Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Brothers ❯ Breaking Point ( Chapter 4 )

He got his wish. Tails watched silently as Eggman called out for his 'cowardly' opponents to show themselves. Sonic had run to meet with Shadow, Rouge, and Omega, the former of which wanted their Emeralds back. So it was just him, Amy, and Knuckles. He moved to go out to start the fight when his right tail was jerked on.

"Miles!" a voice whispered.

Tails turned to see his tormentors hiding behind a building. "What?"

"Get back here! He'll kill you!"

Tails blinked. "No he won't. I've been fighting him for over a year and he hasn't managed to yet."

With that, and leaving shocked faces behind him, he turned and sped over to stand in front of Eggman.

"Give us those Emeralds, Egghead!" Tails said boldly. "Shadow and Rouge want theirs back!"

"They're mine now, little pest! Is it just you I'm fighting today or is that Blue Blunder here?"

"Can it, Eggman!" Knuckles barked, dashing out to stand beside Tails. Amy followed.

"Ooh hoo! So Blue Blunder isn't here! This'll be too easy! Attack!"

The robots launched out of the enormous machine behind Eggman. Eggman himself was in a giant suit of metal and machinery. It possessed his customary colors of red, black, and yellow.

"What're we doin' Tails?" Knuckles asked in a low voice as the robots armed their guns.

"Nothing!" Lily screeched, lunging forward.

"Lily!" Tails heard the guns click in place, and he made his decision. He hadn't flown in front of anybody from his town. Now he had no choice. He started his tails as Amy and Knuckles each grabbed her in one hand, and his ankles with the other. He launched himself up and flew as high as he could before dashing forward, forcing the robots to turn. Tails got an enormous burst of satisfaction from the townsfolks' cries of amazement. He kicked out hard and Knuckles and Amy shot off, hitting the ground and unrolling. They dropped Lily.

"Stay here, sis!" Tails said as Amy leaped up and grabbed his ankles. Knuckles grabbed hers.

"B-but, Miles!"

"No buts. That is a direct order. Stay out of the way! That moron hasn't managed to kill me yet, and he won't get me this time!"

"I'll show you who's a moron, Shorty!"

The fight began. Despite his strength, Tails noticed that Knuckles was doing minimal damage to the outer shell. Amy was taking care of the little robots, so Tails began to do what he did best. He began to think. Dodging missiles, he flew around, drawing a mental picture. He finally whistled.

"Amy! I need you to give us a speed boost!"

"Kinda busy, Tails!"

"Move!" Tails counted the robots left and pulled out eight hand bombs. He tossed them with pinpoint accuracy then detonated them. That took care of the robots.

The young fox didn't spare a single thought for the townsfolk, but that didn't mean they weren't watching with gaping mouths. This was their little Miles Prower? Nearly everybody became nervous. He was apparently quite the powerful little fox now. And they had been making fun of him. They watched as Tails armed more bombs.

"These are electro! They should disable the shield, but only for a few seconds. You need to launch Amy as fast and hard as you possibly can at the center of the chests about a foot down, Knuckles!"

"Got it!" Knuckles barked then looked worriedly at Amy. "But…she's not Sonic, Tails."

"I can take it, no problem!" Amy laughed.

"Get ready then!"

Tails bounced the bombs several times then threw them, screaming, "Now!" a second later.

There was a grunt as Knuckles flung a spinning Amy at the thing's chest. The electricity zapped and there was a huge bang! as Amy nailed it right where Tails had wanted. She hit the ground with the machine, and Tails shot forward to begin pulling critical lines and wires that controlled movement. The giant exosuit began buzzing and twitching. The glass dome shot up to reveal, to no surprise for the Team Sonic crew, that it was a secondary vehicle.

There was a sharp whining whistle and Sonic and Shadow slammed into it. The six Chaos Emeralds scattered over the ground, but, to the complete expectancy of the Sonic Team and the Shadow Team, they gathered around the wreckage to stare at a dummy.

"I swear that man is faster than Sonic," Rouge laughed.

"Watch it, Rouge," Shadow snorted. "Sonic might hit you over that one."

