Things Best Forgotten
Disclaimer: Regrettably, I don't own Sonic the hedgehog, Tails, or any of the other characters in this story. (And, I don't even want to own Tails Doll!) They are property of Sega and Sonic Team. All references to Sonic X are also belonging to 4Kids TV.
Notice the above disclaimer? I just realized with this chapter that I hadn't put a disclaimer on this story at all until now! Major Ooops! You guys have to remind me of these things! Anyways, if you are wondering who I'm refering to as 'you guys' it would be my wonderful reviewers of course! I've gotten new reviews from peter-skywalker, Kitsune-SuperFox, danielle, Koike, Asher Tye, Shika Kev Prower, Rae Logan, tailsfan007, Kitsune Disciple, cari la fenix, Super Dragon, Pokelad, and brave kid! I've also picked up a couple new names as well! Congrats to Momoko T. Kitsunee for joining the long list of reviewers that enjoy my work! Also, an anonymous reviewer named Eggthrax has joined us as well. I am curious, however, as to why such a familiar name would appear at the same time its creator, Drandu, fails to review at all. Hmmm...
Anyways, this chapter took me a while to write, mostly because of my recent bad health and busy schedule. I almost feel like this chapter also should have been a oneshot on Sonic and Tails brotherly because of all the wonderful moments between the two in it! Don't worry though, another familiar face does appear in this chapter as well, if only briefly. (I'm going to get flamed for what happens to him, though; I'm sure of it!) Whoops, time for me to zip it before I ruin the story! If you want to know what I'm talking about, just read on and don't forget to review!
Chapter 4: The First of Many
Tails couldn't believe how fast Sonic had caught up to him. Then again, on second thought, it wasn't too hard to believe anyways as the blue streak pulled right up alongside the high-speed traveling fox. Tails hazarded a glance off from his current path to see the blue hedgehog just beside and now slightly ahead of him. If he hadn't have been needing to breathe so hard to keep up this pace, Tails would probably have laughed at the fact the Sonic now stared at him with his arms crossed in boredom while the hedgehog ran, only facing backwards!
"Come on, little bro! That little doll thingy of yours must be slowin' ya down!" Sonic taunted as he made a show of giving a large yawn and resting his head on his arm despite going well over a hundred miles per hour with no sight of the road ahead at all.
Tails still couldn't believe, after all these years, how Sonic could run so fast and still act like he was half-asleep, not to mention traveling backwards! Of course, the yellow fox had not even begun to use his true speed yet, either. Slowly gripping the ground below his feet with less and less of his red and white shoes as his speed increased, Tails started putting his namesakes to work in creating a large furry propeller behind him that had the effect of the thrust from a rocket engine on the fox's already high-velocity traveling body. Tips of his shoes now skimming the ground beneath him but never touching, Tails took off in a blinding flash of yellow and white hovering inches above the ground.
Sonic, of course, had absolutely no trouble in keeping up with the kit's new speed, although he was forced to turn around and face forward now. Racing side by side, the two sped along the empty countryside with no real care for their currently unknown destination. "This is more like it, Tails!" Sonic shouted out to his partner by his side.
Tails agreed with Sonic silently as he gave a quick nod of his head. Speed may not have been Tails' greatest natural talent, but having lived with the fastest thing alive for most of his life had definitely improved the fox's performance incredibly. Coupling this with the bonus of his second tail, Tails was very hard to catch when he wanted to be. The feeling of the wind rushing by as fast as the scenery was exhilarating for the young kit and reminded him again of why Sonic loved his special talent so much. Running almost on autopilot, Tails kept up the pace with the blue streak next to him, knowing that Sonic was still keeping his speed a notch or two down from his true top speed to accommodate the young fox.
Sonic kept running at what he considered a still decent pace for a good five minutes or so until he glanced back to check on Tails again. Although the speed they were currently travelling at caused the droplets to stream off the fox's face to either side almost as soon as they formed, Sonic could tell that Tails was sweating buckets by now and could probably use a nice break. He smiled to himself though as he saw the look of sheer determination on the fox's face, however. He understood that his little brother would keep going at this pace until he fell over dead, rather than disappoint his big brother by calling for a much needed rest. Finding a nice, open, grassy knoll that they were about to pass in a second, Sonic planted his unstoppable feet and skidded to a halt.
