Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic or any related characters. They are copyright by Sega and Sonic team. Amadeus and Rosemary Prower are copyright Archie Comics. Any OC characters and this story belong to me.
I keep changing the disclaimer, I know, but I just want it to show what I do and don't own, nothing more so... yeah.
Omg, Tails, what has gotten into him?! He's aggressive! It's not possible, even in the fanfic realm! Even though it is /:l I'm gonna shut up. But yeah, some more shall slowly be uncovered in this chapter and future ones, so don't you worry your cotton socks! Or any other clothing that you possess.
Got nothing else to write here so read, review, enjoy! And some other stuff. Not sure what though... wait for the next chapter when you're finished perhaps? Meh...
Chapter 7: A new trick
Nine o'clock, and the sun blazed calmly in the bright blue sky. After the recent snow storm, the weather's temperature and quality had increased dramatically. Now no one whore thick clothing to keep themselves warm. Trees and plants had already began to blossom and the morning air was filled by chirping flickies. It was clear that spring was in full swing. People were enjoying the weather without a care in the world.
Except for one. One that had buried himself in sorrow until he had fallen asleep in it. When he woke up, he went downstairs for breakfast and came back into his room to lie on his bed and stare at the ceiling, using his hands as a pillow and both tails slumped over either side of the bed. Tails lay on his back, unblinking. He was unsure of what to do. If this creature is taking me over, then how can I fight it? It's inside of me, where not even Sonic can protect me. He doubted he could fight it off with thoughts and mental will power, since the last time he was able to concentrate on a source – the pain. But he didn't know how the creature felt, or what to look for in his mind to fight it off, so even if he did know how to defeat it, he wouldn't be able to – there was nowhere to concentrate his fight on. For the first time in his life since he had first met Sonic, Tails felt truly alone.
He suddenly decided he would take a walk. He didn't want Sonic to know where he was going, so he stood up and walked over to the window. Opening it, he climbed outside and onto the ledge, one foot inside, one foot out. He spun his tails to avoid falling and closed the window from the outside. He then flew quite a bit of distance towards the meadows, where he would be able to walk through them freely.
Tails landed on a long, stretching path towards the city far over the horizon. He walked, unsure of where he was going, head bent down, deep in thought. It makes me more aggressive... It gives me strength to match Knuckles'... Speed to match Sonic's... What is it doing to me? Tails looked up at a nearby by hill and decided to lie on top of it to think for a while. From his perspective, it had a nice tuft of grass that could act well as a cushion. He began to walk towards it, seeing himself lying on top.
At that moment, the world spun around him in a blizzard of colours. Tails was frozen in mid-stride, nothing being able to move. Facial expressions, eyes, tails, feet, ears – none of them were moving. It was as if they were rejecting all commands, or had siezed up. Everything spun around him for no more than a second. When it all stopped, Tails finished his stride before taking in a big gasp of air, wondering what had just happened. Then he found himself standing on top of the hill he had visualised just moments ago. Woah... how'd I do that?! I just... teleported... But how? Tails looked around, hoping no one had seen. Maybe it's... Tails gripped his stomach, suddenly frightened, as if the monster would leap out from inside of him and attack him. But he still wasn't sure just where this creature had gone. Whether it was really inside of him, roaming freely in the forests, or terrorising others. And if it had used him as a vessel, he doubted it could teleport him without a chaos emerald. Then it struck him. What if, somehow, it's linked to the chaos emeralds? If it is, then I've just done chaos control. But... will I be able to handle it? Tails knew that, during a test he once took, he couldn't control the power of the chaos emeralds very well on his own, so he usually left it to Sonic or the X-Tornado to use them. Well what happened last time didn't happen now... Tails thouht as he remembered what had happened.
The recent events of Eggman's supermachine E-99 that had used all seven emeralds to almost defeat Sonic had left its marks. A few damages still remained in the city from the Chaos Control that struck, as well as from the robot itself. Tails and Chuck were working in the underground hangar, repairing the X-Tornado and modifying the engines so they could use two chaos emeralds at once without repercussions.
