Auhtor's note: Hi! And welcome to 'the purpose of being a sidekick', a four-chaptered story that tells the tales of what it entails of becoming a sidekick. This small collection is more of a domestic and character analyze thing, and won't give you the biggest plot on the planet. Normal and trivial things happen and some action is planned as well. Every chapter will be in Tails' POV, the eye of the beholder, the one who are - of course - the sidekick.

For those of you who are wondering: This does in no shape or form replace 'World restored in imbalanced chaos', since this is much, much smaller and are merely something else than a serious tone.

So without further ado: Enjoy!

Rated T (just to be safe): No deaths - no ships

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic, Tails or Knuckles SEGA does and will always do

- Is to know what to do

This wasn't like anything he had seen before. The place was at the same time really dark and had a lot of lights. There were buildings in the horizon, lit up and looked like giant skyscrapers, something that the little cub had never seen before.

Green industrial buildings and warehouses were there as well, like a gigantic city, but it was so far away. They were like stars, thousands of them clustered together in a triangular pattern, the illuminating light from the city living in the vast unknown was the background light that lit the pathway ahead.

What was in front of him looked nothing of the sorts of a city, but was a metal path, yellow metal plates on top of blue tubes, swaying up and down in a wave pattern. That was all he could see from where he stood, but a part of him was pretty sure that this place was bigger than it was made out to be, since the building outside was ginormous!

He wrinkled his nose, not at all getting used to the foul smell of something that was somewhere around them. It was foul in the sense that it was strong, most likely coming from some kind of liquid or chemical, giving that the name of the zone was 'Chemical Plant'. He had always known that this was on the outskirts of Emerald Hill, though he had never ventured out here due to the fact that he hadn't had the courage to check it out.

But now that he wasn't here alone, he couldn't help but think how fun it must be to run on those pipes, going up and down like a miniature roller-coaster!

He turned around when footsteps neared him, could do nothing but smile brightly as Sonic the hedgehog himself walked and stood beside him, hands on his hips. His face was relaxed, an amused smirk crossing over his lips, the small two-tailed fox guessing that he had the same idea in mind.

He turned his head towards the toddler, that smile staying in the same place, having decided merely hours ago that the baptized Tails could come along. And the cub was more than happy!

"Look at those Sonic!" He pointed towards the path ahead of them, making the hedgehog follow his finger. "I think they lead deeper into the plant!" He said, then felt his nose tingle and sneezed out into the open.

"Where that gross smell is coming from!" Sonic snickered beside him, making the cub look at him, well aware that the laughter wasn't ill-littered.

"Bless you. And I think you're right squirt," He said, making the small fox beam at him, more than glad that he was agreeing on something with the hedgehog. "C'mon. Let's go explore and find ol' Robuttnik," The cub laughed from Sonic's nickname of the doctor and opened his eyes to watch as the hedgehog revved with his feet and was gone, shot out like a bullet from a cannon.

The fox stood for a couple of second in pure awe, thinking that he was going super, super, super fast! Until he shook his head, took a step back and darted off himself, going down the first pipe. The momentum kept him going downwards, felt his feet pick up in speed well-aware that he needed the acceleration if he wanted to get up the next one. He concentrated, had just barely learned this technique as he angled his tails behind himself in stead of up, spinning them around like a propeller. His speed increased immediately, going up the pipe only to go down again, deciding to let go of his feet, the tip of his toes keeping himself in balance, the dirty sneakers barely hitting the metal platform as he used his behind appendages to go faster. He squealed in delight, laughing as well as the up and down sensation made his stomach tickle, like a miniature rollercoaster!

He looked ahead and happily saw Sonic ahead of him, creating a blue veil that he was catching up to. He passed him, courtesy of the slipstream and continued running, still laughing still having fun. His eyes couldn't register where he was going, since the momentum made him go faster than he had done until now, meaning that he didn't notice as the pipe went down instead of up again. The yellow tiles disappeared underneath his feet, replaced with metal flooring, could see through the blur the area changing into a more industrial like setting.

Metal platforms, wires and various display, giving him numbers and letters he had no idea what meant flashing past him, at the same time that he realized that he was going around in a loop, being upside down and then went down in a 90 degree angle. Fear only hit him briefly, before he felt his feet still being one with the path, laughing and squealing in a toddler 'wee!' as he went down and then straight again. He hit something, he only saw that it was red, and it gave out a loud and weird sound but suddenly he was running back again, now with more speed than before. He went up the 90-degree slope, all laws of physics the cub knew off completely shattering as he went around the loop, expecting to crash into the hedgehog at some point.

