The Fox and the Seedrian, A Taismo Story
Chapter Nine: Wounded
Tails and Cosmo had fallen asleep on the lawn last night, the seedrian at least having the foresight to put her clothes back on before falling asleep. Together in his living quarters, they cooked a breakfast that was frankly impressive for a kitchenette that size. Afterward, they worked in his garden for a couple hours, which hadn't seen attention since she returned three days ago.
After a quick lunch, Cosmo asked him where the best flowers grew in this area; she wanted to get him something to thank him for last night.
"You don't have to get me anything, Cosmo. We both enjoyed last night."
"I know, but I was the one who brought it up, and you fought through a lot more nervousness than I did."
"Well, if you want to, the best variety of wildflowers are in a clearing about three miles north through the Green Forest. Do you want me to drop you off?" Tails asked.
"No, I want to see some more of this area on foot. Do you have anything to keep yourself busy?"
"There's never a shortage of things for me to do around here, trust me."
With a hug and a kiss, they set off on their separate tasks; Cosmo over the hills towards Green Forest, and Tails into the hangar for some routine maintenance on the X-Tornado.
As Tails' mind inevitably began to wander during his countless hours of work, both on his yard and maintaining the X-Tornado, his thoughts would occasionally dwell on Chris. The fox felt he had grown closer to the boy because of his new passion for mechanics. He had been an invaluable part of the team during the fight with the Metarex. What worried him was that although he believed Eggman when he claimed there was a very small window of opportunity for him to return home, even he couldn't guarantee if he would make it there, and at what age. And then there was the time dilation between there worlds as well, which according to what Chris told them, had a factor of 12. For every month that passed here, a year passed for Chris' world. If he reverted back to his original age upon returning home, that would make him 30.
Tails had to remind himself that perspective was a very important part of any time paradox. Chris wasn't living any faster, it just appeared faster from their side. If he could somehow manage to return over here, something Eggman invited him to do if he so wished, he'd be a fresh-faced teenager. He hoped he had made it home okay. But still, not knowing for sure proved worrisome from time to time.
As the sun began the final descent towards the horizon, Tails began to wonder what was keeping Cosmo; she had left six hours ago, and even Cream didn't take that long to pick flowers.
Suddenly, he heard a high-pitched beeping, coming from both the east wall of the hangar, as well as up in the cockpit of the X-Tornado. A call on all available frequencies meant only one thing; an emergency hail from Sonic. No doubt Eggman was up to his schemes again, for the first time in a month. He wasn't too enthused about leaving here without telling Cosmo where he was headed, but what choice did he have if it was serious?
He slid out from the underside of the X-Tornado, stood up, then jumped up and climbed into the cockpit, where he answered the hail.
"-ick up pick up pick— Tails! Tails you need to get down here right now. Topaz Harbor Hospital!" Sonic's panicked voice came over the small five-inch screen on his array of controls.
"What is it?"
"Cosmo's been hurt, bad."
Tails' stomach dropped in an instant.
"What? What happened? Sonic what happened?" He asked frantically.
"I'm not sure, she's in surgery now. Get down here as quick as-"
That's all Tails heard as he cut the feed and dread overcame him. He began the quick start procedures for the X-Tornado's systems, ignited the engines, and barely cleared the doors as he triggered the afterburners and rocketed off the runway into the dusk sky towards the coast.
For the first time in what seemed like forever, Tails felt claustrophobic in the X-Tornado's cockpit. Part of him wanted to push the throttle even higher, but the rational part of his mind told him if he fed any more residual chaos energy into the throttle, he'd overload the main fuel feed and stall out; then it'd be two or more hours before he arrived at Topaz Harbor.
Using every ounce of willpower to fight back the panic, he saw the Topaz Harbor skyline appear on the horizon twenty minutes later as the sun disappeared behind the Emerald Hills. He immediately backed off the throttle and turned towards the hospital, which was in the center of town. There wasn't any place to touch down safely and quickly, so as he approached the large parking lot outside the ER ward, he transformed the jet into it's Cyclone walker mode, setting it down as close to the doors as he could without it being too much of a hindrance to anyone else coming or going.
He used his twin tails to glide down to the sidewalk after leaping out of the cockpit. He landed in front of the doors to the ER and they slid open as he sprinted in, his expression full of worry, looking for any sign of Sonic.
"Sonic? Sonic? Cosmo?" He called, running past orderlies and doctors, looking left and right, heading for the central reception area.
"Miles Tails Prower?" A voice behind him asked. Tails whipped around, and saw a gray wolf in a surgeon's outfit.
"Yes? Yes, have you seen Sonic or Cosmo? She's my height, green—"
"I was the on-call surgeon when she was brought in ninety minutes ago. She's stable for now, so she's been moved to Observation." The surgeon said, beginning to lead him to the Observation Unit.
"What happened to her?" Tails asked, his voice shaking as he kept pace beside the wolf as they weaved between the hallway's other occupants as they went to their destinations.
"Her wounds seem to suggest it was gunfire. She was hit in the side of the head and in the right leg. Sonic said he found her unconscious near large tread tracks near the Mystic Ruins. The leg wound was a through-and-through. We don't believe it hit any major arteries, Sonic said there wasn't a lot of blood where she was found, but it completely fractured the tibia bone. The head wound could have been much worse, only a minor laceration, didn't even penetrate the skull. It's probably what knocked her unconscious. She's extremely lucky."
"Is she gonna be okay?" Tails asked as they rounded the corner, the sign above the hallway reading 'OBSERVATION'.
"I really wish I could say. We inserted steel pins to align the two halves of her right tibia, and we have her on minimal amounts of morphine, but I can't estimate recovery time. We know nothing of her species' physiology."
