Act 2
Chapter 6
Phantasmagoria
Carlos turned the keys in the ignition and the engine purred into life. He revved it and he could just feel the power of his motorbike, this thing is going to sound great when he goes through a tunnel. Its chrome pipes also glinted and shone in the garage light making it a thing of beauty.
"Sweet" Terry said as he leaned against the wall his dark shades hiding his eyes. Carlos would've thought a turtle standing on its back legs and wearing sun glasses was unusual had he himself not been an Armadillo walking upright on its own back legs.
"It better be. I spent all day tuning up this baby" Carlos said patting the body of the bike as he got off it.
"Yeah, but I think the exhaust needs adjusting, it's got some mad rattle." Drake said.
"Impossible, I spent all day tuning it up!" Carlos said incredulously.
"I was talking about your mouth" Drake grinned.
"Shut up" If there was any such thing as a mean looking duck then Drake was the picture of it and he managed to pull it off very well. If you've ever had a duck chase after you from a pond, then that was the sort of image Drake had about him, a mad duck.
Slowly Carlos walked towards a shelf which had dozens of tools laid out on it specifically used to tune up their bikes and replaced a spanner he held idly in his hand back on the shelf. His eyes were drawn onto the far side of the shelf which sat a funny looking mouse thing that was actually made of metal except it had a large crack in its back and wires and springs sticking out through it. That pipsqueak had said it was fragile.
That metal mouse was some worthless piece of junk he'd 'borrowed' from a geeky fox years ago. It was cracked because after they 'borrowed' it they suddenly realised they wanted to play baseball but then realised there was no ball, they had that thing that looked ball shape if you squinted your eyes a little so they used that.
'Tailend', as they called him was almost on the point of tears when they destroyed it, and he was probably even more upset when they decided for him that he didn't want it back because it was broken. Ah, good times.
"Hey, Carlos your exhaust is rattling again" said Drake again.
"Shut up" Carlos said, why was the stupid duck making that stupid joke again?
"No, it really is rattling" Drake insisted. Carlos turned to look at his bikes exhaust and it was rattling very badly, which was odd because the engine was off.
"What did you do?" Carlos shouted as he ran to his babies' aid. Suddenly with the sound of a cannon firing off something shot out of the end of the exhaust and Carlos caught it right in the stomach knocking the wind out of him and forcing him to fall over and roll back onto his shell.
When he came to his senses he could see clearly what had just shot into his stomach from the narrow exhaust. It was... was he concussed or something? Because it was a fox in a green rubber mask covered in fake looking green fur and almost creepy, large, red eyes. The fox coughed into his hand as a dust cloud of soot cleared around them. The fox swung a brush over his shoulder, it looked like the sort you'd use to clean chimneys with.
"Alright Governor!" the fox said in a very thick and not very convincing cockney accent "Blimey, it was dusty up there, that's gonna cost you."
"What the... GET OFF ME!" the Armadillo shouted pushing the freaky looking fox off him and he got to his feet.
The fox carefully got to his own feet and began to gently and coolly brush himself down because he was covered in black soot.
"Who are you, what are you doing here?" the Armadillo said coming closer to the fox. But then the fox sped away very quickly and stood perfectly balanced on the seat of his bike. All the soot was now gone he was completely clean and his accent changed to what sounded like someone making a sales pitch.
"Let me ask you guys, have you ever been injured in a trip or fall?" Perplexed Carlos turned to Drake and Terry who just shrugged. The fox was imitating an advert about claiming from injuries and accident at work, he was obviously a nut case and Carlos turned back to the fox who continued his pitch.
"Well..." He reached into his jacket pockets and pulled out a long pair wooden poles that were far too long to fit into his pockets, and when they finally popped out they had a large, dull grey hammer attachment on one pole and a large axe on the other. "...would you 'like' to be injured in a trip or fall?" the fox grinned madly "Because I can only be too glad to oblige!"
"Holy crud, I must be seeing things!" Drake said rubbing his eyes with his wings and blinking a few times, this was obviously some sort of illusion. Then in the blink of an eye the fox had come to stand right next to Drake with his arm over the ducks shoulders.
"Really?" the fox said to Drake's last statement and titling his head to one side "I have a cure for that. How many fingers?" the fox said holding up his hand and raising two fingers. A little perplexed Drake answered. "Two"
"That's right!" the fox said dropping the fingers so they were level and pointing directly at Drakes eyes, which was exactly where they were heading. Drake jerked back and felt his eyes in pain as the fox pushed his fingers onto Drakes eyes and quickly withdrew them. "You see anything now?" the fox laughed.
