Heroes Part 1

Tangle was sleeping in her room, unaware of the world around her as the sun rose above the horizon.

Then, she suddenly woke up with a start.

"Why do I suddenly feel like these next couple of days are gonna be really… really annoying?"

"Tangle? You're up?" She heard Jewel call out from downstairs.

"Yeah, I'm up! Be down in a bit!" Tangle said.

It had been two weeks since Tangle's birthday, and she and Jewel were planning on going on an expedition to a nearby cave to find more gems for Jewel's future museum exhibit.

When Tangle got downstairs, she was greeted by the sight of pancakes.

"Thought I would get breakfast started, so we can fuel up for a big day!" Jewel said.

"Thanks Jewel." Tangle said before sitting down to eat.

"So, have you heard from Sonic and Tails lately?" Jewel asked.

"No, not since the party last week. Why?" Tangle asked.

"Well… it's been a while since Eggman really did anything… I'm worried…" Jewel said.

"Eh, whatever the guy's got planned, we can handle it!" Tangle said.

"Still… I hope this peace stays for a while…" Jewel said.

At that moment, Tangle's communicator began to ring.

"… I jinxed it didn't I?" Jewel asked.

"Yeah, probably." Tangle said as she answered. "Hey Tails! What's going on?"

"Hey! Listen, I'm sorry this is such short notice, but I need you to be ready for some action!" Tails said.

"Oh! Uh…" Tangle said before looking to Jewel, who just nodded. "Yeah, sure!"

"Great, I'll be there to explain everything in a bit!" Tails said before hanging up.

"Well, hurry up and eat before Tails gets here…" Jewel said with a sad smile.

"I'm sorry Jewel…"

"Don't be! The world needs you! Go out there and make a difference, ok?" Jewel said.

Tangle smiled at this. "You got it!"

—

True to his word, Tails arrived shortly after their conversation.

"Hey TaNGle!" Tails said, though his voice cracked terribly in the middle of that.

"Whoa dude! What was that?!" Tangle asked.

Tails just coughed a couple of times before answering. "Sorry, that's been happening every so often lately. Only really happens every couple of days."

"Oh… ok?" Tangle said.

Jewel however, knew what this meant.

'Already at that time of his life huh?'

Cosmo, who had joined the group upon Tails' arrival, was just as confused as Tangle.

"If you're unwell, maybe you should sit out? I'd hate for you to get hurt Tails…" Cosmo said.

Tails laughed awkwardly, but his cheeks turned slightly red from Cosmo's concern.

Any sign of Cosmo caring about him, at all, turned the fox into a blushing mess nowadays.

Even Tangle could easily see how bad he was at hiding it… Cosmo however was a completely different story!

"Look at you! You clearly have some kind of illness!" Cosmo said, voice filled with concern. "Please, lay down and…"

Tails quickly began waving his hands in front of his face frantically.

"I'm fInE!" Tails said, voice cracking again, coughed, and then spoke again. "I'm fine. I definitely don't FEEL sick, promise!"

Cosmo wasn't too convinced, but sighed and relented.

"Alright…" Cosmo said.

Jewel then put a hand on Cosmo's shoulder.

"Don't worry, it's just something us Mobians do at a certain age."

Cosmo's eyes went wide at that point.

"Oh… I see." Cosmo said, looking down.

There was still so much about her new home… her new life that she didn't know about.

Tails and Tangle, oblivious to Cosmo's internal struggles and whatever it was that Jewel was talking about just looked to each other and shrugged, before deciding to get to the meat of the conversation.

"Anyways, what are we dealing with here?" Tangle asked.

"Well, I was in my workshop, when someone knocked on my door." Tails explained. "When I answered, this letter was left there."

Tails then held out the letter, which Tangle immediately recognized who it was from.

"Eggman…"

Then, the letter suddenly began to speak, as the image of the doctor began to move.

"Guess what Sonic Heroes! In just three days, I'll unleash my latest plan and rule the world! Think you can stop me?!" The letter said.

…

Tangle was absolutely confused, this was a very… weird thing to happen, even in her life.

"Did… did he just give us a formal warning about him taking over the world?" Tangle asked.

"Yeah… I thought it was weird too." Tails said. "It's clearly a trap, so I didn't want me and Sonic to go into this alone."