But instead of going up like he had expected, he went down again the slope adding to his acceleration and only saw a wall curving upwards. Not having enough path to be able to stop, he chose to close his eyes, but found himself opening them again once he went upwards instead, his feet hitting the ceiling and ran it. He was so surprised that he stopped his spinning appendages, letting out a sound and the abrupt stop meant that he was falling. He hit into a wall nose first, before landing on his bottom, panting to get air into his lungs. That was fast.

For a moment, the world was still spinning and turning around, pushing back the nausea that was making it way to his throat and instead shook his head, still facing the wall. He turned his head around to look behind himself, hadn't even seen the two badniks that was on the floor, crawling. And he didn't get to study them for long as a sudden blue spiked ball ran up the curvature of the wall he had run up seconds beforehand, the ball hitting the first badnik as it opened its compartment to shoot something at the hedgehog. The metal splintered everywhere, as Sonic hit the second badnik as well, before standing on his feet, without a scratch.

When he looked at Tails, he was smiling, wide and looked like someone who could be laughing any minute.

"Kiddo that was awesome! You passed me!"

The cub beamed, getting to his feet, and padded over to the hedgehog, while curiously glancing at the damaged badniks.

"Yes, I did! I used my tails and went superfast! I was faster than you!" Sonic let out the laughter that had been on the edge of his grin, winking at the fox in front of him.

"Nice going bud. It was seriously cool, but let me take the lead from here on alright? Things can get tricky in here if I know Robotnik," He said, was still grinning but had a serious tone to his voice. Tails nodded obediently, still smiling and felt amazing inside, as Sonic looked around himself, scratching the back of his head.

"Now where to go," He mused, the fox looking around as well. The wall he had run into earlier was tall and didn't invite anyone to continue, and the way ahead was where they had come from.

His young eyes eventually caught something on the ground a metal plate that was above the ground, a seam in the middle telling him that it could be opened.

"Sonic look here!" He said, pointing at the metal plate, making the hedgehog turn around and look. Tails already knew what to do, stuck out his tongue in concentration as he jumped into the air and curled around, having seen Sonic do the move more than enough times that he had learned his own spin dash, hurling himself at the metal plate. It cracked under him, as he uncurled and zipped beside it, saw the two metal pieces broken and left on the floor, a tube of some kind revealing itself. Leaning over it, he felt the fur on his face getting pulled, a vacuum of some sort trying to pull him into the pipe.

"Nice going Tails! Let's go!" Before the fox had time to register it, the hedgehog had jumped and curled around himself, and was sucked into the tube. The cub jumped, did the same and went inside, only to get his entire world turned upside down. Literally.

It was all dark, he could see nothing but could feel everything, the wind pulling at his entire body, keeping him curled together in the claustrophobic pipes. For what he could tell he went left, up and around, left and then for a long time and then right, his body slamming against the tube, and then he got disoriented with the wind and the pace, having no idea if Sonic was ahead of him or not. And as quickly as he had jumped in as quickly it ended as he was suddenly shot out of it, only to uncurl on instinct and landed on something that made that same weird noise from before.

He was in the air, spinning his tails around on instinct, hovering in the air. He looked down to finally realize what he had been bounced on was a red spring, and turned his head again when the sound of crunching metal reached his ears, seeing Sonic uncurl from spin attacking another one of those crawling badniks. He huffed annoyed, having wanted to get that one before he landed and touched down beside the hedgehog, said light blue one was standing with his hands on his hips seemingly scrutinizing something in front of him.

"What is it Sonic?" The toddler asked, though he looked ahead to get an answer to his own question, his eyes widening in fascination.

They only appeared for a short amount of time, but it was long enough that he could see them. Completely round balls of a dark blue liquid was floating in the air, following along each other in rows, disappearing upwards one pipe only for two seconds later to appear downwards again, creating a sort of trap if you got stuck in the middle. Either they were magnetically charged, or the chemical had some kind of composition that made the balls connect to each other with a sort of buffer.

"Uuuuh what are those Sonic?" Not having his earlier question answered, he took a step forward and reached out his palm over the pipe where the dark blue balls would reappear in a second to touch them.

He yipped in surprise when he was yanked backwards by a hand on his shoulder, the balls going upwards again milliseconds before they would have hit his hand.