Behind the fox Terry was slowly advancing on the nutty kid and spread his arms preparing to grab him. Very quickly however the fox spun around and pointed the flat end of the hammer that was still in his hand at the turtle as he prepared to pounce. Before that could happen something unexpected happened first. The front of the hammer sprung open like it had a pair of double doors on it and from its hollow insides extended a long boxing glove which smacked into the turtles stomach and sent him flying back into the wall with a bang.
"Wait your turn" the fox said spinning back to Carlos who was just about to grab him himself, but as his arms closed around the fox he vanished, just vanished!
A spike of pain ran from his tail up his back as someone pulled on his tail and pulled it upwards forcing him off his feet to hang upside down from the ceiling. He looked at his tail and saw the freak of a fox tying his it into a knot from an overhead pipe.
"Question time!" the fox announced looking down at Carlos from the pipe "If you stretched an armadillos tail out and tied it in a knot from a pipe, how angry would he be?" the fox laughed, leapt and landed back on the floor. "It's not nice to tie a tail or two into a knot is it?"
Drake was sneaking up on the fox with the intent of smacking him over the head with a heavy looking hammer, and he did. The hammer sharply impacted the fox's head and... small birds erupted from the kids head and started flying around his crown like in a cartoon and his eyes began to roll over and over in his head.
"Ow" he muttered "Now that was odd, do you know what was odd? I'll tell you!" he said rapidly as his head slowly and creepily turned to look at Drake "I didn't feel a thing!" and with that said the fox reverse kicked the duck in the stomach, and turned his attention back to Carlos. The fox came to stand next to him before turning back to Drake and Terry holding his hands out towards Carlos's inverted form.
"Now here we have the armadillo in its natural habitat..." the fox said in a very educated sounding accent of someone hosting a nature TV show. "...as we can see it has a soft underbelly" the fox said sharply kicking the armadillo in the stomach knocking the wind out of him and sending him into a spin for a brief moment before he stopped facing away from the fox. "...and has evolved an armoured shell to protect its back" the fox gently knocked on the shell "which is resistant against any attack as I shall demonstrate!" Carlos turned his head just enough to see the fox holding a very sturdy looking baseball bat and with a powerful swing smacked it into his back.
Carlos however didn't feel anything as the bat shattered into a million pieces upon impact leaving him unharmed. This didn't reassure Carlos however, because in his position he couldn't roll into a ball to protect all of him.
"But let's reverse evolution a few thousand years!" the fox said as he grabbed Carlo's shell and did something Carlos thought impossible. He managed to remove the shell from his back as if it was just an item of clothing, the action was painless and Carlos now felt very cold and vulnerable. The fox tossed the shell away into the corner of the room like it was a piece of junk.
"Now here we have the ancestor of the armadillo, the 'illo' without the protective shell. Now..." though Carlos couldn't see it he imagined the fox was grinning like a loon again "...let's run that test again!" the fox said now holding another bat in his hand, where the heck was he getting all these tools? He cocked his arm back ready to swing it into the 'Illos' back, Carlos closed his eyes and waited for the impact. But it never came.
He heard what sounded like a bat clattering onto the floor. He opened his eyes and he could see Terry the Turtle standing where the fox was just a second ago and was standing in a way to suggest he'd just rammed into the fox, which was true because the fox shot past his face very quickly and uncontrollably impacted the shelf with all their tools on it which began to creak very worryingly.
Slowly the tall shelf started to fall forwards and was going to land on top of the fox. The green rodent got to his feet not noticing the danger and when he did it was too late. The shelf landed on him with a bang and a loud clattering of tools. The only indication that someone was under it was the guys left arm which looked like it was withering in agony before falling still and... started drummed its fingers on the floor as if it was trying to work something out.
The arm placed its hand on the shelf and pushed it upwards a little. At first Carlos thought the fox had vanished because apart from a few scattered tools it looked like the green fox had just disappeared probably luckily though a hole in the floor, but no, he couldn't see a hole in the floor the fox was gone, but then where was that arm coming from? Looking closely where the arm was it appeared to just sprout out of the ground and... now Carlos could now see the fox clearly, and his eyes widened and his mouth opened a little in shock. The kid had been crushed into the floor flatter then a pan cake, and he was still alive!
Sharply the fox pushed the shelf off himself with such force it flew back and righted itself against the wall letting Carlos, Drake and Terry see that the fox was squashed into the floor like in a cartoon. The hand reached back and grabbed a lock of fur from his head and pulled. His face quickly peeled off the floor but his eyes stayed stuck onto the concrete momentarily as his face left the floor, they were attached to his head only by long, white stalks which were quickly put under tension forcing his eyes to peel off and snap back into his eye sockets.
