Chapter 2: friends
Morning arrived in the kingdom of Knothole as the sun shone its light down upon the city that had once been just a village in the past. The light shines through the bedroom window of Miles "Tails" Prower, the young twin tailed genius.
He stirred in his sleep and awoke to the smell of pancakes coming from the kitchen. Tails slowly opened his eyes and found that not only because of the light, his vision was a blur. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes to see more clearly, he was annoyed as usual by the fact that his eyes did this every morning.
Going by his mind recollection schedule, he recalled any major or important things that happened yesterday until he and his uncle walked towards Mina's home: Tails and his Uncle had arrived at Mina's home and Tails explained what happened to Isabella who was grateful for him protecting her daughter but was enraged when she was told what Ash had done, they bid their good nights and the two foxes had returned home.
"I'll tell the others what happened after I see how Mina's doing. I'm sure she'd like some company if she's awake." Tails said hopping out of bed and getting changed into his socks, sneakers and gloves. After breakfast he bid his parents and uncle goodbye, telling them that he'd see them later and walked towards Mina's house, it wasn't too far away it was about 7 homes away from his own. Upon arrival he noticed that there was a note on the door.
It read: "At the hospital with Mina. Sorry."
"~Isabella Mongoose~"
Mina's at the hospital? Oh man, I hope she's okay... Tails thought worried for her, he started towards Freedom HQ but had second thoughts and headed to the hospital instead. After arriving he asked which room Mina was in, Room 14 he thought recalling what the lady at the desk said as he walked towards the designated room. He knew the hospital well, after all he had helped with making the map layout for its construction during the time Sonic was thought to had died.
When he reached the room he found it was closed and he knocked lightly not wanting to wake her if she was asleep, "Who is it?" he heard Mina's voice ask and he smiled lightly "It's me Tails." he replied and he heard some enthusiasm in her voice "Tails? Please come in." she said. Nodding to himself he opened the door to see Mina laying on the hospital bed. She smiled at him "Hey Tails how are you?" Mina asked.
Tails felt a bit nervous but he managed "I'm doing okay... how are you? Besides the obvious." he asked and she giggled at that last line. He's nervous, it's kind of cute... she thought "Okay I guess, the doctors say it wasn't badly injured..." she said gesturing to her knee, "they say I should be out in a couple of days." she continued.
Tails nodded, he was happy to hear this, but deep down he still felt slightly responsible for her being there, while another part of him was full of rage directed towards Ash and Anime...
"Mina I'm-" he began but she beat him to it. "Thank you." she said giving him a small sincere smile. Tails' eyes widened in confusion. "W-what?" he asked surprised by this "Thank you... for saving me last night." she said. "But... your knee it's-" he began, but she stopped him. "It wasn't your fault..." she said putting her hand on his shoulder reassuringly. "But-" he started but she interrupted him "No 'buts'. You didn't mean for it to happen, we just both happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, so please stop blaming yourself." she told him calmly. Tails nodded knowing she was right, he shouldn't be blaming himself for it.
Smiling at him she noticed the slap mark on his cheek from last night was a bit faded, but it still remained there, it was only slightly visible. What happened to him? Why did he look like he was slapped last night? she wondered concerned.
He could see she wanted to ask him something, "Um... Tails?" she began looking at his cheek. "Who- I mean... why do you have a slap mark on your cheek?" she asked trying to get it right.
He put his hand to the side of his face where Fiona had slapped him last night, it stung a bit but not as much as it did yesterday. He sighed and dropped his head "Fiona Fox..." he stated sadly. "She slapped you?" she asked in shock, he nodded in response. "Yes." he replied tears forming in his eyes. "Why? What happened?" she asked unsure of how to ask this. He sighed as he wiped the tears from his eyes. "Well..."
He told her everything, how he learned from Sleuth that Fiona was cheating on Sonic with Scourge, and how Amy had confronted her and it lead up to her slapping him.
Mina was shocked and angered that Fiona had done this to him. A sweet, kind, and caring boy, who had no family at all for a long while, up until a couple weeks back when he got to finally meet his uncle. She had never thought anyone - besides their enemies - would have hurt him like Fiona just had. She could see that he was still hurting from that experience, and felt like she should say something. "I'm sorry she did that to you Tails..." she said. Tails smiled a bit "It's not your fault, if it's anyone's fault it's her's." he said honestly.
"And well... I guess we both got our hearts broken. Heheh." he continued. Mina giggled at this. "Yeah, I guess you're right." she said smiling at him.
