Kj: Heh, thanks; glad you liked it :P (Sonic: Hey, c'mon, how often do you come across a flying fox?)

Awdures: Thanks :) I think Sonic was wrong when he said Tails needed him more than he did Tails...

Shaddress: Thanks :D And sure, you go ahead and use it as a prelude if you want :D I'd be honoured!

Sonic-Addict: You'll find out soon enough :P

FriedBrickWall: Heh, no worries :D And you'll find out about the toys in this chapter ;)

Asher Tye: Ooh, I wonder ;) (blushes) And thanks for the kind words :D More on the way...well, right now actually ;)

Lewisty: (blushes) Wow, thanks. As to my becoming an author, I already am ;) I've had the odd story published in magazines and I have three sci-fi/fantasy novels placed with a literary agent who is currently seeking publication (not to mention being hard at work on a fourth and trying to negotiate novelisation rights for the movie Equilibrium)

Professor Vengeance: (blushes again) Thanks; I'm glad you're enjoying it :P

Niki: (happy smile) Thanks; I'm really pleased you liked it :D

Kirby-Chan263:D Thanks

Samantha27: Thanks and I agree :P As for Sonic and Tails teaming up...well, read on ;)

Yayness: Of course it's gonna continue; read on :P

Very few people knew about the mountains in Emerald Hill Zone. Or to put it more accurately – since a huge mountain range isn't exactly an easy thing to miss – very few people ever bothered with them. There were bigger mountains. There were easier to climb mountains. And there were definitely more accessible mountains; the Diamond Range as it was called was famous in its own way for splintered handholds, sub-zero temperatures all year round and numerous gorges and rapids that became deadly ice rinks in winter, with the occasional avalanche to break up the monotony of drowning, falling to one's death or dying of hypothermia.

It was a shame, because the Diamond Range would also have been famous for its breathtaking waterfalls, vast pine forests and herds of feral ice deer, if anyone had ever been able to make it in far enough and for long enough to actually notice any of these things.

Tails, who could fly, had noticed all three but like most people lucky enough to see extraordinary sights on an almost daily basis, had dismissed them all as ordinary.

He and Sonic were standing in front of one of these ordinary sights right now; a vast lake with a waterfall cascading down the cliff...or rather, a vast ice skating rink with an interesting and rather dribbly shaped ice sculpture up one cliff.

Sonic put one foot on the ice, then drew it back. He was already regretting his promise to help Tails break through the waterfall into his cave. Suppose the ice gave way under his weight? Suppose the friction of his spinning sliced or melted it and it dumped him into the water? Sonic could imagine only too well how that would feel, clawing at an invisible barrier, trying to breathe and cough out water in your lungs only to fill them with more water...nuh uh, not him. No way.

"It's okay, Sonic," Tails offered, "the cave's real big. You don't gotta worry 'bout missing it an' smashing into the rock wall instead."

"I wasn't," answered Sonic, who hadn't been until Tails had mentioned it, "but I was...are you sure this ice is gonna hold?"

"Oh sure. See?" To demonstrate, Tails skated out into the middle of the lake and proceeded to bounce up and down on it vigorously. "It's solid, Sonic, you're fine. If you're not, I c'n get you out."

"You promise?" Sonic hated saying those words, hated how vulnerable they made him feel – and he was trying to get a promise out of a four year old, for goodness' sake! – but he needed to hear them, needed them to be said.

"Sure I promise. Jus' spin right at that big waterfall, you can't miss it."

That much at least was true, if the ice held out, Sonic allowed. That was the only good thing to have come of the whole Robotnik mess; his spin attacks and feats of agility were now performed with pinpoint accuracy. Taking a deep breath, he stepped onto the ice.

He was never quite sure what happened next. All he knew was that it was very fast, very cold and ended up with him buried in a snowdrift on the opposite side of the lake.

Emerging, spitting snow out of his mouth, he turned to see Tails laughing so hard he couldn't stand upright. Looking back, Sonic saw his own somewhat erratic path across the ice and into the snow and put two and two together, a gleam appearing in his eyes as he caught sight of the giggling fox cub. So Tails thought he could laugh at him, did he? Well, he'd show him. Time that kid learned a little respect for his elders.

