"It's all here... It's really all here.."
The Slayer, never one to take much pause, couldn't help but look around in awe as Nuts hopped from his shoulders.
The planet, just minutes ago a flaming ball of demon-infested rock... was completely and utterly restored.
The heavily armoured human found himself standing in a vast green field, filled with yellow flowers. The sun shone brightly above, gleaming from his dark green armour. Tall palm trees swayed with the breeze, and in the distance enormous mountains stretched from lush green forests, into a blue sky populated with lazy clouds.
The Slayer flinched in surprise as something nudged his boot. He swiftly looked down, to find some kind of tiny brown creature sniffing curiously at his foot. The creature looked up to him with big green eyes, long floppy ears resting on its back as it sat on its hind legs and stared up at the marine with fascination, little black nose twitching.
The DoomSlayer had to fight the urge to kneel and begin petting the adorable alien rabbit.
"It's... all here..." Nuts Blascowickz, the twin-tailed Mobian fox under the Slayer's protection, stumbled forward like a zombie as he took in his surroundings, mouth agape and eyes bulging as he absorbed the world he had seen devoured by Hell less than a year earlier.
The fox dropped to his knees, green fatigues blending with the grass, and began to sob.
The Slayer watched his little orange friend weep and looked back down at the alien rabbit. The creature had stood on its hind legs and begun patting at his shinguards, curious at the strange visitor. The Slayer took a moment to reach down and - gently, carefully, gingerly - lifted the rabbit into his arm. The creature didn't even resist, simply snuggling into the Slayer's arm and closing its eyes contentedly.
The human couldn't believe it. a corrupted world, restored.
Well, not restored yet.
The Slayer scratched the rabbit behind its ears and gently set it back onto the grass, the impossibly cute animal blinking in confusion as it was wrenched from its brief nap. The Slayer wiggled his fingers goodbye and turned his attention back to the fox-child. They had a mission to accomplish after all.
...
The Slayer stomped on over to the fox and gently knelt down beside his apprentice.
He lay a hand on the crying fox and grunted. The Fox's ears perked and his head swung around, huge bloodshot blue eyes wide and tears streaking his white muzzle.
The Slayer cocked his head and squeezed his companion's shoulder.
come on, kid. We have a job to do.
The fox nodded in understanding at the human's mute statement, and raised himself from the grass, brushing off his fatigues and adjusting his tool bandolier.
"You're right, Green..." The young Mobian sniffed, wiping at his nose with his black-gloved left hand. "We're here for a reason... I'm sorry..."
The Slayer mutely squeezed the fox's shoulder again, and then raised to his feet. The Mobian followed suit, standing to his full height... roughly reaching the Slayer's thighs, including the tips of his large ears.
"Nuts..." Vega, the Slayer's Sentient Intelligence companion, piped up at a thought from his human partner. "Are you ready to carry out our objective?"
Nuts clenched his fists and nodded, blinking the tears from his eyes.
"Yeah, Vega. Let's go."
with that, the fox-boy set his jaw and marched forward, heading for a trail that led into the green forests.
The Slayer grunted and shot a thought at Vega.
Kid's a little more headstrong than usual, huh?
"Well, I suppose he's taking after his father..." The intelligence replied, sarcastic as ever.
The Slayer batted at his helmet, before squeezing the grip of his holstered shotgun and stomping off after his orange charge.
...
"Nuts, mission time is now one hour fourteen minutes fifteen seconds..." Vega chimed from the Slayer's helmet. "
"huh?" The fox stumbled over a thick root, wrenched from his stupor at Vega's inquiry. He blinked rapidly, still appearing lost in his surroundings.
The Slayer understood. He would feel the same if he suddenly found himself on his own restored Earth.
"You appear to be quite lost..." Vega continued, artificial voice emanating from the Slayer's helmet with concern.
Nuts rubbed at the back of his head and looked around the emerald green clearing the trio had found themselves in.
"Sorry guys..." The fox said, resting his thumbs in his belt, "it's been a while... and I've kinda been trying not to remember this place..."
The Slayer cocked his head and raised an eyebrow behind his glowing blue translucent visor.
