Disclaimer: I have no hold on Disney characters from Zootopia, nor Sega characters from Sonic.

So this story is something that wouldn't leave my head. A couple of things; Sonic characters are well-known. Sonic and Tails started traveling together back at Sonic 2, when they were 12 and 6 respectively. Tails is 16 as of this fic. So yes, he acts like a sarcastic...fox. That's just what happens when you're a fox in Zootopia, and you're 16. God knows I was much worse than this.

The world is a big place. Bigger than most people could even begin to comprehend. Within the last hundred years or so, animals and humans have figured out ways to travel around the world quickly and easier than ever before. But most beings never realized how large the world is.

I've seen it. I've seen more of the world than most beings, and I'm proud of that. I've seen the view from space, I've seen the view from under the Earth's crust. And each time I'm amazed at how little of the world others see.

Twelve years ago, I woke up on an island, with little to no knowledge of the world around me. I found myself tinkering with the items left behind. The island was attacked by those who wanted power, the actual true kind of power; Chaos. I defended the island, and drove them off. I was four.

Ten years ago, I followed a speedy little blue blur, who wasn't much older than me, on an adventure around West Island. That journey took him into space, and me just onto the edge. I was six, when I flew up into space to ensure my friend, my first and then-so-far only friend, would live. I followed him afterwards, onto a floating island, where we learned the actual meaning of power, of Chaos.

Of the Chaos Emeralds.

Ten years have passed since I met Sonic the Hedgehog. Ten years of what people once called 'heroism.' I disagree. Sonic is a hero. Shadow is a hero. Knuckles is a hero. I'm in the everlasting shade of their shadows, cast upon by their giant deeds.

At least, I used to think so. Six years ago, the water daemon Chaos (The word gets thrown around a lot, but I think anyone who saw Sonic's Doomsday Zone firsthand knows what real Chaos is like) tore down Station Square. Six years ago, the Biolizard was released on the ARK, and with it nearly the world was destroyed. Six years ago, Metal Sonic formed into the Metal Overlord, and almost took over the world.

I say almost a lot, and it really was almost. But Chaos is like that. It gives hope to those that have none, and then takes it away and plays with it for a while. It takes away hope from those who have plenty, who then smile and cheer when the world comes to rights again.

Four years ago, Black Doom almost killed us all. Four years ago, Dark Gaia almost killed us all. Four years ago, the most villainous person alive almost killed us all...ok, no he didn't that time. He just made a deadly interplanetary theme park. Only Sonic and I were in any real danger that time.

Two years ago, the Time Eater destroyed all of time, and then we brought it back. Two years ago, we found the Lost Hex, a land that had supposedly been missing for decades.

I've seen the world. But even then, even in the craziness that has been the last ten years, nothing could have prepared me for this.

I've been hurt. I've been hurt a lot. Sonic used to joke I was immortal back on West Island, and I knew where he was coming from. But nothing could prepare for the day when a squirrel my own age pushed me against the wall of a building.

And told me to "Leave me alone, you damn pred."

That hurt. That hurt more than it should have. He didn't recognize me. No one in this city recognizes me. I came here to be anonymous for a while, just a gifted college student with a knack for Chaos Engineering. I wanted to scream at him. Take off the three bands that bind my two tails to show only one.

Instead I just sighed and ducked as the squirrel tried to hit me. Thanks city. Always so lovely this time of year.

I've always seen things on a macro scale, a grand scale. For me, the world is always on the precipice of disaster and catastrophe. But in doing so I blinded myself to the micro scale, the city, the interpersonal.

One year ago, (Geez, we're back to this again, aren't we?) this city, Zootopia, one of the first mammal-only cities in existence, almost came crashing down due to an outbreak of primal savagery.

Sonic thought it was a Chaos Outbreak of some kind, at first. Then I told him it was only targeting those that, millennia ago, would've been called predators. He guessed bad drugs. He wasn't far off from the truth actually. He's good like that.