Tails, in the meantime, had just about managed to get enough control over himself to start to turn around and say, "Boy Sonic, you sure looked funny," when a snowball hit him in the back of the head. Yelping loudly, he spun around to see Sonic standing there with his hands behind his back trying to whistle innocently. For a minute, Tails was unnerved – did Sonic really want to play with him or had the hedgehog just pretended to like him all this time like some of the other kids did – then Sonic caught his eye and winked.

Still full of trepidation – throwing a snowball at someone as cool as Sonic the hedgehog was tantamount to sacrilege in Tails' young lexicon – he caught up a handful of snow and threw it halfheartedly at Sonic, who yawned as the missile fell short.

"You're gonna have to be quicker than that, kiddo," he said lightly. "Except...oh, right, I forgot. I'm only the fastest thing on the planet."

Tails, misinterpreting this as Sonic making fun of him for not being as fast as him, was crushed, the feeling of betrayal so great it was physically painful. Why had he ever believed Sonic? Why? He thought he'd learned his lesson the last time Caud and the others had played this trick on him, but it seemed like he hadn't. Turning, he started to race away but slipped on the ice and went right backwards, crashing onto his head and yelping loudly at the pain.

"Tails?" Sonic arrived next to the fox and put a hand on his shoulder. "Tails, you okay?"

Instinctively Tails looked up ahead – whenever any of the other cool kids held him like this, it was only for another to throw things at him or kick sand in his face – but they were still alone.

"C'mere kiddo," Sonic said softly, "let me take a look at that."

"No!" Tails shoved at Sonic as hard as he could, but failed to break free. Did the hedgehog think he was really that dumb, to be caught by the same trick twice? Nuh uh! Sonic had betrayed him, had pretended to be his friend and then laughed at him and there was no way he was gonna forgive that, not never!

"Tails. Tails." Sonic gave up and waited for the little fox to calm down, or at the very least, tire himself out. Eventually Tails stopped thrashing, although he turned his back on Sonic, ears flat against his skull. Hating himself for it – he usually waited until he was alone – but having no choice, he buried his face in his hands and sobbed his heart out.

Sonic continued staring at Tails, for once at a complete loss. His first natural instinct was to hug the fox tightly, attempt to comfort him, but Tails had turned on him so suddenly that Sonic honestly wasn't sure if doing so wouldn't cost him a few pints of blood, not to mention considerable pain.

"Tails—" he started.

"Piss off, Sonic!" The words were shocking enough to Sonic – who had never been told to piss off in his entire life – but to hear them come out the mouth of a four year old was even worse. Swallowing, the hedgehog tried again.

"Tails, please talk to me. What did I do?"

The fox spun around, glowering at Sonic and the hedgehog was taken aback by the pain and hatred in those large blue eyes.

"You know what you did!" Tails shrieked at him. "You know, you...you..." His vocabulary failed him at this point, which probably wasn't a bad thing and he twisted away. "I shoulda known I couldn't trust you," Sonic managed to discern through the wails. Reaching out, he tried to take Tails' hand, but the fox – who had really lost control by then – turned and sank his teeth into Sonic's hand.

Sonic didn't move, didn't react, didn't give any sign that he'd even felt it, but just kept regarding Tails steadily, mind working frantically behind those calm green eyes.

"Is this because I threw the snowball at you?" he asked quietly.

A muffled shriek of frustration and increase in biting pressure was the only answer; Tails seemed furious that Sonic wouldn't let go of his hand, wouldn't leave him alone. Sonic on the other hand, who was still utterly clueless about what had sparked such a reaction off, felt instinctively that leaving Tails alone would be the worst thing he could do.

After what seemed like hours (and if the darkening of the sky was anything to go by, probably was) Tails' bite slackened a little, although he didn't release his jaws entirely.

"Are you going to talk to me now?" Sonic asked him very quietly.

The answer was extremely muffled and the hedgehog smiled slightly.

"It's no good, Tails, you're gonna have to take my hand out of your mouth if you want me to understand you."

An equally muffled growl and increase in pressure was his only response to that and Sonic shrugged. "Fine. You want to chew on me some more, go ahead. But I'll tell you this here and now; I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what I did to upset you this badly. Because whatever it was, I swear I didn't mean it."

