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...



"Whew, this place is hot," Krystal said up suddenly, wiping sweat from her brow. Tails was weirded out by how unlike foxes that foxes were. Foxes were classified under the canine family due to their sharp canine teeth, color-blindness, and the inability to sweat on their hide. Instead, though, natural foxes sweat using their tongues. Human foxes don't, and neither are they color-blind. Tails was sure of that as he took note of the green grass and the darkening blue sky above the tall, tropic trees.

"Well, what do you expect?" Tails chuckled as he heaved his pack on the ground and sat down, "End of the afternoon, sun still shining, near the darn equator, and summertime."

"How long have we been traveling for now?" Krystal asked. Tails thought for a moment. It was the third day after the incident at the trenches, and they were close to the mountains now.

"Five days, maybe," Tails took out a canteen and drank a bit, "We're out of food."

"I feel like indulging in cannibalism," Krystal joked. Tails spluttered on his water and coughed.

"Hey, no eating my flesh, got it?" Tails took out a pistol and aimed it at Krystal, "I don't know what Venomians do, but this is Corneria we are on!"

"I think you missed the sarcasm," Krystal grinned, unconcerned that the safety was off. Tails lowered the gun and forced a laugh. He shoved it back in the belt holster and looked around, sniffing furiously.

There was an odd smell in the air, but not unpleasant. Tails recognized it as some kind of vegetable being boiled. It was something that Alex always used to eat. Green, slimy when cooked, lots of vitamins... Spinach!

"Food!" Tails yelled, running in the direction of the smell. Krystal hurriedly followed him into the depths of the woods, hard northeast. Tails was running so fast, driven by hunger that he crashed into three trees and tripped over a few roots. Krystal was a bit more observant and laughed whenever Tails fell with a new lump on his head.

"You know, this just might be a trap," Krystal called. Tails ignored her and stumbled into a clearing. A little makeshift hut was right in the middle with a smoking chimney.

Tails flew, literally, to the door and knocked heavily on it. There wasn't an answer for a while, but after about thirty seconds, a very old hare barged out, carrying an antique shotgun, brandishing it at Tails and Krystal. Tails noticed that the barrels were empty, but he played along anyway.

"Get out! Out, you Venomian scum!" He shouted at Tails, his cloth jacket fluttering at he spoke and his red shirt and pants flopping around. His old, gray figure didn't look very threatening, but his red eyes and the large, but straight ears suggested otherwise, even though his stripe down his forehead made him look like a common, cute rabbit.

"I resent that," Krystal scowled. The hare turned his empty gun at her. She didn't flinch, but instead drew her rifle and pointed it at the rabbit. He squeaked an odd noise and shut the door in Tails' face. Tails turned ominously to look at Krystal, rubbing his swollen nose. She looked away sheepishly.

Tails knocked again, and again the hare emerged, waving the shotgun around. He shouted something about evil and whacked Tails over the head with it. Krystal had to put her paw in her mouth to stifle a laugh.

"We are not Venomian soldiers!" Tails yelled, snatching the shotgun away, "We are refugees escaping toward the Cornerian Reserve base!" The hare looked only mildly convinced as he snatched the gun back.

"Names!" He ordered. Tails sighed.

"Miles Prower," he said in a nonchalant tone. Krystal, however, stood up straight and saluted.

"Captain Krystal of the Venomian Army, leader of the 49th Foot Squadron," she said. The hare looked horrified as he slammed the door in Tails' face again.

**

After a few minutes of explanations and apologies, but from Tails only, the old rabbit let them in. He introduced himself as Lieutenant Peppy Hare of the decimated Active Cornerian Army. He sneaked aboard one of the Venomian ships to escape and wound up in the forest. He also took a large box of supplies from the ship while he was at it. Peppy was very kind to Tails, but he kept casting alarmed looks at Krystal whenever she clanged her spoon for her spinach soup.

The hut was plainly made of straw and sticks with a single room. Peppy put all the supplies in one corner and had a fire going in the middle of the room, boiling water to cook wild spinach. Krystal was sitting in a corner, drinking soup while Peppy and Tails sat by the fire, trading necessities.

"I want two clips of pistol ammunition and a gun," he negotiated, "In return, I'll give you fifteen cans of food."

"Three clips and a gun for twenty cans," Tails folded his arms, "Final offer."

"Fine, fine," Peppy grumbled, handing over a box of canned food. Tails dug a pistol from his pack and took three clips. Handing them over to Peppy, he took the box and emptied it into his pack, "That'd last you two for four days, tops. You need probably another week to get over the mountains."

"We'll manage," Tails grinned, twirling his tails around. Krystal gulped and mumbled something about not being able to breathe in thin air.

