails out into the hallway in concern. "Tails… I'm sorry. I shouldn't have…" Mysty began to apologize for the insensitive request of hers which had led to forcing the heartbroken fox to relive old memories once again.
"Don't be sorry, Mysty. It's… really just my fault. I'll be fine," Tails interrupted as he began walking off down the hallway.
Not sure if following the clearly troubled fox was a good idea or not, Mysty still fell in line several steps behind Tails as he walked off. After all, she didn't feel like getting herself lost in this maze of a spaceship, either, and surely Tails would understand that even if he was trying to be alone. To her surprise, however, Tails ended up stopping just around a corner after only a short walk down a few levels back into the ship's main structure.
"Here, Mysty, this is the dining room," Tails spoke as he tried still to recompose himself and continue the tour by opening the door and walking inside. Mysty obediently followed after and glanced around, seeing tables and chairs, a small stage for entertainment, and two large windows on one wall that would have looked out into space when the Blue Typhoon was in flight.
"It's pretty," Mysty hesitantly spoke as she hoped not to upset the emotional fox any further by accident. "I bet the view from those windows was beautiful when you where in space, too," Mysty imagined.
Tails' mind suddenly flashed back to a familiar scene as he gazed over to the windows blankly after Mysty's comment…
"Oh, I almost forgot! Here, Cosmo, you dropped this earlier, so I cleaned it up and polished it for ya," a shy fox spoke as he handed a small floral broach to the Seedrian beside him where the two stood alone at the window.
"Oh, Tails! Thank you! I'm so happy to have friends like you! But you've been so busy helping me and fixing Vector's ship…" Cosmo responded as she accepted the gift into her hands with a beaming smile full of gratitude.
"Heh, heh… It was no trouble, honest," the clearly uncomfortable but pleased fox stated as he shifted his gaze outside to the floating stars surrounding them, working up the courage inside to say what he always wanted to until the words started as if on their own. "You're so beautif... Ah!" the embarrassed fox cut himself off with both hands immediately clamping his mouth shut as he realized what he was about to say.
"Yes, they are all so beautiful, aren't they, Tails?" Cosmo answered back, clearly misinterpreting Tails' remark to be about the starry horizon outside the window instead of what he'd really meant. "That's why I'm so proud to help you and your friends save them all from those Metarex," Cosmo added as her resolve shone through as brightly as any of the points of light outside the window at that very moment.
The heavily embarrassed fox blushed profusely as he reached far behind his head with one hand in both relief and discomfort at the same time. "Yeah, me too," he responded sheepishly, feeling like he'd just caught a lucky break after almost admitting his growing feelings for the girl beside him…
"Tails? Tails?!" Mysty calmly raised her voice in concern as the male fox beside her stood rigidly frozen in place, his eyes seeming to view something that wasn't there. Luckily, her calling snapped the two-tailed fox back to consciousness as Tails shook his head momentarily to chase the memory out of his mind. "I… I think I've had enough of a tour now, Tails," Mysty spoke up as she realized that being inside the vessel was causing a considerable negative impact on him. So much so that Mysty no longer thought that her idea of a tour was really that good of an idea after all.
"O-OK," Tails shakily replied as he slowly lead the way out of the room and down to a hatch that opened near the front of the ship. Both fox's were eerily silent as they traveled, one too lost in his own emotions to speak and the other unsure of what to say to help the other.
Finally working up the courage to speak directly once they were both outside in the massive artificial underground chamber, Mysty turned back to the still shaken Tails to speak tentatively. "Tails, I'm really sorry. I know what you went through with Cosmo, and I shouldn't have made you go through all this the day after…" she began as Tails again cut her off with his own remarkably soft voice.
"No, it's OK, Mysty… It's just that, I loved her…" Tails muttered as his eyes watered up while he tried to hide them behind his balled up fists. "I just… I don't know how I could ever find someone like her again. Cosmo was just so… perfect. I was so sure of it…" Tails mumbled as the fox began to break down in front of Mysty despite all his efforts to avoid crying any more today.
