Curse the person who came up with the blaster worm! May all of your children be born as blind maggots and your body become a feast for lice! My university's internet system has been down all week due to that damn worm. Fortunately, the internet came back on just a few hours ago so I can still update on time. Anyway, hope you like this chapter. Well, hope you like all the chapters so far, but I hope you like this one just as much as those, if not more.
As always: enjoy!

Oh wait! Almost forgot. If the creator of the blaster worm is reading this, I'd like to say that I'm running Windows ME. You missed me! ~best Nelson laugh~ Ha ha!

Sonic the Hedgehog is not my creation,
His story belongs to the Sega Corporation.
This fanfic is made with humble intention,
To honor their art and brilliant invention.
~ Lael Adair





VI : Shall We Play?

"Angels and ministers of grace defend us!
Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damn'd,
Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
Thou comest in such a questionable shape
That I will speak to thee: "
~ Hamlet


It doesn't take long for Tails to find me on my way home. Pols' idea seemed like a really good one when I was sitting in the warm comfort of his cozy office. Now that I'm actually faced with the two-tailed terror from hell, though, it seems like a suicide pact. I remember what happened the last time I spoke to Tails. I almost ended up skewered on the end of his hand! And I'll be damned if I die of anything but old age.

The eerily familiar chill of soul-freezing cold snakes up my neck, telling me that Tails is nearby. As if in answer to my thoughts, a raspy voice cuts through the air.
"Please! Don't hurt him!"
"Oh Guardian" I mutter, "here we go." Somehow, I'm not feeling particularly brave. "Come on, Manic!" I hiss to myself. "Be a man!"
"Don't hurt him!"
Okay, there's line two. A few more and then it's the moment of truth.
I step off to the side and start leading Tails towards a more secluded area. I don't want anyone to walk by and think I'm carrying on a conversation with myself.
"Please! Don't hurt him!"
While Tails goes through the rest of the scene, I try and figure out when I should step in. The last time I interrupted Tails in his 'routine,' I ended up with a raging psycho ghost on my ass all the way through the forest. Maybe this time, I should wait until after he 'dies' before I bother him. I mean, to his mind, he's already dead, so what would he possibly have to go berserk about?
"SONIC! NO!!!"
"All right, Manic. Here we go. Guardian, I hope this works. . . ."
"Sonic no! He lied to me . . . he tricked me. . . ."
Moment of truth. . . .
BANG!
Sonic's head goes flying off in another direction and Tails falls to the ground, that same sickening expression of horrified shock frozen on his childish features. I clench and unclench my hands nervously for a few seconds. He didn't speak to me . . . at least that's a good sign. I can feel cold sweat running down the middle of my back underneath my leather jacket. This is it, it's now or never. Very quietly, I kneel down next to Tails.
"Hey!" I call. My heart sinks. There's no response. He's just lying there with his eyes held wide open.
"Shit. Now what do I --- " My breath catches in my throat as Tails' pupils slowly move to look at me. A surge of hope rips through my stomach . . . or maybe that's my lunch . . . I can't really tell. It takes me a few seconds to find my voice. "A-are you all right? You must have hit your head pretty hard there. How long have you been out?"
The large bluish-silver eyes blink slowly and then Tails sits up. He stares around confusedly for a few seconds, almost like someone in a coma finally awakening from his long sleep, and then stares right at me. "I . . . I don't know. Did I hit my head?"
Oh Guardian. It spoke to me. Shit. "Uh, yeah. Right there towards the back, can you feel it?"
Tails brings a shaky hand up to touch his head. His fingers pass right through his own skull, but he doesn't seem to notice. "Yeah" he mutters. He almost sounds surprised. "I can feel it. It hurts."
"What's your name, kid?" I wait in suspense. Now I'll find out if I really was right this whole time.
"Tails."
Score one for me. "How did you get way out here, Tails? What happened?"
Large silver tears suddenly well up in the kid's eyes. I can actually see the pain set in on his face. He tries to tell me what went wrong, but he has a hard time getting the words out between his sobs. "I . . . Sonic and I were trying to . . . and he . . . it's all my fault! Robotnik wanted the Chaos Emerald! He said he'd let Sonic go if I gave it to him! He lied to me! He tricked me! Oh Sonic! I'm so sorry!" The kid breaks down into racking sobs, hugging his shaking body as if it's going to fly apart.
I try to comfort the kid as best I can, but I keep my hands away. I'm afraid if he sees his body pass through mine, he may figure out he's actually dead and go ballistic on me.
"Hey Tails" I soothe, "come on. I'm sure it wasn't your fault. And I'm sure that Sonic wouldn't have wanted you to sit here feeling sorry for him."
Tails gives a sniffle and wipes a tear away from underneath one of his big, blue eyes. "No. No, you're right. But, I . . . I just don't know what to do without him. I don't think I'm strong enough."
The kid seems reluctant, scared, but it's no problem for me. A drug dealer has to be good at convincing people they need to do something they really don't, especially kids. Kids are the easiest sell. They're young, naive, impressionable, and they're willing to do whatever it takes to get the money so long as you suggest it. They see someone older and they automatically look up to them, even if they don't admit it. They think you care about them, they think you want what's best for them, they think you'll love them better than their parents. You just trust me kid, this stuff is all you need. And when you want more, all you have to do is find me. Don't worry, I'll be there for you. It's a lie. I was nothing but an illegal car salesman. I didn't give a shit about them. Any of them. It was nothing but business, and it tears me up to admit I was really good at it. I know their names, they started returning to my memory when I began rehab. Their faces came back to me too . . . those still haunt me.
"Well, what if I help you instead?" I ask, pushing aside a few images I'd much rather forget. "Together, you and I can go give Robotnik what for once and for all! What do you say? We'll do it for Sonic!"
The kit's ghostly blue eyes look right at me, radiating all the love and trust I've seen so many times before and never deserved. And for the first time ever, I see a smile break out on Tails' tortured, see-through face.
"You'd help me?"
"Yeah," I answer "I'll be there for you." And you know . . . this time, I actually meant it. "The name's Manic. And you and me, kid, we're gonna go raise some hell!"
The fox jumps up, whirling his two tails excitedly. "Yeah! Come on! We've got to hurry! If Robotnik uses the power in that emerald, he could destroy the entire planet!" The teen revs up his tails in a whirlwind and takes off like a shot.

