Lethal Mutation
All right! Here it is, the much anticipated Part Two! (cheering audience) Wait, when did this story go to a live studio broadcast?! All you people, get out of my room! Ahem, anywho... Also a cause for celebration, is the addition of two new reviewers: Siran 774, and Kioke! (short movie clip of the Ewoks from Star Wars celebrating and dancing around huge bonfires from the end of Episode VI) OK, I just love Star Wars, too, so I had to use that clip! Anyways, I would also be horribly ungrateful not to mention my wonderful repeat reviewers: (don't you ever wonder if I get tired of this? Naw!) ChibiRyou200, Nicend, Asher Tye (whose review I am still trying to finish reading! lol), Pokelad, Rae Logan, Zachary W, and Shika Kev Prower! Your reviews for Part One of this chapter were all wonderful and kept me busy almost all day responding to them all! (which is the perfect way to spend half my weekend since I don't really have a life!) Also, thanks for the support on my version of Tails' past and my idea of what happened to Maria. Goes to show that just a little bit of angst and a brief mention of Shadow can go a long ways! ;)
But anyway, some of you I know have pretty much figured out the whole situation that Tails is now in from just Part One (if not, just ask Asher Tye or Orson Scott Card! lol), but for everyone else, this is where all the pieces should finally come together to explain not only Tails' current illness, but his past and his parents' fates as well. All shall be made clear, well, most of it anyways! Since this was originally written as a humongous single chapter, this second part takes place immediately after the last chapter ended, in case anyone needed to know that. (It is kind of understood, really, but I don't want to take any chances!) Get ready for the entire solution to the story of Tails' messed up body and past as I finally reveal the heart of my story!
Chapter 12: It Runs in the Family (Part Two)
Now what? Tails thought as he opened his eyes in an unfamiliar world. Wait! I'm back here again! Am I having another dream? He had reappeared in the same void filled by the slowly changing, multicolored mist as he had last time he was unconscious. Where is this place? Why do I keep coming back here? the once again confused fox wondered. Tails was suddenly alerted from his inquisitive thoughts when he began to notice that the colors in the mist were beginning to change more rapidly. This happened last time, too! This must mean that I'm having another seizure! What should I do?! Tails remembered how closing his eyes, curling into a ball, and screaming his lungs out hadn't worked at all last time. Hang on! If this is my dream, maybe I can stop the seizure from happening this time if I tell it not to, Tails quickly came up with his completely ridiculous, but only real remaining solution for surviving the soon to ensue chaos of lights.
He mustered his courage as he stood up straight the face down the quickening lights. "Stop it!! This is my dream and my body, so go away!!" Tails futilely shouted into the void. The lights seemed to respond to his command for a brief second as his newly found determination fought the oppressive chaos in his mind that threatened to overwhelm the poor fox. I think it might be working! Tails happily thought to himself. Just then, the shifting lights instantly became a huge surrounding aura of pure chaos that flashed every color imaginable from all directions almost simultaneously. No!! This is much worse than last time! the beleaguered fox kit thought as his instincts once again caused him to futilely try to block the vision surrounding him by closing his eyes and curling into a super-tight ball of fur. I can't take it!! It's… too much!! I'm gonna lose my mind!! "HEEELLPPP!!" Tails again screamed at maximum volume, although he knew that it would do him no good. He couldn't even hear his own thoughts as he was completely overwhelmed by the unbearable light show that somehow was causing him extreme pain as it continued to assault the fox's acute senses. Tails began to thrash around on the invisible, solid floor beneath him in a desperate attempt to fight back against the oppressive lights. To his great relief, after only one minute of agony that seemed like several eternities for the fox cub, the lights once again stopped as suddenly as they had begun.
Still whimpering in a tight ball on the transparent floor, Tails refused to even stand back up for fear of the seizure restarting. As he lay teary-eyed on the ground, the fox swore he heard footsteps come from the fog as two upright figures approached him from behind. Turning to face them, Tails once again saw the spiritual bodies of his deceased parents. "Mom! Dad! It's me, Tails!" he wasted no time getting to his feet and announcing his presence to the approaching spirits.