The city was being hit by a sheep, the assistant mayor, who was targeting predators by shooting them with some kind of flower extract drug, called 'Night Howlers'. The police, especially Officer Judy Hopps, found out and took her down. One would think the city would've healed from that little thing; predators and prey sitting around singing 'Kumbaya' or something. Well, they haven't. Specie-ism and racism are still extremely blatant. It's not as bad as it was, during the riots, thankfully. But it's bad enough. Bad enough to hurt.

I never usually dealt with it much, living as far on the outskirts as I could, in an old abandoned air field. Great area for practicing just about anything. From running to shooting, to making sure nothing blows up in case a Chaos Emerald conduit decides it wants to stop working, it's great. Almost as good as my workshop in the Mystic Ruins, down near the old Station Square. Of course, Sonic uses that one as a home base now. So I came up here to Zootopia to use this place for a while. It helps that the University here is really good. Specializes in Engineering, or so say the beavers. Not sure I buy that though. Although it is the only University that has any classes whatsoever on Chaos.

Everything I do or say involves Chaos in some way. Not many beings know about it; it's a force that governs the world. Some of us, like Sonic and I, know better. It doesn't govern the world; it made it. Chaos is the reason we all exist, how we all evolved near simultaneously. Something that random can only be considered 'chaotic'. The city though is completely ordinary asides from that. No random mad scientists, asides from the Night Howler incidents, no major political power, no major governmental nation. Completely ordinary.

Which is what made it a surprise when said mad scientist megalomaniac decided to show his face around here after not showing up for the last two years.

My name is Miles 'Tails' Prower, and sometimes I hate being a Hero.

"See, Carrots, I told you, you can't trust that guy," Nick Wilde said in his unique nonchalant way. "Any guy that stood you up once is going to do it again."

Judy Hopps, proud officer of the Zootopia Police Department, groaned loudly into the patrol cruiser's steering wheel. "Cheese and crackers, Nick, he was a nice guy! I just wanted to give him a second chance, that's all."

"And then, what, a third chance? Fourth? Just dump him, admit you're wrong, and go on. Simple, easy, elegant."

"Fine, fine, I'll text him after work. Although that makes me wonder why you're so interested in my love life all of a sudden," Judy said, glancing questioningly at her vulpine partner.

They had been partners, official partners at least, in the ZPD for nearly six months. In that time, they had quickly gained notoriety in the seediest parts of the city as 'those two cops that somehow unveiled a conspiracy and are doing their damnedest to ensure we don't forget it.' They had only been on two other major cases, both of which neither are allowed to speak of out loud and are treated as completely confidential.

There was, of course, the smattering of minor things, small time arrests and such. And while they had plenty of down time, such as sitting in a parked patrol cruiser surveying the street for any wrongdoing, they both rather enjoyed it. Nick enjoying it a lot more than he thought he would have. "Don't you know Carrots? I live vicariously through you." Although he may only enjoy it because he gets to tease Judy nearly as much as he wanted to. It was fun, teasing the life out of the cute little bunny. Not that he'd tell her that to her face. Not if he wanted to avoid getting his ears talked off for the next hour or two.

"Why don't you find yourself a girlfriend then? Can't be that hard for you."

"Why Carrots, are you implying that you think I'm handsome?" Nick asked in an overly teasing tone.

Judy blushed, her ears turning a slight shade of pink, as she gripped the wheel tighter. "Wha-no! I'm just say-"

"That is the nicest thing anyone has said to me! Thank you so much for that amazing compliment!"

"Nick that's not what I mea-"

"So you don't? Aw, Carrots, I'm hurt now. Raising my expectations only to hurt them."

Judy sighed as she finally just let Nick's behavior slide. She still had a lot to learn about the ex-con. "-...sly fox."

"Dumb bunny. You hopped right into that on." Judy could just feel the smugness ooze out of the fox. They had traded barbs and words with each other every day that they had been partners, and she knew to take everything Nick said with a grain of salt. Still, sometimes it was embarrassing, just how quickly the fox could tongue-tie her around using only words. He often told her it was just a skill she'd get used to eventually, and she has demonstrated the ability in the past to navigate those smirking waters that he specialized in. Silence reigned for a few minutes as they continued on their scheduled lookout. There wasn't much to look out for.

