Escape Reality (DISCONTINUED)

Sucked In

Above the land of endless grains of sand, a single luminous light flashed in the sky. Below the thick clouds, the mobian friends who were sucked into the digital world dropped out.

At a high rate of speed, they scattered from the centre and across the atmosphere, falling from an altitude close to the sun. They glanced at each other's petrified faces while yelling for help and squirming helplessly in the air.

"Stay calm, everyone!" Sonic shouted among all the screams and shouts. As always, he was ready to save his friends. "Okay—Charmy, Cream; Tails, get to the rescue!"

"Hm-mmh!" Cream nodded. Her Chao buddy, Cheese, appeared beside her in a hurry. As a team, they fluttered in another direction once her ears began flapping.

"Don't worry guys, I am helping too!" Tails shouted, feeling a bit of guilt as he said. He turned his body upright in the air and spun his large yellow tails in a propeller-like motion.

When he was finally able to control his body in the fast-moving wind, he immediately flew up higher to catch his falling friends. His first thought was to save Sonic. He hovered to his blue buddy and hooked his hands underneath his arm, heaving Sonic upward to prevent himself from falling fast with him.

"Help anyone else but me! I can manage on my own, okay bud?" Sonic said.

Tails took his command and let go of Sonic. The blue hedgehog returned falling through the air which he felt the feeling was awesome. The hovering fox flew off to rescue someone else.

"Wheeeeeee!" laughed Charmy.

"Charmy! Get over here and lift us!" Vector called to the bee who was whizzing mindlessly in the air.

"I carry you?" he asked innocently, lowering his flight level. He watched his friends struggling in the air as they kept plummeting.

"Espio too!" Vector added.

"Do you think I look like the size to carry two people?" Charmy put on a cheeky face.

"Save one of us—we're about to hit the ground!" Vector said, reaching his hand out and grabbing onto Charmy's small leg.

"Woa—AHHHHHHHhhhhhh!" the bee's shriek dropped down. Charmy was pulled so suddenly by Vector's humongous weight that his wings could no longer work as they had just frozen.

"Let go of me! You're going to break my wings!" the bee wailed, wriggling and shaking the large crocodile off.

"What?" Vector exclaimed, now growing angry. He was still clinging onto Charmy while the noisy bee tried to toss him off.
"Don't shake me off! I'm the leader, you must rescue me first!" Vector snapped.

Tails went past Vector and saw that the rest of the squad was managing okay. He found Cream fluttering close to save Amy, which he noted the pink hedgehog was rescued.

He focused to see if someone else needed his help. In the corner of his eyes, he spotted a purple figure patiently falling, waiting for the rescue to come to him.

Tails took the chance and swiftly scooped Espio up before they reached the ground.
"Thanks, Tails," Espio said after his feet tapped on the sand. "You need to go and save Vector and Charmy, they seem to be having trouble."

"No problem, I will go to them as fast as I can!" Tails said with an exclamation before taking off again.

Tails was stopped as a huge gust of sand blew across his eyes, enabling him to see properly. He desperately tried to rub out the grains from his eyes but more hit him in the face.

Looking above, an identical yellow fox also soared through the rough wind. It caught the green and yellow friends and held onto them while bringing them down.

"What?" Tails said to himself, astonished by his identical self hovering in front of him. Nonetheless, he was relieved they were safe. Tails ignored the surprising thought and whizzed over to assist them.

Shortly, Cream managed to carry Amy down to safety while Sonic had already landed and was stretching patiently for others to arrive.

The two foxes took each person in their hands and alighted quickly with them. "Thanks," Tails gently rubbed his eyes, and to the same fox face, he slowly said the rest, "-Tails?"

"Hey, where have I seen you?" the other Tails mused with wondering eyes.

Tails walked about with his fingers cupped underneath his chin. "Wait for a second, if you're the Tails that I've played earlier in the game, this means that—"

He snapped at his steps and gasped in horror.
"We are in the game!?"

After a couple of minutes, most of the mobians had settled down, except for Vector and Charmy who were still arguing.
"That didn't just happen, am I dreaming?" Charmy tiredly wheezed and laid on top of Vector's head.

"Hey!" the large crocodile complained, lifting the bee boy off of him.

"Let him rest, Vector. After all, he's attempted to save your life," Espio reminded, then he walked away to view how the others were doing.

Vector squinted his eyes and bulged them out. "But you ain't sleeping on me."

Meanwhile, Amy, Sonic and Cream were trying to adjust to their new environment, looking everywhere. It was obvious that they were stranded now. In the middle of nowhere.

"What is this place?" Amy asked the question that everyone was thinking.

"This isn't our home," Cream squeaked, gently holding Cheese in her arms.

"Hey, I don't see Knuckles," Sonic instantly mentioned. He raised his hand over his eyes to view the desert around him but there was no sign of the red echidna scrambling anywhere.

"He's not here," the other Tails stated.

This, made the first Tails gasp again. Suddenly noticing two identical foxes standing right in front of her, Amy began to panic and clung to Sonic's arm. "Why are there two Tails? Which one is our Tails?"

"You remember when I picked a "Tails" to play my game. I guess, he doesn't disappear while we are gone from the other side," Tails said, gesturing to his identical virtual "twin".

"The worst case is that we've been sucked into this game without an easy way out," Sonic said.

"If Knuckle isn't here, then he's probably still in the house! We might still have a chance!" Tails jumped up, almost feeling hopeful about it.

"Trust me, he's just going to end up like where we are right now," Sonic predicted with a grin.

"If this is a game, there will always be a start and an end to this. I designed this game, I can say so myself. It's my fault you guys are trapped here, so I'm going to get you out!" Tails bravely told them.

"Hey, Tails. Don't beat yourself up," Sonic laid a palm on Tails' shoulder. "We are all a team here, don't try to be on your own."

With a sigh, Tails nodded respectfully and smiled. Sonic responded with a wider smile, which made the two Tails laugh. Hearing the other Tails laugh, he directed another speech to him.
"And as for you, do you mind coming along with us? We could use another Tails for the adventure," Sonic gestured his hand to the second Tails.

"Of course, Sonic! We're all a team here!" the second Tails said with a friendly chuckle, accepting Sonic's hand.

"We need to give you a nickname, so we won't get the Tails mixed up," Sonic told his friends behind him. He then suddenly beamed with an idea.

"Hmm, Tails Junior," he chimed.

"What do you think?" Tails spoke to his twin.

"Tails Junior, I'll accept that," Tails (now named Junior) replied.