***

5:00 pm
June 6, 2000

"Time for your medicine, number four oh five seven slash nine k." the bird growled. He had teeth in his beak, sharp, menacing teeth. They all did. What kinds of birds were they? Ravens, or crows, probably. But even that was a long shot, because they hid themselves very well beneath their military-style black uniform helmets and army-like uniforms. Their feathers were black, which was the only indicator of their species.
The bird revealed a hyperdermic needle. It was long. Sharp. His prisoner wiggled out of its way, but he was trussed up like a Christmas turkey. The needle went in, and the prisoner felt nothing but bliss afterwards. He was being sedated. It was working. He struggled to stay awake, but the medicine was strong, and his body stood no chance against it. His eyelids closed. He fell limp.
The bird put down the needle, a grin plastered across his beak, and picked up something else. A scalpel. It glinted in the dim light.
"Time to see what's in your genes." he growled. He ripped away the apron that covered his prisoner patient's back, and lowered the scalpel towards one of the two appendages that was revealed.
He lowered the scalpel to one of Tails' tails.

***

What do you do when something eats away at your very soul? When your mind is focused on one thing, is focused on one thing only, for weeks, for months. Probably for a year, if you do nothing about it. Do you let it sit dormant, let it invade your every thought, your every dream... or do you do something about it?
CAN you do something about it?
Tails thought he could. That was why he left on the greatest adventure of his few years of life, and why he brought nobody with him.
It actually started when he had recieved a message from Tyler, the fox who had once pretended to be his father. Tid informed him that he had finally arrived in Catilina, a positively enormous city to the north of New Knothole, and that a renowned scientist was looking into his werefox problem. He thought about Tails often, and apologised once more for pretending to be his father.
Oh, and one other thing. He had heard news about Tails' father - his REAL father. Apparently, Robert Prower had returned to Kitsune Atole, where he had grown up. He had gone over the dark sea to try and bring order to the lives of the miserable people who still lived there. And he had never returned....

***

1:00 pm - FOUR HOURS EARLIER
June 6, 2000

"What was that?" Tails whispered harshly.
He had heard a sound. He wasn't entirely sure where it had come from, or even what it was, for that matter. It was a decidedly metallic sound, like a brief clanking, but then it had stopped, having gone on long enough for Tails' ear to prick up just a little. The silence was immediate, foreboding. It was like whoever had made the sound had had an accident and tried to recover it, staying even quieter than they had before. Not even the birds chirped anymore. Neither the ones in the trees, nor the ones that swarmed over the island and spread their horror.
"Tock." he whispered. Silence. "Tock?"
The small robot lay beside him, motionless. The little clockwork bot had run out of juice again. Tails picked him up and began to crank the key in his back.
His eyes lit up green. "Maa-aan, I HATE it when that happens. Zoink!"
"Shhhhhh! Shhhoosh!" Tails rasped, a finger over his mouth.
"Shoosh?" the robot asked, "Well how RUDE! Noig! What's going on?"
Tails was hiding himself in the bushes, now. "I heard a noise."
"A noise? Zoink! Hope those birds haven't caught us. The birds! The 'orrible birds! Zap! Noig! Stay low, we'd better. They prolly know we're 'ere by now. Creepin' around. Zip."
"We have to try and make it to Q Beta." Tails said, "I don't intend on getting stuck here like my father did."
"Q Beta, just up the road!" Tock said, and then added "Zap!"
"I hope so."
"I KNOW so. Crank me up a little more, would you?"
Tails held Tock in one hand and cranked the key with the other for a good few minutes. The little pig-shaped robot's eyes lit up slightly brighter with every turn. "Thanks... TAK! I needed that."
"Do you think we could make a run for it?" Tails asked, "I mean, I'd carry you. How far would we have to go before we're safe?"
"Oh, under a mile, now! Zip, I can tell, Q Beta is close, DANG close! Zzzzoey! Nobody can stop us then! Hang on, I'll go check."
A little propellor forced its way out of Tock's back, and began to spin rapidly. The little bot lifted off the ground, and began to zip through the air until he disappeared into the foliage ahead.
Now Tails was alone, and he began to get afraid, truly afraid. For the first time in his journey, he began to question why, exactly, he had come.
"Who do you think you ARE?" his mind screamed at him, "Sonic?"
That hit a weak spot, and he began to sob. With Sonic gone, he supposed he WAS intending on filling the hedgehog's shoes and being a defender of the innocent. And the foxes of Kitsune Atole were most definately innocent. A hand grabbed Tails' arm. He squealed in horror, for the birds had caught him, and he hadn't even noticed their approach while he was sobbing.
The one who had him in an iron grip was one he recognised. It was the bird who appeared whenever something bad happened to him.
It was the bird known as Overdraw. The only one with a name that Tails knew.
"Let go of me!" the fox growled, "You have no right!"
"I have a right." Overdraw replied, the teeth in his beak glinting in the sunlight and his dangerous, wild eyes staring at him from beneath the crash-helmet-like headgear. "I have a right indeed. The only RIGHT that's lacking here is YOUR right to be here in the first place, yes?"
"I'M SAVING MY FAMILY!" Tails screamed in a sudden outburst of rage, "YOU DOMINATED THIS ISLAND! YOU'RE THE ONES WHO SHOULDN'T BE HERE, DOING WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!"
"Get to your feet." Overdraw commanded, yanking Tails hard enough that the fox would have had to stand even if he didn't comply. His fur was dripping wet, matted to his body.
"You'll never get away with this." Tails said.
"Who do you think you are?" his mind screamed at him.
"What would Sonic do?"