It takes all my strength and then some to keep up, but somehow I manage it. We run forever --- over the hill and through the woods to be shamefully cliché --- and a bit too long for my unexercised body's liking. After a while, Tails whirls to a stop in front of a large cave with an entrance completely covered in moss and spider webs. It's probably someplace he used to play in as a boy when he was alive. All I have to do is go in, defeat the "bad guy" and come back out. Piece of cake.
"Here's Robotnik's hideout" Tails whispers. "We have to be really careful. He's got all kinds of SWATs around here, and tons of deadly traps. See that camera up there?" He points to a blank spot high on the cave's wall. "Don't let it see you or else we're done for!"
I nod, playing along with him even though there's no camera there. "Ok, I'll tell you what, Tails. You go first, and I'll follow exactly behind you. You're a better adventurer than me, so you'll be able to tell where all the traps are. How's that sound?"
His ears perk up and he smiles. I can tell he's really pleased to be put in charge. "Ok! I'll go first. Don't worry, just follow me."
Vaguely, I wonder if Sonic heard the same thing before he was parted from his head.
Tails presses his body low to the ground, his large ears flat against his head, and slowly starts to inch his way through the dark cave. I follow him to the letter, humoring him by taking every single stop, twist, and turn that he does. The kid's eyes are better than mine, either because he's a fox or because he's dead, so he actually does comes in handy when we have to navigate large obstacles in the way.
While we're moving, I glance up at the ceiling of the cave. It's covered with hundreds of those pokey rock things that caves are notorious for. Stalactites? Stalagmites? I could never keep the damn things straight. Anyway, there's lots of them. The sound of dripping water is everywhere, enough so to give a pretty good impression of why the chinese water torture method works so well. The hollow drip drip is soothing at first, but after a while it starts to grate on your nerves.
We wind through a twisting, winding network of tunnels, some of them so decayed that they crumble underneath our feet as we pass. It's a good thing I've got this freaky ghost to guide me. Without him, I'd never make my way in and out of here.

It takes longer than I expected to get where Tails wants to go, but eventually I see a serene green glow start to mist through the thick darkness surrounding us. The farther we go, the brighter the light becomes until I can clearly see it pulsing against the slimy walls of the stone. Not only that, but I swear it's getting colder. Not an outside cold like on your skin, but a chill that coats your insides.
Suddenly, Tails stops and I'm forced to grab onto a nearby stalagacitite-whatever to keep from going through him. He crouches down and crawls to a nearby rock formation large enough for both him and me to hide behind. As I'm following him, I catch a quick glimpse of the room beyond. It's a huge round chamber with a really low ceiling. I bet I couldn't stand on Tails' shoulders without brushing my head against it . . . not like I'd do that anyway, I'd fall right through the kid. A bright, green glow from something in the center of the room is lighting up the area, pulsing calmly in and out in a steady beat. Along the walls, I catch sight of what looks to be several small jewels, one of which looks like the gem I saw Tails hand over to Robotnik in his play. Unlike the jewel in Tails' play, however, these are most definitely real.
"Tails!" I hiss to him excitedly, "Are those the Chaos Emeralds?!"
The fox nods fearfully. "See the green light shining from the middle? That means the Master Emerald is there too."
I try not to, but I can't help gasping out loud in awe. To think! The Master Emerald! The treasure that no one's been able to find ever since the Almighty ascended back into Heaven!
Tails shoots me an annoyed glance over his shoulder and holds a finger for me to be quiet. Once we're behind the rock, he turns to me and rasps in my ear.
"There" Tails whispers, pointing a shaky thumb over his shoulder. "Robotnik's main control room is right behind us. I don't see Snively or Cluck around . . . he must be alone."
I have no clue who Snively or Cluck are, but it doesn't really matter. This is all just pretend anyway. "Ok. So, what's the move?"
Tails turns to me scared as all hell, which is really funny considering he's a ghost. "I don't know. I . . . I can't think."
I glance down at his hands. They're shaking like crazy. On the outside, I give him my best smile to make him shut up and tell me what to do. Internally though, you can bet I'm laughing my ass off. It's about time that little fuck got some payback for all the hell he's caused me.
"Look" I whisper, "Nothing's gonna go wrong. We'll bust in there, take care of Robotnik, and then bust out. We'll do it for Sonic."
Tails looks at me like I'm insane, which is also really funny considering I'm talking to a hero that's been dead and rotting for over four-hundred years. "Are you nuts?!" he hisses. "That's suicide! Not even Sonic would bust in on Robotnik! We don't even know if he's in there!"
"Well" I smirk, getting to my feet, "There's only one way to find out!"
With that, I leap out into the open.

It's only after I land in front of a huge shifting mass of darkness with two glowing, blood-red eyes that I start to think this might not be a game after all.





Manic's "dealer speech" was an add-in done at the very last second. The thing just wrote itself. I don't know why, but when I stepped back and read the whole thing, it really got to me.
I'd give you a date for the next update, but as I mentioned above, my university's internet system is screwed up so I don't know if it will be on the fritz or not. I'll try to get it up within the week, though, if the system lets me.