Author's note: Nobody in the trifecta has reviewed yet? What is wrong here? Oh, well. Nobody ever got good crops by waiting for rain to fall.
Segment 1: For the Birds
Chapter 2: The Plot Thickens
"You'll have to excuse Sonic," Tails finally said after a lengthy silence. "He's always in a rush."
I didn't listen. I was a little worried. How did this happen? Why was I here, in Emerald Town? Would I be stuck with this feathery exterior forever? And how would I ever explain this to my sister, Kim?
"Tails," I mentioned, "I don't feel comfortable being like this."
"Eh, don't worry, you'll probably get used to it after a little while," Tails assured me. "If you want, I can give you a bit of training."
After thinking about it for a moment, I nodded. "Let's go."
That was all Tails needed to hear. He led me toward a large machine that looked like some sort of torture device. "Just step up here," he instructed me.
I decided to trust him, and stepped up to the machine. Tails carefully hooked me up to it, and fitted some kind of racing helmet or something over my head. I felt like I was in for a wild ride.
Suddenly, everything went dark. I could not see or feel anything. When it went away, I was in some kind of neon-grid landscape. The device Tails had hooked me to was evidently some kind of virtual reality mechanism. Neat.
Tails' voice echoed out as if from nowhere. "All right, Leo, I'm monitoring your actions, but don't get paranoid. Just follow my instructions and you'll be okay."
"All right," I responded, taking a ready stance. "What do I do first?"
For my first lesson, Tails walked me through the finer points of running at high speeds when you're flight-capable. When I hit full speed, my wings took over, and I coasted along the ground, a condition Tails referred to as "coast speed".
He also taught me how to use my wings to fly through the air in specific patterns, using air resistance to my advantage. Tails knew so much about the aerodynamics, he must have had some experience with it himself somehow.
A couple of Tails' more unusual lessons were some offensive techniques. I learned to curl into a tight ball while running and roll across the floor, and to do so when jumping into the air, either way smashing into my target for some good damage.
As for the seemingly infinite feathers that covered my body, I learned to put them to my wings and shoot them like arrows from a bow. It took a few tries, but I quickly became a crack shot with my feathers. Who knew I had it in me?
Eventually, Tails called for me to stop. Everything went dark again, and when I recovered, I was back in the lab. The VR training was finished.
I smirked. "Thanks, Tails. I feel pretty confident in my wings now." And I did. I felt like I could take on anything, even King Kong. I strode out of the exit door with my head held high.
The next thing I knew, I was lying on the floor. It seems that I had forgotten to check my oversized wingspan, which had conflicted with the door frame and knocked me back.
Tails, who had been watching the whole thing, laughed a little. "I wouldn't get too cocky. With all due respect, you're a little weak. I'll see if I can't figure out a way to improve those red feathers of yours to make them more powerful."
"Thanks a lot, Tails," I replied, and turned my attention back to the door just in time to see a blur of blue whiz by, accompanied by a shout:
"HELP! TAILS!"
Tails jumped. "Sonic! Leo, follow me!"
With that, Tails rushed out of the exit door. I followed him as quickly as I could. I had just gotten here, and now this? Things were getting exciting already! It was almost like a movie!
It took mere seconds for me to hit coast speed. Tails was already coasting along. I noticed that Tails' twin tails were twirling around like a rotor, providing acceleration. Hm, that explains how he knew so much about that, I thought to myself.
The blur which represented Sonic led Tails and myself straight out of town with the shore to our left. The road took a bend to the right and led into a desert, with one pyramid dominating the others. This was the pyramid our target decided to enter.
Just as we were about to reach the pyramid, Tails' shin hit a step, and he took a nasty spill and wound up with several bruises. I put my feet on the ground and screeched to a halt just in time not to join him.
"Tails," I yelped, "are you okay?"
"Kind of bruised," Tails replied somewhat weakly, "but no broken bones."
"You look awful. You should go back and take a rest," I suggested. "I'll go after Sonic."
It seemed like Tails wasn't sure what to decide, but he agreed. "Okay. When you find him, come back to the lab."
Now isn't that something! One complaint I got about the original story is that Tails wasn't involved enough in the action. I figure my reviewers deserve to see that fixed.
