HELLBOUND {Sequel}

Forty-six

__Tails tried squirming, but the giant hand would not budge. The Death Egg had calmed down again, and the human was glaring at Tails through the window. The Tornado had turned around when Cream realized the giant robot wasn't following her anymore. She tried flying in close, but the Death Egg started shooting its laser vision at her. The Tornado was barely able to dodge them. Cream wouldn't be able to last up here.
__Tails started shouting when the robot stopped shooting. "Get out of the sky, Cream! You'll get hit!"
__Cream turned the plane and started circling around Tails. "What!? I can't do that!"
__Tails felt his heart and stomach sinking as he heard the laser vision getting ready to fire again. "Do as I say!" He shouted desperately. "Get out of here now!"
__Cream looked so distraught as she dived down back towards the ground. Tails felt relieved when the Death Egg didn't try attacking her on the way down.
__"Smart, boy," the old human said slowly. This made Tails turn back to him as the Death Egg brought him closer to its face to make eye contact with him. "Wouldn't want anything happening with that pretty thing."
__Tails couldn't help but feel angry as the fur on his shoulders started standing up on end. "Shut your damn mouth, disgusting freak!"
__The human buzzed his lips while waving the fox off. "I'm merely making a statement. Do you really think I'd be attracted to annoying creatures such as yourself?"
__Tails flattened his ears and started growling as he let the man continue.
__"It is such a shame your talents had to go to waste. I could've used someone like you, but you decided you'd rather be good than have everything you want."
__"I already have what I want!" Tails snapped. "Why would I ever be so stupid enough to join you!?"
__That's when Doctor Eggman started snickering. "You have everything you want?" He repeated. "I beg to differ. You've lost everything. You still don't even have the full loyalty of your allies. Those civilians have already turned their backs on you no matter how few still believe. A lot of your people have died, whether it was from my hands or not. The way things are heading, you won't even be able to rekindle any form of love."
__Tails felt insulted. "Excuse me, asshole!?"
__"It didn't take long for me to figure out what you and little Cream had going on. Who do you think convinced those two foxes to provoke her while I waited to see how you'd react?" Doctor Eggman then smirked. "You just couldn't be selfish enough to have both her and that seedrian in your life, and now you have to lose one over the other. It's so amusing watching you become so down that your friends have to work harder to compensate for your poor leadership skills!"
__Tails started shaking. He had been watching him this entire time. It was almost like he had been targeting him from the start. No. That's exactly what he had been doing. "Why me!? What do you want from me!?" Tails then gasped when he felt the robot's hand start to tighten around him.
__"Besides Sonic, you've been an annoying nusciance I've had to put up with every day of my life. I enjoyed watching you break these last few years. And if I can't drag Sonic down with me, then I'll gladly take you instead!"
__Tails felt the pressure get tighter and more suffocating. He let out a cry of agony. He couldn't tell if anything was being crushed or not. He couldn't even breathe. He was about to start panicking when...
__"Put that boy down!" Shouted a woman's voice.
__A small plasma beam shot through the arm that held Tails. The arm then proceeded to fall while letting go of Tails. The fox couldn't even comprehend what was happening as he fell with the giant arm. All he could think about was what Doctor Eggman just said. That really messed with his head. What the hell did he mean by that?
__Before Tails could hit the ground, Cream flew in and caught Tails in her arms. She carefully laid him down on the wet highway and sat down beside him. It looked like she was trying to say something, but Tails's ears were ringing. They stopped ringing when he heard someone stomping towards him and saw that it was Scourge. He had knelt down beside Cream and started pestering her with questions, which Tails still wasn't understanding. Was he dying again? He could feel a lot of pain from his chest, back, and stomach. Doctor Eggman must have broken him. Finally, he could hear everyone's words clearly.
__"I'm telling you, I don't know!" Cream cried out. "I don't want to touch him and make it worse!"
__Scourge was pulling his ears down while growling. "Dammit! Fuck!"
__Tails knew for a fact that most of his ribs were broken. He just couldn't tell if they had punctured any of his organs or not. He still didn't want to move, though. That would definitely mean death.
