Disclaimer: Sonic and co. ©Sega

Chapter Two

Fox Hunting

2 Months and 2 Days before Black Egg Armageddon

He went too far when he took away my best friend. Those terrifying moments will always remain in my head.


Night crept over the Mystic Ruins and over Tails' workshop. Even though it was almost night time, the young fox was still working away, fixing the Tornado. Tails was the sort of person that never liked to have nothing to do, so he always filled his day with some activities like fixing a machine or having some fun with Sonic. Tails tightened another bolt on the underside of the Tornado's hull, before sliding out from under it. Small beads of sweat were crawling down Tails' face. Building, rebuilding and upgrading was tiring task, but since he's done it more then a hundred times, he was used to it. The young fox got to his feet and wiped the small beads of sweat off, before looking at the clock that clearly read eleven-forty seven PM.

"Woo, it's getting late." sighed Tails tiredly, before walking toward another door that slid open at his presence.

He walked into the dark room, the lights switching on automatically. Inside of the room lay Tails' bedroom. , against one wall was his large bed with a dark yellow sheets that resembled a burnt gold, on the far wall stood a tall bookcase filled with books of course, directly across from Tails bed was a widescreen TV sitting on a shelf for easy viewing from the fox's bed. Next to the fox's bed stood a reading lamp, surrounded by pictures of his friends delicately placed within metal frames. Each picture showed happy times, when Sonic won against Eggman after a battle, a picnic and much more. The fox strode off into his bathroom to get ready for a nights rest, but little did he know, someone was watching over his building.

A slow but peaceful whistle came into the air, as a large, plump man strode through the dark forest. The man still wore a red jacket, but it seemed to be tight around the muscles that it hid under it. Gloves no longer restricted the size of man's hands and now you could see the large tendons and veins being pumped with blood. A psychotic smile stretched across the man's face.

"Time to go fox hunting." thought the man before disappearing.

The young kitsune crept into bed, a book clasped in his hand. With a flick of a switch, the main lights turned off and the small reading lamp turned on, illuminating the pages within the book. Tails read the book happily, finding good literature a great replacement for mind numbing TV. His book told a fairy tale of heroism in a world filled with poverty and cruelty, ruled by an evil warlord. Even the logical and intelligent Tails had to have a good fictional story from time to time. A loud crash could be heard coming from the outside of the workshop, followed by a low rumble, before the lights went out. A slight feeling of fear filled the fox for a brief moment, but having faced bad situations before, he was prepared.

"Auxiliary power on." said a robotic voice, as all of the lights turned on. Having upgraded and tinkered with his technology, Tails always had some sort of backup generator.

He crawled out of bed and walked toward the widescreen TV that stood in front of him.

"Show the security camera footage on the TV." demanded Tails, and obediently the robots listened.

A flicker of light erupted onto the screen before displaying four different camera angles of the outside of his house. Everything seemed normal outside of his house, nothing was destroyed and everything seemed peaceful. Another loud crash sounded throughout Tails' workshop, almost causing the fox to fall over from the monstrous aftershock.

"Warning, intruder at main entrance. Threat level: code red." said the same robotic voice as the screens switched over to the camera facing the front door to Tails' workshop.

Smoke and dust rose into the air, making the rough outline of the intruder visible. He could see that the intruder had a broad body, as if he was starting to lose weight, somewhat large arms and thin legs. The view then switched over to infrared vision allowing Tails to see that the intruder was clearly organic and not one of Eggman's robots. Some of these few details reminded Tails of Eggman, but he knew it couldn't be him since Eggman was never buff nor could he break down a titanium enforced wall door with his bare hands.

"Turn on the entire array of defense turrets I'll contact Sonic." said Tails, knowing that his robots would obey. He walked over to the phone next to his bed and picked it up.

"The intruder is getting into the power ro-" Before the robot could finish its sentence everything went black again and the phone went dead. Moonlight pierced in through the windows illuminating the room to a small extent, but it still held its creepy vibe. The sudden feeling that nothing could protect swept over Tails like a crashing wave. He couldn't call for help and seeing that his enemy was strong, he couldn't stand a chance.

"Miles Prower, where could you be hiding?" Asked a familiar voice that echoed throughout the steel walls of the workshop. After realizing who the voice belonged to, Tails' mouth dropped open in disbelief.

