Awdures: (blushes) Thanks :D I love writing about the Zones :P
Kj: Yes, we shall indeed :P Sorta ;)
Taryn Wander'r: Thanks, glad you're still enjoying it :D
FriedBrickWall: Ah...you'll find out about Tails' shopping in good time ;)
Poridet: (blushes again) Wow...thanks :D Well-planned...erm...well, I'm glad you think so at any rate ;) As for what Sonic would think...hmm...probably brain seizure at his age in this fic and 'Wow, COOL' at his age in my later fics :P I can see Knuckles demanding royalties for Sonic 3 though...
SonicRules12: Thanks :) Fearsome bite...much as Tails would probably like to think so, I think you read a little too much into that one :P It was hard enough to draw blood, but not hard enough to do any real damage. For the rest of it, Sonic was shocked (and that was mentioned in the previous chapter) but shocked doesn't mean the same thing as angry. And don't forget, he already knows what Tails is like and knows about his impulsiveness ;)
Asher Tye: Heh, yep, looks that way :P Glad you like the Sonic/Tails stuff too ;)
Lewisty: (blushes) Thanks...fingers crossed ;) Trouble is that sci-fi/fantasy is a very hard sell to publishers these days since they're only interested in big bucks (ie, stories that can easily be translated into movies with as little CGI as possible) but I still have hope :P
Kirby-Chan263: (grins) Thanks :P
Shadow-spawn180: (blushes) Thanks :D As for the rest...well, I replied privately to you on that score ;) And is this update soon enough for you:P
Flyboy-Fox: (happy smile) Thanks, glad you're enjoying it :P
Sonic-Addict: (Sonic: You're telling me!) Heh...yep, I think it hurt ;) As for the rest...wait and see :P
I wanna fly high: (grins) Thanks for the review; glad you like it :D
Matt Lans: Yeah, it does, doesn't it:D
Angelus2040: Thanks :) Sonic 3 with Sonic and Knuckles...to be honest I hadn't got that far. Maybe, maybe not...I'll work that out a little nearer the time ;)
Yayness: (blushes) Thanks, I'll try
Tydian: (blinks) Someone told you? Ah well, glad they were right and you're enjoying it :D
"Of all the cheap, worthless, lousy mail-order—!" Sonic's voice trailed off as he fumbled for more insults – or at least, insults that he wouldn't mind Tails repeating – and drew a blank, so he settled for kicking the Tornado as hard as he could.
Great. Now he had a sore foot to add to his troubles.
He'd been working hard on the plane for three full hours now, rewiring bits here, connecting and repairing bits there and when this failed to work, drop-kicking these same bits everywhere.
Tails, who had been walking around the beach for some time now (backwards and sideways as well as forwards) to admire the footprints his new sneakers made and on occasion just to admire his new sneakers, ducked as a metal component flew over his head and into the water with a kerplunk, then he broke into a run, racing around and around the cove in an ever narrowing spiral. He stopped on the fourth circuit, but only because he'd crashed into Sonic. The hedgehog, whose temper was already frayed into shreds, opened his mouth to make some stinging retort but Tails pre-empted him – perhaps intentionally – by throwing both arms around Sonic's neck and squeezing so tightly he cut off the hedgehog's air supply.
"Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou! You're the bestest bestest bestest hedgehog buddy a guy could ever ask for!"
Holding him off enough to breathe, Sonic quirked an eye ridge at him and said, "So I guess you like your new sneakers, huh?"
"Boy, do I ever!" Tails looked down at the red and white sneakers proudly. He'd wanted a pair exactly like Sonic's, but the store hadn't sold them (although if what he'd seen so far was anything to go by, Sonic thought sourly, it was probably only a matter of time) and so they'd had to make do with a more squarish design which had been the only style in red and white – Tails had been adamant that if he couldn't have the same style as Sonic, he was at least going to have the same colours – that fitted the fox. "You didn't have to buy me the socks too though."
"Trust me, kiddo, I did. Shoes without socks can be a little uncomfortable. And you're welcome."
Tails examined his fingers critically. "Jus' need the gloves now an' I'll be finished!"
"Gloves, huh?" Sonic smirked. "Well, if you don't mind second-hand—"
Tails giggled. "I already have a second hand, Sonic, you know that." He squinted at both his hands. "Though I dunno which one's my second one. Or do you mean like on a watch?"
Sonic shook his head wryly, mentally retuning his brain to Radio Tails. "I meant, if you don't mind gloves that someone's owned before you."
"But everyone's owned stuff before me," Tails said reasonably. "The guy in the shop owned these sneakers before you bought them—did I thank you for that?"
"Only about a zillion times," Sonic said lightly, grinning at the little fox.
"Oh...okay. But anyway, the guy in the shop owned my sneakers before you bought them, so they're a second hand too, right?"
"Well, he didn't own them exactly—"
"Huh?" Bewildered and slightly worried, Tails looked up at Sonic. "So how could he sell them if he didn't own them? Did he steal them?"
"No, kiddo, but...well..." Sonic abandoned this explanation and went for a simpler one instead. "Second-hand means something that someone's bought before."
Tails frowned perplexedly. "But he musta bought them from somewhere so's he could sell them. Or did he make them?"
"Yeah." Sonic seized this with a strong sense of relief. "Yeah, he probably did."
"Oh." Tails' frown deepened. "But he musta bought the stuff to make 'em with, so that means he bought the sneakers too, right?"
"It...no, it...well, buying the materials doesn't always equal buying the object."
"But if I bought a bun an' a packet of currants an' some glue an' stuck the currants on the bun to make myself a currant bun that'd be jus' the same as if I'd bought a currant bun in the firs' place, wouldn't it?"
Sonic abandoned this explanation as well, settling for saying, "Getting back to the subject of gloves—"
"Yeah?" Tails looked up at him eagerly and Sonic vanished into the cockpit for a few minutes before pulling out a pair of his old ones. They no longer fitted him as well as they had before – Sonic liked his gloves roomy – but they'd do for Tails.
"Here."
Tails stared at them as though they were a priceless set of jewels, then looked up at Sonic again.
"Are these the ones you were wearing when you whumped Robotnik?"
Sonic, who wished that Tails wouldn't keep referring to the incidents between him and Robotnik in such enthusiastic tones, winked.
"They may very well be."
"Cool!" Tails pulled them on, stood up and then crumpled in disappointment as both gloves slithered neatly off his hands and onto the sand. Sonic shook his head.
