Miles Prower only knew his last name from a card left with him when he was a baby. For all his life he wondered why his parents abandoned him, maybe it’s because he was a freak...
Miles was a yellow fox with blue eyes and two white-tipped tails. As far as he knew he had been born that way and since he had been able to walk he had been teased and bullied for it; it had even given him his nickname, Tails. Despite this he found comfort not with the other children his age but with machines.
He started by taking apart whatever old machine he could get his hands on then by putting them back together, sometimes even better than before. He got his hands on whatever kind of reading material he could find to learn more about the world and machines. That didn’t stop the bullying though and Tails often found his new inventions smashed by the other kids. He wasn’t sure if the adults knew but Tails was too nervous to go to them. After all, none of them had wanted to adopt him...
The older he got, the more awkward Tails felt. At first he just felt it was because of the same reasons he was bullied: his intellect and twin tails, but the more he thought about it the less that made sense, especially since he was able to mostly avoid the bullies these days.
It was shortly after Tails’ thirteenth birthday that he found himself wandering around the village square, staring at one of the stores that sold clothing. Why did this interest him? He only ever wore shoes, socks, gloves and nothing else.
“Hey, Tails. What’cha looking at?” The feminine voice made Tails turn to see Zooey, his only real friend in the village. She was a vixen the same age as him, though slightly paler yellow and wearing a red dress; she was fully a head taller than him now as she had hit a growth spurt recently.
“Hi Zooey, I’m just kinda window shopping,” Tails chuckled nervously.
“For clothes? Or just shoes?” Zooey turned to look at the display.
“Sort of, I mean it’s just something on my mind,” Tails looked at the display briefly then back to Zooey.
Zooey smiled at him and offered a hand, “Want to get lunch with me?”
Tails stared at her hand awkwardly before he took it and shuddered slightly, “OK. Where?”
“The Meh Burger should be good,” Zooey’s face had lit up as soon as Tails took her hand and she led him towards the fast-food place.
The walk to the Meh Burger made Tails feel uncomfortable and he was relieved when they sat down with their food. Zooey was smiling the whole time even as Tails dug in to the mediocre but still comforting food.
“So what have you been up to lately?” Zooey had barely touched her food even as Tails dug in.
Tails paused to swallow and wipe his face with a napkin before he replied, “Well, I’ve been looking into the ancient mechanical ruins, or at least trying to.”
“You mean under the giant mountain?” Zooey stared at him in wonderment then went back to eating as Tails continued.
“Yeah, it’s supposed to be the biggest unexplored ruin on the planet but no one’s ever gone in to find out what’s in there,” Tails got a faraway look in his eyes, “I can only imagine what I’d dig up there. Maybe even find out about those ancient ‘humans’ that used to rule Mobius. I’m almost ready to go there.”
Zooey had finished her small meal by the time Tails finished and she smiled at him, “You’re so smart, Tails, and so cute!”
Tails blushed at the compliments and rubbed the back of his head, “Thanks, Zooey. You’re cute too, I’m kinda jealous.” The last phrase just slipped out.
“You don’t need to be,” Zooey reached across the short table to take Tails’ hand again, which made him freeze. “I love hearing about what you’re working on, like that biplane you’ve been building all year. I’ve always wondered what it would be like to fly, so I told everyone not to bother you about it.”
“Oh... uh... thanks,” Tails was feeling increasingly uncomfortable.
“Actually, Tails,” Zooey shuffled her feet nervously under the table, “I wanted to tell you something today. I like you, Tails, a lot. I mean I have a crush on you, you’re so smart and cute, I like talking with you and your two tails are so unique.” She smiled at him, “I’d like to go on a date with you, I mean like a real planned date not just a meal at a half star fast-food place.”
“Hey!” the shout came from the Meh Burger’s manager, Dave, but both foxes ignored him.
“Well, Tails?” Zooey leaned forwards.
Tails had been staring at Zooey the whole time with increasing apprehension. He could tell she was sincere but why did it feel so... wrong?
He carefully pulled his hand from her grip and watched her face fall as he spoke, “I’m sorry, Zooey, but I... I don’t think I can, I mean...” He took a deep breath, “I don’t think of you like that and it feels so weird. Sorry, I just don’t want to go out with you.”
