Chapter Text
As the bot stepped into clear view, it was holding a very familiar fox in its hands.
The hands were large enough to pin down his entire body, only leaving his head in view. The kit's ears were down, and one of his eyes squeezed shut. Dried blood had stuck at the side of his head, from the crash in his airplane. The feeling of cold metal on his fur felt uncomfortable, but he could live.
A smaller bot stepped forward and held out its hand- which turned into a laser, pointed at the cub's head. The fox didn't care less as he glared daggers at Eggman, who laughed.
"But your little sidekick GETS IT!"
PAUSE!
Why does Sonic get to be the only one to narrate, am I right?
My name is Tails, the fox who is currently held captive. The man with the terrible mustache holding me captive is Doctor Robotnik- but we just call him Eggman. You're probably wondering how I ended up here!
To understand my train of thought, you need to understand something very important about me.
Once you grow up with the famous hero of Mobius, the legendary Blue Streak, the one and only Sonic the Hedgehog, you learn there are three rules you can never forget.
- Stay with Sonic. Even if Eggman is always after him, with him, you're the safest you could ever be.
- Your brother is self-sacrificial and overprotective, so keep yourself out of danger.
- Never. Stop. Running.
If you lose Sonic, find him back. You're safe with him, only with him, the world is a dark place out to get you, find Sonic.
If you get lost, find Sonic.
If you're in danger, find Sonic.
If there is a trap, find Sonic.
Find him as quickly as you can, and whatever you do, don't. Stop. Running.
Maybe it's unhealthy, but I grew up Sonic. We've been running our entire lives! It's familiar. A promise of safety.
Keep running, find Sonic.
So that's what I did.
I ran.
...Okay, maybe not right away-... perhaps we should have a change of perspective, should we not? Let's recap the entire situation;
A couple of weeks ago, on my home planet Mobius, Robotnik managed to acquire six out of seven of the chaos emeralds. Sonic trusted me with the final one, which we used to power my plane.
Once we heard of Eggman's so-called plan, we stormed the place to get back the rest of the emeralds. As it turns out, it had been a trap to get the final one.
In his attempt to get it, Eggman got rid of my older brother using the power of chaos. But since he was missing one, his machine malfunctioned, causing everything made out of electronics to glitch up and break.
Yes, this includes my plane.
Caught up so far? Yeah? Cool!
"Please... please don't blame yourselves for this? And... don't let Sonic blame himself, either. You have my permission to wack him with your hammer if he does. I love you guys. Goodbye."
He turned off his wrist com before anyone could say anything. And sniffed.
Okay. Okay. Time to be brave, Tails. Be brave. Sonic is brave. You're gonna be brave, too. Take down Eggman, save the planet and your friends. You got this.
Surviving that plane crash would be impossible, and the fox knew that. But he wasn't surviving either way, so might as well go down with a bang, right?
"Hey, Eggman!" He yelled, pressing some buttons and pulling on a lever, before turning up the cap above a big button and pressing it.
Chaos Emerald activated! Charging...
"If I'm going down, you are going down with me!" He yelled, and pulled harshly on the steering wheel, causing the plane to change its course and head straight to the chaos emeralds and the doctor who had doomed them both. He was pleased to see Eggman didn't look like he could control his egg pod either. Good.
He wouldn’t make it out? Fine. But then he would destroy the machine- maybe even the emeralds if he got lucky. Eggman wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone else, that way.
He could feel the plane picking up speed as they went down- and couldn't help but close his eyes tightly, and take a deep breath.
'Oh, Amy, Knux- I'm so sorry.' He thought to himself, one of his fingers tapping rapidly against the steering wheel. It was a habit he had picked up from his older brother, he remembered and smiled bitterly. Stress response. His mind was trying to remember things in response to stress- like the day they met, or the day he had perfected his flying- was this what people meant by seeing your life flash before your eyes?
"Don't freak out." He mumbled to himself and took another breath. "You are the sidekick of the one and only Sonic the Hedgehog... if he can do this, so can you."
In his moment, he didn't notice that the emerald had started glowing brighter, brighter- to the point he couldn't ignore it anymore. His eyes snapped open, and the fox looked shocked.
Glowing.
Just like when Sonic-
"Wait, you're not supposed to-" he didn't get to finish his sentence, noticing just a second too late that the weapon was pointed at him now. And it fired.
Tails screamed as everything around them turned into a blinding pool of colors- before turning mostly white, the plane going much faster than ever, until-
The emerald reacted as if he were Sonic, all on its own. And the cub could feel the rush of energy and power spreading through his entire body, giving him strength-
The colors returned.