Tails took his now bloody mouth away from Sonic's equally bloody hand long enough to say, "You meant it. You know you did."

"I didn't mean it to upset you like this." Emboldened, Sonic reached out and ran one hand over the fox's fur. He felt Tails shrink away from him, felt the cringing submission and hated it but kept going, partly to try and soothe the fox and partly to try and get some warmth into him.

Tails glanced down. This time Sonic felt a small lick on his bleeding hand.

"It's okay, kiddo," he said quietly, interpreting the tacit apology for what it was, "but we still gotta sort this out. Tell me what's wrong. I won't get mad or laugh at you, just talk to me."

Tails looked away again, ears flat.

"You're jus' like them," Sonic heard him mumble and took a long, deep breath. It had been a hell of a lot to go through for just four words.

"How am I just like all them?"

"You jus' are!" Tails burst out, with the finality of one finishing an argument and tried to get to his feet. Grabbing his arms, Sonic held him firmly in place.

"Have I called you a freak? Smashed your toys? Thrown you out, beaten you up, kicked sand in your face?" When Tails shook his head to each of these, Sonic persisted, "Then how am I like them?"

"They used to do all that too. Pretend we were friends, lemme play with 'em an' then after a couple days they'd say that they were on'y pretending, that they didn't want anything to do with a freak like me an' I had to be real dumb if I thought they did."

"They used to do that to you?" Sonic was shocked, really shocked. "Just...lead you on and then dump you for the hell of it?"

"You should know, Sonic; you did it jus' then."

"How?" Sonic racked his brains frantically. Had it been that damn snowball? But how could Tails have interpreted that as Sonic dumping him?

Tails turned a look of miserable betrayal on Sonic, angry tears still sparkling in his eyes.

"It's not my fault I can't run as fast as you can!"

"What?" Sonic said, bewildered. "I never said it...oh." Memory surfaced and he reached out to stroke the fur on the back of Tails' head. "Oh, I see. You thought I was making fun of you."

"An' you were!"

"No. No I wasn't, kiddo, I swear. I'm not like that. I was just...well, that's like my way of playing."

Tails sniffed but didn't resist when Sonic gathered him up into his arms and hugged him.

"'S a dumb game then," he mumbled.

Sonic smiled slightly. "Yeah? I seem to remember a certain young fox who's not a million miles away from me pounce attacking a complete stranger in the head."

"Uh..." Tails pretended to consider, then looked up at Sonic. "Maybe that was some other fox," he suggested brightly.

Sonic laughed, more through relief than anything. "Nuh uh—"

"Yuh huh!"

"Nuh uh; this little fox had two tails." Sonic started to add, and there aren't many foxes around like that, then stopped as he realised that Tails might well take this the wrong way.

Tails headbutted Sonic in the chest, but it was a playful act rather than a hostile one.

"Yeah, 'cause his mean – hedgehog – buddy—" he punctuated each word with another headbutt— "wouldn't – make – him – normal!"

The grin disappeared off Sonic's face. "You are normal, Tails. And no, I won't mutilate you by cutting off one of your tails, so stop asking." He shook his head. "If I had Caud and his buddies in front of me right now, I'd wring their damn necks."

"But they'd never play with me then," Tails pointed out.

"Tails, be honest; do you really want to play with guys like that?"

Tails gave Sonic a look that suggested he thought the hedgehog was several cans short of a six pack, then said, "Of course not. But Sonic, they're the on'y kids round here an' they're closest to my age so I gotta take what I can get."

Sonic shook his head. "Why?"

"'Cause...well, it gets real lonesome by myself. I c'n pounce attack people an' sometimes they play along an' chase me, but mostly they jus' yell an' throw things an' that's no fun 'cause if those things hit you it hurts."

Sonic didn't answer. He had a nasty suspicion that the ones who chased Tails weren't doing it in fun, but he kept quiet. Let Tails believe what he wanted if it made it easier to bear.

"Sonic?"

"Yeah?"

"You gonna get into my cave now?"

Sonic glanced down at the little fox and smiled slightly. "Sure." Getting to his feet, he placed Tails safely out of harm's way, then curled over into a spin attack. He'd never ploughed through ice before and hoped devoutly that it would be easier than a metal bot.