Zooey got up without a word, starting to cry as she turned and at first walked then started to run away in tears. Everyone stared at Tails as he watched her go. He felt their eyes bore into him, judging and criticizing him with just their gaze. Tails had to get up and run home with his twin tails spurring him onwards, spinning like propeller blades.
Tails shut the hangar door behind him and leaned back against it, panting less from the dash over and more from the stress. Why did he run? Why did what Zooey said make him feel so wrong all of a sudden? She was cute and probably the only friend he had... maybe not anymore though. Tails did his best to push the thoughts from his mind by looking at his red biplane, which he had named “The Tornado”.
Tails was going over various mechanical checks on the Tornado when he heard banging on the hangar’s door.
“HEY! TWO-TAILED FREAK! LET US IN! YOU’RE GOING TO PAY FOR MAKING ZOOEY CRY!”
Tails’s fur stood on end, his biggest bully had come around probably to smash up his work and his plane. Tails made a snap decision, grabbing all the travel supplies he had been gathering he dumped them into the passenger’s seat of his plane then hopped in as he saw the hangar door start to be forced open. He grabbed a soup-can sized smoke bomb he had made, pulled the pin and rolled it under the small gap they had forced open.
“What’s that, AUGH!” The hissing and shouts followed by coughing told Tails it had worked.
“Now I just need everything else to work,” Tails hit the hangar door controls and flew into the Torando’s cockpit, starting the engine as the door opened. The bullies were still coughing in the smoke as Tails accelerated, forcing them to dodge aside to avoid the wings and propeller blades and before they could act Tails was in the air.
Tails only vaguely heard the threats from below before he was out of hearing range. They would probably take their rage out on everything he left behind but that didn’t matter, he was never going back. He turned to fly west, towards the ancient mechanical ruins, pulled on his flight goggles and accelerated to the maximum safe flight speed.
He didn’t mean to hurt Zooey’s feelings but it all felt so wrong... Tails shook his head and set his sights forwards, towards his future.
It took three days to fly to the mountain and Tails only landed to refuel from the gas cans he had brought along and to sleep. On the last day he landed in the closest clearing to the mountain, gathered his tools and what was left of his supplies then threw a camouflage tarp over the Tornado.
Tails peered through his binoculars up at the entrance to the ruins halfway up the mountain, “Looks clear, nothing blocking the way.” He put the binoculars away, adjusted his backpack and tool belt before he set off.
It was almost sunset when Tails reached the base of the mountain. He squinted up at his destination. The mountain was massive, its top easily hidden by the clouds with the only known entrance to the ruins thankfully only around 100 meters off the ground. Tails took a deep breath then spun his tails. “Here I go!” the extra weight didn’t deter him as he lifted off, flying towards the entrance under the power of his spinning tails. He stopped a few times during the ascent for a short rest until he finally reached his destination.
Tails took a long drink of water before pulling out a flashlight and shining it down the interior. “Looks like a hangar,” he shone the light around the boxy room then down at his feet, “And someone forced the door,” he turned the light to the end of the room and to a door fifteen meters away.
“Let’s see,” Tails shone the light around until he found a control panel. “Maybe I can try to break the lock,” he had to hover to reach the controls and as soon as he pressed a button, the display lit up. “It still has power?!” Tails almost fell to the ground before he started to type, “How can this still be running?” he stared at the screen. “It’s in English?” He stared at the control panel. It took less than a minute for Tails to find what he was looking for, “Open airlock, yes.” There was a hissing sound as Tails landed and a nearby door opened.
The small room was brightly lit as Tails stepped in and saw there was another sealed door on the opposite wall with another control panel next to it. “Begin decontamination process? Let’s see if I can bypass that,” Tails checked the attachments of the panel then dug out a screwdriver. He made a quick adjustment to fit the odd shaped screws but in minutes he had access to the circuitry.
“And there!” Tails’ triumphant shout was followed by a hissing noise as the inner door opened and air rushed past him to fill the sealed ruins. Tails pulled out his flashlight and stepped through the door. With a great whirr the lights in the corridor flipped on letting him see the steel grey corridor, which extended to the left and right at a slight curve.
