...and here's today's. (BTW, despite some private notes I've been sent,
I'm sure that merely posting Sonic fics isn't what brought down the
list. I'm not the "harbinger of doomsday", at least not in that regard.
^_- )
---cut on this line---
"Vengance Denied" Part 2: Deceiver
by Adrian Tymes
[Legal disclaimer:
This story is based on characters created by SEGA and DiC Productions, as well
as Bookshire Draftwood and Commander Packbell by David Pistone, David Prower by
Shawn Wolski, and Nina Waterwoods by Holly-B Kraft. Permission is granted by
the author to freely distribute this story, so long as:
a: no recompense of financial value is received or given by the person who
distributes the story, and
b: the distributed copy is identical to the story as originally authored.
In other words, don't sell it, and don't alter it.
The griffins in this story are my own creations. If you wish to write a story
including or referring to the griffins as presented below, or the events in
this story, please contact me in advance - I would like to know who uses them.
Copyright (c) 1996, all rights reserved, et cetera.]
******
"Can you talk some sense into him, Sonic?"
"What for, Sal? Tails looks like he knows what he's doing."
Racing side by side with Sonic made it easy for Sally to give Sonic a look that
he had seen many times before.
"He's too young for this, Sonic. Who knows where in Robotropolis Antoine is?
We may have to search the entire city for him, assuming he hasn't been
roboticized yet. Tails could get hurt."
"Big guy? No way, Sal. We've taken on these 'bots many times outside of
Robotropolis. He knows how to deal with 'em."
"Many times, all without permission. You two could've been killed."
"Sal, Sal, Sal. You've got to let go of him. He's growing up, like it or not."
"Unlike a certain hedgehog we know."
"What's Uncle Chuck got to do with this?"
Sally merely glared at Sonic in reply.
"Alright, ok already. I'll talk to him." Sonic accelerated and pulled ahead.
A few seconds later, he was next to Tails.
"I couldn't make out what you two were saying."
Sonic's voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. "Don't worry about it, big
guy. Scout on ahead; we'll catch up with you."
"You got it." Tails shifted to full speed. He was out of sight in the blink of
an eye.
Sonic decelerated to keep pace with Sally, who was straining to try to match
Tails' speed. "I don't think he went for it, Sal."
Sally was still frowning at Sonic.
"What?"
"I heard everything. When are you going to learn that you can't just keep
taking reckless chances, Sonic? It was bad enough when I only worried about
losing you. Now you've got Tails doing it, too. Didn't you once say that
Robotropolis was too dangerous for him?"
"C'mon, Sal. With all the training I've been giving him, Tails is past ready
for this. Nothing's going to happen to him, so stop worrying about it." Sonic
ducked as he ran under a beam at the city's edge. "Besides, we won't be here
long. We've just gotta find Ant. Speaking of which, where do you think he
is?"
"Better check the obvious first." Sally unhitched her minicomputer from her
boot in mid-stride and flipped it open without slowing down. "Nicole: scan for
unusual activity."
"SCANNING...ROGUE HOVERBOT DETECTED TO THE NORTHWEST. SEVERAL HOVERBOTS IN
PURSUIT WITH ORDERS TO CAPTURE PILOT."
Sonic's voice showed his surprise. "Antoine?"
"That'd be my guess. He's been familiarizing himself with that hoverbot we
captured last week. Looks like it paid off."
"But Antoine? He can't do anything right, Sal. He says he doesn't sleep on
watch; sneaking up on him when he dozed off was the first trick I taught Tails.
I've lost count of the number of times he ruined a mission by panicing. In
fact, he ran out on me just this morning when we were about to get Packbell."
"Say what?"
"You heard me. The 'bots just parted to let him through. I know Ant's too cool
to turn traitor, but that's what it looked like. I don't know why I'm even
coming after Antoooiiiinnnneeee..." Sonic's voice trailed off as he fell down a
covered pit. Sally quicked halted and looked into the pit, but could see only
darkness in the depths.
Tails circled back into view just in time to see Sonic fall. He flew in after
his friend, using his tails to push himself through the air faster than Sonic
was falling. "Gotcha" echoed back up after a minute, much to Sally's relief.