"Oh, Miles, my darling!" Tail's mother spoke softly as his parents stopped right in front of his position. "Oh, how I wish that I could see you now, all grown up and with a life of your own. I have been a terrible mother to you, but I hope you know that I always loved you. Don't ever blame your father for what you had to go through, son, no matter what he says. I am the one who convinced him to have a son even though we both knew that you might be born with his mutations and that I would be at great risk. I thought that your life would be worth it all, and I sincerely hope that I was right. I am so sorry for everything that you had to go through because of me. Your father and I wish we could prove to you how much we loved you."
"I know you love me, mom! I never got to see your face or hear your voice until now, but somehow I always knew!" Tails tried to reassure his clearly very saddened mother.
"We will both watch you from beyond, Miles," Tails' mother continued to speak. "Our family has always had an unexplainable way of attracting good luck. My mother always told me stories when I was little about our family's ancestors watching over us by granting us good luck. I hope your life has been filled with luck and happiness since your father and I are gone. We will be your guardian angels in death, since we couldn't be your parents in life. I love you, Miles, and I always will no matter what happens to you!" The specter of Tails' mother broke down into tears as it slowly faded away into the colorless mist without her moving so much as an inch.
"Wait! Come back, Mom! Please!!" Tails yelled at the void where his mother had just stood seconds ago.
"I'm sorry, son," Tails' father finally began to speak. "I know that this must be hard for you, but your mother had to say goodbye before she died, and you weren't quite old enough to understand when you were born."
"Before she died?" Tails thought out loud. "But both of my parents have been dead for years! How could she talk to me now, if…?"
"You are probably more confused than I could possibly imagine by now, son," Tails' father interrupted the young fox mid-sentence. "First of all, you need to know that this is all an illusion. I and your mother are not really talking to you. I recorded this message and the one you probably had earlier into your subconscious brain cells to play back whenever you had a large seizure. I'm sorry that I couldn't do a better job, but my time is also short. You no doubt have been told by now that I died soon after your mother, and I can tell that I will indeed join her soon. But, before I go, I must tell you the truth about my death, and also yours."
"What?! But, I haven't died yet!" Tails exclaimed in shock at his father's last sentence.
"Miles, long before you were born, I volunteered to take part in an experiment to find ways to make Mobians stronger and more intelligent. As part of the experiment, I was infected with a virus that caused my body to mutate greatly. I gained more strength and stamina than the average Mobian fox, more intelligence than even the brightest of scholars, and my second tail, which you now wear." The figure of Tails' father cracked a small smile at the memory of his son's unusual birthmark. "I must admit, son, you were a very cute baby while I got to see you. I'll never forget how you would curl up in a little ball in my arms with your tails covering you like a tiny fur blanket."
Tails blushed slightly as he heard his father recall the one habit that he had never truly outgrown, despite its tendency to call more ridicule on him. So, my father really did give me my super smart brain and my two tails, but I don't seem to have his improved strength or stamina. That means that not all of the mutated genes he got from the virus were given to me! But what about the gene that Eggman's grandfather created to make people's cells produce neurotoxins? Do I have that one, too?! Tails' face immediately lost its color as he realized what his father's previous statement about a "curse" had meant last time he had been unconscious.
"However, our second tails are not a gift as they might seem, son, but rather a branding that marks those who are destined for a horrible death," Tails' dad continued on with his face downcast. "Another mutation that arose was that my cells were naturally reprogrammed to produce a deadly neurotoxin that has an incredibly complex structure and an equally hard to produce anti-venom. This toxin slowly destroys the victim's body from within as the host suffers from frequent losses of consciousness, crippling pains in the abdomen, and seizures, as you are no doubt aware. The only reason that you are even alive now is because I managed to block the genes in your body that will produce this toxin by giving you a special injection when you were born, but it is already too late for me. I have managed to hold on as long as the antidote stayed effective, but I am soon finding out that no amount of cure can now stop my rapidly approaching demise."
So that's why I have lived so long without feeling the effects of the bio-toxin, Tails finally understood. But no more than a second later, this critical fact spawned several new questions of equal importance. If that's true though, Tails thought, then why am I sick now? Did my father know that I would eventually start to be affected by the poison even after he blocked my genes? Tails thought back to the beginning of his father's explanation for the answer to his questions. Wait, he must have! Why else would he leave me a message in my mind that would only play when I had a seizure!
