Maverick87: (blushes) Thanks :) I gotta admit I have a lot of fun doing the dialogue
D.C.111: Thanks :D 'Long' is a pretty good way of describing it :P And Sonic's conversation with Tails...yup, you got it :D
DragonRaiderX9: Me get point; me glad you like ;)
FriedBrickWall: Thanks :)
Taryn Wander'r: Thanks; glad you liked it :D
Asher Tye: Thanks :D Emerald Hill Zone...to be honest, I think the other Zones have their fair share of jerks too, only not ones stupid enough to pick on the guys who just saved them ;)
Poridet: (blushes) Thanks, glad you liked that part :P Sonic's psyche...heh, yeah. He still has a lot of emotional baggage left over from Sonic 1 ;)
Private somebody: (blushes again) Thanks :P I loved Tails' line in the volcano as well ;) Cliffhangers...this story isn't about cliffhangers. After you've saved an entire Zone and are about to move onto the next one, there's not much of a cliffhanger to be milked ;)
TC Chan: (grins) Thanks. Sonic in hospital...well, I figured that you couldn't stand in the middle of a grassfire without getting hurt somehow :P And I promise that once Sonic and Tails arrive in Metropolis Zone, you will get to find out exactly what happens in that publishing house ;)
Hawk's Soul: (goes red and scuffs toe on ground a la Tails) Wow…thanks :) I'm glad you liked it so much :D
Truten: Thanks :D Mighty the armadillo…actually, he's one of my favourite characters too. Rest assured he will be making another appearance later on in this fic ;)
TrueVulcanRaven: Thanks…I try my best :)
Sonic-Addict:D Thanks. Tails' bot-whumping...yeah, I think he's starting to realise that it's not all fun and games ;)
Lewisty: Thanks :D
Shadow-spawn180: Heh, thanks :P Tails' verbs...yeah, I have a lot of fun coming up with those ;) Glad you liked the battle scene as well :D
Professor Vengeance: (big grin) Thanks :D Writing Tails is something of a challenge for me; I've never tried doing a four year old before...I'm glad it's working ;)
Parslie: Thanks :D
Elizabeth the Bathog: Thanks, and I shall indeed continue :)
DragonUk: Heh, okay, here; it's updated :P (eyes drooling dog nervously)
"Sonic?"
"Yeah?"
Tails looked up from where he was playing with the toy dinosaurs one of the nurses had scrounged for him, fixing the hedgehog with an appealing look. It was a good appealing look too; he'd been practising in front of the mirror all morning.
"C'n we stay here?"
"We already are," Sonic said, somewhat testily. His irritation wasn't due to Tails, but to the fact that they'd been in Hill Top Zone for a week now and the nurses had only just allowed him to get out of bed, and he'd had to fight hard for that privilege. The thought of leaving the Zone was out of the question.
"I mean forever. 'Cause it's real cool here an' nobody's called me a freak an' ev'ryone loves you an' I got a warm place to sleep an' a bed with blankets to snuggle into an' people feed me an' there's loadsa mud to roll in an'—"
"Yeah, I've been meaning to talk to you about that," Sonic cut across. "One of the nurses – well, all of them, in fact – complained that you won't take a bath."
Tails yipped as though Sonic had threatened him with a branding iron, both hands clamped over his ears.
"I don't take baths! They're icky an' yucky an' real real wet!"
"One of them says you bit her."
Tails yipped again, this time in indignation. "I did not bite her, Sonic! I was jus' yelping an' she stuck her hand in my mouth at the wrong time!"
Sonic folded his arms, staring hard at Tails. "If I ever find out for sure that you've been biting people, I'll send you back to Emerald Hill Zone. You got that?"
Tails' eyes grew huge, full of hurt. "Y-you can't! You said we were buddies!"
"We are buddies, but we won't be if you go around biting people." Tails looked so genuinely frightened at Sonic's threat that the hedgehog was moved to reach out and fondle one large ear. "C'mon kiddo, don't look so scared."
Tails flattened his ears. "I didn't mean to bite, honest. 'S jus' that..." He broke off.
"Just what?" Sonic said coolly.
"Jus' that...two nurses came in an' said I had to go with 'em an' I said I didn't wanna leave you an' they jus' picked me up an' started carrying me an'...an' I thought it was gonna be like when I got thrown out my house an' I got scared an'..." Tails looked away, sniffing loudly, then back at Sonic, eyes brimming. "I'm real sorry, Sonic. I didn't wanna, honest."
Sonic took a deep breath, then expelled it in a sigh. "It's okay, squirt. Stay here a minute; I gotta go do something."
"C'n I have a Chaos Emerald to guard?"
"Sure." Sonic passed the blue one – Tails' favourite – over to the little fox. He knew full well the real reason behind Tails' request; the fox knew that Sonic wouldn't leave without all the Chaos Emeralds and all the time he had one, Sonic wouldn't leave without him either.
Leaving the little fox to his games, Sonic strode through the building, limping slightly, until he tracked down one of the nurses in question.
"Let Tails alone," he said curtly.
Somewhat taken aback by this brusque greeting, the nurse blinked. "I'm sorry?"
"You heard me. Next time you want him to do something and he refuses, come and get me, wake me up, ask me but don't try and force him."
