Tail's Spark – Chapter 3: Mission: Escape!

The gremlin sighed with relief as Tails and Mickey finished painting in the last Blotling. It had been a tiring afternoon, with the unlikely, yet perfectly functioning, trio, working together to stop all the Blotlings. Somehow, they'd taken a lot less longer on the Slobbers than the Spatters and Seers.

Plus, they'd discovered that Tais could shoot Paint or Thinner from his hands. It was awesome, but did make the others wonder what the purpose of the Brush was if he could do it naturally. Then the fox had to explain how it wasn't natural, and just due to his regulators. After putting the Brush away, Mickey dusted off his hands, and said, "Phew! That was hard! But we'd better get going now."

Tails nodded. "We don't want anyone getting my heart." They started walking. Mickey was looking down as they walked through the People Mover. "Are you ok, Mickey?"

"Huh? Oh, y-yeah. I was just wondering…" He looked up at Tails, then turned his eyes back to the ground. "...never mind." Tails wanted to press further, yet knew if he didn't want to say anything, he must have had his reasons.

"Are you sure you're alright?" asked Gus.

"Well, no, not really," he admitted. "I'm just wondering how you know that I have a brother, Tails. I didn't know for years!"

Gus knew why, but refrained from explaining. Years ago, when the mouse had started reaching the peak of fandom, Oswald had made sure no information of their relationship leaked into the Toon World. His excuse was saying that would make the mouse believe he only hated him, which, though true to an extent, Gus knew Oswald couldn't completely.

"Well, I managed to break through the filter that means we can't see the Real World, but only on my computer. And I saw this video game with you in it. It was the first time your brother was remembered."

"Wait, so from your world, you've… seen everything about this journey? And place?"

"To an extent. I didn't want to go too far, but I studied your world. There are so many different versions of you through time, yet none of them broke the fourth wall as easily as you did in this game."

Mickey let out a small gasp. "So… you know about the Toon World?"

Gus interrupted, "Well, what is it like? I don't mean to trouble you, but none of us have been there for years."

The small smile slipped off of the mouse's face, and he looked grim. "Long ago, all of us Toons made by Walt lived together. It was a perfect place, ya know, before… somethin' happened. It wiped our memories of the great times we all had, and split all our worlds up, meaning cartoon animals, like us, were in one place, the human characters lived in other places, and the same went for the vehicles. And they were broken apart even inside of those categories. Since I was one of Walt's first creations, as I now know, I can remember most of it, but nothing else."

He continued, his face becoming even more upset, "I tried to explain it to my friends, but after I'd tell them, they'd get this faraway look in their eyes, and forget. So I then tried to go to the other worlds, but, uh… every time I went I'd end up right back in my house." Gus and Tails looked at each other. This was what had happened to Mickey's home?

"I can remember what it was, but only a bit. It looked kinda like the Blot, but with some purple fog coming out of it, and… (sigh) that's all I know."

Tails questioned him. "Wait a second… Oh no… I think I know what that is…"

They were finally at the Moonliner Rocket. It stood in its glory, two stripes on its legs and one on the top. Put bluntly, it was magnificent and their only way out.

"You two stay here. I'll go and turn on the rocket." Gremlin Gus said. He turned to Mickey, who was much more sad than he had been. Without looking back, but with a small smile, the gremlin went over to a control panel far away from them.

Mickey Mouse faced Tails. "You were saying somethin' about…"

Tails really felt the sadness Mickey was feeling. He didn't want to explain further, and though he had no choice but to answer, he said, "Oh, I just thought it might've been like a monster me and my friends faced. I'm sure I'm wrong."

But Tails knew it was a lie for the most part. Admittedly, there was doubt about what exactly it was, but Tails was internally confident it was a foe he'd faced before. Not wanting to think about it anymore, he pushed it to the back of his mind.

And that was when his hand started buzzing. It was covered in blue and green paint, mixed on each hand, and when he used one or the other, his hands would go that colour. It functioned the same as the Brush, just lasting slightly longer. Tails tried tapping the regulator and a little hologram popped up.

It read, "Call from: Silver." Tails grinned. The early bird had beaten him to the worm. He accepted it, as Mickey stared at the picture of SIlver.

"Hey, guys! I managed to re-activate the calling feature on your regulators. This message should be going out to everybody in the multiverse, and to those who receive it, I'm recalling us back to Bird Island, so I can send you all home."

Mickey looked confused. "'Recalling?'" Tails shrugged.

Silver's message continued. "If you can reach the border of whatever dimension you're in, I'll be able to take you out, and bring you back here. Good luck!" The hologram vanished, leaving the two stunned.

"So this means…"

"I can go home. But you…"

Mickey grinned. "It'll be ok. Me and Gus will be in the rocket too. I can get back to the Toon World again." The fox was sure he wasn't exactly over-the-moon at the chance to return, but he still had friends there too, so…

Gus flew back over to them. "I've done it! The rocket is mostly operational, and us Gremlins managed to scare away the Mad Doctor. Should we be off?"

And five minutes later, soaring in the sky, Tails opened a small hatch and jumped out. He clung on the side until they flew past the clouds. They were nearly there, when Mickey and Gus popped their heads out of the hatch as well. It was too late to warn them, as a flash of grey light sped down and hit the rocket right at its tip.

Tails, Mickey and Gus vanished.

The rocket flew up and out of Wasteland, into a wizard's lab, and crashed. It was completely broken yet a lot smaller than it was originally. There was nothing that could be done to fix it, but that was nothing to worry about. It had served its purpose.