Toxic: (Sonic: I have a lot on my mind.) What he said :P He'll be back, never fear ;)
Kj: Thanks ;) (Sonic: Alright, maybe he will find out the secret, but not until that time in Casino Night Zone when Knuckles blurts it out!)
XTailsX: Thanks :D
Samantha27: Heh, thanks :D And no worries, I will continue; I'm having too much fun trying to write Tails as a four year old to stop now :P
Kirby-Chan263: (happy smile) Thanks; glad you approve ;)
FriedBrickWall: Have no fear, Tails shall see the Tornado very very soon! As for getting beat up...well, you'll have to wait and see on that score (weg)
Sonic-Addict: Heh. I'm sure they will ;)
Lewisty: No problem; it'll continue right until the end :P
Shaddress: (smiles) Thanks. And yes, I will keep updating and writing until it is finished :D
Tails was not a happy fox cub.
He'd been ecstatic a couple of hours before, when he'd realised that the guy the star had sent to be his friend was none other than Sonic the hedgehog, and positively delirious with joy and relief when he'd actually been able to talk to his hero (albeit after having sent him flying) and Sonic had talked back without being mean to him before zooming off, probably to do some more hero stuff. That had been where it all went wrong. Dazed and half drunk with happiness, Tails had wandered in and around the various buildings of Emerald Hill Zone before sitting down in a restaurant and ordering a steak sandwich and soda. Eating it had been fun too. The problems had come right about now, when he suddenly came back to reality in time to realise that he had no money, and they'd only been compounded by the bear who was currently standing between him and the exit.
"If you don't have the money, you shouldn't have ordered it."
Tails racked his brains for something to say and his mind fastened on—
"Sonic's gonna pay," he said aloud. "I met him on the beach an' told him I was hungry an' he offered to buy me lunch."
"I don't care what Sonic said. You been told enough times not to come in here unless you got the cash."
"Yeah, but if Sonic's paying, mister—"
"I don't see any Sonic here." The bear gripped Tails' arm, not painfully but tightly enough to ensure the fox couldn't pull away without dislocating his own shoulder. "I think maybe you oughta come with me, see if a week or two in the local jail doesn't sort you out."
Tails yelped in alarm; the 'jail' was nothing more than several small rooms with no windows and barred doors. He'd seen it once, and never wanted to set foot there again.
"No! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to; I jus' didn't...please don't take me to that place, I'll do anything but please—"
"What's going on?" someone said from behind.
The bear released Tails' arm as though he'd been burnt. "Sonic! Glad you showed up. This little brat came in and ate a meal, then calmly told me he ain't got the cash for it and that you'd offered to buy him lunch!"
Sonic looked at Tails, whose ears were flat against his skull and namesakes ducked firmly between his legs, then back at the bear.
"He's right. I did."
"You...what?" Now the bear was looking shocked, as though Sonic had confessed to running a brothel. "Sonic, was that wise? Under the circumstances, I mean...guy with your reputation can't be too careful, you don't wanna soil it."
"My reputation is not your concern." Although Sonic spoke the words calmly, almost politely, there was a deadly undertone which stated that the bear had better not push this any further. "What I want to know is why you're discriminating against a kid like this one when that guy over there looks like he's about to walk out without paying."
"Huh?" The bear spun away from Tails, caught hold of the guilty party and dragged him back to the cash register. Tails didn't catch what was said – it was said in very hushed voices – but he knew it meant big trouble. Maybe he could slip away in the confusion—
"Leaving so soon?"
Ah great. He'd forgotten Sonic. Tails opened his mouth, but the bear returned before he had a chance to answer.
"Thanks. That's the second time he's tried to do that. Sorry about the mix up, no hard feelings, right?"
"None at all," Sonic said. "I said to the kid I might be a little late and he was to go ahead and start without me."
"He's been here for half an hour," the bear pointed out flatly.
"I got delayed."
"Ah." There was a gleam in the bear's eyes that said he understood. "Fine. But that still leaves the bill."
Sonic sighed. "Yeah, I was afraid it might. How much?"
"Seventeen and a half Mobiums."
"How much?" Sonic said again, in a completely different tone of voice.