It was, in fact, so much easier that Sonic had burrowed through the ice and ten feet into the opposite rock wall before he managed to stop.

"Wow!" Sonic barely had time to register Tails' arrival before the fox was standing in front of him, looking up adoringly. "That was so cool! Wish I coulda seen you do it to a bot!"

"No you don't," Sonic said tonelessly. Or at the very least, I don't, he added in the privacy of his own mind. He would be quite happy and content if he never saw or heard about Dr Robotnik ever again.

"I do, honest." Tails sighed. "No such luck though, 'less you wanna go out an' whump them buzz bombs?" He let the sentence trail off hopefully.

"Tails, I am not going out searching for trouble just to provide you with a show!" Sonic took one or two deep breaths in order to calm down (and to try and dispel some of the images of his last fight) then said, "So this is your cave, huh?"

"Yeah!" Distracted just like the hedgehog had hoped, Tails scampered into the cave. "Come see!"

Sonic, who had been prepared for a dank, smelly hole hardly big enough for one of them, never mind two, was pleasantly surprised to find himself in a large cave that was roomy enough for a few pieces of furniture; Tails had acquired a small table and two large dining chairs from somewhere, and a pillow had been placed in the corner.

Following the hedgehog's gaze, Tails beamed proudly.

"I made that myself."

"Did you?" The impressed note in Sonic's voice wasn't entirely feigned.

"Uh huh. Got some castaway clothes an' stuck up the holes with sap an' stuffed grass inside. I don't mind being cold but the rock's so hard I can't sleep. I used to sleep on the table, but then my fur got all sticky. An' the table took me a whole day an' some of the night to drag in, but I managed it."

Sonic glanced at him, frowning slightly. "You could've hurt yourself."

"Oh, I know. That's why it took so long; I'd drag it a foot or two feet an' then pause for a rest, then drag it another couple of feet an' pause, then drag it—"

"I get the picture."

"It was worth it when I got it in though. You gotta have a table in a home, Sonic." Tails scratched his head. "Though I'm not sure why..."

He probably wasn't at that, Sonic thought. What use did a four year old really have for eating off the table? Hell, if you were pointing fingers, what use did Sonic himself have for it?

It seemed to have some purpose, though, since there was a strange little contraption on top of it, one which seemed to be part arms, part legs and mostly spikes, as though someone had attached limbs to a particularly deadly jack. Curious, Sonic picked it up. "What's this?"

"Ahh..." Tails froze rigid, then rubbed the back of his neck. "Jus' a toy I made outta some junk people threw away. Don't smash it, Sonic, please don't. It's the on'y one I got."

"I'm not gonna smash it," Sonic said calmly, replacing the toy in its original position. "I was just curious, that's all. What kinda toy is it?"

"Jus'...jus'...something. It was gonna be—" Tails broke off abruptly, embarrassed.

"Gonna be what?"

"Erm..." Tails rubbed the back of his neck again. "Promise you won't get mad or laugh?"

"Sure, I promise."

"It was...well, it was gonna be a sonicactionfigurebutirunouttabluepaint," Tails said in a rush, then went crimson. Had he really just said that out loud?

There was a brief pause which Sonic used to replay the sentence in his mind and insert the appropriate spaces, then his mind nearly blew up.

"It was going to be a what?" he said incredulously.

Tails shifted his weight. "I know it's not a good one, it doesn't look much like you, but...well, all the other kids have 'em an' they were making fun a me an' I thought mebbe I could make my own 'cause I'm good at that kinda stuff on'y I couldn't find any blue paint so I added wings an' turned it into a super-cool Sonic fighter ship but..." His voice trailed away, more through lack of oxygen than anything else, and he took a long, deep breath. "You're mad at me, aren't you?"

"I'm not sure how I feel, to tell you the truth. It's not every day you learn you're an action figure."

Tails sat down abruptly, hugging his knees to him.

"It didn't make any difference anyhow," Sonic heard him mumble. "The other kids still wouldn't lemme play with 'em."

"There are other action figures?" Sonic said slowly. He was having difficulty coming to terms with this. "Of me?"