***

If Sonic wasn't dead, would Tails have even considered going on his little mission? Wasn't at least some of the urge to go on his own adventure due to Sonic's untimely, sudden and quiet demise? Most, even?
For Sonic was indeed dead - he had to be, didn't he? He had been missing for at least four months, now, probably more, but Tails wasn't really counting. He hadn't believed Sonic was dead, nobody did. Nobody wanted to believe that. But eventually, Sally conceded. And when Sally conceded, it kind of took away the hope from everybody else. They had a funeral. Sally had poured her heart out about the hedgehog on the day, and everybody else had lined up to do the same. Tails, however, said nothing. He wanted to, but he could do nothing but cry. It was the saddest day in his life. His best friend in the world was dead.
But was 'dead' really an accurate synonym for 'disappeared off the face of the planet'?
The day of the letter from Tyler came right after the day of the funeral, and in a way it seemed like fate. Here was Tails, desperate to fill a sudden void in his life with an adventure like those of the old days, and an excuse to do so fell into his lap. It was on that day that he decided he was going to hitch up the Tornado 2...

***

12:00 pm - AN HOUR EARLIER
June 6, 2000

"What are we going to do NOW?" Tails asked.
The river roared. The rapids splashed against rocks with a deafening sound.
"Have to go that way." Tock said, "Have to fly! Zip! Spin your tails and zoom! Zip! Zoohey! Z-"
"I can't!" Tails complained, "I hurt it too badly! I think I may have broken it..." He held up his left tail, wincing from the pain. It was bent at a funny angle, starting to show dark bruises.
"Oh... right... that.... zoink. Well, we're screwed. Stuffed. Mission: Impossible. Dang it! Zzzzop!"
"We'll have to create a raft." Tails suggested.
"A RAFT?" Tock asked, taken aback, "Have you EXPERIENCE in such matters? Mister Barefoot Bushman? Zip?"
"Experience nothing. I didn't let that mountain range get in my way, did I? I'm not going to stop at no river, either."
So Tails found as much debris as he could from the forest floor. Anything he thought would float - wood, mostly, but he found a lot of bark and such, and tied it together with long grass. It took him the best part of an hour.
"There!" he exclaimed, "What do you think?"
Tock eyed it for a long time before speaking. "You want the truth?" he asked, "Unfathomably dodgy."
The raft sagged under its own weight.
"Well, it's going to have to make do." Tails replied, "Hop on."
"ZOOP!" Tock screamed, "No! I want to live! Zoik! I have many great years ahead of me!"
Tails frowned and grabbed the little robot, who tried as best he could to resist. Then, holding Tock firmly, he shoved the raft into the rapid river.
"She canna' hold together cap'n, she's breakin' up!" Tock exclaimed. Tails, remote robot under one arm, jumped atop the raft and pushed off. "How do you steer this thing?" he asked, as it began to move.
"Steer?" Tock asked, "STEER? ZIP! If you can manage to keep all your LIMBS after this, that's a dang good achievement! FORGET about STEERING! ZzzzzzzZZZZZOOOOOOOOPAAAAAAAHHH!!!"
The raft burst through the water, the rapids ripping it to tatters. Tails was almost thrown off several times, but he kept to his station, and he didn't lose Tock.
"If your Dad knew how much you were going through for him-" Tock began, and was cut off by the bursting of a wave that ripped the raft apart. Tails was hurled into the water, and he lost his grip on Tock, who flew into the bushes on the other bank somewhere. Tails screamed, his mouth filling with water and almost choking him. The rapids were so strong he couldn't get a handle on direction. He threw his arms up and groped blindly for something, anything, that might save him... and he grabbed something solid. It was a tree branch. With an effort, he gripped it with his other hand, and managed to heave himself out of the river.
Panting, he crawled across the branch to dry land, and dropped down. "What a rush!" he exclaimed, and began to giggle crazily. Where was Tock? He looked around, and finally his eyes fell on the little robot in the bushes. He crawled amongst the foliage beside Tock, and it was then that he heard the sound. A decidedly metal sound, like a brief clanking.....

