Hope you liked the cliffhanger :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic or related characters. All copyright are of Sega and Sonic Team. I think Amadeus and Rosemary are owned by Archie comics, correct me if I'm wrong. I own this story, and that's it. :)
We left the birthday boy looking at the news that mentioned his father creating a new robot. Not gonna say much, so here it is :) A nd I know the meeting between Tails and Amadeus isn't very good, stuff like that isn't exactly my strong point.
Finally, thanks to Razor da Hedgehog who has already put this story on alert and favourites (although their wasn't a review, that kinda speaks for itself :P). ^_^
One final word: read, review an enjoy!
EDIT: I found a freaking typo DX I feel so stupid... I'm not normally one to incorrectly spell words. What made me feel even more stupid is a few grammar errors which I've corrected.
Chapter 2: The Conference
Sonic had now become entranced at the title. Luckily, he managed to snap out of it. 'It's his father... In the news...' was all he managed to say to the confused crowd. Knuckles walked over and took the newspaper out of the fox's hands. Surprisingly, Tails didn't so much as try to resist. Infact he stayed in the same position as before. Knuckles, after a brief look of added confusion to Tails' lack of response, read out loud:
'Professor Amadeus Prower at the University of Engineering and Mechanics has announced that he has created the world's smartest robot. 'With the most advanced Artificial Intelligence ever seen on Mobius, this robot will be able to function like a living being. Turn to page -' Knuckles finished off quickly as he realised he needed to turn to a different page to read the whole thing. Quickly flicking through and skim reading, he found where he left off and carried on. '- It will be mass produced as a robot to help around people's homes, helping the police, paramedics and firefighters and businesses around the world.' A public Conference meeting will be held tomorrow at 2pm at the University to reveal the first prototype. However, concerns have risen that the conference may be attacked by Doctor Eggman in an attempt to obtain the super intelligent robot. Due to these concerns, the police have enforced maximum security on the meeting.'
It took a while before anything happened. Unkown to everyone, Tails had received such a great shock that his heart could no longer take it and he simply fainted.
Tails's eyes opened with a jolt. He found himself lying in bed. Whoa... what happened? He sat up and looked around to see if anyone was there. Since no one was, Tails slid out of his bed and walked towards the door and downstairs. He found everyone seated in the living room casually talking. Sonic was the first to notice Tails. 'Hey there bro! What happened?' Sonic said as everyone else noticed and turned round to see the still slightly dazed kit. 'I really don't know... The last thing I remember was seeing the headline of the newspaper and next thing I know, I'm in my bed.' Tails explained to the still slightly confused crowd as he sat down. 'Well, so long as you didn't stay out too long to miss out on what I've cooked for ya,' Amy spoke out unexpectedly. Everyone chuckled at this before realising how hungry they actually were. Sonic wasn't very good at serving large meals, only breakfast, lunch and dinner and Tails had forgotten about his birthday and forgot to set up a party. They put on their scarves, hats and coats (no gloves needed as they wear them all the time anyway) and set off for Amy's house. Sonic explained to Tails what the article had said and, before Tails could ask, said that he could go to the conference – he knew that Tails would want to see him. Tails hadn't seen his father since he was 2, which he was too young to remember. Captured by Eggman during his days of 'robotisizing' people, turning them into cyborgs, Tails hadn't seen him or his mother, Rosemary, ever since and had been brought up by Sonic after being rescued. Tails hoped that one day he would be able to find out the location of his parents, but never once found out. Every time he searched the databanks of Eggman's computers, not so much as a single piece of data came up. It was like they had been erased from existence.