Tails' reasoning made sense, getting as much help as possible for what was going to most certainly be a trap…

However…

"That's great and all, but what about Knuckles? You usually seem to go to him first for this kind of thing." Tangle said.

"Well, normally I would, in fact, I did." Tails said. "But… after what happened on Angel Island last time…"

And it suddenly made so much sense.

"He's not too willing to leave the Master Emerald alone right now, got it." Tangle concluded.

"Yeah, pretty much." Tails said. "He said that if he sees anything he'll let us know though."

"Alright, well, where's Sonic?" Tangle asked.

"Well, I was thankfully able to get in contact with him. He's going for a run in some canyons nearby!" Tails explained.

"Well, let's get going!" Tangle said

"Good luck you two!" Jewel said.

"Thanks, see you soon!" Tangle said as they left and boarded the Tornado.

—

The two were flying through the air.

"So… how's she adjusting to everything?" Tails asked. "I mean… living on Mobius has to be so different from how her life was before she met us…"

Tangle smirked.

"You've seen her… she's doing just fine." Tangle said. "… She felt really down after she found out what happened with Gemerl, but again, she's doing fine... I think she just wished she could have helped."

Tails nodded.

"… I should talk to her once this is over… tell her to not blame herself for what happened." He said. "I don't want her to do anything she might regret…"

Tangle put a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, she's fine… she's smart and not really impulsive. I don't think she'll do anything crazy any time soon!" Tangle said with a smile. "Not after the effort I put in to make sure she actually got to come back here with us!"

Tails smiled.

"Yeah, you're probably right…" Tails said, face slightly red.

"… By the way, I didn't really notice this til now but…" Tangle then pointed to her ears. "Are the tips of your ears turning brown?"

Tails laughed at that.

"Yeah, apparently it's normal for foxes to have their fur change color as they get older." Tails explained. "I dunno, I think I kinda like it."

Tangle smiled before patting him on the head.

"Whatever floats your boat kiddo… or in your case, keeps the tornado… flying?" Tangle said, though trailing off. "No… that doesn't sound right… uh…"

"…Pfft!" Tails snorted out before laughing. "Let's just say it floats my boat!"

Tangle puffed out her cheeks and looked away.

"Not if your gonna laugh at me…"

"Come on now! I'm sorry!" Tails said, though still laughing.

Tangle tried to stay angry, but flat out couldn't around this kid, and joined in.

That laughter was cut off when they saw a trail of dust being kicked up into the air, a blue streak on the ground causing it.

"Ah! There's Sonic!" Tails said, flying down.

Sonic seemed to notice the Tornado approaching, and began running backwards.

"Yo Tails! I see you brought our favorite lemur with ya!" Sonic said with a wave.

"Hey Sonic!" Tangle said excitingly with a big wave.

Tails then pulled out the letter from Eggman and handed it to Sonic.

The letter delivered its message, before Sonic crumpled it up and threw it into the air.

A trash bin came out from the side of the Tornado, and the letter went straight inside.

"Nice shot!" Tangle said.

"Thank you!" Sonic said. "So, I don't think I need to tell you that this is a trap."

"Duh!" The two in the Tornado said together.

Sonic then began to smile.

"Buuuut… this does sound like an invitation to a fun little party!" Sonic said, turning around to face where he was running.

"AWWW YEAH! Let's go crack some eggs!" Tangle said, getting up from her seat.

Tails smiled, before putting some bracelets and anklets on, pushing some buttons on the Tornado's console, and jumping out of the plane, with Tangle following shortly after.

And Sonic and Tails sped ahead, way faster than Tangle could possibly keep up.

She skid to a stop, and just stared on as they vanished from view…

And shortly after, they returned.

"Hey! You good?" Sonic asked.

"… Did you forget that I don't have super speed?" Tangle asked, arms crossed.

Sonic and Tails looked to each other, and smiled.

"Yeah, sorry." Sonic said. "Forgot you're still a bit new to everything."

"But don't worry!" Tails said with a smile. "We know JUST how to fix this!"

Tangle didn't seem too convinced.

"Ok… how?" She asked.

"Just run behind me, it'll make sense in a bit." Sonic said, turning around.

Tangle still had her doubts, but got ready regardless.

And then they started running…

And she was able to keep up rather easily!

