Chapter 74

He was now even taller, thinner, and duller in fur color. His muzzle hair drooped down to his shoulders. His eyes looked soulless, as did his slightly upwards, face-wide, yellow grin. His eyelid drooped. He sounded like he was trying to say something, but all that came out was a gurgly crackling sound. "H-hey, Sonic!" His raspy voice chuckled. "Lovely... weather we're having, huh?" Fake Tails looked up to the swirling particles that made up the storm, almost in a trance.

"Step back, freak!" Sonic shouted. Fake Tails' gaze snapped back to him. He walked up to Fake Tails and grabbed him by his chest skin. "I've had enough!" Sonic spat into Fake Tails' face while shouting. Sonic could feel it as he beared his fangs. "Just get out of our way! You can't beat me, and you can't beat me with my friends!"

"Your friends?" Fake Tails asked, shaking loose of Sonic's hold and grabbing Sonic by the arm, wrapping his claws around Sonic's thin arm. "I am your friend, Sonic! I am your best friend! Don't you remember?"

"You aren't my best friend..." Sonic muttered as he looked to the ground. Fake Tails looked almost, genuinely hurt as he untightened his grip from around Sonic's arm. Sonic took a step forward as Fake Tails took a step back. "You are just a faker. You hear me? A FAKE!" Sonic shouted. "And I've had enough of your schemes."

Sonic shoved Fake Tails forward with both hands. Fake Tails only now realized where he was standing. He was on the edge of the building. Rubbled roof kicked up from under his dirty shoe as he fell.

Was it over? Everyone breathed in and out rapidly. Sonic was about to take a step back from the edge, when it felt like the entire building they were on was starting to fall. Sonic saw a blinding dark light in the distance as it enveloped the whole city.

When the light cleared, Sonic found himself in a spinning vortex. Like the time he had been sucked into a tornado. The outside of the vortex had a purple and red color. Sonic felt dizzy as he spun around.

"Ungh..." Sonja groaned. Pico babbled something. Sonja opened her eyes and instantly took her hand off of her head and pointed downwards. "Look!"

Sonic looked downwards. There, was Fake Tails. But he didn't look the same at all. He had one red eye with yellow pupils. He had the same grin on his face that he did before. He looked like some huge snake. Like a Phantom Infinite during Operation Big Wave during the war. He had nine tails rather than just two.

"Holy..." Sonic gasped, feeling like the air had been punched out of his lungs and out his mouth. "How did he?!"

"Doesn't matter!" Buck replied. "We need to stop him, right?"

"Right..." Sonic mumbled. He now felt no remorse for this thing. It was just an imposter. Like any Phantom from the war. "Let's do it to it!"

Sonic jumped off of the platform of building he and his friends were standing on. But as he did, Fake Tails looked up at him. His smile grew bigger as he slapped Sonic away with one of his many tails. Sonic went flying up to the platform everyone else was on. The one he was on just seconds ago. He landed on his face. He looked up, shaking the minimal pain off. Even though that hit alone very well could have killed a normal person instantly, even without factoring in the landing. Sonic wasn't a normal person.

"Sonic!" Sonja screamed. Pico looked at Sonic worriedly. Tails and Buck didn't even check to see if he was okay.

"I'm fine, I'm..." Sonic was interrupted by Fake Tails, who had decided to swing one of his tails at them. They jumped, but Fake Tails wasn't aiming for them. He had hit the platform they were on. It went flying out of the vortex, but not before Sonic and the others landed on another platform floating around. Sonic felt like his ankles had shattered again. Shaking away the pain, everyone else lowered down with Buck in Tails' grasp. "Not fine..." Sonic mumbled raspily.

Sonic cartwheeled as Fake Tails sliced the platform in two, separating Sonic from his friends. The platforms slowly drifted apart. Sonic had to keep his balance as the platform shook. Looks like his friends weren't having it too easy either. Sonja and Tails stayed on the ground. If they were to fly off, they'd be separated from Buck. And by their judgement, Buck didn't like being alone, even if he was a bit of a jerk.

