Review Replies!

guy: Yeah, shorter chapters here than in my other Sonic fics but instead at least...a little bit more frequent? Hopefully? XD And no worries, I wouldn't ever actually write Knuckles as stupid - there is a difference between being naive and being an idiot, and by now Knuckles has managed to learn a lot more about the world and the people in it. I think he was actually pretending to sleep on purpose - he is (justifiably) suspicious of others' motives by now. That said, this chapter, more Tails! :D

Autumn: Thanks, here you go!

DanTheMan: Aw, thank you! And yup, this story's going again :)

Guest: Right?

Guest: Ahahah, that is the question now, isn't it? More information on that...soonish XD

LoneGarurumon: Ahahahaha, NOPE, they can't XD They're so wonderfully incompetent they're an absolute JOY to write :3 Hopefully more fun to follow, hope you enjoy the update! :D

Shadow Huntress: OMG, MEGA REVIEW, thanks! :D And yeah, oh man, I was SO into Pokemon as a kid, I'm surprised my parents kept their sanity XD I do remember being annoyed to death by Team Rocket at times but by now I kinda have to smile whenever I think of them, it's hard to find another trio of villains that are so hammy, needlessly complicated with their plans AND hopelessly fixated (they should meet up with Boom!Robotnik lol) (It is "Team Rocket", btw. I think they introduced themselves as Team Bucket because Team Rocket are known Pokemon thieves and they were worried Knuckles might recognize the name. :p As for writing Knuckles smart and capable, that's actually something that's really important about this character to me - him being not as familiar with social interactions and cues and clues, NOT him being dumb (plus, with Robotnik and his comments about humans in Sonic X, I think Knuckles is rather distrustful of humans in general). I always base my characterization of him on the fanfics of JudasFm, she had a great way of writing him :) When the Mobian characters talk, the humans don't hear repetitive sounds, they do hear a varied foreign language - Ash at the beginning when Sonic tries to talk to him mentions to Pikachu that he can't make out any distinctive sound that Sonic makes a lot that he could name him after :p (Sadly, that doesn't help to clue them in that they aren't Pokemon...) That said, some reunifications in the making and more world exploring! :D Hope you like and thanks again for that thoughtful comment!

Chapter 9: Many Happy Returns

"Ugh. Doc, do we have to do this before breakfast?" Sonic was sitting on the examination table in the lab, hands in his lap and head tilted to the side with a somewhat annoyed expression, seemingly not pleased at the way the human was currently holding up his left ear by its tip and using some piece of equipment to peer inside.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but Brock has almost finished cooking and I thought if we have a couple of minutes anyway..."

Sonic groaned. He wasn't quite sure what had possessed him when he had agreed to submit to 'just a few, non-invasive tests, please?' by the over-enthusiastic professor appearing in the door of his guest room in the morning, but he grimly supposed it probably had something to do with how the bloke increasingly reminded him of Kintobor.

Yeah, and we all know how well *that* ended, don't we? a sarcastic voice in his head asked, which Sonic tried his best to suppress.

No. The reason I'm going along with this is that I actually *do* think an official 'missing person' thing at the police station would be helpful. And that's likely to go faster if I pay them a favour first. Sonic sighed. The things I do for you guys...

A doorbell ringing interrupted his thought process, startling both him and Oak. Any hopes of this ordeal perhaps ending prematurely were promptly dashed, however, when the professor simply called out, "Can somebody get that, please?! Busy here!" To Sonic, he added, "Alright. Hop on down, please."

"Are we done?" Sonic's face assumed a hopeful expression as he slid down from the table again. So far, the exam had consisted of the professor listening to his heart ("Does it...always beat that fast?"), testing his reflexes ("Whoa!") and moving his joints, cutting off a fur sample from his shoulder, taking a magnifying glass to his quills, and had also included Oak pulling out a thermometre (that had had Sonic up against the wall again until he was reassured it was supposed to go into his mouth and nowhere else.)

