Dr Robotnik sat in his observation room in Robotropolis. It had been quiet. Too quiet. The princess and her insipid band of rabble rousers hadn't set foot in the city for a good while. But the doctor knew, he felt it in every bone, that they were planning something.
His red eyes flickered to alleyways, to abandoned shops and parlors and to half demolished sports arenas: anywhere they'd be hiding. His security orbs yielded nothing.
"You're out there somewhere…"
Something in his gut told him that this activity would accomplish nothing. He was wasting time watching all these screens, when he could be yelling at the Worker Bots to pick up the pace with his new statue.
Then again, that was what that smug little blue rat wanted. To lull the scientist into a false sense of security so he could plant a detonation device in his factory, or in his new shopping mall.
"Why do I wait for them to come to me," he grumbled to himself, "when I could come to them?"
His orange handlebar mustache twitched.
"Because I don't know where they're hiding…" he answered.
Actually, he technically knew where they came from. That hideous blemish on his perfect part of Mobius called the Great Forest. They came out and they went back in.
Robotnik felt like a particularly hungry cat staring at a hole in the wall for a mouse to emerge, and watching it escape.
Robotnik shuddered and reconsidered. He felt like a particularly hungry robot cat staring at a hole in the wall for a mouse to emerge, and watching it escape. That's more like it. If he only knew where they lived.
"I could burn the Great Forest down to the ground…" he mused. "Yes…" It certainly was tempting. Then again, those ridiculous pests would perish in the inferno, and he'd always imagined the delicious poetic justice of roboticising the hedgehog and the princess. No… he'd figure out what to do with them when he found their hideout.
He remembered his plan to destroy the Great Forest with the machine that carried his acid rain…which that rodent ruined. Then he remembered getting blown out of the ruins of Maga by those insipid winds… which allowed the vermin to get away. But why was he thinking about ideas that were tried and failed. "Machine…wind…"
"I have it!" he smirked. Instead of acid rain, he'd use one of nature's own forces to dispose of those Freedom Fighters. Once and for all! Leaning forward, he pressed his comms machine.
"Snively!"
He heard a frightened squeak, several crashing noises and a meek "Yes, sir?" Robotnik rolled his eyes. The imbecile…
"Follow my instructions carefully…"
"WOO-HOOOOO!"
A lone fox sped amongst the trees of the Great Forest, darting under branches and dodging around trunks. He'd never felt so alive in his life. Now he knew how Sonic felt…but Sonic never got this view of the woods before!
He soared through a clearing and saw a hut near a pond with a workshop built next to it. The occupant, Rotor Walrus, emerged from the front door, carrying a box of tools. Tails giggled mischievously and flew above the treetops.
Rotor whistled cheerfully as got ready to go about his work. It was a perfect day. So perfect, in fact, that he was going to spend all of it indoors working on adjustments to the Freedom Stormer.
"Hi, Rotor!"
"Oh, hello, Tails…" the walrus absentmindedly looked up and saw nothing there. Unbeknownst to him, the source of the greeting was hovering right behind him with a boyish grin. With lightning fast reflexes, the kit flew upwards out of Rotor's sight as he turned around.
Rotor exhaled in mild bemusement. "Shame my little buddy, Tails, isn't here," he proclaimed loudly. "I was gonna ask him to help me with my new project!"
"CAN I, REALLY?"
Rotor, having got used to this, didn't even budge as Tails appeared in front of him. The fox floated above him, getting a better view of the rotund inventor's face. Rotor tried to look unamused and unimpressed. That was easier said than done with a kid like Tails.
"Yeah, you can," he smirked, "later!"
"Promise?"
"Sure do"
"WHOOPEE!" the cub whooped, flying back up into the air. "See ya later, Rotor!"
"See ya, Tails!" The walrus took one hand off the box he was carrying to wave, and the contents spilled all over the ground.
"Ahhh, shoot!"
Today was already shaping up to be a great day. A morning flight, helping Rotor later. What could possibly take the wind out of his sails?
He heard a sonic boom behind him and a millisecond later, a blue streak sped by beneath him, the turbulence sending him rolling and spinning into a ball. Recovering expertly, Tails giggled and willed his namesakes to speed up to keep up with the blur.
