Professor Vengeance: I hath (hast/haft?) returned indeed :P It was an incredibly hectic time, even more so than usual, which was why it took so long ;) And thanks, glad you liked it!
D.C.111: (grins) I used to hate Mystic Cave Zone...I played it over and over in 2P mode as a kid trying to get past it (lost life after life after life) then I came back to it as an adult and I was like, "Huh. What was all the fuss about?" As to whether Sonic will tell Tails about 'The Incident' with Robotnik...that does happen, but not until the events in Secrets of the Emeralds (which is set quite a way in the future...sometime after Sonic 3 & Knuckles) so if you really want to read that conversation, check it out ;) I try to keep all my fics tied in together
Maverick87: Thanks :D Yeah, I kinda liked the doorbell part as well...
Poridet: Thanks. And yeah, looks like it with Mighty...
Awdures: Pretty, yes. Passable...ooh boy :P I love it now though...Tails; yeah, I'm sure he'll get a little self-confidence by the end ;)
Private somebody: Thanks, glad you liked it :P I have to say I loved Tails in Sonic 2; many's the time he leapt boldly past me and smashed Robotnik in Chemical Plant Zone before a) Sonic could get a hit in and b) Robotnik could get a hit in. Seriously; it's true :P
Mica4: (blushes) Thanks, glad you enjoyed it so much :)
Sonic-Addict: Heh, thanks :D As for climbing into Sonic's lap...well, I think Tails is actually incredibly affectionate by nature (only 'big kids' don't show it, at least not in his book). Oil Ocean...yep, major stress factor :P
DragonUk: Hmm...is it me your dog loves or my dog? I wonder ;) And thanks :D
Hawks Soul: (grins) Ooh, bribery :P (hurriedly hides chocolate from everyone) (Tails: (sniffles an' hugs Hawks Soul back))
Asher Tye: Thanks :D And Sonic will find out about the seventh Emerald very soon ;)
TrueVulcanRaven: Thanks :) Being mean to Tails...yeah, kids can be so cruel :(
Gameorama91: Yep, finally updated :P And yeah, you're right; it's Oil Ocean (just like Tails has been saying all through the story ;))
Owl: Thanks. Sonic making empty threats...he is old and mature beyond his years (well, in some ways :P) but he's still something of a kid as well ;) Besides, which sounds more impressive; I'm going to finish what Robotnik started or I'm going to be very upset? ;)
Lewisty: Thanks
Shadow-spawn180: (laughs) Thanks and yeah, there was a cartoon that featured Sonic and two others in a band; both the cartoon and the band was called Sonic Underground which is where I got the name from ;)
Az The Dragon: Fear not, you shall see the reaction when Sonic discovers the seventh Emerald very soon :P
TC Chan: (grins) Thanks :D Tails' stalactite thing...yeah :P I dunno what those stalactites were made of, but I'm guessing something pretty hard ;)
Parslie: Yep, Oil Ocean ;)
Kitsune-firedragon: Thanks, I'll try
Myuu-san: (blushes) Thanks and I hope so :P Super Sonic…do you think I would dare upload the adaptation of Sonic 2 and NOT have Super Sonic? ;) He will make an appearance at some point, I promise
Truten: Thanks. Yeah, fingers crossed we see Mighty in some games soon...until then he'll just have to stay in fanfic :(
Sonic was worried about Tails. The little fox was...no, not sulking, that wasn't quite the word for it, he was...moping, that was it. Depressed. Sonic had tried to cheer him up, tried everything he could think of to take him out of his funk, but his efforts seemed to have exactly the opposite effect and in the end he'd given up.
A sign by the road gave him an idea and he nudged Tails.
"Guess you were right, huh?" he said. "Oil Ocean is the next Zone."
"Huh?" Tails looked up at the signpost pointing to the refinery city ahead of them which was just visible as a blur on the horizon, then back down at his feet. "Oh. Yeah."
Sonic took a deep breath. "Tails?"
"Hm?"
"Tails, what's the matter? Is it..." Sonic swallowed – this was harder than he'd imagined – then plunged on. "Is it that you don't want to tag along with me anymore? Because if it is, kiddo, go ahead and tell me. I won't get mad."
"Nothing's the matter, Sonic."
Sonic shook his head. "I'm not buying it, kiddo. You're miserable about something."
"Am not." The denial was more automatic than heartfelt; Tails' ears were permanently drooping and he spent most of the time studying his feet.
"Are your sneakers hurting?" Sonic asked suddenly. Maybe that was it; Tails didn't want to say anything in case he ended up losing them.
A shake of the head. Tails' namesakes were dragging in the dust and although last night had been bath night, he hadn't complained or tried to wriggle out of it like he had before (often literally) but had just stood there forlornly, letting Sonic scrub him.
The hedgehog frowned slightly. "Then what's wrong?"
"Nothing," Tails mumbled into his fur. "C'mon Sonic. We better get going 'cause ol' Robotnik's prob'ly waiting for us."
He trudged on morosely, leaving a puzzled Sonic behind. Eventually the hedgehog caught up, still staring down at Tails in a worried fashion.