With a BOOM! he was suddenly in the sky, the plane going down and crashing into multiple trees. He screamed again and shielded his face as much as he could.
The plane crashed into something, causing the eight-year-old to slam towards the front mirror and made him pass out.
...
...
...
*Ping! Ping! Ping!*
*Warning..... damage to the.... bzzzt...*
The fox groaned as he slowly regained consciousness, the upper half of his body draped over the controls and steering wheel. He could smell the smoke coming from the plane, the vehicle itself giving glitching warnings about some sort of damage. He didn't understand what the warnings said, the ringing in his ears way too loud.
Where am I?
It took his heavy mind a minute to remember what happened, but even when he did, he didn't want to move. His body felt sore, really sore and heavy, his mind much worse. He just wanted to lay there and fall back asleep.
The sounds of birds chirping outside immediately awoke his instincts.
Where am I?
I don't know where I am...
Run.
He groaned and groggily managed to look up. It took a second for his eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness before he just acted on instinct. Act now, think later. He was in danger. He had to get out.
It took Tails all of his strength to finally get up, only to realize he couldn't move. Turning back, he saw that one of his tails was still very much stuck. Right.
He breathed in deeply and immediately started coughing from the smoke. Okay... let's not do that. Get out, get out, get out.
The cub grabbed his tail and pulled it weakly. It didn't move. Next, he tried to lift the debris off his namesake, but that didn't work either. His arms shook too much to have a steady grip, and his mind wasn't exactly in the state to think of a plan.
He just... had to... pull it out.
This was going to hurt, and he knew it. Still, it was better than the alternative. So Tails counted to three before he pulled as hard as he could, again, and again, and again until his tail suddenly slid out from underneath. He cried out as he could feel the metal cutting into the skin, and covered his mouth to hold back tears. Before he finally pushed open the top part of the plane, crawled out, and collapsed once he was far enough.
"Oh... chaos..." he lay on his stomach, taking a couple of minutes to look at the Tornado.
That... did not look great... nor did his tail. Wincing, he forced himself to check it for damage.
Yeah, okay, the large, red cut across his tail did not look nice, and his tail felt sore too. He couldn't check for broken bones... not without his tech.
Tails whined as he felt something warm drip down his face, and touched the side of his head. His glove was coated red.
Yay.
Okay. Injuries were... minimal, considering he should be dead now. Was he dead? No, his heart was beating, he could feel that.
Delusional, then? Cause the fox was pretty sure he had been fighting Eggman... and now he was in a forest...
A glow coming from the plane caught him off guard.
The emerald!
Despite very much not wanting to, Tails forced himself to climb back inside, take the emerald out, and get away again. Coughing, he checked it over. Not even a scratch.
"...That glow.... did you save me?" He wondered out loud, turning the gem over. "But... why? I'm not Sonic... are you acting on his desire, perhaps-?"
Sonic.
Where is Sonic?
Tails looked up again. No hoop-da-loops, the trees were too close to each other, no yellow paths... where had he ended up?!
He yelped when he heard a peep from behind, shocked to face a tiny squirrel.
Where am I? Where am I?!
Find Sonic. Run.
Okay, slow down, Tails. Your wrist com.
"...Sonic?" He held his wrist close to his mouth as he spoke, then listened carefully. All he heard was static.
"....Amy? Knuckles?"
Bzzzt bzzt...
"..." he sighed and looked around again. Okay... no tech... no friends... location unknown. As a test, he tried to spin his tails to fly and managed to hover for a couple of seconds, before he fell. Nope.
Wincing, the kit looked around, trying to ease his nerves. Okay. Analyze the situation.
There was still smoke coming out of the Tornado and the blood on his head was fresh, so he couldn't have been knocked out for long.
Location? Unknown.
Plane status...?
Tails looked over what used to be the Tornado.
...Unrepairable.
Friends status?
He checked his watch. Also unknown.
Body? He looked himself around again, before wrapping one of his tails around the injured one.
Could be worse.
He doubted any of his techs had survived the crash... so that left him with only the emerald and himself.
"..." his ears lowered slightly as he held the gem close to his chest, cupping it in his hands and backing into a tree.
"Run, run!" His instincts roared, the animalistic side of his mind trying to take over the logical one. "You're in danger, Miles, find Sonic, run."
He tried to tell himself no. He should explore, he should- Sonic got hit by the beam too, so he should be somewhere around here-!