"Sometimes, you guys really leave me flat!" Quickly the fox peeled himself completely off the floor and just stood there standing on his flat feet looking down at himself as if he'd never seen anything like this before. "Hmm. That's interesting" the fox said checking out his normal arm and comparing it to his flattened arm.
He shook his normal hand and something dropped from his sleeve on a string. From Carlos' upside down position he could clearly see it said 'Pull to inflate' and the fox did pull on it with his flat hand. There was a ping followed by a hissing noise, and in the next moment the fox's body practically exploded outwards and ballooned out like he was an inflatable animal before his form settled back down into his normal self.
"What the heck are you?" Drake shouted at him struggling to get down from the ceiling and get away from this lunatic. The fox glared at him with dislike as his tail raised upwards in annoyance, no not tail, 'tails'. Carlos just realised the fox had two tails.
Terry, not deterred by this freaky sight knelt down and ran at the fox like a bull ready to run him down again, and the fox slipped one foot a little further behind him and leaned back into a fighting stance ready to fight, or jump out of the way or slip between the turtles legs, that's what Carlos expected, but that's not what happened.
The fox suddenly and without explanation produced a large looking cooking pot, one that was large enough to contain a full turtle because Terry rammed into it and tipped it over onto its base where it was now sitting on a giant lit stove, the pot rapidly filled with water nearly up to the brim from an unknown source.
The fox disappeared behind the pot and emerged the other side dressed like a chef with a big floppy hat and everything. "Make sure the pan is full of water, and sealed like so!" the fox said in a French accent as he slammed a lid on top of the pan and clamped it shut. "Now preheat for fifteen minutes and if there's still life in him... " He said as he leapt up to sit on top of the lid that started to steam madly "...then he's a witch!"
The pot lid rattled and rumbled as Terry tried to break out of it, but his struggles didn't break the pots surface or the clamps or even put a dent in it.
Drake the duck took a few steps back in utter disbelief, his lower bill dropping open in horror and he turned and prepared to run from this mad fox, but the fox had somehow managed to get behind him within the blink of an eye preventing his retreat. "Now for ze duck!"
In a panic Drake pulled back his wing and prepared to smack him in the face. But before the punch could land the fox raised his leg and kicked the duck sharply in the stomach causing him to double over. The fox then swept the ducks feet out from under him causing the duck to land on what looked like an oversized chopping board that wasn't there a second ago. Carlos could tell it was chopping board because it had large knife cuts in it.
Rapidly the fox ran around Drake with the sort of speed you only see in cartoons and Drake yelped loudly a few times as he raced around. When the fox stopped he tossed a tone of feathers into the air, feathers he'd plucked from Drake leaving him totally feather-less. Drake tried to get up but he was now held down by straps and rope.
"Now that's the duck plucked and stuffed..." the fox in the chiefs' outfit said slowly walking towards Drakes head and reached into his pocket. "...now all that remains..." and from his pocket he pulled out a very sharp looking axe "...is to kill it!"
Tails raised the axe and prepared to swipe it down. It was what Drake deserved, he'd stuck a knife in one of his inventions and removed its CPU so it was only fair that he removed his head. With the axe now behind his back and what felt like thunder, angry thunder ringing in his head he brought the axe down. But his muscles suddenly went into spasm and locked up. The sharp blade of the axe stopped just a hairs distance from Drakes neck.
'Whoa, whoa, whoa, WHOA!' said a voice in Tails' head 'what the heck am I doing?' He blinked a little as his brain suddenly realised what he was about to do. He looked at the sharp axe in his hand just nearly resting on a cowering Drake's neck, the ducks eyes were closed and close to tears.
What was he doing? He just wanted to humiliate them a little, maybe rough them up but this was going way too far, no he didn't want this! He lifted the axe up and tossed it into the side of the cooking pot causing it to burst open spilling its contents and releasing Terry from that death trap.
Tails took deep breaths as he looked around at the devastation he was causing and he fought to focus his thoughts. At least he could think now, before he could only rely on his instincts and for some reason he just couldn't think clearly at the time. Thinking about what he nearly did was too much, he was starting to hyperventilate!
Coming to his senses he wound his tails up and let them spin around rapidly forcing him to lift off rapidly into the sky and away from those three.
For some reason that one moment he nearly chopped Drake brought his mind back into perspective and made him realise what he was doing just in time. Wearing this mask was like a constant struggle to remain in control and he was in control to an extent. He wasn't possessed or anything like that, at least it didn't feel that way. It was as if someone had transplanted a new personality in place of his own, or something about him was taken away that would've stopped him otherwise. It was still him having these thoughts, still him doing these actions of his own free will, it just felt like the little voice in his head that tells him when enough was enough was silenced.