'Okay Tails, try it now!' called Chuck's voice.
'Okay Chuck!' Tails called back. He made sure Chuck was well out of the way before switching on the engines. The engines flared into life at the switch of a button and the deafening roar echoed around the hangar. Tails let the engines run for a few seconds to make sure all the lights were green. He didn't want to test them out fully just yet since the wings still needed some repairs and him and Chuck wanted to finish the engines first before repairing the damaged wings.
'Okay Tails, I think we'll take a break here,' Chuck called out as Tails clambered back down to the ground.
'Okay Chuck. I'm just gonna pack up the tools, then I'll come up.' Chuck exited through the elevator as Tails set about to collecting the tools. As he did so, the events of the epic battle replayed in his head. It had been a few days and Eggman was nowhere to be seen, which was quite odd since he would normally retaliate as fast as he could, sometimes within just twenty-four hours. But with the loss of his base, no one thought he would show up for a month at the least.
They had already managed to acquire two of the chaos emeralds during this time. Tails and Chuck had taken the opportunity to use them to test the new engines that they had planned just before the battle with E-99. Sonic going super... that was spectacular! I wish I had a camera at the time so I could of taken some pictures! I've never seen anything like it! Tails packed the tools into the toolbox before closing the lid and replacing it in its shelf. As he walked towards the elevator, something glinted in the corner of his eye. He looked around to see what it was, to realise it was the yellow chaos emerald next to the white one in the side of the X-Tornado, where they were stored in small square shelves along the side, both glinting from the light above reflecting from them. The colour reminded him yet again of the gold colour that Sonic blazed in as he fought the robot that had almost defeated him, had Chris not broken free from Eggman's hands and ripped the chaos emeralds out of the E-99. I wonder if you can teleport using just one. I mean, that's what chaos control is meant to do, right? And it's generated by the chaos emeralds... Maybe it can do short-range? Tails could see no harm in trying out this theory and walked over to the emeralds. He picked up the yellow one, seeing as it was the closest to him. He twirled it in his hands, examining the glistening jewel, pondering on how it would work. Hmm... Thinking up of the most logical theory, he held the emerald firmly in his hand. He concentrated on a particular spot, which was outside the front door. Alright.. 'Chaos control,' Tails muttered. As soon as the words left his lips, the hangar spun around him in a blur of colours moving so fast they blended into each other. These were shortly replaced by the many other, brighter colours of the outside of the house and abruptly stopped. It all happened so fast it took Tails a second or two to realise what had actually happened. He looked around to find himself standing infront of the doorway of the Thorndike mansion. The colours slowed down quickly and stopped to reveal the green lawn of the front garden, as well as the large wooden door that lead inside the great mansion. Hey, it worked! I should go tell Sonic, it would probably – Tails never finished this thought off though. His whole body began to shake violently as he dropped the chaos emerald to the floor, shortly followed by his knees. His body began to weaken at an incredible speed. The tails that normally swished around in an up-down motion fell to the ground lifelessly. He slumped over on to his side and lay there, violently shaking, unable to make a sound. A bystander would think he was having a seizure if they couldn't see his eyes which stayed staring forwards, fixated in position. He was, barely, able to think. What's going on? What's happening?! HELP! The poor fox knew it was useless, but he tried calling for help in his head anyway.
Tails wasn't able to control the chaos emerald's energy, resulting in major consequences. The energy from the chaos emerald was meant to use its own energy. However, since Tails had no control over this, it mixed with his energy, resulting in his body trying to discard this excess energy in the quickest way possible. And what was quicker than short, sharp movements continuously over a long period of time? However, because of these violent movements, it also drained his own energy, which was in much shorter supply than the chaos energy. He would run out of his own energy faster than the chaos energy would disperse, which would continue to try to escape afterwards. Since, however, it is unable to be replaced as a replica of the poor fox's own, it would remain inside of him, unable to escape. The irony was is that he had a machine that could disperse this energy easily, or would blow up otherwise. It was anyone's guess as to what would happen if his energy continued to deplete in an effort to rid Tails of the chaos energy.