They reached Amy's house in about 5 minutes. Tails smelled the pre-cooked food before anyone else due to his acute sense of smell. He had no intentions of telling anyone how nice it smelled incase it arroused an argument or something, but it made his hunger pains tighten suddenly and he almost started drooling. Eventually, the sweet smell of pies reached everyone else's noses and they too felt like drooling. A minute later when they were sat around the dining table, three pies were served: Blackberry, cherry and Tails' favourite, apple. Everyone received their slice of pie and began eating and talking. Sonic explained to the ecstatic fox that he would need to get an early night's rest if he wanted to see his father; Vanilla was giving some handy cooking tips to Amy; Cream was feeding Cheese, and Knuckles was just eating seeing that he had nothing interesting to talk about. Everyone finished their pie, and Amy went in the kitchen for dessert. As she came in, she switched off the lights. Immediately, Tails knew what was coming, as did everyone else. 9 hovering lights appeared at the kitchen's door, while everyone broke into another chorus of 'happy birthday to you!'. 'Make a wish, Tails!' Sonic said after the singing had stopped. Tails thought of a wish before blowing out the candles. Everyone cheered as Sonic then turned the lights on and revealed that the cake resembled a large mint candy, Tails' favourite food. He also took a guess at the flavour of it, which he found that he was right when he received his slice and began to eat. Now that everyone was filled, they headed off home, wishing Tails one final happy birthday as they departed, before leaving with Sonic back home.
When they reached home, they lay their now wet jackets from the melted snow on a radiator to dry. Sonic and Tails then went upstairs into their rooms and fell asleep.
Miraculously, Tails managed to get a good night's sleep despite his excitement. However, when he went to sit up he felt something move on his left hand. He looked around to find a bowl of warm water. He didn't even want to check if Sonic's cruel prank had caused him to have an accident or not. Sonic, you know how important today is for me! Why'd you do this now?! Angry, Tails thought of how he was going to confront Sonic. Instead of doing that, a plan quickly came together in his mind. Heh. Sonic, you're not the only one who can do cruel jokes. Tails climbed out of bed, still not daring to look at the sheets, and put the bowl of water under his bed for later. He then took out the spare sheet from his drawers that he used for when the other sheet needed washing and switched the sheets. Acting as casual as possible without over doing it, Tails went downstairs for breakfast. Finding Sonic already up, they exchanged a 'morning' to each other and Tails went for a bowl of cereal. Sonic however, knew something was wrong. Didn't he notice the bowl? Or was I dreaming... It was late at night when Sonic had pulled the prank, so this question began to linger in his mind before Tails snapped him out of it. 'Hey Sonic, when are we leaving for the conference?' The confused hedgehog, although not showing it, answered 'we'll head off at about half one so we can get there early and get some good seats.' Tails nodded and carried on with his breakfast. Sonic shrugged the matter of the 'missing' bowl off as actually being a dream. But just to make sure, he went upstairs after finishing his breakfast to double check Tails' sheets, wondering if the kit was just hiding the fact of his 'accident'. Sure enough, the sheets were clean and a bowl nowhere in sight, leaving Sonic in a state of total confusion. Passing it off as a 'I'll do it next week' thing, he went downstairs to see what Tails was up to. Not very surprisingly, the door to the workshop was open. Sonic went down to see what the fox was up to. What was also not surprising was that Tails was on the drawing board again, eager to get the blueprints finished. Sonic left him to it, seeing as they had a couple of hours spare time, and went outside for a jog.
It was just about two o'clock When the duo arrived at the University. Sure enough, a large crowd had formed inside infront of a stand. Sonic and Tails wiped their feet of snow before setting off to find a decent spot. Tails' heart hammered so much it was almost visible. Sonic made sure to stay behind Tails incase he dropped again from the excitement. On the stand, a single robot stood there, currently turned off. It had a basic bipedal structure with arms, legs, body and head. It was a shiny grey colour because of the metal.
A clock struck two, as someone from behind the stand came on. The figure Tails immediately recognised, since he was a striking equivalent to him, only taller and wearing a labcoat. His left eye was robotic. It was grey (as you'd expect from metal) with a series of lines crossing it, and a red sphere in the middle, evidently meant to help him see. He was nearly twice the size of Tails. He had the three bangs hanging from his forehead, although thicker and longer. His shoes were the usual colour scheme of red and white. A white strip ran down the centre with three small bumps. What was most notable was that he had two tails. Tails was in awe of his father's appearance, while Sonic was cautiously holding his hands behind Tails' back incase he decided to overload again. Luckily that didn't happen.