Just then, a hoverbot pulled up, rotated so its right side became its bottom,
and hovered. Sally ran over, jumped through the open door, put Nicole back on
her boot, bounced off the door's rim in a vicious lunge towards where she knew
the pilot's seat to be, and checked her attack when she saw Antoine in that
seat.
"Aaah! Please do not be hurting me!"
"Relax, Antoine. I'm here to rescue you."
"I am zorry, but I can not leave until Sonic is being rescued. Packbell has
captured him."
"He got away. We came back to rescue you. He's almost directly below us."
Sally, now standing on the bottom door's rim, poked her head out to yell down
the hole. "Are you two alright?"
Sonic's voice sounded from the pit. "We're fine, Sal. How close are those
hoverbots?"
"Right here. You'll have to find another way out; I've got Antoine. Return to
Knothole. And KEEP TAILS SAFE!"
"Alright, alright. We're outta here."
Sally ducked back inside the hoverbot just as another 'bot's laser fire narrowly
missed her hair. Antoine closed the door, righted the hoverbot, and sent it
spiralling erratically through the streets of Robotropolis. "What are you
doing?"
"Evasive maneuveurs. Ah've been trying to leuse these perseuers ever since I
stole this craft."
"Sonic might have been right about you after all." She crawled towards the
craft's front, keeping a grip on the floor despite Antoine's piloting.
"What about moi?"
"Never mind, Antoine." Sally strapped herself into the copilot's seat. "Just
flip us over."
"Flip us oveur?"
"Quickly. The weapons on this 'bot aren't damaged, are they?"
Antoine flipped the hoverbot tail-over-nose in the space of a few centimeters.
Before he could finish, Sally keyed the weapons controls to fire the instant
their firing arc passed through the other hoverbots. Each shot hit its mark,
and the pursuit force was quickly turned into yet more litter on the streets of
Robotropolis. Before more hoverbots could show up, Sally typed in a course and
started the autopilot.
"Where are we going, my prinzess?"
"We are going back to Knothole. This hoverbot's going to crash-test Packbell's
new command tower, so let's bail."
Antoine did not have to be told twice. He was out the door just before Sally
leapt downwards from the door's top rim. Sally hit the ground first, and hit it
running. After quickly scooping Antoine out of the sky, she zoomed off into the
nearby forest.
"Thank you. Ah got seperated from Soneic, and..."
Already out of sight of the city, Sally skidded to a halt, dropping Antoine as
she did so. He bounced, painfully, several times before coming to a halt
against a tree. Naturally, this cut off his sentence.
"He told me all about it. That was for running out on him." In the blink of an
eye, Sally was kneeling over Antoine, with part of his collar bunched up in her
fist and her face growling millimeters away from his face. "We are Freedom
Fighters. We work together, or we work as workerbots. Nobody abandons anybody.
Clear?"
Antoine gulped as he nodded. "P-perfectly." His sense of humor chose a bad
time to act up. "Ah suppose asking you for a date is being out of ze question?"
One slap later, Antoine was out cold.
******
There was not much light in the pit where Tails was holding Sonic in mid-air by
his quills, but it was bright enough to see the tunnel that he was flying
towards.
"What was that for?"
"Don't worry about it, T2. Sal's just being overprotective again, that's all."
"Is that what you two were talking about, back in the forest?"
"You got it." Sonic took in the sights as they flew through the tunnel. "Man,
I haven't had to use these in ages."
"You've been here before?"
"Yeah. These were some of the tunnels in the file King Acorn left for us at
Ironlock. We stopped using 'em once Robotniks' forces couldn't stop us from
sneaking in on the surface, but we never would've gotten that far if we hadn't
had these. I wonder if Packbell even knows they're here? Robuttnik sure
didn't."
"I'd say he does. Look!" Tails put Sonic down, then pointed ahead. In the
distance was a lighted cavern just out of line of sight.
"Hmm...better check it out." In an instant, both of them were doing just that.
What surprised them was not the amount of laboratory equipment laying nearby,
nor the thick layer of dust that covered everything. The complete lack of robot
guards and workers was what surprised them.