Without waiting for a reply to this curt order, he turned and walked out again, nodding to the occasional person who seemed to recognise him (although he hadn't a clue who they were, but he was getting used to that now).
"Where'd you go?" Tails wanted to know.
"Just to sort one or two things out, that's all." Sonic folded his arms. "Now about this bath—"
Tails yipped.
"—you're having at least one a week. That way you won't get too muddy."
"But I gotta be muddy so's I can look cute an' get food!"
The hedgehog rolled his eyes. "Tails, if I ever abandon you and you have to go back to begging for food, then you don't have to have a bath again. Okay?"
Tails eyed him warily. "Are you gonna 'bandon me?"
"No. But I am going to clean you up."
Tails' small face scrunched up into a puzzled frown. "But how come I gotta have a bath, Sonic? 'Cause I'm on'y gonna get dirty again, so why do I gotta be cleaned up?"
Sonic folded his arms. "I'm not going to discuss this with you. Into the tub."
Tails flattened his ears. "If I gotta be bathed once a week, then I get to pick the day."
The hedgehog rolled his eyes, settling back onto his bed and picking up the book he'd been reading. "Okay, fine, but you pick it now for good, understand?"
"For all the rest of my life?"
"Yeah."
Tails hesitated, then nodded. "Okay. I pick Wednesday, 'cause it's the middle of the week an' so it won't be too bad!"
"And because today happens to be Thursday," Sonic said pleasantly.
"Yup!" Tails returned his attention to his dinosaurs and made the triceratops eat the diplodocus, the ceratosaurus, the pteranodon, the ankylosaurus and the iguanodon before being eaten in turn by the stegosaurus who was valiantly protecting the tyrannosaurus rex, then he looked up at the hedgehog again. "Sonic?"
"Yeah?"
"If ol' Robotnik hadn't come an' made you whump him, what would you do every day? What would you do for a job?"
Sonic glanced down. "Well...I used to want to be in a band."
Tails gawked at him for a few minutes, jaw dangling, then shrieked with laughter.
"No, I'm serious. There was me and two other kids. We called ourselves Hogs in the Hedge."
"Were you real good?"
The hedgehog winked at him. "Well, we thought so. I think we were the only ones, though."
"What kinda songs did you sing?"
Sonic laughed. "Mostly ones that had been copied from our favourite band, only with a couple of words changed."
"Yeah?" Tails looked down to where the stegosaurus was apparently eating the triceratops, then made it go to sleep next to the tyrannosaurus – Sonic's story was far more interesting – and fixed the hedgehog with his best attentive look. "What is your favourite band?"
Sonic shrugged. "I like most music. When I was a kid it was always The Underground; they're hedgehogs like me, and they're from Green Hill Zone so me and the other kids all got to bask in their reflected glory."
"Huh." Tails had heard of The Underground – who hadn't – but hadn't bothered much about listening to their music. Something struck him and he grinned.
"What's funny?" Sonic asked.
"I was jus' wond'ring what kinda music ol' Robotnik likes." The thought of the doctor leaning back in a chair with a discman on was so funny Tails giggled. "Boy, it'd be real funny if he liked the same kinda music an' stuff as you, huh Sonic? An' it'd be real funny if you were best friends 'steada being enemies an' trying to whump each other all the time, huh? Don't you think that'd be funny, Sonic?"
But Sonic, for no reason that the little fox could fathom, had turned away.
"Sonic?"
"Yeah, lil buddy?"
"Are you scared of the dark?"
Sonic looked around. The word dark didn't really do justice to the Mystic Cave Zone, in the same way that damp was a somewhat inadequate description for the ocean.
"Not really," he said, glancing at the little fox (or at least in his general direction). "Why? Are you?"
"Nuh uh!" Tails denied vehemently, and also somewhat untruthfully; he was squeezing Sonic's hand so tightly that the hedgehog couldn't feel his fingers anymore. "Sonic?"
"Yeah?" Sonic said patiently.
The little fox shivered, pressing so close that Sonic almost trod on his foot. "There aren't any spiders down here, are there?"
"Feral ones, you mean?" Sonic shrugged. "I dunno. They like dark places like this, so maybe."
Tails yipped in alarm. "S'pose one lands on me, Sonic?"
"Suppose it doesn't?" Sonic countered automatically. He'd rapidly discovered that like most people, he had a built in autopilot for dealing with little kids. "Anyway, you told me you weren't scared of spiders anymore."
"An' I'm not," Tails said, again not wholly truthfully. "I jus' don't wann'em crawling on me 'cause…'cause they might get lost in my fur now it's all puffy."
Sonic rolled his eyes. "It's not all puffy, Tails." He'd finally managed to get the little fox into a bath the night before they left Hill Top Zone, and Tails' fur had had the most thorough cleansing of its life, the end result being soft, crackly with static electricity and almost impossible to control.
"Is too," Tails mumbled.
"It doesn't matter, anyway," Sonic said. "You're clean, which means you look a lot better than you did before."
"I look like a pompom, Sonic!"
"That too."
Tails sulked. "How'm I s'posed to look all 'draggled an' junk an' get tourists to gimme food when I'm clean?"
