Angel's Library

The smell of smoke and burnt rubber is in the air. Citizens are screaming and crying, trying to find safety amidst the crumbling buildings and wreckage. Robots attack anything that moves. They tear and shoot down anything that doesn’t.

One such robot is coming up to a corner, scanning the area around it for any signs of life. It’s interrupted by a yellow-and-white blur ramming into it from around the corner. It slams into the wall of a building nearby from the force.

Tails flips away from it, watching it for a moment to make sure it’s really down. The bots around here have seemed…sturdier than usual. He left a decent dent in this one, but he hasn't been able to break through any of them like regular badniks. He’d love to take one back to his workshop to figure out what Eggman improved on, but there’s no time. Maybe later.

When it doesn’t move, Tails turns back to where he came. Piles of rubble and abandoned items litter the street. There’s no one in sight.

“We’re clear. Come on, let’s keep moving,” he calls.

A group of mobians peek out from behind some debris, their eyes wide.

Tails offers them a reassuring grin. Then he turns, gesturing for them to follow as he starts walking away.

They hurry after him. Some are relatively relaxed looking, as though the chaos around them isn’t a big deal. Others look around warily, ears folded back against their heads and tails tucked between their legs.

After a little while of walking, Tails holds out his hand behind himself. The group following him all stop.

His tails spin, lifting him up into the air as he turns to face them. Seeing their unsettled expressions, he smiles and says, “Don’t worry, I’m just gonna fly up to scout out a safe route. I won’t be far.”

His smile drops. “Be on the lookout for any of Eggman’s robots. If you see anything, scream .”

At their nodding heads and mumbled words of assent, Tails flies up, past the rooftops.

The city was already filled with fire and chaos when they arrived. By now, multiple sectors have been taken out. At this rate, it’ll take months, maybe even a year or two, to repair the damage.

The sky is filled with smoke. In the distance, he can see a blue streak zig-zagging through the city. He can hear panicked screams and crashing from far away. Hopefully someone can get to them soon—if he hurries, he might be able to. Sonic will probably beat him to it.

The scene would be unsettling if Tails wasn’t used to this sort of thing. This was inevitable, though. At least, that’s how he felt about it. Some of his friends had disagreed when he’d said so aloud on the way here.

Eggman had gone quiet for a while. It’d been about a year since his last sighting. He was bound to come back eventually, and in true Eggman fashion, he would be back with a bang .

There’s a part of Tails that is satisfied about being right. The rest of him wishes he could’ve been wrong. That the doctor would just…disappear.

Turning away from the city, Tails looks towards the outskirts he’s been leading survivors to. Somewhere else, Amy is doing the same.

He realizes he hasn’t heard from her in a while. Is she alright? Maybe he should go find her. After all, the badniks are tougher—maybe she got attacked. If something happened—

Shaking himself, Tails figures she’s just caught up in helping everyone out. She’s tough as nails; even if she did get attacked, she’d be able to handle it.

Refocusing, he maps out the safest route from where they are. His ears are pricked up, listening for any shouting from below.

When Tails lands by the group, he gives them a quick once-over. Once he’s sure that they’re okay, he gestures for them to follow, then races down an alley. He picks up the pace when he hears their footsteps behind him.

They’re almost out of the city when they get swarmed all of a sudden. Egg pawns surround them on the ground and buzz bombers fill the air.

Tails grits his teeth, readying himself to fend them off. Some of the civilians whimper from behind him, cowering. Others raise their fists up, but their gazes are uncertain.

“Well, well, well—what do we have here?”

A bulky silhouette approaches them from behind a dark cloud of smoke. The first glint of a metal hull and the sight of a familiar, wicked grin in the dying sunlight as the figure emerges causes the bravest of the survivors to begin to quake.

Tails’ fur fluffs up slightly. His namesakes slowly wag from side-to-side. His ears fold back against his skull.

“I think you already know, Eggman. You really shouldn’t be surprised to see us showing up to crush your plans,” he replies.

The doctor snickers. “You’re on your own, fox boy.”
“Not for long.”
Eggman merely smirks at that.

The buzz bombers begin charging up. The egg pawns press closer.

Tails only takes a moment to think before he springs into action.

The badniks in the air are sent flying as he bats them away. Then he turns his attention to the ones on the ground. The survivors are doing an okay job at fending them off, but there’s only so much they can do.

Moving as fast as he can, Tails starts ramming into them. It makes his body ache, and it only knocks them back, but it’ll do for now. He needs to come up with a plan. Something to take them all out quickly. But they don’t have much time.

