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“I have to send out the signal,” Tails said, as he stared at the literal horde of people surrounding the shrine they all stood on top of.
“No way! There’s gotta be another way!” Sonic shot back at him, his head swiveling to look at his brother with a frown on his face.
Here’s the thing. They didn’t know what was happening. All they knew was that Eggman had somehow managed to mind control hundreds of people into straight up fox hunting.
Or rather, Tails hunting.
Tails would have very much liked to figure out why or how, but throughout the last five days since this whole debacle started, he didn’t have much time to do any figuring out since, you know… there was a person around every corner, trying to have his head. He tried to, honest, but anytime he sat down to collect himself and actually think and use his brain to evaluate the situation, there was a bullet shooting past his head, or a knife stuck in his thigh, or a breath against his nape and a hand around his neck. So, yeah, he still doesn’t know what Eggman did and what he was trying to achieve.
Besides the obvious.
Sonic, Amy and Knuckles were doing their best in protecting the fox, but even they were starting to come up short. Four – even though the four were more powerful and skilled than any person in the crowd – was still basically nothing compared to the tens, if not hundreds of mobians and humans closing in on them on every side. Not to mention, their energy reserves were dwindling fast – they couldn’t catch a wink of sleep, nor any bite of food or a gulp of water ever since the first hunter caught Tails off guard on the way back to his workshop in Station Square. Tails could see it in the way Knuckles’ fists didn’t hold the same strength they usually did in their punches, the way Amy’s arms trembled anytime she had to lift her hammer, and even in the way Tails’ brain was starting to feel like it was filled with cotton and he had to swim through fog anytime he had to think of a way to bail them out of near death.
The only one who appeared nigh unaffected was Sonic, but Tails had a hunch it was sheer desperation driving him forward.
“I’m sure there is, Sonic, but I– we don’t have the time to find it anymore!” Tails shouted back. He shot another air blast from his arm cannon to shake off the hunters scaling up the stairs.
It wasn’t for a lack of trying they didn’t have a plan to put a stop to this.
The first day, after Tails sent out a distress signal and there were only up to twenty hunters trying to take him down, Tails with Sonic, Amy and Knuckles, went to confront Eggman and make him stop this messed up scheme.
They didn’t get very far.
Before they could even track Eggman’s current base down, lines and lines of hunters tried to stop them at any given turn.
So they tried to run.
They didn’t get very far.
There was a group of hunters waiting in every zone they came across.
Then they tried to hide.
They didn’t get very far.
Knuckles offered Tails, and by extension Sonic and Amy, asylum on Angel Island. It was the perfect place to hide from being hunted every second of one’s life, wasn’t it? Angel Island was a floating piece of land, usually flying above the sea, and it was untrackable unless specific conditions were met. Tails would be safe until they could come up with a plan and rid the people of mind control.
It worked for a while. They had a couple of hours of peace. Tails could think for a second and he came up with an idea to stop the pursuance. The problem was that Sonic shot it down without even giving it any thought, with the others readily agreeing with him. Tails argued that it was a small price to pay, but Sonic wouldn’t hear him out. Eventually they settled on it being a Plan Z if worst came to worst.
Which, in Tails’ opinion, was right fucking now.
A hand caught one of his tails and yanked. Tails yipped and swiveled around, but the pressure quickly left, when Amy swung her hammer at the offender with a furious scream. All four of them took a couple of steps behind them to press back to back with each other.
Eventually the couple of hours of peace came to an end when the hunters started appearing on Angel Island too.
It surprised everyone. They were sure they were safe here, at least for a while, but the hunters somehow found their way into the skies too. The team didn’t find any Plan A nor Y.
The hunters advanced on them faster than they could have expected.
“We have to find cover, fast.” Knuckles shouted as he punched a human in the face, who toppled from the force and brought two mobians to the ground with him.