Sonic glared at them as they snickered together. Tails collected all the Emeralds, subspacing all but the purple and the red.

"Here ya go," Tails said jovially, holding them out.

"I get two," Shadow said as Rouge snagged her purple one greedily.

"Do you now?" Knuckles asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Yes, he does," Sonic said. "It is extremely hard to beat him, and we need to spread the Emeralds out. He's going to hide one and use the other, Knuckles, you will get one, Tails will get one, and I will get one. You can either keep it or hide it, but keep in mind that Egghead will get it eventually."

"What color do you want?" Tails asked.

"Does it look like I care, Shorty?"

"Watch it, Shadow. I'll fight you over that sort of thing," Sonic promised.

"Fine. Give me the stupid turquoise one."

Tails did so, and Team Shadow left as quickly as they'd come. Knuckles frowned. "I don't get them, Sonic."

"They have a different upbringing. And all of them are older than all of us. Especially Shadow. Just don't think about it," Sonic muttered. "Now, who wants to place bets on a tunnel?"

"It's either that or Metal Sonic again," Amy growled. "Now that was annoying!"

Knuckles lifted the suit away and Tails snorted. "A tunnel. Big surprise."

"Yes, you are," Lily said as she approached. The rest of the town came out of hiding, staring at Tails with big, frightened eyes.

"What?"

"You…You beat that thing."

"Huh? Oh, yeah, but Knuckles and Amy helped me."

"No. You beat that thing," Tease said.

"They helped."

"But they coulda fought it for hours and not done any damage! You figured out how to hurt it!"

"Um…" Tails looked around, and he suddenly understood why Sonic had left Christmas Island. He weighed his options for a second then decided to show off. "Yeah. I did. I figured that an electric current would stop the shield generator from firing. It's Eggman, so the shield would have a backup power source, so I had to shut them both down, and these bombs that I made give quite the pow, so I figured five of them should disable it long enough for a chance of a direct tactical hit if timed right."

Dead silence. Even Knuckles and Amy were gaping at him. Sonic was clearly trying not to laugh. Trixie blinked, the least dazed.

"But how did you know what wires to pull?"

"Simple. The amount of machinery inside forces a dense series of coiled gears. The mainframe of the computer used to power the machine would have to be in the very center, so a direct attack against that is discouraged. However, because of how coiled it is, there is no room for the lines to run to the rest of the machine to give commands. That presents quite the problem, but the outer casing is raised ever so slightly from the rest of the metal, meaning that the controls go from the mainframe to the outside of the inner casing to go to the rest of the parts to control them. A hit in the very middle of the chest would prove a great asset, assuming we could get through the outer layer. I had no doubt we would, and I simply pulled the power lines that controlled the movement of the weapons, arms and legs, leaving it helpless. Any questions?"

They were gaping again, and Sonic bumped Amy and Knuckles, who were trying to process this. He winked then spoke up.

"I have one."

"Yes, Sonic?"

"How long did it take you to figure that out?"

Tails beamed, happy Sonic was playing along. "Oh, half a minute tops."

Knuckles and Amy burst out laughing. "Wow, Tails, I forget how smart you are sometimes!" the echidna crowed.

"I won't, after that!" Amy exclaimed.

The foxes were frowning. "You're lying," Tease growled.

"I could open the casing and prove it," Tails said; he figured this would happen, and he was prepared.

Tease stormed up, and Tails stood tall, his blue eyes blazing. He knew it would hurt, and he knew that Sonic, Knuckles, and Amy believed that Tease wouldn't do it. His brother was going to prove them wrong.

The strike was quick and painful, and he felt his eye swelling immediately. Lily screamed as Sonic and Amy jerked him back, and Tails saw Knuckles send Tease through a full-grown tree. The foxes backed up, looking frightened.

"Okay," Sonic growled. "Now you've pissed me off!"

"Us, Sonic," Knuckles snarled, purple eyes practically glowing in hatred. "He has pissed us off. And he has done so royally."

Tease was bleeding from one cut on his face and five on his back. He had, to the great pleasure of the others, a black eye.

"You freaks belong together!" he spat. "Get out of our lives!"