"No way." whispered Tails to himself as he remembered that a moment before he identified the intruder to living and not a robot. Questions filled Tails' head, but above it all was fear. He had no idea why though, he had faced Eggman on so many occasions before, but why did this moment affect him the most?

Tails ran out of his room and went straight toward his armory. Most of his weapons were designed for most of his friends, like more durable shoes for Sonic or Shadow, titanium gloves for Knuckles and much more. But during most of his time, Tails started to work on a weapon that he could use. His heart rate increased exponentially as he ran, not because of the running, but because of his intruder. He tried to think of other possibilities of who it could be, but the suggestion of Eggman still scratched at the back of his head. Tails shook his head, making the though go away and focused on the matter at hand, the armory door just a couple meters in front of him.

"I wonder how soup would taste with fox meat in it." wondered the intruder out loud as loud footsteps at a walking pace could be heard from afar, making Tails' heartbeat sky rocket.

Once he got to the armory door, he frantically punched in the key code and ran inside. More footsteps could be heard from outside the room, but Tails felt a little more confident as he grabbed his new weapon.

"Oh where, oh where, can the little fox be? Oh where, oh where, can he be?" asked the intruder. A look of curiosity came over the intruder as he came up to the armory door, the door slightly ajar. "Could the little fox be in here?" asked the intruder as if he was a child.

Before the intruder could get any closer to opening the door, he was rammed by it, as something blasted it off of its hinges. The intruder flew backwards, regained his balance in midair and landed in a crouching position, before looking at the person responsible for the blast. On top of the destroyed and dented door, stood Tails with two huge metal gauntlets that fizzled and cracked with electricity. The gauntlets were huge and looked as if they belonged to some sort of robotic sasquatch; a large yellow crystal gleamed and shimmered with energy on the gauntlet's back hand side and Tails also wore what looked like reading glasses with a rectangular lens.

"Someone invented themselves a new toy." said the intruder in sly tone as he eyed the gauntlets.

Tails didn't reply, he just scanned the intruder with his techno glasses. After he did that, he gasped loudly in surprise.

"Y- y- y- y- you're," Tails stuttered as he took small steps backwards. Moments ago he was ready for battle, but seeing the truth made his spine tingle.

"Doctor. Eggman," finished the intruder, before the lights above his head flickered on for a moment, allowing Tails to see the psychotic smile that adorned the human's face." Surprised to see me?" ssked the doctor as Tails continued to back up in fear.

A confused and scared look made its way onto Tails' face as the turn of events were quite shocking for him.

"How is this possible?" wondered Tails in a quaking tone. "This is the real Eggman, but how is he so strong?" asked the fox to himself. "There is no sign of any robotic muscles and there is no drug in the world that would give him that much strength in a day."

More questions filled the young fox's head, but one thing remained, he had to fight and win no matter what. With the push of his legs and the extra push of his rotating tails, Tails sent himself charging toward the new Eggman with a hand behind his back ready for a punch.

"Let's play." whispered Eggman, before ducking under Tails' punch.

Eggman could see the astonished look on Tails' face at Eggman's newfound speed and power. A split second after, Eggman kicked his legs in a wide sweep, making Tails fall to the side. A look of shock swept across Tails' face before hitting the ground and Eggman cherished every moment of it. Once the fox's small goldish yellow head hit the steel floor, Eggman kicked his face and sent him sliding backwards on the floor. The sounds of ribs cracking were heard coming from Tails' chest when he was kicked and now the fox coughed and spurted blood from his mouth. Pain was starting to splash and wave throughout Tails' torso but he refused to cry in front of the enemy. Tails forced himself onto his feet and he could see that Eggman still stood where he was before, the same smile on his face gleamed through the darkness.

"What have you done to yourself?" asked Tails weakly, his vision starting to blur, but his determination kept on telling him to stay and fight.

Eggman jerked his head back and let a loud, but hearty laugh erupt from within him. He seemed as though the question was a small and significant one. He immediately went back to a serious and more composed stance, but the smile stayed the same.

"I finally found the guts to fight for myself." he said before charging Tails.

For a person whose body was on the larger side, he was incredibly fast. He came up behind Tails and grabbed his head.

