AN: It's been a while, hmm? I'm sorry about that. The details are on my profile page, but just as a quick heads up: the following chapters are drafts that I discovered on a memory stick. I figured I would upload them, give y'all an idea as to what I was doing with this originally, and then somewhere down the line I'll come back and re-write/edit this. At the very least, there will be some sort of conclusion and this story will no longer be sitting in limbo. Apologies if it seems rough (and for the lengthy Author's Note!).
Okay, then. Here we go!
Mind Over Matter
Chapter Six (Original Version)
"Keep going, Sonic! You've almost got it!" Tails shouted in encouragement.
"Really? Because it sure don't feel like it!" the former hedgehog replied through grit teeth, spinning the two tails at the base of his spine with furious determination.
The two had returned to the Mobius Salt Plains to ensure that they had no unwanted interruptions during their training. Tails had been attempting to teach Sonic to hover above the ground in a similar way to himself for the last half an hour. In all honesty, he felt that the former hedgehog was doing exceptionally well for a beginner. It had taken the fox himself a good number of days and crash landings to master basic flight when he was younger, so Sonic's progress within the space of 30 minutes was nothing short of astounding. However, there seemed to be something about his technique that just wasn't working for him.
"Try keeping your weight forward," Tails suggested, wondering if it was a distribution issue. "That way, your body won't be fighting against the lift when it happens."
Sonic closed his eyes tight and pushed his unfamiliar body to work even harder. A trickle of sweat made its way from his brow to his nose.
Just a little faster! Just a little harder!
His struggles began to pay off as his posterior slowly began to rise, lifting his legs until the tips of his sneakers brushed against the dusty surface.
"That's it!" Tails cried out with joy. "You've done it!"
Sonic gasped with relief and untwisted the tails, landing back on his feet. "Phew! About time!" he said with a smile.
Tails walked over to him. "You should've seen it, Sonic! You actually rose up into the air like me!"
"Well, I had to get it eventually, didn't I?" the now-fox grinned with confidence, offering a raised thumb. "Speaking of which, how about you show me your Triple Spin?"
The now-hedgehog groaned. "Again? We've already tried it ten times! I can't do it!"
"Hey now, no need to look so blue," Sonic chuckled at the bad pun. "Your spin wasn't that bad."
Tails pointed to a fresh bruise between his ears. "Tell that to my head."
"You mean, my head," Sonic corrected him.
"Um, yeah. Sorry about that," the cub mumbled, remembering that his current body was not in fact his. "It doesn't hurt that bad, honest. At least I don't think its gonna leave a mark or anything."
"Don't worry about it," the hero of Mobius said, waving the apology aside with his hand. "I think you should try again, though. Trust me, I've got a good feeling about this one."
Tails swallowed his nerves and crouched down onto his hands and knees. "If you say so, Sonic."
The cub in mind but not body concentrated all of his stamina into making sure that his legs were primed to launch him forward, and that his quills were tense enough to offer the correct amount of resistance against the surface. Too much and he would just carve a tunnel into the ground, and too little would mean that he'd simply roll over onto his back. Though neither of them quite understood the science behind the manoeuvre, Sonic had described it as 'shooting a ball inside a pinball machine'.
"You've gotta build up some force, and then push off the floor as if you're jumping," he had said. "But remember, don't let fear hold ya back. The second a doubt enters your mind, you'll stall, and I don't have to tell you how mondo uncool it is to land on your head."
Visions of inevitable failure began to dance mockingly before his mind's eye as soon as his brain had finished repeating these words. The kit furrowed his brow, willing the images to disappear. He couldn't back down now.
Okay then. Here goes nothing.
Tails closed his eyes and forced his feet against the floor, pushing his body into a somersault.
He didn't dare take a look at the world around him for fear of uncurling out of his spin. He could feel dust collecting in the thin strands of smooth blue fur as his body tumbled forward across the Salt Plains. The velocity he was travelling at surprised him more than anyone.
I'm doing it! he thought. I'm really doing it!
His momentary lack of focus was all that was needed to throw his body out of synch. His body began to wobble as he leaned too far to one side, his legs and arms spilled out of position, and the momentum catapulted him flat onto his back.
"Hey, Tails!" Sonic called, running over to him. "You all right?"
"Uh..." the former fox groaned, holding his head. "I'm think I'm okay, Sonic. How did I do?"
