Disclaimer: *Sigh* Why do those dumb lawyers make us poor writers make these stupid things? Bah! Anyway, I don't own Miles 'Tails' Prower or any of the StarFox team, although they are barely involved and Tails is almost my character (after I added a few touches to him).

Introduction: Well, my brain was kinda hyper after I played Sonic for about six hours straight at a friend's house AND watched 'We Were Soldiers' the other night, so I just decided to write something about our overshadowed Tails. Poor little guy; he doesn't get much attention. This is centered a bit more on StarFox than it is Sonic, so I'll just file it under StarFox. As always with my stories, this has no reference whatsoever to my other fictions. This is based on an alternate universe setting. Oh, don't worry, you don't have to know anything about Tails. Frankly, I don't know anything about him either. Ack, must I say more? He didn't meet anyone in the Sonic series, and he is a loner, a bit. This is set when Tails was thirteen and a war is brewing. Somehow, he is dragged in with all the commotion going on, and in the battlefield, he meets with an escapee, who is kinda hot...



"Miles, please explain to us Newton's Third Law of Physics," the teacher wheezed. Being a badger in the age of seventy doesn't make him very fun, or loud, for that matter.

Tails could feel the entire class of thirty-three staring at him, even though he had his head buried in a heavy, green textbook. His pointy ears twitched a bit as he racked his vulpine brain for the answer.

'Aw, crap,' he thought, 'I keep on confusing these laws with each other.'

"Erm, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction?" Tails tried. The teacher didn't respond. As Miles, or Tails as everybody calls him because of his double tails, looked up, he saw that the badger teacher, Mr. Stripe, was fast asleep, still standing up and having a stick pointed at the blackboard. Everyone laughed at his limp form.

"Bzzt!" The buzzer that signaled the end of the last period of school sounded, and the students piled up at the door, chattering loudly, all of them ignoring Mr. Stripe, except for a respectful, orange fox.

"Uh, sir?" Tails prodded Mr. Stripe with his finger. He snorted and snapped back to life.

"Hmm? Ah, Miles, is class over already?" He asked good-naturedly, as always, even if students were making fun of his uncombed and unusually long, white hair every morning. Tails personally thought he looked like Albert Einstein.

"Yes, it is, sir. You should catch your carpool van before they take off without you," Tails rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet, his heavy, pitch-black backpack slung over one shoulder.

"Thank you, Miles," Mr. Stripe coughed. Tails noticed how Mr. Stripe smelled normal, not of the sweaty fume of other seniors his age. Mr. Stripe always wore gray. Plain, gray pants with a plain, gray sweater was his usual attire, same with today, "Ah, yes, Miles?"

"Yes, sir?" Tails asked as he turned from the doorway, looking back at Mr. Stripe.

"I was just going to say that you aced the math exam last week," he smiled warmly. Tails smiled back and hopped away home.

**

Tails lived with his godfather in a high-rise apartment overlooking the ocean. His parents died in a car crash as they were driving out of the bay that Tails lived in. Tails' godfather, Alex Brophy the white tomcat with a buzz cut, earned a living as a colonel in the Cornerian Reserve Army. He was almost never home, but he would check up on Tails every morning and every afternoon with a phone call with his cheerfully deep voice.

The city that Tails lived in, Victorian Bay, was stationed right at the edge of a bay near the equator, so it was very warm and humid, just the way he liked it. Even though he had long fur and usually wore a tee shirt with a dark green vest, Tails never felt hot. His pants were baggy, but not baggy enough to make him look like a clown. They were usually white, bottomed off with red sneakers. Tails was considered a cross between cool and nerdy, with a bit more emphasis on nerdy, but he didn't mind. Alex always said it was important to get good marks in school and be popular at the same time.

Just like any other normal red fox, Tails' orange fur ended right at his mouth and started again at his neck. The white fur continued down his belly in an oval shape. His tails were tipped with white as well, with zigzags making the line. His paws were white, most unusual for a fox. They were supposed to be black like any other red fox, starting from the forearm, but Tails had his white paws begin at the wrist.

Tails' three long, orange bangs hung in his eyes as he fried spinach and garlic. He put his tongue between his teeth as he measured salt with a very small cup. Dumping it in carefully, Tails started stirring again.

Today, Alex didn't call. When Tails' godfather didn't call, it usually meant that he was coming home for the evening, so Tails tried to make a good meal. He wasn't much of a cook, but at least the food would be bearable for a cat to eat. Alex loved spinach for some reason, and he just adored tuna, so Tails made a huge plate of them both.

Setting the dinner on the table, Tails straightened the tablecloth and covered the plates with metal covers to keep the heat in. Tails was just about to go upstairs and work on his extra credit assignment when the phone rang. Tails turned to look at the phone on the kitchen counter, his heart sinking miserably, thinking it was Alex calling to say he would have to stay at the base for a few more days. Picking it up and leaning against the fridge, Tails sighed and looked at the white walls and the open window in disappointment. The orange sun touched on the sea's beaches just as Tails said 'hello'.

"Hello? Is this Miles Prower?" A gruff voice, quite unlike Alex, asked.

"Yeah, this is Miles," Tails breathed out a breath, having more hope that Alex would come home, "And I don't want to buy anything that you're selling."

"No, I'm not selling anything. Did you see the news this afternoon?"

"Um, no, why?" Tails drummed his fingers on the counter, bored.

"The Cornerian Reserve's main defense base has been bombed by long range missiles."

Tails dropped the cordless phone and his jaw hung open. That was where Alex was!

"Hello?" The voice asked, slightly muffled as there was tiled floor covering the speaker.

"Yeah," Tails said hoarsely as he picked up the phone again.

"I'm sad to report that Alex Brophy is dead. We must ask for you to not panic."

"Why would I panic?" Tails asked, his voice barely a whisper.

"Because a war has just started."

**

A/N: I'll make the next chapter longer, I swear.