Like Old Times, a short story

Departure

Alright, first, some context. Since I'm not starting off with us waking up like Tails usually does, I need to explain what's going on.

It's a Friday in September. Maybe 11:00 AM, right before we're about to get out of school on early release. Me and Tails are sitting in class, just waiting for that bell. They always put math at the end of the day on Fridays, and we're both rather adept with numbers, so it's getting boring.

Of course, we'd chosen to sit next to each other when the year started.

The teacher was going on about something easy like the Pythagorean theorem. I noticed Tails was writing something (the teachers all let him do whatever since they know how far ahead he is) and leaned over to take a look.

"What are you working on this time?" I asked quietly.

"Just the epilogue to the story about how I ended up in this world," he said. "I think I'm just... about... done." He lifted his pencil and muttered something about his wrist, not loud enough for me to hear. (I suppose I should mention that he finds it hard to write for long periods of time, and really wishes he was allowed to bring a laptop or something...)

I skimmed over his distinct, scribble-like writing and nodded. "Looks good to me," I told him.

His watch, something he'd worn to school ever since the incident with Fox (which, now that I think about it, would be as long as he's actually gone to school), started beeping at that moment. By the pattern of beeps I knew it was Sonic calling him, and he obviously did too.

He raised his other hand. "Mr. Johnson?"

No response. He shook his head as if he was remembering something and tried again.

"Jim?" (He likes us to call him by his first name for some reason.)

"Yes, Tails?" the teacher replied.

Tails gestured to his watch, which was getting louder by the second. "This is important. Do you mind if me and Lu step outside to see what's going on?"

"No, not at all. I know you two already understand all this anyway." He gave a soft chuckle at that.

I followed Tails outside into the hall. He acknowledged his watch.

A second later, Sonic's voice came through. "Tails? You here?"

"I'm here. What's the matter?"

Sonic took a deep breath. He sounded tired. "It's Eggman again. His robots are getting better. They fly and have lasers now, apparently. They're too fast for me to get one without having to worry about another hitting me, and Knuckles can't seem to brute-force them down... we need you, buddy. Come now, and come alone. I can't have you risking any more lives than you need to."

"I'll be there in 10 minutes." He ended the call. "You heard him, Lu. Alone. I shouldn't be gone for very long anyway."

I put my head on his shoulder and sort of fell into a soft hug. "Don't die." I couldn't tell if I was being serious or not. "You're too sweet for that."

"You know I won't. I'll be fine."

I let him go. He took off at maybe 200 miles an hour. (He's been doing a lot of work on his "off-the-line" acceleration, it would have taken him several seconds to get there in June.)

I went back into the classroom.

"Back already, Lusius?" Jim asked me.

"Yeah, I guess..."

"Where's Tails?"

I paused for a second, unsure how to say "a 12-year-old kid had to go save the world in a different universe" without making him freak out.

Finally I started. "You've heard of Sonic the Hedgehog, right?"

"Of course," he told me. "Who hasn't?"

I shrugged. "Not sure. But anyway... you know how his sidekick and best friend is called Tails?"

"Yeah..."

I wasn't sure if he understood where I was going yet, so I followed up a bit. "The Tails you've been teaching... that's the same Tails. He's originally from a different universe, and he had to go help the rest of Team Sonic save it again."

His jaw hit the floor. "That's... that's impossible... quantum theory prevents travel between universes..."

"I thought the same thing. But he's here, and he's real. And... he's also... sort of my cousin."

At that point his jaw would have gone through the floor if it could. "What?"

"You want me to prove it?"

"Sure."

I gestured to a window in the room. "Open those blinds."

As he moved to do that, I sprinted into the hall, out of the building, and past that window before going back into the classroom.

He was barely sitting back down when I opened the door. "Did you catch it?"

"I saw a bit of dust kicked up next to the window, that's it. And maybe a reddish bl—" His eyes were locked on my mane. "That... that was you?"

"That was me."

He shook his head. "At this rate I'm not going to be able to teach anything else, my brain will be scrambled..." The bell went off just then. "Perfect timing. Class dismissed."

I left the room quietly, after it was already mostly cleared out. It was something I'd done for as long as I could remember, as a way to hide from all the crowds.

Shelby caught me at the front door. "I saw you outside. What were you doing?"

"Short answer is that I needed to prove I was related to Tails."

"Where is Tails, actually? You two usually leave together..."

I shook my head. "Sonic business. Eggman decided to attack, as usual. Sonic said he had to go alone, to minimize the risk, so... I'm here."

"You won't be for long. Luke called me earlier, said some sort of emergency meeting came up that he needed to deal with. Must be pretty important, I know how he is with making sure you're home..."

I was confused. "Basically you're trying to tell me that you need to give me a ride back?"

"Yeah."

I followed him a bit off the campus to his car.

"Did you restripe it?" I asked. It looked like it.

"Good eye. I thought the rally stripe suited a car like the RS more."

"It looks good."

He opened the door and got inside. I slid into the passenger seat next to him. "New steering wheel too?"

"Wanted something smaller, easier to handle. Wait until you hear how it sounds..."

He started the engine. It came to life with a rather odd sound, something between a scream, a roar, and a purr.

"Let me guess, bigger turbo."

"Nope." He gestured to the hood, which was raised in the middle, something that wasn't stock for that car. "No turbo. It's supercharged now. Would make 500 horsepower easy, but I need new tires for that so it's only at about 410 right now until I get the money for those. Still 60 over stock."

I leaned back a bit. "This'll be fun..."

He pulled out of the lot and started on the way.