Tails noticed Sonic's motion and immediately duplicated the maneuver gladly. Coming to a complete stop in seconds, Tails let his worn out furry appendages fall to the ground behind him since they were too tired to hold up any longer. He doubled over with his hands on his knees as he panted furiously for air with even his tongue hanging loosely out of his open mouth. Sweat had already soaked almost every inch of the fox's body as all of his thick fur stuck matted to itself in great disarray from the incredible speeds a minute ago.
"Gee, bro! You OK?" Sonic worriedly addressed the hyperventilating fox as he walked over to put his arm on Tails' shoulder for support.
"Sorry, (pant, pant) Sonic," Tails replied after a couple more minutes to catch his breath, mostly. "I guess I'm (pant) just a little out (wheeze) of shape," the yellow fox explained.
"I don't think so, little bro!" Sonic unexpectedly replied, which prompted the worn out kitsune to raise his eyes to meet the blue hedgehog's own. "I think that just now ya kept up with me for longer than you've ever done! Normally ya collapse after only a few minutes! You must be working out whenever I'm not around, eh, bro?"
"Not (pant) really, Sonic," Tails truthfully replied. Slowly he managed to get his leaden feet to move his body forward up the gentle hill in front of them. The tired yellow fox quickly laid himself out spread-eagle, including one tail each on either side of him, face up towards the sky on the gentle curving crest of the grassy knoll. He felt the relief as the cool grass and even more comforting breeze served to rejuvenate his tired and lifeless limbs.
Sonic saw his little brother stretch out on the hilltop to rest and decided to join the young fox as well. He picked a spot right next to the relaxing fox as he placed his hands behind his head for a pillow, careful to avoid his large blue spines that really weren't that sharp anyways, and crossed his legs which rested on the downward slope of the hill. Glancing back at Tails after a minute, Sonic realized that the young fox had already closed his eyes entirely. He didn't have to wonder if his little brother had fallen asleep for long though, since a very soft sound started coming from the reclining fox next to him.
Heh, I keep tryin' to tell him that he snores, but Tails just won't listen! Sonic thought to himself as he listened to the rhythmic breathing of his napping companion. Sonic wasn't tired at all from the earlier run that had wiped out poor Tails as the blue hedgehog quietly returned to stretching out to bask in the sun's golden rays. Nevertheless, tired or not, Sonic also drifted off into his own world a minute later as he closed his eyes while lying alongside Tails' resting body. The blue hedgehog wasn't asleep, of course, as a big smile of contentment stayed plastered to the hero's face. Sonic was simply daydreaming about the many wonderful things he had in life, the greatest of which was lying right next to him at that very moment.
Argh! Trees, trees, TREES! Everywhere I go is just more stinkin' trees! Where is the exit to this stupid forest anyway! a shadowy figure thought angrily as it dashed through a dense woodland forest. Rage getting the better of the lost individual, he planted a mighty punch with his special two-spiked gloves into the nearest trunk of an unlucky tree that happened to be closest to him. The mighty blow actually proved to be enough to split the decades-old, living lumber in half at the spot the fist had connected with the wood and caused the unfortunate tree to fall noisily onto the forest floor.
Ooops, the figure thought as the small opening in the forest canopy now left by the missing tree allowed a beam of light to illuminate the crimson-colored fur of the aggressor. It was a fact that he had somehow kept secret from everyone so far that the once again lost echidna had almost no internal sense of direction at all. The only reason it hadn't been discovered by now was probably because he spent so much time away from everyone while guarding the Master Emerald on Angel Island, and Knuckles had made it a point long ago to memorize every square inch of the floating island as part of his job. However, lost in a strange forest as he found himself now, the red echidna didn't have the slightest clue as to where to go to escape the woody maze.