“Something wrong?” Eggman sneers.
He’s a little way away from them, simply watching.

Don’t focus on him. There are more important things to worry about.

Tails’ gaze flits about, looking for anything he can use.  The end of one of the buzz bombers he knocked out of the sky catches his eye.

Perfect!

His ears twitch as he hears the survivors fighting.

He turns to face the group. “Listen up!” he shouts. When their ears all flick in his direction, he continues. “These guys are sturdy! You’ll have to hit them hard . Use whatever you can find—and if you can’t find anything, use your body.”

With that, Tails spin dashes into the badniks in his way. He knocks them down like bowling pins. They quickly get back up, only a bit dented by his impact.

As soon as he reaches the buzz bomber, he kicks the upper half of its body off before picking it up, aiming the end at the egg pawns.

Tails yells, “Duck!”
Then, he opens fire.

The buzz bomber’s lasers quickly tear through the bots, leaving them nothing but smoking heaps of scrap on the ground.

The civilians all start cheering. They look at him with starry eyes.

Tails smiles bashfully as he makes his way back over to them. His namesakes start to wag.

Someone clears their throat. “Forgetting something?”

Tails’ ears twitch as he turns to face them, his smile vanishing.

The doctor grins.

Oh. Right. Eggman’s still here. Can’t let myself get caught up like that!

He lifts the end of the buzz bomber up, aiming it at Eggman. He starts to charge it up.

The sound of metal footsteps and buzzing fills the air. Tails releases the trigger in surprise, only for a buzz bomber to fly in the way suddenly.

A swarm of badniks creep out from the alleys and streets all around them.

Tails backs up, his ears folding back against his head.

The survivors back away as well. They walk themselves back into a wall.

“Wh-wha-a-what do we do?!” one of them cries, reaching for Tails.

He looks around, trying to come up with a plan. He still has the broken buzz bomber, but who knows how much longer that’ll last. And if these badniks are just as reinforced as the ones before, spin dashing will only do so much. They can’t run; they’re completely cornered.

The robots advance on them steadily, circling around them.

They’re really starting to panic now. They keep asking him what to do, where to go, what’s next.

I don’t know! But—I can’t tell them that!
Is this what Sonic feels like…?

“It’s been fun, but your time’s up, Prower,” Eggman calls from beyond the horde.

Wait. Sonic!

Tails drops the buzz bomber. He looks towards his communicator, tapping on the screen to try and contact Sonic only to realize that it’s busted.

When did that happen?!
No wonder I haven’t heard from Amy...

He doesn’t have time to think about it. He’ll worry about it when this is all over. Because he will find a way out of this. He just—he needs to—

A gust of wind interrupts his thoughts.

It also interrupts the badniks, which were just about to begin attacking. Instead of landing any hits, they’re flying through the air, ramming into rooftops and walls or sailing straight over them.

A blue blur is bouncing around, battering the bots.

Tails can’t help but smile.

“Took you long enough!” he calls out.
“Yeah, Yeah! I’m here now, aren’t I?” Sonic responds.

The group begins cheering again.

When Sonic finally stops, the badniks are nothing but piles of sparking metal. He stands between the group and Eggman.

“So nice of you to finally join us, Sonic,” the aforementioned doctor says. He puts a particularly venomous emphasis on ‘Sonic.’

“Good to see you, too, Egghead!” Sonic replies, a grin on his face. “I was wondering where you ran off to after our last battle.”

“I was busy preparing my ultimate weapon !”

Tails can already hear his brother’s snarky retort.

Before he gets the chance to actually hear Sonic say anything, there’s a strange red pulse through the area. There’s some kind of crackling sound that accompanies it. Almost like static.

Then, Metal Sonic appears. He’s quickly followed by Shadow, Zavok, and… Chaos ?!

Shadow is already strange enough. He wouldn’t work with Eggman again…would he? Tails figures it isn’t likely. And Zavok is...certainly weird, considering what happened on Lost Hex. But…Chaos? He’s gone. He moved on. At least, that’s what Tails thought.

The survivors start murmuring worriedly.

There’s another pulse and more crackling, and then something—or, rather, some one —new appears.

As soon as they arrive, they start moving. One moment they’re in the air, the next they’re fighting Sonic. Metal, Shadow, Zavok, and Chaos are quick to join in. The four of them start dishing out hits left and right. Sonic is dodging and hitting back when he can.