"Aaaand with only twenty seconds to go, the fastest thing alive rushes to Knothole," he heard Sonic commenting in a manner akin to a horse race announcer. "He's practically unstoppable, unbeatable and maybe even unbelievable!"
"And he's got a little friendly competition!" Tails chimed in, flying alongside him, "How's that for unbelievable?"
"Unbelievable that I'm gonna let you win, Big Guy!"
Nothing more was said. Sonic and Tails looked straight ahead, their eyes on the prize. A complacent smirk spread itself broadly across the cobalt quickster's face as he felt himself overtaking the little fox. Satisfaction filled him like a soap bubble as he knew that he'd never be outdone.
"Catch me!" Tails abruptly shouted and halted in mid-air. Sonic looked back to see his little bro falling, sporting an oddly cocky expression on his muzzle despite the danger he was now in.
The hedgehog ran ahead, straight towards a tree. With one foot kicking against its trunk, he launched himself backwards, somersaulting through the air towards the falling cub.
He caught Tails neatly in his arms, and continued to run without stopping.
"Home stretch, Big Guy, ya ready?"
"Ready!"
"Up, over and gone!"
Several trees and plants nearly met the ground from the hurricane-like wind that erupted from the force of the hedgehog's burst of speed as he thundered toward the village.
"La, la, la, LA, LA, lalalalaLA!" Antoine Depardieu sang boisterously to the tune of Votre Toast, sitting outside his hut and polishing his many boots. Once one had been rubbed to the point where he could see his handsome face in it, he would place it neatly in a row beside him. There appeared to be ten pairs all standing neatly to attention.
"Zere we are!" the coyote smiled, admiring his teeth in the shiny sole…after he removed a piece of broccoli from them. "All ready pour when ah receive ze medal of homer pour stopping zat Robotneek!"
"YO, ANT, GET OUTTA THE WAY!"
Antoine's blood ran cold. Looking up from his fancy footwear, he saw a blue and brown streak charging towards him like a runaway freight train.
"NONONONON!" the coyote squealed, "SONIQUE, GO ZE OTHAIR WAY! NON, NOT ZAT WAY, YOU FUEL!"
CRASH!
Sonic, being the unstoppable force that he was, kept on running. But Antoine went head over heels into his favorite azalea and his boots flew everywhere.
"Sorry, Ant-oooiiiiinnnne!" Tails called back.
Sonic said nothing. He was almost at the finish line, he was going to break his record, he…
"SONIC HEDGEHOG!"
The little fox nearly went flying straight from his arms as he performed an emergency stop. Sally Acorn stood before them, tapping an impatient foot whilst sporting a thundercloud of a glare.
Sonic and Tails shared a look.
"Uh-oh…"
"How many times do I have to tell you," the chipmunk scolded. "Don't run so fast through Knothole!"
"I wasn't running, Aunt Sally," Tails ventured sheepishly. "I was flying!"
"Yeeeah, and you were flyin' like a pro, Big Guy!" Sonic quickly improvised. "That's another day of Freedom Fighter training brought to an awesome end!"
"Freedom Fighter training?" Sally folded her arms. "Does it include making a nuisance of yourself or did I miss that lesson?"
"No," the blue hedgehog rolled his eyes, "I was practicing for when we plant a detonator that has thirty seconds ta go KA-BOOM and we hightail it outta there!"
"Speaking of hightail," Tails leapt up into the air. "WOO!"
"Oh, honey, now don't go so high!" Sally hurried to the spot where her nephew had been a second ago. Too late! There he was, hovering over the ground. The Princess did her best to look proud of him, but inside she was afraid.
"Mondo excellent-o launch, T2!" Sonic praised, putting an arm around Sally while shooting a thumbs-up at the flying fox. "Imagine a whole bunch of dopey SWAT Bots runnin' at him and crashin' into each other just as he goes sky high in the nick 'o' time!"
"Yes, and also imagine if he's a second too late and they capture him," Sally snapped.
"Nuh-uh, Aunt Sally," Tails grinned. "I'm too fast for any of Buttnik's guards! Look at me go!" And he was off like a shot.
There was no denying, he certainly was nippy when he took to the sky. Sally could still remember the day Tails and Sonic inadvertently discovered this talent. They found out that he could fly. She got him down. After a year of practice, the kit was able to fly through Knothole and the Great Forest within perhaps a minute.