Now though he found he could remain in control of his actions and his thoughts as long as he remained focused because his mind was a jumble of thoughts of revenge, of food and a million other things he didn't understand the meaning of. But before he put the Mask on he could sort these thoughts out and choose whether or not to act on them but while he was wearing this mask he just has the urge to just do them and to heck with the consequences.
Tails took a deep breath, he should be fine now. As long as he remains focused he should be able to control this things awesome power and channel it for the purpose of good.
Sonic finally made it into Station Square, it took him quite a while to get there and he was only about twenty minutes or so behind Tails. That mask really made him more than supersonic it made him ultrasonic, he'd never seen anyone move so fast unaided by technology before in his life and in a little way Sonic felt a little jealous about it.
The hedgehog came to a stop in the main square of the city and looked around. Tails could be in any direction, on any floor, he could be anywhere in this city and with the speeds the fox could now get up to he could get from one side of the city to the other in seconds. Sonic could spend hours searching the city and not find him, and that's exactly what it felt like because he raced around and around the city searching Tails' usual stops like a local hardware store, DIY shop, the library none were open since it was still night time so it was unlikely Tails would be there anyway.
Tails had mentioned 'repaying a few bruises' before he took off. Sonic really hoped his friend wasn't going to do something he'd later regret. He knew Tails had been bullied for his odd appearance and his fascination with machines, two individual things which singled him out and made him a target. But Tails rarely spoke of before they met and Sonic wasn't the kind of person to pry into such personal matters, so he really had no clue who these 'bruises' were going to be repaid to.
Since rushing around the city wasn't helping him find Tails he decided to slow down to a walk. He ordered a chilly dog from a late opening vender on the street and slowly ate it as he walked, hey he had to eat and all this running around had made him hungry. He listened intently for any noise that might indicate where that fox in a mask had got to but all he could hear were the normal sounds of a busy city.
Looking up at a clock in the square he noticed it was midnight. Sonic had spent hours searching and so far turned up zip. That was until a few minutes later when he heard some commotion coming from some garages down a dark ally.
"Who was that green faced freak?" asked a rough sounding voice.
Sonic ate the last few mouthfuls of his chilly dog and licked the chilly that had split from it off his fingers before approaching the side alley being careful to remain out of sight.
"Wait until I get my hands on him, I'll kill him!" the voice said.
"He tried to kill me!" said a higher pitched voice.
"Maybe we should call the cops." Suggested a third voice that sounded like it was in pain.
Whoa, wait a sec. Did he just hear that right? Tails tried to kill someone? No, no he must've misheard, Tails wouldn't hurt a fly, he was mostly harmless unless you locked him in a warehouse full of mechanical parts but he'd never try to kill someone. Even throughout all their battles with Robotnik Tails had never appeared anything except harmless and innocent.
He was thinking of stepping out to ask where the green faced guy had gone when someone asked that question for him.
"Which way did he go? I'll kill him!" the rough sounding voice fumed.
"We didn't see where he went Carlos."
Sonic risked a glance around the corner and saw an armadillo with its protective armour shell missing –guess that made him an Illo-, a duck with all its feathers plucked and a very wet and red looking turtle, red as if he'd been burnt or boiled. This said one thing to Sonic, Tails had paid back the bruises he was talking about but none of them looked like they had been beaten to within an inch of their lives or nearly killed. They must be over reacting. Sonic saw firsthand what Amy could do in that mask and if Tails had intended to kill them then it would've been wholly within his power. Sonic had to shake his head, that thought sounded ridicules, Tails wouldn't hurt anyone even if the Mask did seem to cause some kind of shift in his personality, but if that shift was enough to make him do that to a bunch of bullies what else un-Tails-like would he do?
Sonic took off before any of them spotted him, they clearly had no other information of value to him. Where could Tails be now? Was he still in Station Square, was he back at his workshop? Sonic prided himself on keeping cool in unbelievably tense situations but this was really starting to worry him.
Suddenly Sonic spotted something and came to an immediate stop outside a movie theatre where a large crowd of humans seemed to have gathered around the entrance staring at something on the floor and from the centre of this crowd Sonic heard laughter, hysterical laughter.
Slowly he approached and squeezed through the crowd of much taller humans until he found what they were looking at. It was Tails! He was on his back, hands on stomach laughing as if someone had told him the universes funniest joke and he just couldn't stop. He was kicking his legs out as he rolled from one side of the floor to the other.
"Tails!" Sonic shouted to get his friend to acknowledge him.