"I don't know. What am I gonna do with you, kiddo?" Leaping into the cockpit, he rummaged around for a few minutes before retrieving a pair of black straps, a memento of his first pair of sneakers. Jumping down to land neatly next to Tails again, he helped the fox on with his gloves and fastened them in place with the straps.
"How's that?" he asked.
Tails wiggled his hands experimentally and beamed as the gloves stayed firmly in place.
"Great!"
"Good." Feeling embarrassed by the naked adoration in the fox's gaze, Sonic ducked into the plane again rather hastily and resumed tinkering. This time when he touched the wires together, the engine coughed into life. Emerging again, Sonic jammed his hands on his hips and glowered at it. "Oh sure, now it works! Where were you when I was a couple thousand feet up, huh?"
Actually, the engine was far from perfect; there was still that annoying clunk in the background. Well, he didn't plan on going far with it, just far enough to get the hell off Westside Island. One single-handed battle against Robotnik had been one too many, and he didn't fancy taking the doctor on a second time.
And he was taking Tails with him. He should be able to find some family far away from Westside Island who'd take the little fox in; Sonic had no intentions of keeping the kid with him permanently, but he couldn't very well leave him to Robotnik's tender mercies.
A small hand snuck into Sonic's and Tails pulled the hedgehog's arm around his shoulders, leaning against Sonic's leg trustingly and closing his eyes.
"You should get some rest," Sonic told Tails, who shrugged.
"'M okay."
"You can barely keep your eyes open, kiddo. Go on, go to sleep."
Tails dragged his eyes open to look into the sizeable hole in the side of the Tornado that Sonic had excavated in an attempt to repair.
"C'n I try fixing it?" the fox asked.
The words Not a chance screamed up Sonic's throat, then evaporated. What the hell; Tails could hardly make it worse.
"Okay. But be careful."
Tails looked at Sonic's toolkit, and the hedgehog was amused to see the little fox pretending to consider the best tool with a suitable air of gravity, then he picked up a spanner and crawled into the hole.
Instead of the banging (and occasional profanity) that had come from the hole when Sonic had been working on it, this time there was only the sound of screws being either tightened or loosened and other things being tapped. Eventually Tails reached up to the wires Sonic had been using to test the engine and sparked them together. This time the engine purred into life as though it had just left the shop.
Sonic stared slack-jawed as Tails emerged, put the spanner in the hedgehog's unresisting hand and clambered up to crawl back to the passenger seat.
"Hold up," Sonic said suddenly and scrambled after him, sitting back on the wing. "What...how...what'd you do?"
A shrug.
"You fixed it?"
Tails shrugged again, then nodded.
"How'd..." Sonic shook his head. "Who taught you how to fix machinery like that?"
Another shrug.
"What, you just look at it and do it?"
Nod.
"That's amazing!"
Shrug. Huge yawn.
The hedgehog shook his head again, picking up the blanket Tails had fallen in love with and which Sonic was already resigned to losing permanently to the little fox. "C'mon. Let's get you to sleep."
"Not sleepy," Tails protested, around another huge yawn.
"Uh huh. Right. Go on, squirt, get some rest. I won't go anywhere without you."
"Not gonna sleep," Tails mumbled, although he was already halfway gone and didn't even notice when Sonic left.
The hiss of a welding torch woke the fox just before dawn and he peered over the edge to see Sonic there, busy reattaching the Tornado's body part to the plane. Sensing the fox's eyes, he glanced up and smiled briefly, then returned to his work.
Leaping over the edge of the plane and flying to the ground, Tails came to watch Sonic curiously.
"What're you doing?"
"Trying to fix this so we can leave," Sonic said a little curtly – the repairs had been giving him hell and at one point he'd seriously considered waking Tails up to help – then glanced down at Tails. "I thought you were asleep."
"I was but now I'm not." Tails hopped from one foot to the other, trying to get some warmth into his muscles. "Are you gonna go whump ol' Robotnik in your plane?" he asked eagerly.
"No I'm not," Sonic snapped. "I'm going to take my plane and get as far away from ol' Robotnik as I possibly can!"
Tails deflated rapidly and stopped hopping, staring at Sonic with huge eyes.
"B-but...you're Sonic the hedgehog! You gotta whump Robotnik, it's what you do. You done it ever since he first showed up. Where'd he come from anyway, Sonic?"
"No idea," Sonic lied, after a second's hesitation.
"You can't go, Sonic!" Tails leapt down to stand between Sonic and the Tornado, arms outstretched very much in the manner of Horatius defending the bridge. "You can't go an' 'bandon everyone here to Robotnik! You can't 'bandon me, Sonic! I thought we were friends!"
"We are friends—"
"Nuh uh! Friends don't walk out on friends!"
Sonic hesitated, then sighed and dropped to one knee, putting himself on an eye level with the little fox. "Kiddo, I'm not abandoning you. I was gonna take you with me, if you wanted to come."
Temptation flickered across Tails' face before he said stubbornly, "On'y if you're gonna go whump Robotnik."
"Stop saying that!" Sonic surged to his feet and whirled, pacing the sand so fast he stirred up clouds of it and only stopped when Tails started to cough violently.
"You gotta," the fox said again as soon as he could speak. "It's what you do. I know he'll prob'ly have learned from last time an' built bigger an' worser robots an' prob'ly put loads more traps in—"
"So not helping," Sonic informed him through clenched teeth.
"—but I know you can beat him jus' like you did before, Sonic. An' I'll be with you to help—"
That got Sonic's attention. "No! No, no, no, no, no! I'll take you off Westside Island, Tails, I'll get you out of this mess, sure. But I am not going into another war against Robotnik and if I was, I wouldn't take you with me."
Tails' ears drooped. "But I thought you liked me, Sonic."
"I do like you, Tails. I like you a lot, and that's why I'm not going to put you in danger."
"I won't be in danger. I'll be with you. 'Sides, I know this Zone real well, Sonic, so if ol' Robotnik tries to find us, we c'n hide from him easy. I got my secret place."
"Unless it's in another dimension, kiddo, I doubt it'd work." Sonic considered, his mention of another dimension sparking something in his mind. Maybe the Special Zone...no. No, it had damn near driven him nuts the last times he'd visited. He didn't much like the idea of taking Tails with him.