Tails blew off a bit of the dust, some of which abruptly flew into his nose.
"Ah...ah...achoo!" His sneeze blew away more of the dust, only to have more of
it tickle his sinuses. Tails launched into a sneezing fit, while Sonic moved to
the other side of the lab to avoid the same fate. A sudden gust of wind blew
the dust over to Sonic, who held his breath until it settled down.
"You ok, big guy?"
Tails' sneezing subsided. "Yeah, *sniffle* I'll be fine. I - hey, look at
this!"
"Whatcha got?"
Tails picked up a discarded sign. "Laboratory S1. Snively's private domain.
Only Snively the Great can authorize entry here. Off-limits to Robotnik,
Packbell, and any robots under their command." The fox looked around. "Isn't
this where Kenal said he used to work when he wasn't scouting?"
"Yeah. Good thing he's not here; he'd freak out. I guess Packbell doesn't know
about this place after all. I wonder why Snively doesn't use this place."
"'Cause he's dead, right?"
"Oh, right." Sonic mentally winced at lying to his best friend, but he had made
a promise which had to be honored, even if it had been made to Snively.
"I wonder if any of this stuff works?"
"Might as well check it out."
After a few minutes of prowling around, all of the power conduits were found to
be beyond repair, and only one device still had a bit of charge in its
batteries.
"I wonder what this is?"
Tails held up a coin he'd found on a workbench. "Flip ya for it."
"Ok." Sonic took the coin. "Call it." He flipped it.
"Me."
Sonic briefly looked askance at his friend, then laughed with him when he
figured out the joke. The coin landed with a stylized tail face up. "Ok, you
win. Here you go."
"Thanks." Tails took the proffered cylinder, then looked at it from all angles.
"Hey..." Sonic took the coin and flipped it over to reveal an identical tail on
the other side. "This is a two-tailed coin."
"What'd you expect? I'm a two-tailed fox."
"But...huh?" Sonic's attempt to decypher Tails' illogic was stopped as a short
beam of greyish white light emerged from the cylinder's end. "How'd you do
that?"
"Like this." Tails let go of a button on the side of the cylinder. The beam
retracted. "I wonder what that's for?"
"Got me."
"Hmm...I know." Tails snapped the fingers of his free hand as he activated the
cylinder again. This time, he pointed the cylinder so it extended into, and
through, a nearby table. Quickly flicking the cylinder upwards produced a gash
in the table where the beam passed through it. "I wonder what this could do to
SWATbots?"
"One way to find out." Sonic stepped back out into the tunnel, which extended
in three directions from the lab. He pointed down the branches as he spoke.
"That's the pit we just came from, that's the way back to Knothole, and that way
is..."
"Packbell," Tails yelled out as he rushed past Sonic's head, light blade still
extended and pointed away from Sonic and Tails.
"Right." Sonic sped after his friend.
******
Five minutes later, the two were merrily slashing SWATbots into scrap metal like
twin engines of destruction. Sonic was his usual self, but Tails was in rare
form with help from the light blade.
He secured his namesakes to a hole in a low ceiling, then spun them as if to
fly. However, with his tails stuck in place, it was the rest of his body that
spun, turning the outstretched light blade into a circle of destruction for any
SWATbot that ventured near.
When the robots figured out that walking into this circle was a Bad Idea, Tails
popped loose from the roof and tucked into a ball. He'd taken out many a 'bot
like this just like Sonic had, although very few knew how he managed to damage
metal this way - his tails lacked the sharpness of Sonic's quills, and they did
not seem strong enough to crush a robot. Not that it mattered in this case,
since his light blade spun as he did, doubling the range at which he could turn
his assailants into yet more roboscrap.
Sonic and Tails had chosen their ambush point well: a cramped series of alleys
which offered almost no room for the robots to use their guns. Tails eventually
burst out into the open, and was met with a hail of laser fire. On a hunch,
Tails interposed the light blade between himself and the laser bolts. As he
suspected, the blade deflected the blasts. Given the number and proximity of
firing robots, most of those who fired were quickly taken down by deflected
shots from their compatriots.