"Watch out bud. I don't think that it's water or safe," He remarked, after Tails had sent him a hurt expression. It disappeared with the explanation, looking back at the balls floating in the air only to disappear in the pipes.

"I think we can time it. There's a couple of more ahead, so be careful," The fox looked up at him again, before Sonic took a step forward, getting between the two pipes the moment that the balls had disappeared into them, only to step out again to the other side.

Not wanting to be too far behind, Tails stepped in when the liquid was gone as well, watched carefully as the next row of balls went down. He jumped out, only to watch two more of them being ahead, Sonic already ahead and past them.

He sighed annoyed and padded forward to calculate the next jump.

Until he suddenly was grabbed around his chest, yelped in surprise more than fear and was hurled upwards. It went fast, robotic claws curling around his small body, only having his head free and the tips of his tails as he was in the air. The next thing he heard was beeping, while he was struggling to get out, the first thing coming to his mind that this was a bomb.

"Sonic!" He yelled, trying to the best of his ability to kick himself free. The beeping increased, in intensity, could make out the black and yellow striped body above him flash red, the color going faster with the noise. He closed his eyes as his heart pounded, the beeping seemingly becoming one with his hearing.

Then it disappeared, and for a short moment he thought that he had died and then thought that dying felt weird until he was falling, felt heat in his back and was too shocked to spin his appendages around, suddenly landing on the metal floor on his stomach. Metal fell around him for some reason, had opened his eyes and was looking at a wall, something landing beside him.

He yipped again in surprise and was more than ready to kick or punch whatever badnik had grabbed him this time, until his mind caught up to the fact that it was hands under his armpits that hauled him to his feet.

"You alright? Are you hurt?!"

Sonic was asking but hands were lifting his arms and checking his sides, another checking his head for bumps and a third spinning him around to check his back. Tails shook his head when the hedgehog finally let him stand still.

"No, I'm fine Sonic," He said, eyes glancing and seeing the metal shrapnel around him, the yellow and black he had seen beforehand scattered around. His ears lowered into his skull, realizing that he hadn't been careful enough.

"I'm sorry Sonic. I didn't see the badnik, honest!"

Sonic sighed something out which he couldn't analyze, though a hand was still on his shoulder, the hedgehog kneeled in front of him.

"It's alright squirt, I know you didn't do it on purpose. Let's just say you stay close to my heels from now okay?" Tails nodded slowly, still feeling guilty of getting caught off guard like that. The smile that Sonic gave him lifted his mood somewhat, as he got to his feet looked ahead towards the traps again. "Let's go," The cub nodded once again, followed closely this time.

He followed close from there, being right behind the hedgehog and made sure that he went first but was thrilled that he got to smash a couple of 'bots himself. The guilt had disappeared long ago, since everything around him was moving fast, faster than he was used to. Blocks floating in midair, platforms that moved around them and disappeared underneath them and springs that sent them off to loops, switching between running on the yellow and blue pipes and the metal platforms, the traps appearing now and again and badniks coming their way.

Though, the deeper they went in, the clearer that foul smell came, had to resist the urge to pinch his nose since he needed both hands. Pretty soon doors started to close behind them weirdly, as they ran, up and down the pipes, getting deeper into the chemical plant itself.

They were running on the same yellow tiles and the blue pipes the moment that the smell increased in intensity, making his nose scrunch up as he was running behind Sonic, behind appendages being used to keep up. The hedgehog suddenly screeched to a stop, making Tails halt in his spinning, and almost crashed into him.

He looked around Sonic's body to see why he had stopped, only to watch the same platforms they had seen before, move in a slow manner in a 90-degree room. They created like a set of stairs before they moved and broke it apart, making the duo unable to jump. Sonic looked up and saw more of them, leading them upwards, meanwhile the fox was looking down shook his head and swallowed saliva.

"Sonic? I think I know what that smell is now," He pointed downwards, registering Sonic in his peripheral vision looking where he pointed.

A purple-dark-blueish chemical water was underneath them, creating a lake that seemed like it was bubbling, sitting dormant as it was.

He frowned when he thought he had felt Sonic's fur puffing up slightly, looking up at the hedgehog. His face was something he hadn't seen before, he seemed puzzled, determined and like he needed to use the bathroom at the same time.

"Sonic? Do you need a break?"

The hedgehog blinked, looked at the fox, snickered when he realized what he had asked of him and shook his head, the previous weird expression completely gone, like it had never been there.

