WARNING: THIS CHAPTER IS NOT FOR THE YOUNG ONES. IF YOU ARE UNDER THE AGE OF 13, I SUGGEST YOU STOP READING HERE, OR SKIP TO THE NEXT CHAPTER. (Although, you'll probably read it anyway...)
A 'Miles' In His Shoes
Chapter 7- Shattered Hearts
Launch Base's Remnants, 3:02 PM
"Ugh….where am I?" Eggman asked as he looked around him, seeing what had become on Launch Base after so much time had passed. "Wait…. This is….Launch Base, isn't it? Wow… and to think it's basically a scrap heap now…. Wow."
Eggman looked around, searching for anything that could help him find a way out of Launch Base, as he was basically surrounded by a wall of scraps, without a way out. That is, until he found a button. A button that he forgot to use back in his battle against Sonic in this place back in 1994. "Now, if I remember correctly, this'll make Badniks spring up around this abandoned arena." Eggman thought to himself whilst hesitating to press the button, until he finally proceeded to do so.
BAM! It worked, and Badniks actually sprung up from the tiles around him. "Yes! Finally, some help around here!" Eggman said.
"You…..YOU….YOU LEFT US HERE TO ROT, DIDN'T YOU?!" The Badniks growled, pissed off that Eggman would leave them here for nearly 20 years.
"What….NO! NO, that wasn't me! That was…er…..My…..cousin?" Eggman said as he attempted to make an excuse.
"Ya' cousin?" The leader of the abandoned Badniks asked. "….Alright, then. Where is the power-hungry bastard?"
"Dig me a tunnel through this rubble, and I'll show you." Eggman proposed.
"….K' then, ya' got yourself a deal then." The leader said, before the gang started tearing at the walls of rubble, before finally breaking a hole through the scrap heap. "Okay, we've held up our end of the bargain, now tell us, flabby, who's your cousin?"
"…His name's Sonic. Yes….Sonic the Hedgehog." Eggman said as he grinned evilly.
"…Hedgehog? Well, who the hell in your family ****ed a hedgehog?!" the leader asked, extremely unconvinced.
"….My uncle Kenny. He's a psychiatrist." Eggman lied.
"….That's one ****ed up psychiatrist." The leader said, before he and his Badnik gang found a lost Eggmobile buried under all of the trash. "Hey, doc? Do you think you can repair this? It could help us catch that hedgehog."
"Hey…that's an Eggmobile! Yeah, I can fix that." Eggman said before going over to it, repairing it until it looked like it was in mint condition(which took a while, believe me.) "….And there we go!" Eggman declared after about 20 minutes of hard work.
"Nice work, relative of a hedgehog-****ing psychiatrist." The leader said, and they all hopped aboard the massive Eggmobile, and that's when Eggman realized… it had hands attached to it!
"Wait… could this be… Big Arm?!" Eggman exclaimed. After all, he had actually never found the remains of this powerful beast.
"Looks that way. Your uncle must've left them there from when he-
"CAN YOU STOP WITH THE WHOLE UNCLE THING, MAN?! JEEZ!" Eggman yelled out, extremely stressed.
"….Sorry."
"Okay. Now, anyway, which way do I go to get out of here?"
"If you ask me, I'd go to Bastard Boulevard, down through Hedgehog-****ing Highway, and then-
"SHUT UP!" Eggman yelled, as he proceeded to toss the Badniks out of Big Arm, making the Badniks explode. "Forget that plan. I'll just go and destroy Sonic myself." And he proceeded to fly through the sky, until he saw an orange speck on the floor of what looked like Ice Cap Zone.
"Is that…TAILS? He's alive?! Well, now…time to make him pay for what he did to me." Eggman said with a devious smirk on his face, before he began to descend down into the icy terrain.
"Okay…now I've just got to tighten this last bolt, and I should be done!" Tails said as he finished the brand new Chaos Tornado, Powered by the Chaos Emerald the kitsune had found.
"Well, now…. Hello, Tails." Eggman said as he got out of Big Arm, smirking all the way down.
"EGGMAN?! You're alive? But how?" Tails asked.
"….I don't really know." Eggman said, chuckling evilly. "But, it doesn't matter. It's time for you to pay, Fox Boy!" and with that, Eggman proceeded to climb back into Big Arm and charged up a bomb with about the blast radius of Ice Cap itself. "Hasta la vista, Tails." Eggman said, and he dropped the bomb onto Ice Cap from an enormous height.
"Oh…..no." Tails said lightly, before he started panicking and running from the bomb, and eventually found a cave to settle in until the blast was done. The only problem was…. There was no cover, or door to protect Tails from the big explosion. He was…done for. Eggman had got him. He couldn't go back to get the Emerald out of the machine, as it was too far from where he was at. All hope….was lost.