"By now you have probably already guessed most of what I'm about to tell you, son," Keylow's image stared at Tails as the message ran on. "If you're anything like your dear old dad, then you now realize that I knew you would eventually become ill from your body's own poison, or else I wouldn't be leaving this message to you now. I worked hard before you were born to make sure that my gene blocking serum was specifically designed to never degrade or escape your body over time, but I couldn't give you enough as a just new-born kit to keep you safe as you grew up. As you are getting older, the cells in your body are becoming more numerous, and the excess gene blocker that I gave you at birth is being slowly used up trying to cover all the cells in your body. Now that you are an older boy, your body has grown to the point that my cure no longer covers all the cells in your body, and you have undeniably begun to feel the serious effects of the buildup of neurotoxins in your bloodstream. You may also have noticed a while ago that you started to become more susceptible to other diseases as well, due to your weakened body and the consumption of my cure, which I also designed to act as a strong antibiotic to always keep you healthy for me. I…Aaaah!" Tails father suddenly turned away as he clutched at a sudden pain in his chest.
A moment passed by before the ghostly figure again turned to face Tails once more, this time with a voice full of regret and pain. "Oh! I am so sorry, son! I tried my best to keep you from going through the pain that I felt, but I have failed you. Please, forgive me! I never expected to have to tell my own son that he was dying in a message I am leaving behind from my own death. What kind of dad would ever have to do such a thing?!" The figure of Tails' father began to cry profusely with tears that seemed to disappear as they fell to the floor. Keylow's body quickly joined them as he fell to his knees and pleaded with his son, "I am a horrible father, and I pray that when you come to see me and your mother soon, you will be able to forgive me! I can only imagine the life you must have led, all alone as an orphan. I know that it must be unbearable to live as a freak with no parents, no money, and a disfigurement that is far too obvious to hide. Your mother and I always wanted to be there for you, Miles. We knew that you would need us. Just please understand that, for what it's worth, we have always loved you, even after death," Tail's father concluded his heartfelt plea.
"Daddy!!" Tails shouted as he threw his mask of emotional strength that he had acquired from years of being around Sonic to the wind and ran up to hug his weeping father. Just as he reached the apparition and attempted to place his arms around his sobbing father, the image disappeared entirely from his grasp. Tails immediately realized that he was almost literally trying to catch a ghost as his eyes began to fill with tears at his loneliness. Tails took his father's place on the invisible ground the spirit had once stood on and shed long tears for his parents' agony and his own inevitable demise. He had no idea how long he had sat there crying and cuddling with his tails for comfort, but somehow his world managed to fade to black unnoticed before the fox found himself back in his bed in the hospital.
"He's awake!" Chuck shouted as Tails once again opened his eyes in his hospital room in Station Square Medical Center.
"Well, well, well! I thought that this might have been that fox's final gasp, but I guess he is a fighter after all!" Eggman taunted from the still operational live feed on the TV Bokkun carried.
"Oooohhh," Tails moaned as he tried to sit up in his bed again. He was shocked to find that he was unable to do so because of restraints that were now strapped across his body. "Hey, what's going on, guys? Why am I tied down like this?" Tails asked the occupants of the room in a slight panic at the sight of the sinister looking restraints on his arms, legs, and torso.
"We had to, buddy," Sonic appeared at Tails side with a shrug of his shoulders. "During your last seizure, you started to kick and jump around so much that you could have hurt yourself pretty bad if we didn't tie you down."
"How long was I out?" Tails quickly asked the next question that came to his mind.
"The seizure only lasted for a minute, but you stayed out cold for a few more minutes after it stopped," Amy answered as she assisted Sonic in releasing the fox from the restraining straps. Tails had just managed to sit up freely when a soft voice from across the room caught his attention.
"Are you really going to die, Tails?" Cream asked the groggy fox while her eyes quivered with fresh tears.
"Chao…?" Cheese muttered in the saddest little tone ever heard as it also looked Tails in the eyes for an answer. Tails could give no reply as he stared at the faces of the distraught duo.
"It all depends on how well you all cooperate in giving me what I want," Eggman butted in, saving the fox from an unenviable explanation. "Well, hello again, Tails! I'm sorry to say that for the few minutes that you were out cold, I took the liberty to explain to the others all about your dreadful disease. Would you care for me to explain it to you?" Eggman asked the yellow fox while he raised an eyebrow in anticipation of the look the news would bring to Tails' face. Instead, Eggman was the one who wore the funny expression as the young fox answered him in a way that he thought was impossible.