"You're not, kiddo. That's kind of the point." Sonic caught his foot in a crack, stumbled and then managed to catch himself. "Shoot, would it kill them to turn the damn lights on once in a while?" There was a short pause and then his hand, which had been questing along the wall, encountered a lever and he pulled it hard.
There was a brief spark, and lanterns glowed into life from where they were strung along between what looked like wooden pillars.
Tails gave a huge sigh of relief. "That's better, huh Sonic?"
"You bet it is, squirt." It was too; Sonic was no longer as averse to fighting Robotnik as before, but he still didn't like the idea of fighting the doctor in pitch darkness.
"Sonic?"
"Yeah?"
Tails looked up at him solemnly. "Am I a doorbell?"
"A...a what?"
"A doorbell," Tails repeated.
"Uh...no." Sonic frowned. "What makes you think that?"
"Well, it's on'y 'cause when you were in hosp'tal a nurse kep' saying I was a doorbell, but I thought doorbells were things that went ding-dong when you pushed 'em, Sonic, an' I've never gone ding-dong when people pushed me so how come she said I was a doorbell, huh Sonic? How come?"
Light dawned and Sonic laughed. "Adorable, you mean?"
"That's what I said," Tails pointed out reasonably. "How come she thinks I'm a doorbell?"
"A-dor-a-ble," Sonic repeated, grinning broadly.
Tails frowned. "A dirigible?"
The hedgehog gave up on this explanation, settling instead for saying, "She means she thinks you're cute."
The perplexed frown deepened. "But I'm not cute, Sonic; I'm an ugly li'l freak, 'member?"
"You're not ugly, kiddo, and you're sure not a freak either."
"Well, 's on'y you what thinks that, 'cause ev'ryone else called me that an' you're jus' saying it 'cause you like me. You do still like me, right Sonic?"
Sonic rolled his eyes. "How could I not like you, Tails?"
"I dunno, but ev'ryone back in Em'rald Hill Zone sure manages to. Sonic, how come you don't believe what those guys said 'bout me being an ugly li'l freak? 'Cause they gotta be right 'cause they kept saying it over an' over an' over an' they wouldn't lemme play with 'em unless I said it too an' then they'd say that this was why they didn't wanna play with me." Tails paused for breath. "How come you don't believe them, Sonic?"
"I don't believe them because they were lying, kiddo." When Tails continued to look unconvinced, Sonic persisted. "You think I lie?"
Tails shook his head vigorously, beaming. "Nuh uh, 'cause you're Sonic the hedgehog!"
Sonic took a long, deep breath. It was long past time he addressed this particular issue.
"Tails...kiddo, you gotta stop putting me up on some golden pedestal."
"What's a pesadil?"
"I mean you gotta stop worshipping me, squirt. It's not good."
"But I don't worship you, Sonic. 'S on'y worshipping if I pray to you an' offer you stuff an' nobody's done that, not for hundreds an' prob'ly millions an' billions an' trillions an' squillions of years."
Sonic tried another tack. "Just because I'm Sonic the hedgehog doesn't mean I don't make mistakes sometimes."
Tails giggled. "You're real funny, Sonic. You're a hero an' heroes don't make mistakes, not ever."
"Everyone makes mistakes," Sonic said darkly.
"You haven't though. Not never, not since I first met you."
The hedgehog sighed. "That's not true, Tails. I made plenty of mistakes. You're – don't take this the wrong way – you're just too young to see them."
Tails puzzled over this for a few minutes before deciding that Sonic was only kidding – whoever heard of Sonic the hedgehog making mistakes? – and then peered up at him.
"You didn't answer my question, Sonic. Am I cute?"
"Well...to someone who finds little baby foxes with great big tails and big eyes cute, sure."
"I'm not a baby!" Tails said indignantly. "Babies cry all the time, Sonic, an' they're real stinky too, an' I'm not stinky!"
"I get it. You just cry all the time, is that what you're saying?"
"Nuh uh!" Tails pummelled the hedgehog on the arm. "'S not crying 'less you do it real loud, Sonic, as loud as THIS!" 'This' was shouted at the top of the fox's lungs and almost immediately bounced off the surrounding walls.
Tails ears perked. "Cool!" Raising both hands to his mouth, he yelled, "HI!" giggling as his own voice reverberated in the blackness. "LEEK BUN!"
"Leek bun?" Sonic repeated, as soon as the echoes had died away.
"Yeah! I on'y had one once but I love leek buns! Don't you?" Without waiting for a reply, Tails filled his lungs again and shouted, "PELLA FRUIT!"
"Tails!" Sonic hissed.
"YEAH?"
"Stop shouting! Robotnik might hear you!"
"Huh? Ohhh." Tails lowered his voice obediently. "C'n I play with the voice thing after we've whumped ol' Robotnik?"
Sonic grimaced. "I don't think the people living here would like that, kiddo, do you?"
Tails shrugged. "I dunno. Sonic, c'n I ask you something?"
"Yeah, what?"
The little fox caught hold of Sonic's hand, swinging it happily and with almost enough enthusiasm to dislocate the hedgehog's shoulder.
