It was dusk in the Mystic Ruins. The ruined hill where Tails’ workshop once stood was still, well, ruined. Inventions were destroyed, blueprints were lost in the fire, and the Tornado, Sonic’s bi-plane, was completely totaled beyond repair, once again. As a newly tuned up E-123 Omega stood watch over what remained, his emotion matrix repeatedly computed the same emotion: anger. He would not admit it, of course, but it was a grim reminder of how far Dr. Robotnik was willing to go to crush the fighting spirit of his foes.
Fortunately, however, Tails had built a sub level to his workshop long ago. Originally constructed for work on the Tornado 2, it was now the only place of creation the fox had left. In gratitude for the enhanced scanning technology he was now using, Omega was currently guarding the place, vigilantly doing routine scans of the immediate area and beyond, just in case the Eggman’s forces decided to return.
Sadly, being clever enough to keep this inconspicuous did next to nothing to boost Tails’ morale; if one could see within the sub level, they would be greeted with a scene of frustration, moroseness and despair.
The boy genius, having been fully healed and discharged from the Soleanna New City hospital a while ago, was now ripping up his blueprints and trashing several failed prototypes. For weeks he had been trying his hardest to get back into the game in order to be of use in the upcoming battle against Eggman, but Tails hadn’t been able to accomplish anything. He simply could not come up with any machines or strategies that Eggman hadn’t seen before or wouldn’t be prepared to counter. In his mind, there was nothing he could do that would be helpful to anyone.
An hour ago, Cream had visited Tails, offering her help. Sadly, for her efforts she was met with the receiving end of a scathing rant; as children, maybe they had no business being on the battlefield, fighting alongside or against adults. In Tails’ muddled mind, it was foolish of him to even try to follow in Sonic’s footsteps; and Cream had even less business trying, since she was even younger and far less experienced with Eggman’s villainy. In the end, the girl ran home in tears, which led the already miserable fox to this guilt-ridden tantrum.
Eggman’s ploy to crush morale had worked. The self-confidence Tails had spent years trying to build up was dashed. As he sat in the mess he had created, wallowing in his pity, an alarm was heard. He walked over to his invention table and, switching on his Miles Electric device, he gloomily asked, “What is it, Omega?” The robot replied, “You have a visitor.”
“I told you, Omega, no visitors. I’m busy.” The robot answered, “She seems quite insistent.” Tails rolled his eyes, assuming it was Cream again. The last thing he needed was to feel guiltier than he already did. “Please tell her to go away. I don’t want to see her or anyone else. I don’t care how urgent the matter is, she can piss off. And, you know what? Feel free to quote me on that.” He then shut off his communicator without another word. No more than ten seconds passed before it beeped again, this time on the audio channel. Recognizing the tone, he growled to himself, as it was only used for urgent calls. Assuming it was Sonic with news, he answered it. “Hello?”
“Tails, you have to listen to me!” It was Cream. “I’m still very, VERY angry with you, but you simply have listen to me! You must get out of there NOW!” Tails rolled his eyes again and said, “Look, Cream, if this is some kind of prank, I’m not going to fall for it. Shouldn’t you be in bed or something?” Cream groaned in frustration. “Darn it, Tails, this is serious! You have to get out of there! Something very, very bad is going to happen to you if you don’t!” Cheese chirped in the background in a worried voice, but Tails ignored them both, not hearing the muffled sound of an explosion outside. “Look, I already told you a minute ago, I don’t care how important this crap is. I don’t want visitors, so go away!”
Cream was about to start yelling, but, after a moment, she instead asked, “Tails, what are you talking about?” With a sigh, he asked, “I’m talking about you standing outside trying to bother me!” Cream then said, with a tone of dread, “I’m at home, Tails.” The boy blinked in confusion before hearing the ding of the secret elevator 10 feet from the invention table. Upon hearing it, he started to get concerned. No one but he, Sonic and now Cream knew about that sub level, and if she wasn’t exaggerating, then there was indeed an intruder behind him. Hanging up on Cream and switching on his Magic Hand device to Energy Ball mode, he turned around fast, only to be met with someone he wasn’t expecting, but in retrospect, probably should have.
“Good evening, Miles,” said Vanilla the Rabbit, stepping out from the elevator in a calm, ladylike manner. “Um, g-good evening, ma’am,” Tails said, shutting off the Magic Hand and speaking as politely as he could. “H-How did you find this place, i-if I may ask? And how d-did you get in? Surely you couldn’t have gotten past-”
Vanilla interrupted him, “E-123 Omega? I…convinced him to let me pass. Why?” She narrowed her eyes a little and proceeded to walk slowly towards him. “Am I not welcome here?” Tails started to shake as she did. Though her expression and voice were calm, somehow he could tell she was upset. “No, no, not at all! I-I mean, you are welcome here, ma’am! I just w-wasn’t expecting you to come by this late, that’s all.”
