Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Dangerous Words ❯ Getting Out Alive ( Chapter 1 )

 

"Tails! Tails, are you there? Please let me in!" Cream shouted, beating the door of Tails' workshop.

 

"Cream?" Tails said, looking out of his bedroom window. She was standing there, dressed in her little raincoat. Her waterproof hat didn't quite cover her ears, and Tails knew that was the reason why Cream wanted `in' so bad. Cream hated getting her ears wet, because they had to be wrung out afterwards.

 

"I'll be right down!" Tails shouted, running out of his bedroom. He forgot that he'd placed a box of tools on the landing. He tripped over them, and went down the stairs rather quicker than he wanted to. And headfirst.

 

"Ow! Gah…" Tails winced, feeling the newly rising bump on his head. Tails was fifteen years old now, and wasn't as light as he used to be. In fact, the two-tailed kit was even taller than Sonic, and weighed slightly more. It wasn't a problem for his incredibly powerful tails though. Powerful enough to lift him, Sonic and Knuckles even when he was younger, the kitsune's prides and joys were now so strong they could split sheet metal clean in two, provided he swung them hard enough.

 

"TAILS! MY EARS ARE GETTING WET!" Cream shouted. Tails groaned. Now Cream was over-stressing. He dashed to the door, running the mini assault course that was his workshop. Over the workbench, through the chemicals, across the slippery floor, through the fire door…

 

"Wait…What the hell am I doing? Geez…I don't know what it is about Cream, but…" Tails muttered, realising he had gone in exactly the opposite way to the front door. In truth, it could be said that Tails had a slight crush on Cream. In the same way that Bonnie had a slight crush on Clyde.

 

Tails, however, was in denial. Whenever he thought of Cream in any way other than `the sweet little bunny who comes to my lab every day and messes with all my stuff', he would immediately attribute it to stress, and occasionally to hypnosis. Shadow, having grown bored of playing the bandits at Club Rouge, had become a full-scale street magician in his spare time. This only became a problem when Shadow started turning up to the fights with Eggman in chains and a hat. As part of his act, Shadow had mastered the art of hypnosis. This had made the Sonic team very paranoid indeed. There was still video footage on the Internet (hail the Internet! ^.^) of Sonic under the illusion that he was a duck. Unfortunately, it had been winter, so Sonic had tried to fly south. Off of a cliff. The video was titled, apparently, `Sonic got owned.'

 

"TAILS! ARE YOU FLASHBACKING AGAIN?" Cream yelled.

"Ah! I forgot again! Geez…" Tails muttered to himself, weaving his way back to the house.

 

He reached for the door handle, and opened it tentatively. He was met by Cream's big pink boxing glove flying into his face. Amy's incredible passion for `boxercise' meant that Cream had been dragged into the ring more often than could be counted. As a result, Cream had become a one shot wonder with those painful right hooks of hers.

 

"Hmph! That's for daydreaming whilst I was out there getting wet!" Cream sniffed. Oh geez. Here come the waterworks, Tails thought as Cream's eyes welled up.

"How could you let me stand out there in the freezing rain? You're supposed to be my friend! Now I'll need my ears wrung out! Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Cream wailed, her tears forming a classic anime waterfall to the floor. Even though Cream was now thirteen, and with enough power in her punches to floor a two-tailed inventor in a single sucker-punch, she was still prone to crying at regular intervals.

 

"Cream, it's okay, it's okay. What do you say to me baking you some cookies?" Tails soothed, stroking her wet ears.

"Y-you…*sniff*…bake…cookies?" Cream asked, looking up at him sorrowfully.

 

"Forget it! My ears are wet, but I don't really feel like committing suicide today!" Cream shouted, taking the opportunity to bop Tails on the head again.

"Ouch! Cream, take it easy! I hit my head falling down the stairs to let you in!" Tails yelped.

"You still haven't made up for the last time you cooked! I thought Amy would never get off the can!”

Tails remembered the last time he cooked as well. He'd ended up with much worse than indigestion when Amy finally regained the ability to walk.

 

"Hmph! Well, if you're going to let me get wet, and then you're going to try and kill me with your radioactive cooking, then I'm leaving!" Cream huffed, walking towards the door. She took a look at the deluge outside, and decided that actually, she didn't want to get any wetter.

"Cream…I'm sorry…" Tails moaned, his voice taking the tone of an injured puppy. Although the crafty fox's voice had broken now, and was a couple octaves deeper than it had been, he still possessed the ability to hit those all important high notes when he had to. Tails was gratified to see Cream's hard stare soften. He'd learnt quite a while ago that if he did his little puppy voice and looked at her with his big blue eyes, she couldn't stay mad at him. What a pity the same thing didn't work on Amy!

 

"Grr…This isn't over, Tails! Now, where's your oven? I need cookies, but I'll make them myself!" Cream said hotly.

Score! I'm off the hook! Tails thought triumphantly. All those acting lessons had finally paid off.