"Nah I'm good buddy," He said, bit his lip and looked at the floating platforms. "Let's time this correctly alright?" Tails nodded as he stepped away, Sonic standing on one foot to get ready to jump.

He stood there for a long time though, the cub tilting his head slightly at him, thinking if maybe he had fallen asleep or something. If you could fall asleep standing like that? He guessed that you could now that Sonic was doing it.

Until he moved, jumped at the moment the blocks were closest to them, making the fox follow immediately. They landed on the platform, only to look behind them and see a metal door close where they came from, and an odd noise followed afterwards.

I sounded like a waterfall.

Tails looked down and to his horror saw the water rising, much faster than they could make it.

"Sonic!" –

"I know, move Tails move!" His voice was weird, something he hadn't heard Sonic say before and turned around to look at him, but he was already gone up the next platform.

He followed quickly, almost getting squashed between it and the wall, and then had to wait for it to move. He could see the hedgehog above him, staring down at the water that was rising and up towards the platforms. Was he shaking?

It looked like his hands were moving in place, something that Tails didn't have the time to muster about as his sneakers suddenly got wet. He yelped in premature fright, expecting the pain to overrule him as the water passed his body and now, he was under. His eyes were clenched shut as well as his mouth awaiting the wave of pain that came with chemicals.

Though, he floated in the water for seconds, before opening one eye and then the other, realizing that he was fine. It was water. It was water! He almost opened his mouth in pure relief, though he looked up instead, saw his opening and doggy paddled upwards. He had learned to swim a long time ago, having no other choice when you were getting chased by other people. A thought in the back of his head told him to wait for Sonic, but the hedgehog had told him to move, so he did. Going around one platform and the next, he saw the water surface above him, and quickly swam the last paces.

He hit a moving platform where the water had stopped, took in a greedy gulp of air before he began flying, seeing a platform to his left. He turned and crashed to the ground, coughing to get the water out of his mouth and wiped the worst water away from his face. He twirled his tails around, letting the water squeezed out, as he was done coughing at the same time. He heaved a sigh of relief and turned around to wait for Sonic to come out.

But he didn't.

For every second that passed, the hedgehog didn't appear. The cub's heart began to pound, anxiety increasing more and more as time passed.

"Sonic?!" He began calling, standing on his feet, and jogged over to the edge and looked down. The water was too unclear, he couldn't see a thing underneath, making him even more nervous.

Seconds passed again, standing on the edge, and waited for him to emerge. But he didn't. He didn't!

The cub swallowed something before he couldn't wait any longer jumping down and passed the platforms and was submerged yet again. The water was burning in his eyes, as he frantically looked around, hoped to Chaos that he hadn't gotten squished between the platforms in his swimming.

Then he saw him, a light blue hedgehog body floating in the water, two platforms from reaching the surface. He wasn't moving.

With fear sitting flush against his chest, the toddler doggy paddled down to him, grabbed his arm, and hurled him upwards. Underwater it was easier to carry him, but as they resurfaced the waterlog came into play, their bodies heavy and he had a hard time keeping the hedgehog above water.

He spun his tails around in an idea, and slowly they made their way above the water, Sonic feeling heavier than usually, having grabbed his hands. He panted as he moved around the moving platforms before getting back to the metal floor.

He dropped the hedgehog hard onto the floor, crashed himself. He ignored a headache in his forehead as he spun around towards the hedgehog, still unmoving and felt cold.

"Sonic?! Sonic! Wake up!" He tried frantically, went over to him, and started pounding a fist into his back, having seen people do that before.

Nothing happened for seconds, as Tails was shaking, felt tears sprout into the corner of his eyes, but refused! Refused to believe it! Refused to believe that the fearless Sonic the hedgehog was gone right here, right now! Not now! He hurled his fist more forcefully into the blue back, cut himself on one spike and then joined his hands together and made a final punch.

Sonic moved, heaving in a gulp of air before throwing up water, almost a gallon of it seemingly leaving his system. The fox stopped pounding, heaved a sigh of relief, and watched as the hedgehog was shaking and retching water.

"Sonic! You're okay! I thought you were dead!" Tears of fright was still in his eyes, as he scooted over to sit in front of the hedgehog, looking at his face. He was still getting out water, moved away from the liquid that had made it out of his system before he exhaled deeply.

Then, he curled around himself, and laid still.

Puzzled more than anything, Tails just looked at him, the relief getting replaced with confusion, having never seen Sonic react this way.

