"Tails?" said a voice from nearby the garage door.

Tails woke with a sudden jolt. Oh great! Wonderful! He had passed out, but why? He soon realized this and he immediately hid the pipe and remains of the marijuana under his workbench. Regardless of whoever was there, he didn't want ANYONE to know that he had drugs.

He looked towards where the voice came from. It was Shadow. Out of all people it had to be him. Great.

"Shadow? W-What are you doing here?" asked a nervous Tails.

"I came to drop off a pie that Amy made for you, since everyone else including that Faker are busy" he said.

"Don't call him that, you Customizable Character" said Tails, glaring at him like how he did the other day. "You're just a clone".

"Your words of anger don't discourage me, fox" said Shadow. He walked over to Tails, squinting his eyes. He knew he was his Ning something. "Tails, what you put under there?"

Shadow pointed to the bottom of the workbench. Tails' heart began to speed up. "T-There's nothing there, Shadow. Honest!"

Shadow didn't but it. He moved towards the workbench while a now scared Tails stood there fiddling with his fingers. Shadow reached down and under the workbench he had found it. He pulled out the pipe and bag of weed.

"Tails?? What the hell is this??" he asked.

"Uh, I- well, you see-" was all he could say before Shadow marched towards the garage door.

"If I catch you using drugs again, I'll pound you to a pulp, FOX. And I'll tell Sonic" he said. Shadow left with the pipe and bag of weed, leaving a scared Tails behind, shaking.

Now this was BAD. REALLY BAD. Although Shadow wouldn't tell Sonic, if he caught him smoking weed again he would.

"Nice going you coward" said a voice in his head.

"Will you shut up?!" said Tails. He smacked the top of his head and walked over to a empty can of soda and kicked it.

"Stupid hedgehog. Who does he think he is?" he said to himself. Tails walked back inside his house. He walked towards his kitchen to grab a snack. He opened one of his cabinets to find that all of his snacks were gone. He just remembered that he ate all of time due to isolating himself for the past week.

He signed and decided that it would be best if he went to the store. He got his wallet and walked outside the door. It was difficult carrying his wallet in hand because it was shown to the world. This made him paranoid as he feared that someone would try to steal it. Not only that, but he feared that someone would steal his inventions and other trinkets he made.

It only took him a good fifteen minutes to reach the local supermarket. It was your average supermarket that had various supplies like food, water, milk, etc. It even had a small section of tools and other work necessities.

Tails walked inside. It wasn't too busy as only a few people were out and about inside the store. Before Tails could walked any further, he looked inside his wallet to find that he only had a couple of dollars. Now this was just great.

"Damn it" he said to himself. Tails walked around the store but he couldn't find snacks that interested him. He didn't need to buy water or soda as he had plenty that would last him for several months. When he was just about to leave out of boredom, he looked up to find that he stumbled upon the tool section. He decided to look around because why not? He was a geek after all.

He looked around to find various sets of screwdrivers, saws, hammers and other tools that anyone would use. Just then, something caught his eye that made him fall in love. He saw a brown and orange work belt with a pair of goggles to go along with it. It was perfect! It was just what he needed. Now he wouldn't have to worry about carrying his wallet or heavy tool box. He could put a few nuts and bolts inside along with said wallet and a few other things.

"Oh my! This is perfect!" he said to himself. He just knew that he HAD to buy it. He had the right amount of money for it. His final decision was to buy it.

After paying the cashier the money he owed, he soon left the store while holding the belt and goggles in his hands. He stared at it with amazement. It was like getting the pony you always wanted for Christmas!

But before he could stare at it more, he suddenly bumped into someone. Tails looked up to find an adult male rabbit, glaring at him.

"Watch where you're walking, you freak!" yelled the rabbit. This made Tails' heart jump. That word. That's awful word he hated was used against him. Tails always hated that word with a passion. Before he met Sonic, he didn't have any friends and all the other kids in his small village would call him that and bully him. Sometimes they would beat him up to the point where he would bleed.

"I-I'm sorry, sir" he said while nervously walking away. Tails turned around but this didn't help him as the man just laughed at him.

"Yeah that's right! Keep walking you two-tailed fairy!" he yelled.

Two-tailed fairy? Tails wasn't a fairy. He was a fox. Why did the man call him a fairy? Tails soon realized that this was slur used against people who were homosexual, but Tails wasn't gay. He liked girls. He fell in love with Cosmos for Christ's sake! This made us very mad.

"Who are you calling a fairy??" he said, glaring at the rabbit.

The rabbit laughed once more. "You! You stupid fairy!"

Now this pissed Tails off. The little fox decided that enough was enough. He jumped forward and punched the rabbit in the face, knocking him out COLD.

Tails stared with anger and hatred. A small grin appeared on his face and he chuckled to himself. He walked back to the dirt trail that lead to his house. Little did he know that everyone around him was watching in silence. They had never seen Tails do that, let alone show any sign of anger and hatred. They always thought that he was a sweet and kind individual.

Also, a familiar raccoon was watching him from afar. "That kid's got guts" he said to himself while smoking a cigarette.


Later that evening, Tails was sitting in his living room watching whatever was on TV. He thought about what had happen earlier. It felt good to punch that stupid bunny, but he also felt bad.

