Chapter I

"Bye bye baby.
Don't be long.
I'll worry about you while you're gone."

-Ivy

A black line.

A stupid black line.

A stupid flashing black line.

These were the only words typed on the otherwise blank screen that sat before him. They had nothing to do with the real work that was piling all around, but no matter how long or hard he stared at the computer the words would just would not come. There were so many papers to write, so much research to be done and every tick of the clock brought him closer and closer to deadlines with nothing to show. He knew of the importance of the work he was assigned, but yet he found himself enable press on. Instead his eyes drifted again and again to the picture that stood upright and proud on his desk. The distraction the picture was causing that evening was so bad that one point the had laid the photo face down on he floor, but not even this could break it's magnetic pull. Perhaps no more then a few minutes passed before he found himself holding that framed photograph in his hands again looking back at the younger faces of himself and his friends.

It was not the picture that was really causing the distraction, but the memories that were brought with it; so many that one thought could barley make a foothold in his mind without causing a dozen more to appear. Life may not have been easier then, he would not fool himself into thinking that it was, but it had been better, because despite the constant danger there had been a kind of excitement mixed in with the fear and with it came a strange euphoria. Things might have been harder, but they were also. . . right. Everything had changed, though, the world moved on and he was forced to move with it; everyone was. How long had it really been since he had seen any of them?

Sonic.

Knuckles.

Amy.

Rouge.

Shadow.

Cream.

These were faces and names that faded as time moved by, and it was time that eventually brought them apart. Their common goal had been reached and without that thread to keep them together they each eventually drifted off into their own lives.

His name was Miles Prower, once known as "Tails", and before the death of Dr. Robotnik he had been a hero.

Whatever it was that caused that need in Eggman to comment such grave acts of evil, that made him lust for power and yearn for destruction was something that Tails would never know, perhaps no one would, but whatever the reason the fact remained that no matter how many times he failed in his evil schemes; Eggman would return only to be defeated again and again at the hands of Sonic and the rest. With each failure would come a drastic escape plan that would allow Robotnik to slip away from their grasp. However, as ingenious as the man may have been all of his intellect, cunning, and skill could not match up to the one things that truly decides the outcome of all events without mercy:

Luck.

As it was, Eggman had tempted the cold hands of fate one too many times and finally found himself ensnared in it's grasp.

It was Tails who eventually tract Eggman to a base he had hidden underneath the ground from which he was sending wave after wave of Eggman robots to the surface to destroy anything in their path. The adventure had been tough on all of them and there were times when hope seemed lost, but somehow they had survived the attacks on the surface, the guards underground, as well as the last ditch effort to destroy all of them. As Tails was remotely deactivating the robotic henchmen, Eggman escaped though a railway he had build away from the facility and to the surface, but not before setting off a self destruct sequence, one that was locked and could not be undone.

Tails and his friends made a mad dash for the surface, reaching the outside world mere moments before the final explosions brought the earth down over the entire facility. Robotnik, however, was not so fortunate. It was days later when work crews were clearing out whatever they could from the wreckage when the body was found. Eggman lay crushed inside his escape pod. Investigations would later show that water from an underground spring had leaked onto an exposed wire that was hooked up to the explosives. This meant nothing for the day-to-day activities that were done beneath the soil, but when self destruct was set off, that exposed wire shorted out causing the explosives located above the escape tracts to blow long before they were set to. It was hard to tell exactly what happened from all the wreckage, but it appeared as though the escape pod ran into the fallen part of the tunnel at full speed. Whether Eggman was killed in the crash or simple knocked out then crushed is unknown, but in the end his death was quick and maybe it was exactly how Robotnik would have wanted to go: in a blaze of glory without capture or trial. And perhaps this was the greatest victory he ever had over his rivals; because no matter how many times in life he tried to tear Sonic and his friends apart, it was only in his death that he managed to do so; for without this great evil creating a constant threat the world no longer needed heroes. The world no longer needed them.

That's not to say that all evil was gone from their world, that was a dream that would most likely never come true, but Robotnik was a supervillain to the core, a mad genius with bigger and darker dreams then the world would allow. After facing something like that your common burglars, chop shops, fires, floods, and earthquakes are nothing. The fact was, without Robotnik, there were nothing that the local police couldn't handle. Even the bigger disasters were solved by the forces working at GUN. As terrible as it sounded; without Eggman everyone just drifted apart.