"WHOA!" Tangle said, amazed at how fast she was going. "How am I doing this?!"

Sonic then began laughing.

"I basically found out one day that I can kinda leak ring energy while I am running." Sonic explained. "Add in the slipstream that forms behind me, and just about anyone can keep up with me if I want them to!"

"Though he really can't go at max speed like this." Tails said, flying beside them. "Though bringing backup along makes it worth it!"

Sonic then gave her a thumbs up.

"Stick with us like this, and you'll keep up no problem! Even that Knucklehead could keep up with me in speed formation!" Sonic said.

Speed formation. Tangle assumed that was the name the two of them gave this little trick.

"Alright! Then let's GO!" Tangle said as the trio sped off into the distance.

—

Before long, the trio had exited the valley area, and made it to a beach.

"Ah, Seaside Hill… been a while since I've been here." Sonic said, taking in the sights.

"That's probably cause you STILL won't let me try and teach you to swim again…" Tangle said with a smirk.

Sonic then began to glare at her.

"I almost DIED the last time you tried that!" Sonic said, hands on his hips.

"It takes time! You gave up after one try!" Tangle said, frowning.

Tails then got between them.

"Alright! Calm down you two!" Tails said. "We just started and we're already fighting? We are NOT gonna be ready for what Eggman has planned at this rate!"

The two looked to each other and smirked.

"Chill out Tails, we were only joking around." Sonic said.

"Yeah dude! We got this!" Tangle said with a thumbs up.

Tails smiled at that, and laughed to himself.

"Well, alright… let's get going!" He said.

The three then got moving, jumping along cliffs and rock formations, heading towards…

"So like, where are we going exactly?" Tangle asked. "I mean, I have no idea where Eggman is so…"

"Grand Metropolis! This is just a shortcut!" Sonic explained. "I heard rumors that Egghead's robots have been taking over things there. I was actually on my way over when you two popped up!"

Tangle nodded.

"Sounds like as good of a starting point as any!" She said.

Then, they saw robots.

"And speaking of his robots! Looks like he's built some new ones!" Sonic said, observing the orange machines ahead of them.

Some were unarmed, some with spears and some with shields.

"I'll take care of the shields, you guys take em out!" Sonic said, speeding over.

He then running around the machines, causing a small tornado to form, resulting in the shields to fly out of the machines hands.

Tangle and Tails then made short work of them, smashing them with their tail and a spin attack respectively.

And within moments they were done.

Though they noticed that there were some weird, multi colored orbs floating where the robots were.

"… That's new…" Sonic said, walking over to the blue orb.

"And not good… those are power cores." Tails said. "Super concentrated energy… never thought I'd see them used in a robot like this…"

Tangle's curiosity got the better of her, as she touched the red core.

It got absorbed into her.

"WHOA!" She shouted. "I FEEL… AMAZING!"

She then began bouncing in place, before literally bouncing off the walls, with large cracks and craters forming where she bounced from.

A moment later, she landed where she was beforehand, and fell to the floor.

"Aaaand… now I feel pooped…"

Sonic and Tails laughed at her antics, before Tails pushed a button on his bracelets, before they absorbed the two remaining power cores.

"This should provide plenty of power for my new inventions!" He said.

"What you got for us?" Sonic asked.

Tails chuckled.

"Oh, you'll see… come on! Let's go!"

Tails then flew on ahead, causing Tangle and Sonic to look to each other and shrug, before following.

Before long, they came across a new set of badniks, these ones were flying out of reach and shooting at them.

"Perfect!" Tails said, before flying over to Sonic and picking him up into the air. "Watch this!"

He then kicked Sonic, causing him to be imbued with energy and fly towards the badniks, he then began a spin attack, before crashing into them.

Instead of destroying them, they seemed to short out, and fell to the ground, which gave Tangle ample time to destroy them with a Tail Spin.

"What was that?!" Tangle asked when the two brothers landed.

"My latest invention! The thunder shoot!" Tails said. "Basically, by utilizing the power cores I can…"

He then got into a long winded explanation on how the device works… Tangle and Sonic had zero clue what anything he said meant.

When Tails finished explaining, he noticed the lost looks on their faces.

"… I can electrify your spin attacks, and the electricity disables the robots temporarily, making it easy to destroy them." Tails said, much more simply.