"Tails…" Mysty started to speak herself, but words failed her as she doubted anything she could come up with to say would actually help.
"But… you know the weirdest thing?" Tails asked as he unexpectedly looked up at Mysty's own eyes and lowered his hands from his face to make direct contact, "Is that… you… remind me of her a lot, Mysty," Tails told the female fox blankly as he saw no reason to keep it a secret from her how he felt.
"I… understand," Mysty muttered back now, the confusion in her voice showing just how oxymoronic her statement was. "I'll leave then. I'll go back to the city where I belong so you won't be reminded of Cosmo all the time and be so sad," Mysty hesitantly resolved, willing to actually carry out her promise should it actually assist the grieving fox in any way.
"NO!" Tails immediately shouted loud enough for Mysty to jump in fright as soon as she finished. "Please, don't leave, Mysty! When I'm around you… it's… it's like I have a bit of her still here for me to hang on to. More than just a dumb flower from a seed… Please, I want you to stay," Tails begged, the broken down fox almost literally on his knees in his sudden grief.
Mysty stared at the sorry sight in shock. Someone as strong hearted as Tails, who'd gone through so much on his own already, needed her to help him? Maybe what he was saying was just from the impulse of the moment, the endless, unchanneled grief Tails felt that he still couldn't manage. Perhaps he really didn't feel for her as strongly as he now claimed. But, either way, Mysty was convinced to stay. Truth be told, her life before was no better than Tails', even if she couldn't account for all of it still. They needed each other, at least for this moment. "I won't go anywhere, Tails," Mysty finally answered softly as she kneeled down beside the crying fox and, despite her shyness about physical contact with males, allowed him to cry on her shoulder as Tails relieved himself of his emotions the only way he knew how anymore.
Hours passed into the afternoon as Tails calmed and told Mysty countless stories about times he'd spent with Cosmo, bearing his soul to the sensitive vixen as far as she would let him. Mysty, for her part, took interest in the stories Tails told her. It wasn't like some childish jock that couldn't stop talking about something they loved about their latest ex; Tails' stories were more deeply born, revealing things about the true nature of the torn fox which Mysty always wanted to understand ever since finding him, or rather him finding her, a couple days ago. By the time Tails had finally concluded, Mysty truly understood the source of his endless grief concerning Cosmo. After all, it very well was that he had been forced to murder the only one he'd ever truly loved. It would be one thing to lose someone you loved or to know that you were guilty of killing an individual yourself, but both of those together? Honestly, Mysty wondered why Tails wasn't always like he was now, broken down and sobbing constantly, or worse. She tried to understand what could possibly keep the fox going after all this heartache, that same force she knew also drove the reason for her own existence as well this far. Sadly, such questions seemed too deep to answer in one sitting, and all too soon Tails had fully recovered and led her back up in the elevator to his workshop's ground level once more.
"Thanks, Mysty… for everything," Tails gratefully told the somehow endlessly patient vixen who had stayed to comfort him the whole afternoon.
"No, thank you for sharing everything with me, Tails. I understand much better now," Mysty answered back as she surprised the male fox by gently sliding her hand into his.
Tails' white muzzle lit up quickly in a velvet blush for a second at the unanticipated contact as he let out a nervous chuckle. "So, uhh… Are ya hungry yet, Mysty?" Tails asked, partly to cover his embarrassment while the two found something else to do together for now.
Mysty's response, whatever it would be, was cut off by a rush of wind and a blue streak which entered the workshop from the open runway outside and came to a halt in front of the two fox's as a pink figure climbed down carefully from the blue one's arms. "Hey, bro! We got some real trouble goin' on back in the city! Looks like Eggman just came back out of retirement with one mean machine that's startin' to…" Sonic gave a rapid update of the emergency situation at a speed rivaled only by his feet until he awkwardly paused upon finally noticing the hands being shared between the two foxes in front of him. "Umm… Did we come at a bad time, little bro?" Sonic comically asked as the expression on his face betrayed multiple levels of confusion at the same time.