__More explosions could be heard from the attacking Death Egg and the remainder of the robot army. Scourge suddenly shoved Cream away and urged her to go. The rabbit had looked down at Tails regrettably before standing and running back into battle. Scourge did not move, however. He just stayed sitting beside Tails.
__"Go..." Tails managed to say. "Go and fight."
__Scourge didn't budge.
__Tails groaned as he lifted up his arm and tried pushing Scourge with the little strength he had. "I said... go!"
__"You can try all ya want, I ain't moving." Scourge muttered. He had dropped his sunglasses over his eyes and hugged his knees to his chest.
__"You have to...!"
__"Nope."
__Tails dropped his arm in defeat and just looked at the sky. It was starting to snow a little bit. Tiny snowflakes would land on his face, and he would blink rapidly when a few fell in his eyes.
__Suddenly, the nearby trash bins were tossed to the side, revealing all the robots ready to attack. This made Scourge stand up, but he still stayed close to Tails. One robot tried shooting a laser cannon at them, but Scourge started spin dashing, deflecting the attack back at the robot. This made the others charge. Scourge had to keep circling the downed fox while he pushed the robots back. Tails felt completely helpless.
__One robot had nearly gotten past Scourge when T-9 ran in and grabbed the robot by its neck before proceeding to tear it to shreds. It then helped Scourge fend off the rest of the robots when a few moebians ran over to them, two of them being Miles and Bernadette.
__Once the robots were done with, Scourge ran back to Tails and knelt down beside him. "You okay?"
__Tails groaned before replying sheepishly. "Yeah..."
__"Holy shit! What happened to you?" Miles asked while he motioned the purple hedgehog over. "Bernadette!"
__The older hedgehog made haste over to the fox while shooting Scourge away. She didn't touch him at all. "I don't like this. Something's very wrong."
__This made T-9 walk over, scaring the moebian away. Blue light shined from its eyes as it started scanning Tails's whole body. The lights suddenly turned red, and alarms started sounding from T-9's body. It immediately ran off in a hurry.
__Scourge scooted back to the fox and stared down at him with worry. "What does that mean!?"
__Tails sighed. "Critical damage; worse damage than just broken bones. I can still breathe, so my lungs aren't punctured. Can't say the same for my other organs."
__Scourge's ears drooped down. "Shit, dude..." his voice was shaking. "What can we do?"
__Tails took a bit to ponder, even though he had already known the answer. "Nothing. Can't perform an emergency surgery in this city now. It would probably be too late if somehow you could get me to the next town. You just need to go."
__Scourge leaned forward, ready to snap, but he pulled back and started growling. He saw a stone pillar nearby and went to punch it. The whole thing crumbled to smaller rocks. The other moebians stayed quiet while Scourge stood there while he shook. He slowly turned back and sat back down by Tails. He then laid down on his knees and leaned over as he lay his face in his arms. "You promised, dammit!"
__Tails couldn't help but scoff, which hurt his stomach. "I didn't ask Eggman to crush me, dick."
__T-9 suddenly came running back with Shadow in pursuit. While Scourge leaned up, T-9 motioned its snout to Tails while whining and crying. This made Shadow kneel down and examine the fox.
__"He said his organs are punctured," Scourge muttered slowly.
__Shadow had sighed and shook his head. "There's not much I can do unless I had..."
__T-9 started hacking and coughing out of nowhere. Everyone looked as it threw up the purple Chaos Emerald. It then transformed back into the little T-Pup while it nudged the emerald over to Shadow with its paw.
__This intrigued Shadow. "That'll do."
__"Really!?" Scourge asked hopefully.
__Shadow nodded while he grabbed the Chaos Emerald. "I just need someone to cover me."
__Scourge tilted his head in confusion. "Huh?"
__Out of nowhere, Sage flew in. She got ready to shoot her energy beam at Shadow, but Scourge reacted too quickly and knocked her out of the sky. He pinned her into the snow only for her to teleport away, but that didn't stop Scourge now he had a reason to fight. While the two continued to fight, Shadow scooted closer to Tails and put the emerald in his lap.
__"Is one emerald enough?" Tails rasped.
__"It is when you're me." Shadow then proceeded to remove his inhibitor rings. His Chaos Force made the cold air warmer. Much warmer. "Try not to move."
