Chapter 14
Sonic comes home from South Island. His arms are full of bags of stuff. He stumbles over to the table and sets the bags down.
"Hey Tails," Sonic shouts. "come over here and help me with this stuff." He doesn't hear Tails respond.
"Tails?" Sonic calls. He walks to Tails lab and shouts his name. No response. Then he hears something from Tails bedroom. Sonic walks inside and sees Tails whimpering on his bed.
"Tails?" Sonic says softly. Tails looks over and sees Sonic at the door.
"Please, just leave me alone." Tails sobs. Sonic walks in and sits down next to Tails. He puts his arm over Tails shoulder.
"So what if we lost the fight," Sonic says, trying his best to sheer up the depressed fox, "we haven't lost the war."
Tails whimpers, "Its not the fight Sonic." Sonic looks confused. "The orb talked to me while you were gone. It told me how to kill it."
"That's great! How?" Sonic asks. The tears flow faster out of Tails eyes.
"I have to kill myself." Tails said mournfully. Sonic's heart sinks. "What am I going to do Sonic?" Sonic was still wrapping himself around the idea of Tails killing himself. The room falls silent and for the next ten minuets, neither of them spoke.
Sonic finally broke the silence and said, "I refuse to believe that orb for half a second!" Tails looks up. "We will find a way to destroy the orb, without sacrificing your life Tails!" Tails smiles with tears still streaming down his face. Sonic grabs Tails arm and they go down to the lab.
"Alright Tails," Sonic says, "start thinking. There has to be something we can do." Tails thinks about it and an idea forms in his mind. 'I could use that formula to separate me from the orb.' Tails thinks. 'But I haven't tested it on a living creature yet.' He walks over to a file cabinet. He opens the middle drawer and pulls out a file.
"This file contains a formula that I thought of." says Tails. "This one scares me."
"Why does it scare you?" Sonic asks.
"This formula is very unstable." Tails explains. "I used it once to separate the molecules of a tree leaf. It was successful but it blew up the leaf. I tried a few more leaves with weird results. Each time was different."
"Why did you make this formula?" Sonic asks suspiciously.
Tails replies, "I was bored one day." Sonic thinks to himself, 'Great, I have a mad scientist for a friend.'
"Don't worry," Tails explains, "I was never going to use it on anything else after that." Tails puts the file on the desk. Sonic looks at it and sees something.
"Why does the file say, 'Careful Handling'?" Sonic asks.
"It means don't shake or drop the mixture." Tails says. "It will explode." Sonic nods.
"And you want use it on yourself?" Sonic asks.
"Well, I'm assuming that my molecules and the orbs molecules are physically connected." Tails explains. "If I'm correct, then you should be able to pour this mixture on me and the orb and I will separate." Sonic looks at Tails worriedly.
Sonic asks, "Are you sure that this won't kill you?"
Tails looks at Sonic grimly and replies, "No but we don't have much of a choice, do we?" Sonic nods. "If all goes well, and the orb and I are separated, it should weaken the orb long enough for you to destroy it Sonic." Tails gets to work on the formula. Sonic sits back and watches, making sure nothing goes wrong.
About an hour later, Sonic has fallen asleep. Watching someone do everything is really boring for him.
Tails sees Sonic asleep and sees his revenge for the cavern. He sneaks up behind Sonic. He takes a deep breath and yells, "SONIC!" Sonic jumps out of the chair and lands on his back. Tails laughs as Sonic gets up.
"What was that for?" Sonic demands.
Tails wipes a tear from his eye and says, "Payback for the cavern. Oh, by the way, the formula is finished."
'Bout time.' Sonic thinks.
"How are we going to test it?" Sonic asks.
Tails looks at him and says, "Well, we can try..." Tails is interrupted by an explosion. The orb has forced its way through one of the walls.
Tails yells at the orb, "Have you ever heard of a door?"
"No. Don't need to use one either." the orb replies. Tails looks at the beaker that has the formula in it.
"Sonic, grab the beaker, quick!" Tails orders Sonic. Sonic runs and grabs the beaker. The orb follows. Sonic runs by Tails and passes it to him. Tails holds the beaker over his head.
"Leave Sonic alone." he demands. The orb stops and hovers in front of Tails. "One more move and its bye- bye for you. I drop this formula on me and the ties are severed."
