TAILS

1.

An unspecified number of millenniums ago.

It was a sunny day in the zone who, in a distant future, would be known as Emerald Hill. The local animals were scavenging for food, particularly, one creature was struggling in the attempt to grab a very rare and juicy fruit who apparently was out of reach… This peculiar animal was a member of the Canine species, a vulpine, a fox, for being more accurate.

In this part of the land, foxes were the dominant species, the top of the Food Chain. Things, however, were anything but easy for them: a recent storm happened to destroy most of the forest they used to live, as a direct consequence of Mother Nature's latest outburst, most of the common fox's natural preys were forced to leave the zone. The results of this tragic event are still considered by today's scientists very improbable, or, as many used to say, blaspheme. The vulpine, a carnivore animal species by Nature's choice, instead of leaving for a better place, changed it's alimentary habits and became omnivore. That was the very first step for a whole new race to arise.

And another giant step was about to take place in this very sunny day.

The fruit this particular canine wanted so bad to eat was definetelly out of range for a common fox to pick… This animal, however, was not your common small sized quadruped fox. It was bigger, stronger and even more intelligent, it was also the only one of it's kind at the moment, as a matter of fact. The other normal foxes had rejected it, they feared it and isolated it, not wanting to be anywhere near this "horrible freak of nature". This "freak" was sick and tired, the juicy fruit he tried to grab was still out of it's reach… And that's when an idea came to it's primitive mind: it knew it was born different from the other vulpines, not only it was bigger, but it's arms were also different… The legs had a whole new articulation system and… Knees.

With a lot of efforts, the new fox was able to stand on his very knees, in a bipedal and surprisingly stable position and now it's Sacred Graal was finally at it's height. The creature put it's arm forward in the motion of actually grab it's very deserved meal, only to notice something it didn't notice before… It's paw had a new appendage, a thumb, for the sake of clarity, and with this new "finger", the animal was actually capable of holding the fruit in it's own "5 fingered hand".

Satisfied by this new discovery, the not so feral fox ate it's lunch and than HE walked away (on it's two feet).

And that was pretty much it: the inexplicable scientific miracle of Life, Nature and Evolution at it's best. A whole new race has rose, the first ever anthropomorphic fox… The first Kitsune.

And this was just the beginning.

Several millenniums later.

Fire. Explosions. Death. That was all that was left of Emerald Town, a once quiet city in the center of the Emerald Hill Zone, now reduced into dust and burnt corpses… Kitsune's.

Someone, however, was able to escape this hell and took cover inside an ancient undiscovered cave. In this improvised refuge, Amadeus and Rosemary Prower, a young married Kitsune couple, stood in silence and fear hoping not to be found, hoping to survive that fatal day, among all, hoping that their precious cargo could live through all of this…

Rosemary Prower was, indeed, pregnant and very close to gave birth of her and her husband's child. Her belly was like a time ticking bomb, luckily, before leaving their home, Amadeus brought all the necessary things needed for the fortunate / unfortunate event.

In that stormy night, a night that seemed fulfilled by hopelessness and misery, a cry could be heard, a childish cry, a baby cry… Once again, Life and will to survive have prevailed despite the condition in which they would have to prove themselves.

This world was not a safe place anymore. Through the course of ages, humans and anthropomorphic animals (better known as Mobians or Anthros) have managed to live side by side but of course things weren't as easy as they looked… They never are. Through the ages, humans and Mobians have fought many battles for supremacy, for the desire of being the dominant race, that until a truce was somehow reached and the world was equally divided between the two species… But, sapient beings, as we know are not bound for Peace, they are driven by the irrational will to fight whom is different or even whom is similar just for the heck of it. Mobians were not different as they received from humans a thing that have been typical of them: Racism. Mobian races (like Echidna or Hedgehogs) fought each others trough the centuries for whatever reason. The absence of a common enemy was the key of the separation between cultures.

That, of course, until a couple of years ago.

A new enemy has risen. A human, or as many Mobians used to call 'em, an Overlander. Nobody knew the origins of this new menace, not even his people, he had no background or family members whatsoever, he simply came out from nowhere attacking a small village in the Green Hill Zone with an army of animalistic robots, making his presence known.