"Hi Sonic!" Tails managed to say before bursting into laughter again.
"What's so funny?" Sonic asked putting his hands on his hips and looked at the green faced fox with a look that looked stern but in a cool sort of way.
Tails got to his feet and managed to curb his laughter long enough to speak. "I've just caught the midnight movie." He said pointing at the billboard over the cinema entrance advertising what was showing. 'The complete Saw Trilogy'
"Tails, you hate gory stuff like that." Sonic said raising an eyebrow, if there was anything more un-Tails like then this was it. It was a gory horror type movie that he shouldn't even be able to see at his age and it was dark and gruesome so what was so funny about it?
Tails grinned "I've just sat and watched the entire Saw trilogy at triple speed 4 times and IT KEEPS GETTING FUNNIER EVERY SINGLE TIME I SEE IT!" Tails, no this wasn't Tails anymore, that grin he'd just given Sonic along with that crazed look in his eyes sealed the fate of that illusion.
"Have you ever seen Saw? I've just saw Saw, I saw Saw four times. I even saw Saw 2, did you see Saw 2? Well I saw Saw 2 to!" he said this very fast "It gives me the feeling whoever came up with that title is seriously trying to mess with our minds!" he chuckled.
"I think it's time I removed that mask" Sonic said refusing to refer to this creature as Tails. The hedgehog adopted a fighting stance and prepared to fight his friend for his friend, if that made any sense.
"Oh" Tails moaned insincerely "Do you have to go so soon?" what was he talking about?
Suddenly Tails' legs became a whirl of motion but he did not move as if he was running on the spot, then he... he stepped out of the whirling effect as if he was stepping out of a car and the whirling effects just kept on going. Surprised at this sight Sonic wasn't ready for when Tails reached out and clamped his hand down on top of Sonic's head and lifted him up off the ground with just one hand and dropped him on top of that whirling thing. The moment he landed in it Sonic felt his legs suddenly jump to life and start turning and running at a mad pace, quicker than any pace he could ever do. Tails let go of his head and Sonic yelped in surprise as he shot forward at an uncontrollable run zooming out of the city in a matter of seconds and was unable to slow down or stop.
The last thing he heard from the thing in control of Tails was a smartalic remark.
"HEY, WHEN YOU ARRIVE IN AUSTRALIA DROP ME A POSTCARD!"
Tails watched Sonic vanish in a trail of smoke into the distance. He didn't know what possessed him to do that to Sonic only that it came into his head and something was forcing him to do it, he didn't even have to think about it, he just did it.
Tails shook his head and took in a deep breath. Hopefully Sonic won't be too annoyed at what he's done when he finally catches back up with him. He took another deep breath. The power this mask had was very difficult to control, it was as if a massive amount of energy was trying to squeeze its way through his body, like water spilling out of an open dam, the torrent was just as powerful if not more.
The green headed fox was suddenly aware that he was still surrounded by dozens of staring people who'd just watched him kick off in hysterics and sent the worlds' fastest hedgehog on a run beyond even Sonic's speed limit.
"Hey, why don't you all take a picture? It lasts longer!" he said but why did he say it, he didn't want to? He had to get out of here, he had to think again.
He bent his knees looked up and he suddenly found himself being fired into the air as jets of flames erupted from the souls of his trainers.
To control this thing took an amazing amount of concentration to pull off, it was difficult because there were a thousand voices chattering away to him inside his own head each wanting a say in what he was going to do next but he couldn't single out the voice of his conscience or his reason because all the voices were equally loud. It was like trying to talk to someone when there are a thousand other people chattering around you, and you're blind so you can't tell who it is you want to talk to, it was close to impossible.
An idea formed in his head. Remove the Mask.It said, but that idea was soon pushed out of his mind before Tails could even register it as an idea. Like a dream it just faded away and he forgot he'd even thought it.
He just had to focus, to concentrate. He closed his eyes and listened to the voices in his head –despite the dangers of flying blind by rocket shoes- and tried to sort them out himself, but it was difficult. One voice was saying 'Boy, I sure could go for an ice-cream' another was thinking 'I wonder if that girl just down the street from my house likes me' a third was thinking 'I wanna go out and see what all the fuss about night clubs is about' and while he was rocketing through the air a fourth was singing.
"I'm a rocket man!"
'Rocket man'
"Burning out his fuse up here alone"
Suddenly he registered a hissing noise that became louder and louder until it was so loud it threatened to explode, and it did as something blasted into him from the back and his rocket shoes misfired and died.
"MAYDAY, MAYDAY, I'M GOING DOWN!" Tails screamed as the ground quickly started to approach him "MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MOTHER'S DAY, FATHER'S DAY, INDEPENDENTS DAY, SAINT GEORGES DAY, THE FITHTEETH WEDNESDAY AFTER PENTYCOST!"
