"I'm really worried 'bout him…" Rabbot stated looking off in the general direction in which Selim had disappeared, and Sally and Sonic had returned from.

"Don't worry about him Bun, he'll handle himself just fine." Sonic said with a nod.

"It's been a long time Sonic, what if he's dead already?" Rotor stated.

"Don't say that, he'll be fine." Sally stated.

Tails remained quiet; he was sitting down looking past the group into the distance. But then he noticed something, a bright light, almost like a star shooting across the sky, only it was heading right for the city. "What is that?" He asked, startling nearly everyone in the group, his presence was pretty much forgotten till he spoke.

The others looked at the fox, and then looked toward the bright yellow light, it was strange to see such a phenomenon in Robotropolis's gloomy skies. Rotor took out some binoculars. "What the… they look like birds…"

Bunnie cocked her head. "Ya'll're kiddin' me… there hasn't been anything livin' in these parts since ol' Botnik took over."

Sonic took the goggles and peered into them. The one light was actually four different forms, they were birds, and they looked almost identical, each with a little red on their cheeks. "Flickies? Four of them… What are they doing here?" He wondered aloud. It was kind of strange, they had the same strange glow that he had when he went to his other form and Selim to his, and perhaps there was a connection.

They kept watching the birds in silence, all of them wondering why they were here. The glowing forms then stopped, and seemed to begin circling around the air like vultures, spiraling downward in what appeared to be a weird acrobatic stunt. "Now what's going on?" Sonic asked as the birds suddenly disappeared behind the buildings.


The room was going dark, darker then it already was. He couldn't breathe. The fox felt himself struggle, desperate to get breath. The red eyes looked at him with glee, it had beaten this attacker, and it was fun seeing the animal struggle. He squeezed tighter ready to finish this once and for all.

Suddenly a loud clang noise was heard causing the robot to loosen its grip a little turning around to examine the room. There was silence once again and the metallic retightened its grip. The fox kicked at the metal chassis with his remaining strength when suddenly the loud crash sound echoed again, only this time there was a bright light. Selim looked at the light, and it was followed by three others, they were birds, Flickies, their wings flapping freely. The image shined in the fox's eyes, birds always made him feel stronger willed, wanting to fly higher and higher to feel the freedom they did. His death would prevent the younger Tails from ever seeing that freedom; this threat would kill every last Freedom Fighter. Everything would burn like the forest did; the ashes never to be rekindled, no future, and no freedom. He felt a new surge of power come to him, the birds were a part of him, flight was a part of him, and he would not die in some cold underground bunker.

The birds moved in charging at the metallic hedgehog, effectively causing it to drop the vulpine and defend itself swatting at the persistent birds. The fox hit the ground and coughed a bit, regaining his breath as the birds continued to peck at the robot. Selim got to his feet and watched as the creatures of flight attacked, he felt as if he knew them, like they were connected to him somehow. Then again he felt that with all creatures of the sky, could it be they felt the same about him? Flickies were rare in Robotropolis, actually most creatures were, so how these ones found their way to him was in itself a miracle.

The metallic hand struck a bird causing it to fly across the room and hit the wall letting out a shrill cry. Miles felt his blood boil as he saw the bird hit the wall and fall to the ground. The fox jumped up and straight punched the hedgehog, then he quickly spun around attacking with his two tails, then spinning around and finishing it off with another straight punch, that last blow sent the robot flying back into the stairs that lead back to the streets. All that training Bunnie gave him in combat always came in handy. He was very grateful that she was there to teach him, it was a very useful skill, especially now, when he had something to defend. He looked over to the bird to see if it was ok, it got up and hopped about, its wing appeared hurt. He felt himself become even angrier, it would heal in time, but it wouldn't be able to do what it was born to do, to fly. The gift of flight was stolen so quickly by the monster before him; he wouldn't allow him to do it to anyone else.

He turned back to the robot and wound up his tails, blasting forward into the metal body tackling it. The tackled continued as he tails kept spinning causing him to lift the robot up into the air. Scarping was heard as the metal form was ground against the steps, going up the stairs and back out into the street. Carrying the robot into air as he reached the open, able to fully see again he started to pick up speed, whizzing down the street at the speed of a helicopter. "I'm going to show you what you took away from that bird…" He let go of the robot and stopped moving forward, the inertia carrying the hedgehog down the street crashing straight into a building wall, a loud clang echoed through the buildings as the robot smacked into the wall at incredible speed.

The robot bounced back when it hit, landing into a junk pile. Selim flew higher up, pointing his left wrist at the disturbed pile; it opened up the laser gun pointing to where his opposer had fallen. The battery was beyond maximum charge, the power that flowed trough his veins sent more power then the gun was made for handling. It turned a bright red under the intense heat, powered by his anger and the emerald's power. Then, like a dam that just broke the beam burst out of the weapon creating a bright light which covered the entire street.


"What the whoo hah is that?" Bunnie jumped up as a bright light covered the horizon.

The others stared, never seeing anything like it before, a huge explosion that rivaled one of their own bombs. "Selim!" Rotor cried.

Everyone started to move forward, but then Sally shook her head. "If he's dead we can't help him, let's just blow up the charges we set and then get out of here…" She took out the charges she had failed to set in the main tower and pulled the wiring, disabling it.

Sonic looked to Sally and shook his head. "Sal… I'm not leaving him behind, not after how I treated him." He looked to Tails. "We'll blow them, and then we'll go in after him, together we'll beat the monster down."