"Your little friend ordered the largest steak sandwich we serve. Nine Mobiums, plus two for the fries he ordered. Then he ordered two sodas at one and a half Mobiums each. Fourteen Mobiums. And then to finish it off he had a bowl of brownies, the biggest we offer at three and a half Mobiums. Seventeen and a half in total. You don't believe me, I'll get you the receipt."
"No, that's okay." Sonic sighed again. "Alright, fine. Here." He handed over a twenty Mobium note and took the two and a half change, nodding his thanks as the bear headed off to serve some other customers.
After a couple of minutes had gone by in silence, Tails peeked up to see if the hedgehog had left.
No such luck. Sonic was still standing there, arms folded, foot tapping but with a slight twinkle in those green eyes.
"So I offered to buy you lunch, huh?"
Tails cringed. Why did he always wind up this embarrassed whenever he met Sonic? He wanted the hedgehog to think of him as cool, not some idiot freak.
"'M sorry. 'S jus'...there's no more fruit on the trees an' winter's comin' an' I on'y got something squishy from a trashcan for breakfast an' I was so hungry an' I thought...never mind. I'll make it up to you, mister, honest I will."
"Tell me your name and we'll call it quits."
"Mi—" Tails broke off abruptly. "Tails," he said instead.
"Pleasure to meet you."
Tails squirmed, pleased. "Aw...mister, you're jus' saying that."
"No I'm not. And don't call me mister."
Tails puzzled over this for a minute, then shrugged. "Okay." It seemed the safest bet.
"So...Tails. You still hungry?"
Tails' eyes lit up enthusiastically. "Boy, am I ever!" He hesitated, abruptly deflating. He'd been caught like this before; the other kids would ask him that same question, then follow it up with something like, oh, too bad, we just finished lunch. "Uh. Why? Are you gonna give me some food?"
"Why would I have asked if I wasn't planning to feed you?" Sonic said rhetorically, then shook his head, grinning. "And – though I'm perfectly harmless – didn't your folks ever tell you not to accept food from strangers?"
"Yeah, mister—"
"Sonic."
Tails thought of calling the hedgehog – of calling Mobius' national hero! – by name and balked.
Then he thought of that hedgehog being upset or even angry with him and made his choice.
"Yeah, I meant Sonic, but you're not a stranger. You're Sonic the hedgehog. 'Sides, I don't have any folks."
Sonic glanced at him. "You don't? So who looks after you?"
Tails' chest inflated. "I look after myself. I'm tough, like you! I go from place to place, wherever the wind takes me! I sleep under the stars an'...an' howl at the moon. Yeah. An' I catch my own food an' cook it myself an' go where I want. Yeah."
To his credit, Sonic didn't actually laugh at Tails, but it was obvious from the suppressed quivering of his shoulders that it was taking one hell of an effort.
"Howl at the moon?"
"Yeah. Yeah, an'...an' people hear me do it an' think, oh boy, that's Tails again, he's keeping watch, we feel much safer now."
"Oh, they do, huh?" Sonic grinned broadly. Tails slumped.
"You don't believe me, do you?"
"No, I believe that whenever they hear you howl they think oh boy, that's Tails again. I'm just not too sure about the rest of it."
"They do! Honest!"
"Alright." Sonic held up his hands in surrender, still grinning. "They do. C'mon, let's get that lunch, huh?" He paused. "Unless you're full?"
"No way!" Tails perked up, ears pricked. "Are we gonna eat right now, Sonic? Right now?"
"Right now," Sonic informed him, shaking his head wryly as Tails raced over to reclaim his table and pick up his knife and fork, looking at the hedgehog expectantly.
Sonic rolled his eyes, then joined him. He wasn't sure how much foxes ate and so ordered the same for Tails as he was having for himself, telling the fox that he could always leave what he didn't want.
By the time Sonic had taken three bites out of his chilli dog, Tails had wolfed down his own along with the side order of fries, gulped down the soda and was eyeing Sonic's fries hopefully, a ring of chilli sauce around his mouth. Sonic shook his head wryly.
"Didn't anyone ever teach you to eat slowly?"
Tails squirmed. "But I'm hungry!"
"After all that? Where d'you put it all, kid?" Sonic grinned. "And I thought I had a healthy appetite."
"I jus' never been 'llowed to eat here before. Sonic, are you gonna finish that soda?"
