Christian Wolf99: I haven't thought out a name for him yet. I would've given him one in that scene, but I thought it best for him to be referred to as "boss" by his followers. In this case, it's a sign of obidience, though it can be used as a sign of respect.
Chapter 9: Precious Time
"So where's your plane?" Tails asked as he and Sonic walked out into an open field.
"My plane?"
"Yeah. You said you crashed it, right?"
"Well, yes. The thing is . . . I don't think it can be repaired."
"I wasn't planning on it." Despite his timid speech and mannerisms, when it came to building and technology, Tails had great poise and confidence. "I just figured I could use some scrap parts to help speed things along."
"That's going to be a bit tricky."
"Why's that?"
"Because I kind of crashed it in the water."
"Oh."
"That's not a problem, is it?" Sonic asked, almost stammering. "You'll still be able to build a new plane, won't you?" The thought of having to stumble across water just to get back home was not a pleasing thought.
"Of course I can. It'll take a little bit longer, but I won't have a problem doing it. Heck , I could do it blindfolded of I really wanted to. I just need to pick up a few parts from a shop on the other side of the island."
"Well then let's get going already!"
"It's not that simple."
"What do you mean?"
"There are a lot of dangerous obstacles from where we are to the other side of the island."
"Like what?" Sonic asked. At this point he was growing somewhat irritated at Tails' reluctance to start toward the other end of the island. "There's nothing around here except some trees and the ground beneath our feet."
"But not far from here, there's a very large industrial plant-"
"A what?"
"An industrial plant," Tails repeated, as if it should have been obvious to Sonic what it was.
"That still doesn't tell me anything about what it is."
"It's a factory."
"Huh?"
"It's a place that builds machines and other mechanical things which are designed to help make everyone's lives easier by creating robots to do all sorts of jobs. Anything from heavy manual labor to menial-"
"Never mind," Sonic said. "Forget I asked. What's after that?"
"Some old underwater ruins. I've never explored them, but I've always wanted to. I just never had the nerve."
"Well after today, you won't be able to say you never visited them. I take it after that we'll be on the other side of the island?"
"Not quite. There's a life sized casino park that was built to bring in large revenue to build and maintain the industrial plant. It will provable be dark by the time we get there. We could rest and then-"
"Not if I can help it," Sonic said brashly.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean we can't afford to stop for anything. Once we get to the other side of the island and you get the parts you need and build the plane, you can rest as long as you want. What's the next location?"
"That's where things get really dangerous. It's a set of switchbacks up and then down Mount Hill Top. If you're in the right spot around this area, you can actually see the top of the mountain."
"Why's it so dangerous?"
"It suffers from a lot of earthquakes and can easily be fallen off from. Not to mention the countless lava pits."
"Sounds like fun. Let me guess, next we go underground?"
"Actually, yes. It's called the Mystic Cave. The only reason someone would go down there is usually for the chance to look for rare gems. Supposedly there's a secret path hidden deep within it that houses treasure as far as the eye can see. There's also rumored to be a wormhole that will instantly warp you to the exit of the cave."
"And on to the next place. Which is . . . ?"
"An oil refinery."
"A what?"
"A factory that drills for oil."
"Oil?"
"Like black water."
"Oh," Sonic said, cringing slightly.
"It was built to help lubricate the machines at the chemical plant as well as the metropolis that's not far from it."
"Wouldn't all of that drilling be loud and annoying?"
"Well no one really lives there. It's only called a metropolis to fool anyone who would want to shut the refinery down."
"Who would want to do that?"
"You'd be surprised."
"Well you can tell me all about it on our way over there. What's the next location?"
"That's it."
"Really? You mean it?"
"Yep. After that, we'll have reached the other end of the island."
"You must have made the trip plenty of times to know so much about it."
"Yeah. I try to fly over as much as I can though."
"You can fly?"
"Yes, but-"
"Well then why didn't you fly away from those jerks who were picking on you?"
"Well they had my tools, and I wanted to get them back. Besides, I get tired kind of fast whenever I do fly. And even if I did fly away, that would just give them and everyone else another reason to make fun of me, so I try not to if I don't have to."
"What do you mean?"
"You know. My tails."
"What about them?"
"I have two of them."
"And?"
"Come on, Sonic! Stop trying pretend like you don't know what that means."
"I don't," Sonic said, putting his hands up defensively. "Why would you having two tails be a reason for anyone to pick on you?"
"It's . . . the best way to describe it is . . ."
"Yeah?"
"It's a mutation, okay? It's not natural! I'm only supposed to have one tail, not two. Everyone calls me Tails because they're making fun of me." Tears were now pouring down his face as his whole body shook with sorrow. "All they have to do is call me by that stupid name and they've already hurt me more than they ever could by hitting me. I'd probably prefer that every single person on this island beat me senseless everyday instead of giving me a daily reminder that I'm a freak accident."
"It doesn't have to mean that," Sonic said, cautious to think over every word before saying it.
"What do you mean?" Tails asked, sniffling and wiping at his eyes.
"You've made how many trips across this island?"
"I don't know. A lot I guess."
"And how many times have you passed other people who were also traveling to a different location on the island?"
"Never. Everyone kind of just stays in their immediate area. That's why the chemical plant and oil refinery were built: so no one would have to bother trekking across the island to do what they needed. Instead they could just send a robot to do it for them."
"And yet here you are doing that so many times, you've lost count."
"Yeah, but I fly over a lot of it."
How do you do that?"
"Well with my tails of course."
"Exactly," Sonic said. Now it was Tails' turn to look confused.
"So what? I'm too much of a coward to face it head on so I just fly over it. If I had the physical strength, I'd fly over all of it."
"You're being way too modest. The fact that you're doing something means that you're leaps and bounds ahead of all these other people."
"Why do you say that?"
"Isn't it obvious? All day they just sit around and waste their precious time. But not you. When you want to do something, you go and do it right away, while you're still able to. So when the day finally comes that you're not able to do what you want when you want to do it, you won't have any regrets because you'll have already accomplished everything you care about doing a thousand different times."
"You really think so?"
"I know so."
"Thanks," Tails said as a smile crept over his face for the first time in over four months.
"Now what say we get moving? We've got a long trip ahead of us, and standing around here won't get anything done. So let's go!"