There were times when the chipmunk wished that Tails never found out he could fly. It meant that he was more than eager to accompany herself and the others on missions to Robotropolis. Immediately after this thought entered her head, she inwardly chastised herself for even considering taking Tails's happiness away from him.
"The little rascal gets faster every day!" Bunnie Rabbot observed with a grin, making Sally jump slightly as she came over. "The first time we saw him get up into the stratosphere, he was like a fluffy ol' cloud. Now he's a fluffy ol' bolt 'o' lightnin'!"
"A cloud…" Sally thought with a smile. "That's the perfect analogy…"
Her mind flew itself back to when Tails was much younger. Sonic had stolen a new book from Snively's personal library, just for Tails to add to his bedtime stories. This particular storybook amused the hedgehog greatly for two reasons. The first one was the title, which Sally didn't find as funny. The second was the fact that Snively owned a book about a talking teddy bear.
Tails on the other hand loved it. Especially one particular chapter in which said teddy bear got airborne by means of a balloon.
"How sweet to be a cloud,
Floating in the blue,
Every little cloud,
Always sings aloud,
How sweet to be a cloud,
Floating in the blue,
It makes him very proud,
To be a little cloud"
That song was what the toy had sung, and Sally found it a particularly good lullaby. Now Tails was like a cloud, floating in the blue.
But the sky wasn't always blue. And clouds weren't always fluffy and harmless…
Bunnie laughed, watching Tails do another lap around the village, snapping Sally out of her reverie. "Ah never seen him so happy since ah made that dirt hockey stick for him!"
The two girls looked on as Tails did a loop-de-loop, somersaulted and waved down at them. They giggled and waved up at him.
"Yes," Sally agreed with a chuckle of her own. "You wouldn't have thought that the first time he took to the air. Now he races Sonic to see whether being in the air is faster than being on the ground. Can you believe Sonic tried to say it was Freedom Fighter…"
"Aunt Sally!"
The chipmunk's demeanor diminished to fear in seconds. She knew it. She just knew Tails learning to fly was going to lead to trouble. Her hair practically whipped her head as she wrenched it skyward, expecting to see the fox stuck up a tree or something else terrible like that.
"Catch me!"
Tails was falling! But he had a playful, mischievous grin on his face, and the chipmunk and rabbit noticed that he'd deliberately positioned himself over them.
"Oh, nonono, Tails, not now, TAAAILS!" Sally shouted, extending her arms to catch him. The cub fell straight into them…but the jolt caused her to stagger backwards, and before either of them knew it, they were tumbling down a slope into a ditch.
Bunnie covered her mouth to hide her mirth as she beheld the pair in an undignified heap, their noses practically squished together.
"You won, Aunt Sally!"
"Now, c'mon, sugah-fox," Bunnie playfully admonished, "don't y'all go fallin' on Sally-Girl like that! If'n y'all wanna play that Catch Me game 'o' yours, ah'm sho'nuff eager to have a go!"
"You cheat, Bunnie," the fox protested as he helped Sally up and climbed out of the pit. "You use your ladder legs and that's no fair!"
"It ain't fair, darlin'," the rabbit chuckled, "that you can fly. If gettin' naughty little brothers outta the sky means not playin' by the rules, I'm willin' ta do jus' that!"
"Bunnie's right, honey," Sally got down on one knee to get a proper look at Tails. She saw his happiness diminish as he sensed she wasn't amused. "I'll never stop being proud of you and your flying, but you have to learn to use it properly…"
"But I do!" he interrupted before quickly backing down at his aunt's expression.
"Using it properly means knowing when to fly and when not to. It doesn't include scaring people like that. Think of what would happen if I didn't catch you and you hit the ground?"
"But I'm not scared of hitting the ground," the cub insisted. "You always catch me. You're real good at it!"
The chipmunk felt a warm, fuzzy feeling in her stomach at this innocent observation. Her gaze almost softened, but no. Her mind told her heart that this was something her charge needed to hear. She needed to be firm.
"Tails, honey, I need you to promise me that you'll be more careful towards the people around you. I'm not saying you can't fly anymore, but you're not invincible, and neither are any of us. You need to learn your limits"
Tails now looked rather downcast. His namesakes drooped a little.