The human used his memories to fuel his rage against the Demonic hordes. Nuts had buried his, building a new identity around himself, as much protective armour as the Slayer's own Praetor Suits. And now, being back on a restored version of his ruined world... This couldn't be easy for the kid.
after all, no matter how intelligent he was... The kid was only thirteen years old.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Vega asked worriedly, the sentient intelligence's aparent maternal instincts on display.
Nuts jerked at the concerned inquiry, having been staring into space for a few moments. His gauntleted hand rested on the grip of his energy pistol as his ears pinned and his pupils constricted, a vacant expression on his face as he looked up at his human guardian.
After a moment Nuts closed his eyes and practised his breathing. The Slayer patiently waited while the fox had his moment, until the most recent addition to the Blascowickz family reopened his eyes and nodded.
"I'm fine, I can do this..."
The Slayer offered his orange apprentice a thumbs up, which was returned with a weak smile.
"Okay..." Nuts hissed through gritted teeth. "Think Tails, think..."
Tails. There was that name again. The Slayer assumed it had been the fox's moniker before the destruction of his planet, but apart from the rare occasion when his mind was occupied the fox never referred to himself with the name.
Neither the Slayer nor Vega questioned it. The kid clearly didn't want to indulge them in his previous life.
The fox shook his head and snapped his fingers as though he had just recovered from a brain fart.
"I can fly... for fuck's sake, I can fly!" The fox lightly slapped his forehead and looked up at the Slayer . "How the fuck do you forget you can fuckin' fly?!"
The Slayer, even with his enhanced reflexes, jumped back as Nuts uncoiled his twin tails and instantly hopped from the soft grass into a hover.
"I'm gonna do a quick aerial recon of the area!" The fox grinned at him with pointed canines, hovering before the human like a fluffy orange helicopter. "I can do more from the air! Be back in five!"
Before the Slayer could react, the Mobian fox accelerated the spin of his tails and shot into the sky like a rocket. The human could only watch in mute exasperation and shrug his shoulders as the fox went off on his reconnaissance sortie.
"I still can't figure out how he does that," mused Vega, contemplating the fox-boy's strange flight capabilities .
The Slayer grunted and scanned the treeline, hand resting on the grip of Lucifer's Bane.
He had fought the legions of Hell far too often to let his guard down just like that.
...
"Dammit, Egghead... what the heck are you up to this time?!"
The blue blur flashed along one of his favourite strips in Green Hills, pausing momentarily to check a wrist-mounted data pad. He wrinkled his nose in frustration, usual cheery grin now a frown.
"Tails buddy... something's knocked out my locator... am I getting warmer or no?"
"You're close, sonic..." the chipper voice of the blue hedgehog's plucky fox sidekick crackled from his wrist pad directing him via satelite. "turn to your North-west and keep heading deeper into the woods!"
Sonic sighed. Deeper into the thick trees meant slower. The hedgehog didn't do slow. 'gotta go fast' and all that.
"Man, what I wouldn't give for a chilli dog and a soda right now... "
"How about a chilli dog flavoured soda?" the fox on the other end added helpfully.
"Oh my God. Tails, invent that."
"I was jo... Okay fine, whatever. Just come back in one piece, okay?"
Sonic's face relaxed into his usual determined lopsided grin, hands resting on his hips.
"Hey, I'm sonic the hedgehog!" He proclaimed confidently , "ain't nobody can keep up with me! " he crouched down into his usual starting position, before adding "be back in time for a game of Tomatopotamus 3!"
'isn't that the one everyone hates? "
Sonic shrugged. "It's different and slower paced than the originals, but still good stuff!"
With that, the fastest thing alive flashed forward, turning deeper into the forest, heading directly toward the source of the bizarre power disturbance detected not too long ago.
...
Free. He was finally free.
After months of being trapped in the confines of a Sentinel battle station, orbiting the ruin of his dead world... He was free and flying in fresh air, above the beautiful green and emerald landscape of Green Hills.
Mobius. His home. Alive and fresh and fertile once again.
He increased the thrust from his twin tails and set his arms by his sides, making himself as aerodynamic as he could, and accelerated upward like a fighter jet igniting its afterburners. The thick fur of his head, and the green fatigues he wore these days, plastered to his face and body with the wind. The fox grinned as he looked down upon the restored world below.
Miles never thought he would ever experience this again. Feel this alive again.