"Probably not if you have anything to say about it," Sonic retorted, then pushed the cup over. "Go ahead, if you're that thirsty."
"Thanks!" Tails grabbed the cup, pulled off the straw and chugged the contents, then pointed to Sonic's fries. "You're not gonna eat all those yourself, right? Right?"
The hedgehog rolled his eyes. "Help yourself." He pushed them over. "I gotta go get some parts anyway. Metropolis Zone's the nearest supplier, if you can believe that."
Tails froze. Sonic was leaving?
"You don't wanna go to Metropolis Zone," he said.
"Oh, don't I?" There was a slight glimmer of amusement in Sonic's eyes. "So where do I want to go then?"
"You wanna stay right here! Metropolis Zone's not a nice place to go, Sonic. It's all polluted an' junk, an' you have to go through exploding volcanoes an' polluted oceans an' underwater mazes an' gamblers an' chemicals an' all sorts...you can stay right here."
Sonic shook his head. "Tails, I have to get some stuff to fix up my plane, and the nearest shop for that stuff is in Metropolis Zone. I'm packing and heading out that way tomorrow."
"You got a plane?" Tails' eyes were huge. "Where is it? Can I see it?"
"It's in a cove not far from here, and if you want to see it, just follow the scorch marks. I crashed a couple days ago and need to repair it." Sonic pushed the paper bag over to Tails. "Help yourself to the fries if you want them. I gotta get going." Pulling out a fifteen Mobium note, he handed it to the cub. "This'll cover the meal. You can keep the change for yourself, get some decent food for once."
Tails took it, handling it as though it were made of gold. "Wow! Thanks!"
"Don't mention it, kiddo. And don't try something like this again, okay? Because I'm not gonna be around to bail you out a second time." Turning, Sonic raced off in a flash of blue.
Finishing his meal, Tails paid, collected the three Mobiums change and trooped out, heading for the beach. His cup of happiness had been filled to the brim by the meal with Sonic, and finding a discarded tub of ice cream that Ursam's mother had chucked out caused it to overflow. Boy, he never got ice cream...pella flavoured too!
Prising the lid off, Tails experienced a pang of disappointment; the contents were melted, almost liquid. Well...nothing a little snow wouldn't cure!
Clutching it tightly in case someone decided to try and grab it, all thoughts of the beach now forgotten, Tails raced off to his cave; that was high enough in the mountains to have snow all year round. Looking around and picking a likely snowdrift, he buried the ice cream in it and marked the spot with a large X made from several fallen pine needles.
It took the rest of the day for the ice cream to refreeze (a process that was drastically slowed by Tails' digging it up every five or ten minutes to see if it was done yet) and by the time it was dark Tails was ravenous again and so he polished the whole tub off, licking around the inside to get the last of it, and then, feeling very full – not to mention slightly sick – curled up under a pine tree and went to sleep.
A couple of miles away, Sonic was drunk.
It had come about very gradually; he'd gone into a pub for an evening meal and people had insisted on buying him drinks. Never having tasted anything stronger than a non-diet soda, the alcohol had gone straight to his head. The last thing he had a clear recollection of was protesting that he wasn't drunk, he never got drunk during the day, he was impervious to drunkenness (and it had taken him four attempts to pronounce the word impervious correctly) and if someone would just refill his glass he'd be more than happy to prove it. Luckily the wombat behind the bar seemed to have more sense than Sonic; he'd sent the hedgehog on his way, which was why Sonic was now weaving unsteadily through the trees, not knowing where he was going and singing a bawdy song that he'd learned in the Jungle Zone at the top of his lungs.
"Oh-h-h, I've been all 'round the worl' an' I never kisseda girl, but the sailor's daughder smile' while makin' jam." He bumped into a tree, apologised to it and then started again. "So we raced for neudral groun' an' tha' was wherr I foun' tha' she's no mo' a priddy girl than I am."
He'd been...what? Drunk, uh huh, pissed, sure, or as his old friend Mighty would have put it, had a pie orbiting in his eyes. He frowned. No, couldn't be right, could it? Nope. No sirree, not what Mighty woulda said. Mighta said a whole lot more though, Mighty might...Sonic giggled at the pun. Yep, sure Mighty mighta said a load more since he was the on'y one to know 'bout...'bout...