"'Kay, Aunt Sally"
The chipmunk wondered why she now felt so guilty for telling her nephew to not do anything silly. Why did he look so upset? Well, he'd not done any real harm and he was a good little cub, so…
"C'mere, you…"
She gave Tails a cuddle, rocking him slightly. His arms wrapped around her, as did his twin tails.
"You know I tell you this because I love you?" the fox heard her whisper into his ear, almost tickling him.
"Uh-huh…" he tried not to giggle. "I love you, Aunt Sally"
There it was again. Those five words made the warm fuzzy feeling flare up all over inside Sally. The two of them were not related, but the little fox saw her as his parental figure. He may refer to her as his aunt, but she was his mother. He loved and depended on her, and she loved him too.
For the rest of the day, one thought ran through the chipmunk's head, every time she saw Tails: at dinner time in the Great Hall, and when she read to him that night.
"Tails is my responsibility. I love him more than life itself and I will do everything I can to protect him from harm"
Early next morning, Tails climbed out of bed and looked out of the window. The summer sun was extending its brightening rays across Knothole Village, creating elongating shadows across the ground out of the many huts and structures that made it up.
To the cub's delight, there was nobody about.
"Sally said that I scare people," he told himself. "I can't scare anyone if no-one's around to see me!"
He crossed to his front door, wincing as it creaked open, and took a tentative step outside.
There was no-one about. Everyone wouldn't be awake for a good while. That would give him plenty of time for him to fly around the Great Forest just before breakfast. Aunt Sally would be none the wiser.
"Up…" the fox tied his two tails together.
"Over…" he let them loose and they began to spin.
"And gone!" He took to the air, flying out of the village in a flash.
Outside the Great Forest, at the border of Robotropolis, a squadron of SWAT Bots hauled what looked like a huge fan with a huge gun barrel attached to it towards the trees.
They were led by Snively, who had worn his leader's helmet for the occasion. Every time he was appointed a job like this, he made sure everyone knew that he was in charge.
"Place Dr Robotnik's wind cannon into position and be quick about it!" he ordered waspishly. "If you fail, I will personally see that all of you are turned into dog food cans!"
The SWAT Bots didn't pay him any attention and continued their programmed task, ensuring that this wind cannon was plugged in and checking thoroughly for any potential errors.
"Didn't you hear me?!" the little man whined, waving his arms. "As Buttnik's nephew, I am in charge when he's not present! You must listen to me!"
"SNIVELY!"
Snively squealed in terror and glanced nervously in all directions. It took him a moment to realize that his uncle was holed up in his control room. He was only there via a comms device.
"Y-You called?" he asked with a scared chuckle.
"Why hasn't my wind cannon been activated?" snarled an irritable reply.
"Why don't you just come here and yell, you big windbag?" Snively muttered, instantly realizing his mic was on and that he'd put his foot in it.
"I beg your pardon?" Robotnik growled.
"I…I…" his petrified nephew's throat went dry. "I said that the cannon is powered by a bag of wind?"
There was a long silence.
"If the machine doesn't take down at least a dozen trees, you are demoted…"
"Demoted?" Snively raised an eyebrow. Was he really going to get a slap on the wrist for this? Was he dreaming? Was the wind cannon a dream too?
"FROM LIFE!" Robotnik bellowed, before ending the call.
"Yes," Snively grunted, "It's the actual nightmare I live in…otherwise known as reality"
Taking a moment to compose himself, he turned his attention to the SWAT Bots who by this point had aimed the huge machine at the entrance to the woods.
"Well, what are you waiting for? The hedgehog?" he demanded. "Start the wind cannon immediately. That means NOW!"
One of the metallic soldiers keyed in a code into the computer, and the titanic contraption began to hum as power flowed through it.
Back at Knothole, Bunnie was making her way to a small pond which she knew of. One in which she had a lovely refreshing bath. It was a beautiful morning. It was one of those days where you'd be forgiven for thinking that people like Robotnik were around.
The only sounds the hare could hear were the faint clinking sounds from her metal soles (which put her in mind of spurs) and the warm breeze. A warm breeze that for some reason was not only getting colder but stronger.
"There a summer storm comin'?" Bunnie murmured, looking up at the clear sky and feeling her ears get blown to one side like streamers.