Half an hour passed and Amadeus had explained the functions of the robot. He had called it Arnold as he couldn't think of a technical name for it. It was so advanced it could feel basic emotions, but was unaffected by emotional breakdowns and sadness and anger. It was able to understand advanced commands instantly. At one point, it even entertained some children that had managed to squeeze their way to the front while the professor answered questions. Its voice wasn't robotic or monotonic, but sounded like a human's. Tails sucked in all of the information given without a single second of complaining of any flaws or improvements he could make. Sonic too was intrigued by the robot's flawless design, even if most of it sounded like another of Tails' rambles about something he couldn't understand more about if he tried. The conference ended with different representatives of newspapers taking some final pictures of the robot while it's creator collected his equipment. Tails thought this as his only chance. Now or never. Since he didn't want the reunion seen by everyone else, Tails followed his father to his office.
Amadeus closed the door of his office before putting his things back. Arnold will be returning to the testing lab after the final photos. He then sat at his desk, spinned round to face the windows that overlooked most of the University and relaxed. A knock on the door made him look round in curiosity. The media have already asked me all of the questions, and I specifically told Arnold to go to the lab, what do they want now? 'Come in' Amadeus called in a half commanding, half welcoming voice as he spun round to face the door and leant forward. The door opened and Tails' head came round the corner. It was as if time had slowed for both of the foxes as soon as they laid eyes on each other. Amadeus and Tails stood staring at each other, Sonic still behind Tails incase he collapsed. 'Miles...?' was the first word that was spoken in this moment of suspended animation. 'Dad...?' Tails said in the same tone of voice. Immediately, Tails' eyes started to water has he ran towards his long lost father. At the same time, Amadeus came off from his chair and infront of his desk. He then bent low and embraced Tails in what could have been a bone-crushing hug. They cried into each other's shoulders in joy for a whole minute, while Sonic looked at the reunited father and son with a smile of joy of his own. Finally, a sound was made other than sobbing. 'I missed you dad...' Tails muttered in his father's ear. 'Missed you too son...' After this, they seperated. Amadeus then offered to talk with them in a small sitting area. They sat down and began to discuss. The first question on Tails' mind was the first to be asked. 'Why didn't you come looking for me? And why didn't you leave any clues for me to find you?'.
'Miles, what you've got to understand is that me and your mother had no idea you were alive. We thought you had been captured by Eggman too and seperated from us. We thought we'd never see you again when we escaped, and we tried to erase every shred of evidence of our existence from Eggman so he had no clues on relocating us. Although, with the recent media coverage of Arnold, I suppose that my cover is finally over.' Amadeus sighed at this. 'And I take it Sonic here was the one who saved you?' Amadeus questioned the two of them. Sonic nodded briefly and Amadeus thanked him for saving and looking after his son for all these years.
'So what was it that Eggman put you through? Before you escaped, that is,' Tails asked, eager to know what Eggman used to be up to. Amadeus explained to him how he was to moderate several pieces of advanced equipment, and how he was treated if he refused. How the robotisizing felt when it was finally given to him, and how he and Rosemary, his wife, managed to break the stranglehold and escape. He explained how excrutiatingly painful the punishments and the robotisizing were, and how often he was given them. These descriptions seemed to have hit something in Tails' mind that forced anger to build up in him. He also remembered on how, with Eggman's help, the Metarex had nearly won a battle that had forced him to lose a much beloved friend. These two pains mixed together to form anger that not even the pure-hearted fox would be able to control. Hoping to rid this pain and change the subject, Tails asked 'So where's mom?'.
'She's at home, cooking dinner for when I get back. Infact... Sonic, Miles, would you like to have dinner with us tonight?' Amadeus asked them both, hoping to spend the evening with his mini-me and his older brother. 'Yes please! And, call me Tails dad,' Tails exclaimed, almost leaping out of his seat at the idea and immediately bringing him out of the temporarily stored anger. Amadeus chuckled, then reached over for his phone to call his wife and after a short conversation of leaving his wife on a cliffhanger on the mystery guests, he hung up. Tails was so full of excitement that he finally passed out from his rapidly beating heart that lost its will to carry on the way it was.