The sounds of heavy machinery made him yelp, and quickly hide behind one of the trees.
Okay. There were people here.
"Run."
No.
He should ask for help.
"Your extra tail, Miles."
He wasn't a small fox cub anymore, he could take some Mobians if they were of the bad kind.
"You're eight. You don't have any of your techs with you, and Sonic is gone."
"How will you protect the emerald?"
His eyes widened, and he looked down at his hands.
...Okay, new mission.
Find Sonic, protect the emerald.
Find Sonic, protect the emerald.
With a heavy heart, Tails looked at the plane one more time. He couldn't exactly take it with him, could he?
He walked towards the plane, placed a hand on top of it, and leaned his head against the metal.
"Thank you, for crashing that day." He silently said and closed his eyes. "And thank you for all the happy memories... I'm sorry. Goodbye, old friend."
With those final words, he held the emerald close to his chest and ran without looking back.
It was instinct, after all.
Don't look back.
Keep yourself safe.
Find Sonic.
Run.
So, I ran!
Not blindly, no. I took note of everything and everyone around me- not that I saw many people, mostly animals, and learned many new facts. About myself included. Did you know that foxes are amazing night-time predators? That's because of our 'night vision' caused by the tapetum lucidum, which reflects light back through- and I'm boring you, am I not? Makes sense, you probably wanna know what happens next.
After all, how did I get captured by the scientist, who is clearly not as talented as I am? What happened to the chaos emerald? When did I get captured?
You'll find out with time, that I can tell you. We gotta continue now!
So are we all caught up? Yeah? Okay, cool! UNPAUSE!
"But your little sidekick GETS IT!"
Maddie had a hand pressed to her mouth in horror, while Amy was holding onto Red as if her life depended on it. Red was quiet. The fox and another echidna silently held onto their father, speechless.
...
...
...
"Oh nooooooo." came the sarcastic call from behind the doctor, making them stop their grief and fear for one second. "What a tragedy."
"Do you not know how to shut it, rodent?" Eggman's entire expression changed the moment Tails spoke, the man looking done with life itself. "I'm trying to film a threat over here!"
The laser was pointed closer, yet the cub didn't seem to give a damn. "Ah, right- I'm the sacrifice, am I not? Hold on..." he cleared his throat, and shook his head- before looking at the camera with tears in his eyes, yelling. "Oh Sonic, please come save me! I'm in danger by the stupidest genius in the galaxy and am too weak and small to defend myself." The last words were spoked with venom, as he glared at Eggman again. The doctor glared back at him, looking as if he was about to throw himself off a balcony.
"What? I'm his sidekick for a reason."
Tom couldn't help but snort at that comment and covered his mouth. He could see an amused smile starting to spread on his wife's face.
"...You really don't know how to shut up, do you?"
"I'm eight, I'm alone, and I'm bored. What did you expect?"
Red looked at his phone with disbelief, before shaking his head. Amy couldn't help the laugh that escaped her, smiling lovingly at the camera.
"Look, Eggman-"
"Robotnik."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." The fox then- much to their disbelief, casually pulled one of his arms out of the trap and leaned his head into his palm.
The doctor gaped. "How did you-?!"
"If Sonic was here, I would know." the fox said, sounding bored. "If any of them were here, my wrist com would have long found them by now- but it hasn't. Considering I couldn't find them, your faulty, egg-shaped tech definitely can't either. You're really wasting your time here."
At the Wachowski household, the moment that fox had been shown on the screen, Blue had got up, his expression dark. The guy looked like he was about to murder someone, and Sonic feared he would need to hold him back.
That was, until that first comment. Then the next. And his anger had melted into confusion before a soft smile had started.
"Faulty tech?!" Robotnik looked outright offended, his cast to the world completely forgotten as he turned to face Tails properly. "I'll have you know that it was MY tech that captured you, freak!"
Sonic had honestly expected him to freeze up at that word. Instead, the cub snorted.
"Woooooooow. You're right! You managed to capture the injured eight-year-old after what- four years of fighting? Good on you, doctor!" He smiled cheerfully, giggling as he made his captor yell.
"..." Sonic giggled, and noticed the way Blue snorted, then shook his head. His tone was different as he muttered under his breath. "This kid..."
"You are even worse than that blue rat, you know that?" Eggman couldn't face him anymore and turned back to the camera to rub at his eyes. Tails shrugged and mumbled.
"Considering that 'blue rat' is the one and only hero of Mobius, I'll take that as a compliment."