"I decided not to hide behind pathetic machines." whispered Eggman into Tails' ear, before taking the fox's head and smashing it against the steel wall of the hallway. He then took the bleeding fox's head and continued to tell him more. "I found the strength to support my own plans and not the strength of faulty robots." whispered Eggman before throwing Tails down the hallway.

The small fox bounced and tumbled down the hall as if he were a ragdoll and finally came to a stop.

Hot tears of pain came running down Tails' face, along with the blood the leaked out of the cuts under his eye. His broken ribs were starting to get numb, but he fought through the pain and got up. He eyed Eggman viciously even though he was bleeding and he heard a slight chuckle come out of the man. He was taunting the weak fox and Tails could tell. With all his might, Tails charged Eggman while letting out of his anger out in one big yell.

A blue blur of motion ran through the dark Station Square. It's late in the city, but that didn't stop anything. Lights glowed for shop owners, candles illuminated the tables of expensive restaurants, cars drove on the streets and the moon was high in the sky. Sonic was worried that night, for a call was received from his friend Tails, but once he answered the phone, the line went dead. At first he thought it was Tails accidentally calling the wrong number, but something in the back of his head told him that something was wrong. He was heading over to Tails' workshop now with his cell phone clenched in his hand just in case and he hoped everything was alright.

The phone started to vibrate within the palm of Sonic's hand, making the hero flip it on without even looking at the caller ID. "Tails?" Asked Sonic directly, but to his surprise it wasn't Tails' voce that replied.

"No Sonic, it's Amy, You've got to get over to Tails' workshop quick! It's on fire!" Exclaimed a fearful Amy on the other line. Her statement almost made Sonic drop his cell phone while running, but also made him speed up. Sonic ended the call and ran as fast as he could to Tails' workshop.

At his top speed, it took Sonic at least two minutes to get to Tails' workshop, only to find the whole place engulfed in flames. Firefighters tried to douse the flames with water but looked like it was doing nothing at all to affect the flames. Sonic's mouth dropped open in horror at the sight. The first thing Sonic had to do was go get Tails out of there. He was in a starting position and ready to run before someone tackled him to the ground.

"Are you crazy?" asked a female voice.

Sonic found that Amy had tackled him to the ground. He could care less, for his best friend could be burning alive in his own workshop. Sonic pushed Amy off of him, not even answering Amy at all.

"I have to save Tails." said Sonic nervously as he prepared to charge the flaming workshop.

Seconds before he could even take one step, the roof of the workshop collapsed, making escape impossible. The blue hedgehog knew that there was no way of saving his friend now and fell to his knees. Tears started to pour out of the hedgehog's eyes and he started to cry. Amy knelt down next to Sonic and the pink hedgehog gave him a hug. Even Amy had tears flowing from her eyes as well and the two hoped that Tails escaped somehow.

Five Hours Later

Sonic paced around within Amy's house, waiting for a call from the police investigators whether Tails had made it out or not. Fatigue and exhaustion were starting to catch up on the hedgehog since had not slept after the incident had occurred. Talking could be heard from the other room, as Amy informed all of their friends about what had happened. No matter who they told, no could be as shocked or as afraid as Sonic. A knocking was heard coming from the front door of Amy's house. Sonic was the first one to answer the door and behind it stood two human police officers.

"So is he alive?" asked Sonic worriedly. Formalities right now were the least of his problems so skipping them was wise.

Amy hung up the phone and walked over to the door. She stood next to Sonic with an equally as nervous expression on her. Not only was she afraid that Tails might be dead, but she was afraid of how Sonic would take it if he was. One of the officers exhaled a deep and worried sigh before replying.

"We looked through the wreckage and found no trace of your friend." said the officer calmly.

The news enlightened both Sonic and Amy, since now there was a slight chance that Tails escaped. The two officers looked at each other, giving the 'do you want to tell them?' look. One of the officers conceded defeat and finally came out with the bad news.

"We did find this however." said the other officer as he withdrew a piece of metal from his pocket.

The piece of metal was square and was as big as a sticky note. Some of the sides were charred from the fire, but the backside had a recognizable symbol on the back. Both Sonic and Amy gasped at the sight of it. The symbol was a round head with a mustache coming out from the sides of it and with round circles for eyes.

"Eggman." growled Sonic angrily.

I'm against canon characters dying, but it really adds to the suspense.