The ground squirrel looked down a bit, seemingly deep in thought. Then she nodded, "Alright Sonic, we'll do it together…" She said as she got out the remote, pushing the button.


The fox landed on the ground his feet making a tap noise as he made contact. It echoed lightly and he started to walk toward the machine. He could tell even from this distance it was smashed, almost obliterated from the attack, the twisted metal no longer looking like the light blue hedgehog it used to be. Selim looked down and sighed shaking his head, he felt bad for Sonic, Uncle Chuck couldn't be saved; he was dead before they even fought. His eyes came across something he was surprised he missed before. It was a Chaos Emerald; it seemed drained and grainy in texture. He sighed; he was done with its power, now it could go back to the gems. He felt himself relax as the power left him.

His fur changed back to its white on orange, and his eyes back to their shiny blue, his tails looked slicker then before and not as poofy. He stepped forward and looked to the downed opponent, he had beaten the threat. He let out a nice long sigh, he was worried he wouldn't have pulled it off, but here he stood, and there it lay. It was done, it was all done, and now the young Tails could live his life instead of being he leader of a resistance in a war that would last seemingly forever.

Suddenly there was a loud explosion, and Selim looked about. It was luckily in the distance, and it was easily identifiable. They were coming from the points in which the detonators were set during the plan. He didn't realize that they were finished with that part. That means they were still in the city, because if they put a remote on the detonator they would have to be within range to activate it. He laughed, what had failed in the past succeeded in the present. He did it, was all he could keep telling himself.

There was suddenly a laugh that cut through his own, a more shrill and crazy cackle. The fox spun around and looked up to see a spy drone, it was Snively. "Why are you laughing pointy nose? Cause you lost? Or because now your cover is blown…"

"Neither little twerp, it's because you won't get the chance to tell anyone!" He cackled again, and as if on cue the twisted chassis shot up. The red eyes flickered heavily on and off as the thing moved closer at a slow pace, but the fox froze as he heard a sudden beeping start. Even someone who wasn't as technically inclined as he was could tell what that sound was, a self destruct sequence.

"You and your Freedom Fighter friends will go up with the city… by this time I'm already safely away. But everyone in the sector will be dead."

The fox's eyes shot open, he was a fool to think it was truly over; he had to do something before they all died, and Tails had no future. He couldn't think it was all happening so fast and the beeps were coming closer and closer together. He looked down; the Chaos Emeralds were shining brightly again, he thought quickly. The last time he was in a situation like this he had one of the gems, and he had grabbed it tightly, and then he found himself in the middle of the Great Forest.

It was the only option he had left. He leaned down and grabbed one of the gems and closed his eyes. The beeping started to become closer and closer and his heart raced just as fast. It couldn't end this way, this is not the way it was meant to end he wouldn't let it, he wouldn't! He screamed as suddenly a bright white light exploded and enveloped him, and it was the last thing he saw.


Sonic and the others were moving toward the area where the strange light had shown. However they soon found themselves stopping another light appeared. A bright white light in the shape of a dome quickly made its way out of that same area.

"Oh… my… stars… what is that?" Bunnie asked as they stared at it the dome getting ever bigger.

Sonic suddenly shouted. "Quick everyone hold on, we gotta juice… now!" He cried as he quickly did an about face. They formed a chain as he instructed and as soon as everyone was holding on tightly he booked it, running through the city, keeping ahead of the explosion as it enveloped everything.

They were almost back to the pipeline when Tails who was holding onto the very end lost his grip and fell back. Sally shrieked and cried up to Sonic, "Sonic! Tails is in trouble!" She cried and the hedgehog looked back as the fox picked himself back up, the white light almost on him.

"Tails!" He cried as he suddenly turned back, the others panicked. "Sonic you aren't going to make it!" Rotor cried.

Then, as quickly as it started, the white explosion reseeded, and to everyone's confusion. As the light faded, nothing was damaged; actually the whole section of city that was standing there still was… it was very perplexing. Sonic slowed down, moving up to the two tailed fox who was cringing waiting for his death. The hedgehog moved up to him and placed his hand on the boy's shoulder. "It's ok," he said, "you're alright now."

The fox looked up, "Sonic!" He cried as he hugged him tightly, the poor thing probably had never felt closer to death then at that moment. They all looked into the city and waited for any sign of life to come out. The young vulpine stopped crying before anything moved though, and all that was heard was the howling of the wind.

"Nicole…" Sally stated. "Scan for life forms within the area."

"Accessing Sally." She stated. "Lifeforms consist of one hedgehog, one walrus, one fox, one squirrel, and 1/2 bunny. No other lifeforms detected."

Bunnie shook her head. "Very funny I'm sure Nicole, if ya weren't a computer I'd give ya a good one." She said lowly.

"That means he's gone…" said Sonic looking off into the direction again, to which Sally nodded slowly. "Yes Sonic, he's gone…"

As the group cautiously made their way to the point of the strange explosion they never found a trace of Selim, it was as if he had vanished as mysteriously as he had arrived.

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Well that's it for this week, the last chapter will be up on April 18th. This shall be my first finished fanfic eva! Joy!

To Kemi, you didn't tick me off, actually I like it when people ask questions, cause that means your thinking, and thinking is good. I forgot to ask you Moguel was... is that a guy from Archie? Never heard of him before, but now I'm curious.

Anyways thanks for all the reviews, and congrats Kemi for being the 100th Reviewer. Sorry, I got no prizes for you shrugs Keep 'em coming, even flames are welcome, heck that's be interesting to see.