Tails can barely keep track of their movements. The world in front of him is a colorful disaster. It almost hurts his eyes to look at.

Sonic takes a punch to the gut and lands near Tails.

When the fox kit goes to step into the fight, Sonic gets up and looks at him over his shoulder.

“Get them out of the city. I’ll be fine.”
Tails’ ears fold back. “But—”
“Go! I got this!”

Sonic offers him a confident smile. Then he’s off, back into the thick of it.

“Alright! But I’m going to come back and help!” Tails calls to his brother.

He turns to the survivors. “Follow me. We’re almost out.”
“But won’t they come after us?” one of them asks.
“Sonic will keep them occupied. Now hurry!”

They follow Tails as he heads for a nearby alley. The route he mapped out earlier is still clear in his mind, despite all the panic and commotion. They’ll be out of here in no time.

They don’t run into any more badniks on the way out. Eggman must have called his entire army to swarm them earlier. But why? That seems a bit excessive, even for Eggman.

To get Sonic’s attention.

Right. Of course. But what for? Just to show off his latest invention? On the surface, that sounds like a good enough reason. But there has to be more to it than that. Tails just can’t figure it out. He needs more data.

Hopefully, he’ll be able to get it soon.

When they finally get out of the city, Tails sees Amy walking around, checking on everyone.

He gestures in her direction. “If you need anything, go see Amy. Sonic and I will be here in a bit.”

Then he speeds off, not wanting to waste a single second. As he heads back into the city limits, he thinks he hears someone call his name. But there’s no time to stop.

Tails is out of breath when he can finally hear the sound of battle again.

Survey the scene first. Then help where you can.

He takes a deep breath. Slowly, he creeps closer to the noise. Once he’s reached the edge of the alley he’s in, he cautiously peeks his head out.

All of the air is suddenly sucked from his lungs again.

Tails can only watch as Sonic is thrown around as though he’s nothing. It makes Tails feel like he’s 4 years old again, helpless in the face of the giant mech of the week.

But even back then, it didn’t seem as scary as this. Not with Sonic there, smirking and rushing forward. If Tails couldn’t be brave yet, at least Sonic would always be there to be courageous enough for both of them. And when it was over, he never shamed Tails for being afraid. He never made him feel bad for not being ready yet.

In a rare instance—at least, at the time—Sonic spoke. “You’ll get there. You’re really brave as is!”

Tails has never really understood what he meant. He doesn’t know if he ever will. Sure, he’s had his heroic moments, but Sonic always perseveres.

Or, at least, that’s what he thought.

None of them have seemed to notice him standing in the alley. They’re too caught up in the action. Tails can’t blame them. He can’t take his eyes away from the scene before him.

It’s like watching a train wreck.

Normally, in a situation like this, Sonic would just…run. So why didn’t he this time? There’s no way he really thought he could handle all of this, especially on his own. Right?

Why did you send me away? Why didn’t you run ?

Tails winces as Sonic gets socked right in the chest. He’s sent flying into a wall. He slowly falls forward, landing on his stomach with a groan.

It’s hard to tell from where he is, but Tails is pretty sure he’s bleeding.

Shit shit shit. What do I do?

The new person appears in front of Sonic suddenly. The blink-and-you’ll-miss-it movement startles Tails from his thoughts.

“Had enough?” they ask. Their tail flicks from side-to-side.

Sonic chuckles as he pushes himself up. Tails is pretty sure he says something, but he can’t make out the words. He hopes it’s just because he’s too far away. Not because Sonic is too weak to talk any louder.

They lean down, grabbing Sonic’s chin and yanking his face up.

“I would watch what I say if I were you.” Their voice is slow, dangerous.
He takes a deep breath before speaking this time. “Too bad you aren’t me.”
“On the contrary,” they counter. “It’s too bad you aren’t me .”
Sonic laughs—though it sounds more like a cough. “You’re funny.”
“And you’re vexing.”

They release him and straighten.

“This is getting tiring. Let’s finish this up, shall we?”

Sonic smirks up at them. It looks strained.

Tails starts to move forward.

Red electricity seems to fly out from the strange object lodged in the person’s chest. It zaps Sonic, coursing through him.

He had just opened his mouth to reply. The only sound that comes out is a strangled cry as he collapses. The electricity crackles along his body, contrasting the deep blue of his quills and fur, which stand on their end.

Tails’ heart stops. He stops. The creature stops. Sonic stops. Everything stops.

Sonic doesn’t get up. He doesn’t move. Not even a twitch.