"Don't be to sure of yourself fox." the orb replies. Tails starts shaking and puts the beaker down.
"Hey, leave him alone!" Sonic says. Sonic runs at full speed at the Orb. The orb forces Tails in Sonic's path and Sonic hits Tails accidentally. Sonic gasps. Tails flies into the next wall.
"I said the next time wont be so easy." the orb says as it disappears. Sonic looks over at Tails, who is now hovering, a purplish glow around him. 'Shit.' Sonic thinks.
"Tails." Sonic says. Tails does not respond. "TAILS!" he yells.
"Miles Prower no longer exists." the orb says through Tails. Sonic couldn't believe it. His friend for eleven years is now going to against him.
"Lets see how well you do against your friend." the orb says and attacks Sonic. Sonic dodges the attack.
"I wont fight you!" Sonic proclaims.
The orb replies, "Oh whats the matter? The fastest hedgehog on the planet has a weak spot? I didn't know you were capable of such compassion." The orb smiles wickedly and goes in for another attack. Sonic quickly dodges and looks down at the beaker. He remembered what Tails said about it being explosive. Sonic goes for the beaker but gets hit by the orb.
"Your not going to do that." the orb says. 'I don't want to kill Tails, but I need to break that beaker.' Sonic thinks. The orb slowly approaches Sonic. All of a sudden, Sonic can't move. He struggles to get free, but he can't.
"What did you do?" Sonic asks.
"I paralyzed you." the orb explains. "This will make it much easier to kill you." The orb grabs Sonic and throws him at the wall. It picks him up again and throws him like a rag doll at the other wall. The orb picks him up again and tosses him into the air. The orb jumps in the air and starts punching Sonic like a punching bag. Finally, it kicks Sonic into a wall. Sonic falls to the ground and is limp. Blood oozes out of the hedgehog's mouth and nose. The orb lands and walks to Sonic.
"Your still breathing. Impressive. I'll fix that." the orb says. It picks up Sonic and starts choking him.
"Tails..." Sonic tries to say. "if your... in... there... I'm sorry."
The orb says, "How touching. The dying friend is telling his buddy he let him down."
"I'm sorry for you too." Knuckles says. The orb looks over and gets clobbered by Knuckles. The orb lets go of Sonic as he flies against a wall. Sonic falls and coughs.
Sonic looks up at Knuckles and says, "Thanks." Knuckles nods and faces the Orb. "Go easy on him. Remember, Tails is still in there." Sonic warns Knuckles. He nods and goes after the orb. Sonic runs over to the beaker and picks it up carefully.
"Get out of Tails body!" Knuckles demands as he punches the orb.
"Knuckles!" Sonic says. Knuckles backs off. The orb is breathing heavily and bleeding from the mouth. It stands up and faces them.
"I hope you've enjoyed your stay," Sonic says, "but you've just been evicted." Sonic runs and dumps the formula over the orb/Tails. The fluid steams and hisses as it touches the orb/Tails. It screams in pain and falls to its knees. Tails voice starts coming through. His eyes start flashing between blue and purple. Tails is now cringing on the floor as the formula does its work. The hissing stops and Sonic checks on Tails. He opens Tails eyes and they are still purple. The orb then punches Sonic and gets up.
"That hurt me Sonic." the orb said. "I will come back. Your friend will die and I'll make you watch." Tails eyes return to normal and he collapses to the floor.
Sonic hits Knuckles in the arm and scolds, "I told you to go easy on him."
Knuckles replies, "I did. Not my fault he can't take a beating." Sonic looks at him, annoyed. Tails opens his eyes and tries to stand up.
"What the hell... Knuckles?" Tails says, grabbing his head. He wipes the blood form his mouth and scowls at Knuckles.
"Oh come on!" Knuckles shouts. "I was only trying to help." Sonic helps Tails up. They walk to the bathroom and start bandaging up Tails.
"Thanks guys." Tails says. Knuckles and Sonic nod and continue bandaging.
"Well its good to see your back to normal Tails." Knuckles says. Tails nods and looks down. He knew the formula worked but not the way he had hoped. The orb is still connected to Tails but its really weak. He argues with himself in his mind about telling the others. Tails decides not to tell them until they need to know.
"Call me if you need any back up." Knuckles says as he walks out the door.
"Will do buddy." Sonic replies as he and Tails walk out of the bathroom.