BLURB FOR 'TAILS TO THE RESCUE' STORY

With a cast of characters new and old, this is the sequel to Sonic
Adventure Two, starring Tails in his very own adventure!

It has been one year since the Eclipse Cannon incident. Dr. Robotnik
has been secretly building up power again, but this time he is joined
by a new and dangerous ally, a sinister woman named Stella. They are
in control of a superweapon, a dark force similar to that of Chaos,
named the Hiatus Orb.

When Sonic disappears, Tails is unsuspectingly drawn into a mission to
save the world and his best friend! With all the odds against him,
and only three days left, let the adventure begin......... Copyright © 2001 'Tails to the Rescue' by H. Ferrie. All rights reserved.

Part One. Location - High above Station Square in the dead of night.

"Aaah! Look out!" Tails shouted. He took the plane into a spin to avoid a killer missile from annihilating them. The missile skimmed past them and burst into flame a few buildings away. If he had swerved only a fraction of a second later, both he and Sonic would have been dead for sure.
"Phew, that was a close one," Sonic exclaimed. He wiped a hand across his forehead in relief, but not for long. "He's coming back, Tails! Man, doesn't Eggman ever know when to give up?"
"I guess not." Tails replied, with a slight frown on his furry face. "Here we go again......." He performed a spectacular three-sixty followed by a vertical nose dive, weaving expertly between rows and rows of tall buildings, bullets spraying all around them but none ever touching the plane. It was certainly a heart-thumping, adrenalin-pumping experience. But what the hey, this was their life!
Sonic turned around to see Dr.Eggman in his robotic flying machine (well, by the design it could hardly be called a plane), trying to catch up with Tails's wild piloting and lock on another deadly missile, but failing miserably.
"Nyaah! Looks like you lost this time, Doctor Eggman!" he half- sneered triumphantly.
"I'm not finished with you yet!" Dr.Robotnik (or Eggman as he is better known) growled.
"Yeah right. It's not like I've never heard that before." Sonic called back. But all of a sudden there came a chug-chugging sound from the front of the plane. It didn't sound too good.
"The engine's failing! It can't have fully recovered from the effects of the Chaos Emerald," Tails said in frenzied dismay.
Sonic remembered that escapade all too well. A few summers ago, Tails had tried using an ancient and magical stone to power up his plane. It had not worked very well, and in the end Sonic had had to rescue Tails from the wreckage of his plane on a desert island.
"I shouldn't have used the old plane material to build the third version of the Tornado!" Tails cried out again. But it was too late for that. Sonic was just about to say so - when the propellers burst into flames, Shots rippled out behind them in that same instant, battering the machinery that Tails had spent so long building, refining, perfecting. The plane twizzled down towards the ground. Tails was straining to steer the plane but the controls were out of use.
"Noooooooo!" Touchdown. The plane finally made contact with the hard concrete floor surfacing. Tails and Sonic were choked in thick, black smoke. Coughing and spluttering, they stumbled out of the wreckage as the once-brand-new aircraft fizzed and crackled and slowly broke apart.
"Well, goodbye Tornado Three," Tails commented. He then turned his back on the object which had been his pride and joy for the last three months. Tails had learnt that there was no time to feel sorry for things like that. Instead, he looked about him. They had crashed in the old derelict part of Station Square, the city slums. In a flat, square-ish space surrounded by abandoned warehouses and right next to the old docks, to be precise. Sonic nudged his elbow.
"Here, Tails, take this and hide it, keep it safe," Sonic said, unchaining a golden amulet from around his neck. "Whatever you do, don't let Eggman get it." Tails had not paid much attention to it before, but as he looked closer, something about the amulet was....almost familiar....
Sonic was halfway between handing the amulet to Tails when a tall, dark figure stepped out of the shadows. Tails could tell that the figure was female, her long hair gave that away. She was wearing a leather jacket, dark trousers and shades covering her eyes. But more importantly was the very long and very deadly rifle she was holding. It was pointed straight at them. Before either of them could utter a word of surprise, she said fiercely,
"Give me the amulet, or you both die." Tails was so bewildered by her appearance that he did not react quick enough. Sonic did though.
"Not this time, lady," he said, standing his ground defiantly. She fired. He jumped. She missed. Tails watched it as though it was some kind of slow-motion film.
"Aaaargh!" The strange woman roared ferociously. She wiped away a few strands of dark hair from her face and prepared to fire again. Sonic was quicker. He had noticed the robots hiding in the shadows. If he was not mistaken, they were modifications of the E-100 series robot, no doubt one of Eggman's creations, ready to be used as backup for the woman with the rifle.
In the blink of an eye, Sonic had barged his way through the horde of robots, deactivated the lot and knocked the rifle out of the woman's hands. The rifle landed on top of a skip, far out of her reach. Sonic skidded and swung round to face her.
"Easy peasy," Sonic commented, pacing back and forth on the tarmac. The woman was in a state now. "So, let me see. You want this amulet, right? But what for? Why should I give it to you? I don't even know who you are!"
"That's not necessary. I'm not going to let myself be defeated by the likes of you," she growled icily. Sonic's expression clearly showed that he was angry and offended. He was about to retaliate when....
All of a sudden there was a humongous clap like rolling thunder, and the earth began to groan and tremble. Tails thought is was an earthquake at first, but in that same split-second, a great chunk of blackened metal from the still-smouldering Tornado fell off and trapped his left leg underneath it. The burning metal fell with titanic force on his shin bone and seared through fur and skin. Tails felt an immediate shockwave of pain course through him. He could not move the metal off, it was too heavy. Well and truly trapped.
Turning his head round as far as he could, Tails saw Sonic looking wildly around, just as baffled as he was. Then, to his surprise, he saw Eggman advancing on Sonic from behind. Sonic had not noticed him yet. Eggman was holding a black 'thing' in his repulsive hands. The black spherical thing was pulsing, growing bigger and bigger. Tails saw the woman smiling with an evil glint in her eye. Something was going to happen to Sonic!
"Sonic, behind you!" Tails shouted with all his might. Sonic turned around as the black void opened. A look of horror and dismay crossed his face as the void enveloped him. Eggman lunged for the amulet that Sonic was still holding, but the amulet disappeared into the black mist. Then Sonic was gone too. The void snapped shut and became the small black orb again.
"No! The amulet!" Eggman hissed. Tails was too stunned to speak.
The woman joined Eggman and they walked over to the flying machine, which had been landed a few metres away. Tails was still struggling to free his leg. "No, no, it can't be.....not true," he muttered in disbelief. The truth of what had just happened was beginning to sink in. Sonic gone....no way! It was just not possible!
"Ha haa!" Eggman jeered. "That was easier than I thought. Farewell, Sonic! I always told you I'd win someday...." Then the woman shouted out from the cockpit;
"Tell Sonic that Stella Novacassica wishes him a good trip! Hm hm," she allowed herself a small snigger, "after all, you'll be joining him soon enough."
"You'll never win! Sonic isn't dead, I tell you! Sonic never gives up! He'll come back and we'll pay you back for what you've done!" Tails practically screamed at Eggman and the woman who called herself Stella. He was boiling with rage.
"Aw, how sweet!" Eggman said sarcastically. "We don't have time for fairytales, Stella, let's get a move on." They both laughed and flew off.
Tails was left all alone in that deserted square in the dead of night. He hated himself.