Fake Tails was focused on Sonic. So, Buck, taking his chance, gulping down his fears, jumped down and took out his sharp nail he had found. Fake Tails hardly had a chance to look before he stabbed it down into Fake Tails' forehead. He put his back hooves onto Fake Tails' forehead as he slid down, his nail slicing through Fake Tails' entire face.

Fake Tails let out a very Perfect Chaos-like scream as he swung his head backwards. Buck went flying onto a nearby platform. He landed on his face, and thankfully not the nail. Buck's platform was near Sonic's. Sonic jumped down onto it and ran over. Buck was out cold. It was better to leave him here and distract Fake Tails.

Sonic, now close enough to Fake Tails, jumped at him and Homing Attacked repeatedly. Fake Tails screeched when Sonic hit his eye. Using his nine tails, he latched them all onto Sonic and stared into his soul with his one eye. Sonic saw Fake Tails' flesh peel away from where he Homing Attacked him, leaving a black, gray, and purple robot-like skeleton. Meanwhile, Tails, on one of the platforms with Sonja and Pico looked concerned.

"Shhhit!" Tails hissed under his breath. Sonja didn't notice, but Pico sounded like he was trying to repeat it. And failing.

Sonic looked at the robotic skeleton underneath Fake Tails' skin. There was no way this fake knew of Tails' robotization on the Lost Hex. The Deadly Six, the Zeti, had captured Tails in a Prison Egg and taken him to their base in Lava Mountain Zone. There, they turned Tails into a robot with the plan of killing Sonic by using someone they knew he couldn't fight. But the plan had backfired when Tails used a toothpick to reprogram the Roboticizer made by the Deadly Six. He had kept his free will while still turning into a robot on the outside.

After Sonic had defeated the real Zavok, not the Phantom Zavok, Tails found out he could conceal his robotic form under his skin. He never let it show, and to this day, Sonic, Eggman, a few Mobinis, and the Deadly Six (if they survived, contrary to Phantom Zavok's words,) were the only ones that knew.

There was no way a fake could have known. And Sonic wasn't betting on this being an Eggman clone or a Phantom Ruby illusion. No. This has to be the Real Tails.

But then... just who had been following them since the willow forest? Sonic had suspected the Tails who had been following him since then, but thought it was just his anxiety taking control of him. Perhaps he was right to suspect him. Looking back at the other Tails, he was nowhere to be seen. Sonja was trying to exit the vortex after him, but something wasn't letting her through.

Sonic looked back at the Tails holding him. The one with one eye. Sonic's eyes were soft, apologetic even. This had to be the Real Tails. The Real Tails would never bail on him. Sonic looked Tails in the eye. "Tails, I---"

"Shut up!" Tails shouted. He threw Sonic into the air with his tails and opened his mouth wide. There were rows of sharp teeth going down Tails' throat. Sonic knew it wouldn't be good if Tails ate him. So Sonic dodged out of the way and landed on a platform. He looked at Tails, but it felt as though Tails was moving away from him as the vortex expanded. The sky was hot red on one side and hot purple on the other, with Tails as a mere silhouette in the middle. His eye stuck out from the darkness around him. He roared, releasing a shockwave sending Sonic flying back even from the distance between them. Buck woke up, as Sonja and Pico floated down from above.

"I have an idea, guys..." Sonic said. He looked down, seeing an endless void. The platforms were being sucked down into it. Even theirs. "We need to Quadruple Boost!"

Sonja and Buck nodded. Everyone made a circle and put their hands in it. Sonic first. Then Buck. Then Sonja. And finally, Pico! Little orbs of energy floated into their hands as a colorful aura surrounded them. Then, they took off towards Tails in the air. "Ooooo!" Pico cooed as they flew off, happy to be Multi-Boosting again.