"ENOUGH-" The kit's eyes widened as the robot suddenly squeezed him tight, squeezing the air out of his lungs and making him wheeze. All humor was gone at once, and everyone was watching again on high alert.
"Consider this your only warning, hedgehog!" the doctor turned his attention back to the screen, twirling a finger through his mustache. "You have two hours to deliver the emerald to me. If you don't..."
The laser was pointed closer to the kit's head. Tails glared at him again.
"So you better choose quickly... the world, or the fox."
With that, the video cut off on everything, phones, and screens closed, and tv channels returned once more.
"..." Tom's phone rang in an instant, while Maddie's phone vibrated with many, many text messages from friends and family. Right. They didn't know that wasn't their Tails...
"Carl? Yeah, the kid is fine-" Tom turned around to explain the situation, and Maddie scrambled to answer all the texts. That left the kids to sit in stunned silence.
"...He's here, Knuckles," Amy mumbled. The echidna nodded.
"I'm aware."
"We gotta free the fox out of that evil doctor's clutches!" This world's Knuckles yelled, balling his fists and growling. Tails quickly put a hand on his shoulder.
"Knuckles, didn't you hear him? He hasn't found Sonic, he doesn't know where we are!" He pointed at him and himself. "He probably doesn't know about this... situation."
"He thinks Sonic is the emerald," Red grumbled, crossing his arms. "Which means Tails lost it."
"Or hid it." The hedgehog added, her expression darkening as she reached for her hammer, squeezing it tightly. "And that maniac has the audacity to..."
Tom's phone rang again. This time, it was Sonic. "Carl, I'll call you later." The human informed, before closing their current call and accepting Sonic's. "Yeah, we saw-"
"I'M GOING TO KILL HIM!!!" He heard an angry shout in the background, the older hedgehog sounding outright outraged. "I'M GOING TO RIP OFF HIS HEAD AND SMASH HIS LITTLE MACHINES UNTIL HE-"
"Get over here." Was all his son said, before the call was closed.
"You just don't know what shut up means, do you?" Doctor Eggman growled once their video was done, and turned back to his little sacrifice. The fox was out of breath, yet still looked at him with hate.
"You killed my brother, you hurt my friends, you destroyed my plane- and as if that wasn't enough you brought me to the middle of nowhere and captured me!" Tails yelled back, struggling in the bot hold. "The least I can do is annoy you."
"That hedgehog is not dead, sadly..." the man hummed, twirling a hand through his terrible mustache. As Tails stared at it, he couldn't help the next comment.
"It looks like squirrels are living on your face."
The doctor's expression darkened. Then, he snapped his fingers, making the mech squeeze the life out of him once more. The fox gagged.
"Don't test me, freak." Robotnik spat, leaning down so he could look the genius right in his eyes. "I don't know if you simply haven't noticed... but I win. You are at my mercy. This planet is at my mercy. I could blast you right now."
The laser was pointed at his head again. Tails couldn't help but whimper, and looked away. The weapon was held there for a couple of seconds, before folding away completely.
"I have most of the emeralds minus one, and knowing the rodent, he is already running here to hand it over." The doctor stood straight again, cracked his back, then grinned. "I win."
"...I doubt that."
His expression turned sour. "Must you have the last comment after everything I say!?"
"Yes." The eight-year-old looked smug.
"..." his patience wearing thin, Eggman signaled the bot holding Tails with his hand. "Bring him back to the cell... and turn up the degree this time."
"What-?!" The fox had no time to react as he was lifted once more and dragged back to the cell he had spent the last couple of days in. As he struggled, he thought silently to himself, and sighed.
Hopefully Eggman's message had reached the one he had been searching for.
"What are we still doing here?!" Red angrily yelled, his arms twitching at his side as he looked around like a wild animal looking for prey. Blue was pacing, the only reason he had not already run out was simply because he didn't know where to go. Tom groaned, putting his two hands in front of his mouth.
"Because we need a plan, Red." He gently tried to explain again- yelping at the frustrated yell he got in response.
"I have a plan!" The echidna yelled, looking up. "Bust in, smash stuff, break his nose, bust out!"
"That does not seem like a very effective plan." Knuckles looked confused.
"Look, we've been captured by Eggman before," Amy grumbled, not having let go of her hammer ever since the news had been dropped- much to Maddie's dismay. "Sonic? A lot of times. Me? He had this thing where he kept capturing me for a while. Knuckles? Okay, maybe once... but Tails?"