Smack! Tail landed face first on solid rock and… he felt fine, in fact he didn't feel anything, no pain, no unpleasant stinging, not even an ache. He was totally fine. Weird.
He tried to pushed himself up but, and this was even weirder, his head appeared to be fused to the ground. He reached up and felt for his head but it wasn't there! He felt around for it, was it buried in the ground? He felt his fingers press against the back of his head, but his head felt as flat as a pan cake. Anyone looking at Tails would've thought he had his head buried in the ground but upon closer inspection you could see that his head was plastered to the stone floor as if a steamroller had just gone over it.
Frantically Tails felt for the edges of his head, it sounded ridicules but once he found his outline he pulled on it and his face gently peeled off the ground like a wad of gum stuck to the pavement.
With his head now peeled off Tails now had to work out how to un-flatten it. But like last time he instinctively knew what to do. He reached for a small bulb like spot on the front of his face he knew was his nose and while holding the hair at the back of his head Tails stretched his head outwards. His eyeballs popped back into existence and bulged out of his stretched face which snapped out of its flat position but was still very, very long and as soon as he let go it all slapped back into its original shape.
"Did anyone catch the number of that surface to air missile?" he asked his mind in a slight daze. What the heck had hit him and why wasn't he dead from the impact? He wasn't in Station Square anymore he could see that, he appeared to be in a flat wilderness standing on rough rocky ground.
Then the answer to his first question came as something small gently descended from the night sky. At first Tails thought it was Sonic again but that wasn't possible because Sonic couldn't fly, not without the combined Chaos Emeralds at least.
A great deal of dust blew up from the rocks around him as this thing started to land, it was obviously some kind of machine, a machine that looked a lot like Sonic. It's large bulb like head was made of smooth polished, blue metal with a black visor and red dots for eyes. The body was smaller than the head and appeared to have a jet engine installed where it's stomach should be and its skinny silver arms ended in hands with claws rather than fingers, his legs look much too stiff to be used for running but were quite useful when it came to landing.
Metal Sonic stood impressively like the villain of an epic thriller. His armour was highly polished and reflective which caught the glow of the moonlight in an eerie sort of way and its red eyes seemed to be scanning Tails intently, like the robot in Terminator.
"Hey, I know you" Tails said to the tin hedgehog, he knew it was Metal Sonic but that's not the sentence that left his mouth "I loved you in the wizard of Oz."
Metal Sonic slowly started to advance menacingly. Despite being a robot it had some very life like attributes such as menacing body language but apart from being menacing and frightening it wasn't capable of any other expression. Either way it looked at Tails like it meant him harm.
"You didn't get that heart you wanted did you?" Tails quipped, he didn't know why but even now all he wanted to do was just dance around and joke. "Now, now…" the fox said holding up his hands to show he was unarmed but continued to stand his ground. "I don't think Dorothy would like it if you pummelled the cowardly Lion."
All these quips didn't do anything to stop Metal from coming closer and closer, but then suddenly an idea formed in Tails' head and though he thought it wouldn't work he found himself doing it anyway.
"Hey, Metal. What's that?" he said looking beyond Metal at nothing, and amazingly Metal stopped and turned to look. What an idiot! Tails grinned manically and pulled a very warped face at Metal before shooting off in the opposite direction before the robot could turn back around again.
When the robot hedgehog did turn around and register Tails had vanished it began the process of quickly warming up its engines for a quick blast off. But before it could speed away Tails appeared again as if out of nowhere, quickly reached into his jacket and pulled out a large mallet that he swung around his back and slammed right onto Metals feet.
Reality was warped even further because that action caused Metal's head to fly off his body on an extendable neck, something that was not built into his original design. His head rose so far up it clanged into a bell which chose to materialize itself directly above making him into more of a fare ground game.
Tails swung the mallet back so it rested on his shoulder and grinned as he looked up at Metal who seemed to be having trouble adjusting to his new longer neck. His arms and hands fumbled to reach up and pull it back down again but sadly for Metal they were too short.
"You're going to have trouble picking your nose." Tails grinned. The mallet vanished and the fox prepared to run away again. He felt himself take off at high speed but came to a stop pretty rapidly when he felt Metal's claws grab hold of his tails.
"Hey! Let go!" Tails commanded "Off with you!" but Metal remained silent and intimidating, even as his comically long neck retracted back into his body casing. Tails struggled for a good few seconds before deciding on his next course of action.