"Almost. I would still like to scan you, if that's okay. Can you step onto the platform there, please?"

"Like this?" Sonic asked, at the same time coming to stand on the metal square with the half-open glass cylinder atop it. Truthfully, it made him somewhat uncomfortable- the thing reminded him way too much of a roboticizer – but he also guessed Oak wasn't very likely to try and start taking over the world with robot slaves any time soon, so he was probably safe. Green light washed over the hedgehog from a lamp above, and the professor nodded.

"Yes, perfect!" Oak smiled as a 3D-image of Sonic lit up on the screen in front of him. "Do you think I could get another image of you without your shoes? That's, uh, not rude to ask someone like you, is it?"

Sonic snorted. "More strange than rude, doc. But yeah, no, I'm mostly wearing the shoes because I need them to protect my feet, not to, uh, look decent or anything."

"Protect your feet?" Oak blinked at him. "From what?"

And now it was Sonic's turn to grin. "From friction heat." When the human only blinked, apparently not understanding, the blue hedgehog's grin turned smug. "I might not be one of your Pokemon, but I do have my own share of skills, doc."

"Really?!" now Oak seemed even more excited. "That's amazing! Would you care to demonstrate them to me?"

Sonic, privately thinking that this was already far better than the experiments had been so far, gave a pleased thumbs-up. "Sure thing. But you really wanna see me do that stuff outside, so-"

"Professor Oak? Sonic?" Misty poked her head through the door, looking slightly confused. "I think you have a visitor..."

xxx

Somewhat calmed down again (that duck-billed PERV!), Amy was currently looking at herself in the mirror, trying to get her breathing under control. The green blouse had been tucked into her orange skirt and she had smoothed down her quills as best as she could without a headband, in the end looking quite presentable, she thought. The only other thing that had been missing from the outfit was...

"Hey, look, she looks really cute!" The pink-haired girl's face split into a smile as Amy entered the living room where the humans apparently had been waiting for her.

"Um..." Amy tried, but had honestly no idea how to make herself understood. Also, this was going to be really embarrassing. The pink hedgehog kneaded the hem of her skirt in between her fingers again, willing herself not to blush as she looked at the girls. "Er..."

"Hm? Is there anything else you need?" the blonde apparently had picked up on what Amy had attempted to convey, because she was now starting to point at objects, or holding them out to her.

"Do you want a drink?" She indicated a bottle on the table. "Or maybe food?" She held out an apple.

"Er...actually..." Amy tried, still looking around the room awkwardly, but then her face lit up when she saw a pen and a paper pad, lying right there on the coffee table.

"Oh wow, look at this, she's drawing!" one of the humans exclaimed something in excitement as soon as Amy had started scribbling and then held the paper out to the blonde.

"What is it? What'd she draw?!" the youngest girl was now also shoving her face into her sister's personal space, all of them crowding around the doodle.

"I...think..." The oldest one blinked, and then looked at her sisters with amazement. "She's drawn...socks and panties...?"

xxx

It was the next morning, when Tails woke up, stretched, yawned, and then noticed that he had fallen asleep without meaning to. After he had finished his 'dinner' yesterday night, he had actually wanted to leave then, and start looking for his friends, but then, unsurprisingly, the white vixen had picked him up by his neck fur again and carried him along with her kits into the cave. Once there, the little foxes had all started to curl against their mother who had lain down with her back against the cave entrance, her body and nine tails shielding all six of her kits. Tails had been placed right in the middle of them, which had immediately resulted in little heads and tails and paws coming to rest on his limbs and burying into his belly fur, effectively creating the sensation of being enveloped in a very fuzzy, slightly moving blanket, making for a warm spot despite the cold cave floor and night chill settling in.

At first, Tails' plan had been to wait until everyone of the vulpine family would have been asleep and then sneak out as carefully as possible – as much as he was grateful for the mother to have rescued him from certain death, he was not ready to start living as one of her feral kits! - but, somewhere along the line, a warm spot and a belly full of food had somehow proved just a little too much for Mobius' youngest hero, and he had promptly dropped off after not even five minutes.

