Welcome Back!
Note: I've got some time intensive things going on towards the beginning of next month, though I'm not sure how much so, and I may or may not update before then, if not I'll probably be able to get back to writing around mid-October.
Noonui - Thank you again for the review! I'm glad you liked both Tails' and Sonic's thoughts and how they reflect each's situation. While I'm sure there's room for improvement if do happen to continue writing after this fic, (and therefore improve in writing), I had fun putting them in the chapter and am very happy with how they turned out! I'm also glad you don't know exactly where the plot's going (in a good way). Thank you for the review!
Onward with the fic!
The Freedom Fighters needed to come up with a plan. After Tails' escape had been discovered much of the house had been put in disarray and it was only by a miracle of stealth that the group evaded detection before exiting. They rendezvoused far left of the front gate, where Sally breathlessly explained what she had found.
"So you're saying he was turned into some kind of wild animal?" Sonic questioned.
"Yes" She replied. "I don't know how, but that's what was on the cameras."
His gaze narrowed into the jungle, tapping his foot evermore in thought. "Let's get to him before those fur-brains do." He stated decisively. Wherever Tails was now, they would rescue him. But there was no time to stand still.
Sally brought the group closer to a section of clearing she'd recognized from video surveillance. As soon as she had pointed off in a general direction Sonic blurred into the distance, hoping that the fox hadn't veered too far from his original path. They were going to find him soon, no matter where he'd gone.
Morning peered around the horizon when the fox finally stopped. A large river spanned ahead of him and Tails wearily padded down for a drink. His throat ached in dryness, feeling as though it had gradually turned to scratchy dust. He wondered if he'd traveled far enough to finally rest for the day.
As he trotted to the bank, an eerie sense waved about, slowly getting heavier the closer he moved to water. Though he didn't know why, his fur automatically rose. It was strange, and the fox decided he was only going to get a quick drink, but even with that reaffirmation, his pace began to slow.
Something was wrong. His sight crept mistrustfully over the river and halted. Emerald slits of eyes sat on the water's edge as a snake big enough to wrap around ten trees spanned motionless in its shallows.
He froze, not knowing what to do. Air rested around them like a hollow breath, and he realized it was the silence that had evoked his caution, and most likely, saved his life.
Overwhelming anxiety made the passing of time feel both endless and nonexistent. A hot sun beat upon the figures. The serpent had not moved. Patience was its strength, but not the only. Tails took a step back, alerting it. If he took another…
The snake lunged, its fangs blared in more than display. Some inner reflex sent his prey a meter in the air before the fox crashed back to the ground, scrambling away. The snake followed for a few meters before returning, land was not meant for it.
Tails fled, forgetting all forms of weariness. The size of the creature alone still terrified him. How fast could it move? Surely much quicker than those tiny garter snakes back home. His sprint reinvigorated itself in terror.
Minutes flew by and the fox eventually noticed that he hadn't been followed. Tails slowed to a panting, shaking, halt, taking deep breaths as a headache started to form. He couldn't stay in the jungle for long, not with animals like that, but where else was there to go? The fox gathered his thoughts. Vharst's house seemed to be the only place around... but hadn't Mancio mentioned something about a city? It would explain where all of the former mobian's guests came from.
Maybe he could even find help there! or would everyone treat him the way Vharst had? The fox shuddered at such risk, but he knew he couldn't stay here much longer. Maybe there'd be a way to find help in the city for finding Knothole. Tails figured he could try communicating now that his captor wasn't so close. He could ask someone which way the Great Forest is and…
Did he want to go home? Dark words of a crafted abandonment kept him at bay. Would they even want him?... He couldn't face that kind of rejection again. Freedom fighters always saved each other, no matter the situation. What was so different now that they'd decided not to? They hadn't sold… He couldn't think and a brushing leaf suddenly reminded him of his situation, reminded him that this was not the time to think. He couldn't spend another day in these woods.
Peering around the area, Tails only saw a few meters through the trees and he realized that he needed to climb to higher ground. Thus far, had been something Tails was avoiding, and presently almost every direction led upwards. Ignoring his parched jaw, the fox walked to a particularly inclined area and began his ascent. The ground first rose in spurts, inclines that he could at times jump up, but then the terrane became steeper and he struggled to claw upwards, pausing more and more in the humid sunlight.
I would've been done by now if I could still fly. Tails angrily noted. He didn't keep this thought for long, and turned back to climbing.
Eventually, the slope flattened with enough vantage for him to stop. It was above most trees in the valley, but those that rooted on its side still dared to shoot higher. The tired fox decided it was good enough.