Sonic helped him to his feet. "Well, it could have been a lot worse. At least you moved forward this time."
The bruise on top of Tails' head throbbed angrily at being reminded of this previous try. "I guess," he mumbled. "I still don't get why I've gotta learn how to do this, anyway."
"It's important that you do, keed. You heard the professor; he said that it could take ages for him to fix that pile of junk."
"Yeah, but-"
"Tails," Sonic said, a rare hint of seriousness creeping into the laid back delivery of his voice. "Trust me on this. It's better that you're able to bust some robot chops if you need to than not, y'know?"
Though the former hedgehog wouldn't say it, he was concerned. If the Badniks didn't know about their little accident, then that would mean Tails would become their prime target instead of him. He wanted to make sure that his young companion was able to defend himself in some way. If he couldn't go toe-to-toe, at least he could hold them off long enough for him to make an escape.
"Okay, Sonic. I'll keep trying," Tails promised, shrugging his shoulders. "Maybe the next one will be better."
"Cool," the now-fox replied simply. "In that case, what say we-"
Their conversation was forcefully abandoned as the echo of what appeared to be a large object falling to the ground splashed through the air, throwing the dry musty sand upward as heavy reverberations pounded the earth beneath their feet.
"What was that?" the former kit asked.
Sonic squinted his eyes slightly as two particular characters came to mind. "I don't know, but I've got a pretty good idea who's behind it."
"Scratch and Grounder?" Tails asked, already knowing the answer.
"Who else?" Sonic grinned. "Of course, it could just have been Robotnik tripping over himself, but that woulda registered at least an 8.9 on the Richter scale."
Tails giggled at his friend's joke. "So, what should we do?"
The used-to-be-teen speedster turned to look at his partner, the unmistakable glint of adventure burning in his eyes. "It sounds like they're causing trouble back in Metropolis. I say we go make it difficult for 'em."
"What?" Tails blurted out, eyebrows raised. "But Sonic, we can't go like this! How are we going to beat them if we're not in control of our own bodies?"
"No problemo. I'll think of something - I usually do," Sonic replied, thumb to his chest. He raised a hand into the air, striking a heroic pose. "Besides, you know as well as I do that a hero's work is never done! We've gotta go; own body or not."
Sonic offered his arm out to Tails. The former fox grabbed hold of it tightly and revved his feet in a way that he had seen his hero do so many times before. "Okay then, Sonic! Up, Over, and Gone!"
"Hey! That's my line!" the now fox laughed incredulously as the two of them took off in the direction of the hulking city.
xXxXx
A short, bespectacled cat dressed in a black casual suit was forced to dive to the concrete as a large object pounded against the footpath where once he stood. Quivering with fright, he turned to see what had attacked him.
The object appeared to be a robust, metallic block attached to a chain. Raising his head to cast terrified eyes upon the perpetrator, he saw that the weapon was attached to an egg shaped capsule that looked big enough only to hold one individual, with two identical chicken-like robotic legs on either side of the vessel to hold it aloft.
With a mechanical creak, the chain began to reel back into the construction, tugging the weight up with it into the air. The cat desperately scrambled to his own feet as the hammer shaped block of metal was driven into the floor once more, spraying shards of rock into the air.
Scratch guffawed with delight as he saw the terrified Mobian run screaming into the distance. "What's the matter? Are things getting too heavy for you?" He laughed.
Grounder sniggered as he commanded a similar machine to kick its heavy legs against a building wall, causing it to splinter apart and collapse. "Yeah! Don't you want to play with us any more? We were just getting started!""
The robotic rooster prodded at the dashboard before him, smiling like a cybernetic child in an industrial maintenance service department. "Boy, it sure was nice of Dr. Robotnik to let us use these Walker Stomper things of his - they're great!"
Grounder nodded in agreement, before realizing that his brother couldn't see him. "You've got that right, Scratch - I don't even remember the last time that I had so much fun!"
"I wouldn't say that so soon, dumb-blocks!" a distressingly recognizable voice called out to them. The two Badniks turned, wide-eyed, to get a glance at this new speaker, hoping that it wasn't who they thought it was.
But, of course it was.
Tails stood before them with hands resting on his hips and a smirk on his face. Sonic too was positioned beside him imitating the stance (and secretly showing the former fox how best to act like he would in such a situation). "In fact, I'd say the party is just getting started!"
"It's the hedgehog!" the hench-bots screeched simultaneously. "Don't let him get away!"