"Well...okay. If you say there's nothing wrong, then there's nothing wrong." Deep down Sonic knew this was far from true; the little fox had been acting strangely ever since Tuesday morning.
The hedgehog frowned perplexedly, trying to remember anything he might have said or done that could have upset him. Tails wasn't usually shy or embarrassed about expressing his unhappiness with something; Sonic still got chills when he remembered what he now thought of as The Balloon And Lollipop Incident, and not least because it had cost him his last Mobium.
That, more than anything, was worrying him. He'd managed to gloss over it so far with Tails; the little fox seemed to have bought into Sonic's too-cheerful exclamations along the lines of, "Let's search for food in the forest, Tails, won't that be fun?" but pretty soon they'd be in Oil Ocean, and if the dark buildings were anything to go by, that was a city and the only food they'd find there would be what they could scrounge out of dustbins. Sonic didn't dare run, needing to conserve every shred of energy he still had. He could already see his own ribs without sucking his chest in, and it seemed like he was always ravenously hungry these days, not least because Tails got most of the meagre food they managed to scavenge. Late autumn/early winter wasn't a good time to be living off the land, at least, not off this land.
He hoped Metropolis was nearby. Quite apart from the principle of the thing, if he didn't get some royalties from that publishing house, he didn't know what he'd do for money.
An old memory stirred, one he'd almost forgotten. He'd been five years old and staying with Mighty, and the armadillo's mother had sent him and Sonic out with baskets every day to pick fruits, nuts, berries and just about anything edible in the morning and sent them fishing in the afternoon. At the time, Sonic had thought it was fun – especially as the one who brought back the most food got to pick the bedtime story that night – and then he'd grown a little older and started to wonder if it was a good excuse for Mighty's mother to get the two of them out the house. Now he was older still, he wondered if that had been the only way the family could get enough to eat. The family hadn't been poverty stricken by any means, but they weren't exactly raking it in either.
Sonic thought back to the times when he'd refused, wanting to go out and play instead, and of how he'd been too stubborn to give in and how he'd still bragged about having a full plate in the evenings. And had there been a little less food on the two adults' plates? Looking back on it, Sonic rather thought there might have been.
He sighed. He was beginning to understand just what Mighty's parents had gone through to look after him.
Next to him, Tails got a stone in his sneaker and sat down silently to get it out. He'd been lagging behind a little for two days now, so perhaps Sonic could be excused for not noticing his absence until several hundred yards down the road when he turned to say something to Tails and noticed that the little fox wasn't with him but was slumped by the side of the road, playing with one of his namesakes.
Sonic jogged over and crouched down in front of him. "What're you doing way back here, squirt?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing, huh? You wanna tell me why you're doing nothing here as opposed to doing it while you're walking with me?" Sonic reached out and started to ruffle Tails' fur, but the little fox ducked out from under his hand, then abruptly jumped to his feet and padded over to sit down on a fallen log. Determined not to let the matter drop this time, Sonic followed him.
"Kiddo, we're not going any further until you tell me what's wrong."
Tails scowled up at him, then the scowl dropped off and he looked away again.
"Nothing's wrong."
"I'm not buying that, squirt."
The little fox glanced up out the corner of his eye. "Sonic?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm real hungry. Berries are cool an' I never ate ones like these before, not never, but they don't fill my tummy. C'n we buy some food? Please?"
Sonic closed his eyes. Just like he'd been at that age, only he hadn't been so polite about it. Little Sonic had been a somewhat demanding child whose arguments were usually won by volume rather than reason, especially his constant demands for extra food from Mighty's mother.
If I'd known it made her feel this bad...
Sonic opened his eyes again. "Tails...I should have said this a couple days ago..."
For no reason he could fathom, the little fox's face lit up. "Really? 'Sokay, Sonic, you c'n say it now!"
"Alright." Sonic took a deep breath. "There's no more money, squirt. That's why we've been living off berries and fruit and fish; I've no way of getting more food."
Judging from the way Tails' face crumpled, this wasn't what he'd been expecting Sonic to say.
"Do you understand?" Sonic pressed.
"Sure." If Tails had looked miserable before, now he looked chronically depressed. "There's no more food for me."
"Tails, haven't you been listening? There's no money, and no money means no more food for either of us!"
"'Sokay, Sonic. If you don't wanna feed me 'cause you wanna eat it yourself, that's cool but you c'n say."
Lack of food and concern boiled over into Sonic's temper, causing it to flare up. "Hey kid, you got the last takeout I bought, and that damn lollipop and balloon you wanted so badly so don't play the martyr with me, okay?"
"Yeah, an' you ate that takeout too on'y you wouldn't do it with me!" Tails shouted. "Prob'ly 'cause you had a double layered triple frosted chocolate fudge cake an' didn't wanna share!"
"Share?" Sonic erupted. "You wanna know what I had while you were stuffing yourself on fish and chips? Nothing, that's what! I didn't eat for two days after that because you were so hungry I didn't feel comfortable doing it which is why I spent every last Mobium on you! You're a fine one to talk about sharing, kid; it wouldn't have killed you to split that food I bought, would it?"
