Disclaimer: Sonic and co. © Sega
Chapter Four
Boxes
1 Month and 26 Days before Black Egg Armageddon
When Tails came back, I finally got a glimpse of what the new Eggman was capable of. The level of brutality and torture that Tails went through almost made me throw up.
Every day after Tails went missing; the police and almost all of Sonic's friends went searching for him. Seven days later though, the police ended the search and announced that he was dead. Sonic wouldn't believe it and he always went out into Mystic Ruins to find Tails. Nothing worked and now the blue hero would have to admit that his one best friends was dead.
DING DONG! DING DONG!
Bloodshot eyes fluttered open. His doorbell ringing in a nonstop pattern awakening Sonic. The tired blue hedgehog got out of bed, he was the fastest thing in the world but the only thing he couldn't catch was some time to sleep. Sonic drearily walked over to the front door, yawning and stretching, for he had been up for days looking for Tails.
"Sonic! Come on, open the door!" yelled a feminine from beyond the door.
Sonic instantly recognized the voice. After seeing Tails' workshop burn to the ground, Amy tried to help Sonic by spending more time with him. The blue hero couldn't tell if she was doing it because she really wanted to help, or if she just wanted to get closer to him. But deep inside, Sonic could tell that Amy was trying to comfort him. He unlocked the front door and let Amy in. She looked absolutely beautiful that morning and Sonic was trying to figure out if he was getting delusional.
Amy's close-lying fur seemed to shine in the small sunlight that entered the house and her quills seemed smooth and just as shiny and her bright green eyes twinkled in the light. Her red halter-top dress seemed longer, but it was because everyone was starting to grow up. Seeing Amy in this way did make Sonic feel somewhat in love, maybe it was because he needed something to take his mind off of Tails, or maybe it was because he finally found a real attraction to Amy. Either way, Sonic seemed swayed by her appearance, but tried to keep his feelings and actions under control.
"You look beautiful today." commented Sonic, before walking up close to Amy. The words simply floated out of Sonic's mouth without him even knowing it.
Hearing Sonic finally say that to her made Amy blush. Her heart began to soar, as she began to day dream on things that she would do together with Sonic. After a couple of romantic scenes, Amy snapped back to reality before she would look like an idiot in front of Sonic.
"I, uh, I heard that the police ended the search, I'm so sorry." said Amy sincerely, with a saddened look.
Sonic snapped out of his adoring state at the statement, which brought back his sadness. "Yeah, but I'm still looking for him." said Sonic as his head went limp and he looked at the floor as if losing all hope.
Amy put a hand on Sonic's shoulder, a worried look on her face. "We're all still looking for him, no matter what the police say." said Amy, trying to lift Sonic's hopes.
Seeing her hero act so hopeless made Amy feel bad. She didn't what to say to him. Saying that everything would be okay would be giving out false hope, but at times like this, false hope is still hope.
"You think he's okay out there all by himself?" asked Sonic as tears starting to well up inside of him.
Amy looked surprised at the question, but it dimmed back down to her more calm features as she could sense a cry about to erupt out of Sonic. She embraced Sonic in a hug. "He's a smart kid, of course he'll be okay." she whispered, before Sonic started to cry once again.
Sonic wrapped his arms around Amy's petite body, returning the hug. His tears sweeping down his face and onto the floor. This would probably be the only comfort he would get from a friend. He was lucky that Amy was there, if she wasn't, he'd probably crawl into some fetal position and cry himself to sleep. Her ability to comfort the saddened was the medicine that Sonic needed, and he was lucky to have a friend as sincere as Amy. After a minute of hugging and crying, Sonic released Amy and wiped the tears from his eyes, which finally stopped flowing.
"Thanks Amy, I really needed that." said Sonic with a smile. Finally being able to let his emotions out really felt good and it was all thanks to Amy.
Amy gave out a slight giggle. "Anytime." she said smiling.
Sonic brought Amy into the living room area, where the TV was at. He was starting to get used to not having to run away from her. After that hug, he felt more confident that Tails was alive. The two watched some TV while chatting about some other things for about two hours. A couple of jokes were tossed around, making both of them feel like they were actually starting to know each other, instead of knowing each other as the reluctant damsel in distress and the cocky hero who always saves the day.