Sonic was too wrapped up in taking down one particularly well armored 'bot to
keep track of Tails. When he paused to catch his breath, Sonic heard a
commotion overhead. He looked upwards to see his friend slowly advancing on a
SWATbot on a catwalk directly above Sonic. Each of the 'bot's shots were
deflected until it seemed to run out of ammunition. Tails noticed this,
lowered his blade, and yawned to show off. The SWATbot, however, had one more
shot left, and fired. Tails quickly raised his blade to deflect, but too late.
The shot hit the blade's projector.
The cylinder exploded in a flash of light so bright, Sonic had to cover his
eyes. When he could see again, Tails was no longer on the catwalk.
"Tails?"
The only traces of his friend that Sonic could see were the two gloves that had
been blasted off of his hands, with char marks where they had gripped the
cylinder, as they gently drifted down into Sonic's hands.
"NOOOOOO!" Sonic ran up the side of the alley to the catwalk, but to no avail.
Not even a single fur of Tails was to be found.
After searching in vain, Sonic noticed the SWATbot laughing, spasming on the
ground and pointing at him as if it found the situation hysterical. Sonic ran
to the 'bot and put one foot on its torso. "What's so funny?"
"You," Packbell's voice replied through the robot. "All this time, I thought
you Freedom Fighters were a team. Sacrificing yourselves for one another,
totally committed to my destruction. You and Tails were supposed to be prime
examples of that faith. But now, with your failure to protect him, I see that I
totally misjudged you."
At Packbell's mental command, the entire city broke out in laughter at this
point. Everything with a voice synthesizer was laughing; everything with a
finger near Sonic was pointing at him. Even Robotnik had seldom used this many
resources against the hedgehog simultaneously, for Robotropolis itself was
laughing at Sonic.
"Wasn't Sally quite insistent that you keep him safe?"
Sonic was too shaken to reply.
"At a loss for words, are we? Maybe you know what'll happen to you if you
return. Let me guess, that girlfriend of yours will not be pleased. She'll
dump you, you know. And that's only the beginning. Your friends will ostracize
you, you'll be asked to leave...let's face it, you've got nothing to go back to.
But I can make it better."
"Yeah, right. You'll just kill me like you did Tails."
"Oh, no, Sonic. I'll roboticize you and send you far, far away. I'll put you
where your former friends will never be able to get their revenge on you. That
is, unless you really want this to happen."
A nearby video monitor snapped to life with a hastily-fabricated video clip,
which showed Sally using a hammer to wreck a roboticized Sonic piece by piece,
visibly relishing every blow.
"That'll never happen."
"Oh, really? She will want revenge on those who murdered Tails. I admit, I was
part of that, but you helped. If you hadn't let Tails come here, he would still
be alive."
Sonic cut off any further taunting from Packbell by slicing the SWATbot in half.
He fled from Robotropolis before any other robots could get near him. Once safe
in the Great Forest, he slowed to a very dispirited walk, leaving a trail of
tears behind him.
Packbell terminated his psychological warfare program and replayed a recording
of the explosion. It had not seemed powerful enough to vaporise Tails, but he
could not find the body on any of his remote scanners.
******
When he finally reached Knothole, Antoine was sitting on the hollow stump that
led to the village. Sonic had stopped crying, but Antoine could tell that
Sonic's usual attitude was gone.
"Let me through, Ant."
"No, mon ami. Sally has ordeured me not to let you reteurn until you promise
nevar to take Tails to Robotropolis again."
"Out of the way, Ant! I'm in no mood for games."
"This ees no game. Ah have my ordeurs.
"You want Tails? Fine." Sonic threw Tails' gloves at Antoine's feet. "Happy?"
"You would challenge me to a duel of honor oveur zis?" Antoine stood up and
bent over to pick up the gloves, while Sonic used the chance to dash into
Knothole. "At least use your gloves. These are...SACRE BLEU!" Antoine fainted
when he realized Sonic's meaning.
"Good thing Sally asked me to back Ant up," Kenal mumbled as he stepped out of
concealment, happy to have something to do after his search for Rikal had come
up empty. "She's not going to be happy about..."
"There you are, sugah." Bunnie wandered in from Knothole's exit, her hand fully
repaired. "Ah've been lookin' all over for yew."
