Cream sighed as she cleaned up the shop. That morning, Tails had headed out, saying he needed a workout. She hated this. He just got back from being away from her, and the first thing he does the following morning is head out to be somewhere else, away from her. She was probably taking this wrong, bt she had been planning to make a really special breakfast to welcome him back, maybe talk him into heading out for the day, just the two of them. But she knew the look in his eyes when he said he needed a workout. There would be little point to even trying for a special dinner. Scrubbing a bit harder than she intended as she cleaned, she wiped breif tears from her eyes.
She couldn't keep going like this. As much as she loved him, she needed to know if they wanted the same thing out of their relationship, if he felt the same way about her as she did about him. Even if it hurt...when he got back from his workout, she would confront him and demand an answer. Three years of her life she had dedicated to him and him alone...she needed to know if it had all been a waste.
A strange noise came from the power station one floor down. Cream frowned. The power station had only made a quiet hum ever since Tails had built it two years ago, so their work didn't drain the local power grid. It had never made any other noise, but now there was a strange sparking noise coming from it. This was worrying, as the power station ran on a artificial chaos core, and - since it was stabalized - should have provided a continuous flow of energy without error for 50 years. If it were destabalizing...that could be catastrophic. Grabbing her wrench, she went to investigate. As she headed down the stairs, the lights flickered. She began to run. The lights would only flicker like that if something was draining the power.
As she passed by the hanger, she could see that nearly all the lights were out, including in most of the ships. Also, something had thrown Tails pod across the room, slamming it against the wall, leaving an imprint high against the wall. She ran faster, pausing at the arsenal to pick up something a little more potent then her wrench.
When she reached the power station, she leveled her gun, aiming forward. The lights were out, so she couldn't see what was happening. "I know you're in there," she said firmly. "Show yourself, before I light you up!" The lights came on.
Floating over the power station was a strange energy being, facing away from Cream with its hands on the power station, energy bleeding into it. From the colors shifting through it, it had already drained energy from several sources of chaos energy, and was still drawing power. Finally, the chaos core went dead, amd the only light came from the being itself. Cream took aim and fired.
The shot impacted into the creature's back...and was absorbed into it. The creature turned.
The face of the creature seemed to be that of a monkey, but old and wrinkled. The entire creature was the face and two disconnected hands, and as it approached her, Cream saw it was much larger than she had thought. Suddenly, it's hands thrust forward towards her.
She screamed in fear, trying to run.
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Tails suddenly shot to his feet in the holo lab. "CREAM!" he shouted, running for the door.
Sonic leapt to his feet, running after him. "Tails, wait!"
Outside, Tails stared at where his lab had been a moment ago. Rising from the ground was a giant monkey head, roaring in fury. Two giant hands floated to either side of the head, and floating over one of the hands...was a pink crystal, with Cream trapped inside.
"CREAM!" Tails shouted, running forward.
Sonic ran to keep up, surprised to discover that Tails actually beat him to the ruin of his lab. Tails was racing through the ruin, heading straight for the hanger. Following, Sonic heard Tails cursing.
"That thing drained everything! None of my spaceworthy ships have any power now! I can't go after her!" Tails stared up at the retreating monkey head. "No...Cream..." He started to cry. "I've lost her...just like I lost Cosmo..."
Sonic shook Tails. "Come on, Tails! Don't give up! There's gotta be something you have! You're always prepared for everything!"
Tails slowly stood. "Maybe...there's one thing, but...it's untested." His eyes hardened. "Let's hope it works." Running to the back of the hanger, he kicked open the elevator doors and leapt down the shaft, hovering with his tails, since without power the elevator didn't work.
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Cream stared out of the crystal at the retreating world, Mobius, her home. She could only pray, as the creature that had captured her floated into space, that this would not be the last time she saw it. She looked up as the creature that had captured her suddenly snarled, staring into space angrily.
A strange portal opened, and a small ship came through. It was a thin ship, a gray cockpit with blue wings. Emblazoned on its side was the same fox logo as had been on Tails pod. It immediately began to fire on the creature that held her captive.
She could tell by the way her captor moved its lips that there was communication between it and the attacking ship, but she couldn't hear it. Suddenly, the crystal she was captive in floated up and attatched to the creature's forehead. When the next shot impacted against the creature, pain lanced through Cream's body, and she screamed.
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"Cream!" Tails dropped down the shaft, grabbing hold of a set of doors as he passed them. He didn't know how he knew, but Cream was in danger, and he was going too slow. Pulling the doors open, he pulled himself through. He heard Sonic come in behind him...and gasp.
"Tails! What the hell is that?"
The ship was only a little larger than the Tornado, the cockpit big enough to sit one comfortably, two tightly. The entire ship swept back and spread out, the exterior a glittering quicksilver, and light seemed to shift as it hit the hull. The engines in back looked big enough to propel it to the end of the universe without stopping.
Tails ran to the front. "The ship's experimental...my masterpiece. I didn't want to fly it until it was perfect, but..." Into a compartment that dropped down, he loaded the seven chaos emeralds. As they settled into the slots, they glowed with power, and began to lift into the ship. Tails hopped up, going for the cockpit. "...Cream is too important to wait."
As he sat in the seat, safety belts automatically stretched across his body, fixing him in the seat. "ZEPHYR!" he shouted, grabbing the controls.
The screen in front of him came to life, a smiling cat face emoticon appearing. "Online!" came the computerized voice.