“I have two air blasts left. I can shoot one and use the distraction to fly us on top of that high hill,” Tails said in response and pointed his free hand to the steep rock formation to his left. When he felt everyone nod, he readied his charge. “Okay, on the count of three… one,” Sonic, Knuckles and Amy formed a line behind Tails, “...two,” Knuckles clasped Sonic’s and Amy’s hands while Sonic put his free hand above his head, “...three!” Tails blasted and used the momentum to jump into the air and clasp Sonic’s waiting hand. He pulled all of them up and up, before any of the hunters could recover and catch Amy’s dangling leg. Tails used up all of his strength, his stamina barely enough to take them to their desired, momentary shelter.
When Tails gently put all of them down, he immediately came face to face with Sonic, who jammed a finger into Tails’ chest. “We said we’d send out the signal as a last resort!”
Tails scoffed, his exhaustion and, don’t tell anyone, fear making him more irritable than ever. “Look around you, Sonic! This looks like in need of a last resort!” He exclaimed while he waved an arm at the horde of hunters, advancing fast.
All three of his friends looked at him with sad eyes. He averted his gaze to look down to the hunters once more. “You guys know it would work. We still don’t know what we’re up against. What if I’m not the last? What if they’ll come after you too?” He turned his eyes back at them and looked at their battered bodies. They all had bruises and scratches all over them; Knuckles limped when he walked, Sonic’s hands shook even though he tried to hide it with clenched fists and he had a bloody slash on his forehead that was a bit more than worrying, and Amy’s shoulder looked all wrong. They all looked hurt and sad and wrong and it was all his fault, because they were protecting him and paying the price, when those people were only after him. “I can’t risk that. I won’t. It’ll all stop and all of those humans and mobians would be free from another one of Eggman’s twisted up schemes and you all could finally stop worrying about me.”
Amy shook her head. “Tails–”
Tails ignored her and after a moment of silence continued with;
“And, well, they can’t hunt down a person they forgot ever existed, can they?”
Knuckles stepped forward and placed a too-heavy hand on his shoulder. “Tails, you gotta understand this… plan of yours would mean that along with the hunters, everyone who knows you and loves you… we… we’d have no memory of you.”
Tails looked Knuckles straight in the eyes, “I know,” he placed his gloved paw on Knuckles’.
The hold on his shoulder loosened and eventually completely disappeared, when Sonic pushed Knuckles out of his way and grabbed Tails' shoulders instead. Tails caught his gaze. Sonic looked desperate and scared. “There has to be a way for you to make us not forget, right? You– you’re a genius, you can figure it out, I know you can.” Tails could feel Sonic’s hands trembling where he was holding him.
“I wish I could, but there’s no time, Sonic. It would take me too much time to reprogram the code, we would all be dead by then.” Sonic started shaking his head.
“No, no, Tails–”
“It’s okay. I’ll find you. I’ll find you and I’ll explain everything,” he shifted his eyes to Knuckles and Amy. “I’ll make you remember me. And it’ll be as if none of this ever happened, alright?”
He smiled up at them, but his reassurance didn’t seem to help much. A tear escaped Amy’s eye while Knuckles’ gaze dropped to the ground.
Sonic’s frantic voice brought his gaze back to him. “But– but what if that doesn’t work? What if we can’t remember you?” Sonic shook his little frame. “I don’t wanna do that. I– don’t– I don’t wanna do that!”
Tails brought his hands to Sonic’s forearms. “I know, Sonic. I know. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you do.” His hold on Sonic’s arms tightened and he put on a face of resolve. “I’ll make sure of it.”
Sonic shook his head, his eyes getting a glassy sheen, before he gently placed his forehead against Tails’. They stood like that for a while, Amy and Knuckles silent and respectful of Sonic’s rare show of vulnerable emotion.
“Promise?” Sonic whispered between them.
Tails gently nodded his head. Even though Sonic could feel his agreement, he still whispered back, “I promise.”
They were broken out of their quiet moment by quickly approaching roars. Tails let go of Sonic and looked down the hill to see the hunters nearly reaching the top. He had to act and he had to act now.
“Alright, I’ll fly back to the Tornado and try to get into the air. The signal would be better received from up there and it'll get the hunters off your back –” he whirled back to his friends while he attempted to relay his plan when he felt a strong, although delicate, pair of arms envelop him.