Mysty and Tails, both suddenly aware of the other's hand they had been holding for only a second now, immediately let go of each other as if their gloves where both scalding hot stovetops and each blushed slightly at having been caught in the unusual position of the moment. "No, Sonic," Tails finally interjected after a long enough pause to be just a little too long. "I… was just about to lead Mysty back up to the house for a bite to eat," Tails gave the truth, if not worded somewhat carefully so as not to arouse any more suspicion than might be justified.
"Really? And she can't follow you without holding hands because suddenly she's gone blind or something too, Hmm?" Amy interjected vehemently as her and Sonic's unfortunate timing at that exact moment only had risen her suspicions of the two spending time together alone at all.
"Amy!" Sonic shouted to his shrewd sounding wife in disgust. However, Sonic realized a second later that his outburst had only lead to all the attention instantly focusing back on him for an explanation to his scolding, especially by reading Amy's expression which told Sonic if he didn't have a really good reason for yelling at her this time he was going to get a mallet to the face in a matter of seconds. "Uhh… I mean, can't we talk about this later? Eggman's tearin' up the city, remember?!" Sonic brought the urgent reason for his sudden arrival to everyone's attention once more, thankfully saving himself from his potentially painful mistake in the process as well.
Tails was going to make a remark now about why Sonic had to bring Amy along if that was the real reason for his urgent visit, but, knowing the pink hedgehog as well as he did over the years spent around her, Tails figured Sonic probably had been given no choice in the matter of bringing her along either. "OK, we'll load up on the X-Tornado!" Tails dismissed the tense civil dispute for the good of saving those in more immediate danger back at the city where Eggman was attacking. Rushing over to the jet nearby, Tails immediately popped the forward cockpit canopy open and dove into his seat feet-first, starting up the engine and pre-flight checklist rapidly thanks to years of practice turning the process into instinct.
Amy and Sonic, also well versed in the rapid response mode by now, quickly took their appointed positions on the plane as well, Sonic standing on the root of the X-Tornado's tailfin just behind the second raised canopy and Amy in the forward seat of the second cockpit at the reserve controls built in should something happen to incapacitate the aircraft's pilot. Mysty, however, just stared blankly up at the X-Tornado in bewilderment as the craft's engines slowly cycled up with a growing aeronautical whine.
"What'cha just standing around for?!" Amy shouted to the unsure fox as she closed her own cockpit to be ready for takeoff, hoping that they wouldn't waste any time with the indecisive vixen when Eggman was already on the rampage.
"Am I coming with you?" Mysty asked in a normal voice that could barely be heard over the jet engines.
"Of course, Mysty! Why would we leave you here all alone?" Tails shouted back so the female fox could hear. "Hurry up and climb in behind me!" Tails rushed the still stunned fox by waving his arm quickly to the seat behind him in the forward cockpit.
Finally getting the idea that she was invited along, Mysty tried to hurry up the side of the aircraft and eventually into the open chair behind Tails, although it took the unpracticed vixen almost two whole minutes to finally be in place and ready. "OK, come on, Tails! Punch it!" Sonic shouted from the outside of the plane, eager to get some high velocity wind in his face.
Tails immediately obliged, shoving the throttle full forward as the runway and mechanically tilted fake palm trees rushed by in a blur before the jet was airborne. Climbing to a high altitude, Tails then aimed the X-Tornado straight towards Central City on the horizon and activated the Chaos Emerald enhanced afterburners, making the sleek fighter no more than a streak of light in the sky as it accelerated to maximum.
Mysty sat pinned down into her seat by the G-forces of supersonic flight, whimpering a bit to herself as the extreme speed scared her more than the excitement of the moment actually encouraged her, leaving Tails to overhear a muffled cry and turn around for a second to check on the frightened vixen behind him. "Don't worry, Mysty, everything's fine! I guess I just forgot to warn you that it's always scary the first time," Tails reassured her, now remembering to himself that he'd kept the speed much lower the first time he had transported the shy vixen in his fighter. Tails quickly throttled down now, though, as the X-Tornado streaked into the edge of the cityscape.
