UPDATE (6/11/17): Chapter edited to strengthen the writing.
December 22nd, 2011
Dear journal,
Sonic's awake! He's alive and awake and none of it feels real. He's smiling and talking and…still not quite right. He'll joke and laugh and smirk and act like he'll be on his feet tomorrow. And then, he kind of detaches. In those moments, you can't just look past his scars. You wonder if he's still really there or if his mind is back with the Metarex or if his joy is just a façade and the real Sonic is long gone…
And then he'll go back to normal. He'll smile again and act like he just got lost in his thoughts for a second. I think he's lying…I think the Metarex really messed him up. But I still don't want to call him on it. I don't think I can fix it.
Otherwise, it's business as usual. I'm sitting at my computer watching for signs of Metarex attacks. Normally, it feels pointless. Metarex are always attacking somewhere, and we can't fight every battle. But now that I'm wanted and Sonic's back, it's really important that we keep an eye out.
At the sound of his beeping screen, Tails threw his notebook aside. The screen displayed a variety of symbols across a vaguely topographical map. Although it would have been Greek to most, it wasn't to Tails. His eyes immediately fell on the Metarex attack taking place not many miles from them on what looked to be a home in the valley. Tails narrowed his eyes, and his heart quickened more than he liked. The attack was too close for comfort on a good day and with the Metarex now looking for Sonic on top of Tails…
Tails wondered if this was an attack to draw them out
Tails raced from the control room toward the infirmary. As he passed over the threshold, he shouted, "Chris! We have a situation!"
From his place beside Sonic, Chris stood up so quickly that the chair beneath him clattered to the ground. Sonic looked up at Tails, shock written all over his face. "Huh?"
"The Metarex are attacking in sector…" Tails closed his eyes, remembering the map like it was written on the inside of his eyelids. "…7-5-9. Only about six miles northwest of here."
Chris nodded once. "I'll get to the ships. You gather the rest of the team."
"Okay!" Tails replied.
"I wish I could help," Sonic said suddenly, freezing Tails in his tracks. His stomach squirmed. Sonic sounded so unlike himself that it made Tails's bones ache.
"It shouldn't be much longer before you can," Chris tried, sounding brightly hopeful. But Tails saw how little it helped when he glance back and saw Sonic's face pale beneath the furiously red scars burned into his fur and his skin.
Tails forced his legs to move, to flee the room before his pity for Sonic could hold him back from the battle, and headed straight to the kitchen. As he burst through the door, Tails shouted, "We're going to sector 7-5-9 for battle!"
Amy, Cosmo, Cream, and Cheese looked up from their places around the small kitchen. Cream's and Cheese's eyes widened immediately, and Cosmo paled soon after. Over at the sink, however, Amy rolled her eyes. "Wherever that is," Amy muttered as she wiped her hands on a dishtowel. But once she put the towel down on the edge of the sink, Tails could see all the way from the other side of the room that her hands shook.
"Where's Knuckles?" Tails asked.
Amy frowned. "I think I saw him going up to the Master Emerald."
"We're going to have to pick him up on the way there, then," Tails said.
Tails turned to dash out of the room, but before he could get sprinting again, Cosmo snatched up his hand and gripped it tight. It steadied the shaking that matched Amy's…the shaking he didn't recognize until Cosmo eased it. But the moment he had to let go of her hand to grasp the controls of the X-Tornado, he knew his panic would rise up again.
And the Metarex thought he was the threat?
-(-)-
The X-Tornado, Hyper Tornado, Hurricane Alpha, and Hurricane-2 reached sector 7-5-9 in minutes. Tails's heart froze at the sight of the damage. Metarex swarmed the rubble where a house once stood, where a family once lived. Tails's throat burned with unshed tears. No one among his friends commented on the damage, not even Cosmo sitting behind him, though Tails could only assume they were as affected as he was at the sight. And he got his confirmation when, instead of words, they reacted with missiles.
Tails shoved his controls forward and threw the X-Tornado into the fight. His missile crashed into the middle of a crowd of Metarex and they exploded in a dozen directions. But when he spun the ship around to realign his line of sight with the enemy, he felt how violently his hands shook on the controls. The vibration spread up his arms. He looked down at them, eyes wide. It didn't make any sense; he had battled hundreds of times before so why would he be so nervous?
Tails fired a laser, slicing through a line of Metarex. Their pieces erupted from where they once stood. The Metarex numbers dropped abruptly, and Tails's team were decimating more every second. He realized that against all odds, they were winning.
But still, Tails couldn't choke down the suffocating anxiety in his chest. Everything was making him nervous. His heart thundered loudly until it shook his body with every beat. Tails fired more and more at the Metarex. Light flashed, and Metarex fell apart until only a handful remained.
And then Tails couldn't catch his breath.
Memories flashed before his eyes without being called forward. The X-Tornado had been set on fire, sent hurtling toward the ground on so many occasions. So many times, Tails's life had been threatened. And so many other times, his friends had been shot down. A year ago, Amy's ship was shot down, and she had to hang on to the little scrap of life still in her while Tails took out the last of the Metarex in the battle. If he had failed, if he hadn't been quick enough—and he almost wasn't—then…
The same sensation overwhelmed now. Why? What was wrong?