“Is that so?” Vanilla asked. “I actually was planning an evening of entertainment when my daughter came home in tears. Seeing as how the only place she visited today was here, I figured something had happened to her along the way.” As she stepped in front of him, Tails’ nicknamesakes began to flare out in fear in spite of himself. His inkling of why Vanilla was here was now confirmed. “T-T-That’s terrible, ma’am. I w-w-wonder w-w-what c-could have happened?”
Putting on a shocked expression, Vanilla said, “What indeed, which brings me to why I am here: Miles, would you happen to know why my daughter was so upset?” In his fear, Tails quickly shook his head. Vanilla took another step and asked, “Really? You seemed rather insistent that I ‘piss off’ earlier. Are you sure you don’t know?” He nodded. Inhaling through her nose, she bent down to his level and, making terrifyingly direct eye contact, she asked, “Are you lying to me, young man?” Feeling grateful he had used the restroom beforehand, he instinctively shook his head again.
Vanilla frowned ever so slightly, but it was now clear that she was above and beyond angry. “I see. Miles, I want you to listen to me very carefully. You are not my son, so I cannot punish you, but I am still an adult, therefore, I will not let this slide, especially since MY DAUGHTER is involved. I am going to ask you my question one more time. And if you do not give me the proper answer, I will have no choice but to report your behavior to the person who can administer the proper punishment. Understand?”
If Tails’ fur could have paled, it would have. Sonic wasn’t much of a disciplinarian, but there were three things (out of many) he did not tolerate: cruelty, lying, and selfishness. The last time Tails was caught in a tempting little white fib, Sonic made him run along the entire coastline of South Island at half-speed five times, and he was not allowed to use his tails during the run; if he encountered any obstacles, he had to overcome them the hard way. When he complained afterwards, Sonic made him fly halfway across the globe without a break. Needless to say, Tails made sure not to be caught being dishonest ever since.
Not wanting to go through something even close to that again, he nodded in understanding. “Good.” With that settled, Vanilla sat upon the invention table and patted her lap. Tails was still shaking in fear, but followed the woman’s silent command, hopping upon her lap. “Now tell me,” asked Vanilla, in a calm and firm (but just as scary) tone, “Why did Cream leave here in tears?”
Tails gulped nervously as he, with much reluctance, explained what happened since his discharge from Soleanna.
Fortunately, however, Tails had built a sub level to his workshop long ago. Originally constructed for work on the Tornado 2, it was now the only place of creation the fox had left. In gratitude for the enhanced scanning technology he was now using, Omega was currently guarding the place, vigilantly doing routine scans of the immediate area and beyond, just in case the Eggman’s forces decided to return.
Sadly, being clever enough to keep this inconspicuous did next to nothing to boost Tails’ morale; if one could see within the sub level, they would be greeted with a scene of frustration, moroseness and despair.
The boy genius, having been fully healed and discharged from the Soleanna New City hospital a while ago, was now ripping up his blueprints and trashing several failed prototypes. For weeks he had been trying his hardest to get back into the game in order to be of use in the upcoming battle against Eggman, but Tails hadn’t been able to accomplish anything. He simply could not come up with any machines or strategies that Eggman hadn’t seen before or wouldn’t be prepared to counter. In his mind, there was nothing he could do that would be helpful to anyone.
An hour ago, Cream had visited Tails, offering her help. Sadly, for her efforts she was met with the receiving end of a scathing rant; as children, maybe they had no business being on the battlefield, fighting alongside or against adults. In Tails’ muddled mind, it was foolish of him to even try to follow in Sonic’s footsteps; and Cream had even less business trying, since she was even younger and far less experienced with Eggman’s villainy. In the end, the girl ran home in tears, which led the already miserable fox to this guilt-ridden tantrum.
Eggman’s ploy to crush morale had worked. The self-confidence Tails had spent years trying to build up was dashed. As he sat in the mess he had created, wallowing in his pity, an alarm was heard. He walked over to his invention table and, switching on his Miles Electric device, he gloomily asked, “What is it, Omega?” The robot replied, “You have a visitor.”
“I told you, Omega, no visitors. I’m busy.” The robot answered, “She seems quite insistent.” Tails rolled his eyes, assuming it was Cream again. The last thing he needed was to feel guiltier than he already did. “Please tell her to go away. I don’t want to see her or anyone else. I don’t care how urgent the matter is, she can piss off. And, you know what? Feel free to quote me on that.” He then shut off his communicator without another word. No more than ten seconds passed before it beeped again, this time on the audio channel. Recognizing the tone, he growled to himself, as it was only used for urgent calls. Assuming it was Sonic with news, he answered it. “Hello?”