"There it is, Tails!" Amy's voice came over a headset to the front cockpit as Tails looked down to the direction the pink hedgehog in the cockpit behind him was pointing. Sure enough, down in the streets below a giant, dragon-like robot was crushing cars, buildings, and sending hundreds of frightened Mobians scurrying away for their lives.
"OK, Sonic, I'll try a straight forward assault!" Tails made sure the hedgehog on the plane's roof understood as the ace fox pilot banked the jet fighter sharply and dove down between the buildings to near street-level on a path directly towards the enemy robot. As the distance closed between the two machines, Tails let out a short round of high-caliber fire from his forward mounted guns, but wasn't too surprised when it seemed to have little or no effect on the giant wyvern-headed robot's thick armor. After years of fighting with Eggman, Tails knew that every creation he made was first and foremost almost entirely bullet-proof, if not stronger. However, the failure of Tails' initial attack told Sonic that it would be his turn as the blue hedgehog got into a ready position while Tails quickly pulled up out of his current collision course with the gigantic robot down the narrow street.
Just when the X-Tornado started to pass over the robotic monstrosity's head, Tails pressed a familiar button which ejected a glowing golden ring from the fighter's cannon and down towards the enemy robot. Seeing his cue, Sonic finally leapt off the back of the speeding jet, grabbed the glowing item in freefall, and used its strange power to curl up into an intense spinning blue buzz saw in midair, using the momentum of the X-Tornado's speed as well to send him right into the metal monster with remarkable force. Seconds later, all that could be seen of Sonic was a hole leading clean through the top to the bottom of the giant robot as the several story creation began falling apart in large pieces while small explosions blasted away most of its components, leaving only a pile of junk and twisted metal where the attacking robotic menace once stood.
Landing nearby where Sonic stood now observing his handiwork, safe and sound, Tails shut down the X-Tornado's engines while turning to help Mysty get out as Amy expertly hopped down from the other cockpit and rushed her husband with a large hug. "Oh, Sonic! I knew you wouldn't have any trouble stopping Eggman's newest robot!" Amy spoke while holding onto the squirming blue hedgehog tightly.
"Hey, Amy, get off of me, will ya!" Sonic cried out in exasperation. Even married she still had to act like this whenever he saved the day again. Sonic remembered once asking Tails why she always did it and the smart fox's assumption that it most likely was for the photo op the media would then take of the two together every time Sonic saved the city again. Sonic had to agree with him as well, too. Amy sure did know how to make a convincing scene…
"This can't be right," Tails spoke up suddenly as he and Mysty finally walked over from the parked X-Tornado nearby. "It was way too easy, Sonic. Eggman hasn't attacked in this long, and, now when he does, it's not even some kind of super-hard robot?" Tails voiced his concern as his gut feeling told him something more was going on here, possibly even a trap.
"Whoooo hoo hoo hoo hoooo! It seems like I never will be capable of fooling you, Tails!" Eggman's voice suddenly could be heard as all four Mobians' heads craned to look into the sky at a high floating chair above the current street they were standing in.
"Eggman!" Amy shouted in mild anger and surprise while quickly releasing Sonic at once as everyone but Mysty immediately identified the object and its occupant.
"Gee, bro, do ya always have ta be right all the time?" Sonic remarked to Tails sarcastically as he knew by simply the robust Doctor's appearance that this fight was barely started.
"Sometimes I wish I wasn't," Tails truthfully remarked as he made sure to place himself between Eggman and Mysty, determined to protect her if need be from any surprise Eggman might have in store.
"Ha ha! So nice of you all not to forget me that quickly during my little… 'robot designer's block', you might say!" Eggman shouted back as his pod finally came near enough to reveal the Doctor himself sitting cross-legged and eager in his own personal transportation device. "Oh, decided to bring the Missus along this time, Sonic? And what have we here following our friend Tails around today, too, Hmm? Perhaps you've finally grown tired of weeping for that dead plant of yours and decided to move on to something more your own species?" Eggman goaded the two heroes with his usual taunting before a battle, this time though inadvertently picking some particularly strong nerves on Tails to take advantage of, however.