The rotund evil scientist called himself… Doctor Eggman.

Over the last couple of years the combined forces of G.U.N. (Guardian of the United Nations, the military organization of the human country) and some spare Mobian armies have barely been able to contain the advance of the so-called "Eggman Empire", but it's robots, it's "Badniks" seemed to be quite powerful and sooner or later they would overcome.

While the humans relied their strength more on technology and weapons, the Mobians's true strength was in their fighting skills, a gift from their feral ancestors, many scientists supposed, and the result of centuries of evolution and training. But even with that physical advantage over the humans, they were not capable of standing against this new and ferocious metallic army and it's sadistic and megalomaniac commander…

The natural habitat have been compromised, Nature had to find it's way once again…

The young Kitsune couple hidden in the cave, despite everything, was happy. Their baby (a male fox) was sane and quiet in his mother's arms. Although, something was worrying the new parents, something about their child, about his tail for being precise… The fact that he had more than one.

The new born kit was the very first two-tailed Kitsune in history… For that reason, he's life was bound not to be easy, a cruel and inhospitable world was awaiting for him but his loving parents swore that they would never abandon him no matter the difficulties…

A thunder exploded in the distance, scaring the kit in an unimaginable way. The instinctual reaction that followed his sudden fear was something that neither one of his parents was expecting… The little fox cub, born for only a few minutes, rose in air, his two tails were spinning like an helicopter allowing him to actually fly. After a while, the cub got tired and slowly descended once again in his mother's arms.

The miracle happened again. In that very stormy, merciless night, a new hope was born… A naturally gifted warrior in response of the hostility of his habitat.

And he would not be the only one…

8 years later.

Fear was the key word, for this young unfortunate girl who happened to be in the proverbial wrong place at the proverbial wrong time.

A new kind of robot, different from the old animal based Badniks, was dangerously approaching her.

It's red visor was scanning the little frightened kid and it's mechanical A.I. was deciding the right way to proceed. All of a sudden, the anthropomorphic bot spoke:

"Subject: Mobian Rabbit. Priority one: bring to Dr Eggman. Kill if resists."

The 6 years old bunny was about to cry her eyes out for fear, but instead she found out that her voice, along with the rest of her trembling body, was basically frozen. She have heard the rumors… Voices of horrible experiments and tortures that the mad doctor did to his victims… Voices of innocent creatures transformed into the Badnik's main source of energy and she didn't want to be one of them.

Than again, there wasn't anything that she could do by herself against this metallic monster.

As if on cue, something happened to the robot or, for better choice of words, someone happened.

Before the enhanced metal soldier could do anything, his head was severed from the rest of the body by a sudden aerial roundhouse kick that came out from nowhere… On land. The corpse fall into the grass and the SWATBot was no more.

The young rabbit girl looked up to face her savior.

She was mouth agape and almost speechless when she found out that her hero was a kid just like her, maybe a couple of years older, the only difference was that he was one of a different race… A fox, but the fact that really shocked her was that he had TWO TAILS!!!

The Kitsune looked the bunny in the eyes and smiled. He had big blue caring eyes.

She was still a little taken aback, she heard the stories that other kids, older and meaner than her, told her. The stories about rabbits being the natural preys of foxes. In a certain way it was true, the feral ancestors of these two Mobian races used to have it that way. This, however, concerned only them, because even being a rabbit or a fox, these two young childs were still Mobians… A whole species of sapient beings despite the differences (basically, in human terms, they shared the same difference that an American and a Canadian had).

The fox kid kneeled himself to the rodent girl's scared eyes and spoke:

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you, you're safe now."

That had the desired effect on her. She started crying, finally releasing her distress and hugged the boy tightly.

"I-I-I thought I was gonna be a B-Badnik!" She sobbed.

"It's okay, it's all over now… My name is Miles Prower, but you can call me Tails. What's yours?"

Not wanting to be impolite, the girl released him from her hug and answered.

"I'm Cream. Thank you for saving me, Mr Prower."

"Mr Prower? Gee, I get that I seem mature for my age but that makes me feel old! Just call me Tails, will you?"

"Ok, Mr Tails."

"Sigh. Well, that's an improvement. What were you doing out in the forest all alone, don't you know it's extremely dangerous?"

