A long long time ago, a giant Dragon appeared out of nowhere and wreaked havoc on the world of Mobius. It was taller than the mountains and wider than the oceans. It had jaws that bite and claws that catch, and its flames burning down all that stood in its way. And when the world's greatest heroes tried to stand up against it, they would all be burned to a crisp or ripped apart. And even those who were quick enough to dodge the Dragon's attacks would only be met with the Dragon's impenetrable scales. People laid curses on it. It didn't work. They tried tricking it into drinking poison. It failed. The bravest, smartest, and most powerful men on Mobius all failed to hold a candle against this Dragon. Soon, no one dared attack the all-mighty Dragon. And then, and only then, when the Dragon had convinced everyone that it was indestructible, it sat on top of the tallest mountain and made its demands.

The Dragon demanded ten thousand Mobians every day to satisfy its hunger. This was not true. The Dragon needed no food to survive, it just wanted to cause more pain. Sometimes the dragon would devour these unfortunate souls upon arrival; sometimes again it would lock them up in the mountain where they would wither away for months or years before eventually being consumed.

But the citizens of Mobius had no choice but to obey the Dragon, as if they didn't, they would all be nothing more than a fish out of the water, gasping for breath. And so they listened to the Dragon. They usually picked the elders to be sacrificed, their reasoning being that they had lived long enough and enjoyed the couple of decades they have already lived. Despite the fact that they were just as healthy as those who were younger, and sometimes even wiser, they were usually chosen to be fed to the Dragon. Those who were wealthy could buy their time, quite literally, by bribing the men that came to fetch them, but no one could postpone it forever. No one, not even the king, could delay their turn indefinitely.

There were priests who calmed the worry of those who were afraid of the Dragon, which included almost everyone. Some claimed in life after being eaten by the Dragon, a life where they would no longer live under fear of the tyrant. And as time went on, more and more people slowly began to accept the Dragon as a part of life. That the inevitable fate of all beings, perhaps even the purpose of life itself, was to be fed to the Dragon.

By this point, the Dragon would never be attacked. People had long given up on defeating it, and attempts of doing so seemed futile. Instead of defeating it, they started adjusting to it. People began getting married young and began giving birth far more. Thus, the total population was able to be maintained, and the Dragon could have its feast.

However, becoming the Dragon's meal was not the only issue the people of Mobius had to deal with. They soon realized that finding, gathering, and sending ten thousand people every day was a huge ordeal. So the king created a train. A train that sent a thousand people every ride, operating ten times a day. A thousand people arrived at the station and none came back.

This didn't prove to be efficient enough though. So the King hired more servants that registered who was sent and who were next. He hired collectors to inform and fetch the people unfortunate enough to be chosen. There were now government-hired priests on the train station every day, comforting those who were going to be eaten.

And perhaps most importantly, there were dragonologists. People who studied the Dragon. They gathered its teeth, its shed scales, and its excrements to study the Dragon's biology. They analyzed its past behaviors and demands to study the Dragon's psychology. And the more they studied, the more they realized that the Dragon was just too powerful.

And now, centuries later, the world has become accustomed to the Dragon's existence, and people have completely accepted the fate of being eaten by the Dragon. And on one faithful day, two foxes gave birth to their first-ever cub. However, the cub was a mutant and had two tails instead of one. They named the kit Miles Prower and hoped they would be able to raise him into becoming a great fox. However, before Miles turned four years old, his poor parents were sent to the Dragon by sheer bad luck. It wasn't always the eldest that was sent to the Dragon.

The fox, now without parents, was sent to an orphanage where he grew up to become one of the greatest minds the planet has seen. He was hired by the king himself at the age of twelve to become a dragonologist.

This is the story of that young dragonologist.

"Tails, you've slept at the office again," Nicole told the scientist while she gently shook him from side to side in an effort to get him up.

"Hm? What?" He woke up with a groggy voice, rubbing his eyes in a desperate attempt to wake himself up quicker.

"You heard me, you slept at the office. It's time for you to get back to work." She pulled the curtains back and let the warm sunlight hit the two-tailed fox.

"Hissss" Tails blocked the sun as much as he could with both of his hands, growling at the lynx, like a vampire exposed to garlic. "You know I like to work under closed curtains, Nicole." Tails grumbled, pulling the hood over his hoodie as he tried to figure out what he was doing before he fell asleep on the desk.

"I know, but sometimes it's healthy to get natural sunlight." Nicole smiled softly while she finished lighting up the room against Tails' will. This led to more grumbles filling the air as the fox grabbed the papers he was reading through.

"I don't need sunlight, I need coffee." He stumbled his way over to the coffee maker and started boiling water. Caffeine in his veins would help him immensely right about now. "Why are you even here? Don't you have your own work to do?"

"Well excuse me for being such a friendly individual that wants to help her friends." Nicole pouted, crossing her arms and frowning at her colleague. "Unlike you, I'm not a genius that has an entire division of work assigned to themselves, so I get to learn the value of teamwork and friendship"

"Soon you'll be growing horns and wings and turn into a fluffy unicorn." Tails grumbled, pouring the hot water into his cup filled with roasted beans. "I only have an entire division for myself because the king can't be bothered to give me more funding. He thinks that I'm a passion project in the name of science. As long as I give out a report proving that I haven't wasted any of the money, I can do what I want." Tails sipped on his mug that had the words 'Big Brain Energy' on it.