"Cruiser 247, this is Dispatch. Cruiser 247," the voice crackled out of the radio suddenly. Immediately all pretenses of laidback-ness had disappeared, and the two cops resumed their professionalism. Cruiser 247 was theirs.

"This is Cruiser 247, Wilde here. Whatcha got, Benji?" Nick said, waiting for the inevitable 'Judy reaction'. He wasn't wrong either, the rabbit had quickly done a sighing facepalm. At the same time! It was like a mix of both a sigh, and a facepalm, mixed up with all kinds of cute. How she managed that, he wouldn't know. But it sure was fun to rile her up!

"Disturbance in Savanna Central, close to your position. It's at 147 Prairie Road. Sounds like a riot or something from the phone. Go get 'em, you two!" Clawhauser's voice echoed through the car, his final message barely coming through as Judy started it up.

"That's a 10-4 Dispatch, Cruiser 247 on the way," Nick said, ensuring he was buckled up as Judy flicked on the lights. He had driven with the grey bunny enough to know that there was a real speed demon in those amethyst eyes of hers. And also that she liked to use the brakes to send poor foxes flying.

"So what're you thinking? Riot or something less?" Judy asked. Despite her partner's attempts, and successes, at getting underneath her skin she did highly value his knowledge of the city. Every time they got something, they'd always try to figure out what it was before they got there. Most of the time, put together, they succeeded. On those rare occasions when they had a complete difference of opinion, they were never shocked to find out that the truth was somewhere in the middle.

"A riot, on Prairie? No way, Carrots. Prairie's one of the safer streets. Probably just some fight that messed with Clawhauser's head."

"His hearing seemed fine to me. Maybe a crowd then?"

"I'd think it'd have to be. Five on a fight?"

"Are you betting, Wilde, with an officer of the law?"

"Just checking to make sure you're still listening."

As they turned a corner onto Prairie, they both starting to think that maybe they did have it wrong. Some windows were torn out, others had cars upturned. People were missing from the streets, their eyes looking out of their windows with worry. Judy had to slow down to avoid potholes that they were both sure hadn't been there twenty minutes before. Water leaked from the hydrants that had been blown open by something, going straight down the storm drains. It looked like something out of a zombie apocalypse movie.

And at the end they saw a single mammal, a fox. Not much older than high school age, his clothes ripped and torn, blood sliding down his orange-yellow furred legs and massive tail which didn't seem to bother him as he slipped a backpack on, looking all the while like nothing was wrong. Behind him lay a wreckage of a security robot, one of the newest models, it's main CPU core having been ripped apart. Occasional sparks shot outward, which didn't seem to bother the fox at all.

"Stop, ZPD!" Judy yelled as she got out of the cruiser with her tranquilizer ready to fire. Nick did similar, stepping over some broken glass and...bullet shells?

The security robots didn't carry live ammunition on them. Flag one was raised.

The fox's ears perked up as he shot his head to look at the two police officers. His eyes were a deep cyan, closer to the sky than any other color were wide in shock. Three large hairs halfway covered his eyes.

"Did you do this?" Nick asked, pointing to the wave of destruction behind him. He made sure that if he wasn't paying attention, that Judy was.

"No, that was the E-5400," the fox said, his voice shaky, as if he couldn't decide to run or stay. Flag two was raised.

"Drop the pack, and hold up your hands. Nick?" Judy said, keeping her tranquilizer gun at attention. She didn't want to give this guy any opportunity to hurt anyone else. The fox did so instantly, the pack crashing to the ground with a loud thump. He winced as he heard a few metal objects clanking together.

Nick had already gone into the cruiser to grab the radio. "Dispatch, this is Officer Wilde. I'm at 147 Prairie road and there's...something. We have a lone mammal, high school or college, with a ripped apart security robot."

"10-4 Wilde. Will you need backup?"

"Kid seems to be going along. Going to grab a statement from the kid before grabbing the robot's corpse. Maybe send for medical though, he looks injured."

"Understood."