__Shadow hovered both of his hands over the fox's body and poured all of his Chaos Force into it. Tails could feel his bones and organs moving, but there was no pain. It didn't take long for Tails to feel healthy and alive again. As soon as he could, Tails sat up and shoved the inhibitor rings back into Shadow's hands. Shadow promptly slipped his rings back on and took a minute to breathe before looking at Tails. "How do you feel?"
__Tails started flexing his fingers as he tried to feel for any pain. "Good. Great, actually. Thanks, man. I thought I was dead again," he said with a smirk. He then started tittering when T-Pup jumped into his arms and kept whimpering.
__Shadow gave the emerald to Tails. "Don't let her have this."
__Tails looked up as Scourge managed to nail Sage into the closest wall. "Yep." He handed the emerald over to T-Pup, who immediately stopped crying and tried to swallow it whole. The minute it was gone, it transformed back into T-9. The giant wolf had Tails pinned to the ground while he squirmed. "Oi! I was just crushed already! Get off!" He started laughing again when T-9 backed up and sat down with a very happy tail wagging behind it.
__Scourge had yelled out after getting shot at the chest by Sage. Tails immediately ran for Scourge, and just before Shadow could make a move, a light blue aura shine around Sage. She struggled to move against it while Silver flew back over to meet them. He got a good look at the girl while Shadow went to join him.
__"This one had a sad future after this city was destroyed," Silver had sad slowly. "Records stated that she tried rebuilding the city, but over exposure to the harsh snow caused her to short-circuit and break down."
__Shadow's eyes had grown wide for barely a second before he regained his composure. "You can keep her still, can't you?"
__Silver nodded before saluting to Shadow. "How ever long you need me to, boss!"
__Sage was grunting while she continued to struggle. "Let me go!"
__That's when Shadow crossed his arms and leaned towards the floating girl. "It's about time you stopped this. Leave the war to us; the way it was always supposed to be."
__Tails had to stop himself from scoffing. Shadow almost sounded like her father there. He then turned to look at Scourge as the hedgehog scanned the fox from head to toe.
__"You're fine, right?" Scourge rasped. "You're not dying?"
__Tails smirked while carefully poking Scourge's chest, making the moebian wince and jump away. "Better than you."
__Scourge groaned and faked hitting Tails before lightly shoving the fox. "Bastard. I was actually scared."
__"You can yell at me for that later." Tails needed to get straight back to this war. "We need to change up our endgame."
__This made everyone turn to look at him.
__"What do you mean?" Miles asked with crossed arms. "Destroy the Death Egg, the army, and stop Robotnik. Isn't that all we need to do?"
__"I thought so..." Tails was finding it hard trying to figure out how to say this. "When Eggman was crushing me, he... he said something that actually terrified me."
__Scourge shook his head. "You already said he's very good at manipulation."
__"No, it's not that," Tails insisted. "He straight up told me 'If I can't take Sonic down with me, then I'll gladly take you instead' ."
__Scourge took a slow step backward.
__Shadow let out a soft sigh. "This whole damn war... just to commit suicide?"
__Tails nodded. "Afraid so. That's why he never attacked the citizens and just us. If anyone's gonna pull that off, it's us."
__"You're lying!" Sage shouted suddenly. "Father would never! He told me himself that he was claiming this world! The thought of suicide would never cross his mind!"
__Tails couldn't help but flatten his ears at the little girl's objection. If this was indeed true, of course Doctor Eggman wouldn't breathe word of this to something he called his daughter. As much as he wanted to agree with Sage, the facts were all here. "Sage, snow is often a symbolism for death. Eggman still holds the Kumori Jewel, does he not?"
__Sage fell silent. She started shaking while she closed her eyes, trying to hide her disbelief. "Father..."
__Shadow uncrossed his arms and motioned Silver to put her down. He had hesitated for a moment before reluctantly setting her down and releasing her. Shadow knelt down on one knee in front of her and waited until she made eye contact. "The facts are there. This is no longer a war. We're going to need you to help stop Eggman and bring him back to his senses."