"I already know, Eggman," Tails declined the Doctor's explanation despite having missed it earlier. "When I got my two tails and my unusually high IQ from my dad, I also got the gene that is responsible for the bio-toxin that killed my father and the other four test subjects. Worst of all, my symptoms show that I must be very close to the lethal limits of the poison, so I probably only have a few more days to live at most." Tails' short, but informative, summary of what Eggman had just taken a full five minutes to tell them shocked everyone, most notably Eggman.
"How... How could you possibly know all that?!" Eggman stammered in response to the seemingly mind-reading Mobian Fox.
"Well, Ummm… My parents told me," Tails cringed as he realized how ridiculous his explanation was going to sound.
"What?! But I thought that your parents were dead. How could they tell you anything?" Amy responded in a stunned voice.
"I can see them in my dreams during my seizures," Tails tried to explain the impossible situation. "My father left messages in my mind that only play when I have a seizure, and in them he told me all about my mutations and how it was making me sick by producing the poison in my body."
"Are you tellin' me that this is all real, and Eggman has been telling the truth this whole time, buddy?!" Sonic asked Tails in shock as his last hopes that this wasn't really happening were blasted to smithereens.
"Of course I have, you ungrateful, blue rodent!" Eggman shouted from the TV's speakers. "The only thing I don't understand is how Tails has survived for this long without the antidote. He should have died years ago from the bio-toxins that his body has been producing since he was born!"
"My father said that he found a way to block the gene that makes my body produce the bio-toxin, but it still wouldn't be enough when I got older and grew some more," Tails informed everyone of his late father's explanation for his survival so far.
"Of course!" Chuck interjected as he understood the mystery of Tails' perfect health before a week ago. "The cure Keylow designed for Tails must have been extremely potent and also strengthened his immune system a lot, which explains why Tails has always been healthy until recently. But now that Tails has grown more since he was a baby, his body has more cells producing the toxins than the gene blockers can prevent."
"That explains why Tails got so sick after our ski trip," Chris brought attention to the series of missed warning signs of Tails' inevitable doom. "His body was already starting to be affected by the toxins which weakened him so that he couldn't fight off the Mobian Flu on his own."
"There may have been signs before that, Chris," Chuck broke in with a tone that betrayed he was mad at himself for not seeing Tails' illness coming.
"What do you mean, Chuck? Has something else happened to my little bro that I don't know about?!" Sonic questioned the saddened scientist.
"I'm afraid so, Sonic. Remember in the lab a couple weeks ago, Tails?" Chuck unwillingly reminded Tails of the strange occurrence.
"Oh, yeah! I never told you, Sonic, but the day before we went on the ski trip I suddenly fainted in the underground lab while I helped Chuck," Tails recounted the trivial event that he had almost completely forgotten. He was rewarded with a stare of disbelief and anger from the overly concerned hedgehog at the fact that Tails hadn't informed him of such an important incident. Not wanting a lecture from his brother, Tails quickly cut the blue hedgehog off, "I'm sorry, Sonic! We thought it was because I hadn't eaten anything for lunch before I made the long trip into Station Square that afternoon. I felt much better after supper, so I thought Chuck was right and decided that I didn't need to worry you over nothing."
"Well, it sure doesn't seem like nothing now, does it, little bro?!" Sonic accidentally let his anger out on the one person he wanted to comfort.
"We couldn't have known about Tails' father and Gerald's virus back then, Sonic!" Chuck came to Tails' and his own defense as he saw the young fox's fright at the unexpected wrath from his best friend.
"Well, well! I can see that this is a bad time, but I would really like to get back to the reason I contacted you in the first place!" Eggman interrupted, clearly annoyed at the long conversation that had nothing to do with him. "As you probably have guessed, I'm not in the business of delivering bad news unless there is something I can gain in the process, so here it is. I have had the good fortune to run across a small amount of the antidote that will save Tails' life for at least a few more days," Eggman offered the tantalizing nugget of hope to the doomed fox and his friends.
"Well then, hand it over, Eggman!!" Sonic yelled at the TV screen.
"Do you really expect me to give you such valuable information for free?" Eggman smiled as the conversation once again centered around him. "Come now, no doctor worth his job gives out medicine without a proper payment first!"
"What do you want this time?" Amy asked the hard bargaining Doctor.