"I wanna know what makes you mad, Sonic. 'Cause I always try to say an' do stuff you like so's you won't wanna dump me somewhere, but you always end up mad at me or sniffling, so what makes you mad? An' sad?"
Sonic smiled slightly. "Nice thought, kiddo, but it's not that simple."
"How come not?" Tails reached back to explore Sonic's quills – something that held endless fascination for the little fox – and frowned slightly as his inquisitive hand encountered something hard. "What's that?" Curious, Tails pulled it out, examining it. It was nothing special, just a small stone, or rather half a stone, jet black and shiny, pointed at one end.
"Tails, give me that back." There was a sharp note in Sonic's voice that Tails hadn't heard very much and he held out the rock obediently.
"I was on'y curious, Sonic. What is it?"
Retrieving the stone, Sonic hesitated, then held it out for the little fox to examine.
"It's obsidian. Mighty and I found it back on Green Island when we were exploring, and we couldn't decide which one of us should have it so his father broke it in half. I was only a couple years older than you."
"How come you still got it?"
Sonic's fingers closed over the black stone. "It's all I got, squirt. It's all I got to remind me of how things were before Robotnik came along."
"Where's Mighty's dad now?"
"Dead," Sonic said quietly. "All his family died when Robotnik attacked Green Hill Zone; parents, grandparents, everything. Mighty was the only survivor."
"Ohhh." Tails frowned slightly. "So how come he didn't come with you?"
"He...didn't want to," Sonic answered evasively.
"How come?"
The hedgehog sighed. "I'll tell you when you're older, kiddo."
"But...Sonic..." The rest of Tails' words were lost in an enormous yawn and Sonic glanced at the little fox and managed a smile.
"C'mon. You're beat. Let's get some sleep; I think we're safe enough here."
"But wha' if ol' 'botnik jus' wants us to think so's he c'n come an' whump...us..." Tails yawned again.
Sonic winked. "Tell you what. You get some sleep and I'll watch out for old Robotnik."
"But I'm no' sleepy," Tails protested. At least, Sonic thought he did; the fox had yawned again at the same time as speaking and his words were somewhat indistinct.
"Yeah, right." Sonic sat down, bracing himself against one of the wooden posts. "Take a load off, squirt."
"Huh?" Tails frowned. "Off where?"
The hedgehog shook his head. "Doesn't matter. Just sleep."
"Oh. Okay." Tails clambered into the startled hedgehog's lap, turned around three times, then curled up into a tight little ball and snuggled into Sonic's stomach.
For his part, Sonic wasn't too keen on the idea of going to sleep. Despite his words to the little fox, he wasn't convinced that they were safe. Besides, if the sounds now emanating from the fluffy ball on his lap were anything to go by...Tails wasn't exactly a snorer – at least, not often – but he was noisy when it came to getting to sleep; all the little muffled squeaks and yawns and occasional burbling sound meant that Sonic couldn't have dropped off even if he'd wanted to.
"Sonic..."
"Hm?" Sonic glanced down before realising that Tails had been talking in his sleep and he shook his head. The little fox's intense loyalty and devotion to him made the hedgehog a little uneasy. He was gregarious by nature, but he still wasn't happy at the thought of being adored, and certainly not so openly.
While he was still trying to figure out what to do for the best, Sonic fell asleep.
A soft whine of motors woke him some few hours later and he jerked upright, alert to a possible threat before he really knew what was happening.
A robotic beetle the size of his head buzzed closer, albeit almost painfully slowly, and Sonic tensed. Getting carefully to his feet, edging out so as not to disturb the still soundly sleeping Tails, he prepared himself for a spindash.
The beetle flared suddenly, burning with a yellow light so brilliant that Sonic had to shade his eyes.
Something rammed him in the stomach, sending him flying. Instinct took over and he rolled, coming up lightly onto the balls of his feet and launching himself at the now dark beetle, destroying it.
That's got it.
Movement out the corner of the eye warned him and he leapt to one side as what looked like a particularly deadly caterpillar (or possibly snake) exploded from the foliage. It missed him more by luck than judgment and retreated again, watching.
Damn that green stuff! Sonic thought furiously. Mystic Cave Zone didn't have trees or plants in the normal sense of the word, but it did have plenty of leafmoss.
As its name suggested, leafmoss was a kind of very rapidly spreading moss with vast leaves that covered the floor, the ceiling, the walls and just about everything else except for paths through the Zone, which were all in immaculate condition. With the dim lighting, it looked very nice (and Sonic could see why Mystic Cave Zone did such a roaring trade in honeymoons and just about anything else intimate and romantic) but right here and now, it was a damn nuisance!
He's getting better though, the hedgehog thought grimly as he lured the bot out of hiding again and this time put it out of commission. He's never built two robots that worked together before. One to blind you while the other one knocks you down...yes, very clever.
He double-checked to make sure Tails was still sleeping soundly, tucked two Chaos Emeralds into the little fox's namesakes – he didn't dare risk leaving more unattended – and slipped off. If this double-teaming of bots was going to be a recurring theme throughout the Zone, he wanted to destroy as many as possible before Tails' too-curious feet took him right into a trap.
Leaping nimbly onto a bridge (which promptly collapsed underneath him) Sonic jumped onto a nearby platform and raced along at near top speed, smashing bots so instinctively that he barely even registered their presence.