"Okay, buddy. You asked for this!" Tails stood still and started spinning his tails in the same manner he would if he was flying. Metal still didn't let go but he was unlucky enough to be caught in the twisting tails. A large swirl of yellow, white, blue and red was all that could be seen as Tails continued to try to dislodge the irritating lump of metal and plastic from him, but his grip remained strong. Then Tails suddenly got another crazy sounding and implausible idea in his head.
Since Metal wouldn't let go of his tails, Tails simply 'let go' of his tails in a manner of speaking. Metal flew off high into the sky clutching a twin pair of tails which just detached from Tails himself who instantaneously appeared to grow two new ones. Freaky!
"Hey, saves time going to a retail store" he said to no one in particular. Why was he talking to himself, that was the first sign of madness and he wasn't mad, oh no, it was the rest of the world that was mad.
The masked fox turned to watch Metal vanish into nothing. "Tinhog is going, going, going… GOOOONE… WHOA!" Something just rushed up behind him and grabbed him in a very specific place, his face, his mask! Tails twisted himself round and found himself face to face again with…
"HEY! Hasn't some car ran you over yet!" Tails said to Sonic.
"I'm not joking anymore, give it up!" Sonic said but no matter how much effort the blue hedgehog put into pulling the rubbery active form of the Mask it only stretched and stubbornly refused to leave the fox's face.
"Get off my face!" Tails screamed "You can't have it back! It's mine!"
From behind Sonic, Tails saw something glinting in the night and the solid form of Metal started rushing down again right towards him. What was with him? What was it about Tails that attracted the robots attention so much?
"Look out, behind you!" Tails screamed a warning to Sonic suddenly feeling fearful for his friends life, but the hedgehog didn't pay the warning any mind nor did he look like he was taking him seriously. Sonic just continued to pull on the Mask but did manage to say "That's the oldest trick in the book!" before Metal slammed into both of them with almost deadly force.
Sonic rolled over Tails and was catapulted out of the way by Metals charging attack and when the hedgehog did start flying off in another direction Tails felt the pours on his face scream in agony. It felt like an enormous band aid had been forcefully ripped off his entire face.
He could think clearly again! His mind felt like doors were closing around it shutting out the excess noise and chatter, as if his mind was sealing itself back inside his head again, he felt normal, like he did before he put the Mask on. But as soon as he realized that he felt cold, metallic claws curl around his throat and lift him up off the ground making his breathing difficult.
Tails gasped and opened his eyes. Metal had him in a choking grip and if Tails didn't know better he'd say Metal had a sort of vaguely confusion look about him. Tails could hear the sensors and optical cameras in Metal's head whirling as if to make sense of him and as Tails gazed into that black visor it had he saw his own reflection.
That's why he felt so normal, it was because he was normal. His face was as it should be, yellow and white with blue eyes. The Mask must've come off his face when Metal rammed into them, but where the heck was it now? However that wasn't his immediate problem, because Tails got the sense that Metal was trying to decide whether it was worth killing him.
Sonic felt the sharp impact at his back. At first he expected that the thing controlling Tails had managed to attack him again, but as he flipped over out of the way he could see it was Metal Sonic. What was he doing here?
Though Sonic was bashed out of the way he refused to let go of that rubber mask and he felt it peel straight off his friends face as he flew over the foxes head. But then Sonic lost his grip on the thing when its stretchy rubber like substance suddenly snapped back, reformed and hardened back into wood and because of that quick transformation it flew out of his hands.
The hedgehog tried to manoeuvre himself so he could land back on his feet to engage Metal in battle because if Metal was here then they were in trouble, but unfortunately Sonic didn't have enough height to do this and ended up bashing his head against the solid stone ground.
He rolled over once or twice before coming to rest on his back. He lay there in a daze with his eyes tightly shut for a few seconds to let the pain pass. He heard what sounded like his best friend being choked by Metal. Sonic had to do something, but when he opened his eyes all he could see was the darkness of the sky which was unfocused due to his knock on the head. He had to save Tails but he just felt confused and concussed.
Slowly his vision began to clear and Sonic could see something in the sky above him that descending towards him rapidly, what the heck was that thing? He blinked and his vision started to clear up and became more focused. The thing about to land on him wasn't Metals foot or Metal's fist or anything like that, it looked too… green.
Suddenly the image resolved itself after a few seconds to reveal itself to be the solid wooden form of the Mask. Great, he'd managed to get it off Tails but now it was rapidly descending towards him facing upwards about to land on his own face!
