Third Person

It was that one time of the day that Tails has been dreading all this time. Lunch hour. He thought about not even going to the back courtyard but then those bullies would surely come to find him. He had a sense of dread every step he took that lead him and Sonic closer to those Mobians. Once he reached the door that opened to the back courtyard, he looked back behind him to see Sonic tilt his head at him. He took a breath to calm his racing heart then opened the door.

The back courtyard was smaller than a normal courtyard, being it was in the back of the school. It was about half the size of a baseball field that had a huge circle in the middle like a basketball court. He wasn't surprised to see the same Mobians before him but what he was surprised about was that the golden hedgehog wasn't anywhere. He began to walk forward and that got all of their attention on him.

"Finally!" Scourge exclaimed as he rolled his eyes then looked at the blue hedgehog. "I was wondering if you decided to become a coward and run off." Tails ignored him and approached the group. The closer he got, the more he could hear his heart racing in his ears. Once he was mere steps away, he started to fiddle with his gloves while looking anywhere but at the ice blue eyes that stared at him. "Well? Are you going to say something or not?"

"L-Look..." Tails stuttered out but still found his gloves the most interesting thing in the world. "I'm sure that this was just a misunderstanding and-" he was interrupted as Scourge let out a mocking laugh.

"A misunderstanding? You call me getting all sticky from an apple that your blue friend behind you crushed over me, a misunderstanding?" it was now that Tails had decided to look up at Scourge only to see him marching his way towards the fox. "I call it war." he stopped just in front of the fox and grinned like a maniac. "And there is only one solution to war," he narrowed his eyes and moved slightly closer to the fox's face. "To beat your opponent senseless." he smirked as Sonic slightly growled while baring his teeth for standing so close to Tails and walked past the both of them to stand directly on the far left side of the middle circle in the courtyard.

"You know, you can just leave fox." It was now Shadow that spoke up gaining Tails's attention. "But that means you have to leave your friend here and call yourself a coward." at the blink of an eye, Tails would've said yes. By any means necessary -even if it means being in outer space- the fox would gladly like to leave. Even if the sacrifice was being called a coward. But... then he thought about Sonic. The blue hedgehog was his responsibility now and who knows what this group of Mobians would make him do? For Sonic's sake, he approached the center circle, on the opposite side of Scourge and stood tall and proud.

"I'm not going anywhere." he stated with a partial smile as he watched Scourge narrowed his eyes at him. Sonic didn't waste any time in standing beside him.

"Fine. Have it your way. But you'll regret not taking this chance to run." the green hedgehog then chuckled and folded his arms over his chest. "The rules are simple." he just went straight to the point not bothering if the fox said anything.

"Wait, rules? What rules?" but that only fell on deaf ears.

"If you win, then we all will stop bugging you for the rest of the year but if I win..." Scourge chuckled again and he gave a devilish smirk. "Then you will leave your friend here, turn around, walk away, never turn back and forget all about him."

"WHAT!?" the fox's eyes were dinner plates as he couldn't believe his ears. "What do you mean that I'll forget about Sonic? I'm not leaving him!" Scourge shrugged his shoulders.

"Either that or you can be a chicken... but that will just get you the same result." Tails frowned then grabbed hold of Sonic's hand.

"You know, I think this was a terrible idea to begin with." he dragged the hedgehog with him away from the group of Mobians, away from the whole ordeal, away from all this action, he had enough of it all. Shadow saw what was going on and glanced at the lighter striped ebony hedgehog beside him.

"Mephiles." he nodded towards the retreating duo and Mephiles nodded in understanding. Just as Tails was about to reach his hand out to grab the handle of the door, black tentacles that appeared to be made out of ink appeared out of nowhere and blocked the whole entrance off.

"What the-" Tails upperuptly turned around to glare at all of them. "Okay, who ever is doing this, stop!"

"Heh, that would be me." Mephiles gave a toothy grin that made a shiver go down the fox's spine.

"Well... can't you get rid of... whatever this is?"Tails gestured towards the tentacles and Mephiles shook his head.

"Not until you finish your battle." Tails angrily sighed at that, took a glance at Sonic who was just staring at him then dragged the hedgehog back towards their side of the circle.

"Fine, but don't expect me to like this one bit."

"Your not supposed to." Scourge smirked then held out his right hand that had the marking glowing brightly. "Do you agree to our little deal?"

"Sure, why not?" Tails rolled his eyes making Scourge snicker.

"Very well." he pulled his arm back making sure to keep his palm open. "Alright Fleetway, let's go!" he shoved his hand forward making the mark shine brighter than before and golden energy came out of it, forming the golden hedgehog himself. Tails gawked at seeing the same golden hedgehog from before but he looked slightly different. His fur and quills were unkempt, claws poked through his gloves, when he smirked his teeth had changed into shark teeth, his gloves and shoes were in tatters and the biggest change was that his eyes were two hypnotic swirls. Fleetway chuckled at the fox's reaction before turning around to face his Master.