"You can't do that! Just because Father and Mother aren't here, that doesn't make you leader!" Lily shrieked. She and Trixie had dashed over to stand between them.

"Hey Tails? You wanna to know something? Something Mommy and Daddy never told you?" Tease demanded.

"Don't you dare," Trixie said in a low voice.

Tease shoved by them and got as close as Sonic and Knuckles would let him, staring into his younger brother's eyes.

"The doctor wanted to kill you at birth. Mom and Dad agreed without a second thought. It was Liliana that saved your sorry butt. She stole you and ran away. By the time we found you, you were fully aware. No baby should be that aware, but you were. You've always been the little freak of the family. Too smart for your own good. And those ridiculous tails of yours. You're a monster, and you will always be a monster."

"You son of a—!" Sonic roared, but Tails interrupted by pushed through, facing down his biological brother.

"Yeah? Well I've researched my abnormality. It's genetic, and once appears, it stays. Do you know what that means? It means that you and Lily have a hundred percent chance of passing on the gene, and a fifty percent chance of producing a monster like me! So you're just going to have to kill all the children that have two tails. Because they will be there. I know you always wanted a little fella to be just like you. Well, he can be in every way. Except he'll have two tails!"

Tails had been palming something for the duration of the speech. He slammed the item on Tease's chest. Tease looked down to see a blinking light.

"See how you like this, mother—"

"Tails!" Sonic, Knuckles, and Amy gasped as he pressed the button. Electricity zapped along the fox's body and he collapsed when it had dissipated.

"Fifty thousand volts sure hurts, don't it?" Tails mocked then stepped over his brother, launched himself in the air, and stormed off.

He flew as fast as he could, blinded by tears, and he didn't care if he got lost. He must have flown for fifteen minutes before he was grabbed and pulled to the ground. He screamed, fighting desperately, but he was held still. When he became aware of things, he found himself in Knuckles' arms. Sonic and Amy were watching him worriedly.

"You okay, Tails?" Sonic asked gently.

"I don't know. I knew they had said that, but I made myself forget," Tails said hoarsely.

"How did you know?" Amy asked.

"I have an eidetic memory. Tease said that I was aware? That's what he meant. I bit the doctor. But not because I understood what he was saying, or what was going to happen. But because Lily was screaming and crying. She had fed me milk, and watched me for a few days, so I loved her as much as my tiny mind could at that point. I remember her muttering, and now I can decipher what she was saying. They really did want to kill me."

"I'm sorry, Tails. I'm sorry," Sonic said, pulling him into his blue arms.

Tails cried some more then just lay there, breathing steadily. Sonic sat him up when he figured he was calm enough.

"Tails…You can't say those sorts of things."

"What sorts of things?" Tails asked.

"What you said to your brother. The MF word."

"Oh. I'm sorry. I know it was bad, but…he just wanted to hurt me. So I needed to hurt him back."

"I don't think any of us blame you for zapping the idiot," Knuckles said with a nod. "But you are not old enough to curse. Especially not like that. You can't say it again."

"If any of us hear it, or hear about it, I think we'd all agree punishment is in order," Amy added.

Tails looked down into his lap. They all sounded serious. And upset. But he couldn't conjure any more tears. So he sniffled and nodded.

"I'm sorry. I didn't think about what I was saying. I won't do it again."

"Good," Sonic said, rubbing his head affectionately. "Now, let's go get some food. The Windy City is nearby, and I'm up for some Chicago-style pizza!"

"Yum!" Tails exclaimed.

"You flyin', buddy?" Sonic asked, grabbing Knuckles wrist and turning to look at him.

"I…No. I don't think so. I'm tired."

He didn't mean physical tiredness, and everybody knew it. Nobody mentioned it, though, and Sonic grabbed the outstretched wrist.

"Wanna race, Amy?"

"Haha, no," she said blandly. "Just make sure I can keep up, Sonic."

"You got it, Ames."

They took off in a blur, and Tails fought to get the laughter out of his head. His tracker beeped, and he pulled out the device to look at the screen. He paled. It had pinpointed the last Emerald. He wanted to curse again.