The sound was devastating. An explosion about the volume of Perfect Chaos, combined with the shriek of a young fox….was not a pleasant sound. In fact, if the sound had gone on for any longer, Eggman would've gone deaf, even with his ears covered. However, when the explosion was done, and the Ice in Ice Cap was fully thawed, Eggman came down to see if Tails was down…. And sure enough…. He was.
"Wow… I've done it… Tails is…dead." Eggman said as he approached the golden-brown carcass of the kitsune. He poked at him… nothing happened. He did anything he could to see if Tails was alive… it wouldn't work. "Oh no….. I've done it… I've actually went and done it. Tails… my second biggest enemy… has died. I feel so guilty…" Eggman trailed off before slightly sobbing, and soon enough, burst into tears at the loss of another person in his hands.
"He can't be dead. He can't be. He can't. NO. Tails, WAKE UP!" Eggman started panicking. He didn't think this would happen. He didn't think that his stupid bet would get one of them killed. After all of their work, after Tails built an army (Or rather, Eggman controlled him to do so) and Eggman nearly killed them both beforehand, but now… it was different. Tails actually was dead.
"…..Tails…No…" Eggman said before sighing, and said to himself, "Sonic's going to skin me alive for this." Eggman said, sobbing, and then sat down beside the carcass of Tails, drying up his tears, and starting up a speech of his.
"You know, Tails…. I've always appreciated you. For a boy your age, your intellect was incredible. Some of the best I've seen….ever. I was honestly jealous of you this whole time… Jealous of your 'easy' life. But now, I realize…. That things aren't as easy as they look…. We'd both learned that this week. We'd both struggled trying not to ruin each other's lives…But I still ended up ruining both of our lives simultaneously…I've ruined my reputation….And you…. You're no longer alive, Tails…. I guess I hadn't realized that when you've got something, whether it's big or small, living or nonliving, you don't really seem to know how valuable it is…Until it's gone…gone…..gone." Eggman then started to cry again, and decided to head back to Green Hill to confess to everyone what had happened.
30 Minutes Later…..
"Hey, is that who I think it is?" Amy asked, spotting Eggman in the near distance.
"Looks like it, Amy. Eggman…. But wait….where's Tails?" Sonic asked, and as he finished asking, Eggman's Eggmobile descended towards the ground, and the depressed scientist hopped out of his hovercraft to deliver the news.
"Sonic….I'm sorry to say….But Tails….is gone." Eggman said regretfully.
"Y-y-y-y-y-you mean…. He's DEAD?!" Sonic exclaimed, trying to hold back the tears.
"Yes…. Tails is dead… I found him in the Ice Cap Zone… and I took my revenge on him for when he blew us out of my lair…. I took it too far… nuked nearly the whole Zone… and now Tails….is dead."
"No…. It's not true… it Can't be… Tails…." Knuckles said, getting teary-eyed.
"…..You bastard. You maniacal, blackhearted, soulless bastard. You MEANT to kill him, didn't you?!" Sonic asked, getting an extreme mix of sadness and rage within his body.
"I DIDN'T MEAN TO, Sonic! It was an accident… I swear." Eggman said, tearing up a bit as well.
"…It may have been an accident…but it's in the past… and as far as this reality's concerned… You can't change the past."
"…But there HAS TO BE A WAY to revive him, Sonic! An extra life box… a specific treatment… anything! I've always appreciated Tails…. His impressive intellect… his capabilities… and now… I've ruined it all. And now….*sniff*….there's no going back, is there?"
"Exactly, Eggman. When will you learn that life is not something you mess around with? You CLEARLY haven't learned it now, judging on how you relentlessly murdered my best friend. And now… you say you want to bring him back. This isn't a cartoon, Eggman… when people die… they die for good. And you should know this by now, because of all the Badniks you've made… and destroyed."
"…No… It can't end like this. I WON'T LET IT END LIKE THIS! Shadow, is there any way to bring Tails back… back from the dead?"
"Please leave me alone, Eggman…*sniff*… I may seem like a ruthless person, but even I cared about Tails… and you've killed him."
"Shadow, we can bring him back, I know we can! I bet with the power of the Emeralds… we WILL bring him back!"
"…It's highly unlikely…but I suppose we can give it a try, Eggman."
"Thank you Shadow… if this works… I promise you that I shall be forever in your debt."
Shadow then grabbed Eggman by the neck, and said menacingly to Eggman, "And what if it DOESN'T WORK?!"
"…If it doesn't work… I'll sacrifice myself to Mobius…Just to try and bring him back… and I'm being DEAD serious right now. I WILL sacrifice myself if it doesn't work out."
"Whoa… I think Eggman's serious. He really does care about poor Tails…" Amy said to Sonic, with tears trickling down her cheeks.
"Eggman…." Sonic said as he walked up to the scientist, "…It's worth a try."
"Oh, thank you… Sonic the Hedgehog."
"Now then, take us to the Ice Caps, Eggman."
And with that, Eggman, alongside Sonic and Shadow, got inside of Eggman's Eggmobile, and they flew off, heading for the Ice Cap Zone.
To Be Continued….