Ch 7
oOo
Sorry I didn't submit this earlier, but my computer died and was delayed. Unfortunately, I don't have a car and live in the middle of nowhere with no access to other computers. So when I got it fixed, I took a 'sick' day, chilled out for a little, and finished the chapter. I also realize that in my last submission, I may have singled a few of you out and called you morons. It's my fault as the writer if you could not understand it and I apologize. Well now that I have rambled on for the better part of a minute, he is the seventh chapter: No Idea
oOo
The night sky was very beautiful. One would think that the sky was black, but if you looked close enough, it was really a dark navy blue. Small stars lingered about as did the moon, sitting in the middle of the sky, illuminating everything. There he went again, analyzing the background.
Tails had leaned the seat of the X-Tornado down so he could lay down, and set the jet on auto pilot. He was going nowhere in particular, just in a straight line. Even with the X-Tornado being powered by several fake chaos emeralds, it could only go so fast, and after flying for a few hours, Tails could tell by the various gauges in the cockpit that he was on the complete opposite side of the planet.
As far away as I can get…
He lifted his seat back into the upright position and disabled the auto pilot, taking the control stick in his hand. Looking out of the window, he could see no place to land. Ocean covered everything underneath. However, the moonlight revealed a small island in the distance. As Tails got closer, he could see that it was all forest, no lights or buildings.
There was a large beach though, which was where Tails decided to land the X-Tornado. He opened the cockpit and stood on the nose of the jet, observing the area around him. It was a fairly large island, but not too huge. One could maybe walk across it in a few hours or so. The front part that he had landed on was a large beach and the rest of the visible part of the island was forest. It wasn't so much a tropical jungle as it was a regular deciduous forest with many pine, maple, and oak trees.
As he looked around, Tails could see no signs of civilization. No buildings, no lights, nothing. As far as he was concerned, the island was uninhabited, but he would fly over it tomorrow when it was light. Until then, he grabbed the duffle bag that he had packed and pulled out a small steel box with a red button on it. The yellow fox pushed it and tossed the box a few feet away from the jet onto the sand. In a short puff of smoke, it folded out into a one person tent.
Tails couldn't help but smile slightly at his own brilliance. He used to spend all day in his garage inventing small little things that one would think would be useless, or not very important. He saw it in a cartoon once; a tent or small house that expanded from a small box. The convenience of it now tickled him, if only for a moment.
The young kitsune tossed the duffle bag onto the sand and then grabbed the plant from the back seat and flew gently to the ground using his twin tails. He stood next to the tent and the size was now very noticeable. It was only slightly taller than Tails and wide enough to fit in maybe to people. He tossed the bag in and stepped in himself, plant in hand. Everything was pushed as far to the side as possible, leaving just enough room for Tails to lay down. He was very fortunate to have two large tails instead of one, not only because he could fly, but because he didn't need a pillow or blanket when he slept. One tail went behind his head to serve as a pillow and the other laid across him, serving as a blanket. It was actually quite comfortable
His plan for tomorrow was simple: check out the island and start on a real house. He had no desire to sleep in this tent for however long he decided to stay on this 'vacation', and checking into a hotel in a heavily populated part of town would draw some degree of attention. He was not as much as a celebrity as Sonic was, but he was still famous in his own right, and if Sonic or anyone wanted to find him, lots of people would be able to point him out. Being found was not on his list of things to do.
As he thought these things through, his eyes started to get heavy. Once he had finally settled down, he could feel how tired he was, though it was understandable as he had not slept in more than two days. It didn't take long for the young kitsune to fall asleep lying there, curled up in a fluffy yellow ball.
About 4 hours later…
Sunlight poured in between the branches of a large tree onto Sonic's face. For a while, he tried to ignore it and go back to sleep, but it was no use. He opened his eyes lazily while being careful not to look directly at the sun, which was now just above the horizon.
The blue hedgehog hopped out of the tree and looked around him. The sun was barely up, the grass was still wet from the dew, and a light, warm breeze blew through his quills. All perfect conditions for a young fox that he knew to be working in his garage. Sonic wondered if Tails had finished what he was working on yesterday, and dashed off in the direction of his friend's house, leaving a blue streak in his wake.
It took no more than a moment for the fastest thing alive to reach the beach front house. As he walked up to the door, he noticed that it was halfway open. Sonic found it a little odd and walked in.
"Tails?" he quietly called out while looking around the room.
Nothing was in the living room or in the kitchen. One interesting thing he noticed was that Cosmo's plant was gone. Sonic thought that Tails might still be in bed and he might have brought the plant up with him. The blue hedgehog started up the stairs and quietly opened the door at the top.
"Tails?" he whispered before noticing that the room was also empty,
Sonic sped down the stair and back outside, where he stopped in front of the open garage. Seeing that the X-Tornado was gone, maybe Tails had gone into town or just on a fly. But as he kept exploring, he noticed the piece of paper sitting on the table where Tails was working yesterday. It was folded with the up side saying 'Sonic' on it in Tails' handwriting.
"Hmm?" he mumbled while picking it up and then started to read it.
I'll be back someday…
Sorry, Miles Prower
"No…" Sonic felt a burning feeling in his chest. This could mean any number of things, and none of which were good. Was going to be gone for a few days or was he going to be gone forever? Sonic dropped the paper and sat limply in the chair near the desk, resting his head in his hands.
Was it something I did or said?Sonic felt an overwhelming sense of guilt flood over him. How could I let this happen? What could I have done different!
"So I see he did decide to leave" came a deep, calm voice that echoed through the empty hangar.