Tails scanned the area, something in the near distance quickly catching his eye. A break in the jungle laid there, barely ending before what looked like large buildings surrounded by hills and cliffs, creating a bowl in the landscape. That was the city, and his destination. Finally, the fox allowed himself to smile at the little bit of something going right.
Before he could come up with a clear route an odd sound caught his ear. The forest shuffled unfamiliarity below him, not like it had for the various wildlife. This was louder, somewhat haphazard. Possibly what he sounded like in this foreign tangle. He really hoped not.
A quick peek over the cliffside showed its source. There were two mobians down there, with a wild dog on a leash, sniffing the ground below.
Panic rushed over Tails. How had they found him!? He bounded away from the rocky edge, scrambling around his mini plateau for some route of escape. The other areas were far too steep to descend, one even curving upside down. He checked the upper rocks but knew better than to climb higher. That would be a dead end.
"Looks like it went up here." A voice stopped his thoughts altogether. He heard someone grumbling then the loose sound of dirt and pebbles as they began to climb the steeper area. Panicked, Tails chanced another look over the edge. They were going slow, and the other mobian was tying the wild dog up to stop it from following them.
The first struggled for solid footholds. He was too heavy to use the weaker places that Tails had. Checking his progress in frustration, he looked up. Tails met his eyes and fled.
Before he knew what he was doing, the fox was in the treetops, leaping from branch to branch, decreasing in height. He had jumped from the cliff to the outreached arms of the nearest tree, somehow landing in its grasp.
All caution was forgotten, and success came from pulsing adrenaline as he continued to flee. Loud barks from the dog only served to encourage his flight. He needed to get out of here!
Tails slipped and then crashed to the ground. Leaves and brambles embraced and tore through his fur. There was no time to notice any injuries, so he got up, wincing from the pain, and ran.
The blazing sun hinted that it was early afternoon when Tails stumbled onto a dusty road already panting hard from the severe change in climate. This heat was a far contrast from Knothole's chilly fall. How far had he been taken? Could this be an alien planet? Tails stopped that thought immediately. He did not like it. Even if the Freedom Fighters wanted him gone, he missed them.
Instead, he studied the intersecting path. It was made of packed dirt and partially overrun by the looming rainforest. Tails stared thoughtfully in the direction he thought the city was, and then the other, trying his best to decipher where each went. The road spread as far as he could see, eventually hazed away by distant trees. He checked again, hoping for some sign that his memory was accurate. Guess I'll find out soon. He thought, choosing to turn left.
Less than an hour of travel turned his trot into a straggling hike, well-learnt signs of exhaustion registering in his mind. Hopefully he could find some water once he reached civilization. It couldn't be that much further.
The sound of an oncoming vehicle faintly hit his ears. Tails stumbled into the nearest patch of bracken, thankful he had been near the edge of the road. It took a second, but eventually a noisy hover car sped past, creating a cloud of dust in its wake. Where did that come from? He would have to be more careful from now on.
Despite danger, Tails decided to stay on the road. He had tripped enough through the grappling foliage, and weariness told him to take an easier path.
From the west, a cooler breeze blew through, bringing two sudden distractions with it. First, the soft feeling of rain swept around, pre-telling a torrent to come. Then, the second came as the smell of mobians, and a dog. They were getting close.
Without another thought, he scampered away. Unlike the car, they were tracking him, and the fox knew could only rest when they were gone. He stayed on the road. If they got closer maybe he'd go into the forest. Even if unused to it, he was smaller than his pursuit, something that could be a relieving advantage in its brambles.
The darkening sky caught his attention once more, strong clouds sauntering overhead quickly followed with a light sprinkle. Distracted, Tails hadn't initially noticed when the trees to his right abruptly paused. Upon finding himself unhidden, he immediately skirted to the other side of the road. There was a house in the clearing, lined with a brick roof, vaguely stark against the jungle, but thankfully, not where he was running from.
He pressed against the dirt and snuck past it, catching the eye of someone finishing something in their garden. Thankfully, they didn't pay much notice.
"Sal, I can't find him anywhere!" Sonic anxiously exclaimed. His foot pounded against the ground. The ground squirrel had requested that they rendezvous after only a half-day of searching, which had clearly not been enough time to find Tails.
"Yes, I know. Bunnie and I haven't seen any trace of him either. Which is why we're going to head back to the house." She said.
"Say what?" Sonic responded incredulously "You mean back to where we started?"
"Yes Sonic, we were talking about it before you got here. Vharst might have found him by now, and even if he hasn't we could have missed some helpful information before." she explained.