Sonic's thoughts tailed off, not through drunkenness but through a steadily increasing sense of sobriety which all the alcohol on Westside Island wouldn't be enough to disperse.
What had happened? Had he said anything he shouldn't? Were people even now gossiping about him? That's Sonic, the guy who stopped Robotnik. 'Course, he was also the guy who unleashed Robotnik on Mobius in the first place...
Sonic shuddered at the thought. He opened his mouth to protest to the phantom gossips that this wasn't true, nuh uh, not one word, but instead he suddenly doubled over and vomited for what seemed like a very long time.
Then he passed out.
When he woke up, it took a long time for him to figure out what had happened...something which was aided greatly by the unpleasant realisation that the side of his face appeared to be gummed to the floor with his own vomit. His head felt like someone was hammering rusty nails into it, and his mouth was like sandpaper.
Getting woozily to his feet, he started to walk back towards where he'd left the Tornado...any fast movement made him sway rather alarmingly. Once there, he leapt up into the cockpit, wincing as the motion jarred his tender head, and pulled out a blanket. Tugging it over his head, he curled up and didn't fall asleep so much as pass out.
Tails lay on his side, eyes glazed, breathing rapidly. Pain like he'd never experienced was stabbing through his gut, accompanied by vomiting. It had started the morning after he'd eaten the ice cream and he wondered dully if Ursam's mother had poisoned it before throwing it out, knowing that Tails was likely to eat it. Probably.
He yelped as a fresh pain shot through him. Yeah. Musta been poison. Ursam's mother had made it clear she thought Tails as much a freak as the kids did. Musta been her way of getting rid of him. Yep. Gotta be.
Groaning, Tails started to crawl away. He had one thought left, only one thought that kept reverberating over and over in his painful head; get to Sonic. Sonic might not be able to stop the pain...but no, Tails dismissed that thought irritably. You didn't get to be a hero if you couldn't fix everything and solve everyone's problems.
He didn't know how long he crawled for, dragging himself one painful inch at a time over the ground on his belly. If anyone else was there or passed by, he didn't register them. In his pain-crazed state, he didn't even know where he was, only that he had to get to Sonic.
Sonic himself had had a very quiet day, mostly through his own design; hedgehogs with hangovers tended to move extremely gingerly and complain about the noise that damn ant is making walking around on that leaf. He'd tried to work on the Tornado some more, but given it up as a bad job after about ten minutes and settled for sunbathing and drinking from a rock pool instead before having an early night and swearing to himself never to even touch alcohol again.
He'd been asleep for a good couple of hours when the sound of something advancing deliberately towards him caused him to jerk awake.
"Who's there?" There was a suspicious note in his voice; people who had just made the top of Robotnik's hit list tended to be suspicious of anyone creeping around.
On the ground, Tails opened his mouth to answer, but his stomach churned and all that came out was a splatter of thin vomit. Up above him, he saw Sonic lie back down again with a muttered, "Damn drunks."
"Sonic..." How he expected Sonic to hear his voice when he himself barely could, Tails had no idea, but he had to try, had to make Sonic realise it was him. Sonic was nice. Sonic was kind. Sonic would help him. Sonic would—Tails vomited again and collapsed with a loud groan.
Sonic's head appeared over the edge of the cockpit. "Look, whoever you are, d'you think you could go and be pissed somewhere else? I don't—" He broke off abruptly, staring. "Tails? That you down there?"
Tails whimpered softly – he didn't have the energy to groan anymore – and rolled over.
"It is, isn't it? Tails, are you okay?"
Tails looked up at him, clutching his stomach. "Yeah...fine..." he managed to get out, with no thought of sarcasm.
Sonic frowned. "Don't lie to me, kid." He leapt out the cockpit and was at Tails' side in an instant. "How long have you been feeling this way?"
"Since this morning. Jus' after sunrise." Tails felt a familiar sensation well up inside him and tried to hold it back, but couldn't; he vomited helplessly. Sonic stared at him.
"You've been suffering stomach cramps and vomiting for fourteen damn hours and you never said anything?"
"I didn't wanna bother you."
"So you decided to come bother me at night by waking me up, that it?" When Tails cringed, ducking his head, Sonic grinned. "C'mon, I'm kidding." The grin disappeared as he added, "What've you been eating recently?"