"Tails, can you hear me, buddy?!" Sonic called. "I'm here! And I know we can work through this! Just let me help you!"

"No!" Tails screeched, as his one eye flashed white with a sea blue pupil. It quickly turned back to yellow and red. "I'll never forgive you! I thought you were my friend, but you gave me up for that faker!" Tails opened his face from the cut Buck had made, revealing many mouths. It looked like a flower of some kind as Sonic and the others burst forward. Out of it, he threw up giant volcanic rocks hurdling towards Sonic and his friends. Sonic and the others burst right through them.

"Tails, you have to trust me!" Sonic persuaded. "I'm your friend, I'll always be your friend!"

"You never have, and never will be!"

"Tails and Sonic, the greatest duo Mobius has ever seen! That's us! Always!"

"No! NO! NOOO!"

Tails opened his eye. Not his eyelids, his eye. Out of it shot a vein that tried to grab onto Sonic and the others. Sonic and the others dodged it. Tails, realizing this was fruitless, pulled the vein back into his eye and closed it back up, though a red sludge leaked down from the crack in his eye.

"Why? WHY CAN'T I EVER BEAT YOU AT ANYTHING? I'M ALWAYS IN YOUR SHADOW. JUST ONCE, I WANT TO BEST YOU!"

"Can't let that happen, bud! But I know you can do it!" Sonic called, a big dumb happy smile on his and everyone else's face.

Sonic and the others ran out of Boost energy. They started to fall, but Buck grabbed onto Sonja's ghost tail as she flew upwards. Sonic dangled from Buck's back hooves as he came to eye level with Tails. He hopped on Tails' nose. He smiled up at Tails genuinely, as he opened his arms wide. Sonja and the others watched from afar.

"You're stuck with me, whether you like it or not," Sonic said, tiredly.

Tails looked at him, seething. But soon, he quieted down. "You might want to close your eye right now." Sonic said. Tails did this. Tails felt Sonic's arms wrap around his eyelid as Sonic hugged him as best he could.

"I'll be with you through everything, Miles 'Tails' Prower. Forever."

Sonja watched as the hellscape around them broke away like a window, leaving them in Genocide City Zone. Looking back at Sonic, he was hugging Tails. Tails was hugging back. Tails was as normal as can be, though still had his robot part showing. It is also worth noting he had nine tails rather than just two. But he was now a little fox cub once again. The blood had disappeared from his face, he was now his usual color. He was short and a little tubby again. And as he opened his eyes, they had deep blue pupils like the ocean. Deeper than before. Majestic.

"Sonic?" Tails yawned. "What happened?"

"Nothing much," Sonic responded. "Just glad to have you back, buddy..."

Tails chuckled. "Alright!" He said. He and Sonic parted from the hug. Sonja smiled from behind Sonic. He was softer on the inside than she had imagined.

This tender moment was cut short as a masked voice boomed from the sky, from the storm. "Sonic the Hedgehog and friends!" It laughed. Everyone looked up at the sky. "I see you're enjoying yourselves!"

"Hey, you!" Sonic shouted, as he pointed towards the sky. "Are you the one behind this all?"

"If I was, why would I tell you, little hedgehog?" The voice asked. "Come back to Orglace Mansion in your cute little plane. You and I have a date."

"A blind one at that..." Sonic mumbled with gritted teeth. The voice giggled like a child.

"Very funny! You're quite the funny man!" The voice laughed. "But I'm afraid this is no time for jokes. It is time for our showdown. One of us will fail, and it won't be me! I've been observing you for a long time, Sonic. I know all of your cunning tricks and traps. I will destroy your world and you with it. Now go! Run!"

"Gladly," Sonic said. He looked at Tails. "Tails, where's the Tornado?"

"I think I remember where I put the Tornado. Follow me!" Tails answered. He ran off. Sonic and the others followed.

Continue to Chapter 75