Kenal's claws were out as soon as he heard her voice. "Get away from me. NOW!"
"Aw, c'mon, ah just want to apologize, honey."
"For what? Doing to me what I did to Sally? I already knew that was wrong.
You didn't have to rub it in. Besides, Sally forgave me. I didn't know I had
to ask your forgiveness for something that didn't even involve you."
"She's mah friend. You hurt her, you hurt muh. But y'all's right, I should
have given it up when Sally did. Ah'm sorry...ah don't know what came over
muh."
Kenal gave Bunnie a sideways glance, unsure of whether to trust her or not.
"We'll talk about this later. Right now, we've got a problem."
Relieved at the change of topics, Bunnie asked, "What's that?"
"Sonic came back with what looks like Tails' remains."
"Remains? But..." Bunnie gasped in horror as Kenal displayed the two scorched
gloves.
"Someone has to tell Sally."
"Oh mah stars, no...i-it can't be..."
"Get ahold of yourself!" Kenal trotted over, reached up, and placed a firm paw
on Bunnie's shoulder. "Here, I'll flip you for it." Kenal produced a coin that
had fallen out of Antoine's pocket.
"Okay..." Bunnie absently took the coin and flipped it.
"Tails!"
Bunnie gasped again when Kenal called the flip.
"Oh, sorry...umm, not heads?"
The coin landed. On its top side was a side view of an abstract, frowning head
that could have belonged to nearly any Mobian species, except human.
"Ah guess ah'll have to tell her."
"I'll go with you, just in case."
"Thanks, sugar."
"And stop naming me after food!"
"Aww...what's the matter?" Quicker than Kenal could react, Bunnie reached down,
picked him up, and held him upside down in a position where his legs could not
push against anything. "Hungry?" Bunnie giggled as she walked back to
Knothole, while Kenal fruitlessly waved his claws and tail all over in a
desperate attempt to get free of Bunnie's clutches. Just a bit playful himself,
he did not use his wings.
Lying forgotten on the ground, the coin behind them slid towards a small
depression, flipped, and landed on its other side to display an abstract smiling
head.
******
Sally's bedroom was in a bit of a disarray, reflecting the state of Sally's
mind. She was trying everything she could think of to calm down, but nothing
helped as memories of her day kept playing in her mind. Her addiction to speed
had nearly made her kill Sonic. Anger at herself turned to joy after she had
regained her speed, but that joy was quickly replaced by more anger when she
discovered Bunnie about to use Chemical Fear on Kenal. Just when she had
resolved that situation, another griffin had come by and nearly killed Tails -
twice. The griffin appeared to have left while Sally discovered that Antoine's
cowardice had reached a new low. And then there was the matter of Sonic's
attitude towards Tails. It wasn't even sundown yet, but this had been the worst
day Sally had had since Doomsday. Just thinking about it all, and about her
reactions to it, had made Sally alternate between growling and weeping ever
since she got back from Robotropolis. She had gone so far as to put Nicole in
its carrying case under her desk to prevent her from damaging it. Never before
had she had to use that case.
So it was that Sally barked, "ENTER," when Bunnie knocked on her open door.
Bunnie cautiously peeked inside. "Umm, Sally-girl, is this a bad time?"
Sally blew an errant strand of hair from her face. "No. I'm sorry, I shouldn't
have reacted like that. It's just...I can't believe what's happened to me
today."
"Well, ah've got good news and ah've got bad news."
"Give me the good news first. I can use it."
"Tails ain't gonna be sneakin' off to Robotropolis no more."
"At least something went right."
"And he won't be comin' back, either."
"WHAT?" Sally's eyes widened, then widened some more when she saw the gloves in
Bunnie's hand.
"Sugar-hog came back with..." Bunnie's sentence was stopped when Sally ran
past, grabbing Tails' gloves on the way. Bunnie was blown out the door by the
resulting wind. She landed on her rear next to Kenal.
"Well, that could have gone worse."
"You got that right. C'mon, I wanna hear what happens next." Bunnie picked
herself up and trotted after Sally.