Figuring that the best idea would be to simply go forward in only one direction until he found an exit, Knuckles continued his trek through the woods. Note to self, he thought, Next time you decide to go hiking just for the fun of it, do it in the forest on Angel Island! Hands tightened into fists at the stupidity of his current situation, Knuckles trudged on with his teeth barred to suppress his low growl. At long last he came across a portion of the woods in which the trees thinned out and the overgrown canopy opened up to the sunlight.
Ha! See, I knew I'd find my way out of there, Knuckles congratulated himself at solving the forests' maze. Happily strolling through the thinning trees to the unclearly defined edge of the forest, Knuckles quickly spotted something weird about the underbrush ahead. That's strange, the red echidna mused as he knelt down to observe the disturbed ground beneath him, Why is all the grass pointed that way?
Indeed the ground at the bewildered echidna's feet showed a noticeable difference to that of the surrounding area. Looking closely towards the center of the wind-swept grass, Knuckles was able to barely make out the conspicuous marks of footprints on the ground. Oh, of course! Sonic must have come through here recently on one of his runs! Even I'm smart enough to figure that one out! Knuckles triumphantly solved the riddle. Taking a look up the wide path of disturbance, however, he also had another thought. Dang! He must have been traveling super fast to cause this big a trail! Or maybe Tails was with him? Ah well, either way I should probably go say hi while I'm at it.
Knuckles followed the easily distinguished trail for several minutes as he let his anger from earlier dissipate completely in the warmth of the sunny day. Rounding the crest of a small hill, Knuckles spotted something lying on the path in front of him that stuck out in contrast to its surroundings by its yellow and white color. Intrigued by the strange sighting, he quickly walked up to the object and lifted it into his hands. Getting a good long look at the horribly constructed toy in his palms, Knuckles started laughing so hard he fell to the ground in pain.
"Oh man! Ha ha ha ha ha!" Knuckles hollered at the top of his lungs since he was confident he was alone, "Tails made a little dolly of himself, and he's carrying it around with him, too! Ha ha ha ha ha…!" The red echidna continued his laughter until the humorous revelation started to lose its appeal. "I guess I'd better get this ugly thing back to Tails, though. I certainly wouldn't want to have him cry over losing his little doll!" Knuckles decided to do the right thing and return the lost toy, if maybe for the wrong reasons.
"Cruelty, very nice! I like that feeling, too!" a voice reached Knuckles ear from seemingly nowhere.
"Wha…! Hey! Who's out there, huh?! Come on, show yourself to me, you little punk!" Knuckles angrily shouted into the surrounding scattered trees. He was unnerved that someone had overheard him talking to himself, especially since he never really meant a word he had just said. Eyes frantically scanning the area around him, Knuckles became worried as he realized that there was no really good cover here that someone could hide behind to avoid his gaze, so he should have been able to locate whoever was watching him easily. Knuckles decided to try and lure the foe out of hiding with a challenge, "I dare you to speak up again, buddy! Come on, just one word!"
Silence followed his dare until the red echidna heard a voice call out to him again from what seemed to be every direction at once, "Very well then, Hi." The voice was young and high pitched, but sounded almost cold. Knuckles shook off the sensation as he again scanned the sparsely wooded area around him. "Hmmm hm hm ha ha ha ha! For someone so strong, you certainly are dumb!" the childish voice rang out again, this time clearly right in front of the confused echidna.
"Hey! I'm through playing games with yo…" Knuckles cut off his sentence mid-word as he snapped his eyes forward to find his mysterious stalker. His hands dropped their fighting stance as he saw the form of the strange Tails'-shaped doll levitating on its own before him. "No way! You can't be serious! You're a doll, which means you can't talk, or even fly for that matter!" the startled echidna shouted in surprise.
"He he he he he heeeee! And you're just a big red idiot that can't even move!" the voice continued to come from the floating doll, even though its horribly stitched-on face never moved so much as a thread.
"What do you mean by that, ugly?!" Knuckles shouted in rage as he tried to raise a fist to smash the levitating plush doll. To his surprise, however, Knuckles found that he couldn't move a single muscle in any of his limbs, which felt like they were being restrained by heavy rocks. "Unnngg! Urrrff! Hey, let me go, you gravity defying Teletubby!" the slightly alarmed echidna yelled as he struggled against the invisible force that kept him pinned down.