Scratch wrenched a lever on the vehicle's control panel and stabbed at a couple of switches with his elongated fingers, lifting one of the machine's legs into the air. The rooster then brought the weighted foot down into the ground hard. Dust momentarily clouded his vision as he waited to see how flat the hedgehog would be upon the pavement.
Sonic whistled to draw the attention of both Badniks away from the dust cloud to where the fox and he were both standing unscathed. "Gonna have to do better than that, bolt-butts!" he said, tapping his foot expectantly and folding his arms.
Scratch growled and hammered every button in front of him in anger. "Oh yeah? Then let's see how you like this!"
A cylindrical cannon emerged from a slot beneath the Walker Stomper capsule, and fired a blast of energy at the two heroes.
The hedgehog grabbed the young cub and pulled him out of harm's way as the laser bolt melted the concrete upon impact. Hot, sizzling jets of electricity rained upon the asphalt as the two freedom fighters weaved across the street in a zig-zag pattern, dodging the discharges launched at them from the machine. Something told Sonic that their little acting master class wasn't going to get them out of this one.
Grounder activated a similar weapon and joined his twin. Both of them kept blasting in the direction of where the hedgehog had been, the cobalt master of faster keeping his feet just ahead of the potholes that were splitting the road behind him as a result of the laser fire.
"Left!" the Sonic the fox hollered, drawing his partner's attention to an upcoming building in front of them. Tails stopped running and twisted both of their bodies in said direction, using the speed to slide the two Mobians past the obstacle. He looked back as he resumed pumping his legs, hopeful that this action would have left their pursuers behind.
No such luck. Laser fire continued to hail down on their location, reducing the masonry that blocked the heroes from its deadly rays into little more than waterfalls of liquid concrete and crumbling brick.
"Rats! Those things must have speed detectors!" the former hedgehog muttered.
Before Tails could reply, both of their ears were drawn to a scream. A young, female hedgehog with pink fur was running as fast as she could to escape from the falling rubble that was descending upon her. The former kit sprinted into the path of the heavy chunks of stone and scooped the young hedgehog into his arms. The three of them watched as the stone broke apart against the road, scattering heavy chunks across it and leaving a crack in the asphalt.
"Are you okay?" Tails asked, putting her back on her feet.
The female hedgehog straightened her red hair band and repositioned her spikes. "Y-Yes," she replied, shaking.
"Okay, then. Well, we've gotta be on our-"
The air was knocked out of his body as the hedgehog squashed him in her arms. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she said with joy. "How can I ever repay you?"
The frightened hero in training struggled to speak against the surprising force being applied to his ribs. ribs. "Well, there's really no-"
"I can't believe that I was just rescued by the Sonic the hedgehog!" she continued, oblivious to his attempts to leave.
"Uh... I'm really not-"
"Hmm. I've got to think of an appropriate way to thank you," she thought out loud.
Tails continued to struggle against the hedgehog's arms. Man, she was freakishly strong! "Honestly, you don't need to-"
"Wait," she said softly, placing both hands upon his muzzle to keep his head still. "I know."
She tugged hard upon Tails' face, pulling it in line with her own, and pressed her lips against his with great enthusiasm. The cub's eyes widened in horror at this action, as Sonic stared in amazement at the spectacle. The pink hedgehog released him and batted her eyelashes playfully with a giddy smile upon her face.
"Well, goodbye, Sonic! My hero!" she said skipping away from them. As soon as she was out of sight, Tails began to furiously wipe his mouth with the back of his paw.
"Gross!" he spluttered, rubbing his muzzle in eagerness to remove any trace of what had just transpired. "Girls are icky! Hey, Sonic, what's so funny?"
"Nothing," the teen hero said, lips trembling in his effort to not laugh. "Let's keep going."
"Okay."
"Unless you want to go back and ask her for her number?"
"Sonic!"
"Hey, just looking out for you, dude. Besides," he winked, "she's kinda cute."
Tails frowned at his amused friend. "That's not funny."
"Sorry. Couldn't help myself," Sonic replied. "Let's go deal with those walking reject piles before they cause any more damage."
Tails made sure to run directly into the Badniks' line of sight, under Sonic's instructions to ensure that they were the only targets, before applying more speed to lead them away from the still retreating civilians. The diversion worked as Scratch and Grounder immediately began to fire their weapons at them once again.