“Don’t even think of breaking that promise. Team Sonic doesn’t break promises,” Amy whispered into his ear. Tails nodded and briefly returned the hug before they pulled away.
Knuckles finally looked him in the eye. He nodded and said, “Go. We’ll cover you.”
Tails smiled at him. He spun his tails to lift off the ground. He looked at his friends for the last time for at least a while, winked at them and gave them a salute.
Then he was off.
All things considered, it wasn’t the hardest feat to pull off. When Tails reached the Tornado that sat on a clearing all alone, since the hunters were all scrambling back from the steep hill while Sonic, Knuckles and Amy were all trying to hold them off, he didn’t think and quickly hopped into the cockpit. He had to get off the island and get to a point in the atmosphere that would be capable of spreading the signal to radio towers all over Mobius, so all of the affected humans and mobians could hear the high pitched sound that was crafted specifically to alter their minds. To free them.
To make them forget a certain Miles “Tails” Prower ever existed.
He never had the time to perfect the formula. It was hastily written down while he was running away with his friends in tow. Everyone who heard the signal would forget him and he had to make sure the signal was heard by everyone. No chances of a hunter slipping through.
When the deed was done and the broadcast of the signal finished, he didn’t feel anything out of the ordinary.
Granted, he was up in the sky with nobody around to actually feel the consequences. He wasn’t there to see the people snap out of their mind control and look around, confused why they found themselves on the legendary Angel Island, that no one besides the guardian and occasionally his friends had access to.
He wasn’t there to see the memory of him leave his friends’ eyes.
His brother’s eyes.
But the whole situation made it feel so monumental that the lack of feeling any change shocked him to his core. And he suddenly felt himself get doused with fear.
He didn’t want to feel the change. To see the repercussions of his sacrifice. He didn’t regret it, he could never – his friends could be safe and finally rest – but that didn’t make his anxiety any smaller.
So he would devour this feeling. He would devour being free as long as he could and when he was ready to face a world that didn’t remember him, he would land his plane and find his friends.
Team Sonic didn’t break promises.
“Hi, my name is Miles ‘Tails’ Prower and you don’t know me, b–but…” Tails stuttered while he walked down a Station Square street. He tsked and tried again. “Hi, my name is Miles ‘Tails’ Prower and you don’t know me, but I…”
He stopped when the ice cream stand he was heading towards came into view. He caught sight of Sonic and Amy laugh at a joke he didn’t hear. Amy gently giggled into her hand while Sonic laughed his classic cocky sound that still had an undertone of fondness he reserved for his friends. They both held an ice cream cone in their hand, Amy’s filled with a scoop of vanilla and strawberry while Sonic had two scoops of… mint chocolate? Tails’ jaw nearly dropped to the floor. Sonic never ordered mint chocolate. He didn’t exactly hate it per se, but Sonic was never a fan of it either and, well, ‘It’s more of your thing anyway, lil’ buddy’. Tails blinked and shook his head, but the shock didn’t really taper off.
It didn’t appear they had someone else tag along, which didn’t surprise Tails much. He expected them to be there, he knew they’d be there and without any of their other friends, which is why he chose this particular moment to find them and explain everything. But his legs suddenly felt like lead, like they were rooted to the spot.
It’s been a week since he erased his existence from everyone’s memory. It’s been… rough, to say the least.
The moment he thought he was ready, he landed his plane near the Mystic Ruins. But nothing could have prepared him for the realization that he couldn’t go back home. Didn’t have a home. He couldn’t return to his workshops, since they were still legally Sonic’s and he would probably be using them as bases for missions. Yeah, Sonic wouldn’t go to them much, he’s a free spirit and basically lives in a constant run, but they were still Sonic’s. He wouldn’t remember that they technically belonged to Tails, no one would, so until he reintroduced himself to his friends, he would be seen as an intruder.
He could still bypass his security obviously, but he didn’t want to risk it.