Had there not been a security camera overlooking the door and a watchful Mr. Tanaka, Tails probably wouldn't be alive. When Mr. Tanaka had quickly alerted everyone of the event, Sonic was the first on the scene. Sonic didn't know what was going on, but after Chuck had told him that Tails was in the hangar moments ago and now lay on the floor shaking madly with the chaos emerald next to him, Sonic guessed that the fox had tried to use chaos control with the emerald. But he worked on a guess by using the chaos emerald to help the fox, which had miraculously worked. Unfortunately, Tails was out of action for a whole week because of it.
Tails snapped back to reality. Well, that's not happening this time. So it can't be chaos control... so what is it? Is it really teleporting? Or maybe the creature is controlling it for me. Argh, I don't know! Tails became confused at his own conclusions, unable to decide what was the truth, or decide on the most sensible conclusion at all. He scrunched his face up in confusion. He didn't know what was the truth and what was his imagination anymore.
And then something clicked. What if I can control it? If last night happened because of that thing, then I'll be able to use it to defeat Eggman! But how do I control it? Tails thought this over. Well I imagined myself ontop of this hill when I teleported, so... Tails looked around to make sure no one was watching before concentrating his thoughts on the base of the hill he was stood on. He concentrated hard, focusing on imagining himself standing there. Reacting to this, the same thing instantly happened. The colours of the surrounding area swirled around him at breakneck speed, stopping him from being able to move so much as a nanometre. In a very short space of time, the colours stopped whirling around him like a tornado and Tails stood at the bottom of the hill he was stood on top of moments ago. Alright! Tails thought to himself in joy as he smiled at his success. He then tried to remember other unusual things that had happened to him recently. When me and Sonic were going to the city, I was going much faster than I used to be able to... My leg and concussion healed too fast to be natural... I defeated Eggman's robot with ease... Maybe this thing isn't so bad after all! Tails was delighted that he had reached to the conclusion that the creature was infact helping him, not trying to harm him. But when it tortured me, what about that? Maybe it's a side effect? Something like this is bound to do that. Tails made his mind up and thought it a gift that had been given to him rather than a curse. He thought of his room back home, and instantly disappeared from the meadows.
An immense pyramid stood over the hedgehog, surrounded by pillars made out of compacted sand. A few of these pillars had fallen over and those that remained standing were heavily eroded by the countless years of erosion. Shadow didn't bother with the scenery. He was determined to get to the bottom of the mystery of this meteor. He walked through the ancient archway that lead into the vast pyramid and followed the hallway. He had no idea where he was going, or what he was looking for, so he was just going to find the heart of the pyramid, which was most likely where the facts lay. He took a nearby burning torch that always seemed to be coincidentially there and never went out unless there was a reason for it. The hallway infront of him only went in one direction, so he doubted it would be hard to find the central room.
After continuously turning left and right and climbing numerous flights of stairs, Shadow reached what he was looking for. A large room that was missing its roof lead to a dead end. A single podium lay in the centre with what looked like enscriptions around its sides. On the wall opposite of Shadow lay what Robotnik had described. The whole wall was etched with ancient, yet somewhat untouched, text, as well as the diagrams that were also explained. The one that caught Shadow's eye was a large diagram that was clearly a meteor. I suppose that this is what I'm looking for. But how to decipher it? Shadow walked towards the long encriptions that seemed to make no sense from far away.
When he was close enough to read the text, he took in a gasp and his eyes widened. I – I can read it as if it were plain English! But – how?! He was immensely confused. The text couldn't have been simpler if it was written in English. The cryptic inscriptions that made no sense to even the most renowned experts on Mobius were able to be fluently read by the confused hedgehog. Perhaps the doctor managed to decipher them and put it in my genetic coding? Shadow quickly pulled himself together, remembering the task at hand. He began to read the information inscribed on the ancient walls of the catacomb, taking in everything it mentioned.