Now he was finding himself all alone, though, the cave already empty of its other inhabitants.

"Huh?" Tails sat up in confusion, looking around. As he crawled out of the cave, it became quickly apparent that far from having abandoned him, the fire foxes only had gotten an earlier start for their day – outside, the kits were chasing each other around and play-fighting with each other, as their mother sat and watched them at the side of the clearing. Seeing Tails, she gave an inclination of her head, not quite unlike a 'good morning'.

"Morning to you too," Tails mumbled, yawning again. He scratched somewhat ineffectually at his rumpled and dusty fur, certain by now that he had to be looking like a feral at this point. "Er, look," he said to the vixen, pointing at the edge of the clearing, "Thanks for rescuing me and the food and all, but now I really need to start looking for my friends-"

"Ninetales?" At once, as if having understood the meaning of his words, the large white fox had gotten up and was looking at him, concerned. "Ninetales, ninetales!" She was shaking her head.

As she was striding toward him now, appearing seriously agitated, Tails took another step backwards, raising his hands. A part of him was debating whether it wouldn't be better altogether to take off now, but another part of him remembered the fox mother's jumping ability and was paranoid that she would perhaps leap up and snatch him out of the air if he attempted what she'd view as an escape from her custody.

"Look, uh, I appreciate you looking out for me and all, but I promise I can take of myself usually-" Tails tried, again, his heart sinking when the red eyes of the vixen only appeared to become sterner and more concerned the more he talked, but then, before he could even think of what he should possibly do or try next, there was suddenly an ear-piercing scream from the sky.

"Spearow!"

With a speed that should not have been possible, a shadow above them dove down like an earthbound comet, the pile of fox kits it had been aiming for shrieking and scattering away, but one of them not fast enough. There was a panicked, high-pitched yelp as the airborne blur just for one moment became visible as a large, brown-feathered, fierce-looking bird of prey and let its claws close securely around the one fox kit that hadn't managed to hide.

"NINETALES!" the white vixen howled all at once in terrible fear and fury, unleashing a mighty blast of fire toward the hawk-like creature rapidly ascending. Her kit's panicked cries for its mother quickly grew weaker as the bird rose higher and higher and out of her range, and even with the load, the ascending avian monster was dodging the firey blasts with ease.

"Ninetales!" the vixen screamed again, a heart-rending howl as it became apparent that she couldn't reach them any more, even her highest leaps too low. The sheer agony in the fox mother's cry was enough to shock Tails back into action with a jolt.

"No!" the youngest hero of Mobius yelled, leaping into the air, his namesakes at once whirling like helicopter blades.

"You let her kit go, you creep!" he shouted, propelling himself upwards as fast as he could, catching up to the (suddenly very surprised) bird in seconds. "You got nothing on Egghead's fighter jets, you hear me?! Nothing!" Tails screamed – and then hurled himself straight at the avian predator in a perfectly executed homing attack.

The bird shrieked upon the impact, immediately dropping the little fox.

"Thank you!" Tails called back cockily, flawlessly diving down before the flailing little kit had been able to fall more than a few metres, catching it securely in his arms.

"There you go, now you're safe, let's get you back to your-"

"SPEAROW!"

"-uh oh," Tails managed. One look over his shoulder was enough to confirm that the bird apparently had not been quite as rattled as he thought it would be, and instead was now shooting straight toward them with murder in its eyes.

Tails said a word Sonic would not have been proud of.

"SPEA-ROW!" The bird cried again and Tails whirled around, trying to move his namesakes as fast he could, diving downwards toward the relative safety of the forest's canopy, but even with the wind rushing past him fast enough to drive tears into his eyes, he already knew he wouldn't make it.