"You haven't seen it," Tails retorted, then suddenly brightened. "Hey, yeah, you haven't seen it! C'mon, I'll show you!" He grabbed Sonic's hand and started tugging him along.
"Tails." Sonic caught hold of the fox and lifted him bodily into the air. "Tails, we don't have time. We have to get out and clear now, before it's too late."
"We can be clear in my secret place, Sonic." Tails managed to wriggle free and raced off down the beach.
Swearing under his breath, wondering how the hell he'd managed to wind up with a shadow like Tails, the hedgehog took off after him.
It took even Sonic a few minutes to find Tails, largely because the thick forest reduced his speed drastically and also because Tails tended to squirm through tunnels too small for the hedgehog to follow. By the time he'd caught up, Tails was standing in front of a sheer cliff covered in vines.
"You made it! C'mon!" Before Sonic had time to react Tails had grabbed his arm, looped it over his shoulders and taken off, flying up the cliff face with him. Hovering in front of a particularly thick cluster of vines, he pulled them apart to reveal a niche in the rock. "Ta da!"
"That's your secret place?"
"Uh huh. I sleep here when the cave's all freezed up."
Sonic stared. "Suppose you roll off?"
"Uh..." Tails scratched his head. "I always been lucky so far. 'Sides, I'd rather roll off than have ev'ryone come waking me up all the time. It gets kinda cold at times but I'm furry so I'm okay."
Sonic glanced at him, noticing that the little fox was panting rather alarmingly. "Tails, c'mon, let's land before you drop me."
"I'm not gonna drop you!"
"No, but you can't keep me up here for much longer. I'm too heavy."
"You're not heavy, Sonic. You're jus' right. See?" In an effort to prove how heavy Sonic wasn't, he started flying higher, then darting around in all directions...or trying to, anyway. Taking one turn a little too fast, he accidentally slid out from under Sonic, dropping him the ten feet to the ground and – unexpectedly freed from the hedgehog's weight – rocketed up into the sky and almost collided with a tree. Flipping over in midair, he zoomed down to ground level, landing next to the now prostrate Sonic.
"Sonic! Sonic, are you okay? Sonic, please be okay, don't be dead, Sonic. Sonic, please jus' tell me if you're dead or not. Are you dead?"
The hedgehog shifted, mumbled something around a mouthful of earth.
"Was that a yes or a no?" Tails asked.
Sonic sat up groggily. "Anyone get the truck of that hit that numbered me?"
"What?" Tails dropped to his knees next to Sonic. "Sonic, are you dead? Did I kill you?"
Sonic rubbed the back of his head. "No. Did you want to?"
"Nuh uh!" Tails bounced up and then bounced down again, this time on top of Sonic, knocking him flying. "Pounce attack!"
Sonic, whose arms had gone around the fox more for balance than anything else, rolled over with Tails squealing in delight, then caught hold of him and proceeded to—
"Hey!" Tails wriggled out of Sonic's hold. "No fair noogies, Sonic! No fair giving noogies to a nunar...an armun...a...someone who's not armed!"
"And no fair dropping hedgehogs that don't have wings either," Sonic retorted, albeit with a grin.
"I didn't drop you! You musta let go!"
"Did I? Alright then." Sonic looked back up to Tails' 'secret place'. "So how'd you come across that, anyway?"
"I found it when I was playing with my rock."
"Your rock?"
"Yeah. 'Cause, see, I could never build a ball but I found a nice rock that was almost round an' so I used to play with that instead. I threw it real hard an' it didn't fall so I flew up to see why an' found it."
"And it became your secret place, did it?"
"Yup! An' nobody knows it's there 'cept for me!" Tails paused. "Well...an' you, I guess, but you won't tell anyone, will you? Huh Sonic? You won't tell anyone, right?"
"Who, me? Nah." Sonic grinned down at Tails. "Don't you worry, lil buddy; I can keep a secret." Reaching down, he took the little fox's hand. "Let's go finish the plane, huh?"
Tails' ears perked. "Yeah! An' I can finish it with you, right Sonic?"
"Sure," Sonic said easily. "C'mon."
They started down a winding path that would eventually lead them onto the beach. When they were about a hundred yards away, Tails stopped.
"Uh. Sonic?"
"Yeah?"
"Not that I don't like you, 'cause I do..."
"Right..."
"'S jus'...well...I'm a big kid, right?"
"You say so."
"Yeah, an'...well, 'sokay back in the cave or in my secret place or by your plane but people c'n see on the beach an'...an' big kids don't hold hands, Sonic."
Sonic grinned broadly. "Oh, they don't, huh?" He shook his head. "Okay. Far be it from me to embarrass you." He let go and Tails raced happily ahead, doubling back every now and then to make sure Sonic was still following before collapsing onto an empty patch of hot sand with a contented sigh. A few seconds later, Sonic joined him.
"We gonna go after Robotnik?" Tails asked sleepily.
"No," Sonic said irritably; Tails had been asking the same question every five minutes since the Tornado had been fixed.
"Then what we gonna do? If you're not gonna fight Robotnik, what're we gonna do?"
"I fought Robotnik once, Tails, and once was more than enough. I'm in no hurry for a rematch, and neither would you be if you knew what it was really like. As for what we're going to do, we're going to get the hell off Westside Island, and get you somewhere where you'll be safe."
"Lemme ask you something," Tails said, sitting up to fix Sonic with a look. "Am I gonna be safer all on my own or with Mobius' national hero?"
"Stop calling me that! I'm nobody's hero, Tails; I'm—" Sonic broke off abruptly. He couldn't bring himself to tell Tails the truth about him and Robotnik, not because he was too concerned about his own reputation (although admittedly that did have something to do with it) but because something told him Tails would take the truth as a personal betrayal, and the poor kid had already had too much pain in his short lifespan.
"You are so," Tails said, apparently mistaking Sonic's reaction for modesty. "You're the hero of Mobius. I read it in a paper."
Sonic glanced at him. "I didn't think you could read," he said, then saw the fox's expression and realised that Tails might take this the wrong way. "No, I didn't mean it like that. I meant, well, not many four year olds can read," he finished, somewhat lamely. "At least, not much."
Tails, misinterpreting this as a compliment (although Sonic hadn't meant it that way either) beamed.
"'S true! Watch!" He extracted a piece of paper that had been worn down to the consistency and fragility of tissue, then cleared his throat. "Pow, bam, kersplat, take that," he intoned, with all the solemnity of one reading in church. Sonic laughed.