Pausing for breath, he looked up at the wall in front of him, once which he could see curved over into another road.
Too high to jump up and no platforms either...man, how am I supposed to get up there?
Something rustled in the foliage ahead and Sonic backed off. He'd already had a couple of close calls with the caterpillar bots that kept erupting from the ground (or occasionally the ceiling) and he was in no mood for another one.
Spikes shot out from the wall and Sonic barely managed to jump in time, landing on a brick pillar that continued moving until the spikes on one end cleared the edge of the ledge.
Another pillar, identical to the first, slid out on top of it but Sonic was ready this time and leapt neatly on top, riding it over the ledge.
He wasn't, however, prepared for the third pillar – in his lexicon, one trap was almost expected, two traps were acceptable but three were pure paranoia – which was why he overbalanced in his haste to get away and fell neatly off the edge into a Star Post.
Well, why not?
Glancing over his shoulder to make sure Tails was still fast asleep (although as far as he knew, time on Mobius seemed to stop when you were in the Special Zone) Sonic leapt through the circle of stars.
It was only after he'd barely made enough rings the first time that he realised how much he'd come to rely on Tails. Sure, the little fox was impulsive, but he was also very good at collecting rings. Granted he hadn't quite managed the trick of dodging bombs yet, but still, he didn't do too badly.
Yeah? Well, you're just gonna have to do this like you did before you had Tails. Alone.
Sonic picked up the pace. It wasn't easy; there were more bombs and fewer rings here than ever before, despite the basic layout being the same.
That was a thought; did he really go to a different Special Zone each time, or was it the same one but different? Or was it one long, endless tunnel, going on and on and he just happened to come in and go out at different points?
A gleam up ahead caught his eye and he picked up the pace, weaving in between rows of bombs, leaping over others and snatching as many rings as he could in between. Ahead, the yellow Chaos Emerald shone mockingly as it hovered just out of reach.
Sonic could feel terrific suction building up behind him – that was sort of how this place worked; for some reason the rings neutralised the suction and if you had enough, you could break free – and swerved wildly as another few rings appeared, feeling one dissolve as he touched it.
It was only one, but it was enough. Sonic put on an extra burst of speed and reached out. His fingers barely brushed the Emerald, slid off and he gritted his teeth. He didn't dare jump; the suction now was so powerful that without the friction of his sneakers on the ground, he'd be gone in a heartbeat.
Come on...come on, just a little further...
He caught hold of the edge with two fingers and managed to swing his body around to cup the gem in one arm. And froze. And stared.
He'd never seen what caused the suction before, had never wanted to or even thought about it, and now he wished he hadn't.
The Zone was crumbling. There were no stars, no golden rings, just utter blackness devouring everything behind him, and getting closer fast.
What's going to happen if that catches me? Sonic didn't know, but he didn't think he'd like it.
Easy. Easy. You got the Emerald, you've never been hurt by this thing before when you had the Emerald. Just wait and you'll be transported back.
That was all very well, but it didn't seem to be happening. Nor did the Emerald seem to want to move; the others had all slid neatly into Sonic's hold, but the yellow one was proving strangely stubborn.
Did he have enough rings? He thought he had, otherwise he'd never have made it to the Emerald in the first place, but had he lost some when he grabbed it?
The blackness was almost on him now. Sonic clutched the Emerald to his chest, closed his eyes and braced himself.
It was lucky he had, as the next thing he knew he'd arrived some six feet above the same Star Post he'd used to enter and had been sent flying through the air as though he'd been kicked. Rolling automatically, he looked down and saw he was still holding the yellow Emerald tightly.
Relief coupled with released adrenaline poured through him and he let his head drop to the ground with an audible thud.
That's it. Done, finished, dusted. Six Emeralds, that's all there were; I don't need to go back there again.
Something brushed against his quill and he surged to his feet, spinning and curling into a ball reflexively, and it was only Tails' yelp that stopped him from being neatly bisected.
"Sonic! Sonic, it's me! Where'd you go? What'd you do?" Tails caught sight of the yellow Emerald and his eyes bugged out. "You got another Chaos Emerald!"
"Yeah." Sonic held out the gem. "The last one."
Tails looked at it, sniffed it, then turned a hurt expression on Sonic.
"You got the last Chaos Em'rald an' you didn't take me?"
"You were asleep, kiddo." Sonic got to his feet and held out a hand. "C'mon. Let's keep moving."
They went on for about half an hour before coming to an abrupt halt at a log bridge, mainly because they'd just run out of road and the wall ahead went straight up to the ceiling with no way through.
Sonic stood in the middle of the log bridge, frowning, then looked back to where the moss and stone pounder he and Tails had just leapt over was still moving up and down relentlessly.
I came through there, and you don't go to all the trouble of building a bridge that doesn't go anywhere, so how... He frowned. There must be a way down somewhere, but where?
"Hey Sonic! Look what I can do! Lookit!"
"Yeah, great," Sonic said without looking around. His frown deepened. So how...
"You're not even looking!" Tails protested.
"Yeah," Sonic said again, while wondering how on Mobius he was supposed to proceed.