Shadow the first to leave, which was no surprise as he didn't much care for working in a team. One day he was there and the next he had just disappeared, as was his fashion. Shadow would often leave right after whatever evil plan Eggman had started was finished, but this time everyone knew that this was the last they would probably see of the black and red hedgehog.

Rouge went after that. She was reassigned to do some espionage somewhere far away, although she could not say where or what for. She left one morning and no one as heard from her since.

Next was Knuckles who returned to his duty of protecting the Master Emerald on Angel Island. Last thing Tails had heard was that Knuckles was looking into some things about the history of his people and some rumors that he might not be the last Echidna, although as far as he knew these were just rumors.

As for Sonic and Amy; what seemed like an endless cycle of love and hate finally came to a close some years later as the two decided that maybe they both could survive each other's company after all. The two of them were now touring the world seeing all the sights and basking in each other's love. Sonic had made the comment at one point that the trip was for romantic reasons, but if Tails had to guess, he'd say that that might have been only slightly true, the real reason was Sonic was bored and maybe hoping that somewhere out there he'd be able to recapture a taste of the action he once knew.

Cream is still at home as far as Tails knew. The two of them kept in touch for the longest of time and she made for a great friend in those seemly endless days after Sonic had left, and as much as it hurt him to admit it: it was Tails who left her. He had a brilliant mind, and such brilliance did not go un-noticed. It wasn't long before Tails began to receive college applications on a daily basis, each one wanting him as a part of their student body. He had to admit that the thought of being accepted into such a higher place of learning at his still relatively young age was exciting. There was still so much more that he could learn and Tails wanted to know it all. After months of reading hundreds of pamphlets and visiting dozens of campuses he picked his future and headed for what lied ahead.

The boy was older, but he was sadly still naive. The real world came hard and fast, striking him across the face like an angry lover leaving a bruise that sometimes clears, but never heals. Unable to afford on campus housing (which was more expensive that he ever could have imagined) the young fox found himself alone in a less-than-stellar apartment complex a few miles off campus. His place was small, but at least somewhat affordable. The troubles did not end with a cheap apartment, but only branched out from there; his high intellect meant that he received advance placement in his classes which brought with it advanced work. He was quickly learning that real stress and fear came not from possibility of world destruction, but from term papers, midterms, tests, research projects, bills, finals, loans, the list went on and on. Compared to all of that a little Armageddon could sometimes sound like a nice change of pace. More nights then he'd cared to admit passed with him clutching his pillow tightly against his body trying to pull any comfort he could from it's indifferent embrace.

A black line.

In his hands Tails had the last picture ever taken of all of them together. Sonic was in the center giving a thumbs up to the camera and winking. Amy was on his left with one arm around his and her head on his shoulder. Tails was on his right smiling into the camera with Cream next to him, her own smile larger and more youthful then his. Knuckles stood on the far right making a fist at the camera like a boxer, Rouge on the left looking pretty for the camera and leaning forward ever so slightly to show off her cleavage, and finally Shadow, who took forever to convince to get in the shot, stood at the other end with his arms crossed looking off to one side waiting for the foolishness to be over.

A stupid black line.

This was the last record that Tails had from those days, the only relic from a world that faded and vanished from time. Now, in this new city with this new life, Tails felt more like an outsider then he ever had in his life. He was a stranger among his older peers and the pressure it brought sometimes seemed like more then he could take; times like now when he all he could do was look at-

A stupid flashing black line.

-his computer screen when there were papers he was supposed to be writing. Tails was unable to work, unable to think.

What he needed, he decided, was to clear his head. Forcing himself to work was obviously not doing any good and neither was being cooped up in his small apartment, What he needed was some air. Standing up from his desk, Tails crossed to his closet and pulled out a scarf which he wrapped around his neck to keep him warm against the slight fall chill. He was just going to walk around town a little and try to made amends with his past with he was at it. Then when his brain had tired from running at the break-neck speed it seemed insistent on running that night, he would return home and get something substantial done.

In the end our faith, skill, cunning, intelligence; all the bricks we use to build a wall against uncertainty crumble to dust before the all powerful force that is luck, and it was Tails' own luck that would bring him back to a piece of the very past he set out that evening to forget. Had he left his home a minute sooner or later, then who knows how things would have changed?

TO BE CONTINUED.