"Well I better go, the others would like to know what happened, I'm sure you'd like some more company." he said, Mina blushed a bit know he was right. This caused Tails to blush as well which made her laugh "Yeah, your right; some company would be nice. I'll see you later." she said smiling at the young fox who smiled in return "Okay, I'll see you later too!" he managed to say not quite sure how to say it. Mina giggled at this Yep, he's nervous and it's definitely cute. she thought"Say 'hi' to the gang for me!" she told him. Tails nodded in response "Okay. Will do." he replied.
He waved bye as he closed the door, and immediately after he left the room, Tails berated himself for his choice of words. 'Okay, I'll see you later too!'? Wow... real smooth Tails. he thought to himself sarcastically feeling like an idiot.
After leaving the hospital, he headed out towards Freedom HQ, but decided to walk rather than run and he didn't realize that he began whistling a tune along the way. In few minutes he arrived at HQ, it was strangely awfully loud inside. When he opened the door nobody stopped talking, suddenly Sonic zoomed to his side. "Hey Tails! You're not going to believe what happened last night!" the blue blur said enthusiastically, "Heh. I can say the same thing to you." Tails said rolling his eyes, Sonic had a confused look on his face. "What do you mean? I thought you went straight home after the thing with Fiona." "I'll... tell you later. So... what's got everyone so excited?"
Sonic grinned "Antoine proposed to Bunnie and she said 'yes'!" he exclaimed. Tails went wide-eyed "That's amazing! Makes my night seem boring!" Tails lied the last line with a fake smile. Don't get him wrong he was very happy for them, but he was still concerned for Mina after what Ash did to her and all. How can I be happy when Mina's in pain? he thought to himself. He shook the thought from his mind, but kept in mind to tell them what happened to Mina and him last night, and about her being in the hospital.
Meanwhile few minutes after Tails left...
Mina was reading this morning's newspaper, nothing much was interesting it was just the usual stuff, people being reunited with their families, new recipes, a few new stories, and-
*KNOCK* *KNOCK* *KNOCK*
It must be Tails! she thought. "Come in!" she called. When the door opened she was at first surprised to see him there, but then she rolled her eyes Of course he knew...
"Hi Espio!"
A few congratulations later.
"So little bro? What happened to you last night?" Sonic asked, Tails suddenly didn't feel comfortable about talking about this. "Um... Uh... Mina was being cheated on by Ash with Anti-Mina." Tails said quickly Sonic was stunned by the news that he couldn't believe his ears "Come again?" he asked in disbelief. Tails raised an eyebrow pretending to be surprised by his brother/best friend's disbelief, he repeated himself "Ash was cheating on Mina with-" Sonic grabbed him by the sides of his arms and looked him dead in the eye and saw that Tails wasn't lying "Ash did what?!" he demanded, but as he said this everyone of the Freedom Fighters turned around at Sonic's voice and the room went quiet.
Amy was the first to voice their questions to Sonic's shouting. "What are you guys talking about?" she questioned giving them a questioning look of confusion. The rest of the Freedom Fighters doing the same, their looks made Tails wish that he had just kept his mouth shut. Damn you Sonic! Tails thought, shooting a quick glare at the blue blur, then looking down he sighed deeply. "Well… last night, I learned that Ash was cheating on Mina-" he was saying before they interrupted him. "ASH DID WHAT?!" they demanded, Amy crushing her glass in her hand without getting cut and her hammer appeared in her hand, Sally looked like she was about to explode, Nicole's computer console in the other room looked like she was ready to chuck a nuke at the asshole - once she found out where he was that is, but then again she didn't have any nukes - Rotor's eyes widened and his jaw dropped, Antoine looked as though if he saw Ash ever again that he'd behead him without hesitation, and Bunnie clenched her robotic fist tightly she seemed to be surrounded by a fire-like aura or something of the like.
Tails shrunk a bit and finished his statement. "-with Anti-Mina." now the girls were livid, they looked like they could rip Ash in half if they ever saw him again - or given the chance. "Tails, buddy, are you sure you weren't seeing things? And IF this is true... does Mina know about this?" Sonic asked sternly, concerned about both Tails and Mina, but at the sametime he was livid with Ash and Anti-Mina. Tails sighed deeply and nodded his head "Yes, I wasn't seeing things... and yes, Mina knows... and I was there with her when it happened..." he confessed sadly. The others looked at one another trying to figure out what went wrong between Mina and Ash. They seemed like they were meant to be together. Sally was the first to speak but cautiously. "Tails, I think you better fill us in on what exactly happened last night." Sally stated calmly, the other Freedom Fighters nodding in agreement.