Tails coughed slightly as he smelled the stale hot air that was rapidly cooling with the now open door. “Everything’s working. I can’t wait to see what I’ll find!” He was grinning as he set off towards his right.
There were doors on both side of the corridor at varying distances, each with a vertical seam down the middle to show that it opened sideways. Tails stopped at the first door on his right, which was quite a ways down the hall, and looked at the panel, “Might as well start here.”
It proved surprisingly easy to hack the door without destroying the panel, which opened to reveal a bedroom. Tails held his nose against the stale air until he found the controls that turned on the air conditioning, then sighed in relief and took a better look around. The bedroom was rather simple, only a giant bed, a screen on one wall over the bed, an overlarge desk and a small indent in the wall next to another control panel.
Tails couldn’t help himself and once he dropped his backpack and tool belt he flew over to the bed and flopped down, letting out a huge sigh as he sank into the mattress. It felt so comfortable! Much better than the hammock he used to sleep in and especially sleeping on the ground for the last few days.
“Ahh! Now I just need to get some water.”
There was a whirring sound nearby which caused him to sit up just in time to see a swirl of energy from the indent as a glass of water materialized. He slid off the bed and took the glass, sniffing it slightly before drinking it. It tasted odd and it was warm but it was still water and he gratefully gulped it down.
Tails set the glass back in which vanished in a swirl of energy, “A food dispenser? Hmm... Peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich please.” Tails watched as his request materialized on a plate in front of him. He grinned before he dug in, barely able to wait at what he might be able to find in the ruins.
Tails spent the rest of the day testing the rest of the bedroom’s features, finding out what the food dispenser could create and managing to get the screen working and tuned into the television network he used to watch back in his former home village. Eventually he fell asleep on his new bed, idly wondering how these ancient ruins were in such good shape.
Tails woke up feeling a bit stiff and sore, not used to a bed but still refreshed. He stretched, buckled on his tool belt and set off to explore the rest of the ruins, marking his bedroom before he searched out the nearest door that headed to the interior.
It took over an hour for Tails to break the encryption on the door and he had worked up a sweat from the effort before it finally started to open. Tails swiped his brow and turned to enter the new corridor. As soon as he stepped over the door’s threshold an alarm started blaring. Tails froze for a moment in the flashing red lights before he heard a mechanical noise ahead and a robot nearly the size of the hallway on tank treads with gun arms started rolling towards him. The machine made no sound but Tails managed to dodge back into the first hallway before the hails of bullets started.
Speechless with fear, Tails desperately dove for the control panel and forced the door to shut before sealing it behind him. The sound of bullet impacts on the door stopped after a moment and Tails sat down hard. “OK, not going in there...” He was shaking as he stood up then headed back to his room.
A bit too shaken to try any more exploring for the moment, Tails turned to the television in his bedroom to try and find something to calm him down, fiddling with it until he managed to tune into a news report.
“...Doctor Robotnik was defeated by Sonic the Hedgehog and already people are praising her as the Heroine of Mobius.” Tails’ attention was drawn and he watched as a picture being displayed of the blue female teenaged hedgehog, wearing a red tube-top, jean shorts and red running shoes, which was shortly replaced by a low quality video showing her smashing apart a giant robot with a stylized moustache on its face. “Unfortunately, Sonic could not be reached for comment. It seems she took off to chase down ‘Eggman’ as she calls the mad scientist to make sure he doesn’t get up to anything else. I think we can all feel safer knowing Sonic is chasing Robotnik down...”
Tails was enraptured by the report, “She’s so cool,” he whispered to himself, suddenly feeling motivated.
While he wasn’t ready to try exploring towards the interior, the outer most sections proved to be a treasure trove for him. Over the next two years, Tails explored every part of the ruins that wasn’t locked out by the still somehow active security. He disassembled The Tornado and flew it up to the entrance piece-by-piece to be reassembled, incorporating new technology into it as he reassembled the biplane. Throughout all of this, Tails kept watching the news, hearing more about the heroic exploits of Sonic the Hedgehog and her fights against Doctor Ivo “Eggman” Robotnik. Unfortunately no one was able to get much of an interview out of her before she sped off to chase Eggman down again and all Tails could find out was that Sonic came from the high-tech city of Mobotropolis. Tails wished he could meet her some day.