"Alright, I believe you."
"Please, Sonic, have merk...mers...mercy 'pon me," Tails continued. No longer smiling, Sonic stared.
"What?"
"You don't d'serve to live you fat bag of—hey!" Tails' recital turned into a wail of dismay as Sonic grabbed the page roughly enough to tear it almost in half and stared, scanning the contents. "So-nic! That was my on'y comic book page!"
"This is..." Sonic shook his head. "Dammit all to hell, Tails, that was a war! War isn't about entertainment! It's not supposed to be fun! They've taken what went on and cheapened it to make themselves a quick Mobium." He frowned, scrutinising the page more carefully. "And please tell me my head isn't really twice the size of my body!"
"Your head isn't really twice the size of your body," Tails said obligingly. "C'n I have it back now before you rip it some more?" There was no obvious accusation in the words, but Sonic still flinched.
"Yeah, kiddo. Okay. I'm sorry, you just...you surprised me." He handed it back to Tails, who tried to repair the best of the damage and failed, turning a miserable look on Sonic.
"You wrecked it."
"Yeah," Sonic said again. "I'm sorry; I just...never mind." He shook his head. "Tails, is there anything I haven't been turned into?"
"Uh..." Tails screwed up his face in concentration. "A TV show?"
"Well, thank goodness for small favours."
"Yeah. There's gonna be a movie though! Sonic, I don't get it. Loadsa people would love to be in a movie an' be heroes like you. So how come you don't like it?"
"Because...because...I just don't, alright? And I don't want to come face to face with Robotnik again."
"Yeah?" Tails scratched his head. "Does he know you're here then? Or is he jus' here to try an' lick his wounds an' you happened to be here at the same time as what he is?"
"I..." Sonic frowned. That was a damn good question; had Robotnik come here to finish what they'd started in Green Hill Zone or had he just turned up here at random? "I don't know," he admitted, "but whichever it is, I don't like it. I don't like the fact he's here, I don't like the fact he's here with robots and I really don't like the fact that most of those robots are ones I've never seen before."
"Like that one?" Tails asked, pointing. Sonic whirled to see a crab-shaped bot waddling sideways towards them and tensed.
"No. I've fought those before; you just jump on them and they'll explode."
"Yeah?" Tails looked at the robot curiously, then broke into a run. "Pounce attack!"
Sonic whirled. "Tails, no!"
Too late. The fox had already leapt into the air and landed squarely on the robot, hard enough to shatter its protective casing and free the animal inside.
Sonic was at his side in an instant. "Tails, are you okay?"
"Sure I'm okay, Sonic. Why wouldn't I be?" Tails looked better than okay; he was jittering on the spot as though he'd overdosed on coffee. "I smashed a bot! Didja see? I whumped one a ol' Robotnik's bots all by myself! I jus' pounce attacked it an' it went thoom! How come you don't go thoom when I pounce attack you, Sonic?"
Sonic stared at Tails. "You..." he began weakly.
"I did it, Sonic!" Tails fixed a starry-eyed look on the hedgehog. "I did it! Didja see me?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I saw." Sonic forced himself to grin. "You did pretty good, for a beginner."
"Thanks! Can we go whump some more?"
"No!" Sonic said stridently, then, "I mean, uh, no. Tails, we have to get out of here."
"You mean so's we can go whump Robotnik?"
"No, I mean..." Sonic gave up. "Yeah," he lied instead.
"Okay! C'mon!" Tails grabbed Sonic and started pulling him into the forest.
The journey through Emerald Hill Zone was surprisingly uneventful, much to Tails' disappointment, although there were a few bots to smash, something Sonic felt he wouldn't mind so much if Tails didn't insist on keeping a running total.
"So that's one monkey thing for you an' none for me, three buzz bombers for me an' one for you an' I smashed that crabby thing...does that count?"
"What? Yeah, if you want," Sonic said shortly. He was in a somewhat tense frame of mind, and not least because he was losing four to one at what he perceived as his own game.
Not that bot-smashing was a game, of course. But even so...Tails wouldn't be so far ahead if those two buzz bombers hadn't arrived in such a convenient formation! Sonic had made up his mind to go for them when Tails had raced in, bounced off one onto the other and claimed both victories for himself.
The hedgehog shook himself inwardly, furious.
This isn't a game, dammit! You're going into a battle, and going in all cocky and arrogant is a damn good way to get yourself killed! Snap out of it!
"Sonic?" Tails said. "Sonic, what's that?"
Glad of a diversion, the hedgehog followed the fox's pointing finger to a post with a star on top and shuddered.
"It's a Star Post."
"What's a Star Post? An' what happens if I do this to it?"
Before Sonic had a chance to answer, Tails had taken off and reached out with one small fist to bop the Star Post as hard as he could, sending the top half in a complete revolution. There was a sound like someone tearing velvet and a ring of stars appeared above the Post. Inside was what looked like a black tunnel through rings of golden light.
Sonic groaned. He'd suspected all along it would come to this, if Robotnik was back.
"Hold on." He jumped, and only really remembered he should have ordered Tails to stay back when the fox leapt after him and collided with Sonic, sending him ricocheting off two separate walls. There was a sensation of powerful wind, almost tornado force, and the pair of them were sucked (blown? Sonic didn't know how to describe it other than it was fast and far too strong to even think of resisting) until the rings became a blur.
"What is this place?" Tails yelped over the rushing wind.
"The Special Zone," Sonic shouted back. "Hang on; it's gonna get rougher!"
Tails seized Sonic's arm tightly, squeezing his eyes shut as the warp abruptly ended, depositing them squarely in what looked like a tube.
"Sonic, what's this? What—" Tails yelped in surprise as his feet were carried forward.
"Just go with it," Sonic told him. "Go with it, and collect as many rings as you can!"
Why, Tails started to ask, but at that minute he caught sight of a row of rings on the inside and raced towards them, his natural velocity increased by the tube's movement. The rings dissolved the instant he touched them and he felt a sudden rush of warmth and happiness that seemed unconnected to anything on the outside.
Sonic, gathering himself for a jump to reach those rings on the ceiling, was considerably surprised when Tails picked that moment to wrap him in a tight hug, gazing up at him affectionately.