Time stands still.

Tails thinks he hears someone scream. He’s not sure if it was Sonic or him. He’s not sure if it was even real. That any of this is real. Because this can’t be happening. This can’t be happening.

Eggman and that creature are talking. The being’s tail swishes from side-to-side, seeming agitated. Then, they grab one of Sonic’s arms and pull him up a bit. He slumps forward, making no move to fight back in any way.

No!

Tails finds himself taking a step forward, reaching out for his brother.

You have to wake up.

A piercing yellow eye meets his.

Please!

They, along with Eggman, disappear in a flicker of red.

 

Blood pounds in Tails’ ears. He keeps staring at where they were. Where Sonic was. Where he should’ve been. He should’ve fought back. He should’ve…should’ve…

Stupid. Weak. Why didn’t you do anything? What’s wrong with you? You should’ve helped him. Why were you just standing there?

Coward. Coward. Coward.

The world goes dark. It stays that way for what feels like hours.

Distantly, Tails can feel his hands on his hand, over his ears. His tails are curled around him. His legs are tucked against his chest.

He’s not sure how he got here. He’s not sure where ‘here’ is. Is he still in the city? Did that entity come back to nab him, too?

At least he’d be with Sonic.

The smell of smoke and the sound of sparks from the broken badniks nearby tells him all he needs to know.

Tails curls in on himself more. He doesn’t remember doing it in the first place.

Did he faint?

Does it matter?

Everything feels so far away.

His chest feels tight and his eyes burn.

This doesn’t feel real. He doesn’t feel real. None of this can be real. It can’t. It just… can’t.

Someone is calling out.

“Sonic!”

Tails feels his fur stand on end.

“Tails!” the voice shouts. “Where are you?!”

The closer it gets, the more familiar it starts to sound. He can’t place who it is. Can’t think beyond this can’t be real this can’t be real this can’t be real this can’t be real this can’t be real this can’t be real and coward coward coward coward coward coward coward coward coward.

A hand on his shoulder and that same voice break through it. “Are you alright?”

What follows is all instinct.

A growl rises in his throat. Tails’ fur puffs up, his namesakes lashing about. He lifts his head up, arms tense and hands ready to strike.

His gaze is full of pink.

Amy stares at him with wide eyes. Her hands are in front of her defensively. Her quills are looking sharper than usual. She doesn’t move, aside from her agape mouth closing to form a grim line.

Why didn’t you react this way earlier, when it was actually necessary? So typical.

He opens his mouth to apologize. All that comes out is a sharp exhale. Then an even sharper inhale. And then Tails finds that he can’t breathe. He’s trying. He really is. Because he feels awful. About everything that’s happening. He wants to say something, anything, but the air won’t stay in his lungs long enough for him to form any words.

“Focus on me. Okay?” Amy says.

His gaze flicks up, looking just under her eyes.

One of her hands falls to her side. With the other, she starts to lower her fingers as she takes a deep breath in. Then, as she lets it out, she raises them back up again.

Tails does his best to mimic her.

They stand there, breathing, for a while.

When the pressure in his chest is gone and he can breathe easy, Tails slumps against the wall behind him. He starts to fiddle with the ends of his tails. Waiting.

For a bit, it’s quiet. Just the sound of the wind and debris being blown across the ground.

Finally, Amy speaks. “Tails…what happened?”

What should he say? That he failed? That Sonic is gone because of him? That he fucked everything up? That he’s scared and he doesn’t know what to do? Is he supposed to admit all of that? He’d really rather not.

But what else is there to say?

“I don’t know,” is what Tails eventually settles on.

Because it’s true. At least, partly.

“Did you get knocked out?”
“I…no. I don’t think so.”
“Are you injured anywhere?”
“I don’t know.”

Amy sighs. He can’t tell if she’s mad at him.

“Where’s Sonic?”

Suddenly, Tails can’t breathe again.

They do the breathing exercise. This time, when he’s calm, she moves her hand so it stays in his vision when he lowers his head. Her palm is facing up. An invitation.

“We should get out of here.”

There’s only a moment’s hesitation before he takes it.

As Amy leads Tails out of the city, she says, “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For upsetting you. I—I didn’t—”
“It’s okay,” he interrupts her. “You didn’t mean to. You don’t know.”

But you will soon. Everyone will.
You’ll all know how bad I messed up. That Sonic is gone, and it’s my fault.

Those thoughts follow them out of the city, into the Tornado, and then up, into the clouds.