Sonic lifted his head up and stood to see none other than Shadow the Hedgehog. He immediately formed a very angry frown and even started to growl a little. Sonic thought that maybe whatever Shadow said to Tails the other day had made him leave.
"You knew about this?" the enraged blue hedgehog asked while slowly walking forward.
Shadow crossed his arms, seeming un-phased at Sonic's angry expression. "Yes" he replied, not sounding happy but very serious.
Sonic stopped right in front of Shadow, green eyes glaring at red. Sonic had calmed down a little but was still visibly pissed off. "Why didn't you try to stop him?"
Shadow uncrossed his arms and took his eyes off Sonic, looking at the floor. "It was his decision and I knew he didn't want me to tell anyone." He sounded almost apologetic. "So I didn't."
Sonic lost his grip and punched the dark hedgehog across the face. Shadow stumbled to the side and his head flew back. He regained his balance quickly and wiped his face, seeing a small drop of blood on his glove. The ebony hedgehog dashed forward and grabbed Sonic by the neck, slamming him into the wall. Sonic started to struggle, but Shadow pushed him harder against the wall, getting his attention.
Shadow looked deep into Sonic's eyes. "You have no idea what is happening to him, do you?"
Sonic was getting confused. Why did Shadow care? Shadow doesn't care about anything. After a brief moment of silence, Shadow spoke again. "I didn't think so." He loosened his grip on the blue hedgehog but still didn't let him go.
"He lost someone close to him, and if you are lucky, you will never know what that is like!" Shadow tossed Sonic to the ground. "He is doing what he feels is right. And as far as I'm concerned, he is doing a much better job of dealing with it than I did." He turned around and started to walk out of the garage. "If he wishes to be alone, then let him be alone…" After that statement, Shadow took off, skating out into the distance.
Sonic stood up and watched the orange streak disappear. Maybe Shadow was right. Tails had been through a lot and maybe he did just need to be alone for a while. But his note said 'I'll be back someday…' That could mean that he will be gone for a while. Tails was capable to taking care of himself, but he was only almost ten. He was still just a kid, but Sonic was confident that he would be fine for a while.
Sonic walked into the house and sat on the couch in the living room. He would give Tails a few days, and if he wasn't home, he was going to go get him. But until then, he had to think of how to tell the others. He knew that Amy and Cream in particular would be upset if he didn't come back soon.
Back on the small island, Tails had been sleeping comfortably for most of the night. However he had recently started to toss and turn. He was having another nightmare.
The young kitsune found himself standing back in Station Square in front of a large group of people. Everything was twisted and distorted with the colors all out of proportion. Buildings tilted over and the sky was a bright white with a large black sun. All of the people looked normal though, and were staring at something behind him, looking terrified. Tails fallowed their gaze to a bridge with a very large eggman missile pierced through it. He could feel eyes on him after a moment and turned to see all of the citizens looking at him. They thought that he would be able to stop it somehow.
Tails formed a frown and shrugged his shoulders. "What are you looking at me for? There's nothing I can do."
Everyone continued to look at him with hopeful eyes. Tails started to feel guilty and compelled to do something. "Sonic would know what to do" he mumbled to himself while looking at the ground in shame.
"Fine" he said while lifting his head up. "I'll give it a try!"
He spun his tails around and took to the sky, heading for the large missile. "Time for me to stand on my own two feet!"
The yellow fox landed on the bridge and used a screw driver to open a hatch on the side of the missile. There was a timer for about a minute and a half left with a few different colored wires attached to it. For a while, he was unsure of which one to cut, knowing that if he clipped the wrong one, he could detonate the missile. But the timer was running out, and he had to make a decision.
Tails was becoming slightly frustrated. "I'm good with technical stuff. I should be able to do this easily."
There was less than twenty seconds left on the timer. He took his cutters and placed them on a large red one. "I think this is it." But there was no more time for thinking, and he squeezed, snapping the wire in two.
Tails heard an extremely loud explosion and everything around him was engulfed in fire. He could feel the flesh being ripped from his bones as the missile detonated. It was going to kill him, all of his friends, all of the people, simply because he picked the wrong one. The only thing on his mind was guilt, and he couldn't hear or see. He just destroyed an entire city. As all of these thoughts flew through him, he couldn't see anymore, couldn't feel anything, and the dreadful explosion noise reentered his ears.
"AHHHHHHHH!"
Tails sat up as fast as Sonic could run. He was breathing heavily and sweating profusely. His surroundings reminded him that it was only a dream, but it still scared the hell out of him. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with quivering hands and stood up.
Everything seemed so real in the dream, but when he thought back on it, it was absurd. He clipped the right wire. It was the same one he clipped when he was still in that world. The missile didn't explode, nobody died, and everything was fine. He shook it off, but he was still shaken.
The young fox walked out of the tent and studied his surroundings. The island seemed much different during the day. The beach was covered in bright colored sand, the trees reflected brilliant shades of green and brown, and the sky was clear and warm. Judging by the sun, Tails guessed that he had slept in.
But now he had something to do: explore the island. He wanted to see what was on it and make sure there were no unfriendly peoples or creatures living on it. He spun his tails around and lifted into the air, heading towards the forest.
oOo
Don't expect the next one out by the weekend. Sorry, I'm lazy. But I will try to get it done as soon as possible without interfering with my school work or other stuff I do with my time. Now I'm starting to get how long this entire story will be, and I realized that it could easily be one of those thirty chapter ones. Seems kind of long, but when each chapter is only 2000 to 4000 words, it's not as long as you think.