As soon as he hit the floor he was awake again. He found his brother's feet infront of his own eyes, and felt a pair of arms pick him up from behind and helping him onto the seat. 'Tails? Are you ok?' Amadeus said with complete confusion and concern for the fox's sudden passing out. Tails took a moment to respond as his head started spinning from the impact. 'Yeah... I think...' Amadeus took his word for it, but was still concerned about his health. At that moment however, an extremely loud, ear splitting ringing sound filled the room. All three of its occupants tried to block it out by holding their ears. Because of this, they didn't hear the shattering of the glass at the back of the office, or the hovering machine that had caused the ringing appear at the now non existent windows. The robot, the source of the interruption, had two loud speakers mounted above two larger cannons armed and ready to fire, and a large glass container to the rear. The ringing stopped to be replaced by an annoying laugh that Sonic and Tails recognised immediately. 'Eggman!' they both exclaimed at the same time, looking up at the robot. Amadeus too turned round to face the uninvited guest as Eggman floated down in his Eggpod next to his latest creation.
'Ahh, Sonic, what a pleasant surprise! Looks like I'm going to be collecting more than I bargained for!' Eggman exclaimed to the trio now with faces of determination and ready to fight. 'And you, professor, have evaded me long enough! Hand yourself over, or I'll take you by force!' Before Amadeus could fight back, Sonic and Tails stepped in the way. 'You'll have to get through us first Eggman!' Sonic responded. Eggman wasn't concentrating on him though. He was looking at Tails with a look of almost terror. Tails wasn't just showing a face of determination – it was one of pure hatred. Eggman quickly brought himself together and said 'I'm pretty sure I can sort out the little fox pretty easily.' Pressing a button, the machine played a sound that was strikingly like a thunder clap, matching one to the very decible. Tails instinctively set a foot back and blocked his ears, but wouldn't break eye contact with Eggman, or drop to his knees, no matter how scared the sound made him. Sonic then went into a spin dash straight towards the speakers. What he failed to notice was that the cannons mounted below them were precharged. The cannons took aim and fired. Although neither hit, Sonic did manage to tap one, scarring his side and falling to the ground with a grunt. He clutched his right arm with his left as the stinging pain lingered. He tried to forget about it, but the stinging was so painful it was hard to forget about. 'E-72, attack strategy H-F!' Eggman blurted out at the robot. The robot instantly responded, and 5 smaller sentry turrets clipped out from the sides and primed on Sonic. One of the main blasters turned its attention Tails. The sentry turrets open fired at a very fast rate on Sonic, while the cannons began to charge up. Sonic continuously dodged the oncoming attacks.
'Not even you can keep this up for ever Son-!' Eggman was rudely interrupted by a devastating blow in the side of his face. Eggman grunted before looking round for the source. Both Sonic and Tails are still pinned down – Sonic from the continuous fire and Tails keeping an eye on the charged cannon. So that can only mean – his thoughts were interrupted by a second bone crushing uppercut to the chin. Amadeus, like his son, was filled to the rim with anger. Standing on the side of the Eggpod, he kicked at the controls, hoping for something to happen. The side effects of this attack took place immediately – the E-72 stopped firing and instead began to rotate on the spot at an alarming rate. Sonic took this chance and went for another spin dash at the blur that was the robot. Blasting straight through, he came round like a boomerang and smashed the back of the Eggpod. This caused its anti-gravity engine to stop operating and began to fall. Sonic quickly rugby tackled Amadeus and landed back in the office, while Eggman plummeted three stories. Luckily, the back up generator activated in time. Even luckier, he looked up to shout at Sonic and found the E-72 about to fall on top of him. Swerving out of the way, the machine came crashing down on the spot he was on just half a second ago. Flying away as fast as he could, he shouted the usual 'I'll get you next time you infernal hedgehog!' before heading off to disappear on the horizon. 'He'll be back...' was Amadeus' first words. Sonic and Tails silently agreed, knowing that if Eggman wanted to capture someone, he would be determined to make sure they are.
Would have carried on after this point, but instead I'll leave you on a cliffhanger ^_^
If you're wondering what mini-me is, then you clearly haven't watched Austin Powers. It's basically someone that is the exact double of you, but smaller. Mini-me in Austin Powers is the same as the nemesis in it, but only 1/8 his size.