"I didn't know you were hungry! You never said, Sonic, not never! If you'da said something I'da let you have some but you kep' saying you'd eaten an' you didn't want anything!"
"And didn't it occur to you to wonder?" Sonic demanded. "To think that maybe, just maybe, I was saying it to keep you happy?"
"NO!" Tails shrieked.
"Then it damn well should have!" Sonic shouted back.
Tails started to cry. "Well, I'm sorry, Sonic! I'm sorry I'm not perfect like you an' I'm sorry I'm hungry an' I'm sorry you're mad at me 'gain jus' 'cause I wanna have something to eat an' it was my birthday on Monday, Sonic, my birthday an' you didn't gimme a card or a present or even say happy birthday or anything!"
There was a shocked silence.
"Your...oh man." Sonic stared, then sat down next to him and slid an arm around Tails' shoulders, hugging the little fox to him. "Is that why you've been so sad all this time?"
Tails nodded vigorously, lifting brimming eyes to meet Sonic's.
"You didn't have to buy me a card an' a present an' a cake, though that woulda been real cool, Sonic, but how come didn't you say happy birthday to me?"
Sonic shook his head. "Tails, how was I supposed to know? You never mentioned it."
"You should!" Small fists pounded Sonic's chest and he let them. "You shoulda known, Sonic, 'cause you're my big brother an' big brothers're s'posed to know when little brothers' birthdays are!" He broke off and looked away, hands clapped over his mouth and ears flat. He hadn't wanted to blurt that out, was too shy to want Sonic to know that he thought of the hedgehog as a big brother, but it had just slipped out. "I 'member yours, Sonic."
"Well...yeah...but..." Sonic's voice trailed off. He knew Tails liked and looked up to him, but he hadn't realised the little fox thought of him as a brother.
"But what?" Tails persisted.
"Well..." Sonic hesitated, then took the plunge. "Sometimes...sometimes little brothers need to remind big brothers of what's important, just in case those big brothers are occupied with other things." He winked. "Isn't that right, little bro?"
The look on Tails' face made Sonic feel ten feet tall, then Tails gave an inarticulate squeal of delight and expressed his feelings in the only way he knew how; he pounced on Sonic and knocked him off the log, wriggling all over the hedgehog in pure happiness, namesakes wagging frantically.
"Tails—oof!" Sonic winced as a small foot was planted firmly in his stomach. "Tails, cool it!"
"I'm already cool, Sonic! You an' me, we're buddies an' brothers an' cooler than anyone!" Tails scrambled off Sonic, this time planting the same foot squarely in the hedgehog's ribs, turned a full somersault and bounced onto his feet. "Nyah nyah, can't catch me!"
"Oh really?" Grinning in spite of himself, Sonic snapped onto his feet. "Well, we'll just have to see about that, won't we?"
He started towards Tails, who squealed again and raced off. Sonic followed him a little at a time, picking up the pace until he was running in front of Tails, backwards.
This was something of a mistake on his part, as Tails immediately tried to copy him, tripped over a branch, turned a somersault and fell on his head with a loud yelp.
"Hey kiddo, you okay?"
A brave nod. Tails was rubbing his head frantically in an attempt to alleviate some of the pain there.
"C'mon, lemme see." Sonic took over the rubbing, continuing until Tails was no longer whimpering.
"Sonic?" Tails looked up, ears flat. "I'm real sorry I didn't share my food. I didn't know you were hungry too, honest."
Sonic sighed. "No, kiddo, I'm sorry. I shouldn't've lost it like that. Guess I just forgot what it's like to be a little kid and hungry, huh?" He shook his head. "You know, sometimes when you do all that amazing stuff with building and repairing things, I kinda forget you're only four."
"Five!" Tails corrected him indignantly.
"Five. Yeah. Sorry."
"An' how come you forget jus' 'cause I build stuff? Ev'ryone builds stuff."
Sonic shook his head. "Only some people, squirt, and only after years and years of training. I've never met anyone who could just do it the way you can. You are way cool, you know that?"
Tails scrunched his little snout up in a puzzled frown. "Building stuff makes me cool, Sonic?"
"You bet it does." Sonic reached down and helped Tails to his feet. "C'mon."
As they approached the now familiar and somewhat dreaded shape of a Star Post up ahead, Tails looked up at Sonic. "We got all the Em'ralds, right?"
"Yeah, why?"
"So what's gonna happen if I hit it again?"
Without waiting for an answer, Tails took off and punched the Star Post hard. There was the equally familiar (and equally dreaded) sound of a warp opening, and another ring of stars appeared.
"Ooh! Look, Sonic, it's another Special Zone!"
"Oh good," Sonic said, coating each word in as much sarcasm as he could before dropping it into the silence.
"C'mon, let's see where it goes!" Tails bounced into the air and disappeared through the ring of stars before the hedgehog could stop him.
Swearing, calling Tails every name he could think of in the knowledge that the little fox couldn't hear him, Sonic followed.
"I said I never wanted to come back here again!" he yelled over the rushing wind at Tails, who was busy scampering from side to side collecting rings.