"Well, I was trying to catch my Chao pet, Cheese, and I found myself alone in the forest."

"Where are you from?"

"Station Square."

"I know the place, I will accompany you to it, ok?"

"O-ok, thanks again, Tails."

The young courageous kit took the rabbit in his arms, spun his namesakes and rose in air. Cream was utterly stunned for the thing.

"YOU CAN FLY!?"

"Yep, it's a birth gift, it really comes in handy sometimes, especially when you have to deal with mean robots. Hold on now, this will be quite a ride."

When he gained enough height, he started fly relatively fast in the direction of the city. Cream was enjoying the tour.

Station Square was the biggest city in the country and, idealistically, was the Great Melting Pot of this planet. Humans and Mobians of every race used to live side by side in this big city, the fact of having to deal with a common enemy reinforced their relations and the city grew strong… Of course there were still problems, there will always be problems, it's just the way things are. However this did not concern this story. The vulpine escorted the rabbit to her home (he also managed to find her Chao in the way) and, after the thankful tears of joy of her mother and politely refusing a dinner invite, the Kitsune left the city and headed to his operational base.

Miles "Tails" Prower in his early 8 years of life had become a really important person. For the first 4 years he was just a kid who was teased and beaten by others because of his physical difference… But than, things changed when he saved an entire family of Mobian squirrels from a small army of Badniks all by himself. Chaos wanted that this family was none other than the former royal Acorn family, Maximillian and his daughter Sally. After their city-state was took by Eggman's pawns and transformed into the doctor's own headquarters a few years earlier, this two were the only survivors of the royal heritage and they were also missing for quite some times. It turned out that the Acorns were hiding themselves in a secluded place known as Knothole, only to be casually found by some flying Badniks during a routine patrol session. The place was burnt and the two were captured, luckily for them, the little group happened to encounter a very young Kitsune on their way… When he saw the impending danger, something inside him snapped and before any of them could register, the kit was, somehow, out of pure luck or whatever, able to destroy all the 5 mechanical bees that were desperately trying to zap him. After that display of courage, the young one fainted, mainly due to a wound in his left side.

After that course of events, the news spread and Miles Prower became a national hero, which was a thing that he, due to his shy personality, despised. After a while, Miles discovered to have a peculiar ability with machinery and a superior intellect, someone said that his I.Q. was even superior to the one of Dr Eggman himself!

That was one of the reasons of why the doctor wanted his two tails on a silver platter. Tails and his family were forced to leave Westside Island and move to the most secure and protected zone in the Mobian country… The Mystic Ruins, a large, almost impenetrable ancient forest. Tails's family lived peacefully in their sweet little home just outside the forest. The forest was also the hidden operational base of a private and famous militia created by Sally Acorn right after her rescue: the Freedom Fighters. Sally personally wanted Tails to be a part of it due to his intelligence and skills. Despite the obvious reluctance of his family (they didn't really wanted their child to be hurt or worse, just like any caring parents), the boy accepted the offer and joined the group.

The Freedom Fighters Militia became, in little time, a large group that was able to spread all over the Mobian country, or Mobius for shorts, it even successfully cooperated with G.U.N. to achieve important victories over the Eggman Empire and freeing some cities from it's grip. That of course didn't pleased the fat scientist, which decided to stay low for a while…

In the time being, Tails, young as he was, became a full trained fighter, a mechanical genius and an excellent pilot. His most prized creation was an airplane known as the X-Tornado, a combat designed plane capable of achieving impressive speed and other cool stuff.

Right now, Tails was running back to his base before heading home. As running, I mean he was using his namesakes to propel himself and moving forward at an impressive speed. Speed, indeed, was another gift that his appendages had brought to him, he was, by no means, the fastest thing on two feet in Mobius… Or at least, he thought he was... But that's another story.

Somewhere in the south-west of the Mystic Ruins.

She was running. Running with all her efforts. Running faster than any normal Mobian could hope to run… She wasn't, however, a normal Mobian. As a matter of fact she probably wasn't even… An animal. One thing was clear though, she was scared. She was scared to death that THEY could capture her, torture her and even kill her… Just like her parents.

Similar to a certain vulpine… She was unique.

And she needed help.