I don't think this fear is normal, he thought.
"Tails, watch out!" Cosmo screamed.
Her cry ripped Tails from his memories, and his vision faded back just in time to see a flash of light from a Metarex weapon destroy the nose of the X-Tornado. Tails gasped but actual words completely failed him.
He tried to steer, but the controls slid around without any response from his craft.
-X-X-X-
Amy's View
Amy watched in silent horror as the X-Tornado plowed into the ground. She couldn't find her voice for what felt like minutes but must have been seconds as the front of the X-Tornado crumbled with the force of the crash before the entire craft flipped upside down. "TAILS! COSMO!" Amy screamed.
Amy's eyes filled with tears she could barely see through. They need to be okay; please let them be okay. But she doubted her prayer would be answered. A crash like that could kill remorselessly. A crash like that could crush them to dust. And if it didn't…it could make Tails and Cosmo wish they had been.
No. Amy refused to give up, to think like that. They were just kids; they're had to be some sort of rule that they were too young to die. She didn't even check to make sure the Metarex were obliterated; she just roughly landed her ship among the debris of the fight.
Her fingers fumbled with her seat restraints before she burst from her cockpit and ran to the half destroyed X-Tornado. Pieces of sheet metal had shredded on impact, covering the area where Tails and Cosmo had to be. Tears rushed down Amy's face, and she let them. The time wasted on wiping them away would cost precious seconds. "I'm right here!" she cried. And then in a smaller voice, more to herself than to Tails or Cosmo, "It's got to be okay."
Amy heard a muffled grown. That was all the strength she needed. She yanked at a piece of scrap metal, her muscles tearing and protesting, until she could see Cosmo. "Cosmo!" Amy cried, even though she was no more than two feet in front of her.
"I'm okay," Cosmo said, her voice achy and cracking.
"What about Tails? Is he okay? Can you tell?" Amy said.
"I don't know," Cosmo said slowly, like she was still catching up to Amy's words, and the air vanished from Amy's lungs.
Amy shoved the scrap just a little farther until she could pull Cosmo from the wreckage. She dragged Cosmo away a few feet so she would be clear in case the X-Tornado collapsed further. Though the thought of that alone sickened Amy and made her head spin. "Just stay there," Amy told her.
Amy rushed back over to the craft and began to pull at the debris. Her muscles strained and ached, but her desperate adrenaline was only going to get her so far. The more force she put on her muscles, the harder it was getting to move the metal. It barely budged in her grasp, but she didn't ease up for even a second. Tails would not die. Tails could not die.
Finally, she saw him, part of him, just a flash of yellow fur, really. She let out a sob, but Tails made no response. Her teeth stabbed into her bottom lip. One more piece of scrap metal, and she'd have a clear path to him.
Amy got a grip and pulled as hard as she could. She struggled, the heels of her boots digging into the ground and sliding against the dirt, but the metal refused to budge. She released, falling back a step. Deep breath, shake out her arms, and she stepped forward again. And when she yanked back again, this time the metal bent.
Her eyes flashed open, and she saw Knuckles pulling back on the metal beside her. Amy smiled, but the expression quickly vanished as she refocused on moving the scrap. It gave, but slowly, so slowly. Amy pulled so hard she forgot to breathe, and her head swam.
But then—it was finally enough. Amy's hands slipped from the metal, and she stumbled back a step. Knuckles threw up his arm so Amy fell against it and remained upright. Her eyes filled with tears again, but this time they were tears of joy.
Though they quickly turned to despair when she hurried forward again. Tails hung upside down, trapped in his harness with his eyes closed. When the glass to the cockpit shattered, it had sliced open his skin, and the blood from his wounds matted his fur. Amy clapped her hand over her mouth as another sob erupted from her. Not dead…he can't be dead…why does it look like he's…?
Chris dashed over then and right up to Tails, placing two fingers against Tails's neck. "He's got a pulse. It's barely there, but it's there," Chris said.
Amy allowed herself one breath of relief, but her body knew better. They weren't out of the woods yet. Her body shook with the anxiety to remind her that Tails wasn't dead yet.
Chris and Knuckles pulled Tails out of the wrecked form of the X-Tornado. "Tails needs medical attention immediately," Chris said. "I'll take him in the Hyper Tornado. Amy, you need to get Cosmo out of here."
Cream, who was kneeling down next to Cosmo, asked, "What can I do?"
Chris replied, "You and Knuckles try to salvage what you can of the X-Tornado. Amy can come back for you later."
If I don't have an emotional breakdown by then, Amy thought. But she just took another breath. Panic was not a luxury she could afford.
Amy helped Cosmo over to the Hurricane Alpha and shot off in the direction of their base as quickly as her craft allowed. "How did that even happen?" Amy whispered.
"I don't know," Cosmo replied, her voice breaking. "Tails seemed…distracted. I don't know; it was so unlike him. But I noticed a missile headed toward the nose of the plane, and he wasn't reacting. I shouted out to him, but by then we couldn't get out of the way in time."
It's not like Tails to get distracted, Amy thought. But out loud, she said, "Don't worry, Cosmo. Everything will be okay."
She just wished she believed the words herself.