"Tails, what—oh." Memory of the first time he'd grabbed rings came to Sonic's rescue and he grinned down at the little cub. "Tails, try and keep a hold of yourself, okay? Don't give into the rings' influence, not yet."
Tails wriggled closer, knocking Sonic off balance and into one of the walls. The strange gravity in the Special Zone asserted itself and the pair of them stayed upright and – more through coincidence than anything – ploughed through another row of rings, something Sonic regretted as Tails squeezed him tightly. The rings made you feel wonderful inside, Sonic reflected, all warm and loving, but sometimes that wasn't a good thing.
"Tails, we gotta get more rings."
Tails continued gazing up at the hedgehog. "I love you, Sonic. You know that, right? You're like...like a big brother. I always wanted a big brother an' I think the star sent me you to be him."
"Yeah, Tails, that's great, but we gotta get enough rings to—"
"An' you love me too, right?"
"What?" Knocked off balance again, this time mentally, Sonic floundered. "Well...sure, I like you a lot, Tails, but I'll like you a lot more if you let go and help me collect rings and don't play the lost waif card until we're out, okay?"
"Okay!" Tails raced off, grabbing another handful of rings.
Sonic had no idea how many they grabbed in the end. One hundred? One hundred and fifty? It didn't matter; at the end they managed to reach the Chaos Emerald, which was all Sonic cared about. Grabbing it before it had a chance to vanish, the next thing either of them felt was a sudden rush of wind and they reappeared next to the same Star Post they'd just left.
"Wow." Tails barely breathed the word. "What was that?"
"Special Zone," Sonic said, gasping for breath; he'd tried to save Tails from numerous bombs and succeeded only to get hit himself. "It changes every time you go there. I stashed the Chaos Emeralds there in case Robotnik ever fancied getting hold of them." He looked at the light blue gem he was holding with a certain amount of satisfaction. "Well, he won't get this one."
"C'n I hold it?"
"Sure." Sonic passed the Emerald over to Tails, who sniffed it curiously before handing it back.
"Um. Sonic?"
"Yeah?"
"I...I kinda said some dumb stuff in there, huh?" Tails shuffled his feet embarrassedly. "Sorry."
"Tails..." Sonic reached over and pulled the little fox to him in a hug. "Tails, the rings sometimes make people say or do strange things. It's not just you, kiddo."
"Yeah, but your sidekick's gotta be cool an' collected an'...an'..." Tails racked his brains for something else beginning with C, failed and settled for repeating, "cool. Yeah. He shouldn't grab you an'...an' say dumb stuff."
Sonic raised his eye ridges. "Now I have a sidekick?"
Tails flattened his ears. Oh boy. Why couldn't he stop saying exactly what he was thinking or hoping whenever Sonic was around? His private fantasy of being Sonic's sidekick and saving the hedgehog against all odds was something he hadn't wanted made public.
"Well...kinda...'cause you...well, you need someone to take you to the next Zone, right? An' through it an' onto the next an' the next 'til you whump ol' Robotnik for good."
Sonic looked down at the shyly eager fox and grinned. "Well...I guess I do need a guide."
"Cool!" Tails buried the hedgehog in a hug, then coloured and jerked away. "Uh...sorry. Guess it must be the rings again."
"I guess it must be," Sonic said, still grinning. He'd secretly been vastly touched by Tails' declarations in the Special Zone, and it took a stern inner voice to remind him not to take it as it was meant; too many rings and Sonic himself would probably have declared his love for Robotnik.
"Hey Sonic?" Tails said, as they started walking again.
"Yeah?"
Tails ducked his head shyly. "You think that...mebbe one day they'll make toys an' video games an' movies with me in?"
Sonic glanced down at him, then ruffled the fur between his ears with a grin. "Why not?"
"You think? Honest?"
Now Sonic laughed, not unkindly. "I'll tell you what, Tails. If I get any say in future merchandise, I'll make sure you're in it, okay?"
"Okay!"
"Great. So which way now?"
"Well..." Tails' ears flattened. "We're getting towards the end of the Zone, Sonic, so I guess outta Emerald Hill Zone an' into...into..." he took a wild guess— "into Mystic Cave Zone!"
The end of the Zone. Why did that send a shiver down Sonic's spine?
He got his answer a few seconds later. A rumbling noise, one he realised he'd been hearing all along, came from one of the bushes and Tails started forward eagerly.
"No!" Sonic grabbed the fox and yanked him back, almost off his feet. That was what had been bugging him all this time. The end of the Zone...Robotnik liked to lie in wait at the end of the Zone, didn't he?
"Tails! Tails, get out the way!" Sonic said stridently.
Tails wasn't listening. He was too busy staring at what was emerging.
"What's that?"
"I..." Sonic wasn't sure. It looked like a drilling truck, albeit one with a circular hole in the centre. "Tails, get out of here now!"
"But this truck is really cool, Sonic—"
"Now!"
Tails considered disobeying for a second, then caught sight of the hedgehog's expression and changed his mind. Whirring both tails, he flew up into the relative shelter of a palm tree.
Sonic waited edgily, not sure what was going to happen. At the moment the truck was just sitting there, not doing anything...what was Robotnik playing at?
He got his answer a second later, when Tails suddenly yelped, "Sonic!" Looking up, Sonic saw a familiar flying machine – albeit one with a giant propeller on top which was a new addition – descend and lock into place in the central hole on the truck.
From inside, Robotnik fixed Sonic with a predatory grin that was laced through with anticipation.
"Long time no see, Sonic. Miss me?"
Without waiting for a reply, he threw the truck into first gear and roared towards Sonic, who leapt reflexively into the air. Executing a perfect one hundred and eighty degree turn, Robotnik laughed.
"You can't do that forever, Sonic, and I think that your body will wear out before my Eggscavator does." He drove forward, but Sonic was ready this time and dodged easily.
"Incidentally," Robotnik continued as though nothing had happened, "what do you think of the name? I chose it especially with you in mind."
From his vantage point, Tails saw Sonic falter, saw Robotnik smirking in triumph and leapt out of the tree, landing squarely on the Eggscavator with as much force as he could. The engine faltered, then cut out completely.
"What...?" Startled, no longer smirking, Robotnik turned the key furiously and Tails took advantage of his distraction to grab Sonic.
"Sonic, you can last longer'n him! He's burning the truck in first 'cause that's how he gets the accesso...alecera...that's how he goes so fast, but he can't keep doing it forever! You got him beat, Sonic, you jus' gotta keep dodging him an' whump him occasionally! Like this!" Turning, Tails raced back to the truck – which Robotnik had just got started again – and slammed down onto the hood again, knocking the engine out for a second time.