Tails decided to call it a day and he turned the TV off and went to his room. He took his shoes off and climbed in his bed, covering himself up. He stared at the ceiling, pondering.

"Another day of nothing but pain tomorrow" said a voice in his head.

"What's it to you? You're the one who keeps pushing me down" said Tails, groaning.

"Dude, I'm literally you talking to yourself in your head, dumbass" said the voice.

That voice was right. Tails was talking to himself once again. Tails wish he had someone to talk to about his troubles. He would always go to Sonic or Amy, but this time it was different.

Tears began to fill his eyes again. He pulled the covers over his head, hiding himself from the outside world. He bawled his eyes out. His muffled cries could be heard from the hallway. They were that loud.

"I can't do this shit anymore" he said, sniffling. "I wanted her back. I want my old life back!"

He cried once more. Tomorrow was another day.


Tails woke up the next morning, his eyes felt weird from all the crying. His face was stained from said crying. He sat up in his bed, rubbing his eyes. Today was another day.

He got out of his bed and made his way to the bathroom to clean himself up. It only took a couple of minutes before Tails' face look decent, apart from bags under his eyes, he looked fine enough.

Tails went to the kitchen to make himself something to eat but he soon realized that he didn't buy any food last night. He only bought that pair of goggles and belt from the store. He had no money now and no food either. Only water. This made him even more sad.

"Jesus" he said, beginning to cry once more, but before he could be heard a knock coming from his front door. Why was someone here this early?

Tails turned over to the foyer and groaned. "Coming!" He opened the door to find none other than the raccoon from the other day. "Oh hey, it's you".

"I feel like I should've introduced myself properly, don't you think? May I come in?" asked the raccoon.

Tails nodded and step aside, letting the raccoon in. The raccoon didn't take his boots off as he walked around the house, almost like it was a museum of paintings. "So, um, what brings you back?" asked Tails.

"Oh, nothing really. I wanted to ask you something. Did you like it?" asked the raccoon while sitting down on the sofa in Tails' living room.

"Actually, yes! I did. It felt good. At first I thought all of that anti-weed commercials were true" he said.

"But then you realized that it was all lies?" asked the raccoon, practically finishing Tails' sentence.

Tails nodded and he sat down on the other sofa that sat right next to the first one, almost making it look like a much larger sofa.

"My name is Derek" said the strange raccoon.

"You probably know me I suppose?" asked Tails.

"Yes. I do, in fact. I saw you today" he said, looking at our two-tailed hero.

Tails became nervous. Was he here to beat him up? Was he a cop? "Umm, you did?"

"Yeah and I gotta say, you really taught that guy a lesson. What a total, dumbass. Thinking he can pick on little kids".

"I'm not little!" said Tails. "Well, I guess I am".

"Yeah, say, do you still have that stuff?" asked Derek.

"No, I don't. My friend's friend came here and took it from me, saying that if he ever saw me with that stuff again he'd pound me to a pulp" said Tails while looking down at the floor.

"Hmm, I see. What's his name?" asked Derek.

This made Tails' eyes lighten it. "His name is Shadow".

"Shadow? As in that Sonic clone?" asked Derek. He had seen him before.

"He's the one that took it" said Tails. Derek took out a small bag of weed and placed it on the coffee table that sat in front of the couch.

"Keep this safe. Also, it's the last I'm giving you for FREE. If you want more, you're gonna have to pay" said Derek with a stern tone. He was very serious about this.

"Okay, got it. If I want more, I'll pay you".

"It'll be forty dollars" said Derek. Tails nearly gasped at that statement. Forty dollars?!

"Oh, uh, okay. I got it" he said.

Derek got up from the sofa and walked towards the foyer. He opened the door but before leaving, Derek said something that made Tails smile.

"Don't worry about that hedgehog. I'll take care of him" he said, winking at Tails. He closed the door behind him and left.

Tails was excited now. He had a new bag of weed and Derek was going to give Shadow a piece of his mind. But this would only tighten the rope in Tails' life even tighter.


Shadow was at his house, reading a book on vampires. Shadow would usually read during his free time. Reading for him helped ease the regret and sadness he had because he couldn't save Maria, his close friend and only friend at that time.

Just then, out of nowhere, Shadow's front door got busted down by none other than DEREK. Shadow jumped at this sudden surprise, but before he could do or say anything, Derek came into the living where Shadow was at and he grabbed him by the neck and threw him against the wall.

Shadow slammed against the wall and fell to the floor, blood coming out of his nose. Derek marched towards him and lifted him up from his chest.

"If you EVER approach Tails again, I'll fucking kill you, you fucking idiot!" he yelled. Derek dropped Shadow and he landed with a thud.

Derek walked away and out the door, leaving a confused Shadow to lay on the floor.

Shadow sat up against the wall, nose bleeding. He wanted to fight back, but he told himself not too. He had to process what the hell just happened. He knew Tails? But why and how?

"Oh shit" said Shadow. He connected the dots and realized that Derek was the one who gave Tails that bag of weed and pipe. Now he was getting somewhere.

Shadow knew he had to do something, but he had to sort of keep a low profile. Just in case if Derek was around the area, waiting for the right moment to strike. Shadow wasn't afraid of him getting beat up, BUT he was afraid that something bad would happen to Tails.

He had to tell Sonic about this. He just had to.