Tails nodded vigorously. "Uh huh. You and ol' Robotnik. An' loadsa mini-bots too for you to squish!"

"Just...hold it." Sonic held up both hands and took half a step back. "Back up. I'm an action figure?"

"Well, you're not, but there're loadsa action figures of you! I heard one guy telling the other that his dad had heard from a friend of a cashier who works in a toyshop that they couldn't get 'em in fast enough. They were always sold out. You can get little play maps of the Zones as well an' re'nact all your cool battles!"

"My cool battles?" Sonic felt as if his brain had been dunked in a tub of ice water.

"Yeah! There's Green Hill an' Bridge an' Jungle an'...hang on." Tails raced over to a pile of leaves and extracted a battered catalogue, which he handed to Sonic proudly.

It was only the evident fact that Tails loved this catalogue so much which kept Sonic from snatching it from him and racing through the pages at top speed.

"Page three one seven," Tails supplied helpfully. "An' three one eight, three one nine, three two oh...hmm, actually I think you go all the way up to three two six."

Sonic flipped to the page, then stared. Turning over a couple of pages, he saw it only got worse.

"Tails, this is ridiculous! I don't go around on a motorcycle with wings!"

"Well, they must've seen something 'cause they wouldn't be allowed to make it if it wasn't real, right Sonic?" Tails perked up his ears. "An' that reminds me, I heard some really cool news about you!"

"Let me guess," Sonic said bitterly. "I'm going to be a hot air balloon or a giant talking plush toy."

"You already are a giant talking plush toy." Taking the catalogue back from Sonic, Tails flipped carefully through it and then turned it round to show him. "See? Right here on page three two four. Nineteen and a half Mobiums, free delivery in Gigalopolis an' surrounding zones, accessories sold separately and batteries not included."

The hedgehog gave it a cursory glance, then dropped his head into his hands.

"Oh man, why me? I didn't ask for any of this, Tails, so why me?"

Tails frowned, perplexed. He was very intelligent for his age, but abstract reasoning and the concept of romanticisation of a local hero to cash in on the mega Mobiums was asking a lot of any four year old.

"Maybe they thought you'd like it," he ventured.

"They were damn well wrong then, weren't they! Nobody ever asked my opinion on any of these!"

Tails, who felt that Sonic expected him to contribute something wise and grown up to the conversation, racked his brains furiously before finally coming up with, "Bummer."

Sonic threw him a look, then turned away. Surprised, hurt and feeling that somehow all this was his fault (although he didn't understand why Sonic was mad) Tails cast around for some way to make amends.

"About that really cool news..." he began.

Sonic shot him a withering look. "Go on. What are they going to turn me into this time?"

"A video game!"

"A what?"

Sensing that this news had failed to cheer Sonic up, Tails backpedalled frantically. "Well, maybe not an actual video game, I jus' heard that someone said that they'd been told by another guy that...well...there might be a video game?"

"Might?"

"Um. No. There's gonna be one released this summer." Tails looked down at his toes. "They're...they're gonna call it Sonic the Hedgehog Kicks Butt on Evil Dictator Dr Robotnik. Though I think they're thinking of just shortening it to Sonic the Hedgehog."

"A video game about a fast blue hedgehog smashing robots?" Sonic said acerbically. "Hah. It'll never catch on."

"Sonic?"

"Yeah?"

"Did I do something bad?" When Sonic looked startled, Tails rushed on. "On'y you're acting all weird an' junk an' you look like you're mad at me an'...an' I don't want you to be mad at me, Sonic."

Sonic forced a smile. "No, little buddy, I'm not mad at you. It's just...a shock."

Tails flattened his ears shyly. "Uh. Sonic? You think that maybe you, uh, maybe you wanna sleep over with me? It's okay if you don't, honest it is, but...well...do you?"

Sonic opened his mouth to make some kind of gentle refusal and then caught sight of the kid's hopeful blue eyes and couldn't bring himself to do it.

"Yeah. Yeah, that'd be great." He summoned up a grin he didn't think he had in him and added, "Man, I can't remember the last time I went to a sleepover."

"Great!" Tails grabbed his hand and pulled him over to the makeshift bed. "You c'n sleep here!"

Sonic raised his eye ridges. "Yeah? So where are you gonna sleep?"