"You little—" Robotnik made a grab for Tails, but the fox was already in midair.
"Nyah, ol' Robotnik can't catch me!" Turning his head, he added in a stage whisper. "C'mon Sonic, whump him; I can't keep him busy forever."
Sonic looked somewhat dazed, as though he didn't quite grasp what was happening...an attitude that Robotnik might well have sympathised with, had he been capable of such things. Yelping in exasperation, Tails added, "C'mon Sonic, like this!"
Stilling his tails, he dropped like a stone onto the truck. He'd bounced off it four consecutive times before Robotnik managed to get out of the fox's way, only to run straight into another far deadlier attack from Sonic. Driving away, the engine now making a noise not dissimilar to that of the Tornado when it had first crashed on Westside Island, Robotnik reached under the dashboard, preparing to play the last card in his hand.
A soft click, barely audible above the clattering of the engine, warned Sonic who leapt straight up into the air as the drill bit was propelled underneath him. Behind, he heard Tails yelp loudly and felt his blood run cold.
Not him. Please, not Tails.
He looked down at the apex of his jump, straight into Robotnik's sneer and narrowed his eyes. Fine. If that was how the doctor wanted to play it, Sonic wasn't about to argue.
Spinning over and over, he dropped down hard, burrowing through metal and gears until the unmistakable sound of an explosion caused him to leap free, instinctively looking for Tails.
Something small and furry cannoned into him, seizing him under the arms and hauling him away from the damaged vehicle. In his wound up state, Sonic came within about a millimeter of kicking himself free and spindashing Tails to pieces, but at that point the fox's grip slipped and Sonic fell to the ground just in time to see Robotnik abandon the wrecked truck and take off in his flyer.
The hedgehog stared for a few seconds. "No. No, no, no!" He raced forward, leaping into the air in an attempt to finish Robotnik once and for all, but the flyer was already out of reach. Sonic swore viciously, then turned. "Tails! Tails, get over here! I need a lift!"
"Huh?" Startled, Tails looked up from where he'd been examining the truck curiously. "What?"
"Just—" Sonic dashed over to him and grabbed the fox's arm, looping it over his shoulders. "Fly! I need height!"
"Oh. Okay." Tails took off, beating both namesakes gamely, but even the casual observer could see that the little fox was nowhere near fast enough to catch up with Robotnik.
Seeing the doctor pulling away, Sonic cursed again. "C'mon kid, move it!"
"I'm trying!" Tails managed to get out around gasping for breath. "Sonic...I'm real sorry but I can't go any faster!"
Sonic opened his mouth to snap that Tails would damn well have to, but at that point the fox suddenly yelped and dropped like a stone, sending them both rolling over as Robotnik accelerated away over the trees.
A whimpering noise slid into Sonic's consciousness, and it took a good couple of seconds before he realised it was coming from Tails, who was clutching at one of his namesakes.
"Tails?"
The little fox gave him a pain filled glance, then returned to holding the affected tail.
"C'mon lil buddy, let me see." Sonic reached out and started massaging hard. Eventually the muscles loosened and Tails slumped back in relief.
"Sorry Sonic. Real sorry. I wanted to help but...but..."
"No, I'm sorry, kiddo. I shouldn't have lost it like that. I just thought we'd beaten Robotnik for good, and then I thought we still could if we moved fast enough—"
"But we didn't." Tails looked down at his namesakes morosely, playing with them. "I messed up, huh Sonic? I'm sorry, honest I am. I wanted to help you."
Sonic reached out and put a hand on Tails' shoulder. "And you did. You helped me out big time. Are you okay? The drill didn't hit you?"
Tails shook his head. "Uh uh. I was jus' scared 'cause I thought it was gonna hit you. Sonic, are you mad at me 'cause I couldn't get you to Robotnik?"
"Of course I'm not mad at you Tails. It's just..." Sonic hesitated.
Tails curled up into a tight ball of misery. This was it. This was where Sonic said, it's just I can't take you or something like that. Well, at least it wasn't 'cause Sonic didn't like him. Or...was it? Sonic must've really wanted to whump Robotnik for good, and Tails had messed that up for him.
"I'm sorry Sonic."
"Tails, it's okay." Tails felt Sonic slide an arm around his shoulders and hug him. "It wasn't your fault."
"Was too." Tails uncurled enough to pick up a rock and throw it at the dumb truck that had distracted him, and he was only slightly disappointed when the rock didn't burrow through the metal like Sonic had done, but instead ricocheted off and hit him on the ear. He felt a quiver running through Sonic's arm and looked away. "'Sokay, you c'n laugh at me. Everyone else is gonna."
"You helped me beat Robotnik, Tails. You helped me in the Special Zone. I couldn't have collected enough rings without your help. And you helped get me out the way of Robotnik's truck when it went up."
"An' dropped you," Tails mumbled, refusing to be consoled.
A grin appeared on Sonic's face. "Maybe I just let go. Maybe I liked plummeting ten feet back in the forest so much I decided to do it again."
Tails let out a small giggle. "Mebbe your arm stopped working like my tails."
"I'm not sure my arm's ever worked like your tails, Tails." This prompted another, louder giggle from the little fox and Sonic's grin broadened. "Then again, I've never tried whirling my arms around behind my butt and trying to fly with them. Maybe I should sometime, see if it works."
Tails giggled again. "You're funny, Sonic."
"Oh, I am, huh?" Catching hold of Tails, Sonic proceeded to tickle him until the fox shrieked for mercy, breathless with laughter.
"You take it back?" Sonic asked, a twinkle in his eyes.
"No!" Tails answered, pouncing on the hedgehog and attempting to tickle in retaliation. Wriggling out of the fox's determined grip long enough to get clear, Sonic curled up into a ball and waited.
He heard footsteps pad up next to him followed by someone tugging at his arm in an effort to uncurl him. Granted uncurling was a tempting prospect – something non-hedgehogs failed to take into account was that every time you curled up like this you ended up with your nose pressed firmly into your own groin – but Sonic wasn't that stupid.
He felt Tails pushing and prodding around him, trying to find a weak spot, and grinned to himself. There was no way that little fox could get inside.
