Chapter Two: Tail's first love
Strange things happen in this world.
As a scientist, this should be a statement that fills me with annoyance. The world is supposed to be irrational, organized, structured place. Everything follows natural laws, everything operates under certain parameters, through study and analysis, you can predict how anything and everything is going to go. But the world is not like that. It is a chaotic, unpredictable, and uncertain place. I long ago accepted that emotions drive people's actions just as much as logic, and what happens in this universe is driven by forces beyond what mere science can explain. But sometimes it takes an incident like this one to remind me of just how wild and wonderful this universe can be.
My name is Miles Prower, a two-tailed Fox from the planet Mobius. Like all mobians, I am what the humans call anthropomorphic, sharing a two-legged body type that most sentient creatures in the Galaxy possess. But my twin tails are not common among my species, and are instead a strange anomaly of my birth, possibly brought about as a result of the chaos energy flowing through my body. Like a select few mobians, I have the ability to tap the chaos Force, giving chaos energy-laden mobians like me what the humans would call extra normal abilities. But while my chaos abilities may be normal, the fact I was born with two tails was not. Although my parents, Kilo and Rosemary Prower, tried to shield me from the bullying and teasing from those in our village in my youth, I felt the full force of it after their tragic passing.
My only source of relief was diving in to the science my father kilo - a scientist himself - had taught me since I was old enough to speak. Using his scientific instruments, I was able to pick up a discharge of chaos energy from the planet Earth, and through his monitors watch and come to greatly admire the Great hero known as Sonic the hedgehog. I watched his struggles and battles with the evil doctor Robotnik. I came to admire this great hero, and eventually came to Earth to help him in an adventure. I have now become his sidekick and friend, and joined by the last of the echidna, Knuckles, we had become something of a family with the Wachowskis, the two kindly adult humans who took Sonic in after his first battle with Robotnik. Looking back now, as an older teen on the cusp of adulthood, living back on Mobius once more with my friends, I can recall the first of many incidents back in my youth. The events that taught me just how wild and wonderful this universe can be.
It had been a few months since our battle with Dr Robotnik over the master emerald, and things were settling down in Green hills once more. Knuckles had taken off with his student, Wade Whipple, to go to a bowling tournament in Reno Nevada, while Sonic was determined to just lay around and relax. I decided to spend my time at the local mechanic shop, helping him work on it upgrade the vehicles that were brought into his shop. It was one such day, when I was alone in the shop tinkering with a 1991 Chevy, when I heard the sound of a large object streaking overhead, before crashing deep into the forest outside of green hills. Startled up for my work, I flipped open my welding helmet and rush to the open door to the garage to see what was the matter.
Spinning my tails to fly my way out into the forest, I approached the site where the object had landed. When I got there, I saw what it first I assume was a meteor, but upon closer inspection I realized it was some kind of spherical spacecraft, which had landed with a violent crash that left a several hundred foot crater in the ground. Approaching the ship in the hole, I reached out with my hand to touch the object. At that moment, the door on the side swung open, and a small form about my size tumbled out. Rushing over, I bent down to gently pick the newcomer up in my arms.
"H-hello, miss?" I asked politely, noticing the stranger who fell from the heavens was clearly a girl. "Are you all right?"
"H-help me." The week and frail form barely whispered, in a soft feminine voice. "Metarex attack... so weak.."
At that moment, the Miles electric and the pouch at my side dinged. A G.U.N. satellite had probably picked the ship up, and probably had agents on the way to retrieve it for study and experimentation. Lifting the girl in my arms, I flew away from The Craft, hoping that leaving it for the authorities would be enough to placate them, and not have them come after the girl.
Moving quickly I got her back to the workshop, where I laid her down on a cushioned bench. Getting a good look at our little visitor for the first time, I could see she was about my height, with a bobbed haircut and two rose petals on either side of her head. Her dress look like it was made of plant leaves, and her height and build gave her away as being just about my age. At first, I had assumed that this girl was a mobian, like my two friends and I were. But as I looked her over, I realized while she had much in appearance and build similar to a mobian female, it was fairly obvious and this girl was a plant-based life form. Some passive scans with the Miles electric confirm my suspicions, and it was at that moment that her eyes flickered open, and she looked around in a shocked panic.
"Oh my.. where am i? What's going on?" Looking around, she then noticed me and spoke in a frightened tone. "Who are you? What do you want with me? You're not.. you're not a servant of dark oak, are you?"