"Uh..." Tails looked around. "I'll go on the table."

"I thought you said it made your fur sticky."

"It does but it's okay 'cause I can wash in a stream. Or...or mebbe we could...nah."

"What?"

"Well..." Tails rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly and shuffled his feet. "I was kinda thinking that maybe you could sleep on the bed an' I could, uh, mebbe I could sleep...next to you?" He flushed bright red and dropped his gaze, ears flat against his head in embarrassment.

Sonic quirked an eye ridge at him. "Now that sounds like a plan." Crossing over, he lay down on the 'bed' next to the wall in order to let Tails have the bulk of the mattress, then stretched out an arm. "C'mere squirt."

He regretted his choice of words a second later, as Tails raced across the cave and landed squarely on Sonic's stomach.

"Pounce—"

"—attack," Sonic finished with him, grinning wryly. "Yeah, I know." He glanced down at Tails' bare feet, wondering as he did so why on Mobius he hadn't noticed this before. "Don't you have any shoes?"

Tails shook his head, fixing Sonic with a solemn look. "Uh uh. I had some once but I didn't have time to get 'em when they threw me out. They threw my shoes out a couple months later but they were too small."

"No shoes, no gloves..." Sonic shook his head. "Guess we're gonna have to go shopping tomorrow, huh?"

The fox's high pitched yip of delight went through Sonic's head like a nail file, but there was no mistaking the enthusiasm in the kid's hug, one which almost squeezed the air out of Sonic's lungs.

"Uff. Okay. Okay. But tomorrow." Sonic returned the hug, albeit a lot more gently. "Go on, get some sleep."

"How'm I s'posed to sleep now?" Tails demanded, sitting up and bouncing on the spot. Catching hold of him before the fox's bounces took him onto Sonic's ribs, the hedgehog pulled Tails down to ground level again.

"Look at it this way. The sooner you go to sleep, the sooner it'll be morning."

Tails' eyes lit up and he leapt off, curling into a tight ball with both namesakes wrapped around him for extra warmth and shut his eyes tightly. Sonic smirked. Classic. Thank goodness for childish logic.

The hedgehog closed his own eyes. He never slept well anymore, not since Robotnik, but he was tired enough to drop off almost immediately.

When he woke up, it was pitch black outside and for a long moment he didn't know where he was, then he remembered and frowned. What had woken him up? Like many people in similar situations, Sonic's sense of hearing had become extremely selective; ie, he'd sleep through a thunderstorm or earthquake and snap awake at the barest whine of a robot's motor. It hadn't been a nightmare, for once, he added mentally. That was one of the best things about Tails; the kid was so exhausting to be around that at the end of the day Sonic just collapsed and went out like a light, too tired to dream.

There! He sensed more than heard the whine of robotics and stiffened, fear freezing him to the spot. Oh hell. Not again. Not here. Please, not here.

Lights flickered on in the darkness, lights that pierced the night and the gloom of the cave but which were at the wrong angle to pick up on the cave's occupants. Sonic could dimly make out the shape of the bots behind, at least, enough of it to know that he'd never encountered one like it before. As he watched, it turned and made its way into the forest and the hedgehog let out a silent breath of both fear and relief.

"Tails." Reaching down, Sonic shook the fox as gently as he could. "Tails, c'mon, wake up."

Tails jerked awake with a start. "Huh? Whassgoinon?"

"Hush up." Sonic's voice was so quiet he himself could barely hear it, and he clamped a hand over Tails' mouth.

"Bt Fonic—"

"I said hush up!" Fear made Sonic's voice sharper than he'd intended and he winced and lowered it immediately. He didn't know what kind of sensors these robots were fitted with and he didn't plan on finding out the hard way either. "We got trouble."

Tails wrestled Sonic's hand away with a gargantuan effort, worked his jaw a couple of times and then said, "Is it...?"

Sonic moistened his lips. "It is." He wished more than anything he didn't have to say those words, that he could just curl up in a ball and pretend he hadn't seen the bots or that he didn't understand what their presence meant. But there was no doubt about it.

Robotnik was back.

Okay...now the game starts in earnest ;) Sort of :P Hope you enjoyed it and if you read, please review!