__Sage looked taken aback. "You...?"
__Shadow shook his head. "I normally wouldn't care if he lives or dies, but I refuse to let him bring us into this battle just to kill himself. After years of cleaning up his mess, I will not allow him to take the easy way out. You're helping."
__Sage took a minute to look down at her feet. Tails's ears had twitched when she all of a sudden changed from a black dress and red particles to white and blue in less than a second. Sage then wiped away at her eye before nodding to the black hedgehog. "Okay, I'll help you. For my father."
__Shadow said nothing as he stood back up and turned to Tails. He then tilted his head at the fox.
__Tails straightened up nervously. "Uh, right! We need to stop that Death Egg and get Eggman out of there. Once we are able to restrain him to where he can't hurt himself or others, we'll be able to win this battle." Tails then swiftly turned and pointed at Scourge, which scared the moebian into jumping back. "You, Shadow, and Sonic will need to go around and tell everyone what's going on. If anyone for some reason doesn't want to go through with this plan, feel free to smack 'em on the head and tell them to leave. Got it?"
__Scourge nodded before quickly rubbing the top of the fox's head. "Careful now, bud!" He then ran off before Tails could yell at him.
__The others then started going the separate ways. Tails whistled T-9 over and waited until the robot wolf ran over before climbing back on it. He patted it on its right shoulder before saying "find my plane" and hung on tight when it started moving.
__T-9 suddenly had to stop running and froze in place. Tails looked as the Death Egg smashed its right arm against a tall building and knocked into all the other buildings. That arm turned into a cannon and tried to shoot at a group of people below when another small plasma beam came out of nowhere and blasted its hand off. The Death Egg had to stop and allow the other robots to cover for it while it had to grow back its hand. Its left arm, however, was still taking too long to grow back. Tails was really confused. There shouldn't be anyone on their side with such a weapon. Had someone joined the battlefield?
__Most of their allies went to fight the robots. T-9 went to follow them when Tails pulled on its ears and faced its head to where that plasma beam came from. He didn't even need to say anything. T-9 immediately ran in that direction. It had to hop out of other people's way, and eventually, it started to slow down at an alleyway. Tails carefully slid off of the robot wolf and went into the alley, T-9 slowly taking the lead. Tails waited for T-9's eyes to turn red, but they stayed blue. Suddenly, it jumped up and stopped dramatically. It started panting while wagging its long tail before running on ahead. Tails didn't hesitate to follow. This was definitely a friend.
__Tails started to slow down when he saw someone wearing a white and pink tie-dye (or something similar) hoodie leaning over a very shabby looking gun by his standards. They were cursing at themselves while they tried fixing the gun, which to Tails looked like it was just overheated. It took a bark from T-9 for the person to turn around and pull down the hood from their head. Tails's heart dropped. It was Sally, right there in the flesh. She was completely messy, but she was alive!
__The chipmunk stopped messing with her makeshift gun and stood up. She had two thick sticks tied with vines on both sides of her left leg in order to stand somewhat properly. She was smiling really big, but Tails knew she always smiled like that when she was trying not to cry. Tails, however, wasn't worried about his pride right now. Tears were streaming down his face as his ears drooped down. "Sally?"
__Sally barely took a step before Tails ran in and hugged her tightly, not caring that he was crying into what was actually his hoodie he had loaned to Cream. He could feel her crying, too, while she hugged him back. Tails then pulled away immediately as he grabbed her face. "That is you, right!? You're actually alive!?"
__Sally carefully removed his hands from her face and nodded. "Yep, it's actually me."
__Tails's ears perked back up as he started backing away into T-9. "But... how? I saw you get crushed!"
__"It... was a very close call," Sally said slowly. "I was lucky enough to be stuck between that robots' ball and heel. Almost lost my hand, though. It did get my watch."
__"You didn't think to come back?"
__Sally sighed while she grabbed onto her elbows and rested her arms over her stomach. "I wanted to. I really did, but I had to make sure I survived. I started bleeding again as soon as I got away. Plus, I needed to use Eggman's weapon against him. I wasn't gonna let him get away with trying to kill you along with me."