"MUCH BETTER!" Tangle said. "Though… why not just… skip the thunder part, and launch Sonic… and destroy the robots right then and there?"

Tails raised a finger, as if to explain it… but stopped.

"… I uh… didn't really think about that…" He said sadly. "… Guess the Thunder Shoot really isn't that useful, huh?"

Tangle then pat him on the head.

"Nah, I'm sure we'll find some kinda use for it! Right Sonic?" Tangle asked.

"Of course!" Sonic said. "Trust me bro, that thing is gonna end up saving our butts one day! Count on it!"

Tails smiled… it was obvious that the two were just trying to cheer him up, but it made him happy all the same.

"Now that that's done, come on! We have to get through some ruins up ahead, then it's a straight shot to Grand Metropolis!" Sonic said, before the three kept running.

—

The trio kept traversing the area, trashing any badniks they saw, before they got to a large, water filled area.

"Huh… so I guess we can jump from turtle to turtle…" Sonic said, looking at the ruins at the other side of where the turtles were swimming. "Or Tails could fly us over…"

Tails looked nervous at that.

"I uh… don't think I can fly that far carrying either of you…" Tails said. "I'd get too tired too quickly… sorry."

Tangle then shrugged.

"Just fly from turtle shell to turtle shell with Sonic kiddo, I'll swim." She said, before diving into the water…

She was then flying out of the water screaming, a giant fish robot having flung her up into the air.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

She landed next to the other two with a thud.

"… Ok… don't want to mess with that thing again." Tangle said, face still planted firmly into the ground.

The two just stared at her, in shock for some reason.

"… What's up?" She asked.

They pointed at her tail.

Looking over, she saw…

"Oh neat! Well that's one Chaos Emerald!" She said, stuffing it further into her fur for storage.

"Think we'll need them this time?" Tails asked.

Sonic shrugged.

"Eh, maybe." He said. "Probably not worth worrying too much about."

"What IS worth worrying about is getting across this…" Tangle said, pointing at the ocean.

At that moment, some random robot tried to get the jump on them, but Tangle just punched a hole in it, a red power core falling out.

They then noticed something nearby… a cannon.

"… I have a fun idea." Tangle said with a smirk.

She then whispered something in Tails' ear.

"… That… that is probably a terrible idea…" Tails said.

"If it goes wrong, you could just fly us the rest of the way!" Tangle said with a smile.

Tails sighed, before going and absorbing the power core.

"I guess it's better than nothing." He said.

"… Why do I feel like I am about to hate this?" Sonic asked.

Tangle didn't respond verbally, and stuck her tongue out, before grabbing Sonic with her tail.

"… Oh no…"

The two then jumped into the cannon, and Tails let loose the power core energy to power it up.

The cannon then pointed towards where they needed to go, and they were fired out at incredible speed.

"WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!" Tangle shouted as they were flying through the air.

"PLEASE DON'T LAND IN THE WATER PLEASE DON'T LAND IN THE WATER!" Sonic shouted.

Tails just shrugged, he was used to flying a lot faster than this, and wasn't really worried about the water.

Thankfully, the power core powered up the cannon enough for it to fire them all the way across the body of water…

However, Tangle misjudged her landing, and faceplanted… again.

"You REALLY gotta work on sticking the landing." Sonic said, freeing himself from her tail.

"… Agreed…" Tangle said, face still full of dirt.

Picking herself up, she looked ahead.

"But hey! It worked!" She said, rather proud of herself.

Sonic wanted to argue… but he couldn't.

"If it wasn't for the giant body of water with a giant robot fish swimming around under us… that would of been fun…" Sonic said.

"Yeah, but that's just cause you're a big blue baby." Tangle said before blowing a raspberry.

She then began to jog on ahead.

"… That girl is like a hurricane." Sonic said, amused.

Tails laughed at that.

"What?"

"Oh… nothing." Tails said.

He didn't have the heart to tell Sonic that he was the exact same way most of the time.

Regardless, the two quickly caught up to her, and continued on.

—

"… This is sus." Tangle said, looking at the sharp decline ahead of them.

It very clearly looked like something was meant to be chasing them down…

"Oh come on, these ruins are ancient! What are the odds that a trap hasn't been set off yet?" Sonic asked.