***

Sally, of course, had tried to stop him from leaving. Tails was nowhere near old enough to be the next Sonic Hedgehog - he was barely in double digits. She had, in fact, been quite infuriated by the mere suggestion. "What are you trying to do to me?" she had demanded, "So soon after Sonic's death, you want to run off on your own adventures? See how much worry I can put up with before I lose my mind? I won't have it!"
"You don't know Sonic's dead!" Tails had disputed, and now he had been furious as well. It was a hard time on everybody, and everybody had a three-millimetre fuse, it seemed.
"He's been missing since January, and that was half a year ago." Sally had said, "He's gone, Tails. I don't need this right now, we've been through it already."
So Tails said some things that he couldn't remember, and would probably regret them if he could, and they had both been crying by the time Tails stormed out of the hut and slammed the door behind him. Almost unconcious of his actions, he had then gone to get his atlas to find the location of Kitsune Atole...

***

6:00 pm - EIGHTEEN HOURS EARLIER
June 5, 2000

It was almost nightfall when Tails and Tock, weary, run-down but determined, finally reached Quarantine Alpha. It was like a village, like Knothole or New Knothole or any number of Freedom Fighter villages back on the mainland. The only difference here was that the villagers were foxes. Every last one of them.
Hideously, most of them were mutants.
Tails was spellbound, so much so that he completely forgot about his pain-ridden tail, and he bolted into the village with no regard whatsoever for caution. It was pure luck that Q Alpha apparently wasn't patrolled by birds, or at least, not in any visible way. Orange foxes, some with two tails, some with three or more or none, some with more or less than the natural number of fingers or toes, walked back and forth, conducting their business, and took no notice of him. For the first time in his entire life, he walked into a public place and not one person looked twice at him. Not one single villager thought "hang on, something's not right with that kid". In fact, compared with most of the people here, Tails had it extremely lucky. He was overwhelmed with a sudden sense of belonging, like he had finally found his TRUE species. They were the residents of the Kitsune Atole. Though he remembered nothing more than being a fox with an abnormality on the mainland, he was hit with the sudden certainty that he, in fact, was a Kitsune, and he had no business as anything other than a Kitsune.
"DAD!" he screamed into the crowd, and he did this without planning or thinking about it, it just happened, like a spasm.
Now people looked at him, but still it was different than usual. It wasn't "Holy crap it's a mutated little freak boy", it was "Oh dear, that handsome young man appears to be lost". It made Tails feel so warm, but he was still overtaken with the need to find his father. He was so close, now. "DAD! DAD! IT'S ME! MILES! IT'S MILES, DAD!"
Nobody responded to his wails. After a while, Tock flew up to him and landed at his feet. "You're here now, yep. Took you here. Zap! I guess I'll be going now, but I need a crank...zz."
"What?" Tails asked in surprise.
"Need a crank! A wind-up! A twist! Turn my key, kid!"
"Yeah..." Tails replied, and picked the clockwork robot up to wind his spring, "But what did you say? You're going?"
"Said I'd only take you this far kiddo, zoik. Any further and we risk death! We're fugitives, so I gotta get back to work!"
"But what if I don't find my father, Tock? How will I find my way?" "That's your problem, tike. Hurry up and wind me, I'm running down." Tails took his hand off the robot's key and just stared at him. "Sorry pal, but I need you."
"Hey! What are you doing? I'm... running... down!"
"You're going back to sleep until I'm sure I don't need you anymore." Tails said, and he was suddenly a little ashamed - he sounded like one of the Armada birds he was going up against.
"I can't... let you... do that... Miles... Zzip..." Tock said, his voice winding down with the rest of him like a poorly maintained pocket-watch, "My mind is going! I can... feel it... I can... feel it... my mind is... going... I am... unit... six-sixty-C... first brought online... about three days ago..... Daaaaisy... Daaaaaisy... I'm half... crazy... all for the love of... bicycle... built for......"