Instinctively, he tried to shift the fox kit and cradle it as close to his chest as he could, hoping against hope that his small body would at least provide enough protection for it to survive the hit or maybe its mother would be able to catch it when it fell-

"Vulpix!"

"Wha-no! Get back!" Tails shouted in horror as the little fox was determinedly wriggling out of his hold, and instead clambering onto his back in mid-flight.

"Vulpix!" it cried defiantly at the bird rushing toward them – and then unleashed what felt like a bigger flame Tails had even seen its mother blast.

"Spearow!" the bird screamed as the flames enveloped it like a phoenix' fire, and flailed for a moment in mid-air – curiously much less burned than it logically should have been – but that small reprieve was enough time for Tails to finally land on the forest floor again, the fox kit leaping from his shoulder and darting back to its mother who immediately enveloped it with her neck and tails, licking and nuzzling at it as if it had been on fire and she was trying to douse the flames. Her head briefly snapped up to emit a furious roar at the still hovering predator bird, but it seemed like it was already on the retreat – clearly deciding that there had to be easier prey somewhere.

She briefly glared after it, as if assuring herself that it really was leaving, and, when it had disappeared, once more gave another lick to her kit that by now seemed to have stopped trembling against her flank.

Then she looked up at Tails, and for a moment, Tails had the strangest sensation as if he was for some reason no longer looking at a feral fantasy creature, but at something more ancient, and imbued with all the intelligence of a sapient such as himself.

"Ninetales," she said, her voice now curiously sombre and well-articulated as if she had only been speaking another language, but still clearly expressing an unmistakeable intent. Tails swallowed.

"You're...welcome."

The white fox nodded, before then slowly getting up and walking toward him again. Tails stiffened, not sure what was going to happen now, and briefly felt a twinge of nervousness as the large vixen then stopped before him, looking down at him for a moment with unreadable eyes...

And then he only flinched a little, when she all at once bent down to place a long, hard lick across his face, before pressing her muzzle into his head fur, briefly closing her eyes.

Tails had the oddest impression of suddenly having received a motherly kiss.

"...heh. Glad I could help," he said, somewhat shakily, and then, tentatively, also lifted his arms to give the tall white fox a hug around her neck. There was a deep, pleased noise that emanated from inside the vixen at this, so Tails supposed this had been appreciated. He tried a smile.

"Guess even in whatever strange place this is, everyone likes a hug, huh?" he ventured, stepping back again. Then he glanced back at the way he had tried to leave earlier.

"But, listen, I really do need to leave now. I've got a big brother who's probably worried for me," he said, and this time, was surprised to find that the white vixen only briefly cocked her head, but then seemed to make a noise curiously similar to a sigh, before nodding in understanding.

"Ninetales."

As if on cue, the other kits then also came bounding up, again pushing their heads into Tails' belly and his hands, yipping and looking up at him with large, curious eyes. The one he had saved – the same one that had incidentally stolen his shoes and set his dinner on fire – even seemed to look a little sad.

Tails smiled.

"Heh, yeah, guys, I'll miss you, too. I guess you'll have to find somebody else to steal their sneakers now, huh?" He patted them on their heads, briefly scratched the fur behind the ear of his shoe thief, and then straightened up again, giving the fox family a little wave.

"See you around, okay? And take care not to let yourselves get abducted again!" So saying, he leapt into the air again, and took off, leaving behind a smiling vixen, an excitedly barking kit, and five of its siblings looking up at him, their mouths forming little 'o's.

Tails laughed and waved, before rising even higher above the canopy, and briefly scanning the horizons beyond the forest.

Now where was...?

"Ah! I knew I hadn't imagined it!" Tails grinned in triumph, before immediately shifting his weight and making a literal beeline toward his new destination.

Because even during that panicked fight with the bird, the youngest hero of Mobius had been sure he had glimpsed a farmhouse...

To be continued...

Aw, look, Tails had a nice chapter! :D Hope you liked, anyone playing Pokemon Go, there's currently triple XP for catching stuff and if you read, please review! :P