To the unknowing eye, both of them looked like the perfect couple, just talking about miscellaneous topics that would spur into a full blown conversation. Their feelings for each other have also changed drastically during their talks, Amy was starting to feel that Sonic was also the emotional type of person other then the speedy hero and Sonic feeling like Amy was the outgoing type, other then the repetitive stalker who would always chase him through town.
DING DONG! DING DONG!
The ringing of the doorbell interrupted their talking, making both of them wonder who would dare interrupt such a lovely moment. Sonic got off of the couch and walked toward the door, Amy following him.
Sonic opened the door happily. "Hel- oh." said Sonic stopping mid sentence to change his tone, only to find that no one was there other then two boxes.
Amy walked up behind him and looked over his shoulder. "Who is it?" she asked, making sure that no one was there other then the boxes.
"No one I guess, they only dropped off two boxes." said Sonic with a shrug. He looked down at the boxes to find them a bit strange.
One of them was a big wooden rectangular crate, coming up to Sonic's shoulders. The box was so big that it looked like he could fit in it if he was smaller. The other box however was much smaller and it looked like it was some sort of birthday present. A radiant red ribbon tied the box with its red, yellow and black wrapping paper. But there was no special occasion that called for a present. It wasn't his birthday and Christmas was far away from now, so Sonic passed it off as some sort of gift from a fan. Sonic lugged the large box into his house while Amy carried the smaller one.
The hero set the box next to the dining table while Amy placed the smaller box onto the counter. Before the sleek gift wrapping could touch the marble counter a rectangular envelope dropped out of it and gently swayed down onto the ground. Amy and Sonic looked down at the envelope with a curious look set on both of their faces. Without saying a word, Amy bent down and picked it up, looking at both sides of the letter.
"It doesn't say who it's addressed to, but I guess it's for you." said Amy before handing the white envelope to Sonic.
Sonic gratefully took the envelope from Amy and started to carefully rip the flap off of it. Once done, Sonic took out the piece of paper that was being held within the papery confines of the envelope and unfolded it. A confused look swept over Sonic's face making Amy walk over to him.
"What's it say?" asked Amy, before finally seeing the five word message.
Open the small box first.
Those were the exact words that were handwritten elegantly onto the small piece of paper. The short message made both Sonic and Amy' eyebrows raised, they then took their eyes off of the message and onto the boxes.
"What's so special about the small box?" wondered Amy and Sonic simultaneously.
Sonic walked over to the small box and lifted it up with two hands. He shook it gently and held it to his ear as if trying to tell what was inside of it, like some impatient four year old on his birthday. He then put the box under his arm and shrugged.
"I don't hear any ticking, so it can't be one of Eggman's bombs." he said, remembering all the times that Eggman tried to send him a bomb.
Amy shrugged, finding no threat. "Open it then." said Amy in a plain tone.
If anything, Sonic and Amy would rather prefer a bomb other then the horror that actually hid within the boxes. But life has it cruel twists and turns, this is just one of those things.
Amy walked over to Sonic and watched as the blue hedgehog began to unwrap the present-like box. As Sonic tore the shiny gift wrapping off of the box, a foul odor started to invade the air. The smell was so strong that Sonic could taste the iron tang in his mouth. After two seconds of tasting the acrid smell, he finally registered in his head what the smell was.
"It smells like . . . blood." said Amy blankly, before Sonic took on a disgusted look.
Even with the disgusting thought, Sonic pushed it toward the back of his mind and continued to unwrap the present. A small voice in his head told him to stop though. The same voice told him that what was inside of the box would crush him emotionally. Sonic didn't listen though, he would take the pain no matter what it was. If only he knew, he would have definitely backed down.
After finally unwrapping the present, Sonic put it down on the table and looked down at it. The box was somewhat like a shoebox, with a removable lid, but instead of it being colored in its brand name colors or stickers that determined the shoe size, the sides were completely white. With hands moist with sweat, Sonic slowly took hold of the box's lid and lifted it up. The hideous odor then slammed right into Amy and Sonic, filling both of their lungs with the horrible smell. Amy started to hack and cough at the smell, while Sonic covered his mouth and nose with his hand. He then looked into the box to find the source of the smell and almost threw up at the sight.