And then the life left him, and he was just the hunk of metal he was when Tails had first located him in the mountain. He put Tock under his arm and went on his way.
Where could he possibly even begin to look for his father? The situation had never really occured to him until now, but now it was here, he realised that he didn't have the vaguest idea what his father looked like. He remembered his father, yes, but in his mind, the memories were composed of random quotes and blurry shapes. His father looked like a silhouette of a person in his mind, he couldn't seem to remember any significant features. His father was Robert Miles Prower, that was a solid fact, but anybody could have claimed to be him. But why would anybody want to lie about something like that?
(Tyler did...)
Yes, but Tyler was a special case... he had motives. Regardless, Tails was confused and clueless as to how he would proceed...
"I haven't seen you before." somebody said, and Tails was startled into spinning around. There was an old, greying fox staring at him, working him over with his eyes and a suspicious gaze. "Are you from Quarantine Beta? Are you lost, son?"
"Quarantine Beta?" Tails asked, "Uhh, no. I'm not from around here, I'm looking for someone. Robert Prower... Robert Miles Prower, do you know him?"
"Know him like I know the back of me own hand, I do." the old fox replied, and Tails' heart caught in his throat.
"Where can I find him?" he almost demanded.
"I'm afraid he's gone, son." the old fox said, "Gone from here. He brought hope to us, that young man, hope that we might one day gain rights like normal people. Like the Armada. He said one day there would be a revolution, and that we must all be ready for it. Ask anybody here about Robert Prower and they'll tell you you're not the only one looking for him..."
Tails' stomach and face knotted up tightly, as it came to mind that he might not have come to Kitsune Atole quickly enough...
(your aircraft will be impounded. Do not resist.)
...and he might not be able to get off.
"How long has he been gone?" he managed to ask.
"Not too much longer than a week," the old fox replied, and Tails calmed a bit, "He is probably at Quarantine Beta, spreading the same message as he spread to us. Why do you ask? Where are you from?"
"A long way away." Tails replied, and he looked up at the sky, which was quickly darkening to black. "Can I stay here for the night?"
"Yes, we have a place for you. You are welcome here."
Later that night, Tails wound Tock back up. He was excited all over again at the possibility that his father was as close as the next quarantine station.
"ZAP!" the clockwork robot exclaimed, annoyed, "Some pal you are! I only ask to be wound up every so often!"
"I did, didn't I?" Tails asked, and then sighed. "I need you to lead me to Quarantine Beta in the morning, they say my father is there."
"I thought as much." Tock said, "Zip, I'll take you, but if you get caught, it's your own wretched fault. Zooey! I really should be working, you know."
Tails put his hand on the robot's head, a single tear running down his cheek, and mouthed the words "thank you".
The next morning, before most of the other foxes had woken up, Tails and Tock left the quarantine station. They hadn't intended on facing the roaring river, nor the bird who had been spying on him for all this time, just waiting for him to get out in the open... the one named Overdraw.
"Subject is on the move again, yes? I will persue once again. I will close in to capture."

***

Kitsune Atole was over the Dark Sea, which was an unfortunate thing, because planes had a habit of disappearing over there. It was like the Mobian version of the Bermuda Triangle. A small patch of ocean to the east of the mainland, which probably claimed its victims due to the horrible weather that seemed to always occur around there, hurricanes and tornados and the like. Tails was lucky when he navigated this area, because it was an unusually calm day. He thought that maybe it meant that the whole affair was going to be easier than he first thought. As it turned out, it would be much harder. He didn't take the Armada into account... he didn't know about Overdraw...

