COCOA

There was something about this place that didn't really feel right in the hunter's mind; he couldn't quite place this eerie sensation into a more shaped reason, but it was still there, threatening his mental health and stability to turn into a loose cannon-like cluster of uncontrollable and irrational fear… He was being watched. In all of his young life, he had always been a suggestive individual, to say the very least, therefore when he and his group have been hired by that strange looking man for this particular expedition, his spine froze in superstitious terror. He was a member of a rather famous group of outlaw poachers specialized in the hunting of rare animals, usually for "scientific" purposes… They never questioned their clients about it. This particular assignment, however, was a little bit different from their usual ones and that's what worried this young poacher more than his seemingly unaware colleagues… This time, their task did lead them to the mysterious and unexplored lands of Cocoa Island, or as popular folklore dubbed it, "Crimson Death". There were legends about this tropical piece of paradise surrounded by lively vegetation, voices of unlucky shipwrecked people ended up on it and never seen alive again, voices of horrible creatures, half-men and half-animals, killing those people and devouring their flesh… And most of all, rumors about the terrible fate that befell on the arrogant men who dared to hunt this very island's ruler, which happened to be his team's assignment, actually; he didn't like that situation, not at all.

Obnoxious and sticky sweat drops relentlessly descended the young hunter's forehead as he took off his hat in the attempt to dry the blinding substance away, only to accidentally put his uncaring foot on a very well disguised trap. In just the blink of an eye, he found himself dangling upside down from a tree with a very inconvenient rope tied up on his ankle, causing his older and more professional colleagues to laugh at the poor n00b's expenses. The hysterical laughter ceased as soon as they all heard a suspicious noise coming from the tropical forest's bushes; the leader of the group shouted them to follow him and track down the source of the noise, completely ignoring the yells of discomfort and help their younger and inexpert companion emitted from his overturned position… That was the last time he saw anyone of them.

As the small party of five men ran through the thick woods, eradicating any kind of annoying vegetation with their sharp machetes, the noise became louder and clearer, soon followed by the unmistakable visual perception of an actual creature moving from bush to bush, at a very fast pace… There weren't doubts in the team leader's mind that that was the shape of their peculiar target; he ordered his men to increase their footing and prepare the soporific darts of their shotguns. Suddenly, he yelled the command and everybody's guns shot in the presumed beast's direction, successfully hitting their designed victim. A mischievous smile formed itself on the man's face as he and his underlings approached the now harmless form of their target, already savoring their fat paycheck…

Only to be met with the both confusing and disappointing shape of a weird mechanical toy that hardly resembled an orange quadruped fox. And before any of them could cry "it's a trap", a rotund and shiny object fell upon them…

The explosion could be heard through all the forest.

After valuable efforts, he was finally able to escape the atrocious lace of his prison… Literally, he managed to cut the rope that was tying his leg and reach the ground with a thunderous thud that almost broke his neck. Needless to say, the now solitarian poacher felt his own guts turning against himself in revolution when he heard the loud explosion. He knew that coming to this forbidden paradise turned to hell was a bad idea and now all he wanted to do was to return to the ship and leave as fast as possible; too bad he couldn't remember the path in that mind clustering forest of menacing coconut trees and bushes… It didn't take too long for him to lose his way and relentlessly step around that never ending natural maze he was engulfed in… And he didn't even have an effing weapon with him!

It took hours of aimless wandering through the hostile and wild environment of the island, to finally reach the proverbial enlightened way out, which made him extremely joyous and content. Once he came out of the maze, his ever so suggestive viewing sight fell upon a very peculiar and anti-climatic construction… It was a house, the kind of house you could find in the typical American suburbia and not right outside a jungle. It had its small garden with its typical flowers, it had clean glassy windows and it also had… A cable connection!? So much for the hostile and wild environment, indeed. Armed with just confusion and utter bafflement, the scared poacher slowly approached the out-of-place habitation. Instinct suggested him to knock the front door out of pure politeness, but he decided otherwise; that would have just been too alienating. He entered the house through an open window but once again his uncaring foot touched something it shouldn't have touched and a rather heavy coconut fell on his head, sending him right to the happy place filled with smiling unicorns and flying strawberry pies, better known as Dreamland.

He wasn't very good in noticing traps, was he?

He awoke in the very uncomfortable position of a tied up man on a chair… In fact, that's precisely what he was, tied up on chair. His frantic gaze searched around in the suffocating darkness he was in, for even the slightest dice of where he was and why. To his dismay, he heard a small number of noises that immediately startled him; they were steps and they were headed towards him. When the steps ceased, he had the absolute certainty that his captor, whoever or whatever he was, stood right behind him probably deciding about his fate. Tears and desperate prays began to come out from the man's features as he begged his probable executioner to spare his worthless life. His emotional pleads, however, came deaf to the being's ears as it moved away from its forced guest and occasional intruder, activating some kind of a mechanism that almost made him jump in utter terror… Only to realize that it was just a TV monitor with an incorporated recorder; by the looks of it, a VHS was already in it. Apparently, his silent and "lovable" host wanted to show him something. He managed to momentarily subside his fears as the figure of a very old, and strangely familiar, man with big white mustaches, a remarkable absence of hair and a white medical suit, appeared on the screen, ready to start a seemingly important speech. He looked immensely old.