"I think this fox hasn't battled before."

"I can see that Fleet and if that fox doesn't let his friend battle, then I guess we have to pry him out." Scourge then pointed at the blue hedgehog. "ATTACK!"

"With pleasure." Fleetway flexed his claws then ran towards the duo. After realizing what was going on, Tails shook his head and didn't know what to do. But Sonic did. The blue hedgehog shoved Tails behind him, narrowed his eyes at Fleetway, curled his hands into fists and slightly growled. Just as Fleetway was about to make contact, Sonic slugged him across the face, sending him skidding back. Fleetway grunted from the hit then looked back at the blue hedgehog who had malice in his eyes. "I actually felt that!"

"No hurt Tails." Sonic growled out and Fleetway smirked.

"Fine, I won't hurt him, but I'll still hurt you." the golden hedgehog flew into the air and the blue hedgehog crouched down low.

"Laser beam!" Scourge commanded and Fleetway's eyes turned full-on red before he fired a laser directly at Sonic. The blue hedgehog just barely dodged the attack but didn't have time for the second one that grazed his arm. Sonic hissed in pain but that left him open as Fleetway fired another making him skid across the ground on his back.

"Sonic!" Tails yelled out as he saw what happened. "Sonic, are you alright?" his question was answered as the blue hedgehog let out a grunt while struggling to stand up. Sonic glanced at Tails with a small smile before looking over at Fleetway with a nasty glare.

"Heh, stubborn aren't you?" Scourge commented then looked up at Fleetway. "I think we should end this."

"Gladly." Fleetway flew down in front of Scourge so that he was standing a few feet away from him.

"Alright!" Scourge shined his mark at the golden hedgehog as a golden aura with red flecks appeared around the both of them. Fleetway closed his eyes and the green hedgehog clenched his right hand, opened it again then thrust his arms outward -palms facing Fleetway- while shouting two words. "Golden Arrow!" in a matter of seconds, the aura surrounding Scourge flew into Fleetway's body which in turn turned into a legitimate golden arrow and shot itself towards the blue hedgehog. Sonic widened his eyes at seeing this happen then did something no one saw coming. He caught the arrow with his bare hands. The group of Mobians couldn't believe what they were seeing. No one has ever stopped the Golden Arrow, dodged it rarely, but stopped it? Never. Sonic has slowly losing his footing as the arrow continued it's pursuit but as he took a glance at Tails he growled and gained determination in his eyes.

"No hurt Tails." his eyes slowly turned to red and black. "No one... hurts... Tails." his fur changed from cobalt to indigo as his teeth sharpened and claws tore through the tips of his fingers. "No one... shall... hurt... Tails!" a blood red X appeared on his chest, his voice deepened and black energy rolled off his hands like smoke. "rrrrraaaaAAAHHHHH!" he used the energy to push the arrow away making it change its course to slam into Scourge. The green hedgehog could only widen his eyes right before the arrow flew at him sending him skidding across the ground half-conscious and the arrow turned back into Fleetway as he groaned while laying on his side. The golden hedgehog looked at the green hedgehog who was just barely holding himself up then looked towards the blue hedgehog and his expression instantly became one that was filled with fear and horror.

"No..." he muttered as his swirls met with red dots. Scourge heard him and looked to where he was looking only to become speechless. The blue hedgehog's narrowed at the golden hedgehog then began to walk towards him. "No... no, stop! Please! Don't hurt me!" Fleetway tried to scooch backwards but he didn't get very far.

"I don't believe it..." the red echidna mumbled.

"How?" the rabbit looked at the pink hedgehog who was just as shocked as she was. "How is this possible?"

"This can not be happening!" Shadow yelled out. "I thought they were all extinct!" back with Sonic, the blue hedgehog flexed his claws out, black energy rolling off his hands like a raging river then growled one last time before running towards the golden hedgehog with his hands poised to strike.

"Sonic, STOP!" the blue hedgehog stopped while he was millimeters away from Fleetway's face and turned towards the fox who at this point was eerily calm. "Come over here." Sonic blinked, looked at Fleetway, let out a low growl as a warning then walked over towards Tails. "Why did you do that?" Tails placed his hands on his hips then sighed as Sonic only tilted his head. "And how did you change your appearance again?"

"Again?" the fox and hedgehog both looked over where a weak voice came from. And that voice was Scourge. "You mean that is how he always looked?" the green hedgehog helped the golden hedgehog up as Tails looked at him confused.

"Uh, yeah? Why?" ice blue eyes meet swirls then the two looked over at the other Mobians. Tails frowned not liking the worried look in their eyes or the strange silence. "Is something wrong?" after a bit more silence, Scourge let out a breath he didn't know that he was holding and looked over at the fox.

"Fox, there's more that meets the eyes here. Especially about that hedgehog of yours."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Tails asked and Scourge sighed again.

"That hedgehog beside you, he is no ordinary hedgehog." he looked at Fleetway who nodded in understanding.

"That hedgehog is an X-Demon."