__Tails scoffed out a laugh, tears still streaming down his face. "What? That crappy thing?"
__Sally was trying not to laugh while she punched Tails's arm. "I didn't have much to work with!"
__While Tails was looking down at the plasma gun, he couldn't help but look at the small stilts where her left foot used to be. "Your foot..."
__Sally didn't bother looking. "I still hate walking right now. All I had out there were sticks and vines, and I was already risking it stealing some of Eggman's stuff to make this gun."
__Tails finally wiped away his tears before shaking his head. "It's fine! You're okay! I'll make you a new foot! You won't even miss your old one!" Tails was just so overjoyed that Sally had been alive. He should've guessed that was a possibility when Shadow failed to bring her body back. He still couldn't believe his eyes.
__"Give me another hug," Sally croaked as she pulled Tails in.
__The two squeezed each other tightly. Tails couldn't help but frown. "I'm really sorry. I'm why you're in this state." He could feel Sally shake her head against his shoulder.
__"Nonsense. I chose to go with you, and I would've gladly given up more than my foot for you." She then sighed. "I'm just sorry I didn't trust you enough. Of course you know what you're doing. You're a grown man, and I can see that even now with the number of people you brought together here."
__Tails hid his smile in Sally's shoulder. "That really means a lot... Ant Sally."
__Sally started snickering as she pulled away. "Idiot." She then crossed her arms and stared down at the gun. "Well, that thing's pretty much dead. I should just go tell everyone I'm alive and help at the sidelines." She looked at Tails and grinned. "Your orders?"
__Tails flattened his ears and cleared his throat. "Things have taken a turn, Sally. This whole attack is Eggman's suicide plan, and he plans on taking as much of us down with him. Sonic, Scourge, and Shadow should already have informed everyone of this: we have to get Eggman out of that Death Egg. We're not letting him do this."
__Sally's smile grew bigger as she patted Tails on the shoulder. "Hmph. Just like Sonic, you want to help everyone no matter who they are."
__Tails snorted. "That got me killed by The Devil last year."
__"Even so, what you tried to do wasn't a bad thing. I know that weird ass unicorn told you it's about adaptating, but you're still you. Never change."
__Tails finally settled down and felt great about accepting all of this out of nowhere. "I really missed you, Sally. Like really missed you."
__Sally sniffed and started rubbing her eyes. "Stop! You're gonna make me cry again."
__"Good! Cry like a bitch then! I thought you were dead!"
__Sally settled down to tittering. "Fair point. Now, let's get back out there!"
__"Hang on a second." Tails walked over to the plasma gun and knelt down to start examining it. "Girl, the ionized gas is leaking out. That's why it's overheating! You got a loose screw here where it's leaking out!"
__"I used a tiny flat rock as a screwdriver!" Sally retorted.
__Tails held out his hand and waited until T-9 walked over and threw up a screwdriver in his hand. Somehow, Tails knew T-9 had eaten it. He carefully tightened the screw and checked to make sure everything else was in order. There was so much he could add to this to make it real absolute, but there just wasn't time. He picked up the plasma gun and handed it to Sally. "Good as new. Just this once, I'll allow you to ride T-9 into battle after he finds my plane."
__Sally hugged her gun excitedly as she bounced on her right foot. "Hell yeah!"
__Tails carefully helped Sally climb on to T-9. After giving her hand one last squeeze, he started flying and followed the robot closely back into the broken city. They kept moving until they found the Tornado on the roof of a supermarket. In the distance, the Death Egg had fallen back while it took longer to grow back its arm that Sally had blown off. This made Tails float down and started calling everyone over as they destroyed all the robots nearby. People started gathering around in confusion with Sonic, Scourge, and Shadow in the crowd. Sage even floated down in between Sonic and Shadow, scaring some of the other mobians and humans.
__"Everyone knows now!" Tails had started shouting. "Things are extremely different! We restrict the Death Egg's movement and pull Eggman out of there! He will not use us as an excuse to find the sweet release of death! I need you all more than ever! I know! I know I haven't done anything since Sally's disappearance to earn your trust and devotion! I failed the one thing Sonic told me to do above all else right before he left! I didn't keep us together, and not in the literal sense!"