He still couldn't believe his crazy plan had worked. It had actually worked! The Slayer had forbidden it at first, understandably resistant to Nuts fiddling with his ship... but the more the Mobian had pressed, and the more Vega agreed with his calculations, the human eventually relented.
Weeks of hard work ensued, the fox barely sleeping as he altered the Fortress of Doom's engines. The Slayer, who still went on his expeditions to the surface, would return and physically have to make sure his orange charge actually got some sleep. The human would deploy on an eighteen-hour campaign to hunt down some nightmare beast or smash some flesh-egg production facility, and return to find the fox in the same position, still banging out some calculations or working on some indescribable piece of equipment.
And now here they were.
Miles smiled vacantly, tears brimming behind his flight goggles as he flew so high above his homeworld.
Then he snapped himself out of it. The Sentinel initiate had a job to do.
He slowed to a hover, taking in the landscape below. From his altitude he could see much of the surrounding environment.
His memory was hazy. After months of trying to divorce himself from his old life, it was ironic that now he needed to remember, he couldn't. He could theoretically scan the entire island alone in just a few hours... But there was no way he was leaving the heavily armoured human alone for that long. He wouldn't exactly fit in with the locals.
The fox was snapped from his thoughts as a clap of thunder hit his ears. He looked around in sudden fright, not willing to be caught this high up in a storm. Lightening did bad things to flying objects.
But the sky was clear, the sun beating down, no rain clouds to be found.
The noise had come from below.
Nuts scanned the environment below and raised a hand to his goggles, heart in mouth as he began to remember what a sonic boom from the ground must mean... and then he saw it. Far below, heading for the thick canopy of trees... a streak of blue, moving faster than the speed of sound.
He couldn't think. Couldn't believe what he was seeing. His best friend, his brother... back from the dead... it was too good to be true...
and then his heart stopped and he dropped a few metres in the air as a sudden spike of panic lanced through his chest. He recovered swiftly and grabbed the sides of his face as it occurred to him it really might be too good to be true.
The blue blur was streaking precisely in the worst direction it possibly could - right toward the giant armoured space marine Nuts had left unsupervised.
"Ah, shit..."
...
The Slayer looked around at his immediate environment, one hand still on the butt of his shotgun, taking in the sight of beautiful green trees beneath a turquoise sky, his fat boots planted among yellow flowers. some old ruins stood nearby, covered with ancient aztec-lookong hieroglyphs. Instead of humans in the images however, spiky haired figures with pointed snouts and crooked tails stood doing... whatever crap it was that a planet full of pint-size alien furries did when they weren't being devoured by hellspawn. Something to do with jewels, looking at the images.
It was bizarre. standing on a revived alien planet, lush with life, that from his perspective minutes ago had been utterly consumed by Hell.
The possibilities of what Nuts had dubbed the 'Temporal Drive' were endless. If they could do this with every consumed world, go back far enough to prevent an invasion before it even happened... They could do it. They could finally win.
And all thanks to a twin-tailed alien fox-boy who was capable of reworking technology literally developed by heaven itself.
Who'd have thunk it?
...
"Oh Chaos..." Sonic muttered from his cover in the trees, "what the heck is that? "
He lay low and did his best to remain hidden, his blue fur contrasting harshly with the surrounding trees, as before him stood a huge green automaton, heavily armoured and scanning the environment. Luckily for him he was behind it, and it appeared to have not noticed him. Its hand rested on some kind of massive weapon holstered at its hip.
Sonic couldn't place it, but just the sight of the machine filled him with terror. Deep, primal terror.
He swallowed his nerves and whispered into his communicator.
"Tails... I'm at the place... and I have eyes on some kind of robot... I haven't seen this kind before, but it looks tough..."
"Eggman design?"
Sonic bit his lip and considered. "Unknown... but it looks like a freaking tank..."
"hold on, I'll be over with equipment to take it out.."
Sonic shook his head. This thing, whatever it was, was too dangerous. It needed to be dismantled immediately.
luckily, smashing robots was kinda his thing.
"No Tails... I'm taking it down now..."
"Sonic, are you crazy? Wait for backup!"