"No you didn't!"
No, Sonic thought grimly, now that he thought about it, he hadn't. He'd thought it, sure, but he'd never said it because he hadn't seen any real need to.
"An' I wanna see what's at the enda this one!" Tails shouted back as he leapt through a ring of bombs and snatched the gold rings on the other side. More through lack of choice than desire, Sonic followed suit.
"Just promise me one thing!" he shouted. "Never, ever touch another Star Post again!"
Tails didn't answer, mostly because he'd raced ahead to gather another armful of rings.
There was something different about this one. Sonic could feel it instinctively. Maybe it was the colour – all the others had been vivid, almost neon as opposed to this grey – or a shift in the atmosphere...or the fact that the sky was currently cycling through colours like a psychotic kaleidoscope.
Then he caught sight of the Emerald at the other end and stopped running to stare at it, then at Tails leaping forward in triumph to seize it, vanishing out of the Special Zone.
Sonic felt a chill run down his spine. Tails had just left, taking with him the only means of escape.
You wondered what happened when the blackness caught up with you? he thought grimly to himself over the roar of the wind. Looks like you're about to find out.
In fact, it was dismally anticlimatic; he fell through blackness for about four seconds before being expelled back into what he thought of as the real world as rudely as he had been in Mystic Cave Zone.
"Sonic, look! We got another Em'rald! How come, Sonic? You said there were on'y six so how come we got seven, huh? How come?" Tails was bouncing up and down like a caffeinated jumping bean, clinging the grey Chaos Emerald to him tightly.
"It's the seventh Emerald," Sonic said, staring at it.
"Yeah, I jus' said that but you said there were on'y six!"
"There were! At least...I thought..." Sonic shook his head, trying to organise his thoughts. "When Robotnik's lab exploded, the Chaos Emeralds were scattered all over Green Island. I found six of them but never managed to track down the seventh. I thought it had wound up at the bottom of some ocean."
"Ohhh." Tails squinted at it. "It's kinda pretty, huh Sonic?"
"Yeah, I guess it is."
"Kinda like someone put a cloud in a glass Em'rald shaped thingy!" Tails said, tilting the grey gem backwards and forwards.
"That's kinda poetic for you, squirt," Sonic said with a grin. "But yeah, it is like that." Taking the Emerald from the fox, he tucked it safely inside his quills. "C'mon kiddo. Let's go see what Oil Ocean has to offer."
"Yeah!" Tails seized Sonic's hand and raced along, trying to tug the hedgehog behind him. "Hey Sonic? What if there's eight Emeralds?"
"There aren't."
"That's what you said 'bout the seventh, 'member?"
"No. Trust me. There were only ever seven Emeralds." Something in Sonic's voice told the little fox not to push it, and Tails didn't say another word until they arrived in Oil Ocean.
"What's that say?" he demanded, pointing at the six foot black-on-yellow sign.
"NO NAKED FLAME," the hedgehog read aloud.
"What's naked?"
"Not having any clothes on," Sonic answered without thinking.
Tails frowned. "I didn't know flames wore clothes, Sonic."
"It's...well, it's kinda their way of saying don't light any matches."
"How come not?"
Sonic pointed down to the water, although in this case the term wasn't really appropriate any longer.
"One spark, kiddo, and the whole Zone would go up in flames."
"Cool," Tails breathed, eyes huge.
"No it's not!" Sonic stepped forward. He'd heard that the oil was so thick here that you could actually run on it for short periods of time, but he didn't much want to experiment.
Oil Ocean used to be known as Westside Ocean Zone back in the days when it was a genuine ocean, and as clean and pollution free as the rest of Mobius. Some decades ago, when Mobius was producing and using fossil fuels and crude oil, it was decided that extreme pollution in one place was preferable to moderate pollution everywhere else, and since Westside Ocean was huge enough to take the amounts produced and surrounded on all sides by land, it had been voted in as the best place. The feral fish had been moved to the ocean surrounding Westside Island along with the non-ferals. Although the dolphins had gone happily enough, the sharks and orcas had kicked up something of a fuss. A couple had even been crazy enough to refuse to leave and had lasted two weeks before the pollution forced them to admit defeat. Westside Ocean was renamed Oil Ocean, and was seen as a place that nobody ever went if they could possibly avoid it.
Unfortunately, Sonic and Tails fell into that small minority of having-to-visit, which was why they were now standing staring at a bridge done in a colour scheme of beige and hot pink that, amazingly, didn't look out of place in the steel surroundings.
"That bridge doesn't look very stable," Sonic said edgily.
Tails giggled. "It's not a stable, Sonic, it's a bridge, see?"
"I meant it doesn't look safe."
"Oh, it's safe. Look." Before Sonic could stop him, the little fox had scampered forward onto the bridge in question and was bouncing up and down vigorously in an effort to show just how safe it was. It seemed perfectly sound for the first five seconds and then, just as Sonic stepped onto it, it fell away from under his feet.
Reflexes fired, sending the hedgehog not only over that bridge but the next one as well, and they only shut down then because they'd almost propelled his body into something that looked like a cross between a kiln and a gas oven.