"Tails? Is THIS your apron?" Cream said, wrinkling her nose and holding up what appeared to be a stained rag. Tails used his apron whilst painting the Tornado's body panels, and it got VERY dirty.

"Kiss the chef? With your cooking, it's more like Kiss of Death!" Cream shot. Tails smiled. The two were very jokey with each other- almost like him and Sonic, except with Sonic he tended to get suckerpunched a lot more.

 

As Cream busied herself with making the cookies, Tails turned on the TV and reflected on the young rabbit's change over the years. She was now a lot fiercer than she had been. Tails put it down to Amy's bad influence. She was a little shorter than Amy herself, and her fur had changed colours very subtly, becoming just a few shades darker. Her crest of orange hair on the top of her head had started to grow, making her look even more like her mother. Her voice had also lowered, but only a little bit. She had changed her tastes over the years as well, going from her old triangular dress to a white short-sleeved shirt and a knee length orange skirt. She hummed a popular song as she worked. Tails hummed along with her, and their musical rhapsody reached a tuneless crescendo. They both laughed. Tails smiled, and looked out of the window. The storm raged on outside, but it seemed a mile away from the two teens' sunny little world

 

 

The bat groaned. His body hurt. His arms hurt, and his legs hurt. His hands hurt, and his feet hurt. His head, his back and his wings all hurt. The only thing that didn't hurt was his heart. He took another step, and then another. It was a struggle, but he kept pushing his battered shell forwards, one step at a time. He looked down at himself, and saw his black fur stained red with his blood. He put his hand to his head, and immediately found the source. He pulled his hand away, and it, too, was stained red with his life. He stuck his finger in his mouth, and swallowed a spot.

"Hmm…I clearly am not a vampire bat." he winced, recoiling at the foul taste of his own life force. He let the pounding rain wash his hand clean, then carried on through the streets of Station Square.

Few people were outside because of the storm, but the ones who were flinched and looked away as the bat passed them.

"Hmph…humans. They are…too weak…" the bat mumbled to himself.

He dragged himself down the avenue, and suddenly saw the sea. It seemed dark and foreboding in the storm.

"I wonder…what would they call that great expanse of water?" the bat asked himself. A fresh bolt of pain shooting from his head reminded him that he didn't have time to procrastinate. He turned away from the sea, stepping out into the road. A car swerved and honked its horn, and the bat hissed as the sound and light assaulted his senses. Feeling the strain of another near-death experience, the bat lurched up into the nearest building. It was a sterile, loveless place, he thought, but at least it was free of that accursed rain. He saw a great metal object in the station. The bat sniffed. The smell of the fumes was offensive to his nose. Still, it looked safe, and slightly warmer. It was even devoid of people…

Making up his mind, the bat staggered up the steps to the platform. An elderly woman who was sitting on a bench waiting for the rain to stop gasped, and ran over to him.

 

"Dear! Are you alright? Here, let me get you to the doctors…" the old woman said kindly, grabbing hold of the bat's arm.

 

As she spoke, the bat's vision went black. Then, it returned, and he found himself on the floor, the old woman cradling his head. He coughed, and a spot of blood fell onto his open palm. He looked at it, then groaned and rose to his feet with surprising swiftness. He swayed for a second, then pressed his hand to his brow and took another step. The old lady frowned and didn't say anything. As wise as she was, she knew that there was no way she could help him.

The bat's tired feet carried him through the door to the train's carriage, and he slumped to the floor. The train, which automatically started running when someone got on, gave a jerk as it set off, flinging the bat's body up against the seats. A fresh wave of blood crept into his mouth. He was in for a long ride.

 

 

"Tails! The cookies are done!" Cream's gentle voice floated in from the kitchen.

"Aw, yeah! I love your cookies, Cream!" Tails laughed, jumping up from his seat.

Cream brought the steaming biscuits into the room, and then carefully set them down on the table. Or, rather, that was what she MEANT to do. What she actually did was fall over yet another conveniently placed box of Tails' tools.

 

Tails ran to catch her, but slightly misjudged her trajectory. He thought she was going to fall just in front of him. Unfortunately, the rabbit carried a little more momentum than he anticipated and ended up smashing him in the chest. The two fell to the floor, and Tails groaned. He opened his eyes, and saw Cream's face directly above his. She opened her eyes as well. For a second, nothing happened. Then, both the kit and the doe (author's note: a female rabbit IS called a doe. I know that most people already know this, but I was just making things clear.) started blushing wildly. Cream's eyelashes fluttered as she blinked quickly. Tails could see the shiny dots of water that had come from her crying earlier. His heart melted, and all he wanted to do was comfort her. Then, she lowered her face just a fraction closer to the fox's…

 

Boom! Something hit the door with unprecedented force. The spell was broken, and the young rabbit raised her head. Rolling off of Tails, she got up.