"Now they're back on us again. Where can we go?" Tails asked concerned.
"Where else can you go when creeps are getting you down?" Sonic asked, not fazed by their predicament. "Head down town - it looks like everyone has gone now." He thought for a microsecond. "Plus, I think they've opened up a new store or two that could be worth checking out."
The fox made a U-turn and dashed down a road behind the two pursuing wrecking mechanisms. Scratch clucked with laughter at what he perceived to be a last-ditch escape attempt.
"Trying to run, huh? Well, I'll make sure you don't get away so easily!"
The robotic duo turned their vehicles to face their prey, the gargantuan pistons in their legs creaking in protest at the rough treatment wrought upon them by their drivers. The concrete shook beneath the crushing weight of both contraptions as they thundered down the road, eager to intercept the small forms in front of them. Tails proceeded as best as he could, but he knew that he was no match for Robotnik's inventions. Ironically, the only one who would have been able to defeat them was being carried by him at this very minute. As he ran, blood began to rush to his head and his legs increasingly felt as though they were navigating through a thick lake of treacle. Not now! he thought desperately. Why now?
"We've gotta do something - I'm beginning to get tired here!" the now hedgehog puffed, trying his hardest to maintain speed. "Pretty soon I'm gonna have to slow down!"
The hedge-fox thought carefully over his friend's chosen words. He had been contemplating the exact same thing, and now he believed he had an answer. "Slow down...that's it! Great idea, keed!"
"Huh?"
One of the laser bolts vaporized the base of a wooden telephone pole, sending it crashing through the window of an office block.
"Tails, you see that?" Sonic asked, pointing at the mess in front of them. The used-to-be fox looked ahead to see that the pole had created a bridge leading up into the building. "Head up there, quick!"
Driving his legs to pound upon the street harder than he ever had before, Tails forced the sore hedgehog body to mount the fallen pylon and jump through the shattered pane of glass.
The hedgehog sat on the floor, breathing heavily, as the fox watched Scratch and Grounder search the area beneath them in confusion. He exhaled a breath he didn't know he had been holding.
"They didn't see us. Good thing they're not bright enough to look above 'em. How are ya holding up, keed?" Sonic asked.
Tails struggled to fill his lungs with the necessary oxygen, choosing to reply instead by pinching his thumb and forefinger together. This little acting job they were putting on was more tiring than either had anticipated.
"Hang on for a little longer, big guy. You're doing great," the hero of Mobius comforted him. Privately, Sonic was glad that the robots hadn't seen through their ruse, though he knew that they would not be able to keep it going for much longer. The two of them had to find a way to send the Badniks running before Tails or he made a mistake and revealed themselves.
He looked through the window they had used to gain access to the building, noticing the long cable that had been adjoined to the pylon was severed from the rest of the wooden post. He smiled.
"Tails, just do exactly as I say. I've got an idea." He stretched the two tails behind him out to their full length. "And I think I'm gonna need these guys to do it."
xXxXx
"Where are they?" Grounder complained. "They're not supposed to hide from us - that's cheating!"
"Oh, quit whining!" Scratch shouted back at him. He didn't see a small brown furred figure fly down between the legs of his Walker Stomper, holding a length of thick cable. "Those two pipsqueaks have got to be around here somewhere, so keep searching!"
"But, what if we can't find them?" the tank robot asked, similarly oblivious to the same brown furred figure moving between the legs of his destruction machine with the same cable.
"Then I'll tell Dr. Robotnik that it was your fault you lost them!" his companion yelled. The brown furred figure moved beneath his vehicle once again.
"What? You lost them! You were the one who let them escape!" Grounder retorted. The brown figure moved beneath his vehicle once more also.
"No, you were the one who let them escape!"
"You let me let them escape!"
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"Did-"
"Guys, please, can we continue this later?" Sonic asked, standing in front of their Walker Stomper crafts. "I'm growing a beard, here!"
The mechanical duo gazed at the small fox, as a lioness studies its next meal. They whooped with laughter.
"You're mine now, fuzzball!" Scratch squawked with delirious joy, thumping his fist into the control panel of his machine.
"Nu-uh! You're mine, now!" Grounder argued, slapping the palm of his selected hand into the dashboard of his vehicle.
As both Walker Stompers attempted to raise their legs to squash their target, the heavy limbs struggled against the few feet of cable that had been wrapped around them.
The fox simply looked on as the two monstrosities wobbled precariously. "It may be an old one, but it still works every time."