"What the hell is that?" Sonic wondered aloud.
He got his answer a few seconds later in the form of a loud bang as the top of the whatever-it-was (some kind of pressure valve, perhaps?) got blasted several metres into the air before clanging down onto the ground again with enough force to crush anything caught underneath.
Sonic forgot about the valve a moment later, mostly because a seahorse had just emerged from the oil and launched a projectile at him. Not fire – even Robotnik probably wasn't that insane – but whatever it was probably wouldn't do Sonic much good if he came into contact with it. Dodging almost automatically, the hedgehog leapt for the bot, missed, attempted to stop, skidded and fell onto an oil chute which swept him down through the Zone before depositing him on a platform near one of the pressure valves.
Tails, who had been trying valiantly to keep up with his newly adopted big brother ever since the first bridge had gone, finally swooped down next to him, giggling so hard he was having difficulty staying airborne.
"Boy, Sonic, you sure look funny!"
Sonic supposed he did at that. He'd been coated in oil pretty much all over, and this had given his fur a kind of piebald effect. It also gave a slick, unpleasant sense of detachment to his sense of touch, like his fingers had been coated in butter.
"You wanna go up there?" Tails asked him, pointing to the platform Sonic had just left.
"I got a better idea," Sonic lied while trying frantically to think of one. Given the current slickness of his hands, chances were good that Tails wouldn't be able to hold onto him for long.
A bang jerked his attention round to a nearby valve, followed by the clang as the top dropped onto it again.
A slight grin appeared on the hedgehog's face.
Well, why not?
Carefully, doing his best not to slip and trying not to look down (and failing on both counts) Sonic hopped onto the top and hoped like hell this would work.
It did, although not quite as he'd expected; the valve exploded beneath him and fired him with surprising accuracy into what looked like a checkered cannon, which rotated a full ninety degrees before firing him into another cannon that in turn blasted him into a third which shot him out onto a platform.
Getting up, Sonic staggered forward, weaving unsteadily from side to side, and only barely missed the spiked bar that was sliding back and forth on the platform. His footing slipped, sending him to his hands and knees just in time to avoid another projectile from a second seahorse.
Sonic ignored it. He'd already learned that the bots here were only really dangerous if they caught you napping; the seahorse could throw a nasty bullet, but the hot-pink octopus he'd also noticed on his way down...no, no threat. Better to keep his mind on more important things.
Like staying alive, for example.
He broke into a run, leapt into the air and was carried along on a powerful breeze before he had a chance to work out what was happening. Landing, frowning slightly, he turned back to see several fans in a line between him and the water, blades whirring gently.
Hmm. Maybe the people here have some good ideas after all.
A few seconds later, he added the rider, Then again, maybe not, as another fan mounted on the platform started up, hard enough to send him sliding on the oil onto another oil chute. This one dumped him onto another one, which carried him onto a third, reminding Sonic strongly of the dropping platforms back in Hill Top Zone. Those had been over lava rather than oil, and Sonic still wasn't sure which he preferred.
He didn't have time to work it out, however, as his own momentum carried him on, over several more fans before he finally managed to stop by the simple procedure of throwing himself onto his belly and gripping the platforms with both hands. It was a slow, somewhat nerve-racking process, and the sight of a metal grey submarine lurking in the oil ahead didn't do anything to improve it.
"You're kinda early, aren't you?" he said through clenched teeth, still hanging onto the platform like grim death as Tails hovered nearby.
"Early?" Robotnik folded the magazine he'd been reading and stashed it in the glove compartment, where it had plenty of back issues to make friends with. "Hardly. You took your own sweet time getting here."
Sonic managed to stand up and fold his arms. "You know, it would save a lot of time and effort for both of us if you attacked me at the beginning of the Zone instead of the end."
"Perhaps, but...Sonic?" Robotnik broke off as he saw the hedgehog properly for the first time, gawked at him for a few minutes, then abruptly started to laugh. He had a genuine reason for his reaction this time; after sliding down an oil chute, being dunked into a slick and spin-dried over half a dozen fans, Sonic was looking distinctly the worse for wear and not at all like the blue hedgehog Robotnik had been expecting.
"Yeah. Look, I'm bruised, I'm tired, I'm even oilier than you are right now and I just want this day to be over, so can we cut the pre-butt-kicking banter and skip right to the part where I trash your machine?" Sonic considered. "If you got a self-destruct switch you can push to make things that little bit quicker, now's the time, doc."
Robotnik chuckled. "Oh, I'm sorry, Sonic. I must have forgotten to equip the Eggstreme Submarine Mark Two with such a device."
"You're not very good at names, are you?" Sonic said. "What's next, doc? The Eggscavator Mark Three?"
Robotnik crunched gears angrily, causing the Eggstreme Submarine Mark Two's engine to grind in protest. "Alright then, Sonic, you come up with seven egg-related names for seven different ways of squashing pesky hedgehogs!" He slid underwater (or underoil, Sonic supposed wryly) and the hedgehog tensed, ready.
