-Tails-
Blackness. Oh, my head hurts… I open my eyes. There's something big and grey only a few centimetres from my face. I don't know any more than that, because I can't seem to focus properly. Light is shining into, well, wherever this is, from some kind of opening to my right. It's too bright to look at for long, and my vision is still blurry anyway. It's an odd shape, so not a door or window; it's like a rather squashed triangle. But it leads out into the daylight, I think, so I roll onto my front and turn towards it. The movement sets my head spinning, and I stay still for a few moments to let it calm down before crawling out into the light. It's too bright at first, and by the time my eyes have adapted, my vision seems more or less normal. The first thing I look at is the hole I crawled out of. Two smaller slabs of concrete support a bigger one in what looks like a very unstable arrangement. It's obvious that they were part of a building once, and fell here. Even as I watch, the pile shifts and the top one comes crashing down. If I hadn't got out when I did, I'd probably be dead now. I look about. There's rubble everywhere, and beyond that some half-demolished buildings, then proper ones. Something caused an awful lot of destruction here, but I can't remember much. I sure don't remember what it was. Then a stray thought pulls me upright and on my toes, looking around rapidly. Sonic - he was here, where is he?! Apart from a few bruises and a headache I'm just fine, except that I feel a little shaky, so I spin my tails a bit and fly up a few metres to see if I can spot him atop the rubble. If he's under it like I was, I could search for ages and not find him. And that possibility brings another to my mind, one I really don't want to think about - what if he's buried completely? What if he's… dead?
I shake my head, which just makes the headache worse, and look around. No sign of him, but there are some places that are hidden behind big, sticking-up slabs of concrete. I come down again, landing on the rubble, and walk to the closest. He's not there. He's not at the next, either, and I'm on the verge of panicking. I run for the last, never mind how my head feels, and stop just before I pass it. I shudder with a sudden chill of fear - fear that he's dead, or buried too deep for me to reach. I steel myself and walk past the leaning fragment of building. Several metres away from it, in a place that was hidden from view before, I see something blue, and run towards it. He's half-buried, but it's him. Both he and the surrounding rubble are splashed with red.
"Sonic!" I shout, dropping to my knees next to him. He's still breathing, but only just. I don't dare try to free him in case something slips. His breaths are growing fainter. In desperation I shout again.
"Sonic!"
His breathing's still dying away. I stare at him through a film of tears.
"Sonic! I need you! Come back! Sonic!!!"
Almost imperceptibly, he seems to hear me, the ragged breathing very slowly growing stronger again.
"Sonic!" I cry his name, partly in relief, partly as a call to him to keep coming back.
A shudder runs through his whole body. He whispers "I'm coming, Tails…" but it's so faint I can barely hear it. He's unconscious, I think, now, but it's different. He doesn't seem quite so near death somehow, and while his breathing is still ragged and faint, it isn't fading away again. I cry silently with relief, and I hear the sound of sirens. Hang on, Sonic. You'll be fine.