They turned another corner, and there sitting in chairs against the wall were Sonic and Amy. They got up, but didn't immediately come up to him as they noticed he was already with a doctor.
"She's in here." The wolf said, opening the door and passing through just after the fox.
Tails walked through the door and immediately got a lump in his throat. Cosmo was laying in the bed, wearing a patient's gown, oxygen mask strapped over her face. She was wired to a heart monitor, steadily beeping, and her right lower leg was in a molded cast and elevated in a sling by a pulley. He saw that a section of her leaf-like hair had been shorn off on the right side where she had been struck on the head, and the wound had been wrapped in gauze. Lastly, his eyes glanced over to the side table, where her Polaris pendant rested.
The wolf noticed Tails bite his lip as he began silently crying.
"I have to report back to the surgery unit. You can wait outside with Sonic and Amy when you're done." He told the fox sympathetically.
"Thank you..." Tails replied, his voice cracking.
After the surgeon turned to leave, Tails slowly approached the bed, nearly to the rhythm of her beeping heart monitor. He came up to her side, and softly grasped her right hand. This caused her to stir and waken, as her eyes slowly opened and fell on him.
"Tails...?" Cosmo asked softly, her voice slightly muffled by the oxygen mask.
"Cosmo..." He replied, softly squeezing her hand, tears streaming down his face.
"I'm sorry... I... The trees... I could feel their pain... I had to try and stop it..." She said.
"Stop what, Cosmo?" He asked, sniffling.
"The machine... It was plowing down everything in its path. I tried to help the plants' growth overtake it, but a turret on top fired at me. That's the last thing I remember."
Tails swallowed the lump in his throat, and squeezed her hand again.
"You get some rest, okay? These people are going to take very good care of you, alright?" Tails shakily told her. She nodded.
"I love you, Tails." She said.
Tails leaned over and kissed the part of her forehead that wasn't covered in gauze.
"I love you too. More than anything."
With that, Cosmo closed her eyes, and fell back asleep rather quickly. Tails slowly released her hand, and turned to exit the room.
Voices of the past filled his ears as he walked towards the door.
'You promised you'd come live with us when this was all over!'
'She was here! I heard her! You were supposed to save her Sonic! I trusted you! I believed in you!'
'How do you think this would make Cosmo feel? She would never want you to do this to yourself!'
For the last hour and a half it had been shock and dread. Then when the surgeon explained things and he saw her, it started to give way to relief. Now...
Now a seething rage was slowly building inside him. He knew who had done this... Who had always done this... And had been allowed to get away time and time and time again.
He exited the room back out into the hallway, and Sonic and Amy were immediately on their feet.
"Thanks for getting her here." Tails said, trying to contain his anger. "Where did you find her? Where were these tread tracks?" He asked Sonic.
"I saw a line of smoke headed towards the Mystic Ruins, and found the treads heading in the same direction, away from Eggman's tower. I didn't see what made them, but the clearing it made had to be at least 20 feet across... One of his heavy haulers, knocking down everything in it's path. I was following the trail when I found Cosmo off to the right side. About two miles away from the ravines."
"Two miles from the ravines... Close to where I told her she'd find the flower patches..."
"We're gonna get him back for this, Tails. Don't worry." Sonic told him.
Tails took a deep breath as he clenched his fists.
"I'm gonna deal with this." Tails said, beginning to walk towards the main doors.
"Wait what? By yourself?" Amy asked, bewildered.
"Knowing Sonic, he'll let Eggman limp back to lick his wounds and try again." Tails said in an accusing tone, not looking back or stopping his pace towards the exit.
Sonic jogged up to his livid friend.
"Tails, chill. Now's not the time for any rash decisions." Sonic began, putting a hand on Tails' shoulder and stopping him in his tracks. "We're gonna do this together and teach him a lesson, alri-"
With Sonic mid-sentence, Tails whipped around, right arm drawn back, and delivered a right hook to Sonic's jaw, sending him reeling back and falling to a knee, almost knocking the hedgehog into an empty gurney against the wall.
"How many more times, Sonic?! How many more times are we going to teach him a lesson, huh?" Tails yelled in a rage.
Amy came up between the duo, but Tails shoved her over into a chair against the wall. She immediately jumped back up and held the enraged fox back.
"When is enough going to be enough?! When are we going to remove the threat he poses for good?! How many years has it been?" Tails screamed passed Amy as she stopped him from coming any closer to her fiance.
Sonic had been dazed, that much was clear, but still, Tails didn't relent. Amy tried to calm him down, but he wasn't having it.
"Let me go, let me go!" He yelled, batting her away, before returning his furious, tear-filled gaze to the hedgehog kneeling on the floor, as stunned onlookers watched the spectacle.
"Why do you let him get away every time he is beaten and retreats? Is it because you need the excitement in your life? The excitement of having innocent people... People you love being put at risk when he inevitably comes back to try again?"
Still, Sonic said nothing, the side of his lip bleeding.
"Since I've known you, you've believed that there's good inside everyone. What value is that if they refuse to see it? Why should the rest of us wait around to see if and when they come around?"
Sonic finally looked up at Tails, and before he could get to his feet, the fox stood over him, locked eyes, and pointed at Amy.
"I want you to look at me. Look me in the eyes, and tell me that if it was her in that room right now, that you'd still believe there is good in that man."
Several moments passed without a word from the hedgehog.
"That's what I thought." Tails whispered, fresh tears falling from his eyes, and with that, he turned and ran.
"Tails, wait!" Sonic called.
He didn't wait. He didn't stop. He didn't even look back.