******
Sonic was perfectly still, sitting on the edge of his bed and gazing down at a
picture of his friend that he cradled in his lap. Only the dual streams of
tears showed that time still passed.
"Go away," Sonic replied when he heard a knock at his door.
Sally slammed the door open anyway.
"Hi, Sal." Sonic did not even have to look up to know who it was.
"Don't worry, Sonic. We'll find him, and when we do, he can fight
roboticization off just like Uncle Chuck did. We will get him back..."
"He's dead." The picture slipped from Sonic's arms. Its glass frame shattered
on the floor.
"He...what?"
Sonic stood up, barely able to control himself. "HE'S DEAD. HE'S DEAD AND I
KILLED HIM, ALRIGHT?"
Knowing that the last part could not be true, Sally marched up to Sonic until
they were touching noses, quietly closing the door as she passed it. "What do
you mean, you killed him?"
Sonic sat down again, his voice back to normal. "Packbell was right. If I
hadn't let him come along, Tails would still be alive. No way could Packbell
get at him here."
"I have two orders for you."
"Yeah, what?" Sonic looked away, ready for punishment.
"First, remember this: you did not kill Tails. Packbell did. If you hadn't let
Tails come along this time, he might have snuck off on his own. He'd be dead
before long anyway."
This logic calmed Sonic a bit. "Ok, and second?"
"Second, you must be a pillar of strength. Do not let this stop you from taking
Packbell down. If the others see that you can tough it out, they will too."
"I thought that was your job."
"It was." Sally collapsed into Sonic's lap and started crying. "But I can't."
Wordlessly, Sonic comforted Sally while she soaked his shoulder.
******
He awoke to darkness. A warm, lumpy blanket was wrapped around him. One of the
bigger lumps seemed to be purring softly. As he felt around, the purring
trailed off, and the blanket moved.
"You're awake," a familiar voice chirped.
"Yeah, but where am I?" He rubbed his head, felt a painful spot, winced, and
paused. "Who am I?"
"You must've hit your head harder than I thought. You really don't remember?"
"Uh-uh."
"Your name is Tails, and you're in Robotropolis."
"Robotropolis?!? There's...something bad about it...I can't remember. Oww..."
Tails massaged his pain, trying to make it go away.
"Relax, we're safe here. I pulled you out of sight after you landed on your
head." The voice giggled. "You looked silly, cutey."
Tails struggled to get his other arm free of the blanket, without success.
"Umm, thanks, I guess. Who are you, anyway?"
"How could you forget that? I'm Rikal..." Her voice trailed off as a plan
formed in her head. "...your girlfriend."
"Girlfriend?" Tails' eyes finally adjusted to the light, to reveal that the
'blanket' was, in fact, a purple griffin with pink feathers who had wrapped
herself around him. "I...I thought that was Nina."
"Oh, but you're still confused. Nina's just a tramp who's been coming on to
you. We..." Rikal kissed Tails on his cheek briefly. "...were meant to be."
Irony was at the front of her mind as she mused that, if she had been this close
to Tails just an hour ago, she would - and could - have bit his neck in two
without a second thought.
"Uck! You haven't been my girlfriend very long, or you'd know I hate that."
"Oops, sorry."
Tails again tried to free his arm, and failed again. "Let me go. I...we have
to get out of here."
"Not yet. Robotropolis is a dangerous place. We should only go when you're not
disoriented anymore." Rikal touched Tails on the spot she'd seen him massage.
"Ow!"
"Wait for that to go away, then we can leave." Rikal returned her paw to Tails'
back. "In the meantime, let's snuggle."
******
After ten straight minutes of tears, Sally's crying subsided. This was a good
thing for Sonic, because the tears had run off his quills and onto his bed. Any
longer, and his matress might have had permanent water damage.
"Feeling better?"
"A little. Thank you."
Sonic picked up the picture of Tails from where it had fallen. "You know, Sal,
you're right. I can't lose my cool over this. But it won't be easy. He was my
hero."
Sally smirked as she pulled away from his shoulder. "No, Sonic, you were his
hero, not the other way around."