"Good evening, oh unlucky guest. I'm Dr. Gerald Robotnik, the master of this fine tropical installment." And thus, the aforementioned guest trembled in pure terror, for Robotnik was the name of the one who hired him and his group. The old man continued. "If you happen to see this video, then it means that my 'nephew' has decided to spare your life for some reason. He is not very fond with your people since they killed his parents when he was very little, but let's proceed with order, shall we? Since my nephew wanted you to see this video I can only assume that he felt ready to share our common history with a stranger, therefore I'm going to start from the very beginning… Please pay attention." He did. "About 50 years ago, when this piece of paradise wasn't known as the 'Crimson Death', I, a brilliant yet misunderstood biologist, took this island as my secret operative base where I could conduct my precious experiments… Experiments that certain ignorant fools called blaspheme and scientifically impossible… HA! Those idiots. I had a vision, the vision of a whole new race of men and women with superior physical abilities and intellect, the perfect and balanced combination of human mind and animalistic strength, a forced evolution, if you will, that would have guaranteed the survival of our species even in times of crisis, thanks to a superior adaptability to the hostile environment... And now that dream has just become reality! The creation of a race of anthropomorphic animals capable of both rational thought and their original feral abilities, has become a reality… And, to my joyous surprise, they could also procreate together! I have become their patriarch and I'm sure proud of it!" An aura of immense eeriness surrounded the tied man's terrified form as he watched the videotape in silent fear. "… In order to ensure this island's secrecy and defend it from my multiple enemies (including my own family), we needed to adopt extreme measures. Anytime some uncaring shipwrecked, unlucky fool has ended up here, we usually used to make him or her, a part of our small and unknown utopia but, unfortunately, all of that changed when a group of demeaning poachers sent by my family arrived here with the intention of stealing my children… In the commotion that followed, two of them were killed by them, causing all the others to freak out in rage and disembowel them limb from limb. My departed children were a married couple of anthropomorphic foxes that I personally engaged in their sacred union… And they had a son, a little baby fox, too young for being left without the caring attentions of a mother and a father. But since my time is quickly running out, I now need to select someone worthy to be my successor as this domain's ruler…" Dr Robotnik took a small pause and turned to his left. "Tails come here, please." And then, the small and bewildering figure of a very small, fox-like child with an amazingly human expression and big blue eyes, appeared on the screen beside the older man. "Tails… When I'll be gone, you'll take my place as this island's ruler and guardian… The lives of your own people shall lie on your shoulders, are you willing to take on such task?" The furry boy slowly nodded, showing a mix of both uneasiness and determination in his young features. "Well then… If someday, for some reason, you'll decide to share our secret with someone else, someone worthy of your trust, then show this video to him or her… I'm entrusting you with this decision, boy." The man turned once again to the camera and concluded: "Well, that's pretty much it, I'm afraid… Good night and good luck! Ehe… I've always wanted to say this." And then, the screen went blank.

Suddenly, the darkness of the room was vanquished by the bright light of the outside world as the windows of the middle class American-like house reopened and a blood stained canvas hat fell on the young poacher's lap from behind; he recognized it to be his leader's hat. He then was finally set free from the uneasiness of his tied up condition, so he could finally stand up, with a justified amount of dizziness, from his seat and look his captor in the eyes… His big blue eyes.

There he was, with an air of childish innocence mixed to adult awareness, the small wonder of nature simply known as Tails, due to the curious birth defect that gave him two tails instead of one, making him some kind of a chosen one… The two so different, yet so similar creatures looked each other in the eyes for various minutes, until the human finally found the courage to ask why he was spared from his vindictive fury and not his comrades.

And that's how the two-tailed vulpine answered:

"You had no weapons." Saved by his lack of professionalism, hilarious indeed. "… But you can't leave." That last sentence, however, wasn't. "… Not in that shape, at least." And now, the man was beginning to freak out.

Cocoa Island… A mysterious piece of heaven that could easily turn into a surrealistic hell for the casual visitor. A place hidden from any map and marine knowledge, except for Gerald Robotnik who casually discovered it some time ago after surviving a disfiguring fall from space aboard a capsule that miraculously landed on it. Neither the government nor G.U.N. could ever find him, therefore he could continue his biological experiments with the data he managed to save… And the local natives who began to adore him as a God, which was exactly the way he felt about himself.

A God upon mortals, who created a whole new race of anthropomorphic animals… And the Ultimate Life Form himself to rule them all. A race that, sooner or later would have abandoned the security of their mystic home to venture the world around them, but until then, they needed to remain hidden and shut any possible rumor about their actual existence… Including casual ones.

A new day rose from the horizon and a brand new member of the joyous anthro-family was awoke from his slumber. Unlike other "spared" visitors, this one came out pretty well done. He found himself surrounded by cute looking animals, stranded in some kind of a greenish valley full of pretty looking hills, with no memory of his former outlaw hunting life… That was the place they chose to left him on for letting his new life to begin, it was a smaller island of the surprisingly vast archipelagos nearby Cocoa and everything seemed pretty cool and calm around there… That is until a certain, rotund scientist with big brown mustaches, aboard a half egg shaped hovering vehicle, came by, claiming this entire cluster of islands, and his relative anthropomorphic characters, to be a rightful part of his own family empire.

And so, the blue humanoid hedgehog that once was human, grinned at the man's evident insanity, and without missing a beat he darted towards his foe at super sonic speed.

Later on, he would have met his original creator… A certain two-tailed vulpine by the convenient name of Miles Prower.

And thus, their story and the story of all Mobians, began.

The End