Tails rematerialised in the center of his room. He staggered as he lost his balance, but managed to stay upright. Looks like I can go anywhere I want to with this. Tails got lost in his own thoughts of the places he had always wanted to go to, but never got round to it. He wondered what Sonic's expression would be after he found out that his little brother had been touring around the globe without him knowing. Wait... what will Sonic say if he found out what I can do? Should I tell him? Tails sat down on his bed and rested his head in his hands to think. What will he think? He might not see it the way I do, which would mean he would get worried and try to find a way in stopping it. I don't want him to be so worried about me... So maybe I shouldn't tell him.
Just then, Sonic walked into the room, which brought Tails out of his trance. Tails looked up as the hedgehog sat next to him.
'Are you okay Tails?' Sonic asked. The fact that Tails, as far as Sonic was concerned, had been locked up in his room all day made Sonic think that Tails had become depressed over last night's uncharacteristic outburst.
'Yeah, I'm fine,' Tails responded as he looked into Sonic's eyes to prove he wasn't lying.
'Are you sure?' Tails nodded. Sonic thought for a moment. He wasn't sure of what to do next. Eventually giving up, he nodded and left the room without another word. Tails followed, wanting to go to the workshop and work on with some adjustments to the X-Tornado.
How was that possible?
Eggman was reliving last night's events, wondering how it was possible for Tails to become so strong. He continued edit an old blueprint on a drawing board in his new base, a large, pointed red battleship, with stabiliser wings pointing downwards at the rear and the ship's bridge raised high over the top. It was lined with various defensive weapons such as turrets and hidden rocket launchers specifically designed to target high speed objects, namely Sonic and the X-Tornado. He had made the texture of the ship's exterior in a unique way that would reflect radio waves (used for aircraft scanners) into several different directions. This idea he had acquired back on Earth from the military's B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber, a high-tech bomber that was virtually undetectable and had once caught Eggman off guard. The doctor had learned quite a few tricks from Earth's military tactics, as well as other things that they didn't use. Eggman was yet to make something to cloak the ship, like a light-bending machine or something. He was being more precaucious now due to the recent raid on his probably still smouldering previous base and had installed long-range scanners, the radius of which was three miles, which would at least allow him to prepare fast enough if either of Sonic or the X-Tornado did approach.
The battleship, which Eggman had named as the Egg-Hawk, was currently stationed over Daetron's Canyon. The source of the canyon's name was unknown, but it was presumed to have been named by someone called Daetron as this seemed the only answer anyone could think of. The canyon was surrounded by small mountains, flooded with trees and plants. A small group of flickies flew low over the canopy of the dense trees. The sun shone brightly over the clouding sky. Eggman, however, wasn't concentrating on the scenery and was instead reverting to an old blueprint he had created years ago. The machine itself had become very successful against Sonic, but was affected by its likeness to the hedgehog and had left itself to die after saving Sonic at the last second. The design flaw, to this day, haunted Eggman. He had never got round to fixing it because shortly after this event, he had started concentrating on other methods. This time, without the design flaw and a chaos emerald, it will be unstoppable! Eggman smiled to himself as he changed the blueprints so that it had a slot to hold a chaos emerald. I'll concentrate on getting that fox later, I don't think it would be wise to do so just yet. He added to himself as the scene of Tails moving at lightning speed to dodge the Egg-Scorpion's onslaught flashed in his mind.
'Doctor, we've taken apart the Egg-Scorpion' Decoe called out from the door. Eggman made no response as he was too busy on the plans and hadn't registered what had just been said. Decoe and Bocoe were still annoyed about the Eggman's recent plans, but were at least pleased to know he wouldn't be trying it again any time soon. His excuse was it was too much hassle for something so insignificant. Not being able to look them in the eye when he had said it made them suspicious and weary of his next dastardley deed though. What they had picked up about it was that there was no kidnapping involved and was focused purely on defeating Sonic.
As Decoe left the room to find something to pass the time, Bokkun sailed in.
'You called for me Doctor?' Eggman looked around to see the robot impatiently floating, excited that he finally had a mission after such a long wait.
