*A Full-Story Review with Plot Spoilers*

I first stumbled upon this story around 10 years ago, and on a whim, I revisited Tailsisreal’s profile recently to discover that he was remastering this epic classic. Out of nostalgia, I decided to re-read the original Lethal Mutation, and I think I figured out why this story resonated with me so much as a teenager.

Lethal Mutation takes place during season 2 of Sonic X and primarily follows Tails as he undergoes rigorous physical and psychological trials as he discovers the truth about his tragic past and his pre-ordained destiny. Tails’ perseverance amid overwhelming sickness and physical degradation helps him rewrite what would’ve otherwise been an untimely demise, and the author portrays Tails’ struggles incredibly well throughout his 18-chapter epic.

What really makes this story work is that it grabs the reader early on with seemingly minor, albeit eye-catching events that roll into substantially higher stakes as the chapters press on. What started as perfectly-reasonable explanations for strange, temporary health issues (fainting due to lack of food, catching an illness from being in the cold too long, etc.) evolves into an extreme downward spiral as Tails faces the reality that, due to forces beyond his control, his short life will soon come to an end. This rollercoaster of events is brilliantly portrayed by the author, and the characters’ reactions to Tails’ declining health are 100 percent believable and in-line with their canonical personalities; while we never see Sonic in such emotional despair in the anime, his strong reaction to Tails’ declining state, and seeing Sonic have to come to terms with his little bro’s supposed death near the end of the story, are exactly how I would’ve imagined it if this was canon.

Ultimately, reading this story as a teenager helped remind me that we all have the capacity to overcome extreme adversity, including those with self-doubt and a lack of confidence. This was certainly a message that I needed to hear in my youth, and even to this day, as a grown, married adult, this timeless message still resonates.

The side stories were also entertaining, especially Knuckles and Rouge’s escapades, and the author’s lore-filling explanations for Tails’ mutations left me feeling satisfied. Of course, we can’t forget Dr. Eggman’s evolving dastardly deeds that drive the story and inadvertently save Tails’ life in the end. As with Tails and the rest of the gang, Eggman is portrayed on-point by the writer, as are his robot minions.

And that ending, though! After experiencing the emotional rollercoaster with the gang, seeing them fall into despair as they begin living life without Tails was heartbreaking, but seeing how they reacted to Tails’ safe return to Earth was truly cathartic. T_T

As of this writing, Tailsisreal has published five chapters of his remastered version of the story, and while the original is fantastic in its own right, the remastered version provides additional polish, makes grammatical improvements, and adds further depth and believability to the characters that were already pretty well written in the original Lethal Mutation. Indeed, the author was able to utilize the wisdom and experience gained from adulthood to improve an already impressive story. If you haven’t already, I’d definitely keep tabs on the rewrite as Tailsisreal continues publishing updates.

Overall, I give this story 10 chili dogs out of 10.

But, what if Tails had to use the bathroom? How would he even get to and from the toilet without some accidents? Did Vanilla put a Pull-Up or a diaper on him just in case since he is extremely sick?

I guess she could carry him too along with that, but what if no-one was around at just that moment?

The one Sonic game you can thank for seizures is Sonic Labyrinth. Wonna know how exactly to get a free seizure? It's simple! First, get a hardcoppy of Sonic Labyrinth for the Game Gear. Second, get the speed shoes for an extra boost of speed that you can actually controll, then bingo! Soon enough you'll land yourself in a hospitle because of the rapidly flashing white lights that your Game Gear will attack you with. So either way, speed isn't something you controll in Sonic Labyrinth, because you either use the spin dash, in which case you'll be bouncing off of every surface way to quickly to handle, or you use speed shoes, in which you die, or lose controll of your body, so it's no worries, uh? Fun for the whole family! Anyway this story is not Sonic Labyrinth in quality, it's more like Sonic Colors quality. Excellent job! Good day sir!

Wow... An epic tale indeed!
I love this story man! It retained the charm of the tv series; while also shining light on the relationship between Sonic and Tails that the show lacked.
The twists and turns of this story kept it feeling fresh every chapter. And the humor was spot on, not too under active or overbearing.
As for the finale, it was a tear jerker. I’m glad that this story is one of the few greats that were actually seen through to completion.
It’s sad to see that such an awesome story finally reached its end, but I’m glad that I read all the way through.
It was a terrific story that I Hope is immortalized in this site.

beautifal

BEST FRIGGIN STORY I HAVE EVER READ!

Oh my gosh! I finally finished the whole story! 21 chapters of awesomeness! Wow wow wow, this is a masterpiece! I have never found such a great story, your an incredibly talented writer! I am so happy you wrote this story, I could see you poured out your soul into this story! It's the best Tails the fox story out there! Thank you for keeping it appropriate with no use of foul language, and I loved the story, and I wanted to thank you for writing this again! You did such a great job! It took me 3 days to finish this story, and it was full of moments of excitement, fear, joy, and sadness. I was so emotional when Tails supposedly died. It made me cry, I was over joyed about the happy ending! Tails the fox will always be my favorite because of his character that I strive to replicate in my own life, he was always thinking of other people before himself, and he even sacrificed his own life to save those who treated him like a freak. I was so glad that he was lucky enough to survive! Boy oh boy what a story, this is by far my most favorite Sonic The Hedgehog fanfiction! Well done, and thank you for this amazing experience!

This was one of the best stories I have ever read. You should be famous writing novels and such. You should make more Sonic X stories that are about Tails. Yet I really enjoyed this!

Aw, poor Tails! Greet better soon!

This was a pretty awesome

Sneezing? Deciding the fate of the world?

In loving this so far! You're a good writer!

Kind of conflicted on the ending because on one hand I don't want to see tails die but on the other hand it is kind of a rushed happy ending.

The rest of the story was really well written and had me wondering if tails was going to make it on more then one occasion.

I would give it an 8/10

Hello, remember me? I'm the Tails fanboy that reviewed this a year back, and I gotta admit it, I forgot to say everything about it besides "that's amazing". I only said that it was the best fanfic. But I have to say, looking back, it's still amazing and it is absolutely a masterpiece. The characters actually made me feel that I was actually reading a sonic x script. They were so amazingly shown, even Cris was awesome (and that's actually saying a lot)! Not to mention that each chapter title sounded like it should be it's own book! The thing that made me always come back to this is because of the awesome writing. It was so good that I could picture what was happening. That's why it's also my problem with the sickness scenes that Tails had, it was so realistic that it made me disgusted when Tails threw up or something. But that's actually what I wanted, to be draged into the book and seeing that. And I know you get criticism about you saying Tails is adopted by Sonic, but what they don't know, is that it's cannon! But I want to actually thank you, how you made Tails so selfless made me into a selfless person too, I was pretty selfish a few years ago TRUST ME. I know this is a long review, but as a Tails fan myself, this was non joke, THE BEST FANFIC EVER! Thank you so much.

Knuckles is an real dick.