"Ahh, yes… Now that's more like it. The ones who don't scare easily give out such powerful fear," the hovering doll continued its unknown mode of communication with the frightened echidna.
"Fear, you?! Hah! I'd be more afraid of seeing Eggman dancing to Swan Lake in a pink dress than you any day!" Knuckles defiantly shouted back at his assailant.
"Tch, such great potential for fear, but ruined by an overly stuffed ego," the doll continued on undaunted. "I suppose that since you are not going to amuse me with the pleasure of seeing you cower like the animal you are, then you are of little more use to me. A shame really, your soul is not the one I seek, but I think that I can still use you to get it for me, as my puppet!" At the last words of the sentence, Knuckles visibly cringed as the evil, childish voice deformed instantly into a demented, impossibly low roar. "Knuckles the echidna," the unbelievably low and evil sounding voice called out, "Can you feel the sunshine?"
Shaken momentarily by the voice that seemed to be the pure essence of evil, Knuckles quickly regained his composure at the odd question. "What is that supposed to mean, you freak?! Of course I can… feel… it… urk," the crimson echidna managed to say before he found himself unable to speak anymore. In his mind, Knuckles fought to keep control over his rapidly weakening body as he managed one final thought, I knew I never should have… left Angel Island… to-today! The very last sight Knuckles' frightened eyes focused on was the strange gem attached to the doll's head glowing brightly as his own energy was absorbed by the demonic creature. Losing the last of his strength in the matter of seconds, Knuckles' lifeless body collapsed to the forest floor.
"Oh, such decadent taste, the soul of a fool!" the Tails Doll spoke to itself in its childish voice again as it hovered over the corpse of the red echidna. "Yes, his death is tragic, but he shall prove most useful for instilling fear in the one being that truly interests me. After all, it doesn't matter if one wins or loses, all that matters is how you played the game. And since I can't possibly lose, I might as well scare the soul out of my sissy counterpart before I steal it!" the strange doll gave its unsettling yet juvenile laugh. After savoring its sinister monologue and supposed snack, the evil incarnate doll again brought itself back to its ultimate goal. Following the trail that Sonic and Tails had made earlier through the light woods, it made sure to get as far away from the dead body of Knuckles as possible before its 'original' came looking for it again. The Tails Doll continued on to a reasonable spot for it to have been 'dropped' and settled to the ground in anticipation of his true target's return, unaware that another set of eyes had observed its earlier meal in the forest and were now dashing away to inform the one person who could help.
Tails woke up almost half an hour later to the vision of a clear blue sky with small, puffy, white clouds floating calmly in the open airspace. Man, it's days like these that I really want to just get in the Tornado and do nothing but fly around all day, Tails said as he lazily watched the sky above. Noting the position of the sun, however, Tails finally realized that he must have dozed off since it was now nearing noontime. Rolling over, he found Sonic still lying comfortably in the grass next to him.
Sensing the moment of opportunity with a twinkle in his large, blue eyes, Tails slowly moved his body to get in a crouching position to pounce on the sleeping hedgehog. Counting to three in his mind while a huge, uncontrollable grin spread across his face, Tails leaped at the unsuspecting Sonic, intending to land on him with an unexpected tickle attack. No sooner had he begun to fall towards the reclining blue hedgehog, however, then Sonic's large green eyes shot open while simultaneously accompanied by a huge grin of his own. Effortlessly, Sonic disappeared out from on top of Tails' landing site, leaving the fox to hit only the ground he had been laying on less than a second ago.
"Umph! Hey, no fair, Sonic! You were supposed to be asleep!" Tails shouted as he hit the grassy spot Sonic had been laying on moments ago.
"Oh, I get it! Jumpin' on someone just because ya think they're sleepin' and won't notice is fair too, right?" Sonic countered while he grinned and crossed his arms standing a foot away from the fox that hadn't gotten back up yet. Sonic's sarcastic voice and body language told Tails that his older brother was just giving him a hard time and wasn't really angry at the surprise attack as the fox laughed at the statement. "Well, only one punishment I know of that's serious enough for someone who tries a sneak attack on me!" Sonic spoke as his grin grew even wider.