Within the small confines of the box, a single goldish yellow tail was set upon torn up paper. The end of it had hardened crimson blood and the white tip was easily recognizable. Once Amy saw the tails, she covered her mouth in shock and small little pebbles of tears started to appear on her face.
"Tails." she whispered, still shocked and disgusted at the sight.
This was a beautiful dream turning into a nightmare for Sonic. Before, he was happily chatting with Amy and now he was back to his moping and shocked self. After seeing the tail one thing popped into the hedgehog's head one thing that brought horror and happiness all at the same time. He looked over at the larger box and ran over to.
"Amy, call 911, Tails in the box." he said rapidly as began to pry the wood off of the crate.
"What!?" asked Amy in a disbelieved tone as she watched Sonic tear through the box.
"Just do it!" yelled Sonic as he tore off another piece.
Amy ran over to the phone and quickly dialed the number as Sonic continued to tear pieces of wood out of the large crate. Horrible scenes of what might be Tails mutilated body flashed into Sonic's mind, but he suppressed them and continued. A few seconds passed by until Sonic had ripped off one whole side of the box and an unconscious fox tumbled out of it.
The scene was horrifying to both Sonic and Amy as they looked at Tails. The poor fox had his hands and feet bound with duct tape and a single small piece of the shiny adhesive also covered his mouth, stopping him from screaming or calling for help. That wasn't the worst part though. Instead of seeing the fox's two twin tails, there was nothing there but two bloody stumps where they should've been. Sonic was on the brink of crying at that moment, but he had to stay focused if he wanted to save his friend. Amy talking rapidly and fearfully on the phone could be heard from behind Sonic as he put his ear to the kitsune's chest, trying to desperately find a heartbeat. Miraculously there was one, faint, but it would have to work.
"Ambulance will be here in a couple of minutes." said Amy as she rushed over to Sonic's side.
This couldn't wait. Sonic got up, Tails in his arms and looked at Amy. "I can get to the hospital a lot faster." Sonic said before running off to the hospital, his trademark blue blur trailing behind him.
Sadness, fear, anger, nervousness, a lot of emotions were swirling around within the blue hedgehog as he ran to save his friend from the death that he feared would come. More tears and more pain were flowing from the hedgehog now more then ever. He hoped that this was all some bad dream, but it wasn't. Eggman had tortured his friend, but for what reason? In his mind, questions appeared and disappeared, as he tried to make sense of it all.
"Why would Eggman do this?"
"Is Tails going to be alright?"
"Why Tails?"
"Why not me?"
"What's happening to Eggman?"
These were only a few questions that existed momentarily in Sonic's mind as he ran. None of the questions however had an answer. Sonic could only run and cry, with his friend in hand.
Flash!
Sonic burst into the hospital, parts of his arm covered with hardened blood that wasn't his. Everyone looked at him with shocked expression, for a young unconscious fox was in his hands.
"I need help here!" yelled Sonic, before doctors and nurses rushed to his aid.
Flash!
Tails was put onto a gurney, a handful of doctors around him rushing him into the ER. Sonic walked hastily behind the mob of doctors, sweat starting to fall off of his nervous face. The doctors entered a room, but Sonic was stopped at the door by a female nurse.
"I'm sorry, but you can't come in here." she said politely.
Sonic understood and waited at the front entrance for his friends.
Flash!
Four hours later, Amy, Knuckles, Cream, Cheese, Vanilla, Vector, Charmy, Espio and even Shadow were all gathered at the waiting room. Amy brought one of Tails' tails, with hopes that they could somehow reattach it. The doctors took it from her and said that they might be able to do something with it.
No word from any of the doctors working on Tails, making Sonic even more nervous. He was heartbroken after seeing what had happened to Tails, but he had to stay strong for everyone else.
Finally, a doctor strode out of the room and pulled the paper mask down from over his mouth and nose.
"You're friend is going to be alright. He's stable and we were even able to reattach the tail that Ms. Rose brought with her." he said with a smile.
Everyone released a sigh of relief at the words. Sonic was the happiest though, his friend was alright and that was all that mattered. But one thought was stuck in his head. One thought that disturbed him the most and everyone else once he said it aloud.
"Why would Eggman do this?"
So we go from a luvy duvy scene with Amy and Sonic, to a dramatic scene with Tails on the brink of death. Jaw dropping isn't it?