Something sharp and metallic erupted from the blackness and Sonic leapt into the air as a deadly, segmented spear flew over the platform in a graceful arc before sliding beneath the ocean, which was so thick with oil it didn't even make a splash.
"Is that all you got?" Sonic said as Robotnik surfaced again.
"Not at all, Sonic. Allow me to give you a short demonstration." Robotnik pushed a button. "The Eggstreme Submarine Mark Two comes with several accessories for all your hedgehog-squashing and evil genius needs," he continued very much in the manner of a used car salesman. "As demonstrated earlier, it comes with a homing claw that goes into a circular orbit and reslots itself neatly into its own individual compartment. It is also built to withstand oil and lava and has a fully equipped radar for navigating through areas of poor visibility."
"Sweet!" Sonic said, with a credible imitation of enthusiasm. "Does it come in blue?"
"No, but there is one interesting feature I haven't displayed yet." Robotnik flicked a series of switches. "I like to call it the Robotnik Flamethrower Deluxe."
"A flamethrower?" Sonic all but shrieked at him. "Here, in Oil Ocean Zone? Are you CRAZY?"
"A laser, Sonic, and a very special kind at that. It only burns liquid oil, and only that which is in contact with metal. It was about all I managed to salvage from when you destroyed my Sky Base."
"That was real cool!" Tails said happily. "You got into this robot that looked jus' like you, on'y uglier, an' you tried to whump Sonic on'y Sonic whumped you first!"
Sonic clenched his teeth. "Tails, remember the little talk we had about reality and fiction?" He glanced back at Robotnik's flamethrower. "Admit it, doc; you're gonna incinerate the whole place."
Robotnik chuckled. "My dear Sonic—"
"Don't call me that!"
"—even I'm not that psychotic," the doctor continued, ignoring Sonic's interruption. "How on earth am I supposed to conquer the planet when it's nothing but dust and ashes? Do have a little common sense."
Tails frowned. "How on what?"
Robotnik's hand hesitated over the controls. "What?"
"You said how on urth were you supposed to conquer the planet. What's a nurth?"
"Tails, can we discuss this later?" Sonic said through clenched teeth.
"But Sonic, I wanna know!"
The doctor smiled broadly. "I'm sure your hedgehog friend can explain it to you." Shifting the smile onto Sonic, he added, "Isn't that right, Sonic?"
"No," Sonic said, with perfect truth; he'd never heard Robotnik use that expression before, at least, not to remember.
"So what is a nurth?" Tails persisted. "Some kinda great big evil secret weapon thingy that's got loadsa attacking things that wanna destroy everything in the whole wide world?"
Robotnik's smile became even broader. "Oddly enough, cub, that's not so far from the truth as you might think." He shook his head. "And for someone who wanted to cut through the immature banter, Sonic, you seem to be doing more than your fair share of it. I thought you wanted this fight over quickly."
Sonic's only answer came in the form of a deadly leap, body curled over to crash into the vehicle's shell with devastating force, slicing through the metal and putting it out of commission.
At least, that was the plan. The reality was that his oiled body hit Robotnik's equally oiled submarine, skidded forward to straddle the fin at the end and send Sonic into his own, very private world of pain, then slithered off into the oil with a gloomp.
Robotnik sucked in his breath with a sharp hiss, eyes gleaming with demonic amusement and perhaps a tiny hint of involuntary male sympathy.
"Ooh. Felt that, Sonic."
"Sonic!" Tails dived into the oil, floundered around until he found a hand and yanked hard, swimming with him to the platform where Sonic managed to crawl on top to safety.
Robotnik's machine submerged again and stayed under for a couple of minutes before something sleek, metallic and very, very sharp erupted, like a cross between a scorpion tail and a spear. Sonic leapt as it flew over the platform in a graceful arc before sliding beneath the ocean, which was so thick with oil it didn't even make a splash.
"Sonic, are you okay?" Tails glared over his shoulder. "Don't you dare try an' whump us, ol' Robotnik, not 'til Sonic's okay again!"
As it happened, there was no danger of Robotnik either answering Tails or whumping Sonic, since the doctor was currently laughing so hard he could hardly sit upright.
"Sonic. Sonic, you gotta talk to me. Are you okay?"
"Yeah...fine..." Sonic croaked; apart from the soft ball of hot lead currently burning in his nether regions, he'd involuntarily swallowed a good few mouthfuls of the oil and was fighting a furious battle not to throw up. His chest hitched and he dry heaved once or twice, then collapsed onto his side, curled up around the pain.
"Robotnik!" Tails turned, struck the best heroic pose he could come up with and glowered at the submarine. "It's jus' you an' me now!"
"And two minutes ago it was just me and Sonic," Robotnik said pleasantly. "Care to guess what the next step is?"
"Yeah! You're gonna get whumped real good!" Tails hurled himself at Robotnik, missed in his enthusiasm by about five feet and only narrowly avoided colliding with one of the struts.
"Mmm...no." Robotnik sank under the oil and pressed a button, aiming and firing the laser that was mounted on an almost identical device to the homing claw. The blue-hot beam ignited the oil on the strut Tails was hanging onto, causing the little fox to yelp and scrabble to the top of the platform.
