Chapter Text
“Sonic, no!” Tails screamed out mid battle. He was moving before he could really think.
Everyone was fighting to stop Eggman from taking the mysterious yet powerful Paradox Prism. Now here Sonic was, running ahead without thinking. When Tails saw Sonic roll up into a spin dash he knew he had to stop him before he barreled into the prism. There was no telling what doing that could do. He wasn't thinking, all he knew was that he was flying between Sonic and the prism in hope of stopping him. He should’ve known that wouldn’t work, that Sonic wouldn’t be able to stop in time.
“Tails!” He heard his friends; He heard Amy, Knuckles, Rouge and even Sonic shout out as he felt himself take the brunt of the spindash.
It was so fast, yet time seemed to slow down in those few milliseconds. Tails had succeeded in stopping Sonic’s spin dash, but in the process he got knocked back. He collided hard against the Paradox Prism. Reality shattered behind him. He saw a bright flash of light, crystal shard fragments flying through the air. The blast of energy seemed to engulf him, sending him adrift within a void of darkness as his mind slipped into unconsciousness.
“One day I’ll destroy that hedgehog and his miserable friends, and the world will be a brighter place for it.. a world lit by my neon.” Tails vaguely registered hearing voices through the haze in his head. Chaos his head was pounding hard. His whole body ached.
“With your smarts and my speed, there’s no battle we can’t win!” Hearing Sonic’s voice oh so faintly eased the tension that held Tails so tight. His brother always was so confident, it was infectious. How could he worry when he was around?
“The forest is the most beautiful place on earth…” Amy.. she was calming to hear too. Always so nice and willing to lend a helpful hand, or just be there to listen.
“I don’t need the details, just tell me who to smash!” How could he forget Knuckles? When the echidna was around, Tails knew they could take on anything.
“You may not like the way I do things, but I get things done.” Rouge was an interesting friend, but a good friend nonetheless. If she were around, order was guaranteed.
“Hey, I may be able to get everyone together, but there’s only one fox smart enough to come up with a plan they’ll follow.” Tails was falling now. He could feel it. Drifting farther and farther away from where he’d come from, being sucked into somewhere new.
“Who needs a mom, dad and a picket fence when I have a little bro like you Miles?” His tails tingled, like they were surging and sparking with energy. Not chaos energy- something new.
“I will rule the world- and no pesky kids are going to stop me!”
“You’ll figure this out Tails! You always do..!”
“Nothing could destroy our unbreakable bond Tails..”
~~~
Tails slowly blinked awake as he knelt on the ground. His head was abuzz and his entire body felt tingly with energy, as if he’d just touched an exposed wire and gotten a shock. With a flick of his ears he took in the sounds of his uncertain surroundings. An electric hum was constantly pulsing through the stale air, mechanical whirring flooded his senses, and not a single rustle of leaves or chirping of birds for miles upon miles.
He stood himself up, looking around through blurry vision. He was met with dull and drab buildings around, lit up by neon lights. Not even the sun was shining. It looked to be completely covered by smoke.
“Woah!-“ he yelped and flew up as some kind of vehicle came driving towards him. He hadn’t meant to go too high up, just high enough that he wouldn’t get hit. But his tails seemed to have mind of their own. Tails felt himself rocket upwards, past the rooftops of buildings and past the rails weaving in the air.
In a way he was grateful for the high up view, as it gave him a decent vantage point to get a good look at this strange new place. Wherever this was, it was far from Greenhills, it didn’t even seem close to Casino Night. It was far too industrial, beyond anything Tails had ever seen.
He tried to fly back down to land on what looked like a conveyor belt sidewalk, only for his tails to act up again. He was jettisoned to the ground, tumbling into a not so graceful descent. Which, admittedly, was a bit embarrassing. Even if no one around seemed to notice.
“What’s going on with my.. tails?” He had glanced behind him to peek at his tails to see if anything was outwardly wrong with them. There was something peculiar about them,more peculiar than his tails already were.. His normally yellow with white tips tails were now completely an emissive white, with gentle crackles of pure energy. He could only hypothesize that this energy was the cause of his haywire flying.
“Guess I’m gonna have to be careful with flying..” he mumbled to himself, letting the conveyor belt take him for a slow ride.
Okay, he needed to focus. Think. What does he know for certain in this bizarre situation. He knew he was in a strange city, that he didn’t know where his friends were, and that he had to find a way to contact his friends.
“Hey, excuse me! Where am I?” He asked the nearest mobian. He was met with an adverted gaze and silence.
“O-or maybe where I can find a map or something?” He offered up the alternative. Instead of getting an answer, he watched as the mobian hurriedly sped walked away from him. Maybe he was busy..
“Wait.. is that- Mr Big?!” His eyes lit up at the familiar face and he ran over to the big cat. “Mr Big, thank goodness.. Do you know where we are?” The cat’s expression was an uncomfortable one. Looking torn between ignoring the fox and helping him.
“Um.. where are your parents..?” The cat asked very quietly, glancing around. The question caught Tails off guard.
“I.. don’t have parents.” The immediate wince of pity from Big was painfully noticeable. And strange. Sure he doesn’t go around announcing he was abandoned as a younger kit but he’s always assumed everyone knew Sonic was his only real family.
“I just need to know where I am so I can get back to Greenhill. Please..?” To that, he got a bit more to work with. Big pointed to something in the sky, and when Tails looked, he saw a big flying egg shaped thing. It had a holographic banner spinning around and stating what he guessed was the name of this place.
New Yoke City.