"Well, since this antidote won't really save your foxy friend's life for long, I was thinking that it was pretty worthless to all of us," Eggman began talking again in his most persuasive voice. "However, I think that I will offer it as a trade for a sample of Tails' DNA so that I can recreate Keylow's ingenious gene blocker cure for you as well. I know that it's unfair to me, but your friend will benefit both ways, so think about it!"
"I don't buy it, Egghead!" Sonic shouted out at the deceptive Doctor. He knew that Eggman must have an ulterior motive for helping his little brother. "Why couldn't Chuck here just get some of his scientist pals and do it themselves?"
"Oh, he's more than welcome to try, Sonic!" Eggman gloated his enormous pride. "But, I doubt that even your best scientific minds could possibly decode Tails' DNA in time. Besides, even if they could, they wouldn't know which genes produce the neurotoxins and which ones make his fur yellow! My grandfather's research has this information, and with a good sample of Tails' blood to analyze myself, I should be able to recreate his late father's gene blocking serum within a few days," the prideful Eggman concluded.
"Hold on, Eggman!" Amy loudly called out towards the TV screen. "I know you better than this! You said yourself that you would never help Tails unless you had something to gain from it, so what's the catch? How much will this gene blocker cure cost us?"
"Oh, just the usual," Eggman responded. "No need to make things complicated, so how about I just take all six of your chaos emeralds? Six little gems for your furry, yellow friend's life, Hmmm…? That sounds perfectly fair to me for all the work I will have to do in such a short time."
"No deal, Eggman!" Tails projected Sonic's earlier anger out tenfold. "I would rather die than let you get all the emeralds!"
"But Tails, that's exactly what will happen if we don't get you that antidote soon!" Sonic worriedly reminded his determined partner.
"Sonic's right, Tails," Chuck surprisingly sided with the concerned hedgehog. "Without the information that Eggman has, I can't possibly make a cure in time to save you. This time we have no choice but to give him what he wants."
"I don't care!!" Tails surprised everyone by refusing to back down from his suicidal claim. "I already decided last time when I thought I was going to die from the fake Egg Virus that I would never allow Eggman to have all the emeralds again, no matter what happened to me, and I won't back down now that it's actually real!"
"Who could have guessed that such a wimpy little fox had so much spunk?!" Eggman continued undaunted. "Very well, a compromise then. You give me five emeralds and I call it even."
"How about we just fly up there to your Egg Moon and take the cure ourselves!" Sonic threatened the pompous Dr. Robotnik. "You must not know as much about us as you thought, Egghead! My buddy here just finished improving the X-Tornado so that it uses two emeralds now! That means we can reach your moon base and destroy it easily!!"
"Is that so?" Eggman barely disguised his true surprise as he rethought his scheme. "Fine then, you can hand deliver the emeralds to me on the Egg Moon, and, for your troubles, I'll let you keep two of them so you can get back to Earth after you leave. I get four emeralds, no less!!"
"I don't know about this, guys," Tails remarked from his bed as the bartering went on.
"Tails, I know you don't want Eggman to get any of the emeralds, but try to think about us, too!" Chuck turned from the TV screen to look the fox in the eyes. "Think about how your death would affect me or Sonic or anyone else in this room! We understand why you're doing this, but we aren't ready for you to become a martyr just yet!"
"Well, don't look at me! I couldn't care less if that freaky fox kicked the bucket!" the unusually quiet Bokkun burst in with the rude remark, and was rewarded by a swift hammer whack to the head from a very agitated Amy.
Tails barely noticed the hurtful remark as he sat stunned at the sincerity in Chuck's voice a second ago. He quickly glanced around the room to see the faces of the others who were gathered around his bed. Sonic, Chuck, and Chris all returned his stare with eyes full of compassion and worry. Amy and Vanilla looked up at him as they sat in the corner sofa trying to console the weeping Cream and Cheese, who were so busy crying their eyes out that they couldn't even look back at Tails. Chuck's right! I may be ready to die to keep Eggman from getting all the emeralds, but my friends aren't ready for me to go just yet, especially Cream, Tails focused his thoughts on the crying bunny that he couldn't seem to tear his eyes from. She just lost Emerl recently, and she still hasn't recovered from that pain yet. If I were to die now, she would probably never be happy again. The same probably goes for Amy, Chris, Vanilla, and Chuck… and Sonic. Tails managed to turn his head again to stare into the deep green irises of his self-proclaimed brother. I wonder if Sonic would be OK if something actually were to happen to me. Tails felt his determination rising as he again resolved to fight for each moment of life that he had left. I'm not giving up; I already came too far for that now. I have to survive: for myself, for my friends, and for my parents! They all cared so much for me before, now it's my turn to make sure all their sacrifices weren't wasted! "OK, Eggman, it's a deal!" Tails suddenly spoke up to the surprise of all his friends around him. "I don't trust you as far as I can throw you, which isn't much at all, but I really don't want to die either. So, you get four emeralds in exchange for my life and my friends' safety while we're on the Egg Moon."