Sonic's foot stopped tapping. The thought of Tails being captured again had lingered throughout his whole search, but he never much planned except to find the kit first. It had been so long though… could he have possibly failed at that?
"Sounds good Sal." Sonic nodded. "I'll get us back in no time"
True to his word, they were to their destination in minutes. Upon checking the clearing, they noticed that there were fewer guards than the night before. Individually, each looked troubled, but the general atmosphere was calm, without any indication as to whether they had found the fox.
Waiting for a break in sightlines, the Freedom Fighters snuck through. This was harder to do in the daylight, but still manageable. They crouched by the house and peeked through a window before creeping in.
The area felt large, letting in plenty of natural light and creating a warm welcoming atmosphere. Used to the darkness of Robotropolis, part of Sally was baffled by the contrast in Vharst's home and his actions. She further understood the reasoning behind her doubts last night.
Silently she led the others to the surveillance room she'd found, hoping that it would also have access to the guards' way of communication. If it didn't, they could at least check the cameras to see what had happened since their departure.
The area was thankfully empty of mobians and all the computer screens laid dormant. Upon approaching, Sally turned one on and spent the next minutes breaking through its security. Meanwhile, Sonic and Bunnie scoured the rest of the room for other possible leads. Narrowly avoiding setting off some sort of alarm on the machine, the ground squirrel finally browsed through its database. She sorted through files, finding much more than just the house's surveillance.
Pictures and documents came up. Trade deals, linked to information behind coded walls, not important though, not to them. The folders were endless. Finally, something interesting caught her eye.
A loud voice suddenly crackled. 'Radar says it's about to rain, we think the fox is heading into town but we'll lose track of him if it does. Can we get any help?' A radio blared from Bunnie's hand, quickly muffled before anyone outside noticed.
"What did it -" Sonic was cut off by additional static from the device.
'Continue what you're doing, I'll see if Vharst will let me send anyone out.'
'Copy that'
They waited in silence for conversation to continue. It didn't.
"They don't have him yet." Sally finally sighed. "And they think he's headed into town." She hoped the mobians were right.
Before they left, the group quickly set everything to look the way it had when they entered. Sally briefly began to check the document she'd seen before. Perhaps due to a misspelling on the ground squirrel's part, or perhaps because the system was built that way, on the first line of script an alarm thundered throughout the building.
They froze. Distant pairs of racing footsteps echoed throughout the building.
"Well, so much for stealth." Sally muttered. She looked back at the computer before turning it off. "Bunnie you've got the radio? Let's get out of here."
Navigating the house wasn't anywhere near as difficult as some of their missions to Robotropolis, and they snuck to an exit without detection. Hopefully, the computer didn't log what file exactly set off the alarm. Hopefully, Vharst couldn't guess who they were looking for.
Rain poured outside, and the Freedom Fighters slipped into it. Even in the formerly bright afternoon, its mist created a thick veil in the air. They ran past the clearing's perimeter before coming to a muddy stop.
Sonic began to say something before the radio buzzed back to life, barely audible above the storm 'There was a break in at the house, are you two available?'
He stopped.
'No, we're following the fox on foot. You'll need to get transport if you want us to come back soon.'
'One moment.'
There was a long pause, lights on the radio went up, probably indicating other frequencies in use. With tense thought, Sally decided against switching to these. They needed to hear this conversation, and could miss something while browsing. So the group continued to wait, temptation growing.
'No, keep on route for now. We're going to check who it was on the security feed and keep you updated. They'll probably head into town, are you still going that way?'
'Copy, and yes.'
Sally frowned. Great, now there were mobians looking for them too, just what they needed.
"Guess that'll tell us who all's working for the guy" Bunnie commented optimistically.
She paused at the small positive note. "I guess so, let's go."
Tails sat in the open backside of a small truck. It was about the size of those that he'd seen back in Robotropolis, but much more rigid in shape and unable to fly around. He had noticed the automobile heading his same direction and, while its path was blocked by wild cows, tried to climb on the roof. That proved impossible, so despite his shaky mistrust of any remotely enclosed space, he decided to rest inside.
So the fox sat on the hard metal, watching uneasily as pouring rain obscured the road behind. It had started suddenly, the sheer volume of water spraying inside and forming an ever growing pool around him. Briefly debating how clean it might be, he drank from a larger section, feeling much better as it filled his stomach.
The fox turned back to the road behind himself. His namesakes twitched anxiously. This vehicle was definitely going faster than his pursuers could on foot, but every idea of them catching up put his fur on edge. He took continual glances about, snapping his head to every noise. Mostly it came from the wind, but even after figuring this out, he tried to keep on a worried guard.