As I tried to form an answer to a question, a strange feeling overcame me as I stared at this young l it was kind of a fuzzy and happy warmth, like being in a cool swimming pool on a hot Summer's day, or being wrapped in a blanket on a chilly cold winter's night. I did not realize it at the time, but now looking back I see that the girl was causing something to stir inside me, feelings I as a child did not yet understand. But nevertheless, I was polite to her, walking up and bowing.
"Don't worry, whoever was after you can't get you here." I reassured her, putting hand on her shoulder. "You're going to be all right now, how do you feel?"
The girl told me her name was Cosmo, and she was a seedarian from the planet Greengate. I had heard of seedarians before, they are a species similar to us mobians; but while we resemble anthropomorphic animals, they are essentially anthropomorphic plants. Cosmo told me that she was from one of the noble families on the planet, and her homeworld was invaded by the metarex, a powerful group of extra galactic conquerors, who are known from going around and plundering worlds and sucking their resources dry. Cosmo told me her parents had sent her to Earth for safe keeping, as this world was known as the home of the famous hero, Sonic the hedgehog. I scratched the back of my head nervously at that, knowing it was my own boasting about Sonic's heroism and warriors prowess that gave him this reputation, throughout the civilized galaxy. I explained the situation on how I was Sonic's sidekick, and she pleaded with me to let her stay.
"Oh please let me stay with you! I won't be much trouble, I promise!"she pleaded her eyes starting to moisten up and she held on to my glove. "I don't eat much, and I can earn my own keep by working. By being around sonic, I know I'll be safe! Won't you please let me stay?"
I wanted to tell her I wasn't sure, that I would have to talk to Tom and Maddie when they got back. But looking into her pleading eyes I was affected by some emotion I didn't understand at the time, and I told her;
"Yes of course you can stay!"I smiled nodding my head. "Don't worry, I promise that I'll keep you safe!"
At that, Cosmo let out the squeal of the light and jumped up to hug me sending a feeling of warmth throughout my entire body. I never felt anything like that before, it was a warm fuzzy feeling that I couldn't explain - a kind of happiness that I had never quite felt before. It was similar to the happiness that I felt being around Sonic, Knuckles, and my new family, but it's somehow still felt.. different. It wasn't long before I had rigged your up a place to stay back in one of the spare rooms in the house, and then I introduced her to Sonic while he was watching TV..
"Sonic, this is Cosmo, she's going to be staying with us for a while." I told him as Sonic down to chili dog and watched one of the fast and furious movies. "She needs protection from some bad guys from outer space, and so I'm going to watch over her."
"A pleasure to meet you Mr Sonic." Cosmo performed a curtsy. "I've heard so much about your heroic adventures."
"Hey nice to meet you kid! Nice to see Tails found himself a girlfriend."Sonic laughed while Cosmo and I blushed furiously. "Don't worry tails, I was just joking." Your little friend can stay here as long as she wants... But I'm not sure what time and Maddie are going to say when they get back."
It didn't take long for Cosmo to adjust to life around the house and we've developed something of a routine I would often go out and work in my workshop in the shed, and Cosmo would sometimes join me, sitting and talking to me while I worked. Other times, she would go out to Maddie's garden taking off her shoes and walking through the dirt in her pale bare feet. She seemed more alive and awake at these moments, as if she was absorbing nutrients out of the very soil through the bottoms of her soles. I would sit on the bench at the edge of the garden sometimes, talking to her as she stood among the plants. If I didn't know any better I would almost swear she was.. talking to Maddie's tomato plants and onions and radishes. And also if I didn't know better, I would swear that those plants seem to grow a lot faster during the weeks that Cosmo was here.
I did take her around town a bit showing her the stores and shops, stopping at the local drugstore so we can share a mint flavored malt. Most of the people in town thought she was a cute little girl dressed up, and welcomed her as my little friend. She was so sweet and kind, that even crazy Carl treated her nicely. He even all his traps and being polite to her whenever they met. Cosmo was so cheerful and happy, getting along with everyone and everything in town through her sheer kindness and her pure happiness. Being around her made that warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach grow stronger and the only thing I knew at the time was I even had a stronger desire to protect her and make sure she was safe.
Being in the innocence of childhood, all I knew at the time is that I was happy. But looking back on it now, I should have realized that it wasn't going to last.