Tails stopped shoving Sonic and backed up a few steps. Sonic could almost see the little fox's expression and the thought made his grin broaden. Ten to one the kid would say something now...
Someone gave him a hard shove from behind. Taken by surprise, not to mention various physical laws, Sonic rolled along the ground at a surprisingly fast pace until he hit something solid and unyielding and uncurled automatically.
"Gotcha!" Tails pounced on top of Sonic, pinning him against the object, then his jaw dropped and he backed off. "Wow. What's that, Sonic?"
Sonic looked around at the metallic hump with a plunger on top and took a deep breath.
"It's one of Robotnik's prisons. It's where he keeps people before he roboticises them. Hold on; one good jump on that plunger'll let 'em out." He crouched down and got ready, eyeing the distance.
"Sonic!" Tails caught hold of Sonic's arm. "Sonic, lemme do it. Please. If I save them, mebbe then they'll lemme play with 'em."
Sonic doubted that, but for Tails' sake, he hoped it was true.
What the hell. Maybe the kid's right. Maybe they'll take him in and I can go and not worry about him anymore. A battlefield's no place for a little kid.
"Okay," he said aloud.
Tails yipped with delight and scampered over, whirring both namesakes for lift and landing squarely on top of the plunger.
The delighted look slid off the fox's face as the prison started to shudder underneath him. Sonic, who had ample experiences of Robotnik's prisons, said, "You might wanna hop off right about now."
Tails hopped off obligingly and with such alacrity that he almost flattened the hedgehog, who got out the way just in time as a crack appeared in the top of the prison, one which spread rapidly until the metal shattered under the strain.
Most of the Emerald Hill Zone residents who hadn't either escaped or been roboticised emerged, looking around in a dazed fashion. One of them, Caud, caught sight of Tails and curled his lip.
"Hey guys, check it out. Never seen the two tailed freak in this area before. Don't tell me someone's breeding little runts like him."
"I bet you've never seen a blue hedgehog in this area before either," Sonic said before Tails had a chance to answer. "Are you going to call me a freak as well?"
Caud shifted his weight, not wanting to pick a fight with someone like Sonic. "Well...you're Sonic the hedgehog, aren't you? You saved Mobius, so no, you're no freak."
"So if Tails had been the one to save Mobius and I'd grown up here, I'd be the freak, is that right?"
"Duh," the jackal next to him sneered.
Sonic glanced at him. "Well, at least someone's honest about these things."
Tails jammed both small paws on his hips and glowered at the others. "Yeah! An' you're all welcome! Me an' Sonic didn't have to save any of you. An' you can all just...just..." He reached inside himself for the worst, the very worst retort he knew. "You can all jus' piss off an' die 'cause I'm going with Sonic! Right Sonic?"
How? Sonic thought wretchedly. Oh man, how can I turn him away after that? He'd never trust anyone again.
"You bet," he said aloud. "C'mon lil buddy. Let's leave these guys to get on with their little lives. What's the nearest Zone from here?"
"Uh." Tails scratched his head, frowning. "I think Hill Top. Or Chemical Plant. Or mebbe Oil Ocean."
Sonic raised his eye ridges. "You don't know, do you?"
"Well...I never been outside Emerald Hill before. I always jus' stayed in my cave." Tails' ears suddenly perked bolt upright. "The cave!"
"What about it?"
Tails scuffed a toe on the ground. "Sonic? Sonic, c'n we go get my toy before we leave? Please?"
The jackal snorted. "He's still playing with toys? How pathetic can you get?"
Sonic whirled. "Oh, I don't know. Seems to me you do exactly the same thing. The only difference is that your toy has feelings." He moved to stand beside Tails in a protective fashion.
"He's a freak and a semi-feral one at that."
"If I hear that word once more," Sonic said acidly, "I'm going to start getting really mad." He'd already figured out the semi-feral part when Tails had bitten him, but if anyone had a right to go feral, it was the fox.
"Don't," Tails said worriedly. "They—" He glanced around at the gang, then stretched up on tiptoe and pulled Sonic's head down to whisper in his ear. "If you do that, they're never gonna wanna be friends with me."
"Friends with you?" That was the jackal again, and Tails yipped in surprise, wheeling around to stare at him. Looking at the size of the jackal's ears, Sonic supposed it wasn't surprising that Tails had been overheard. "You really thought...oh. Oh, how sweet. Let me give you a little advice, kid, something that might well stand you in good stead for the years to come. C'mere."
Willingly, Tails obeyed while Sonic eyed the jackal coldly.
"If you're planning to—"
"I'm not going to touch him," the jackal interrupted, smiling. There was something in that smile that Sonic didn't like, but he kept quiet. "Look, I'll even put my hands behind my back, see?" He did so, then crouched down to Tails' level. "C'mon kid, c'mere."
"You don't have to, Tails," Sonic said quietly. He didn't know why, but he didn't want Tails going near that jackal.
"'Sokay, Sonic; I wanna." Tails looked up at the jackal. "What?"
An enigmatic smile appeared on the other's face. "No, closer."
"Tails, don't!" Now Sonic's voice was sharp, understanding what was about to happen. Tails, reacting in the way of all four year olds when they hear something they don't want to – ie, having a sudden attack of deafness – padded up to the jackal until they were almost touching.
"That's it. Now, Tails, this is very important and something you need to remember for the rest of your life."
"Tails, get away from him," Sonic said.
"Don't mind Sonic; he's jealous because I'm about to tell you a secret he's never heard."
Tails' eyes opened wide in excitement and he edged closer, offering up an ear.
"What secret?" he said breathlessly.
"Alright." The jackal lowered his voice. "You ready?"
Tails nodded, hardly daring to breathe.
"Good." The jackal leaned in and barely breathed the words into Tails' ear. "Now listen closely, kid, because I'm only going to say this once." Taking a deep breath, he yelled at the top of his voice, "You're a damn freak!"
Tails yelped, partly in surprise and partly in pain as his ear flattened reflexively against his skull and he jerked away. A sly foot tripped him and he went sprawling on the ground, hitting both knees hard and biting back the yelp that exploded inside him.
Sonic dropped to the ground next to Tails, a protective hand on his shoulder as Caud and the jackal exchanged a high five.
"You okay, lil guy?" Sonic asked.
"Sure!" Tails said too heartily, then glanced at the gang and tried to laugh. "Yeah...that was a real good joke, guys...real good..."