“Tails, you have to listen to me!” It was Cream. “I’m still very, VERY angry with you, but you simply have listen to me! You must get out of there NOW!” Tails rolled his eyes again and said, “Look, Cream, if this is some kind of prank, I’m not going to fall for it. Shouldn’t you be in bed or something?” Cream groaned in frustration. “Darn it, Tails, this is serious! You have to get out of there! Something very, very bad is going to happen to you if you don’t!” Cheese chirped in the background in a worried voice, but Tails ignored them both, not hearing the muffled sound of an explosion outside. “Look, I already told you a minute ago, I don’t care how important this crap is. I don’t want visitors, so go away!”
Cream was about to start yelling, but, after a moment, she instead asked, “Tails, what are you talking about?” With a sigh, he asked, “I’m talking about you standing outside trying to bother me!” Cream then said, with a tone of dread, “I’m at home, Tails.” The boy blinked in confusion before hearing the ding of the secret elevator 10 feet from the invention table. Upon hearing it, he started to get concerned. No one but he, Sonic and now Cream knew about that sub level, and if she wasn’t exaggerating, then there was indeed an intruder behind him. Hanging up on Cream and switching on his Magic Hand device to Energy Ball mode, he turned around fast, only to be met with someone he wasn’t expecting, but in retrospect, probably should have.
“Good evening, Miles,” said Vanilla the Rabbit, stepping out from the elevator in a calm, ladylike manner. “Um, g-good evening, ma’am,” Tails said, shutting off the Magic Hand and speaking as politely as he could. “H-How did you find this place, i-if I may ask? And how d-did you get in? Surely you couldn’t have gotten past-”
Vanilla interrupted him, “E-123 Omega? I…convinced him to let me pass. Why?” She narrowed her eyes a little and proceeded to walk slowly towards him. “Am I not welcome here?” Tails started to shake as she did. Though her expression and voice were calm, somehow he could tell she was upset. “No, no, not at all! I-I mean, you are welcome here, ma’am! I just w-wasn’t expecting you to come by this late, that’s all.”
“Is that so?” Vanilla asked. “I actually was planning an evening of entertainment when my daughter came home in tears. Seeing as how the only place she visited today was here, I figured something had happened to her along the way.” As she stepped in front of him, Tails’ nicknamesakes began to flare out in fear in spite of himself. His inkling of why Vanilla was here was now confirmed. “T-T-That’s terrible, ma’am. I w-w-wonder w-w-what c-could have happened?”
Putting on a shocked expression, Vanilla said, “What indeed, which brings me to why I am here: Miles, would you happen to know why my daughter was so upset?” In his fear, Tails quickly shook his head. Vanilla took another step and asked, “Really? You seemed rather insistent that I ‘piss off’ earlier. Are you sure you don’t know?” He nodded. Inhaling through her nose, she bent down to his level and, making terrifyingly direct eye contact, she asked, “Are you lying to me, young man?” Feeling grateful he had used the restroom beforehand, he instinctively shook his head again.
Vanilla frowned ever so slightly, but it was now clear that she was above and beyond angry. “I see. Miles, I want you to listen to me very carefully. You are not my son, so I cannot punish you, but I am still an adult, therefore, I will not let this slide, especially since MY DAUGHTER is involved. I am going to ask you my question one more time. And if you do not give me the proper answer, I will have no choice but to report your behavior to the person who can administer the proper punishment. Understand?”
If Tails’ fur could have paled, it would have. Sonic wasn’t much of a disciplinarian, but there were three things (out of many) he did not tolerate: cruelty, lying, and selfishness. The last time Tails was caught in a tempting little white fib, Sonic made him run along the entire coastline of South Island at half-speed five times, and he was not allowed to use his tails during the run; if he encountered any obstacles, he had to overcome them the hard way. When he complained afterwards, Sonic made him fly halfway across the globe without a break. Needless to say, Tails made sure not to be caught being dishonest ever since.
Not wanting to go through something even close to that again, he nodded in understanding. “Good.” With that settled, Vanilla sat upon the invention table and patted her lap. Tails was still shaking in fear, but followed the woman’s silent command, hopping upon her lap. “Now tell me,” asked Vanilla, in a calm and firm (but just as scary) tone, “Why did Cream leave here in tears?”
Tails gulped nervously as he, with much reluctance, explained what happened since his discharge from Soleanna.
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