Tails sighed "Well..." he began, rubbing the back of his neck, he explained the whole thing. When he ran into Mina and how he blamed himself for her injured knee. How Anti-Mina and Ash attacked them and Anti-Mina officially declaring her knew name to be Anime Mongoose - Sonic, Amy, and Sally thought it was a ridiculous name. He told them how he became enraged when Ash attacked Mina relentlessly and how his fur turned from orange and white to black and dark grey and chased off the two mongooses, and how his uncle helped him get Mina home to her mother. When he finished they were speechless, Odd... he thought.
In all their lives they never really knew about a dark side to the young fox that stood before them.
Sally was the first to break the silence, "Tails... how long have you known about this... dark form as you called it, that you have?" she asked. Tails sighed "As of last night." he said.
"Man... I hope she's okay," Sonic stated "to have her heart broken like that is... unimaginable." Tails mentally rolled his eyes at the last statement Wow! If only one of use knew what it was like to do it to her once. he thought sarcastically, referring to how he knew Sonic had actually broken Mina's heart last year. "I think we should go pay her a visit, see if she's doing okay," Amy said.
Before the others could nod in agreement, the door to HQ suddenly burst open and in swarmed the Chaotix, they ran in trying to give their congratulations to Bunnie and Antoine for their engagement.
"Congrats you two!" exclaimed Mighty. "I'm so happy for guys!" Saffron said smiling. "Ant my man! I didn't think you had it in you, you sly dog you!" Vector said giving Antoine a slap on the shoulder. "About time, you two have put this off too long!" Julie-Su confessed giving Bunnie a fistbump. "I knew Anti-Twan could never wreck your love for each other!" Charmy stated. "Hahaha! I knew you had it in you!" Knuckles stated putting his hand on Antoine's shoulder. "I-I-I'm happy-y-y-y for y-you." Ray tried but was still a bit nervous at the moment. "I knew you'd get together... given time." Espio said with a small but calm and caring smile.
Everyone was smiling but Tails, he was still worried about Mina. He didn't tell them about how he learned that Mina was in the hospital and he went to see how she was doing. He thought about the conversation the two of them had. She seemed grateful that I had chased Ash and Anime away... he thought and she told me the knee injury wasn't my fault at all... I guess she's right. None of this would've happened if Ash hadn't cheated on her.
He started towards the door before Ray spotted him, "H-h-hey T-T-T-Tails w-where a-are y-you go-going? A-a-aren't-t y-you go-go-going to-to con-con-congratulate th-them?" he asked getting Mighty and Sonic to turn around. Tails cocked his head to the side, looking at Ray with a small smile on his face. "I'm... going to see how Mina's doing. I'll see you guys later..." he told him before exiting Freedom HQ and making his way to the hospital.
"Hey what's with up Tails?" Mighty asked confused how the fox just went up and left so suddenly. "W-w-what's-s wrong w-with M-M-M-Mina?" Ray asked equally confused and Knuckles was surprised by this "What about him?" he questioned. Vector and the other Chaotix -besides Espio - also wanted answers to his behaviour. "Did you two get into a fight or something and something happened to Mina?" Julie-Su asked, questioning the blue blur with suspicion.
Sally sighed "Well I guess we should fill you in then." she said and she explained what Tails had told them a moment ago. When they heard this everyone but Espio was surprised by this. Knuckles noticed this, "Why aren't you surprised Espio?" he questioned his friend. "Because I actually saw what happened first hand." Espio said. Now everyone was shocked by this "You saw it?" Sonic questioned and Sally face palmed at his stupid question, Espio rolled his eyes "I am a ninja." he pointed out.
Meanwhile at the hospital...
Tails hadn't told Mina that Antoine and Bunnie were engaged yet, mostly because he wanted her to hear it from the happy couple herself, so that he wasn't spoiling the surprise for her. "Hey Tails." Mina said, and Tails smiles a bit "Hi Mina." he replied "Are you doing any better?" he asked. Mina thought for a moment and shrugged "Yeah. I guess I'm doing a little better, Espio came by not long ago, he said he saw the whole thing." she said and giggled when Tails rolled his eyes. Of course he saw it... he's a ninja after all... he thought. "So anything interesting happen with the others?" she asked curiously. "Well..." Tails began.
Suddenly the door burst open and both the Chaotix and the Freedom Fighters ran in expressing their concerns for her, Espio stood next to Tails and watched. "I take it you saw what happened last night?" he questioned, the chameleon nodded "Would've liked the help." Tails stated. Espio just shrugged "You had it under control. Besides I was curious to see why you were shrouded by that black mist." he replied and Tails nodded "Makes sense, and you got your answer didn't you?" the fox stated and the chameleon nodded and smirked a bit "It was worth it." he joked.
Well there you go guys I hope you liked it!