Nick looked over to the Judy and the fox, both currently in a kind of one-way standoff. He nodded to the bunny, who nodded back and turned to the tod.

"Right. Send your pack over this way. My partner's going to search it while you tell me what happened."

The fox swallowed audibly before kicking the backpack over to Nick. It was a good strong kick, and it thumped heavily against the curb it landed on as it sailed across the ground. He grabbed it quickly, hefting it onto the curb before searching through it. Books, mostly, paper, pens, usual college stuff. Two lock boxes clanked at the bottom. Nick nodded towards Judy; if the reynard had guns in the lock boxes, he didn't have them anymore. Although there were a lot of spent gun shells on the ground...a lot more than it looked this bag could carry.

"That's good. You're not in trouble, maybe, but we need to know what happened," Judy said, finally relaxing her gun. Seeing her do so seemed to relieve the fox, as he relaxed visibly and started talking.

"I don't really know too much. I was walking by and the robot suddenly turned to me and said 'Lay down your arms and surrender immediately.' before it started shooting at me. With actual bullets! I was lucky to dodge out of the way," the fox said. Judy nodded absentmindedly as she focused on her hearing. The fox's heart was beating loud enough to be heard, at least by her. She was trying to listen for any change in inflections that could indicate a major lie. It was one of those useful skills that most beat cops like her didn't have, but whatever gave her an advantage.

"Ok. And then what happened?" she asked as she wrote down the general report with one of her carrot recorder pens. It wasn't strictly legal, exactly, to record without the other person knowing, but it certainly helped their incident reports. They had cracked a couple of smaller robberies using the same way they had caught Bellwether last year.

"Well, it smashed the car, starting chasing and shooting me, and then I hid behind another car out of its sight. I grabbed a wrench from my pack and tried to find its CPU to knock it out of commission."

"I think you managed it," Judy said, impressed. The security robots were still rather new, having been introduced to Zootopia slightly after the end of the Night Howler incidents. They were known for being tough, and having armor that could survive the majority of attacks from anything short of 'heavy ordinance', such as rockets or other ballistics. They did have their weak points, but it would take someone awfully familiar with them to be able to find them and exploit them.

"I'll say. Heck of an arm, kid," Nick said as he brought out the damaged CPU core from the wreckage. It was a small sphere, that usually was lit up with dancing lights. This one however, was bent all out of shape with the hits of a wrench. It was completely dark.

"Wow. I didn't think I'd do that much damage..."

"Do you have a moment to come down to the station to take a more permanent statement?" Judy asked. She had gotten an idea of what had happened from what the fox had said earlier, but the wreckage of the robot didn't support that. The robots were vaguely humanoid, named after the humans that populate the other areas of the world. Most of them were vaguely egg-shaped, and had giant torsos, legs and arms for armor. Their 'eyes' were in the center of the torso, which also included the CPU core. The arms had a variety of weapons built in depending on the function of the robot.

This one no longer looked like any robot she had ever seen. There were dents in the armor that looked closer to a wrecking ball than a wrench. One of the arms had fallen off, exposing the circuitry inside. And the torso was almost torn in half. Even some parts of the lower arms, which were still smoking, were in more parts than there were bullets on the ground.

"Oh, uh, sure. Can I just grab my pack first?" The fox asked, pointing over to the run down bag.

"Sure. Have anything to declare, like weapons or licenses or anything like that?"

"Oh, uh...no weapons or anything. Just books and boxes."

"Hey Carrots, I'm gonna call this place in and get someone to cordon off the area for the crews," Nick said, tossing the destroyed core up and down into the air, like some kind of football.

"Alright. Put the bag in the back, would you?" Judy asked, pointing to the backpack. Nick shrugged, before trying to lift up the bag.

"Wow, geez, what do you have in here? Twenty pounds of steel or something?" Nick asked as he tossed open the back of the cruiser and stuffed it in it with a large whump.

"No, like I said, just books and boxes..." the fox said, his ears laying down flat on his head. They were rather large for his size, and although he shared the same coloring as a fennec fox, he was much larger than any fennec either of them had ever seen.

