Chapter 9: Emotions
Mrothtar had made a point of informing Tails that he currently owned three of the Entropy Jets. And he made a point of reminding him that he would own four if Tails gave up ownership of the Master Jet, which he was aware Tails would be unwilling to do. He claimed he understood, but insisted that Tails remember who he was allied to.
"I'm well aware…" Tails sighed, "Don't worry. When push comes to shove, you'll have its power."
Mrothtar's reply had been empty of any emotion. Apathy in response to apathy. Apathy in response to threats. Apathy was the only thing Tails really had now. He'd forced all of his emotions down. Tried to keep them under lock and key. The less emotion he showed, the more work he got done. The easier it was to stomach the idea of eventually killing his friends.
He tried to force that thought down, too, as he scoured the forest. Thinking about the rather bloody future wouldn't help him right now. He was busy.
The Master Jet pulsed in his hand. He bit his lip and looked around. It's pulse meant there was another Entropy Jet nearby. And wherever the new one was, it would pulse in response. He knew by now that a single pulse meant it was nearby, but not exactly within his current reach. He took a few steps forward. Two pulses. He took that as a cue to continue forward a bit. When he was rewarded with three pulses he paused to look around, and, after a moment, went left. He knew better than to think that it would be as easy as going in a straight line once he'd picked up on the power.
Sure enough, the Jet gave four pulses and then, suddenly, one very powerful one.
He didn't need the pulse to know the other Jet was near… He could clearly see it. It was embedded into the rocks before him as if it belonged there, glinting at him and pulsing in response to the Master Jet.
"Nice to know that trick really does work with the Jets I haven't gotten yet." He uttered as he made his way to it. After examining the rock for a moment he sighed, "There's no way I'm just grabbing this damn Jet and leaving." He almost let surprise take over him when it registered that he had sworn. Almost.
Instead, he tried to maintain his lack of emotion and took a few steps back to examine the rock further. No scenario he could come up with could explain why the Jet was embedded so completely into the rock. Just trying to wrap his brain around it made him somewhat frustrated. He deduced it was simply the magic of the Jet and that trying to understand would probably end in an aneurism. Or him accidentally blowing something up.
Rubbing his chin thoughtfully, he continued to stare at the Jet and the rock for a moment longer. Blowing something up would probably be productive right now.
He grinned, unable to mute the glee he felt at the thought of finally being able to use his powers to do something. Sure, he'd used them to teleport once or twice, and he'd blown apart hundreds of practice dummies with them, but he'd never actually done something important with them.
The child inside him was just too excited to quash down.
So, grinning like a madman, he drew his hand back and tried to concentrate on his powers. He managed to gather them into a glowing aura around his hand, which he promptly swung forward. The aura became a ball and flew at the rock.
A massive explosion shook the forest.
Sonic awoke to a loud noise and an incessant shaking.
The ground was trembling beneath him, things flying off his shelves. He wasn't stupid enough to try and get up as long as things were so unsteady - he knew he'd hit the ground in a second. And most likely end up getting smacked in the head with more than one thing as it danced off its shelf.
When the trembling finally subsided, he slowly stood and made his way outside. He wasn't the only one stumbling to his door in the aftermath.
Smoke billowed out of the forest nearby, a large, foreboding black cloud. Even Sonic found himself somewhat scared of it. It seemed like a lot more than an explosion had caused it. It didn't look… Natural.
Tails slowly picked himself up off of the grass, still grinning maniacally. His grin slowly faded as he realized he would have to make tracks very soon. He was sure that Knothole Village had seen, felt, and heard the explosion.
He quickly bolted into the smoke and recovered the Jet from what little of the rock was left. Its power coursed through him and he let it practically absorb him.
He disappeared from the smoke with a flash and reappeared in his room at Mrothtar's hideout with a puff of smoke. This particular Jet seemed to have some form of a sense of humor.
He gently set both of the Jets on the table where the other two currently were. He was sure Mrothtar realized he had no intention of simply giving the Jet he'd been sent looking for to him. As the Guardian, Mrothtar would expect him to want to keep it close by.
He laid down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. As he laid there he began to wonder about things, which quickly led to him spacing out entirely… Imagining the eventual confrontation between he and his friends.
In his imagination, he had no qualms with killing them. He simply eliminated them… One by one. First he killed Knuckles while he slept on Angel Island. He hid to watch the others mourn him… Weeks later he took Amy's life as she sat alone in her kitchen.
He killed Sally while she was out on a walk… Simply snuck up behind her and snapped her neck.
He left Cream and her mother alone, along with a majority of the other people he knew. He knew Mrothtar only cared about him killing the people he cared about. And Cream was only a child… He didn't have much of a connection with her to begin with.
With Sonic, the last one alive, he showed himself. He let Sonic know that he had killed the others. He explained, in gruesome detail, each and every one of their deaths.
And then, before Sonic could try to attack, he used the power of the Jets to pin him in place and flayed him alive.
He left him there to bleed to death.
Somewhere along the line, Tails had fallen asleep. He woke with a shudder and a gasp, and quickly looked to his hands to see if it had been true. If he'd really done all that.
He was relieved to find he hadn't.
As he had expected, however, his emotions quickly overtook him. Overwhelmed with guilt and grief, he curled tighter on his bed and did not move for quite some time. In fact, he didn't leave his room for days.
Even Mrothtar grew worried about the young fox.
A/N: Okay I don't do this often but thank you to thefemalelet'splayingcatninja21 for your support of the story. I'm very glad you enjoy it :) And I realize this chapter is choppy as hell but I really couldn't find the time to do much with it before the deadline of... Well... Today.