"LAUNCH!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, pushing the controls forward.
Sonic staggered back as the engines booted up and the entire ship's exterior hull reconfigued, becoming sharper, more streamlined to escape the atmospheric envelope. The ship launched forward, through a long tunnel, diving down through an underwater cave and out into the ocean before breaching the surface. It then shot towards space at nearly double escape velocity, leaving a massive sonic boom in its wake that sent a massive wave rushing out to sea.
As he approached the scene of the space battle, he saw what was happening. The strange ship was firing on the monkey head entity, and evading its counter attacks. Just then, another shot hit the creature. Tails heard Cream scream.
"CREAM!" He turned to the computer of his ship. "Open a channel to that ship, NOW!"
"Roger!" There was a brief bout of static. "Connection established!"
"Attention unidentified ship!" Tails said into the comms. "You are to stand down immediately!"
An older voice responded. "No can do. Don't know who you are, but this isn't your concern, so-"
"YOU STAND DOWN RIGHT THIS INSTANT OR I'LL DESTROY YOU MYSELF!" Tails shouted at the top of his voice. "You're hurting Cream! You fire one more shot and there won't be enough of you or your ship left to fill a thimble!"
"What?" The ship immediately pulled back.
There was a laugh over the commlink. "See, Fox? I knew you followed me here. I knew you would hunt me down. So I prepared. You aren't going to destroy me...if it would cost the life of an innocent bystander!"
There was a growl from the first speaker. "Andross!" he snarled. "You are dead! You here me?"
"And how will you do that? You don't dare shoot me-"
Tails' craft - Zephyr - shot forward at his mental command. The energy creature - Andross, apparently - attempted to shoot at the craft, but it easily evaded each shot, side slipping or barrel rolling out of the way, at one point completely shifting the position of one wing out of the way of a shot.
"What sort of craft is that?" Andross demanded as he continued to fire.
Tails snarled. "Your executioner!" he said. He pulled a lever in the ship.
The entire craft suddenly contorted, transforming into a robot mode, like all Tails' one man crafts did. The wings split, swinging out and forward into arms and legs, with hands on the ends of the arms. The cockpit flipped upward, pointing straight up, giving the whole thing the look of a five pointed star. The engines attatched to the back, and flared brightly. The robot/fighter blazed forward to impact against Andross' forehead. Seizing the crystal Cream was trappped in, it pulled back.
An energy shock went through the crystal, and Cream screamed in pain. Andross laughed. "You cannot remove the crystal! Any attempt will cause her intense pain!" He began to laugh again.
The ship contorted again, the cockpit shifting onto the right arm, which pulled back..and slammed into the crystal, breaking through. As the air in the crystal began to be sucked out, the ship's cockpit opened. Tails grabbed Cream and pulled her into his lap. The cockpit sealed and returned to the head position, replenishing air supply.
"Impossible!" Andross cried as the ship pulled away.
The other craft began to move in to attack, but Zephyr got in the way. The chest compartment opened, revealing the seven Chaos Emeralds, glittering brightly.
"You wanted this power!" Tails snarled over the comm at Andross. "Take it!"
A huge blast of chaos energy erupted from the Emeralds, tearing through Andross and ripping him apart. Andross screamed in pain and fury.
As the destruction ended, a last message came over the comms. "I'll get you yet, Fox McCloud! This is not the end! You and your new friend have not seen the last of me! I will return!" The message dissolved into static.
Tails turned Zephyr around. "Back to Mobius," he said, holding Cream tight.
"Roger!" the ship's computer replied. "Switching to auto-pilot. Would you like to listen to some music while we fly? Easy listening? Smooth Jazz? The Best of Barry White?"
"Not the time," he mumbled, but he could feel Cream manage a chuckle. As the ship headed for Mobius, he whispered, "I was afraid I'd lost you..."
Cream blinked away tears. Did that mean...no. She couldn't take this as an answer. Extreme situations were never a good barometer to judge by.
As the ship landed, it contorted back into it's original shape, settling down gently on the ground as it extended protrusions from the hull as landing gear. Sonic was there waiting, as was everyone else: Amy, Knuckles, Rouge, Shadow, Vanilla...and Cheese, who did not look happy that he hadn't been with Cream when she needed him.
The cockpit opened, and Tails climbed out carefully, carrying Cream. There were cheers, but he obviously wasn't paying attention. Once he got to the ground, he set her down on her feet, and just held her fiercely, as though afraid to let her go.
The other craft set down gently nearby, and the pilot leapt out. It was an older male fox, looked to be in his mid 40s, but still full of energy, although there was sadness in his eyes. Rouge, turning to examine the new arrival, noticed that he rather closely resembled Tails, although his coloring was slightly darker.
"Thanks for the assist there," he said, approaching Tails. "Sorry about earlier, didn't know he had a captive. I'm Fox McCloud. I have to say, that is one impressive ship..." He held out his hand to shake Tails' hand, awaiting an introduction.
When Tails turned to face him, Fox stepped back in shock. His eyes flicked from Tails face to his tails and then back to his face. "...Miles?" he asked, desperation in his voice.
Now it was Tails turn to take a step back. "How...how do you know my name? Do you know who I am? Where I come from?"
Fox McCloud suddenly stepped forward, pulling Tails into a fierce embrace. "Miles, it's me," he said, tears falling from his eyes. "It's Dad."