"But I'm a fair man," Robotnik added as he resurfaced, "so I'll give you another guess."
"I'm gonna kick your wife an' crack your butt!" Tails yelled defiantly, then hesitated. Something about that wasn't quite right.
It certainly confused Robotnik, who frowned in a somewhat perplexed manner. He wasn't averse to the idea of killing Tails – in fact, given how much it would probably upset Sonic, he was almost enthusiastic about it – but he'd never had to fight anyone quite like this strange little two-tailed fox.
"Now you listen to me, you little freak—" he began.
Tails grabbed a piece of metal rubble and tried to throw it at the doctor, only to find it was too heavy and so he settled for flying up above and dropping it on top instead.
"Mebbe I am a freak but I'm a freak whose bestest friend is Sonic the hedgehog! Sonic likes me! He's my buddy! I bet he'd never be buddies with you, ol' Robotnik, not ever!"
Despite the newly acquired dent in his ceiling, Robotnik chuckled. "Little cub, I could tell you stories—"
That was as far as he got before Sonic slammed into the submarine, spinning over and over as he ground through the metal. The fear of Robotnik's exposing the truth – especially to Tails – was enough to cut through the pain and sickness and galvanise him into action.
Smoke started to drift into Robotnik's cockpit and he reacted the only way he could; he dived into the oil, forcing Sonic off to be picked up by his pet fox.
The doctor's eyes narrowed. Well. This machine may have failed to kill Sonic, but he had others lined up, didn't he? Oh yes. He had others.
In the meantime, he also had a leak in the ceiling that he did his best to plug up with one hand while steering with the other. That had been close. Too close for comfort.
Sonic, meanwhile, was back on the platform and trying to ignore the occasional spike of pain in his stomach, something that was helped when a black, slowly dripping hand snuck into his and a pair of happy blue eyes looked up at him adoringly.
"We did it again, huh?"
"Tails..." Sonic stared, momentarily speechless and trying to fight down the steadily rising nausea that was itching his stomach. He hadn't really noticed Tails after the fight had begun, hadn't seen the effect the oil had had on the little fox's fur. "Is that you?"
Tails giggled. "'Course it's me, Sonic!"
"What happened to you?"
"Nothing." Tails tried to snuggle against Sonic, but the hedgehog backed off.
"That's far from nothing! What happened to your fur?"
"What? Oh." Tails glanced down at his thick coat, now made somewhat thicker and a lot darker by the oil in it. "Looks good, huh Sonic? Whatcha think?"
Sonic shook his head, still staring at Tails. Not one strand of hair was left free of oil; the colour made those brilliant blue eyes stand out all the more, but he still looked ridiculous.
Seeing the proud gleam in those eyes, however, Sonic found he couldn't bring himself to point this fact out quite so blatantly, and instead he sighed.
"I think you're gonna need another bath, squirt."
Tails giggled again. "Sure, but not 'til Wednesday, right Sonic?"
"Wrong. You can't go around looking like that. Just how did you wind up covered in oil, anyway?"
"I swimmed!" Tails dropped to all fours, shook himself off in that manner peculiar to canines and then straightened up again, looking very pleased with himself. There was no noticeable change in his appearance, although Sonic was now spattered with the sticky goop.
"Why?" the hedgehog demanded as he tried in vain to brush some of the oil off his own hide.
"'Cause I heared people in Em'rald Hill Zone talking 'bout how oil was real good for your skin! An' I thought that while I was here I could put some oil on me an' mebbe it'd be real good an' I wouldn't have to have a bath again! An' anyway, I had to save you 'cause you fell into that black oily water stuff, 'member?"
"Yeah, well, your little plan didn't work. You're going into the tub tonight. This afternoon, if I can fix it, though there's not much afternoon left," Sonic added, glancing to where the setting sun was staining the sky orange.
"Can't! 'S not bath night tonight!"
"Tails, when I agreed to only give you one bath a week, I didn't know that you were going to be dumb enough to go skinny dipping in an oil slick!" Sonic said tersely. "Even saving my life isn't enough to get you out of a wash. You're having a bath and that's it. What's the next Zone after this one?"
"There's on'y one more Zone on this island!" Tails said happily. "We're gonna go to Metropolis!"
"Metropolis?" A slow smile slid onto Sonic's face, one that even Robotnik would have been proud of. "That's where that publishing house is, right?"
"Yup!"
The smile broadened. "Pretty cool."
Tails giggled. "Are you gonna go get royalty things from 'em?"
"You bet, and when I do we'll go and buy you the biggest meal you've ever had in your life." Sonic stared down at Tails and folded his arms. "And don't think you've escaped that bath, squirt!"
"Yeah, but...but..." Tails racked his brains for a plausible excuse to ensure he never had to have a bath ever again, and found the perfect one. "I'm 'llergic to bathtubs!"
"Nice try." Sonic headed over to the prison egg, only noticing as he started to jump onto it that Tails was hiding behing a strut and doing his best to twine both his namesakes together so he no longer looked like a two-tailed fox. It worked, after a fashion – he now looked a lot like a big-eared beaver who hadn't been well – but he still wasn't taking any chances.