"You helped Cosmo save all of our lives, Eggman!" Tails shouted in anger as he simply wouldn't abide the obese evil genius saying anything bad whatsoever about his late girlfriend.
"My, I can see that this is still quite a sensitive topic for you, Tails," Eggman answered back as he pretended to sound intimidated while allowing a devilish grin to sneak across his face. "I hope you understand how much baggage this little fox actually carries before you seriously consider dating him, my dear," Eggman then jokingly gave the advice to Mysty, who in turn was too shocked and confused to make any sort of response.
"Enough chit-chat, Egghead!" Sonic thankfully broke into the conversation, tearing it away from the dangerous area it had gotten into whether intentional or not. "I've already trashed your tin can robot, so now what?" Sonic asked, ready for action or, although he considered it highly unlikely, Eggman's surrender.
Eggman instead just laughed once more in amusement at the hedgehog's impatience. "I wonder why you never bothered to invite me to yesterday's party this year again, Sonic. Don't you think I deserved to enjoy it too? After all, if it wasn't for me and sacrificing my ship as well, you all would have been Meta-bait!" Eggman replied in his usual thoughtful tone.
"Are you saying that you attacked the city just because you weren't invited to our party?!" Amy shouted in disbelief. After all, even she didn't think Eggman was really that vain or shallow-minded.
"Of course not! As a matter of fact, it gave me plenty of time to catch up on some reading of mine I'd forgotten about. Tell us, Tails, did you ever become familiar while you were on Earth with the mythological creature called a Hydra?" Eggman asked, knowing that nobody but the two-tailed genius would have even likely heard of the name, much less remember anything about it.
"Yeah, Chuck had a book about it and all these other ancient Greek monsters I read once," Tails responded after only a moment's thought to register the name once again in his mind. "It was basically some giant monster with long dragon-like heads, but for every head you cut off several more grew out of where it had been. But why…?" Tails began to ask about the information's relevance until his own growing feeling of unease silenced the now slightly concerned fox.
"Whooo hoo hoo hoo! Let's just say that I've done that wonderful little story one better, Tails! Now, don't go spoiling the surprise for everyone else!" Eggman laughed as his floating chair quickly ascended into the air to a safe distance at rooftop level while the broken and mutilated pieces of the destroyed robot directly in front of the four Mobians suddenly started to shake and emit ominous sounds.
"Tails… What's goin' on here, bud?" Sonic asked tentatively and with a voice of impatience as all four Mobians crowded together as the junkyard of robotic pieces continued its unsettling movement.
Tails wasn't quite sure himself at first, but if what Eggman had brought up had any relevance whatsoever to the situation right now, that meant only one thing… "That giant robot you destroyed, Sonic, it's trying to rebuild itself!"
"So?" Sonic asked as he wondered how that should be such a big deal as to frighten his brother so much right now as the blue hedgehog glanced over at Tails in curiosity. "We took that thing down once already, so how hard can it be again?" Sonic posed the question.
"No, Sonic, it's not rebuilding itself like it was before," Tails quickly explained as he watched the shifting metal bonding, reshaping, and forming into hundreds of much smaller copies of itself all around them. "It's building hundreds of itself!" Tails finally found the courage to say out loud as an army of nearly completed and perfect scale versions of the original giant robot, now about as big each as any of the four Mobians standing there, began marching towards them.
"OK, this might be a bit more of a challenge…" Sonic admitted as the closing line of menacing, dragon-headed robot drones grew nearer.
"Tails…" Mysty's voice called out in fright as the male fox felt a shaking pair of hands hug his body in terror.
Stunned by the unusual contact, Tails felt himself begin to blush as he slowly turned around and gently forced Mysty's hands into his own. "Don't worry, Mysty. Sonic and I deal with this kind of thing all the time. You just stay here safe with Amy, OK?" Tails instructed as he gave her a reassuring smile, letting the frightened vixen's hands slowly fall from his and back to her sides as Tails turned back to face the closing enemy robots. Shifting his weight forward slightly while brandishing both tails out behind himself in a ready posture, Tails smirked as his eyes darted over to meet Sonic's own. "Ready?" the almost cocky fox asked his blue brother.