"That's because he never had a reason to take him," Blue grumbled, tapping his foot impatiently. "As twisted as that egghead is, he is not a fan of child abuse. Even he realized capturing a five-year-old was not a good idea."
"He has him now, doesn't he!?"
"It doesn't matter who has him or not!" Sonic cut them all off. "What matters is that we make a plan to bust him out. So how do we do that?!"
"How should we know? We've never been in a situation like this before!" Amy groaned. Sonic frowned.
"Well- don't you usually make plans when trying to bust someone out?"
"..." the three mobians looked away. Sonic's eyes widened.
"...You gotta be kidding."
"You just tell me who to punch. That always worked!" Red hit his one hand with the other. Tom and Maddie looked flabbergasted.
"...No wonder you looked so hurt when you got here!"
"That was different. How was I supposed to know he made a teleporter thing?!"
"He was trying to kill you, Sonic." The pink hedgehog shook her head with disappointment. The blue one huffed.
"My point stands. There is no way we can-"
"Eggman was talking to just you." The youngest cut them off, making all eyes turn towards him. Tails squeaked under the sudden attention and looked down. "I mean- to just Blue. He didn't mention anything about- well. Us. Just you guys."
"...He probably doesn't know we exist." Sonic's eyes widened.
"We should use this information to our advantage." Knuckled nodded approvingly.
"Woah, hold on." Tom raised his voice, crossed his arms, and looked down at his three kids. "That is a lot of danger you're willingly putting yourself into."
"What choice do we have, dad?" Sonic asked him. "You heard Eggman! If we don't do something their Tails is toast!"
"He wouldn’t do such a thing... right?" Maddie turned to their guests. Blue cleared his throat.
"See?"
"But if he finds out there are two of each of you... won't he just go after you guys, then?" Amy softly asked, finally lowering her hammer so it rested on the ground. "What if he comes to your house to steal your Master Emerald while we try to rescue Tails? Or what if takes his anger out of him, knowing he would be 'replaceable' now?"
"...The hedgehog has a point." Knuckles sighed. "We can not reveal ourselves without there being a chance of it hurting the fox."
"Who says he has to know there are two of us?" Sonic sped up so he could wrap his arm around Blue's shoulders, and grinned. "We always run so fast it looks like there are two of us anyway! It works out!"
"Not all of us have superspeed, Sonic." Tails sighed. "And if it's me who is the problem..."
"What about us?" Knuckles pointed between himself and his counterpart. Red huffed.
"Easy. You stay here, I go rescue Tails!"
"Not so fast, Knux." Blue placed a hand on his shoulder. "They don't know what our Eggman is like... if we leave them here without any defense... and he manages to find them..."
He didn't need to finish his sentence. The echidna's expression crumbled.
"...You're asking a lot of me, Sonic."
"I know, I know, I owe you one." He sighed. "But these guys need someone here to defend them just in case..."
A silent conversation seemed to pass between the two before Red sighed, accepting his fate... and turned to Knuckles. "If it's acceptable... switch places with me."
"What?" Knuckles looked confused.
"Go with Sonic and Amy, pretending to be me." The older one insisted, nodding toward his friends. "I know you can defend your family, no doubt about that- but you've seen how different we've all been until now. If our Eggman is just as different as yours... you wouldn't know how to fight him, should he find this place."
"...So you want me to pretend to be you... so that the doctor doesn't find out there are two of each of us?"
A nod.
"...Very well. You, Tails, mother, and the Lord of Donuts will stay here." Knuckles nodded in agreement.
"No, hold on." Tom cut in. "I'm coming with you, kiddo."
"Dad-" Sonic looked hesitant, but Amy already shook her head.
"Mister Wachowski... your family has already done so much for us. We couldn't possibly ask you to put your life in danger simply because-"
"Hey." The human knelt so he could meet the pink hedgehog at eye level, and smiled. "I'm a cop, remember? I know how to defend myself."
"You spent your days talking to donuts-"
"Not relevant. I'm not gonna leave a bunch of kids, let alone my kids with a bunch of danger." He patted her shoulder, then got up. Amy looked stunned.
"But." he also added. "We are not going without a plan."
"...I think I might have an idea." All eyes were on Tails again as he spoke up, looking straight at Blue. "How well would you say you know Eggman's base?"
"..." Blue grinned at him. "Hm... considering I spent six months in there... pretty well."
"Excuse me?" Maddie looked down with disbelief. Blue ignored her surprise.
"Cool." The fox nodded. "How many entrances would you say there are?"