Hovering above him, Tails huffed. Well, if Sonic wouldn't see his real cool trick, he'd just have to do it without the hedgehog watching!
Landing on the opposite side, he crouched down and focused on his target – a vine directly above Sonic's head that someone had turned into a swing by tying it into a loop – then pounced.
He managed to seize the loop firmly in both hands, and the little fact that he had to use both namesakes rather rapidly to a) achieve this and b) avoid flattening Sonic in no way diminished his triumph.
"Didja see me, Sonic? Did you? Huh?"
The answer came when he looked down and saw a rapidly diminishing blue shape plummeting down the gap where the bridge had been a few seconds ago.
The thought Well, at least now we know how to get down hit Sonic half a second before Tails had swooped down to catch him neatly and then deposit him on his feet.
"Tails?" Sonic said very levelly.
"Yup?"
"Never, ever do that again."
Tails frowned. "What, catch you?"
"No; collapse a bridge while I'm still standing on it!"
"I didn't know it was gonna c'lapse." Tails hopped onto a platform and turned around. "C'mon Sonic, hurry up! We gotta get to ol' Robotnik an' whump him!"
"I thought you didn't like whumping Robotnik."
"What? Oh." Tails dismissed this with the short attention span of a four-year-old. "Yeah, but it's still cool. Wonder how he's gonna try an' kill you this time!"
"I don't know and I don't wanna find out either," Sonic said flatly.
They hadn't been going for much longer when Tails said, "Well...I don't think you're gonna have much choice, Sonic."
At least, Sonic thought that was what he said. There was a loud rumbling sound which only kept increasing in volume.
"Why not?" he said, raising his voice.
"'Cause of that." Tails pointed and Sonic looked up in time to see Robotnik trundle into view, his machine now looking like he'd stuck parts from the Emerald Hill version onto the Hill Top one.
In fact, this was almost exactly the case; Robotnik had been busy completing his final weapon and hadn't had time to customise the Egg-O-Matic as he would have liked, and so had had to make do with hurriedly removing a couple of plates and attaching a couple of drills. The noise of the engine as it reverberated off the walls was deafening. Sonic could see Robotnik's mouth moving, but couldn't make out any of the words.
"What?" he yelled, or at least from Robotnik's point of view, mouthed. The doctor raised his voice.
"I said, let's see how you deal with this one, Sonic!"
Sonic frowned, cupped his ear quizzically, then spread his hands to the side with a shrug.
"I SAID—oh, blast it all!" Robotnik reached down and throttled back until the engine was a barely audible hum, all the time aware that this wasn't doing much for his image as a deadly adversary and making a mental note to use lasers or electricity next time he was in an underground setting. "There. Can you hear me now?"
"I guess," Sonic said.
"Eggsellent." Robotnik grinned evilly. "As I was saying, let's see how you deal with this one, Sonic. Meet my Eggscavator."
Sonic quirked an eye ridge at Tails. "Didn't we already smash that one?"
"Well, technically speaking it's the Eggscavator Mark Two," Robotnik conceded. He smirked. "The eggsecutive version."
Sonic groaned. "Oh boy. Doc, if you're gonna kill us, fine, but enough with the puns already!"
Robotnik's eyes narrowed, unsure. He didn't know what was going on, but he knew he didn't like it. Sonic shouldn't be so cocky and don't-carish; the hedgehog was acting as he had before what Robotnik loosely referred to as The Incident.
"How'd you get it to hover an' fly like that anyway, ol' Robotnik?" Tails wanted to know. "'Cause you don't have wings or propellers so how come it flies? How come?"
"Tails!" Sonic pulled the too-curious little fox away as Tails reached out to try and prod one of the drills with an inquisitive finger.
"So-nic! I wanna see how it works!"
"Tails, no!"
"You always say no," Tails mumbled, not quite under his breath. "How come you're no fun anymore, Sonic?"
Without bothering to answer, Sonic raced forward and leapt, too fast for Robotnik to dodge, ramming into the machine and bouncing off to ram it another three times before having to drop out the way of the suddenly moving drills.
Angling them to point upwards, Robotnik pushed the throttle forward, rose through the air and burrowed into the ceiling, causing the noise level to triple and numerous rocks to tumble from around the Eggscavator Mark Two. Most of these bounced harmlessly away, but a few stalactites that had been dislodged hit the floor hard enough to wedge themselves into the ground.
Sonic stared at them. Jeez, what kinda rocks they got in this place?
The cave shuddered again and more debris fell from the ceiling. Sonic dodged almost automatically, eyes focused on a point above his head, following the trail of rocks that marked Robotnik's progress.
Robotnik, for his part, was considerably astonished when he drilled out of the ceiling and saw the rocks scattered on the ground. He hadn't had any plan besides drilling in and out and hoping to get lucky – Sonic really had caught him on the hop – and even he wasn't arrogant enough to believe this would work against an adversary like the hedgehog.
Well, nobody else need know he hadn't planned it this way. Robotnik grinned broadly. Maybe he could still beat the little pest.
Another double attack from Sonic and his pet sent Robotnik rather hastily back into the ceiling again. Time for Plan B, which was to come up damn quickly with a Plan C.