"Just a few more questions, ok? We'll get a more official statement from you later down at the station, but what's your name and occupation?"

"Miles Prower, student."

"Miles...Pro...wer. Got it. Thank you Mr. Prower, we're just going to wait for some others to come by before we head down, ok? Mind if we check out your injuries, to know how bad they are?"

The fox nodded and sat down on the curb, seemingly exhausted. Judy got out some of the first aid, and with Nick behind her waiting for the others, dabbed away the matting blood on the boy's legs. To her surprise, there wasn't anything under them. No injuries, not even any scars. She looked over to her partner, who saw the same thing she did. He shrugged. They'd find out more at the station.

To: Sonic

From: Tails

Hey, Sonic. So remember how you said, six years ago during the ARK incident, how there's always a bunch of police around when you don't need them? Guess who just got messed up with the police!? This fox!

So bit of a background to this. Zootopia's decided that it would, for some reason or another, start protecting certain places like banks and big transit areas with security robots, as robots didn't need to A) be paid, and B) were less likely to make a mistake. Sound plan, I'm thinking. But then they decided to go for Eggman's robots. Seriously, the guy is still using the E-5400's. You know, the one's that are the upgraded models of the Egg Pawns from the Metal Overlord, but have the toughness of the E-2000's? Yeah, those guys. He's selling them as security robos now.

They still can't take a hit. Good for us, I guess.

Anyways, I was on my way back from class when one of the robots noticed me. I recognized it as one of Eggman's immediately, regardless of what anyone else says (I definitely was not staring down at my phone!) so disregard all of that slander and lies. It must've recognized me somehow, because it tried to shoot me, with bullets. By the way, guns have been outlawed in Zootopia for nearly fifty years, and the robots are searched upon entrance into the city to make sure they don't have any live ammo. Guess Eggman's found a secondary spot for it.

I had rings on me, as always, so it didn't hurt. Although it was unpleasant. I lead it out of the station onto the road. It smashes a few cars in its way until everyone sane left. Then I started busting into it, before I remembered the CPU core's in the center. You know how you always told me to have something to defend myself in reach? And no Sonic, I don't care that you don't remember saying that, you did. Might've been when you accidentally got drunk five years ago, but you definitely did.

Anyways, I keep a wrench with me at all times. Don't laugh, Sonic, those things hurt. Tore the robot apart, essentially. Got a few knicks in my legs when I went to spindash through its chest to grab the core, but nothing a few minutes of ring healing didn't get rid of. The police didn't even notice that I did it!

Oh right, the police. So they happened to show up right as I was about get out of there. These guys use tranqs, not actual guns, which means that yes Sonic, if we get hit by these we go down. For a time. Probably not long. Anyways, they showed up, asked me some questions such as 'what happened', and I told them the basics. Got shot at, used cars as blockades, used a wrench to win. But guess who they sent? Only the only fox cop in the entire freaking precinct. And if that's not worse, they also sent the only bunny cop too, "Hero Hopps" herself!

And if you say anything about how I seem to be lucky with rabbits, I'm going to install that trapdoor in the Mystic Ruins that leads directly into the pool. Right under the welcome mat.

So yeah, they took me down to the station, wanted to ask me a few a things. They wanted to try and run a data core analysis on the CPU core, but they didn't have much luck with that. Which is unfortunate. I already ran that data (see, it's attached. That's what the little paperclip means Sonic.) and that robot had secondary controls that activated only if it saw me or you. I'll have to take a deeper dive later on.

I checked what data I could on my phone, can't get much here for obvious reasons, but I think Eggman made a patch within the last week, and every robot made after a certain date contains those same orders.

Why can't anything be simple anymore?

To: Tails

From: Sonic

Tails!

If it was simple, it wouldn't be fun!

To: Sonic

From: Tails

Sonic,

Of course you'd say that.

And that's the first chapter. Not sure how long this is going to be. I'm aiming for "readable in a day for most sane people". Hopefully this time I'll actually have a finished story on this site. Haven't been able to check that off the list yet. Until next time.