"No can do, little buddy... I'll contact you when this is over... "
"Sonic-"
Sonic rapidly shut off his communicator and stretched his limbs, preparing for a fight. "Sorry little bro... no way I'm letting you anywhere near this guy... " the hedgehog set aside his fear and allowed adrenalin to run through his body, the seasoned fighter wearing a determined grin.
"Okay tough guy, let's see what you're made of..."
...
The Slayer was fast. Very fast.
His internment in the Divinity Machine, millennia ago, hadn't only made him immortal... The machine had granted him unprecedented power, and speed, and made the once-mortal human into a weapon of rage and terror that could stand alone against the armies of Hell. The only thing the demonic hordes feared.
He wasn't fast enough.
His long-ingrained combat instincts kicked in as he sensed something to his rear left, moving with intent, his grip instinctively tightening on his holstered weapon.
"I have detected-"
Vega was cut off as the Slayer whipped around... and a blue cannonball smashed into his visor with enough force to knock the heavily armoured human from his feet. The marine slammed into the ground hard, and blinked stars behind his shattered visor.
"Well you know what they say..." Came a smug voice from across the field, "the bigger they are the harder they-"
It's owner didn't get the chance to finish its statement as, with an enormous roar of fury, and faster than expected, the Unchained Predator rose to a knee, unslung Lucifer's Bane, and unleashed an enormous blast of smoke and flame.
...
"Ah jeez! "
Sonic, the fastest thing alive, barely had time to react as the automaton bellowed a challenge and fired at him with the most brutal weapon the hedgehog had ever seen. He just about managed to exit the blast radius... but not before a slug from the weapon's wide spread nicked his leg.
That was close. Too close. How had the thing recovered so fast?
it didn't matter. He'd just have to fight faster.
"Well then big guy.." The hedgehog muttered as he hopped through the trees, "if it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get!"
...
Hold still, you little shit!
The Slayer angrily tried to keep the flashing blue blur in his sights, as it pinballed from tree to tree, unable to maintain a fix on the thing. He was accustomed to fighting fast targets, especially blood-totem fuelled demons, but this was on another level.
He took his chance, firing another blast of godlike fury from his shotgun.
He missed.
The blue cannonball hopped from a tree and smashed into his helmet again, causing the marine to stagger. With a snarl the Slayer swiped at the thing with his arm mounted blade, slashed using the shotgun's meathook as a bayonet, and all he achieved was a blue projectile to the torso with every lunge.
Until eventually be caught his assailant with a kick. Satisfaction filled him as the blue blur was punted like a soccer ball, slamming into the nearby ruins with enough force to crack the rock.
It paused for a moment. The human thought he saw blue fur, tan face, green eyes.
Didn't care. His blood was up, rage consuming his actions, and conscious thought was out of the window.
The shotgun wasn't cutting it. In a flash, faster than his assailant was prepared for, the marine holstered the brutal weapon... and in his hands materialised an enormous, multi-barrelled chaingun, pulled from the Praetor Suit's matter storage system.
His finger clamped on the trigger.
And the blue thing dashed away as bullets spat out at an enormous rate of fire.
...
"CrapcrapcrapcrapcrapcrapCRAP!"
Sonic dashed between the trees, head down as high-velocity projectiles mowed down the surrounding vegetation. Trees shattered and bushes just disintegrated in the hailstorm, the noise like the rampage of some screaming beast. He had fought faster opponents, larger opponents, but this guy was adaptable
Where the heck had that giant weapon even come from?!
He had to throw off the machine's aim. Rob it of its ranged capabilities.
The hedgehog grimaced and leaned forward into another huge burst of speed, swerving to intercept his foe like a missile as the huge weapon began to whine down.
...
The Slayer grunted with frustration as the chaingun overheated, having expended a large portion of its ammunition into scything down the surrounding forest like wheat. The weapon dematerialised in his hands as he made to switch to his plasma gun... But he was interrupted by a sudden blue whirlwind streaking around him.
The blue blur now circled him at enormous speeds, kicking up dust into a swirling tornado, severely limiting his visibility. He blindly aimed the plasma gun, until the weapon was knocked from his hands by the blue projectile. The assailant pounded into him again and again, battering and denting his armour, relentless impacts seemingly attempting to break the human apart through sheer attrition.