**

"AAARGH!" Krystal screamed as Tails lifted her up into the air by her stomach. He waved goodbye to Peppy and flew off in the direction of the gray mountains. Tails smiled as she squinted her eyes closed and mumbled prayers under her breath in a foreign language.

"Having fun yet?" Tails chuckled evilly.

Krystal whimpered as he rose to the height of a twenty-story building. Flying visibly higher with every passing minute, Tails stopped climbing as he noticed the thin air at the height of a three-hundred-story building. Krystal's childish whimpering grew steadily louder as his paws slowly slipped hold on her. Her tails started to coil around Tail's leg as he flew.

"You're gonna drop me," she yelled. Tails laughed heartily as he banked right toward a small river near the mountains. The forest ended and rocky terrain rose higher into the clouds. The stream was flowing quickly and with clean, blue water.

"Do you want to set down there?" Tails asked, pointing at the stream with his paws still holding tight onto Krystal's abdomen. She nodded her head, hitting Tails' sore nose. He grumbled unhappily and began to descend slowly.

There were greenish spots down near the stream, but Tails' couldn't figure out what they were. Imagining they were just algae, he ignored them and went eastern, more to the start of the river. As Tails neared the ground, something started shooting at them!

"Venomian patrols!" Krystal shouted urgently. Tails tried to rise again, but his tails felt very tired to flying so far. The air was soon thick with distant shouts and the lasers of rifles and snipers. Tails banked this way and that, trying to avoid them, but he was unlucky this time.

"Ung..." Tails grunted as a laser found its way into his shoulder. The pain was almost unbearable, shooting through his body like a thousand needles. He held desperately on to Krystal, figuring it was still at least twenty meters down. Tails ignored the flowing blood that was squirting onto his vest and staining Krystal's neck fur and shirt.

"Tails!" She yelled, "Let go!"

Tails felt lightheaded and dizzy, and he didn't need urging to do it; his weak grip already slipped from Krystal's stomach and she landed neatly on the southern bank, away from the Venomians, who were running to get them. Tails, rid of the extra weight, began to climb. He didn't notice, as he was half-unconscious already.

"TAILS!" He heard Krystal scream before he black out entirely.

**Temporarily Krystal's point of view**

I saw him fall with his blood still escaping the gaping wound. From my experience with the wounded, I would say one of his branching arteries were hit. Tails hit the water with a sickeningly loud splash. I rushed into the water, which, to my surprise, was very deep for a stream spanning ten meters.

"Tails!" I yelled, diving into the ice-cold liquid. His head dipped underwater, but I could see his dark shadow lingering some four meters in front of me. As I reached him, I saw that he was unconscious, his blood staining the water red. He was as cold as the water, his paw almost frozen. He had lost enough blood to fill a tub.

I felt my chest heave as I dragged him up into the surface. The Venomians, my former allies, had reached within shooting range of us, and were firing wild shots into the water. Luckily for Tails and me, their aim was almost as bad as their stench. I couldn't use my blaster; it was soaked and if I pulled the trigger, I'd only end up zapping myself with the battery. The grenades would also be useless. The cover was waterproof, but in the two- meter deep river, the powder and explosives inside would get dissolved in an aqueous solution. Damn those idiots: The morons at the weaponry development team just had to use a strong base for the plastic explosive.

Of course, being a trained warrior of my old planet (which was surprising, considering that I was only four when the training ended) taught me a few things. Pulling out my staff from the leather strap it was in; I aimed the tip at the Venomian soldiers. They looked confused, but didn't do anything but shoot more. The only way to convert mana into a weapon in a magic-less planet like Corneria, I had to channel the power from myself. Doing so, I would weaken myself for a few minutes. Who cares now? My friend and I were in danger!

"Eat this!" I yelled as I felt the magic course through my body and into the staff. There was a blinding flash of hot white light and a huge fireball screamed out of the golden weapon, pummeling with amazing speed into the Venomians. The soldiers were incinerated within a second. I felt spent and my muscles ceased working for a while, summoning up a spell like that, but I managed to drag Tails to the southern bank anyway.

Panting heavily, I pulled Tails onto the bank and tried to seal his wound with the blanket, but it was too thick and it didn't let enough air in to oxidize the blood into clots in time. I aimed my staff at him left shoulder and felt again, the magic escaping me. I touched the glowing staff onto the bleeding shoulder and it healed instantly. Feeling even more tired; I didn't even feel like I could raise the heavy staff or the rifle. The only way for protection was another magic spell, so I cast a magical barrier in the shape of a small dome around Tails and me before I collapsed, fainting alongside him. The last though was for him to wake up in twelve hours, which was how long the spell lasted. I knew I couldn't.

**Back to third person Tails**

A/N: Yeah, back to third person Tails in the next chapter, sorry. Yeah, kinda weird that Krystal could use a staff before she could write or speak properly, eh? But come on, give my imagination a break!