__Tails stopped to take a breath as he looked at Sonic. The blue hedgehog had his arms crossed. He looked worried, but he nodded at Tails to keep going. The Freedom Fighters had so many mixtures of emotions on their faces. Some looked confused. A lot of them seemed annoyed with what Tails had to say now. Most of them, however, were hurt and scared. Tails didn't like to see his comrades hurt. He needed to set everything straight now. He should have done this from the very beginning.
__"I've been more worried about what you all think about me... No. I've been more worried about what I think of me. I allowed my hatred for myself to get in the way in making sure we're all seeing to our common goal. The Freedom Fighters and all its allies are a family. We have to trust each other as much as we trust ourselves. This war, I can tell right now, is our final bout. We have to lean on each other, just as much as I need to lean on you. Please, I ask, I beg that you trust that I know what I'm doing now. Everyone here is my family, and all my families are having children. We have to fight now for those children's future! For our civilians' future! For our future! Follow my lead now, and we can ensure that everyone lives to see tomorrow!"
__Both Sonic and Scourge looked overjoyed. While the crowd was already looking very much moved and excited, the two Sonic's threw their fists in the air while shouting, "For tomorrow!" In unison.
__This caused everyone to start cheering and rejoice. Sage was looking around at the people in awe. This would be her first real experience in seeing so many people come together for what's right. She even smiled happily. Shadow saw this and turned his head away as he patted her on the head and messed up her hair. He crossed his arms immediately when she looked up at him, but she was still smiling. This was definitely the same Sage that fought with Sonic at the end of the frontier.
__Sonic then started clapping to get everyone's attention as he turned to the people. "And seriously, no more blaming Tails for what happened! You were acting like I never did anything so stupid and horrible while I've been in charge!"
__That made everyone grow awkwardly quiet.
__"What!?" Sally exclaimed as she slid off of T-9. She left her gun on the robot and crossed her arms. "You all blamed Tails for my epic fake out? What the hell!? I threw my own life away, excuse you!"
__Now, everyone was silent. They were all staring at Sally. Sally was looking around in confusion before she smiled awkwardly and started scratching her head. "Oh... right. I'm alive, by the way! Good to be back!"
__Shadow had uncrossed his arms and even smirked. "I knew you couldn't be dead. I couldn't find your body anywhere."
__"Father was even confused on why she wasn't to be found," Sage added. "Even I figured she had to be alive."
__Out of the crowd came Ken Khan. The monkey scrambled over to the messy chipmunk and gave her a tight hug. The two were crying and exchanging quiet words with one another. When word reached King Elias, the squirrel made his way over and waited for Ken to move before hugging his little sister with the biggest sign of relief on his face. Even Sonic ran in and hugged Sally tightly.
__"All right, all right, move!" Amy said as she pushed Sonic out of the way and hugged Sally herself. "That's my bestie here I thought was dead!"
__Sonic looked offended, but he was smiling. "Your bestie? She's practically my sister!"
__"Exactly!"
__Sonic then frowned as he looked at the princess's feet. "Sal, your foot..."
__Sally pulled away from Amy and buzzed her lips. "It's fine! Tails said he'll make me a new one!"
__"Twice now I owe her my life," Tails said while now feeling exhausted. "Eggman would've crushed me to Death in one sitting if she hadn't blown the Death Egg's arm off in time."
__More and more people started to join in. One of them being Cream. Unlike everyone who had been looking at Sally, she was looking right at Tails. He almost felt nervous.
__"Shit," Tails mumbled as he flattened his ears and started rubbing the back of his head. "Right! I'm not dead either, sooo..." Cream ran straight for the fox and hugged him, tackling him to the ground. Tails let out a big "oof" as he landed on his ass and hugged her back. He felt bad for scaring her now. "Heh. Sorry, Cream."
__"I thought..." she couldn't even finish her sentence.
__Tails pushed Cream off of him and looked directly into her eyes. "We're all here. We stop the Death Egg, stop Eggman, and stop this fruitless battle. You still with me?"
__Cream took a deep breath before she smiled. "You don't need to ask!"
__Tails made a really big smile as his two tails started swaying excitedly. "Good."