So he had to find a different kind of shelter until Sonic and Amy came back from Angel Island – hich took a couple of days, since they had to help all of the past-mind controlled people get back to land and take one of the shuttles the were-hunters used to get up to find them.
He wanted to see Knuckles after he saw Sonic and Amy. He wanted to convince his brother of his existence first, because if there was one person who would believe him – it was Sonic.
So he wandered around Station Square for a while. It did sting a little to look at people he knew for years gaze at him like he was a complete stranger. What stung a bit more was Cream and Vanilla walking right past him without sparing him a single glance. He had to suppress his automatic need to wave them hello.
He didn’t realize in that fateful moment on Angel Island how many people he would actually lose.
He slept wherever he felt like, just like the old days. On a rooftop, in the Mystic Ruins Jungle, on the Emerald Coast. Food wasn’t hard to come by, because the signal was meant to alter minds but, thank Chaos, not systems. He still had his money on his Miles Electric.
When he felt it was too much, he flew around in the Tornado. That always worked well to clear his head.
But when he registered Sonic and Amy’s return, he set his sights on observing them. Trying to find the perfect moment to catch them, to explain what happened, to uphold his promise.
And that brought him here.
He felt a pang of longing and loneliness in his chest, when he focused on his friends again. They seemed to talk excitedly about a topic Tails couldn’t discern. Sonic was tapping his foot on the ground and finger on his hip, occasionally looking this way and that when Amy was the one speaking. Sonic’s signs of not being able to hold still for much longer.
Tails had to go now, if he didn’t want to miss his chance.
With his chest puffed up with gathered up confidence, he jogged up to them, only slowing to a walk when he was a few feet away. He gingerly walked up to them and gave them a little wave to catch their attention.
Amy and Sonic turned their heads to him and both of them smiled, Amy plastering on a gentle smile and Sonic sporting his signature grin.
They probably thought he was a regular fan. It didn’t deter Tails, though, and both of their smiles gave him the boost to finally start speaking.
“Hi, my name is Miles…” the boost quickly faded away when he actually took a good look at his friends, “P-Prower and… I…”
Tails trailed off. Amy had bags under her eyes that looked like they could carry a pound of potatoes. Multiple bruises colored her pink fur purple, with various cuts littering her entire frame. What stood up most of all, though, was her bandaged shoulder with the arm that belonged to it stuck in a blue sling. She didn’t show any pain in her posture, but he knew her. She was hurting.
Sonic didn’t look any better. Bruises, cuts, bags capable of carrying a pound of potatoes. But instead of a bandaged up shoulder, he wore a bandage wrapped around his forehead, with it being slightly tilted towards his right eye. The bloody slash on his head. It didn’t look like it was bleeding anymore, but Tails didn’t know how much damage it had done. Couldn’t know, he wasn’t there to treat it.
And not to mention, when Tails got a closer look, Sonic appeared… sad. Exhausted. Something was bothering him. It was obvious, at least to Tails who could read his brother like a book of aerospace engineering, in his grin that had the corner of his lips slightly downturned and in the way his shoulders were more hunched than usual. There was tension in his whole frame that shouldn’t be there after a mission well done.
Both of his friends were suffering. And it was all his fault.
Was he doing the right thing? Telling them about his existence? After all, he got them into this mess, he got them hurt. It doesn’t matter that Eggman started it, they were suffering because they cared about him and tried to protect him. He should have been better, he should have figured it out before it got too bad, he should have–
“Well, Miles Prower? You here for an autograph?” Sonic’s cocky voice snapped him out of his head and made him realize he was staring like a complete weirdo at two people who thought of him as a stranger.
Would he be breaking a promise if the promise was made by a person who technically didn’t exist anymore? Would he be breaking a promise if he technically wasn’t Team Sonic anymore?
Would he be breaking a promise to people who don’t even remember said promise?
No. No, they were safer this way. Amy wouldn’t have to get hurt for someone who didn’t deserve it and Sonic wouldn’t have to be sad for someone he didn’t remember.
He made his choice by the time he nodded and admitted,
“Yeah, if you wouldn’t mind. I’m a huge fan!”