It was about 5 or 6 weeks after Cosmo had arrived, when we heard a loud crash coming from the woods beyond the house. I went in to look for Sonic to tell him about it and ask for help, but he seemed to be nowhere around. I told Cosmo I was going out to investigate and she should stay here, but she was adamant in joining me
"I can't let you face the danger alone". She told me with a smile. You've done so much for me and protecting you is all I can do back."
And so, I picked her up and we've been flew us out into the woods. It wasn't long before we found a crater that was similar to the one that Cosmo had arrived in several weeks earlier. But as we approached, it wasn't an innocent looking seedarian that emerged from the hole. Rather, it was several large and scary looking robots with silver bodies that look like they stepped right out of an anime. Their bodies were covered with spikes and sharp edges, and on each of them was a pair of red eyes that shown through the darkness. A look of horror spread across Cosmo's face, and before I could shush her, she let out a loud cry.
"Tails look out!"she called out, as I moved in front of Cosmo to protect her. "It's the metarex, they found me!"
Unfortunately,Cosmo had been too loud, and the metal monstrosities had heard us. They quickly moved into attack, firing their lasers as I picked up Cosmo and flew up into the air. Pulling out a small blaster I had invented out of my backpack, I returned fire shooting and dodging around the large robots as I return fire. I was barely able to avoid most of their shots, well several blasts hit the robots causing them to spark, short out, and collapse. I was doing pretty well against the mechanical monsters when a stray shot hit me and knocked Cosmo out of my arms, and sent her tumbling to the ground. Before I could make a move, the large robots closed in on her.
"Tails help me!" Cosmo called out, terrified.
"Cosmo! I cried, diving in to the middle of the melee. "Hang on, I'm coming!"
What happened next.. is still a little bit of a blur to me. I remember attacking furiously, curling into a ball, and spin dashing into the robots, smashing many of them. But the robots open fire with their blasters, the shots hitting bruising and hurting me, and I could feel a warm red liquid coming out of my wounds. Eventually in my anger I was able to smash the last of the robots, before collapsing to the ground. The last thing I remembered is my vision got blurry was Cosmo standing over me with a worried look on her face.
"Oh Tails, this is all my fault! She cried, holding me tightly. "If I would have never come to this world, you wouldn't have gotten hurt! I must do something!"
Everything went dark after that, and I remember having dreams of dancing through Me of meadow full of flowers and dandelions with cosmo. It must have been a day or two later when I woke up in the early morning, laying on a cot in my workshop. Sitting up in bed quickly, I pulled back the blanket, and look to my surprise that all my wounds were already healed. It was almost as if.. I had never been hurt in the first place. How could this be? I was near death when those robots were finished with me. Getting up from my bed, I dashed out of the shed, and flew back to the spot where the battle had taken place last night. They are the smashed and crushed parts of the metarex were strewn all over the forest. With a sigh, I flew started flying back towards the house; I knew was such a high level of activity out here, that G.U.N.'s satellites would have noticed. Let those government agents have the scrap parts to study and analyze, I just wanted to go back home.
When I got back to the house, I suddenly realize what the shock that I didn't know were Cosmo was. With a panic I looked through every room in the house and on every floor, but no one was around but myself. Going back to the tool shed, I noticed a small trail of soil leading away from the shed out toward the garden my heart began to sink as I approached the garden patch, and it shattered into the million pieces when I saw a new flower blooming beside Maddie's plants.. a beautiful flower that looked just like the ones that had been on the top of Cosmo's head.
I collapsed to the ground, and burst into tears.
Strange things happen in this world, including a young fox boy who made friends with a plant girl and tried to protect her from evil. How that young fox boy came to develop strong feelings for her, and she for him and how when the time came to protect her he succeeded, but at the cost of a mortal wound. And how is she repaid him by transferring her own life force to that two-tailed mobian, healing his wounds and save his life. I've dug up the plant that was once my friend, and transferred it to a pot that I keep on the windowsill in my room. Knuckles and the Wachowskis are convinced I had an imaginary friend. While Sonic, who actually saw an interacted with her, would sometimes lay a hand on my shoulder or give me a reassuring hug.
Now looking back, approaching my teen years, I realize what I felt for her is the same feeling that Sonic now feels for Amy or Knuckles to that bat jewel thief of his whenever she comes to his Island in the sky. I look back upon my days on Earth with fondness, and back upon that first innocent love I had. And whenever I look at the small potted plant in the window of my workshop near the mystic ruins, I can remember that sweet little plant girl, and the kindness and warmth of her smile that lit up my world.