Moving to his left, he headed to where he remembered seeing a cluster of stalactites. As he'd hoped, the vibrations from his machine (plus a little enthusiastic drilling on his part) sent the deadly spikes plummeting towards Sonic. The only problem as far as he was concerned was that he had no way of telling what was going on down below, didn't know if he was going to come out again straight into Sonic or ten feet away from him.
In fact, Sonic was too busy desperately trying to dodge the rain of rocks and to keep Tails out the way that he probably would have ignored Robotnik if the doctor had shaken him by the hand. If he didn't finish this the next time Robotnik poked his head up (or down, depending on your point of view) he had a nasty feeling that it might be too late.
"Sonic!" Tails swerved away from one falling stalactite, dodged three more and a rounded rock before diving down to catch another stalactite that was inches above Sonic's head.
The hedgehog stared at it, then at Tails. "Thanks. You're a lifesaver."
"I sure am!" Elated, momentarily forgetting their current situation, Tails bounded into the air, looped the loop three consecutive times and then backed off, holding his prize and beaming.
An ominous rumble above Sonic's head announced Robotnik's return, coupled with more stalactites falling, too many and too fast for the hedgehog to escape. Realising this, Robotnik started to cut his engines with the intention of letting the vehicle drop.
"Sonic, here!" Tails hurled the stalactite javelin-style to the hedgehog. He missed, instead scoring a direct hit on Robotnik's vehicle. To the surprise of all three combatants, the stalactite stuck firmly into the metal, vibrating slightly with the force used.
For a few seconds, the three of them just stared at it, then Sonic leapt up, seized it, yanked it out and landed back underneath the machine. Thrusting up with all his strength, he rammed it hard into the underbelly.
He didn't know what he hit, but it produced a pretty spectacular result; the explosion knocked him and Tails clean into opposite walls and Robotnik through the ceiling. Getting unsteadily to his feet, the hedgehog prepared to fight some more but the doctor never reappeared and so he turned his attention to the still prostrate Tails.
"Are you okay, squirt?"
Tails nodded. "Uh huh." He bounced onto his feet and Sonic was struck – not for the first time – by the resilience of the little fox. "Is ol' Robotnik gone?"
Sonic looked up to where the doctor's machine had disappeared to, then nodded.
"Yeah. Yeah, I think he's left this Zone." He glanced down at the stalactites which were still wedged upright in the ground and shook his head. "The next time someone tries to tell me stalactites are wondrous, beautiful things and too fragile to touch, I think I'll spindash 'em."
Tails sniffed at one of the stalactites. "C'n I keep one, Sonic?"
"No. Leave 'em there, kiddo. C'mon, we should probably be going. Those people in the prison egg still need to get out."
"Yeah!" Tails started towards the prison, forgetting all about the stalactite, then hesitated and glanced over his shoulder. "Uh. Mebbe you should do it."
Sonic quirked an eye ridge. "You can't tell me you're scared."
"I can't? How come?"
"You're scared?" Sonic folded his arms, tapping his foot with a gleam in his eyes. "After taking down Robotnik in Hill Top Zone, and Chemical Plant, you're scared of freeing some people?"
Tails looked away, ears drooping. "You don't gotta rub it in, Sonic. 'Sides, I'm not scared. I jus'…" He shifted uncomfortably.
"Just what?"
Tails fixed Sonic with a big-eyed, appealing look. "Sonic, what if they're like the others in Em'rald Hill Zone? What if they don't like me?"
"Are you kidding?" Sonic reached out and ruffled the little fox's fur. "What's not to like?"
"This." Tails brought one of his namesakes around and scowled at it, looking very much as though he'd like to chew it off.
Sonic sighed. "Tails, I thought you were past all that."
"Huh?" Tails frowned, small forehead wrinkling as he tried to puzzle this one out. "Why'd you think that, Sonic?"
Damn good question, Sonic thought grimly. Aloud he said, "Well…how many people have laughed at you since we left Emerald Hill?"
"Six billion trillion kajillion an' four!"
The answer threw Sonic, who blinked. "What?"
"Six billion trillion kajillion an' four," Tails repeated, arms folded with a glare on his face that dared the hedgehog to comment. "An' anyway, I did the last one so it's your turn now!"
Sonic gave up. "Okay. Wait here." Turning, he broke into a run, jumping and landing squarely on top of the prison egg, shattering it and freeing the people inside.
Tails flew straight to Sonic's side and caught hold of his hand. He was a lot more confident around strangers than he had been back when Sonic had first met him, but he was still a little nervous.
Tails' nerves were only compounded by a small spider pointing one leg at him and saying suddenly, "Hey, that kid's got two tails!"
"Yeah!" That was from a mole not much older than Tails himself. "What a freak!"
Sonic closed his eyes, swearing viciously to himself and only opened them when he felt Tails pull his hand away and take off, running hard back into the Zone.
"Damn!" Sonic shot a glare at the mole, temporarily forgetting the perpetrator wasn't much older than Tails himself. "Thanks a bunch, kid!"
"But he is a—" the mole started to protest before his father cuffed him across the back of the head.
"That's enough outta you! We're going home!"
