The Nine-Tailed Fox: World In Ruins

Chapter One: Where Am I?

Greetings prospective readers, and welcome back to The Nine-Tailed Fox: World In Ruins! Well, that last chapter came out to fairly positive reception, so onward we go! Also, big thanks to madSQUIRREL for giving me some useful ideas on how to handle this story.

And on that note, let us start the game!

Chapter I

Where Am I?

West Side Island-Near The Village Ruins

"DAMAGE CATASTROPHIC. DAMAGE CATASTROPHIC. DAMAGE CATASTROPHIC." blared a female computer voice alongside the alarm inside the only remaining part of what appeared to have been a highly advanced ship of some kind: the cockpit.

Stirring from unconsciousness was what appeared to be a male Mobian Fox of around eighteen with two organic tails and seven mechanical ones infused into his back, wearing a dark gray shirt with grayish blue and yellow linings over a hood, black pants, a dark gray belt attached to a silver buckle, a gear-like bracelet on his left wrist, dark gray and white shoes with a gear on the toes, dark gray cuffs, thin black straps, and gray soles. The fox's left glove was black with white stripes and fingertips, while his right glove was completely white. However, for some reason, it looked as though the outfit was much too small for the young fox. This fox was named Miles Prower, but he prefered to go by the name of Tails Nine, or just Nine for short.

"Ugh... five more minutes, Mommy..." Nine grumbled groggily before his eyes shot open. "Wait a minute, I don't have a Mom!" he cried as he took a look around and quickly assessed his situation and determine how he came to be in it.

Nine had been conducting some test flights with his recently-built ship, the Kyuubi . More specifically, he was conducting tests on an improved prototype of his patented Shatter Drive, a sort of engine that harnessed the omnipotent power of a fragment from the cosmic keystone that, according to a blue hedgehog named Sonic that Nine had recently met, was called the Paradox Prism. Something had gone wrong with the Drive, and despite Nine's efforts to shut the ship down, the Shatter Drive detonated, and Nine couldn't remember anything after that.

Nine frowned. For some reason, it felt as though this wasn't the first time he tried to harness the power of an omnipotent rock and it resulted in an engine malfunction of some sort. Nine wondered if this had anything to do with Tails, his counterpart who was apparently BFFAEs with Sonic to the point that the blue hedgehog had thought of his counterpart as a younger brother.

Nine felt a small pang of sadness at the thought of Sonic, but he was quick to snuff it out. He was NOT emotionally attached to Sonic in any way, shape, or form. He didn't need a bunch of cuddle-buddies to snuggle up with. He had been just fine before he had met Sonic, and he would be just fine now. Besides, Sonic had been consumed by the Prism Shard, it was next to impossible for the hedgehog to still be alive.

Nine shook his head. He needed to focus on getting out of this situation and not getting all sappy. As he shook his head, Nine looked down at himself and quickly realized that his outfit was much too small for him now to the point where it was ripped and coming apart at the seams, and that he had grown much taller and seemed to be slightly more muscular. Checking behind him, Nine realized that his two organic tails were longer and fluffier, while his mechanical tails were much smaller by comparison.

Fascinating... thought Nine as he looked at his seemingly older form. I wonder if that blast had something to do with this? Either way, looks like I'm going to have to find some materials in order to upgrade my tails and my clothes... good thing both my clothes and my tails were custom-made by me.

Shaking his head to return his focus to the task at hand, Nine unbuckled his pilot harness and called upon his robotic tails to tear open an exit through his cockpit and climbed out of the ship through it.

The first thing that Nine noticed when he emerged completely from the ship was just how bright it was here, despite a gloomy gray overcast overhead. Another thing Nine noticed was just how much green was all around him, both on the ground, on the trees, and all around him. In all honesty, Nine would never have guessed this much green existed in the entire Shatterverse or beyond it.

The last thing Nine noticed was the rain. It was very different from the acidic rain that was essentially a natural disaster back in New Yoke City due to the incredibly high concentration of smog and pollution. This rain, apart from not turning him into a meaty, furry sludge, felt nice as it fell on him and soaked his fur and clothes… and there was something about it that brought some sort of comfort to Nine, as though some higher power was telling him that everything would be okay.

Nine shook his head. He needed to do less lollygagging and more focusing on the situation at hand. Turning to look back at the Kyuubi , Nine couldn't help but grimace when he saw that the only remnants of his ship was part of the front half of the ship and the cockpit, which unfortunately meant that not only was he stuck here in scenic wherever-the-hell-this-place-was, but that the Prism Shard was gone and for all he knew, in a completely different universe/Shatterverse/dimension, meaning that he wasn't going to be able to get back to New Yoke anytime soon, if at all.

Great. Just great, Nine thought bitterly before looking to his left and finding what seemed to be some sort of pathway. Hmm... maybe this will lead me to some sort of settlement where I can at least stay the night... even if they require a little... persuasion... either from my tails or my blaster pistol.

And with that, Nine tried to hoist himself into the air using his robotic tails, only for the fox's newly increased size and body weight to be too much for his mechanical tails to carry, resulting in the robotic appendages giving out and Nine falling flat on his ass, much to his annoyance.

"I need to gather materials to upgrade my tails and fix my clothes as soon as possible," muttered Nine as he pulled himself up off the ground and proceeded to walk down the path.

GUN Trooper Transport-Several Miles Offshore From West Side Island

"All right people, here's the situation," the GUN Squad leader, a red furred wolf with black thick rimmed glasses clad in tactical gear as he addressed his five-man team, which was comprised of a mixture of humans and Mobians alike. "The short of it is, the nerds in the lab picked up an energy reading coming from West Side Island that doesn't match anything GUN or the Resistance has on record. Our job is to head there, identify the source of the energy, and secure and/or neutralize it."

The wolf Mobian frowned as he noticed a sense of unease coming from his team. In truth, he had anticipated this. "Yes, I know you all have concerns about this mission, considering that Prower came from West Side Island. But, need I remind you that Prower's been ashes for six months thanks to Sonic and we've secured all that fox freak's bases and staging areas," he said.

"Yeah, but it took Sonic eight years to take him down," one of the other soldiers said.

"Not to mention that no one has been able to actually get into Prower's bases or staging areas, not with the genetically protected energy fields over the base and staging area grounds," another soldier said.

The Mobian wolf sighed. "Look, I'm gonna be straight with you guys, I have concerns myself that Prower could have left some sort of insidious parting gift behind, but we can't worry about that right now. That fox bastard is dead, gone, and is nothing but ashes in the ocean. More importantly, I need you guys to focus. We have a job to do," he said as he turned to look out the cockpit window.

"Besides... what are the odds that energy signature actually has something to do with Miles Prower?"

Ha ha... irony. In any case, that's a wrap on Chapter One! If you liked what you saw here, then be sure to vote, comment, and be sure to join us next time as Nine discovers the destroyed village, and runs afoul of the GUN Soldiers! See you then!

Oh, and if you can guess who the team leader of the GUN Soldiers is supposed to be, you win all the lint in my pocket.

Oh, and Happy New Year!