His voice trailed off and he turned away hurriedly. Seeing his expression at that minute, Sonic found himself heartily wishing that he'd left Emerald Hill Zone to its fate.
"Tell you what, kiddo," he said softly. "Why don't you go on ahead and wait for me on the outskirts of the Zone? Because I'm gonna need you to show me the way to the next one."
Tails swallowed bravely, then glanced up at Sonic and managed a small smile followed by a nod.
"Yeah? Okay. Go on then. I'll see you in a minute."
"Sonic—"
"It's okay, kiddo. I'll come, I promise. I just got something to take care of first."
Tails hesitated, then turned and sped away, almost tripping again in his eagerness to escape.
"You just want a guide, Sonic, we can do that," Caud remarked.
"You," Sonic said, in a harsh tone quite different from the soothing words he'd spoken to Tails only a minute before, "have done enough already. I'm not going to give you all the kicking you deserve, because I'm not sure I could control myself. But I am going to make sure you think twice before picking on a four year old kid again." He snorted. "Six to one odds too. Is that really the way you like to play things?" Before any of them had a chance to answer, Sonic had rammed the jackal hard, sending him flying into the civet, the impact knocking both sprawling onto the ground. Standing over them, Sonic had to resist a strong urge to spit on their bodies. Man, that really was a slippery slope; knock someone down and everything whirled on from there.
"That's for everything you've done to him and anyone else who couldn't fight back," he said coldly. "I just want you to know that I'm leaving this screwed up Zone and I don't plan on coming back, mostly because of you and your gang. So if Robotnik sneaks back and takes this Zone again, feel free to try and tackle him yourselves, because I sure as hell won't help you again."
Turning, he sped away and didn't stop until he reached Tails, who was sitting on a fallen tree and swinging his legs in an effort to appear nonchalant.
"Hi Sonic!" Leaping off the trunk, Tails grabbed Sonic's hand. "C'mon! We're gonna go to...to Aquatic Ruin Zone, right?"
"Is that the next Zone?"
"Uh..." Tails frowned. "I think so. But we're gonna go find out together, right? Right?"
"You bet." Sonic held out a hand and Tails seized it tightly. "You wanna go get your toy first?"
Tails shook his head. "Nuh uh! I was...I was jus' kidding when I said that!" His ears drooped. "'Cause...'cause big kids don't play with toys, right Sonic? Mebbe it's time I outgrew them. In fact...yeah. Yeah, I think I've outgrew toys starting from...from now. Yeah."
Sonic put a hand on the little fox's shoulder. "Tails, don't listen to anything those guys said. You want your super-cool Sonic fighter ship, we can get it."
"Nuh uh! 'S a dumb toy an' I can make loads more toys!" Tails faltered briefly, then added, "Least...I could if I wanted them. An' I don't. Nope. No way. No more toys 'cause I'm a big kid an' I'm gonna go...go to a cold turkey. Sonic, why've I gotta go to a cold turkey?"
Sonic almost laughed, caught it just in time. "Going cold turkey, you mean?"
"That's what I said. Why've I gotta go to a cold turkey every time I give up something? Does the turkey tell you how to do it? 'Cause I don't know any turkeys, Sonic, 'cept for old Comb an' he moved to Hill Top Zone so he's prob'ly real warm right now." Tails looked downcast for a minute, then brightened. "You think if we took him into the mountains he'd get cold enough? Or we could always put him in a freezer. That'd make him cold, right?"
"Oh, Tails." Giving up the unequal struggle, Sonic sat down and laughed until his sides hurt. Finally managing to get some control over himself, he got to his feet, wiping his eyes. "Man, what am I gonna do with you?"
Tails shifted hesitantly, understanding there was no malice in Sonic's laughter but still not understanding. "Why're you laughing, Sonic?"
Sonic shook his head, still grinning broadly. "I'm sorry, kiddo. I wasn't laughing at you, at least, not in a bad way. C'mon." He slung a friendly arm around the fox's shoulders. "Let's go get your super cool Sonic fighter ship, huh?"
For a minute, Tails looked sorely tempted, then he shook his head. "Nuh uh. I told you I've outgrew toys. I don't need any dumb ship. Sonic, why aren't we taking the Tornado?"
"Because I want to conserve fuel," Sonic said, "and don't try changing the subject, Tails! Look me in the eyes and tell me honestly you don't want me to run back and get your toy."
"I don't wanna be a pain—"
"You're not being a pain, kiddo. Look at me."
Tails shifted his bright blue eyes to Sonic's jade ones, expecting to see scorn or challenge. Instead there was a sympathetic expression on the hedgehog's face, and Tails felt his determination start to waver.
"I...I..."
Oh, this was no good! He was a big kid now, wasn't he? Even Sonic had agreed with that, and the gang were right; big kids didn't play with toys.
"I don't wanna get the toy," he said almost inaudibly. He did want it, he wanted it so badly it hurt, but he wasn't going to do anything to jeopardise Sonic's good opinion of him. "I don't want it," he repeated, his voice cracking slightly.
Sonic continued to hold his gaze steadily. "You sure?"
Not trusting his voice, Tails swallowed once and nodded. Sonic frowned slightly.
"Tails, are you okay?"
"Yup! Sure I'm okay! Why wouldn't I be? We're going right now, huh Sonic? Right now?"
Sonic gave up. "Sure. Right now."
"Yeah!" Tails looked up at Sonic. It was a very good imitation of the fox's normal happy expression, and Sonic might well have been fooled if he didn't already know what the real thing looked like. If the eyes were the windows to the soul, then Tails' windows looked like they were cracked and about to shatter. "C'mon, Sonic! Race you to the next Zone!"
Inwardly wondering how the hell he was going to overcome this difficulty, Sonic grinned at the little fox. "You're on."
It wasn't bad either, he thought to himself as he hung just behind Tails. Going as slowly as this...you really did get to see more of the scenery, although he wasn't sure that was a good thing. Emerald Hill Zone was a sick Zone, a no-good Zone in Sonic's opinion; with the exception of Tails, that bear in the bar (oh, alright, and the food as well) the hedgehog had found nothing worthwhile in this place at all. He was glad to be leaving it behind.
He only wished he felt as happy about what he was likely to be walking into.
(wipes forehead) Phew! Okay, so that's Emerald Hill Zone done...next up is Chemical Plant Zone :D Hope you enjoyed this chapter and if you read, please review!