"Don't tell anyone, but it went both ways. Think about it: he could move almost
as fast as me, we've been kicking Robo-butt together more than anyone else in
Knothole - even you and I, Sal - he can spin like I can...in fact, he can do
nearly anything I can, and he can swim, and he can fly. What's there not to
like about him? I just didn't tell anyone 'cause I didn't want it to go to his
head."
Sally was now smiling in spite of herself. "Oh really?"
"Yeah. It would've given him an inflated ego."
"And what would you know about inflated egos?"
Sonic literally shrugged the question off. "You remember that time he learned
how to spin like me?"
"Of course I do. I was there."
"Man, was I jealous. I thought he'd take down Robotnik before I even got near
him."
"How about that time you salvaged Cluck from Robotnik's hovercraft and gave it
to him? That really made his day."
"Uh, Sal, I got something to confess. I didn't steal Cluck like I said I did.
Tails did it. I just made that story up so you wouldn't get mad."
Sally laughed, then sighed as she looked towards Tails' picture. "He was
special, wasn't he?"
"I'll say. I'll sure miss him."
"So will I."
******
Bunnie had her unbent ear pressed flat against the outside of Sonic's closed
door. Kenal was also listening, albeit with a much smaller ear.
Kenal whispered, "Do you hear that? It sounds like they're laughing."
"Yup. Definitely laughter." Bunnie's reply was nearly subvocal, but Kenal
heard it anyway.
Kenal pulled his head away from the door. "They must be breaking under the
strain."
Bunnie stepped away so as to converse without alerting Sonic and Sally, and sat
on the top step of Sonic's porch. "Ah sure hope not. What'll we do if they go
to pieces?"
Kenal put his head in Bunnie's lap and looked up. "Bunnie, if worse comes to
worse, can we forgive and protect each other?"
Bunnie looked down, smiled, and scratched the back of Kenal's neck. "Of course
we can, sugar. That's what the Freedom Fighters are all about."
Kenal merely purred in reply.
******
The purring was starting to drive Tails crazy. "Rikal, can we go now, please?"
"Ok, if you want to go that badly." Rikal stopped purring, unwrapped herself
from Tails, and flapped her wings.
Tails used the opportunity to strech before flying in his own way. "Where's the
exit?"
"This way. You remember how to get back to Knothole, right? I've never been
this far from Ho...from Knothole before."
Tails pondered Rikal's slip. She sounded like she meant to say 'Home', but
wasn't that just another word for 'Knothole'? There was something about the way
she said it...
"Tails? Are you coming?"
"Huh? Oh, sure. Coming. Let's get out of here."
"Not so loud. Over here." Rikal ducked into an alley.
Tails followed, and got out of sight just before a SWATbot patrol came by.
"Good. Now follow my movements exactly." Rikal entered a complex series of
loops, spins, and turns that looked more like an aerial ballerina than someone
desperately trying to avoid detection. Tails followed as best he could, but his
implementation was noticeably clumsier than Rikal's.
Near the edge of Robotropolis, Rikal was getting very tired of this. "It'll
never work. You really need to practice flying, Tails."
Tails distinctly remembered that his earliest memories were of flying. He had
been flying all of his life, and now someone said that he needed more practice?
"I'll distract the patrols. You get to the forest and wait for me there.
Ready?" Rikal was gone before Tails could reply.
"That's supposed to be my girlfriend? Tails, what did you ever see in her?" As
he muttered to himself, Tails watched Rikal attract the attention of all the
local robot patrols, then dissapear like magic behind a lamp post. Tails dashed
across the deserted plains around Robotropolis while the patrols blasted the
post to find a broken pipe. Looking both ways along the pipe's path, they just
missed seeing Tails hide behind a tree.
"There you are. What kept you?" Rikal was holding onto the tree with her
claws, tail above head, and head getting ready to kiss Tails.
"C'mon, Rikal. Knothole is this way." Tails zipped away. Rikal let go of the
tree, spread her wings, and rode Tails' wind rather than be left behind.
******
All of Knothole had turned out for Tails' funeral. Although everyone had wanted
to wear a memorial bakhat, there was simply not enough material to go around.
David Prower, of course, was wearing one. At his insistence, Sonic and Sally
were also adorned with the black swaths of cloth. David had said that the three
of them were Tails' family in a way that no one else in Knothole was.