"What in the hoo-hah is goin' on here?!" she thought, as the wind abruptly began to roar and howl. She was forced to shut her eyes and cover her face to shield herself from this gale. Several objects that hadn't been tied down were picked up and began to bounce or fly past her: plant pots, baskets, chairs…
"BUNNIE! AIDEZ-MOI!"
Bunnie turned just in time to see Antoine flying straight towards him, the wind having caught his favorite parasol.
"Whoooa, there!" the rabbit grabbed the coyote's ankles as he was blown past, stopping his sudden flight. Antoine dropped rather roughly to the ground as a result. "Whoops! Sorry, Sugar-Twan!"
"Zat eez okay, Bunnie!" Ant had to shout. "Ah am just glad ah am not een ze air by zis bicycle, no?"
"Ah think y'all mean cyclone!" Bunnie bellowed back. "We gotta get outta this wind before…WHHOOOOAAA!" She felt her feet lift off the ground. Before she and Antoine could get too high, she extended her cybernetic arm back towards the ground and seized the branch of a tree stump.
"Hol' on, Ant!" she called to the shrieking coyote, who clung to the handle of his parasol for dear life.
Her arm began to reduce in length, pulling them closer to the former tree, like a fish on the end of a line. In no time at all, they were back on the ground, but the stump they held onto was the only thing that kept them from being blown away again.
"Sugah-Twan, y'all need ta put on a few pounds!" the cyborg hare shouted as she held onto a branch with her metal paw and to Antoine's legs with her organic one.
"Where eez eet coming from?" Antoine howled with despair as he lost his grip on his parasol and it spun away over the trees.
"BUNNIE! ANTOINE!" Sally's voice sounded uncannily clear even over the storm. "COME TO MY HUT!"
"HEAR Y'ALL LOUD 'N' CLEAR, SALLY-GIRL!"
Bunnie let go of the stump. She and Antoine flew backwards for a moment before she extended her arm and grabbed the ground, reducing it to normal size and pulling themselves forwards. She did this again, and again, until they were outside Sally's hut.
"Inside, quickly!" The princess helped the pair up and they piled in.
Antoine and Bunnie saw that most of the Freedom Fighters had gathered at Sally's hut. The other villagers were more than likely inside their own homes, out of the hurricane.
"Where'd this wind come from?" Rotor demanded. "The weather was perfectly fine a moment ago!"
"I dunno," Sally replied, consulting NICOLE. "It isn't natural for a hurricane of this much power to just come out of nowhere!"
"Ah, it's not so bad," Sonic scoffed. "I've broken every treadmill I ever used. It's nice to be able to run in the ol' spot once in a while!"
"You can run fast enough for the wind to not be a problem," Sally reminded him. "For the rest of us, this could be dangerous"
"Ah, for one, am glad for Mademoiselle Bunnie!" Antoine grinned. "Eef it was not for her doing, ah would be up zere with ze birds and ze bees! Flying may appeal to young Tails, but not to moi!"
Upon hearing the little fox's name, Sally halted her search for answers from NICOLE and looked up sharply. "Speaking of Tails," she ventured cautiously, "where is he?"
Nobody spoke, Tails was usually up with a smile for his breakfast. He usually made his presence known. Everyone looked at each other.
Sally looked around her hut. She hadn't seen Tails this morning. "Don't jump to conclusions…" she thought to her now worried self. "He probably slept in. He's probably safe in bed and frightened of the wind…"
"Sonic!" she barked, making everyone jump.
"Hey, don't look at me, I didn't do anything!" the hedgehog held up a pair of defensive hands.
"Go to Tails's hut and bring him here!" Sally ordered.
"On it!"
In an instant, Sonic was gone, and everyone heard the howling gale from the open door before Sally heaved it shut again.
Seconds later, the door opened again. Sonic wrenched it closed.
"Sal," he began, "now I don't wanna cause any panic, but he ain't there"
"Where could he be?" Sally tried not to show that she was getting anxious. Her eyes darted to every Freedom Fighter in her domicile.
"He wasn't with me," Rotor muttered. "Otherwise I'd have brought him here…"
"Y'all don't suppose he went out flyin', do ya?" Bunnie gulped at how true her theory might be.
Before anyone knew it, Sally strode to the door. "We gotta go look for him, NOW!"