He roared with frustration and rage, and made to switch to his shotgun again... Before remembering what else he possessed in his inventory.
Like fighting up close, huh? Okay then, I'm game for that...
...
Sonic skidded across the ruined clearing, the grass and flowers torn and covered with brass shell casings, smoke and dust filling the air. He continued to circle the still fighting robot, kicking up more dirt to obscure the thing's vision. He grinned as he realised it had stopped firing, and launched himself in for another attack. This was a battle of attrition now, and the hedgehog intended to keep battering the thing into scrap.
He spun through the air like a wrecking ball, right on target... And yelped as a monstrous mechanical roar tore from the centre of the whirlwind, and something vicious clipped the very ends from his spines. The hedgehog lost control of the spin dash, and tumbled end over end until he unfurled into a heap.
He hopped to his feet, rubbing his head.
"Jeez, how much can this guy take?"
The hedgehog prepared to launch himself into a spin dash before the automaton could recover... And paused abruptly as the smoke cleared, and the armoured machine stomped forward with a huge powered chainsaw in its hands.
The cracked visor bowed and the saw revved menacingly, the meaning clear:
come get me now.
Sonic furrowed his brow and the two combatants glared at one another, each waiting for the other to make a move.
They didn't get the chance. Before the fight could continue, a flash of Green and orange slammed down between the air and screeched a single command.
"STOP! FIGHTING! "
...
Sonic looked on in bewilderment at the sudden newcomer, an orange fox Mobian wearing some kind patchwork military outfit.
A twin-tailed orange fox Mobian. Now angrily berating the armoured giant in some kind of foreign language, his armoured right arm thusting a scolding finger.
"The hell are you doing, Green?! I told you NOT to shoot at anybody! "
The armoured giant made some kind of indignant gesture, spreading its suddenly empty hands wide and releasing a grunt.
"I don't give a flying fuck who started it! What are you, eight?!"
Sonic watched befuddled, as Tails bickered with the thing like it were a child.
How the hell had his brother gotten here so fast? And what was he wearing?
"Sonic?! Sonic, please come in! "
The concerned squeak of the Fox's voice emanated from the hedgehog's wrist communicator.
"Okay, just don't fuckin' do it again! We're here to save people, right? Not use 'em for freaking target practice! "
"Sonic! come in, please!"
Sonic was now utterly confused.
"Tails?!"
At the name, the fox Mobian before him spun around as though he had been shot at, ears perked and scanning for danger, one hand resting on the grip of a holstered weapon at his hip... and wild, crazy eyes looking the hedgehog over like a ghost.
" Sonic?"
" ... S... Sonic? "
...
"Sonic... Its... It's you..."
The other fox sure looked like Tails... but at the same time, didn't. The face was too gaunt, too lined, shell-shocked eyes just staring into Sonic as though barely recognising him.
But the blue eyes shone with tears, twin tails flicked, and a voice that was undeniably Tails' whimpered as the fox slowly approached him.
"Sonic... "
Sonic didn't know what to do simply standing in a bewildered state as 'Tails' suddenly fell forward and wrapped his arms around the hedgehog in a tight embrace, and burst into heaving sobs.
" Sonic... I... I never thought... "
"Sonic? Are you there?!"
"... Never thought I'd see you alive again..."
"Sonic, please respond or so help me-"
"Hold ON, Tails!" Sonic awkwardly replied into his communicator as the other fox sobbed into his shoulder, "I'm kinda in a... situation here..."
...
The Slayer cocked his head at the display, as Nuts flopped into the blue creature's arms. His rage subsiding, the human now registered the strange, waist-high blue alien as a native of the planet... and right now a very confused individual.
"I believe our charge is acquainted with this particular specimen," deadpanned Vega.
Yeah, thanks for the observation Vega...
Nuts continued to sob while the blue creature appeared to chatter into a wrist mounted device. The Slayer thought he heard a familiar voice squeak in reply, but disregarded it.
The human took a step forward to console his apprentice, but faltered at a glare from the blue creature. Looks like his prior opponent really didn't trust him.
Yeah, likewise buddy...
The Hellwalker was still mightily pissed that the blue creature had, without provocation, attacked him, shattering his helmet visor... and knocking him down.
Nobody knocked the Slayer down.