"What if it's one of those self reloading traps?" Tangle asked.

Sonic and Tails turned to each other and laughed.

"See that in a movie in Chris' world?" Tails asked.

"Yup."

"Yeah… that's not a real thing." Tails said. "We shouldn't have to worry."

The two then began walking ahead, and Tangle followed…

Then they heard the sound of rocks moving.

"… Not a real thing huh? THE TRAPS WERE SET OFF ALREADY HUH?!" Tangle asked, before she began sprinting.

Sonic quickly got in speed formation, and the two of them sped up.

Looking behind them, they saw a giant rock rolling after them.

"I KNEW THIS WAS SUUUUUUUUUS!" Tangle shouted as they ran.

Then… she got an idea.

"Oh yeah! I can just do this!" She said before skidding to a stop.

She then turned around, and tried punching the rock with her tail…

The rock rolled over the tail, which got wrapped around the whole thing…

And now Tangle was being dragged along for a ride.

"AH! OW! HELP! ME!" Tangle shouted as the rock continued rolling.

"HAVE FUN!" Sonic shouted as he and Tails kept running.

"TRAITORS!"

Thankfully, a large structure stopped the rock, flinging Tangle off of it.

"Ugh… ok… bad idea…" Tangle said. "From now on… giant thing chasing me… just run…"

Sonic helped her to her feet.

"You good?" He asked.

"Yup… thanks." Tangle said. "At least we don't have to deal with any more of those…"

At that moment, they heard more sounds like rocks moving…

Looking up, they saw three rocks identical to the previous one…

"… I was right… today IS really annoying…" Tangle said, before they began running again.

—

"Ok… we can take a break here." Sonic said, looking out at the large stretch of beach ahead of him. "Weird though… thought we'd bump into Eggman here…"

"Why?" Tangle asked, laying on the ground, exhausted.

Sonic then gestured to the shape of the beach.

It very clearly looked like a good place to fight a large, Eggman piloted machine.

"… Eh, he's probably elsewhere, prepping whatever he has planned for us." Tangle said. "Not complaining though… I really need a break…"

Sonic sighed.

"Yeah, sorry. Completely forgot this is really the first time you're going on a traveling adventure with us on Mobius." Sonic said sadly. "Would have gone an easier path otherwise."

"Eh, don't worry about it… that was annoying and stressful… but dang was it fun." Tangle said. "Just uh… try harder to keep me from doing something stupid?"

Tails gave her a thumbs up.

"You can leave that to me!" Tails said with a smile.

"Good…" Tangle said.

She then looked towards the currently setting sun.

"… You're right though… where IS Eggman?!"

End of Heroes Part 1

—

And so we begin Sonic Heroes.

Just want to say, yeah… I did make a puberty joke with Tails there. Boys are able to experience it at the age of 10, I checked. This is kinda to explain why his voice is so… let's say different in this game, and kinda poke fun at it.

Also, yeah, Knuckles ain't gonna be in this one… at least, not much. He might show up towards the end, but I haven't decided on that yet.

Anyways, time for a little background. I have debated for a really long time exactly how I wanted to go about writing this game. At first, Tangle was going to be with Team Rose. But I couldn't think of a way to get rid of Big, so I thought about just having Tangle there as an add on… but since I want to write about traversing levels, that would of just been difficult. While I was considering that though, I also thought that she would start with Team Rose, but switch to Team Sonic after the encounter in the city… but then I realized that Team Rose wouldn't be around too much, and that wouldn't sit right with me. THEN I thought about switching the city and casino bosses, so Team Rose could get a bit more time in the spotlight… but that is dumb. Eventually, I decided on fully being with Sonic and Tails, and came up with a good reason why Knuckles wouldn't want to come along.

As for this chapter, I wanted to have it cover the opening for the game (specifically Team Sonic's story), what leads into it, and the first "Zone" of the game, being the beach levels. You can also see what my plan for the levels in this game are: Key parts of the stages, but Tangle providing her own crazy twist to it.

Something I wasn't TOO happy about with Act 1 was Tangle didn't seem to be the MOST in line with her character from the Comics all the time. I want her to be heroic, but still silly and seeking thrills… then I decided that, over time, she's just building up to that as she builds confidence… saving Cosmo was for sure a big confidence boost!

Anyways, see you all next time for part 2