"Was that the door? Who do we know who knocks that hard?" Cream pondered.

"I dunno. Even Knuckles shows a bit of appreciation for the cost of a new door…" Tails murmured, standing up.

He walked to his front door, and cautiously opened the door. As he did, the battered body of a bat fell into the room, covered with blood.

 

"Whoa, Tails…what do you think happened to this guy?" Cream asked, looking down at the bat's shattered form.

Certainly, it wasn't a pretty sight. The bat had been clothed in a greyish coat which covered a yellow sweater. The neck of the sweater covered his mouth. He had black, army issued trousers on, which were clearly well worn, as they had been patched at the knee. They were drenched in blood. His long black jackboots shone from the rain, and they too had a generous coating of the red stuff. His hands were wrapped in bandages. On his head was a mess of grey hair. A steady flow of blood trickled down from somewhere within it and onto his face. His wings looked broken, and they were full of holes, probably caused by bullets. His eyes were closed, and his prone body struggled for breath. Every time he took another gulp of oxygen, his chest rattled horribly.

 

"I don't know…but we'd better get him in. I'll get the heal unit generator up and running again. I just wish Sonic hadn't head butted it in that game of truth or dare…Cream, could you put him on the sofa?" Tails shouted, pressing a button. The sitting room table moved, and a hole opened, with a spiral staircase running down to the basement. The kitsune's twin tails gave a flick as the disappeared from sight.

Meanwhile, Cream carried the bat into the sitting room, and laid him down on the sofa. The bat coughed, then lay still. Cream was amazed at how light he was. It was like carrying a feather. Although, she thought, his wings didn't look nearly as developed as Rouge's. They were bigger, as they usually were on male bats, but they looked more fragile, somehow. If he weren't so light, there would have been no way those wings would carry him. Cream absent-mindedly picked up a cookie from the floor, wiped it on her skirt and ate it. She hoped Tails would be back with that heal unit soon.

 

In the basement, Tails looked around in a panic. Contained in the underground portion of Tails' workshop was the Tornado, several other inferior planes and the car he was working on for when he got a driving licence. It was a big space, but it was still musty because of the smell of the oil. There were also piles of incomplete inventions lying around, making finding the heal unit generator a difficult task. Taking to the air, Tails scanned the basement for it. He found it, and observed the damage Sonic had caused to it. It was nothing special, Tails decided, and it could be fixed in the usual way.

Picking up his wrench, he gave the machine a hefty thwack. His arms trembled with the recoil, but the generator spit out a single heal unit. It then died again. Sighing, Tails put fixing the heal unit generator on his mental to-do list, hoisted the heal unit up onto his shoulder and flew up the spiral staircase.

 

Cream gave an excited yelp as Tails appeared with the Heal Unit. Touching down, the orange kit took careful aim, then threw. The heal unit dissolved upon hitting the prone body of the black bat in a flash of blue light. Cream crossed her fingers, hoping for all she was worth that it worked.

Suddenly, the bat spluttered. He sat up, and clutched his head. It was still wet with blood, but, somehow, it didn't hurt him so much. He turned and looked at the fox and the rabbit with blazing golden irises. His pupils seemed to be missing.

 

"You…saved me…?" the bat said, his mouth slowly forming the words. He seemed to have a small problem with speaking, and clearly had to think about each word he said. His voice was the same deepness as Shadow's, but more faint and mysterious in tone.

"Well, you collapsed through our door and…hey, what's with your eyes?" Tails asked, seeing the bat's burning golden irises disappear into nothingness. A second later, they returned, and the bat looked at Tails in a way that seemed to suggest gratitude.

"Yes…you saved me…Pay my eyes no heed…it's a triviality…" the bat left off, his voice floaty and mystical.

"Are you sure? Is there anything you need?" Cream asked sweetly.

 

"Yes…there's something…I must know…" the bat said, his voice a faint whisper.

"What?"

"That box…the one with the pictures…what is it called?" the bat asked.

"That's…a television, or a TV for short. Haven't you seen one before?" Tails asked, one eyebrow shooting skywards.

"And…why am I on it?" the bat asked.

 

Tails and Cream turned to the TV. The news was on, and, sure enough, the bat was there. But he certainly wasn't in the same state as he was now.

"Tails…is that the GUN facility? And did he just FLIP A TANK?" Cream asked incredulously. The bat on screen carried on, thrusting a fist towards another armour plated behemoth, and just like the one before it, it flew twenty feet in the air and landed upside down with a crash, before bursting in angry red flames.

"Beware. This bat is very dangerous. If you see him, you are advised to run, and call the police or the army immediately. Do not approach him, he is extremely dangerous. Repeat…"

 

Tails and Cream turned simultaneously, and looked at the bat. His golden eyes narrowed maliciously, and his bandaged fists curled into a ball…

 

 

Note: I do not own nor do I claim to own Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Rouge, Cream, Vanilla or Eggman. They are owned by Sega.