"But you don't do whatever you want. You do some of the most important research out of all of us. The type of research that isn't restricted by the wants and needs of the investors." Nicole tilted her head as she sat on the edge of a table. "That's why the king trusts you, Tails. You have passion for your work. Not everyone here could say that about their jobs."

"...Thanks, Nicole." Tails sipped on his mug again, staring into the brown liquid within the cup.

Tails felt like he was living a lie. He was hired at the age of twelve. He spent most of his teen years as an assistant to an older, now retired dragonologist. Now he was one of the most respected scientists in the kingdom, yet nothing he did made any actual differences to society. Nicole gushed about how important his role was in the grand scheme of things, and how he was rolling the wheels of progress and science himself, but Tails felt like he was just riding on the coattails of scientists like Nicole. People who actually made things and researched things that helped people directly.

"Either way, I'm here to tell you that your report should be due soon. I don't know when I became your personal assistant, but now I have my own schedule and your schedule on my calendar. So thanks for that." Nicole looked around the laboratory and saw that nothing had really changed. On one side of the room there sat the most valuable thing in this entire building. Several scales of the Dragon itself, harvested by a couple of very brave souls. The stuff was indestructible and was considered by everyone the strongest material on Mobius. And every test (most performed by Tails) that had been done on it only seemed to prove that statement even further. It was often sold in the black market for insane prices, but legally all Dragon scales were owned by the government, and possession of one was a way to earn an early ticket to the Dragon's stomach.

"Yeah, well…" Tails didn't really have a retort. What she said was true so he really couldn't retaliate with a funny one-liner. "I'll get started on it, okay? I didn't even spend much money this month, so it should be fairly simple. I'm sure the king's advisor will have something to say about it though. He always does."

"Conservatives. What do they know." Nicole pulled out a lollipop from her lab coat, where doctors usually kept their colored pens, and pulled away at the wrapping paper. "How much progress have you made lately?"

"Well, I…let me just show you." Tails walked over to the scales, pulled out a dense looking crystal, and rubbed it against the Dragon's scale. Of course, nothing happened. Tails sighed.

"So…yeah, nothing."

"Unfortunate. The king's advisor is really going to be up your ass about this, huh?"

"Like I said, I do this in the name of science or whatever. I don't make any progress but it's funded for political reasons." Tails walked back to his chair and slumped into it in an unhealthy, albeit comfortable pose.

Nicole sighed, shaking her head. She pat the twin-tailed fox on the shoulders, placed an unwrapped lollipop on his desk for him to enjoy, and headed out. While standing in the doorway, she said, "You're going to change the world one day, Tails. Just remember that. Are you coming to the social gathering after work today?"

"Uh, the one where we go out to have a drink and get some food? Yeah, I'll come. Don't worry."

Nicole nodded and turned the corner to head to her own division of work.

Tails peeled the wrapping paper off and placed it in his mouth before he could check the flavor. Cherry. He liked cherry, so he didn't really care either way.

He had been messing around with carbon lately. It was such a simple element, being able to combine with other carbon atoms with diverse results. Recently, he had found out that a single layer of carbon connected together like a web was stronger than anything he had ever seen before. It wasn't something that could break through the Dragon's scale, but it was still interesting. Rearranging these carbon atoms took a long time, and most of his carbon came from graphite. Graphite wasn't uncommon of course, it was pretty cheap to come across, but the energy required to convert those groups of atoms into a different pattern altogether…If only he could find an easier way to get that much energy.

But hey, that wasn't a problem that he was dealing with alone, right? Everyone wanted more energy.

Regardless, a new batch of modified carbon came along. This one took a lot of energy, as he was converting them from a stable four-bond pattern to a less stable three-bond one. This material didn't exist on Mobius as far as Tails knew, so it was a fascinating discovery for him. It was crystal clear and reminded him of glass quite a bit. Glass was already quite a tough material, despite what most people thought. It was just perceived as weak because they were all so thin.

Anyway, Tails took these handfuls of new minerals that he had now created and set them under his telescope for observation and testing.

The material was interesting, but nothing seemed all too strange about it. It was a crystal made of carbon, arranged in a pattern that didn't resemble anything else on this planet. Nothing struck the dragonologist as particularly fascinating and was about to pack it up and hand it over to people who were more educated in this field, until he tried to break it open.

He couldn't.

None of the tools he had were strong enough to break this stupid crystal. He chucked it at a wall, thinking it would break, but it just bounced right off and left a scar on the wall where he threw it.

It rolled over towards the Dragon's scale, almost as if it was daring him to challenge the idea.

And so the dragonologist did, getting up from his seat and picking the thing up, walking over to the scale, and pressing the sharp end of the crystal onto it. He scratched it against the surface, not expecting anything to happen.
The tiniest bit of the scale had been chipped off, leaving a dent in the previously unbreakable object.

Tails dropped the crystal, felt all the energy in his legs leave from the shock, and fell to the ground. With his trembling hands, Tails wiped off the sweat on his forehead and got back up, just to make sure that his eyes weren't deceiving him. And indeed they weren't, as a long line of dust made of the scale's material had been left. Tails tried again, scratching against the Dragon's scale with this new material until the crystal finally shattered. It was not strong enough to completely destroy the scale, but it was strong enough to make a scratch. This might have been the single most important discovery in Mobian history, and Tails was left speechless as a result.

Report and gathering be damned, Tails had work to do.