"Oh no! Not that! Anything but that!" Tails yelled in mock horror as he turned to run off before being tackled to the ground by the impossibly fast hedgehog.
"Oh yes, that, Tails! Time to see if my fingers are as fast as my feet!" Sonic threatened as he started tickling the pinned down fox right in the center of his white-furred belly.
Tails' smile grew across his whole face at the sensation, but he managed to keep his mouth shut to prevent the hedgehog the satisfaction of hearing his laughter at the strange torture. His large blue eyes glimmered playfully as he stared down his harmless assailant.
"Oh, so you aren't feelin' ticklish today, eh, bro? Well, I just happen to know a few spots that are guaranteed to work, like… here!" Sonic shouted out as he suddenly rolled the fox over and began tickling up and down the young kit's spine, particularly the more sensitive area around his double tails as well.
Tails held his breath as he strained with all his might to endure the tickling without laughing. His face almost started turning purple at the strain as he realized that in less than one second more, Sonic would win this little test of endurance. Just before he could hold it no more, Tails quickly spun his twin appendages behind him to entangle the blue hedgehog's hands.
"Ha! Quick save, bro!" Sonic light-heartedly remarked as he worked to free his hands from Tails' unexpectedly strong gripping tails. "Yeah, that was the spot all right, but you won't let me near there anymore, now, will ya, buddy?" Sonic realized as he laughed a bit himself while he finally pulled his arms free from Tails twin hairy appendages. "I guess that this calls for me to use your super secret ticklish spot then, doesn't it, Tails?" the blue hedgehog ominously threatened one last time.
"Yeah, right! You don't know my secret ticklish spot! You're just bluffing!" Tails taunted the amused hedgehog. He never understood why he said that however, because he knew full well that Sonic most certainly DID know the one part of his body that was the most susceptible to his finger torture and now, thanks to his big mouth, that Sonic would waste no time in proving it.
"Oh, really?" Sonic playfully bantered right back at Tails' critical mistake. "It wouldn't happen ta' be right… there, would it?" he laughed as he ran a single finger along the edge and base of Tails' large, triangular left ear.
Tails' face scrunched up like he had eaten a whole lemon in a single bite as the fox fought his hardest to keep his composure, but it was a futile effort. The area around and on his sensitive ears was at least ten times more ticklish than any other spot on the fox's body, and Tails only lasted two full seconds before Sonic had him rolling around on the ground in uncontrollable laughter. The blue hedgehog managed to continue torturing both of Tails' ears even with the kit's constant attempts to swat the oppressive hands away. Tails kept laughing until he cried and his sides hurt so bad he almost felt sick. Still, Sonic, laughing almost as hard as the squirming kit, kept on tickling until Tails finally used the very last of his air in his seriously oxygen depraved lungs to shout the magic words, "Ha ha ha ha…! Uncle! Uncle! Ha ha ha! I give up, Sonic! Stop it! Ha ha ha ha ha…!"
Sonic quickly stopped his extreme tickle torture as he watched Tails slowly caught his breath again between lingering spasms of laughter that still endured. "Well, little bro, learned your lesson?" Sonic teased.
"Ha ha ha! Sure, Sonic. I'm just glad I used the bathroom before we came out here," Tails added after making a mental note not to goad Sonic into doing that again unless he was sure his bladder was empty like it had been thankfully a second ago. Now wide awake and good humored, the fox looked to the blue hedgehog to see what the next move would be for the day. Just then, he noticed something that he couldn't believe had gone unnoticed this long. Searching the entire hilltop with his eyes, Tails caught no sight of the ugly doll of himself that he had taken along with him on his run with Sonic earlier. "Oh No! Sonic, have you seen that creepy doll of me anywhere? I think I might have dropped it during our run and forgot about it!" Tails worriedly exclaimed.
"So, what's the big deal, bro?" Sonic unsympathetically responded. "I thought you'd be glad to lose that stupid thing!"