"Ice cream. Melted. Coulda poisoned it."
"Poisoned?" Sonic stared at him. "Tails, I know you think you're not the most popular guy on this island and maybe you're right, but do you really think that anyone here hates you enough to want you dead?"
"P'raps. Dunno." Another cramp, this one worse than the others, shot through Tails' stomach and he yelped and was sick again, this time all over Sonic's sneakers. Humiliated beyond measure, crimson-faced and dreading Sonic's reaction, he turned his head away. "Sorry," Sonic heard him mumble. "Real sorry."
"It's okay." Kneeling down to his level, Sonic reached out to rub Tails' shoulders gently. "C'mon, it's cold and you shouldn't be out here by yourself, not at this time of night and not like this either. Tell me where you live and I'll take you home."
Tails shook his head. "Don't live anywhere, 'cept for there's a nice cave in the mountains an' I like to sleep in summer. Too cold now. Winter now, so cave falls freezed. Wood now. All wood. Summer water'll come 'gain."
Not surprisingly, Sonic was completely and utterly baffled by this incoherent statement; he rearranged the words in his head several times, but he still didn't understand.
"Well...where are your folks?" he said, at a loss for what else to say.
"Gone."
"Gone? Gone where?" Understanding dawned. "Oh...you mean gone gone?" he said quietly.
A small nod.
"Okay, so who looks after you?" Sonic tried.
"I do." Tails was vaguely aware that for some reason his answers weren't helping the hedgehog, but he didn't know what Sonic wanted to hear.
"You're homeless?"
"Nah, I got a home. Emerald Hill Zone."
Sonic changed down a mental gear. "What I mean is, you, uh, you don't have a set place in that Zone to live?"
"I got the cave. Nobody ever comes there but me, on'y like I said, it's all freezed up."
Another mental gear shift.
"So where do you live when it's not frozen?" Sonic still wasn't too sure what Tails meant by a frozen cave, but he let that one slide.
"Anywhere. Like the beach, 'cept for all the people who come an' tell me to move on when I'm asleep. An' those people at night who like to roll 'round in the sand clutching each other an' moaning. I dunno why they seem to like it so much but it's kinda annoying after awhile."
"I can imagine." Sonic wondered if anyone besides himself would ever realise the effort it took to keep his voice that casual.
"So I usually jus' sleep in th' cave. Winter forest. An' I got a secret place, jus' me an' no one else. No one else knows it's there. It gets kinda tickly with all the bugs comin' and goin', an' I used to get scared when the forest spiders crawled on me. But not now, mister," Tails added hastily, fearful of Sonic's contempt. "Honest not now."
Sonic, who hadn't picked much more out of this brilliant dialogue than the kid was orphaned, homeless and for some reason had picked him to help, hesitated, then nodded.
"Okay kid. Okay. You stay in the Tornado tonight; I'll go get you some—" Sonic hastily bit down on the word 'medicine'— "stuff," he said instead, then grinned. "And try to keep the groaning down in case you disturb some of those people rolling around in the sand," he couldn't resist adding.
"You c'd always...always take me to th' woods. They're far 'nuff. No one'd hear me there."
Sonic stared at him incredulously, no longer grinning. "What, you think I meant that?"
"Uh huh."
"Well...I didn't, okay?" Sonic said. It seemed somewhat lame, but he had no idea what else to say. "I'm sure I saw a pharmacy somewhere. I'll go get you some stuff."
"Can't."
"Why not?"
Tails opened his mouth, vomited, then managed to control himself long enough to say, "You're...they're gonna see your sneakers an' how I was sick on them an' they're gonna laugh at you."
Sonic shook his head. "When are you gonna learn that I don't care about that stuff? C'mon." He leapt for the Tornado, landing neatly in the cockpit, grabbing the blanket there and jumping back down in one smooth move. Reaching down, he wrapped the blanket around Tails' small and skinny frame and said, "Stay here, okay? I'll be back in a minute."
In fact it was more like five by the time he'd even found a pharmacy, and the guy he found inside drove all thoughts of Tails from his mind; for a long while he just stood and stared.
"Mighty?"
The armadillo turned to face him. "Sonic." It was almost impossible to tell if it was a greeting, a statement or a condemnation.