"Are you kiddin' me, bro? I've been ready!" Sonic responded as the hedgehog now shared the same self-assured grin. Then, without need for a word to signal 'go', the two brothers darted forward and into the thick of the advancing machines, leaving trails of broken metal as they reached the edge of the wall of enemies.
Mysty watched Sonic and Tails disappear into the midst of the menacing crowd of robots as one of her hands shot out as if to restrain the eager fox that was already gone. Listening to the sounds of Sonic and Tails fighting, robotic dragons firing beams of energy towards them from their mouths, and the almost constant smashing noises of metal on metal as the unlucky foes were flung into one another by the powerful blows and quick dodges both Sonic and Tails performed by instinct. Unable to see the fighters themselves in the chaos, however, Mysty couldn't help but feel like the hopelessly outnumbered duo was doomed and that the last she would see of either Tails or Sonic would be a gruesome sight indeed. Wondering why this had to happen so soon after just getting to know the two, Tails especially so, Mysty felt tears welling up in her eyes at the inevitable conclusion her mind told her this encounter would have.
It came as some surprise to her, then, as just when Mysty began to cover her eyes to weep, a white gloved hand attached to a pink arm quickly swatted the fox's own away. Looking up in pain and surprise, Mysty's watery gaze found Amy suddenly standing over her with a look of disgust on the pink hedgehog's face. "Hey, snap out of it! Don't tell me you're gonna cry every time those two do something dangerous," Amy scolded the over-worried vixen. "This is normal for them, trust me," Amy gave the crying female an almost unconcerned speech.
"But…?" Mysty started to contradict Amy weakly before realizing that she didn't really have anything to say. The pink hedgehog's argument was as solid as the proverbial brick wall, although it still took some time for Mysty to register the current situation as anything near normal. Looking back up to the pink hedgehog quickly to apologize as she realized her gaze had shifted towards the ground, Mysty instinctively ducked upon the instant sight of the female hedgehog's giant hammer on a course straight at her face.
Less than an instant later, the mighty swing of the hammer connected squarely with a mechanical object standing just behind the frightened vixen, sending the destroyed bot flying away to explode on a sidewalk harmlessly. Finally looking back up through shaking hands covering her eyes, Mysty witnessed Amy hefting her giant Piko Piko Hammer over her shoulder in pride with a satisfied smile on her face. "Trust me, Mysty, if you want Tails to like you, you've got to show that you're tough enough to do what he does," Amy tutored the still shaking vixen as the pink hedgehog immediately spun on her heel and drove her hammer into the circuits of another robot that had made the mistake of approaching too close to the mallet wielding menace. "I mean, I couldn't always wait around for Sonic to rescue me every time something happened," Amy continued speaking while fending off a few more robots at the same time, amazing Mysty at how she could multitask so well in a life-or-death situation.
Feeling the resolve slowly setting in like a burning sensation in her chest, Mysty realized that Amy had to be right. Tails would never approve of her being so shy and such a crybaby forever. It was time that she did something to help him for once and prove how much she appreciated all he and the others did for her already. Diving quickly into the thick of the enemy swarm while Amy strangely looked on but never stopped her, Mysty quickly sought out the other fox she knew was currently fighting somewhere in the sea of attacking metal lizards. "Tails! Tail… AHH!" Mysty screamed as suddenly a large metal jaw closed tightly around her large tail and lifted the helpless vixen into the air.
Meanwhile, as he and Sonic continued their rapid bashing of anything made of metal in the thick of the swarm of robotic dragon-like creations, the sweaty and tired fox quickly picked up the shrill scream with his large, attentive ears. "Mysty!" Tails shouted in concern as he quickly plunged his foot through a nearby robot's torso, causing it to explode, and immediately took to the air in search of the origin of the panicked cry. Spotting the female fox being held up in the air from the tide of sinister robots by her large tail, he immediately began a headlong dive at the vixen's captor, spiraling in midair as he approached so that his rapidly spinning tails sliced the robot's head clean off in one quick motion as he landed to catch the now falling vulpine.