"Sonic? Are you okay?"

No response.

The hedgehog was in a small ball, his entire body shaking while he was still coughing. He peered around his body to look at his face, only to get a wave of surprise wash over him. His eyes were wide, shaking from more than the cold and was pale as the sky, quick and sporadic breaths leaving his mouth. The coughing only seemed to increase the widening of his pupils; his entire blue body curled into himself.

Tails knew it. Knew what it was like to be scared.

He could see it, he could read it, the hedgehog shaking in fright, his entire body succumbing and paralyzed into a state of mind the cub knew. He was scared.

The cub's small hands were hovering over him, not knowing what to do himself, biting his lip.

He wanted to help – the hedgehog had helped him when he was in Emerald Hill, had helped him when he was scared. Now it was the other way around. A thing he never thought was possible and at the same time he didn't blame him. The only thing that the fox could think about was doing the one action that Sonic had done to calm him, and therefore scooped his arms around Sonic's chest and hugged him.

He was almost startled himself as the hedgehog stiffened, the slow vibration of fear still sitting in his fur, the quick intakes of oxygen temporarily stopped, awkwardly half-way curled since Tails had forced him out of it. The fox held on tight, having avoided the spikes on his back and was merely holding him, waiting.

A sigh of something then left Sonic, and his heavy light blue head landed on his shoulder, the vibration still there, the quick breaths continuing its course. The toddler sat still.

Did nothing other than just sit on his knees and held him, not giving the thought that this was the amazing Sonic the hedgehog. Not giving the thought that he was much older than him and not giving the thought that this was supposed to be the other way around. This was okay.

He didn't judge him, and he didn't blame him. He could relate, knew what it was like to be shaking in fear, feeling like he was trapped in a dark limbo where he couldn't escape. Therefore, he did nothing but just sat still, waited until Sonic was okay again.

He had no idea how long they sat, but after some time he felt Sonic starting to calm down again, the shaking slowly and surely subsiding and his breathing had turned to normal. It took a bit after that before Sonic uncurled from his position, sitting on his knees while Tails was still stubbornly holding on tight.

With the change of position, the hedgehog was taller than him again, the fox almost jumping from the hands that came around him, hugging him back.

"Thank you."

It was said in a whisper, but those two words held so much thanks that the cub blushed, snuggling his head into the still wet neck of the hedgehog.

They sat like that for a couple of seconds more, before Sonic sighed, pulling back and flashed the fox a smile, a tired thing that made the toddler feel equally as tired.

"Are you okay?" Tails asked carefully, was rather glad to see Sonic being somewhat back to normal.

He scratched the back of his head, looking over at his shoulder where he couldn't see the water, before turning back to the four-year-old.

"Yeah I'm okay again. I'm – eh – afraid of water, and. Can't swim," He explained, though Tails had figured that out by now.

He nodded nonetheless, looking down at his lap briefly, feeling the relief of Sonic being okay.

"That's okay," He said, looking back up at Sonic and gave him a smile as well. The hedgehog smirked instead, reached out a hand and ruffled his wet bangs.

"Thanks again squirt. Looks like you could make an awesome sidekick," Tails giggled but looked at him mildly confused as Sonic took back his hand, tilting his head in question.

"What's a sidekick?"

The hedgehog smiled at him before slowly getting to his feet, the fox thinking that he was imaging that his knees were shaking before he was once again hauled to his feet.

"A sidekick is someone's right hand man. Someone who wants to tag along and experience the world with someone else," He winked. "Like me."

Tails beamed at him from the definition, thinking that he would definitely want to be Sonic's sidekick!

"Really?!" He asked, making the hedgehog laugh and shake his head at the toddler, before giving him a thump's up.

"You bet!" He said, looking past the fox's shoulders at the next area ahead of them. "Let's get out of here, how about that?" The cub nodded with a giggle, well-aware why he had said it. The hedgehog was smiling at him before he walked instead of running, the fox taking to the air to get an idea of where they were going.

He peered down at Sonic, but he seemed alright for now – he wasn't shaking, and he was breathing normally again. He smiled at the conversation, thinking that he would love to be nothing more but a sidekick to the hero.

And now, the small toddler had also learned another valuable lesson: Even heroes could be scared of something. Something that he didn't blame Sonic for, far from, instead he was glad that he had learned a little bit more about him.

And only Chaos knows what else he was going to experience with him on this awesome, cool, terrific, and downright amazing adventure!