That day came shortly after Tails’ fifteenth birthday. Tails had his goggles on as he finished working on the jet engine he had attached to the tornado. He stood up and pulled the goggles up to his forehead as he admired his work.
“Looks good, just have to check the catapult.” Before he could get down on his knees to check he spotted a plume of dust rising some distance away. Tails grabbed a pair of binoculars from the tool bench he had set up in the former airlock and scanned for the dust plume, his tails twisting up as he saw what, or rather who is was.
“That’s Sonic! What’s chasing her?” he followed the blue blur for a moment then tracked backwards slightly to see a veritable swarm of robot bees, mono-wheeled beetles and numerous other machines chasing the hedgehog along the bank of a river. Occasionally Sonic would bounce back and smash a couple of the machines but be forced to take off when they tried to converge on the hedgehog and the chase would resume. Tails all but dropped the binoculars as he jumped into the Tornado’s pilot seat. “Catapult set. Let’s go!” he fired up the engine and the launcher he had built into the airlock shot the biplane out into the sky.
Sonic sped along, dodging missiles and various energy blasts from the pursuers, “Yeesh, Eggman’s pulled out all the stops and they still can’t touch me!” Sonic yawned but more from tiredness after the chase had been going on for almost 30 hours. Stamina was one thing but even Sonic needed to sleep.
An explosion from behind made the blue hedgehog look back as exploded pieces of robot scattered everywhere, freeing the little animals that served as power sources, which immediately bolted for freedom. Sonic saw the biplane fly by overhead and the pilot wave.
“Alright! Ain’t gonna turn down help.” Sonic gave a thumbs up to the pilot who did the same back before coming around for another pass.
Tails reached into one of his belt pouches, he hadn’t installed any weapons on the tornado yet so he threw one of his explosives down at the swarm of robots. They were so densely packed that he couldn’t miss and the shockwave caused more of them to crash into each other freeing more trapped animals. Another explosive and the swarm had been whittled down to little more than a small cluster.
Sonic grinned an immediately spun around, jumping back and smashing through the first robot bee that had been in pursuit then landing on the motor beetle and bouncing off it into another.
Tails watched in awe as Sonic bounced through the last few robots then came to a stop. The blue hedgehog looked up at The Tornado and gave a thumbs up. Tails returned the gesture then saw Sonic wobble and topple over.
“Sonic!” Tails turned to come in for a landing alongside the river then jumped out and flew over to where the hedgehog now lay on the ground. “Are you alright?”
“Mmm, sleepy,” Sonic yawned. Now that the danger had passed and the adrenaline had worn off, all Sonic wanted to do was sleep.
Tails sighed in relief and picked the hedgehog up, “Don’t worry, I’ll get you to a bed.” He flew Sonic back to the Tornado and once the hedgehog was strapped into the seat Tails took off for home.
Sonic woke up far warmer and more comfortably than expected and sat up looking at the steel-grey room, “How’d I end up here? Where is here?”
“Sonic?” Tails appeared at the door to the room with a big smile on his face, “You’re awake!” He literally flew over to Sonic’s bedside, “Comfortable?”
“Yeah, hey you’re that kid who helped me earlier,” Sonic smirked and held out a hand.
“I’m 15, I’m just a late bloomer, and yeah,” Tails took Sonic’s hand, “My name’s Miles Prower but everyone calls me Tails.”
“I can see why,” Sonic leaned sideways to get a look at the fox’s two tails, “Why do you have two tails?”
“I don’ t know, I’ve just always had them,” Tail let go of Sonic’s hand as his tails started spinning which lifted him off the ground, “This is great, you’re my idol, Sonic, I can’t believe I’m meeting the Heroine of Mobius and I really helped you!”
Sonic winced, “Yeah, I was in a bind there. Ro-butt-nik’s robots chased me for over a day, I nearly passed out. Just... don’t call me the ‘heroine’ of mobius please...”
Tails drifted back to the ground, “Why not? Oh right I heard you don’t like the hero worship stuff, sorry.”