"Uh oh!" Alerted to this fact Sonic was about to raise his arms and catch it, but his movements were too sluggish. The wooden Mask landed firmly on Sonic's face and pressed hard on his nose when it did. Sonic couldn't move, his body just felt paralyzed as if in shock, and he felt energy, lots and lots and lots of energy force its way through his face and rapidly spreading to the other parts of his body. His body trembled like he was having a fit making any movements he tried to make useless and he felt the Mask start to stretch itself over his head and he couldn't do a thing to stop it.
It joined together at the back of his head and then came a rush, a massive rush of energy racing through his system, more energy then he'd ever felt in his life, and in that moment there was a brilliant flash of light followed by an ear splitting bang!
As Tails waited for Metal to decide whether or not he was the same person as before and whether it'd be worth killing him their attention was distracted by a brilliant flash of white light. Tails and Metal turned their heads just in time to see Sonic's form twist into a whirling tornado which produced a high pitched whine as he span faster and faster and faster kicking up dirt from the surroundings as he did.
Somehow the Mask must've found a way onto Sonic's face and it was transforming him!
The twisters' height suddenly shot up into the air reaching beyond the clouds like a thin strand, light thunder could be heard for just a few seconds, then a massive lightning bolt shot down from the heavens twisted around the tornado's form before zapping the hedgehog at its whirling core.
Suddenly the lighting storm stopped as soon as it started and the tall twister rapidly shrank back to its original height, only now it was a whirl of bright blue light with a faint green core. It shot forward directly at Tails and Metal and slammed right into the robot hedgehog forcing it to let go of Tails' neck and sending it crashing into a boulder over a hundred yards away. Robotnik really built that thing to last because it was already getting up.
Tails took a few steps back from the tornado because the whirling wind that thing was kicking up was nearly enough to force him off his feet. He held up his hands to shield his eyes from the bright light which then faded rapidly just before the whirling form came to a complete stop. A light mist was surrounding the creature and what looked like steam seemed to be rising off it.
Tails jaw dropped. It was Sonic, or it looked like Sonic in some form. He stood there eyes closed with a slight smirk on his face, his green face which looked like it was moulded from thick, lime green rubber. Though the fur on his body remained blue the fur on his head had become a shade of dark green but more noticeably were his quills which were still swept back but where such a light shade of green they boarded on white and each clump of quills had split into four more making the back of his head look like a bed of needles, needles which seemed to glow in the darkness. His attire which usually consisted of red trainers and white gloves now consisted of black trainers with a red strap and buckle, white gloves and a very sleek looking black leather jacket.
Sonic, or the thing the Mask created from him, grinned coolly, or coolly as possible because his teeth where a pure white and looked a little unreal, almost cartoony from where Tails was standing. Then his eyes snapped open, they were a shining shade of scarlet and glowed as brilliant a white as his quills.
"Hi, there!" Sonic said raising his left hand which still seemed to be emitting some sort of steam or smoke and blew gently on it like a marksman blowing the barrel of a smoking gun. Then Sonic turned his head coolly to look at Tails his expression adopting a familiar Sonic like grin but now seemed to have an added expression of mischief to it. "I'm SSSSSSSSSsssmokinnn'!"
To Be Continued…
Authors notes: This chapter went through a few re-writes because I just couldn't decide what I wanted Tails/Mask to be like. The Mask can build on a characters personality like Amy's but more often produces a Mr. Hyde to the wearers Dr. Jekyll and that's what I wanted to do with Tails, but every time I was a little unhappy with the results. In most cases Tails/Mask (or Tailspin as I've nicknamed him) was too dark in both humour and his actions so I was constantly toning him down, and in some cases I toned him back up again because I felt it wouldn't accomplish what I intend to do with the character.
I took most inspiration for 'Tailspin' from Betelgeuse, the mischievous ghost from Beetlejuice. But I also wanted to show how the Mask manipulates its wearer, though it's not supposed to make the wearer want to kill people –at least not at first- it can slowly manipulate the wearer into thinking such actions are okay. It can also create a person who's drastically different from the wearer, and that's more the direction I wanted to go with Tailspin. Like Stanley Ipkiss in the Mask movie.
I have to admit in a way I feel a little guilty about what I've made it do to Tails. The main core of the character is his youth and innocence and turning that on its head though it was fun to write did make me feel like I was spoiling the character somewhat. But reading up on the character earlier before creating 'Tailspin' I found that it was the logical thing the Mask would do and was the only way I could think of making Tails' Mask interesting.
Please let me know what you thought of Tails/Mask 'Tailspin'.
For those interested, the chapters title Phantasmagoria refers to 'a fantastic sequence of haphazardly associative imagery, as seen in dreams or fever.' but is also a form of theater which uses lanters to project scary images onto smoke or semi-transparent screens.
-Hope you all enjoyed the new chapter.