Well, there would be time enough to coax the little fox out of hiding later, Sonic thought as he destroyed the prison.
This time, instead of the crowds surrounding him that he'd almost gotten used to, there was a silence that was almost shocked, broken only by low whispering.
"I thought Sonic was blue," someone said from behind the hedgehog, just loud enough for him to hear.
"I was until I fell down your oil chutes!" Sonic said tersely. "You really oughta get those roped off." Turning to Tails, he held out his hand. "C'mon out here, squirt."
Tails shook his head so violently his ears flapped, spattering everything within a six foot radius with droplets of oil.
"C'mon lil bro, it's okay. They're not gonna be mean to you."
Another shake of the head. Sonic swore mentally, then crossed over to the little fox and crouched down next to him, putting an arm around his shoulders.
"Tails, trust me. Nobody's gonna make fun of you."
"'S what you said last time." There was clear distrust in Tails' voice, not of Sonic but of everyone else. "Nobody else is cool like you are, Sonic."
"Oh, c'mon, that's not true. What about Beak, back in Chemical Plant Zone? Or all the people in Hill Top? They were pretty cool, remember?"
"I jus' wann'em to leave me 'lone, Sonic. They're all watching, look. How come they're all watching?"
"Maybe they think you don't like them."
"An' I don't." Tails slid closer to Sonic. "I don't like anyone, Sonic, not anyone 'cept you an' Beak an' the others."
"You're gonna be one lonely little fox cub if that's true," Sonic said quietly.
"I always been lonely, Sonic." The statement was delivered with a childish simplicity and candour that sent a chill down the hedgehog's spine.
"Kiddo..." Sonic racked his brains for something that might convince the suspicious little fox to trust what he was saying. "If you come with me, they'll give you some food."
Tails looked away mutinously. "Sure, after they spit or peed on it or something."
"Okay, you know, there's a very fine line between understandable caution and paranoia," Sonic remarked. "And you just flew past it."
"What?"
"Never mind. C'mon, trust me."
"I do trust you, Sonic; I jus' don't trust anyone else."
Sonic raised his voice, devoutly hoping the residents currently pretending not to eavesdrop would hear. "Lil bro, I promise that if anyone calls you a freak or laughs at you or makes fun of you, I'll throw 'em into the oil slick." He stood up and took hold of a small, very oily hand. "C'mon."
He led the reluctant Tails out from behind the strut and into the throng of people, noticing their awed silence with a sense of resignation that was dulled by the stabbing pains in his stomach.
"How can we ever thank you?" someone said from behind him.
Ordinarily Sonic would have declined any reward or gift. Now, though, his stomach and fur both seized control of his mouth long enough to say, "A bath, and two of the biggest meals you serve this side of the oil."
"Two for me too!" Tails piped up and then, because he didn't want them to think he was greedy, he added, "But no bath."
"Yes, bath," Sonic told him. "You're black."
"I like being black! An' anyway, I don't wanna get their water dirty."
"You won't," a seagull put in, addressing Tails but looking at Sonic. "You're not the first to get coated. We have cleaning facilities specially designed for getting rid of oil."
Tails shook his head. "'Sokay, Sonic's gotta go first 'cause he's the hero an' heroes shouldn't be mucky, but I'm okay."
There was a short pause, then Sonic remarked to the sky, "Shame. Guess I'll have to eat the food myself, won't I?"
"Huh?"
"Well...they won't want to give you food while you're looking like that."
"How come not?"
"It'd get oily and then it would poison you," the seagull put in, who had a chick about Tails' age and was well used to this type of conversation. "And it's not a bath; it's a high-powered immersion in a container of H2O to rid your skin and fur of oil and other impurities."
"Not a bath?" Tails said, in the suspicious tones of one looking for the down side.
"It's like he said, lil bro." Sonic's lips were twitching, although not enough for Tails to notice. "It's not a bath; it's a high-powered immersion in a container of H2O."
Tails tipped his head on one side, only realising his mistake when this caused oil to dribble into one ear.
"Do high-flowered 'mersions hurt, Sonic?"
"Course not."
"They do occasionally tickle," a lion put in, unable to resist joining the fun, "especially when you undergo the vigorous fur-cleaning bubbles which are washed off with the portable rain unit."
"Do you, uh, have one of those portable rain units powerful enough to clean me up without the immersion part?" Sonic asked idly, who secretly had as much of an aversion to baths as Tails, although that was due more to hydrophobia than anything.
"We have one, yes."
"But you gotta have the 'mersion thing too, Sonic, 'cause otherwise it won't be fair."
"No...call it my way of saying sorry for not getting you a birthday present, squirt. You have the ba—the high-powered immersion and I'll just settle for the rain unit."
Tails hesitated. "Well...if you're sure..."
"Trust me, lil bro, I was never surer of anything in my life," Sonic said sincerely. He glanced at the seagull. "Lead the way."
Okay, so after several Zones of Tails' predicting this, Oil Ocean has finally been reached and finished :P Next up, Metropolis ;)