"I..." Sonic struggled for words and finally settled for, "I...didn't know you were here."
"The feeling's mutual."
Sonic continued staring. He and Mighty had once been the closest of friends, right up until Robotnik had first showed up. When Sonic had spoken to the armadillo afterwards, had confessed the part he'd played in all that, Mighty had seemed like he wanted nothing more to do with Sonic.
The hedgehog opened his mouth to – what? Apologise? Defend himself? – and heard himself say, "You don't know anything about foxes, do you?"
The sound of voices pulled Tails halfway out of a deep sleep just in time to hear Sonic take a long, deep breath.
"Look, Mighty, you and me haven't seen each other since the Robotnik incident, and you're the only one who knows—"
The one called Mighty interrupted. "Afraid I'm gonna start talkin'? Nice thing to do to a friend, Sonic!"
Tails almost howled in frustration. Of course someone as cool as Sonic would already have a friend; how could he have been so dumb? Sonic probably only let him tag along because he was too nice to tell him to get lost; why should he put up with a little kid like Tails? He probably only wanted friends and company his own age, and to a four-year-old Tails, twelve years old might as well have been twelve hundred.
He drifted in and out of a daze at that point, only coming out of it in time to hear Mighty say, "—told someone."
"Oh yeah?" Tails could dimly hear the apprehension in Sonic's voice. "Who'd you meet after you ran off that day?"
"I got into the Twister and just flew, farther than I've ever done before. I found an island, Sonic, an island just floating in the sky. I landed, raced into the forest and crashed into this guy about my age."
"You told him?"
"He didn't want to talk. First of all I had to knock him out before he'd speak to me, and then it was only to demand a rematch. I ended up beating him three more times before he'd finally concede I was the stronger." Mighty paused. "There was almost nothing in it, though," he added. "That guy, whoever he was, was tough. He demanded to know what I was doing on his island and...well, I blurted it out."
"Great."
"Trust me, Sonic, I doubt this guy's ever gonna leave his island, and the people dumb enough to visit it aren't likely to survive the experience. This person's a recluse; there aren't even any others of his race up there for him to tell. You and he are never going to meet. And right now, you got other things to worry about. What's this kid been eating?"
Sonic snorted. "What hasn't he? Most recently he says he finished up a tub of ice cream he found in a trashcan."
Mighty stared. "How much?"
"No idea. He said there was only a little bit gone when he came to eat it."
"I don't suppose he ever thought that this could be why it was chucked out, because there was something wrong with it?"
Sonic looked at Tails, then back at Mighty. "No. He's four years old, Might. Hardly a good age to begin thinking about such things. On the ice cream front...well, if it was the standard size, you're looking at about a pint and a half."
Mighty snorted. "Yeah? Then to be honest, after eating about a pint and a half's worth of ice cream, I'd have been amazed if he wasn't sick. Talk about greedy."
Sonic shook his head. "He's not greedy, Mighty. He's starving, and like most little kids he's got no idea of moderation. I'd lay money he eats everything he can because he has no idea where his next meal's coming from."
"You think so?" Mighty glanced down at the tuft of fur and two large ears, which was all that could be seen of Tails above the blanket. "What'd you say he was? Fox?"
"Damned if I know, to tell you the truth. He looks like a fox except for one thing; he has two tails. And you still haven't told me what to do when he wakes up."
"Give him water. Plenty of it."
Sonic reached out to Tails, almost as though about to stroke the kid's fur, then drew his hand back sharply. "I can't. He'll just puke it right back up."
"Some of it will get through. You're gonna have to trust me on that, but it will. Vomiting and diarrhea only lasts a few days, but he's gonna be drained. Where does he live?"
Sonic bit his lip. "That's part of the problem; I'm not sure he does. I couldn't get much out of him – well, poor kid was chucking up at the time, so I'm not surprised – but I think he squats in a cave of some kind or sleeps rough in the forest. He mentioned a secret place, but I dunno what he meant by that." He glanced up at Mighty. "Look, you must know this place. Isn't there somewhere I can take him, some kind of hospital?"
No hospitals, Tails tried to say but couldn't; his tongue seemed unaccountably too big for his mouth.
The armadillo was already shaking his head before Sonic had finished saying the word 'take'.