'I need you to take this message to Sonic for me.' Eggman waved an envelope, which dissapointed the robot because he preffered the exploding television screens. However, it was a mission at last and he took the envelope.
'Can I put a bomb in it Doctor?' Bokkun asked as Eggman turned round, destined to make something explode. Eggman merely waved a hand which said 'I couldn't care less if I tried' and continued to draw.
'Yippee!' Bokkun shouted, punching the air in joy and slipping a small explosive in the envelope before putting it in his pouch and sailing off to find Sonic.
Time ticked away and it reached eight o'clock in the evening. While Tails worked on the X-Tornado, Sonic had gone out for a long jog, saying he didn't know when he would be back. Before Tails could ask him where he had gone, Sonic was already running towards the meadows.
'Done...' Tails said after hours of adjusting the wings, the engines, the weapons system and everything else that had something to do with the X-Tornado. I'll take it to the workshop at the University tomorrow and see what I can do with the engines. Tails crawled out of the bottom of the X-Tornado and put away the many tools he had used.
After finally packing everything, Tails walked upstairs to make himself dinner. He wasn't that much of a chef, so he took out a pre-prepared meal (battered fish and chips) that just needed to be heated in the microwave. He took off the cling film that was wrapped around the meal and plate and set the microwave to reheat. He left it to it while he took out a knife and fork from the drawers.
'I'm back!' A voice called out from behind him. The fact it said 'I'm back!' made Tails think it was Sonic, but the voice was much too high to be his. Tails looked around to find the source. No one was there. Huh? Tails slowly turned back to the microwave, listening out for any kind of movement. The microwave tinged to say that it had just finished its job and Tails opened the door. I'll leave it to cool for a few seconds.
'Tails! Up here!' Tails looked up to find Bokkun hovering over his head. 'I've got a message from Eggman for Sonic. Where is he?' Bokkun said in his high pitched voice as he took out the envelope. Tails immediately jumped and ran over behind the sofa, afraid that the envelope was going to blow up on touch. He was used to television screens rather than a note, but you couldn't be too cautious with Bokkun. 'Hey! Get back here! It won't blow up when you touch it or open it, I promise!' It'll blow up after you read it though Bokkun thought to himself.
Tails cautiously climbed out from behind the sofa and cautiously approached the hovering robot holding out the note. 'Remember to tell Sonic what it says' Bokkun said as Tails took the note and opened it. It read:
Sonic. Meet me at Daetron's Canyon at midnight, at Crateméro's Gorge. Bring your chaos emeralds. Winner takes all.
Eggman.
P.S. Come alone or not at all.
Tails finished reading what had to be the shortest message he had ever seen. Crateméro's Gorge? Why there? Tails knew it was to work at Eggman's advantage though, otherwise Eggman would just attack some nearby town to draw Sonic out. It's a gorge, so there'll be plenty of water. If it was a specified place, then you can bet anything that it was for Eggman's advantage, and you'll most likely win. Nonetheless, Tails needed to tell Sonic. He looked up, to find Bokkun rushing out of the door. Tails anticipated what was going to happen and rushed over to the nearest window to throw the envelope outside. It flew just three feet before setting off its small explosion and being blasted into dust and ashes. Tails heard a faint 'aww!' which could only mean Bokkun was dissapointed the explosive didn't do what it was meant to. Crateméro's Gorge... midnight... come alone... bring chaos emeralds... winner takes all... damn! I won't be able to help him, or Eggman won't accept the challenge, and I bet he'll have a scanner or... something.
'Tails?' Tails looked around to find Sonic standing at the door. 'Was that Bokkun?'
'Yeah. He gave me a message for you, but it blew up. It said... come to Crateméro's Gorge at Daetron's Canyon at midnight. Bring all your chaos emeralds, winner takes all. And come alone.' Tails recited as he quickly remembered what the message had said, before it was reduced to a pile of ashes that were now being carried away by the calm spring wind. Sonic sighed. I take it someone wants pay back. 'Was that all it said Tails?' Sonic asked, which Tails answered by nodding. Sonic thought over the unexpected challenge. Great. A gorge. That means water.