"I'm so glad that you are being reasonable, Tails!" Eggman happily replied. "Now, Bokkun will take that sample I need in exchange for the temporary antidote so you won't die before I finish working on your cure."
Bokkun held the TV in one hand as another reached into his big, green duffle bag and removed an impossibly large syringe that he pointed at Tails. "Ha ha ha! I've always wanted to play doctor on a real patient!" the small robot said as Tails fought the urge to faint in fear of the giant needle.
"That won't be necessary," Chuck rescued his partner from his laptop across the room. He handed a large vial filled with one of Tails' blood samples that he had been studying earlier to the sadistically laughing robot. "This should be more than enough for Eggman to get all the DNA he needs."
"Awwwww… But I wanted to use the needle!!" Bokkun whined as he reluctantly placed the needle and the sample into his duffle bag. He then removed a smaller syringe filled with a colorless liquid and handed it to Chuck. "OK, fine! Here's the antidote that Doctor Eggman gave me to give to you and Tails."
"It isn't much, but, as I said, it should help for now," Eggman again spoke from the TV Bokkun still managed to hold on to this whole time. "Don't forget! Bring the chaos emeralds to the Egg Moon at five-o-clock Wednesday afternoon if you want to save your pal, Sonic, and feel free to bring as many of your friends as you want. Now, I do believe that it's time for me to go, so, so long, losers!" Eggman shouted as the transmission ended and the TV screen went blank, except for an emblem of Eggman's head that contained a five second countdown which appeared on the otherwise black screen in Bokkun's hands.
"Aaaahh!! Doctor Eggman! I thought you said that this one wouldn't blow up!!" Bokkun shouted in horror as the countdown reached zero and a small explosion rocked the room as everyone turned away from the hovering bomb. The hospital's sprinkler system immediately kicked in as the smoke quickly flowed out of the open window in the room. Still hovering in the center of the room was an even blacker than normal Bokkun with a look of surprise stuck on his face as he held the ashes that were all that remained of the small, yellow TV.
"Ha, serves you right for being so rude!" Amy quickly insulted the undamaged robot.
"That's not fair!!" Bokkun cried out as he made soft sounds of tears forming in his eyes. Bokkun, who seemed to be the only robot in existence that could cry, then flew out the open window with tears streaming from his eyes. Moments later, Tails' personal nurse and doctor again entered the room to check on its occupants.
"Is everyone alright in here?!" the doctor shouted into the still smoky room.
"We're fine," Chris called out as he and the rest of the people in the room fought back the smoke induced coughing. "But I think Tails is going to need another room," Chris added the obvious understatement as the sprinkler system finally cut out, leaving the occupants of the room dripping wet on the slick floor beneath them.
"No thanks, Chris," Tails quickly stopped the nurse that had already started to remove the brakes on his rolling hospital bed. "It's about time I checked out anyway."
"But, you're still sick, Tails!" Cream spoke from the room's sofa as her mother shielded her face from the escaping smoke with her skirt's hem. "Shouldn't you stay in the hospital until you're better?"
"There's nothing they can do for me here, Cream," Tails informed the still teary eyed bunny. "Besides, if I'm going to have to stay in bed somewhere, I at least want it to be at home where I'm most comfortable."
"How about my house instead, Tails?" Chris asked the fox that he was now extremely worried about.
"That's actually what I meant, Chris," Tails corrected himself. "Could someone please help me out of this bed, now?" he called out to the assembled crowd.
"Well, normally patients aren't just allowed to check out whenever they want to, Mr. Prower," the doctor tried to discourage the fox from leaving before they had even discovered the source of his symptoms. "We still have a lot of tests we could run to see what's wrong with you."