"Well, I am sort of glad, I suppose, but what if someone else finds it?" Tails asked.
"Then it's their problem now," Sonic gave the quick and simple answer.
"Yeah, but, they will probably think that I made it and that it's my little dolly or something that I carry around now!" Tails objected. "Anyone who finds it would probably laugh at me forever!"
"Well, that's kinda why I told you to leave it at home earlier, little bro!" Sonic reminded Tails of his earlier advice. He could see though, that just telling Tails what he should have done wasn't enough to alleviate the young fox's fears, so he decided to compromise, "OK, if it means that much to ya, little bro, we'll go back and find it on our way home for some grub." Tails nodded his head in approval as they both dashed away at a fraction of the speed they had clocked in as earlier since they needed to search the ground as they went this time.
They didn't have to travel much more than halfway back before they both saw the poorly constructed doll lying face down in the dirt directly on their previously traveled path from earlier. Tails quickly stopped and retrieved the accidentally discarded toy from the ground, casting a quick glance at it to check that its already loose stitching hadn't completely fallen apart from its fall during his high-speed chase of the blue hedgehog earlier. Tails caught himself wondering why he suddenly felt relieved that the grotesque puppet hadn't been damaged or lost as Sonic walked up alongside him impatiently.
"OK, bro, I think we found it. Now can we go get us a bite to eat?" Sonic spoke up while he tapped his foot impatiently. A barely audible rumble also came from the blue hedgehog's stomach in response to his last sentence. Clearly the time-expansive search at a relatively slow speed had begun to wear on the good tempered hedgehog who just wanted to beat it to the nearest kitchen after having his breakfast interrupted earlier that morning.
"Sure, Sonic," Tails quickly answered after sensing his brother's obvious impatience. "Let's go back to my place. I got some fresh chili sauce and more hot dogs when we went to the store yesterday."
"Now you're talkin', bro!" Sonic exclaimed. He couldn't care how often he had his favorite snack; chili dogs never lost their appeal on the light-speed hero. He quickly turned and resumed following the windswept trail back to Tails' house from earlier at a much more enjoyable speed. Casting a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure Tails was following him, Sonic was shocked not to see his buddy racing next to him like before. Grabbing the trunk of a slender tree as he passed by, Sonic slingshotted his body in a rapid 180 degree turn without missing a single step and raced back the way he came to check on his missing brother. Upon the hedgehog's quick return, Sonic found Tails still standing on the exact spot he had left him a second ago. Something was definitely wrong, however, because the yellow fox was clutching his white furred belly in a tight embrace with both hands as his face was etched with the signs of an intense pain. "Tails! What's wrong, bro?!" Sonic anxiously yelled as he ran up to his clearly suffering brother.
"I… I don't know, Sonic," Tails managed to say through gritted teeth against the unexplainable pain in his chest. "I started to follow you that way back to my house, but then I got this sharp pain in my gut and couldn't move! Aaaaahhhh! It hurts so much, Sonic! Please, do something!" the suffering fox shouted as he fell to his knees at the strange and overbearing pain.
"I don't know what TO do, bro!" Sonic worriedly informed his grimacing brother. Seeing Tails in pain like that and not having a clue what to do was starting to make Sonic go slightly hysterical until he remembered that a calm mind was needed in an emergency situation like this. He tried to block out the image of his younger brother writhing in pain on the ground beneath him as he searched for his best course of action. Seeing a small series of smoke puffs in the distance over some nearby hills, Sonic suddenly realized where they were at the moment and thanked Mobius for his good fortune. "Hang on, little bro! I'm gonna take ya to someone who can help!" Sonic shouted as he picked up the pain-stricken fox in his arms and dashed towards the smoke on the horizon that was coming from a home he knew very well. Focusing his eyes more on Tails than the road ahead of him as he ran, Sonic briefly noticed that Tails had somehow managed to hold on to his strange look-a-like doll as the fox still clutched his chest in pain. He poured on the speed as he caught a quick glimpse of the hut he was aiming for over a few more hills ahead of him.