"Mysty! What did you think you were doing?! It's dangerous here!" Tails reprimanded the other fox he'd just rescued. He distinctly remembered having told her to stay with Amy where it was safe before he and Sonic started fighting, so why would she even think about running in here to try and find him?
"I'm… I'm sorry, Tails… I just…" Mysty started to explain before she saw the robot Tails had just decapitated nearby seemingly grow a brand new set of three heads and quickly fire a beam of energy from each at the two. "LOOK OUT!!" she cried suddenly in warning as her eyes widened in fright.
Tails knew better than to take the extra time to actually trace Mysty's gaze back to the incoming blasts, however, as the fox instinctively shoved Mysty out of the way in front of him. Unfortunately, the her fright had caused Mysty's warning to be ever so slightly delayed to the point that Tails himself didn't have the time to completely clear the trio of blasts as well. Tripping in his rush and falling forward on top of Mysty, the two-tailed hero felt a searing heat from one of the beams graze him in the side of his torso, burning away all fur and flesh that it met instantly while Tails couldn't help but let out a scream of pain at the overwhelming sensory overload his nerves in the area now projected to the fox's brain.
Seconds later, Mysty looked up and noticed Tails' wound from the seeping bit of red slowly staining the remaining fur around it as the male fox's already heavily stained white gloves covered the burning injury itself, a look of extreme pain on Tails face as his teeth were barred against the overwhelming impulse to scream again. Luckily, only half a second later the robots surrounding the two simultaneously exploded as small, sharp, black objects simultaneously pierced their armor and triggered the self-destructs by severing each of their power cores. Looking up in confusion and fright, Mysty finally saw something that gave her hope standing nearby. Or rather, a trio of somethings.
"Whoa… Pretty snazzy work there, Espio!" Vector applauded the purple chameleon whose expertly thrown shuriken had saved the beleaguered vulpines.
"Naturally," Espio responded with a smirk of satisfaction as he stood up from his crouched position from which the lethal projectiles had been thrown.
"Show off," Charmy only scoffed as the three quickly rushed over to Mysty and Tails' aid.
"Hey, fancy mettin' you here after yesterday!" Vector greeted Mysty casually as the Chaotix quickly stood over the two collapsed foxes.
"Please… Tails is hurt!" Mysty cried back, forcing herself to try and fight back tears once more. This was all her fault; she knew it. If she hadn't tried to get in over her head and just listened to Tails earlier…
"What?!" Vector responded in a look of amazement. Sure, he'd seen Sonic and Tails fight against Eggman's robots before with impossible odds, but never had he known for either of them to be seriously injured in a battle, or at least not unless it was a really big and important fight.
Charmy didn't want to just take her word for it either and quickly hovered over Tails' side. "Whoa! Hey, guys! She's not kidding! Tails looks like he's really in lots of pain here!" Charmy responded after only a quick glance the fox's pain stricken face and the sizeable amounts of blood seeping out from around his gloved hands clamped tightly to his side.
"Vector," Espio's calm voice suddenly interjected as well. "Sonic needs our help. Without Tails, he will be hopelessly outnumbered," the ninja Mobian brought back the other major priority at the moment.
"Hurmm… OK, Charmy, you stay here and keep Tails and Missy company! Come on, Espio!" Vector motioned as the two ran off back into the thick of the robots to assist Sonic and also Amy in mopping up what still remained.
"It's 'Mysty', Detective Clueless! And why can't I come too?!" Charmy yelled at the two other members of the Chaotix as they left, but neither of them heard the aggravated bee's remark before they were both lost in the fighting as well. "Not fair! You bigger guys always get all the fun!" Charmy pouted loudly to himself as he kept his place hovering over Tails while observing intently the large fight nearby.
Mysty wasn't so enticed by the action, however, as she leaned apologetically over Tails. "Tails… I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…" she repeated to herself as tears fell from her eyes and onto the fur of the injured fox's fortunately unmarred white chest. Her leaning over him and crying was also the last thing Tails remembered too, before the injured fox began to feel strangely weak and slowly blacked out.