Tough little bastard, I'll give you that...
"should I remind your apprentice of our mission objective? " Vega pointedly chimed in his ear, the Sentient Intelligence intentionally doing the same to his human.
The Slayer considered for a moment, sad to see his young charge distraught again. Nuts was a tough little cookie, and hyper intelligent to boot, but he was still a kid... and had been through so much.
The Slayer briefly remembered blond hair, sniffling... A small eight year old child crying for his Marine father who was set to deploy to Mars the following day. And would never return.
The human shook his head.
No Vega... I'll do it myself...
...
"Yes, I know you're in a situation, Sonic! You've been radio silent for minutes! Excuse me for being concerned about my brother!"
Sonic was about to bite back, but paused as the armoured giant stepped forward. He glared at the thing.
no way dude...
The automaton appeared to understand his silent temperament, cocking its head quizzically. It seemed to contemplate for a few moments, before reaching both hands to the back of its neck.
Sonic looked on as, with a hiss, what he had assumed to be some kind of battle robot instead removed its helmet... revealing a heavily scarred, stone-grim face, piercing blue eyes regarding the hedgehog with something like contempt from beneath brown-blond fuzz.
Yikes. Definitely not a robot. More like some kind of extremely angry hairless ape.
"I'll... get back to you, Tails..." The hedgehog muttered into his communicator, locking eyes with the armoured creature.
The fox clutching to him had quietened his sobbing, now instead muttering mostly unintelligible nonsense Sonic recognised must be some alien language. Possibly belonging to the creature before him?
"all my fault... All my stupid dumbshit fault..."
Sonic was about to make some kind of inquiry to determine just what the hell was going on... when a vicious, gutteral snarl came from before him. The hedgehog tensed, wondering if the armoured creature had pulled out its huge powered chainsaw again... instead, the thing's mouth flapped open, a look of intense concentration on his scarred face as long unused speech functions slowly ground back into use.
"Ngh... nghuhtsszzz..."c
...
The fox went limp and released his grip on the hedgehog, staring back at the human in disbelief.
"Green?" Nuts whispered, tears staining his white muzzle "did... you just...?"
The Slayer scrunched his eyes shut in concentration as he tried to remember how to operate his mouthparts correctly.
"Mm... mmhishion..."
Nuts, ears pricked and eyes wide, tried to discern the meaning behind the gruff, hoarse slur of a word. The Slayer hadn't spoken a word in the year Nuts had been under his guard, and the fox understood such had been the case for an absurdly long time for the human.
"Mission?" The fox enquired. The human nodded, with an affirmative grunt.
Nuts took a deep breath and knuckled his head, eyes shut.
"You're right, Green... we have a job to do... I'm sorry..."
The human grimaced, stomping forward and ruffling the Fox's head fur.
Off to the side, finally having had enough of the drama, Sonic stepped forward and waved his hands side to side.
"Okay, okay... Time out!" The hedgehog said, eyeing the pair with confusion. "Can somebody please tell me what the hell is going on here?! "
Nuts and the Slayer exchanges incredulous glances. What the Hell indeed.
The Slayer nodded, helmet tucked under one arm. All you, kid.
Nuts and his guardian performed their usual fist bump, before the fox turned back to face his lost brother.
"Sonic..." He said, his distress shoved hard into the back of his mind, hand resting on his pistol grip in his habitual learned fashion. "This is... going to hard to explain... But you need to believe me. The fate of Mobius depends on it."
Sonic furrowed his brow at the suddenly collected fox, who had transformed from a shellshocked nervous wreck into what appeared to be some kind of military leader. The fox spoke with a strangely tinged accent, as though he had spent a long time speaking another language and neglecting his own.
"Just answer me one thing... " The hedgehog replied, eyeing Tails' doppelganger curiously. "Are you Tails?"
The fox bit his lip and nodded solemly. "Yes."
Sonic, who had previous experience dealing with alternate versions of himself and his brother, had another question.
"Where... Are you from?"
'Tails' briefly glanced back at his large friend before locking his wild blue eyes with Sonic's green.
"We're from the future... " the fox replied, "and we're here to stop... it. Stop everything..'
"Stop what? "
'Tails' grimaced, baring sharp canines. "The end of the fuckin' world."