As time continued however, the desire to lay down slowly crept upon his mind, becoming an overpowering voice that the exhausted fox eventually could no longer ignore.
Thankfully unable to sleep due to the road's bumpiness, he maintained a slowly lessening watch on the world. Houses and other mobian-built structures began appearing. Only a few at first, but then many, many more. He watched them with apprehension, realizing he was definitely going in the right direction. Now that all this was right in front of him, Tails wasn't entirely sure he wanted to be here. There were so many mobians, so many he couldn't trust.
To his great displeasure the road became increasingly crowded, surrounding them in weaving traffic. The truck stopped at an intersection, creeping for the right time to turn into an even busier road.
"Mom, look! There's a wild dog in that car! See!?" A child pointed straight at Tails. His vision tunneled, the attention reminded him of Vharst's place, of being trapped. It terrified him, he couldn't stay here! The fox scrambled off his perch, away from the kid, away from the stare, and away from being just a wild animal!
He tumbled on the pavement then forced himself up, darting off to a dark corner. It stood hidden by some concrete entryway. He quickly circled himself in its shadow, waiting for anyone who might follow. No one did. His breaths calmed as he faded into anonymity.
Tails knew he needed to get up, as much as that unnerved him, but he still debated waiting for night. They'll catch up. The fox grimly reminded himself.
He crept into light and quickened his footsteps to dash between mobians. Annoyed comments flew his way, as well as one painfully mistimed step.
The fox trotted to a building's side, where he snuck beneath its shadow on a side road. This led him to a row of small outdoor stores, all of which seemed to be selling food. He'd tried sneaking away with some, but was nearly hit by a thrown rock for his efforts. Tails shook away more thoughts of despair, focusing instead on walking, but still keeping an eye out for anything that had fallen on the ground. With more distance, the various shops shifted into selling cloth and then hardware.
He was half under the tarp of a table when a reflecting light snagged his attention. Two mobians were talking at a stall down the road whilst examining a grey box. It looked familiar. Tails pricked his ears as he snuck past but kept his eyes on the road.
"...nothing on the thing works. It probably got destroyed in all the rain." the first mobian commented.
"Maybe it's a toy? You said you found it by the gutter near your house right?" The fox took a curious glance as a mobian flipped open the thing.
Tails nearly tripped over his paws, coming to a sudden stop. That… was that Nicole? Why would she be here if… …his eyes widened with the conclusion. Are they really here?
Without thinking, he rushed up the table, using some nearby bags as stairs, and snatched the device out of their hand. He bolted off the table's surface, weaving desperately through the legs of others. His feet pounded faster at the sound of shouts behind him and he gripped Nicole tightly.
The fox rushed past both streets and corners until his pursuit faded. He scurried to a quiet alcove and found refuge there. Unbelieving elation brimmed in his paws as he gently put Nicole on the stone road.
'Nicole!' It's me, Tails! Where's Sonic!?' he exclaimed, stopping when his thoughts came out as loud barks. Oh, right. The noise was foreign, and she hadn't responded.
He fervently scanned the device's various buttons, starting to press them at random. There just had to be a way to get a response! She couldn't be broken! Suddenly a small scanner lit up from her topside panel. It waved over the fox's face before flashing back off.
'Tails' His heart lurched with joy at the mention of his name 'The freedom fighters are looking for you'. His heart melted and a rush of elation permeated the fox making his breath shake in ecstasy. They're here! They're really here! They had come for him.
'Where are they!?' Tails barked again. His forepaws twitched with excitement. But Nicole buzzed quizzically, seemingly confused on how to decipher the sound.
'Processing' a second of tense silence 'Unable to translate, sorry Tails'
The words pulled him back into reality, albeit a much, much better one. He searched his surroundings in hopes of finding anything to communicate with. The ground was stone, but possibly not too hard to claw some letters into.
It took a near minute of struggled writing before Tails had something legible, or at least what he thought was. The fox scampered to Nicole and expectantly pointed her scanner towards his creation, waiting for it to work.
'Where?' she paused, realizing the question 'Sally and the Freedom Fighters were heading towards this address when I was dropped.' Tails caught a peripheral view of new words displayed on her screen. 'I do not know their current location, but they have a boat docked in the river downtown.'
Unfortunately, the street's name was unfamiliar, so he glanced about for the river instead. Nearby, buildings blocked most of his vision, and even in the few directions he could see far there were no signs of water. He didn't know which way to go and the worry of making a wrong choice briefly filled his mind before he remembered that gravity existed. Water always went as low as it could. Surely, if he did the same, the fox would find them soon.
Thank you for reading, feel free leave a review!