Tails' gloves were in a small box, ready for burial. Sonic and David sat to
either side of the podium where Sally was in the middle of delivering her
speech to the crowd. Antoine stood at attention, barely visible in the shadows
behind them.
Palpable upset permeated the princess's voice. "Miles Prower was many things to
us: child, friend, even a hero to some." Sonic blinked and choked back a tear
at Sally's words. "We all considered him part of our family, although we might
never know his real family." David did not quite know what to make of this
since he was legally Tails' brother, and thus 'real' family, but he understood
the intended meaning. "But most of all, he...he..."
Sally could not take it any more. She broke down in tears, too distraught to
continue her speech. Gently, Sonic rose and guided Sally from the podium. As
if on cue, Antoine stepped forwards and picked up where Sally left off. At
Sonic's request, he had offered to help Sally write her speech as an excuse to
memorize it just in case this happened.
Quietly, at the back of the crowd, Rikal snuck up to a sobbing Nina. "What's
all this for?"
Nina turned around. Her upset turned to anger when she saw the questioner.
"Tails is dead. Your job is done."
"He is?" Rikal looked around, then leaned close to Nina and whispered. "Maybe
that's why he dumped you."
Nina was slightly confused until Rikal pulled Tails from behind a tree and into
her embrace. The hug did not last long, however, since Nina quickly shoved
Rikal away from him. Tails was looking very unsure of himself as Nina
hesitantly spoke up. "Umm, Tails?"
Tails looked behind him, into the face of his actual girlfriend. "Nina!"
Nina gave Tails a bear hug. Tails tried to return it, but Nina's tight squeeze
trapped his arms by his side. The embrace was so tight that Tails was having
trouble breathing.
Antoine was just wrapping up the speech. "We will all miss you,..."
Nina interrupted with, "TAILS!"
"Oui, that was hees name." Antoine, and most of the crowd, looked in Nina's
direction to see the reason for the outburst. An excited murmur broke out as
they saw Tails behind Nina. "Aah! It ees being z-ze ghost of T-Tails!"
Sonic and Sally looked in the direction that Antoine was pointing. Their jaws
dropped in unison as they saw their friend alive. Sonic raced to the box with
Tails' gloves, plucked them out, and raced over to Tails.
As Tails put them on, he felt the rest of his memories returning. Memories that
fit like a glove...
"Sonic!"
"Big guy!"
Sally ran up and lifted Tails from Nina's grasp. "Tails!"
Tails giggled. "Hi, Sally."
The crowd gathered around to welcome Tails back and ask him what had happened.
Feeling slightly put out, Rikal sat outside the crowd and watched...until Kenal
tackled and pinned her from behind, with his claws millimeters from her throat.
"So, you saved the one you were sent to kill? And I thought Robotnik was the
best at screwing up."
Rikal quickly reversed Kenal's pin and placed her beak around Kenal's neck.
Kenal struggled to move, but to no avail. Finally, he gave up. "What are you
waiting for? Just bite down and get it over with."
Rikal raised her beak to empty air. "No. I don't have to kill him anymore, and
I never wanted to kill you."
"Finally figured that out, huh? Tails is our Monarch. He gives the laws, not
the ones who sent you here."
"True." Rikal sighed.
"Now let me go."
"Not so fast. Just because I don't want to kill you doesn't mean I won't..." A
smile snuck onto Rikal's face.
"What?"
In response, Rikal gradually began moving her toes, which were positioned on
spots that she knew Kenal was sensitive in. Before long, Kenal was laughing out
of control from her tickling.
"Ha,ha...p-please...ha,ha...don't..."
Rikal's smile turned devilish as she moved her paws to yet more ticklish spots.
She never got a chance to use them, though, since Bunnie grabbed her paws.
"Thanks," Kenal blurted while panting.
"Sure thing, sugar-rin. Ah figured you'd want a better job than that."
"No, that's..." Kenal launched into another laughing fit as Bunnie released his
tormenter, then teamed up with Rikal to tickle him. The few members of the
crowd who had turned to see what was making so much noise shrugged in confusion,
then turned back to Tails.