“It’s not that,” Sonic’s arms folded, “I mean... OK look I like being the hero to people but not their ‘heroine’ and yeah I don’t stick around to hear all the thanks but it’s only half that I have to keep an eye on whatever Eggman’s up to.” Seeing Tails’ confused face, Sonic decided to just be as blunt as possible, “Tails, despite how I look I’m not a girl, I’m a boy. I’m transgender”
Tails blinked, “Huh, transgender? You’re a boy? But those...” he pointed to Sonic’s chest, specifically the hedgehog’s breasts.
“Right,” Sonic looked down at his chest, “Alright how do I explain this?” He closed his green eyes, folded his arms and crossed his legs, “I’ve always felt... awkward in my own skin, it was this nagging feeling that I wasn’t born in the right body but I couldn’t explain it until a couple years ago. I don’t want to be ‘pretty’ or wear dresses or... or be a girl. I was told I was one when I was born but it’s never felt right. Took me most of my life to figure out what was wrong and it wasn’t easy but yeah, I realized I was a boy despite my body and how I look.”
Tails was staring at Sonic as he explained and he suddenly felt something click, “I... I know how you feel.”
“Hmm?” Sonic looked over as the two-tails fox stared at his hands.
“I know, I’ve felt the same way.” Tails gulped, “I used to know a girl named Zooey and I loved how pretty she was but not because I wanted to be with her. She said she had a crush on me and it just felt so wrong that I rejected her, I think it’s because I wanted to be like her.”
Sonic got up off the bed and touched Tails’ shoulder, “You sound like me when I was trying to figure myself out. Look at me Tails,” the fox looked up, “Tell me, what do you think when you see me?”
Tails looked the blue hedgehog up and down. He was wearing the same outfit he had become famous for: red running shoes with a white stripe, denim shorts and a red tube top that covered his breasts but didn’t completely flatten them, and then he saw himself... no, herself in Sonic’s place.
“I want to be like you are now. I want to be a girl.” Tails felt a huge weight lift off her soul and she smiled and spoke more confidently, “I am a girl!”
“There you go!” Sonic grinned then looked around, “So where are we?”
“Oh right, these are the ancient mechanical ruins. I’ve been living here for the last two years,” she smiled proudly, “I’ve been exploring the outer ring, scavenging and fixing everything up.”
“Way past cool,” Sonic smirked. Then his stomach growled, “So what’s there to eat?”
“Anything you want,” Tails walked over to and pointed to food dispenser, “Just ask the computer.”
Sonic approached the machine, “All right, two chili dogs, pronto.” The machine beeped in response and with a swirl of light the two requested dogs appeared on a plate. “Now that’s fast food!” he swiped up the still hot chili dogs and all but inhaled them, “Pretty good,” he licked the excess chili off his hands, “Where’d it come from?”
“Whatever’s powering this place, but I’ve never gone further inside,” Tails sighed, “The security systems farther in are still active. I’ve been getting ready to try again but... I’m scared.”
“Nothing wrong with being scared,” Sonic reassured her, “After what I saw you pull off I know you can do it.”
“Really?” Tails perked up.
“Yeah!” Sonic gave a thumbs up, “How did you do that anyway?”
“With these,” Tails opened up one of her belt pouches and pulled out what looked like a small black marble, “I’ve managed to refine these mini-bombs down to this size. When I started they were the size of baseballs.”
Sonic took the small bomb from her hand, “All that power in this little marble, whoa!” the ball slid from her hand and she hurriedly snatched it out of the air before it hit the ground. Sonic swiped his forehead, “Whew, close call.”
Tails chuckled as Sonic returned to bomb to her, “Don’t worry, they aren’t armed until I prime them.” She put it back in the pouch.
“Now you’ve got me interested, I wanna see what’s inside these ruins too.” Sonic held out his hand for a fist bump, “What do you say, Tails, together we can fight off whatever’s in the ruins no problem, partner?”
Tails practically beamed as she pounded Sonic’s fist back, “Yeah, I know we can do it! Together!”
My own AU. Miles "Tails" Prower sets off to find a place to belong and finds an idol in Sonic the Hedgehog. It isn't long before they find they both have more in common than they could have suspected.