He trudged back to his flat sullenly. His leg ached terribly. The boiling, heavy metal slab from the plane had left a dark scorch-mark on his leg, and his shin-bone looked unnaturally bent. He was not sure whether it was broken, sprained or what. It felt bad. But not as bad as the pain inside him.
"It was all my fault, I let Sonic down....this can't be happening...." Tails mumbled hopelessly. He limped down the dark, silent streets for what seemed like ages. He felt like he wanted to die.

"My name is Loren," said the elegant shimmering apparition before him. "And you are Tails, I know."
"But - but how do you know my name?" Tails stammered, taking a small step back and shading his eyes from the intense light emating from the figure. He had no idea where he was. Everything was hazy and pastel pink, as though he was standing on a cloud. Every now and then, he would see a fragment of something around him, that resembled a natural landscape, like a mountainside, or a forest.
"That is a fairy secret." Loren went on, "But I need you to do something for me. The fate of your friend and the fate of my tribe depends on what you decide to do now. Take heed of my words; There is a piece of computer hardware, a tripartite device that uses the Opicular system in the QH-10 backup drive - I'm sure you're familiar with that system, aren't you? Anyway, this precious little device is hidden in a research facility a few streets away from your flat. The building is owned by a company called M.S.C. The device, in the shape of a small white box resembling a tape recorder, is on Block 15, inside a room with a red door that nobody uses anymore. Find the device and connect it up to your computer with the Opicular system. What you find should confirm your next actions, and I hope it shall be for the good of all of us." Tails was dumbstruck.
"I don't want to sound mean or anything, but if you know so much about it's exact location, why can't you get this tripartite device?"
"I am a fairy, and I may have powers, but I am a spiritual apparition, and not of your world. I cannot pass through the barriers between worlds, even though there is a way for you and your friends to." She looked mournful for a second, perhaps because she longed for real flesh, like himself, Tails wondered. As he watched her, she began to disappear into the mist, not unlike Sonic had done in the clutches of the black orb. "Remember all that I have told you. In your world, you will see a rainbow when you wake, so you will know that it is not all a dream." Just then a thought hit Tails.
"Wait!" Tails called. "You said something about 'my friend'. Does that mean Sonic? What do you know about him? Is he okay?" Tails could not bring himself to say, 'Is he alive?'.
"All I can tell you is that Sonic is fine, although you will not be able to rescue him in your world." Loren said before her fairy form drifted away. Tails had no time to feel angry or bemused, the whole scene broke up before his very eyes.

It was grey and foggy outside. Light rain drizzled down the window pane. Tails rubbed his eyes and sat up, wincing at the sudden sharp pain in his left leg. He was back in his flat in Station Square.
Immediately recalling his dream, he glanced out of the window and saw a pale rainbow in the background. He remembered the fairy called Loren, and the tripartite device he had to get - well, steal, really - from the M.S.C building. And best of all, the news that Sonic was still alive! It made him feel considerably better.
"And I know it's true because there's a rainbow outside!" Tails said to himself, and smiled happily.
But another part of him felt a sort of lurching feeling, nausea, butterflies, whatever you would call it. Everyone knows the feeling, the sort you would get on a rollercoaster. Tails has felt this a lot before. It was his 'adventure' sense.
"It's my job to make sure I get the hardware, and find a way to save Sonic somehow. Uh-oh....I think I feel another adventure coming on," Tails said to himself. "Well, that's okay, but it's gonna be a lot harder without Sonic around." His little furry face assumed a serious frown. "Hmm, I'd better get started right away." Ignoring the pain in his leg, he strode out of the building as the sun began to rise.

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