Scratch and Grounder both knew that there was no way to go but down.
"Abandon ship!" Grounder cried, opening the capsule to his walker and leaping to the street below. "Every robot for themselves!"
"Wait for me!" Scratch screamed as he too exited his vehicle.
Both Badniks ran as fast as their gears could carry them, craning their necks to make sure that their ill-balanced vehicles weren't about to crush them. As part of Sonic's plan, Tails tugged a long stretch of cable across the street that the robots were travelling down at great speed.
"Hey guys. Remember me?" he said, pulling the cable taut.
The robots were unable to prevent themselves from stopping as they ran into the cable, which tripped them quite spectacularly. The tin twins cried out in shock as they sailed through the air, landing in a jumbled heap on the road.
"Timber!" Sonic shouted as the unoccupied vehicles finally began to fall through the air.
Both of the constructed nightmares ever so slowly teetered backwards before the full force of gravity pulled them down on top of the long suffering hench bots, burying them beneath several tons of metal.
Tails jogged over to his friend, arms held up in celebration of their victory. "Way to go, Sonic! That'll teach 'em, huh?" he praised.
Sonic shrugged off the compliments. "Ah, it was nothing out of the ordinary. Just 'cause I can't be quick on my feet doesn't mean that my brain has to follow." He tapped his temple for emphasis.
"What should we do now?" the young hero in training questioned. He massaged his aching legs. "We can't do that again so soon after the last time."
"Hmm," Sonic mumbled, resting his hand against his chin. "I think we ought to go back to the professor. This one was a little too close."
Tails offered a hand for his friend to take hold of. "I hope he can change us back to normal soon."
Sonic nodded in agreement, kicking a loose piece of stone away from his sneaker. "Me too, bro, so let's juice it loose!"
xXxXx
Unfortunately for the two of them, neither Mobian saw the remains of several well hidden cameras watching them from the wreckage of the machines they left behind.
The chiming ringtone of Grounder's chest phone buzzed gratingly in Scratch's hearing receptors. He slowly reached up to the body of his brother, who was lying on top of him, and extracted the communications device from its hold.
"Hello?" he said, picking up on the more nasal tone that his vocal processor was producing. Looking down, he saw that his beak had become pressed flat into his face like a pancake. Scratch straightened the beak with his hand. "Hello?" he said again with his regular voice.
"Scratch? What are you doing answering the phone? Where's Grounder?" Robotnik bellowed. "Never mind that. Did the hedgehog arrive?"
"Yes, your loudness," the cyber rooster replied, holding his head.
"Good!" the spherical dictator said, sounding pleased. "And did you manage to record everything that took place?"
"Well, uh..." Grounder began before Scratch covered his mouth with his hand.
"You had better be stalling to think of the perfect way to phrase your reply, or else I will be most displeased," the doctor growled.
"We were able to record everything, your angriness," the rooster stammered.
"Good!" the rotund dictator replied, sounding pleased. "Now, pull yourself together and get back here. I'm going to confirm my suspicions."
xXxXx
Robotnik slammed the phone down and watched his monitor. Video footage of his despised enemies' most recent battle against his Badniks was displayed on the large panoramic screen, having been streaming in real time from a series of devices contained within the Walker Stompers. As the video played, the villainous genius reached for a carton of popcorn that he had prepared, covering the contents with a humongous spoonful of scrambled eggs that he had readied at the same time. Settling into his chair, Robotnik carefully studied the film, scanning for a sign of anything that could shed light (or darkness, if you prefer) upon his theories.
After several cringe inducing minutes of watching his scientific creations be outwitted by the two small mammals, most of which he tried to skip past with varying degrees of success, the footage arrived at the point where Sonic and Tails were preparing to leave Metropolis.
"I think we ought to go back to the professor. Maybe this one was a little close," Tails suggested.
"I hope he can change us back to normal soon," Sonic replied.
"Me too, bro," the fox agreed, "so let's juice it loose!"
The corpulent conqueror scooped a big fistful of popcorn from the carton and greedily shoved it into his awaiting jaws.
Careless, hedgehog, Robotnik thought to himself, savouring the taste of his snack with a grin. Very careless.
END CHAPTER
Hope that wasn't too painful. This is Chapter 6 as I originally wrote it (before I changed a bunch of stuff and ultimately shot myself in the foot as a result). Thanks for checking it out!