"But dad, I didn't get Sonic's auto—"
"Now!" Embarrassed, the mole looked at Sonic. "Look, he's—"
"Just get him out of my sight," Sonic cut across, anger on Tails' behalf and the thought of how much ground he'd just lost with the little fox making him shorter than usual. "I'm going to go find my friend." He turned, paused, then turned back. "And if he was so upset he flew straight into a trap, I swear that what Robotnik started here, I'll finish."
He sped away, retracing his steps as fast as he could without actually missing anything, then started exploring more of the place.
In the end, finding Tails was almost ridiculously simple; the little fox had burrowed under a cluster of leafmoss, but there hadn't been quite enough room for his namesakes.
"Tails?" Sonic said softly.
No answer.
"I know you're in there, squirt; I can see your tails."
The tails twitched, writhed about as the little fox tried to pull them in and then eventually gave up.
"There's nobody else here, Tails. It's just you and me." Reaching out, Sonic lifted the leafmoss up enough to see the fox's small body. "Kiddo, c'mon. Let's go, huh?"
"No!" Tails stuffed his face into the crook of his elbow. "Go 'way, Sonic! I'm not coming out ever again, not never!"
Sonic spread his hands out to the side. "Hey, don't get mad at me, squirt; I'm not the one who upset you."
Tails sniffed and peeped out with one eye. "You said they were gonna be nice to me, Sonic."
A slight smile appeared on the hedgehog's face. "And you said I never made any mistakes, so it looks like we were both wrong, huh? Besides, did you hear the parents of those kids laying into them?" He whistled softly. "Man, I'm glad Mighty's family never yelled at me like that."
There was a stubborn silence and Sonic held out his hand. "C'mon squirt. Let's go onto the next Zone, huh?"
Tails shook his head. "Uh uh. What if those kids are still there an' what if they start throwing things an' calling me a freak an' laughing at me like all the kids back in Em'rald Hill Zone?"
"You can't stay in here forever, Tails."
"Can so!"
Sonic shrugged. "Well, if you don't wanna help me whump Robotnik—"
"Nuh uh! Not if everyone's gonna be real mean to me!"
In that, Sonic had to admit Tails had a point. Doing what they'd done so far was hair-raising enough, but doing it and then getting comments like that from the very people you'd saved…that was soul-destroying.
"I won't let them be mean to you, kiddo. C'mon. I'm not leaving you behind; we're a team, remember?"
"We are?" Tails looked up at Sonic a little warily, although he was already crawling backwards out of his hole. "What kinda team?"
"The kinda team that whumps Robotnik."
Tails hesitated. "You promise you won't let them call me a freak?"
"I promise. Come on, let's go."
The little fox reached out and seized Sonic's arm, clinging tightly and looking so hurt and betrayed that the hedgehog felt his heart ache in sympathy.
"Sonic, am I a freak?" Tails said hoarsely. "Honest?"
"No." Sonic spoke the word firmly, categorically, his tone leaving no room for either doubt or correction. "Some people just don't understand. That kid was very young, Tails; he didn't mean it." When Tails still looked dejected, Sonic pressed on. "Hey, c'mon. We beat Robotnik, right?"
"Yeah." Even that failed to rouse Tails.
"And I think—" Sonic pretended to consider— "I think that probably deserves a ride, don't you?"
The little fox's ears lifted ever so slightly. Sonic wasn't averse to carrying Tails if the fox was tired, but he rarely offered rides for pleasure. "Really?"
"Sure. Hang on." Sonic swung Tails into his arms and took off, picking up the pace until the little fox squealed with delight.
Most of the residents were still hanging around outside the Prison Egg when they arrived, and Sonic felt Tails tense up in his arms. Shifting his hold – that had been the other reason behind him offering the fox a ride; so that Tails couldn't disappear again – Sonic stepped forward.
A spider, who seemed to have been elected as spokesperson for the group, scuttled forward on the ceiling and let himself down on a thread of silk.
"I dunno how we can thank you, Sonic."
"You could turn the damn lights on once in a while," Tails piped up.
Sonic shot him a look. "Tails!"
The fox returned Sonic's look with a hurt one of his own. "What? You did say that, Sonic, 'member?"
"I didn't…well, I did, but I didn't really mean it," Sonic lied. Tails frowned.
"How come you said it then?"
Sonic shook his head. "It doesn't matter, squirt. Let's just keep moving, okay?" He glanced up. "Someone tell me what the next Zone is?"
"What're you asking them for, Sonic?" Tails said in a small voice. "Don't you want me to be your guide anymore?"
Sonic swore under his breath and with considerable fervour and imagination for a good few seconds before pasting a smile on his face and looking down at the anxious little fox. "Of course I still want you for a guide, kiddo."
"Then let's go!" Wriggling out of the hedgehog's hold, Tails seized Sonic's hand and started to tug him along, waving with his free hand at everyone else. "Bye! We're gonna go save the world! C'mon Sonic, we gotta get to Oil Ocean Zone before ol' Robotnik!"
Sonic sighed as he allowed himself to be pulled along. Well, at least the little fox seemed happy again, and he supposed the law of averages said that Tails had to be right about Oil Ocean one day...
So that's Mystic Cave done :P Three guesses as to what the next Zone's gonna be ;) Hope you enjoyed this and if you read, please review!