She reached for the handle, but a furry yet firm paw held her shoulder.
"Sally-girl, get it together! Ya can't find Tails if you go flyin' off like that!" Bunnie told her, a look of equal distress on her face. "We gotta wait 'til this weather calms down!"
"But it could be too late!" Sally protested. "He's not safe out there on his own!"
"You guys sit tight," Sonic declared with a glint in his eye. "I'll mosey on out there, bring him home an' we'll be laughin' about this at breakfast!" And off he ran into the fierce air current.
As Rotor shut the door, Sally took a few deep breaths and closed her eyes, not caring at the odd expressions everyone else gave her.
The squirrel wasn't too concerned yet. Her tail wasn't tingling. Tails was perfectly safe…for now.
"Okay, Tails…" she thought quietly to herself, "where are you…"
Tails was having the time of his life. He soared and wheeled among the trees, as free as a bird. What a glorious feeling it all was!
"I feel like a cloud looking down on the world!" he grinned excitedly to himself. "If I can fly around here an' back to Knothole, I'll be faster than even Sonic!"
Looking down, he saw the grass, plants and bushes swaying violently in the wind.
"Uh-oh…" It must be Sonic, who had been sent by Sally to come and get him. A very angry Sally who would not be impressed that he'd been zooming around, frightening everyone.
"Wait…I'm the only one here, so I can't possibly scare anyone!" he told himself. "And Sonic's my best friend, he wouldn't snitch on me!"
Come to think of it…where was Sonic? He usually appeared whenever the foliage got blown about like that. He looked down and scanned the ground. Sonic was nowhere to be seen, but the wind was still blowing. In fact, it was picking up!
"What's going…WHOA!"
It was like some huge invisible hands had pushed him. The wind erupted into a hurricane with a roar. Tails felt himself spinning head over heels out of control through the air.
"Where'd this wind come frooooom?!" he cried as there was another surge which sent him rolling, his tails blinding his vision as they wrapped around him. "I gotta get home before it gets worse!"
He began to spin his namesakes faster and faster, holding out his fists as if to push his way through the maelstrom. Try as he might, he kept airborne but the powerful turbulence brought him to a standstill.
A bird's nest was blown from a branch and nearly hit him in the face. He turned his head to look where it had flown…and was rewarded for his distraction by getting blown backwards.
Tails began to feel frightened. The wood was spinning, but it wasn't exhilarating anymore. His tails weren't strong enough to move against the airflow. Now it was his master, and he didn't like the outcomes that were identically spinning around in his mind.
"SONIC! BUNNIE! AUNT SALLY! HEEEEELLLLLLPPPPPP!"
Sally felt the tingling sensation in her tail go into overdrive out of nowhere.
"TAILS!" she gasped. "Oh, no!"
"Sally, what's wrong?" Rotor implored.
"He's in danger! He needs us!" the squirrel was almost hysterical, which unnerved her peers. It was almost as if she was saying it to herself as opposed to them. "I'm coming, honey!"
She made a move for the door, but Bunnie grabbed her arm.
"Sally, don't fret none, sugah!" she begged. "Sonic's out there, he'll bring him back!"
"You don't understand!" the princess almost sobbed, practically fighting her friend. "He's out there, frightened and alone! Maybe he's hurt! Wind or no wind, I'm going to find him!"
Rotor and Antoine shared an unnerved look. They had never seen Sally fall to pieces like this. Neither one of them knew what to say. But the restraining rabbit certainly did.
"We're ALL gonna find him!" Bunnie snapped. "We just gotta wait 'til this gale becomes a lil' ol' breeze. What's Sugah-Fox gonna do if y'all get blown away like a gum wrapper?"
Sally ceased her struggling at this. Bunnie's words were true. But her tail continued to tingle. Tails was definitely in serious trouble, and she could only hope that Sonic would save him.
Back in the windswept woods, Tails fought desperately for control, trying to spin his appendages faster than the storm.
WHAM!
From out of nowhere, his forehead smashed against the trunk of a tall pine tree. The force of the blow sent him spinning down to the ground, where he landed roughly on his stomach.
The world went dark, and the last thing the cub heard was the long creaking groan of breaking wood, followed by the whistling of air, the cracking of leaves and branches and a deafening crash.
Then there was silence.