"Never mind those, we already found out the problem!" Chuck informed the oblivious doctor and nurse. "It's a long story, but suffice it to say that he needs to take this right away." Chuck handed the nurse the syringe full of antidote and stared at her until she injected it into the IV tube in Tails' arm. Almost instantly, Tails began to breathe easier as the antidote tried to cleanse his body of the never-ending stream of bio-toxins. "Here Tails, I'll call Mr. Tanaka to come and get you and everyone else while I explain everything to the doctor," Chuck offered.
"OK, Chuck," Tails responded as the nurse finally began freeing him by removing his IV tube from his left arm. He was surprised that the narrow tube didn't really hurt too bad as it was removed from his arm. Boy, I'm glad I was unconscious when they put that in, though, the fox thought to himself as he imagined the needle that must have been used to insert the IV tube into his arm in the first place. After removing all the electrodes and other sensors that were still attached to Tails, the nurse politely asked everyone to leave the room as she removed his hidden catheter. Tails blushed as the complete stranger started to pull out the device from a very private location with a good amount of pain accompanying the action. I'm very glad that I wasn't awake when she put that thing in! Tails once again thanked his unintentional coma. Finally, he was helped to his feet for the first time in days as Sonic came back in the room to assist his adopted little brother. With Sonic's help and the nurse's supervision, Tails finally managed to cross the small room and put his red and white striped shoes on. He was then escorted by request to the small bathroom in his hospital room's front-right corner. When he finally left his room a few minutes later, he found the complete Thorndike household standing in the hallway outside his door.
"Hey there, Tails!" Nelson Thorndike, Chris's father, greeted the upright fox. "I heard that you were awake and decided to come and see you, but I guess that I was almost too late."
"Oh, how are you feeling, darling?" the famous actor, and Chris's mother, Lindsey Thorndike asked Tails as she pinched his cheek with one hand. "I see that they still let you wear that dreadful costume even in the hospital. Someday I'm going to get you and your friends to take off those silly outfits and show us what you really look like."
Chris, Chuck, and Nelson all groaned as they tried to explain to Chris's mother for the hundredth time that Sonic and his friends weren't in costumes and that they really were walking, talking hedgehogs, foxes, and rabbits. Everyone else just snickered at how, after all this time, she still didn't get it. Tails quickly glanced around at the assembled group and spotted something strange in Ella's hands that prompted him to question the helpful maid. "Hey Ella," Tails pointed to the wheelchair that she now held, "What's that thing for?"
"Why, this is for you, silly!" Ella told the confused fox as she rolled the wheelchair over to where Tails stood.
"But, I can walk perfectly fine by myself, guys!" Tails objected to the present crowd who seemed to agree with Ella that he needed a lift out of the hospital.
"You're still pretty shaky, bud," Sonic placed a hand on Tails' shoulder to steady the wobbly fox. "You know, bro, we're on the fifth floor of the hospital right now, and it's a long walk down the hall to the elevators."
"Besides, it is a tradition for patients who have been in the hospital to get a ride in a wheelchair before they leave," Ella said as she parked the chair next to Tails.
"Well, I guess so then," Tails said as he tried to climb into the wheelchair on his own and nearly lost his balance trying to step up on the footrests.
"Let me give you a hand, dear," Vanilla interceded as she picked up the unstable kit and set him in the wheelchair's seat.
"Thanks," Tails politely responded to the motherly rabbit.
"It's no problem, sweetie," Vanilla spoke as she walked around the wheelchair to grab the rear handles and began pushing him down the hallway as everyone else followed.
"That looks like fun, Tails!" Cream observed as they made their way towards the elevators.
"Well, I guess it beats walking," Tails said in response while he put one hand behind his head and grinned widely in mild embarrassment. He decided to ignore the undignified manner in which he left the hospital and simply looked at the experience as pure fun. He was greeted at the hospital's front door by Chris's uncle, Sam Speed, driving a stretch limousine as he was helped into the back seat by Mr. Tanaka.
"Don't worry, Tails!" Sam called to him from the front of the limo, "I'll get you back home in just two shakes of your two tails! Ha ha ha ha ha!!" Everyone else barely managed to pile in before the Thorndike's private limousine raced away from the hospital at break-neck speed. Tails just prayed that the ride didn't kill him before his own body's bio-toxins did as he began to feel his lunch in his throat for the second time today.