"No. Oh, there are plenty, but the rule is that all minors must be admitted by a parent or guardian. You're neither, and so they won't take him."
Sonic stared. "The kid's puking and crapping all over the place and they won't help him just because he's got no family?"
"Exactly. Although I imagine if you asked him, he'd say he had you. You were the one he came to, after all."
"Why me? Jeez, what do I know about treating salmonella?"
The armadillo's mouth quirked slightly. "Maybe he didn't come to you for treatment, Sonic. Maybe he just came to you for a bit of TLC."
"Yeah, but...he must have...surely there are..." Sonic stared. "There must be someone who cares about this kid."
"Must there? Who says? Look, in this Zone, you look after number one. Tails could drop dead and all the others would probably do is gripe about having to dispose of the body, assuming he died close enough for that to be an issue. You're all he has."
"Might...I can't stay here. I'm like you. I need to keep moving. Robotnik could be..." Sonic swallowed and continued bravely. "He could be building more machines."
"Yes, and whose fault's that?" Mighty asked. There was no obvious anger or spite in the tone, but Sonic still winced. Mighty was the only person on Mobius – well, except perhaps this stranger on a flying island, and Sonic still wasn't convinced that the armadillo hadn't made that up – who knew that Sonic was not only responsible for Robotnik's existence, but that he couldn't bring himself to kill him after the fight in Sky Base, had allowed him to limp away, down but not out.
Before Sonic could say anything, Mighty shook his head. "I'm not blaming you, Sonic. At least, not much anymore."
Sonic swallowed. "Thanks. Yeah. But I need to keep moving, and even if I didn't, I still need to get the hell out of this Zone. It's poison. I can feel it. I need to get out."
"And what about what Tails needs? If you abandon him now, in his current state, he'll die. He refroze and ate almost an entire tub of ice cream. Logical from a kid's point of view, when you think about it, but who's to say that next time he won't do something similar with rice? Or chicken? And you won't be around to help him, so I can almost guarantee you that he will die before next winter. He'll die, and if you've gone, he'll die alone and in agony, and the residents of Emerald Hill Zone will gripe about disposing of his body, if they even bother with that at all; if Tails squats far enough away, they'll just leave him to rot and feed the maggots."
Sonic squeezed his eyes shut. "Jeez, Might."
"He needs you. He's four years old and if you want him to live long enough to see five, you better do some prioritising. What's more important, Sonic; your own sense of guilt and restlessness or this little kid's life? If you still want to turn your back on him and leave him, fine, nobody can stop you, but you better understand one thing before you do it; you'll be leaving him to die, from loneliness as much as anything else. What'd that poor little tyke ever do to you?"
Sonic sat down abruptly. "Might, what do I know about little kids? I didn't even ask for this, any of it."
"You must have done something. Even something as trivial as just talking to him. He's got no family, no friends and then you came along and said a few kind words and bang! All his dreams come true at once."
"I'm no damn foster parent, Mighty!"
"You are for now," the armadillo said flatly. "Like it or not, Sonic, he's picked you to help him. Can you really turn him down?"
Sonic glanced up at the cockpit, where the little fox was now sleeping fitfully.
"There's gotta be someone who can take care of him."
"Probably, but until you find them, you'll have to do it."
"Why me?" Sonic all but wailed.
"Ask Tails, when he comes to."
Sonic shook his head glumly. "No point, Might. I know what he'll say."
"He'll say he doesn't know?"
"He'll say because I'm Sonic the hedgehog." Sonic groaned. "Man, nobody outside the Green Hill Zone had ever heard of me last year! Now I'm suddenly this bigshot hero?"
"Yeah. You didn't want that, you should have thought before you went after Robotnik." Mighty shook his head. "I'm bushed, Sonic. I'm gonna go turn in. When your friend wakes up, get some water down him even if you have to hold his nose and pour it through a funnel."
He turned and strode away. Sonic was half tempted to call him back or even to chase after him, but something held him in place and instead he looked over to where Tails was and sighed.
What the hell am I gonna do with you?
Phew! Okay, that's that! Sorry it took longer than usual; I have my two young cousins staying with me which means there's a lot more playing Sonic and a lot less writing him :P Anyway, hope you enjoyed it and if you read, please review :)