***

1:00 pm - FIVE HOURS EARLIER
June 5, 2000

Tails, panting furiously, pulled himself up to a ledge, and there he stayed for as long as fifteen minutes, catching his breath and letting his heart calm down. He could still hear the roaring of the flames beneath him.
"I'll have to be more careful." he commented, realising it was an understatement. He didn't want to be deep fried before he got a chance to meet his father.
Now he looked around the place, seeing where he was. What he expected was a cave, nothing more. After all, it was a perfectly ordinary mountain. But somehow he had managed to find himself in some kind of facility. The room was plated with steel walls, probably to keep the possibility of a cave-in down to a minimum. There were computer terminals everywhere and big rusty metal wheels all over the place that looked too big for Tails to handle, and they were probably stuck, too. The place looked like it hadn't been used in quite a while.
Tails picked himself up and took a look around. He had time, now, to contemplate the strange presence that called itself Armada.
(Do not resist. You are in Armada airspace. Turn around or your aircraft will be impounded.)
Though he had almost been killed, he supposed he shouldn't blame them for protecting their airspace. It was a political thing. But did they have to go to such extreme measures for an unarmed biplane? And was that fire really necessary? He decided he was really going to have to watch out for Armada in the future...
He came across something on the ground. Looking at it, he saw that it appeared to be a child's toy. It was caked with dust, and there was even a spiderweb running from the top of it to the ground. It was the likeness of some kind of little animal, the closest thing Tails could think of was a piglet, made of metal. There was a key sticking out of its back.
Tails kneeled next to it and looked at it closer. What the heck was it doing in a place like this? He started turning the key in curiosity, vaguely wondering if the toy was going to attack him. Robotnik had made badniks that were as small as this thing was in the past, after all. He turned the key as far as it would turn, and then let go. Nothing appeared to happen. Perhaps it was broken.
Tails began to stand up again when the key started to turn back the other way, ever so slowly, by itself. As it did, the toy's eyes lit up, and it made a whirring noise, which began to get louder and turn into a different kind of sound..
"--zzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZIP!!" it screamed, and it picked itself up on its two stumpy metal legs and spun around to face Tails, who was shocked.
"What date is it? Quickly! ZAP!" the toy demanded, and Tails was too surprised to do anything but give the answer.
"Uhh... June fifth, I think..."
"JUNE FIFTH! ZZZZOINK!" the toy exclaimed, and began running around in circles. "I'M BEHIND SCHEDULE! I'M BEHIND SCHEDULE! ZOINK! ZOINK! ZZZOOOOOOOOOINK!!"
"Zoink?" Tails wondered. Aloud, he asked "What are you?"
"What am I?" the toy replied, a question for a question, "What am I? Zap! What am I? Remote Robot Unit Six-Sixty-C! Zap! Zingo! What are YOU? Escape from quarantine, did you?"
"No!" Tails said, "I mean, I flew here from the mainland, but the Armada..."
"THE ARMADA!" the Remote Robot exclaimed, "ZOOPEDY-DOODAH! THE ARMADA! THEY'LL MELT ME DOWN FOR SCRAP METAL! I am so behind schedule! If I don't get back to work... did you say you flew here? You flew? Here? Zap! Why would you want to come HERE?"
"I'm looking for my father." Tails said, "Maybe you know him? He's a fox. Like me."
"Oh, that narrows it down!" the robot said, and chuckled in a flurry of beeping laughter, "There are hundreds of foxes here! They're all in quarantine. That's probably where you need to go, kiddo. Zoit."
"Quarantine? Like, they have a disease or something?" Tails asked.
"Zap! No, just valuable genes. They cut 'em up to see what makes 'em tick. Tick!"
"That's awful!" Tails said, shocked and disgusted, "These Armada people just chop up my relatives for their genes?"
"That's about the size of it." the robot replied, "There are two quarantine stations, and Alpha is nearest. You ought to get going before somebody finds you! Zap!"
"Can you show me the way?" Tails asked.
The robot stared with its blank lightbulb eyes into Tails' moist, pleading ones, and said "I suppose so.. zoink, since you started me up and all, I owe it to you, but just make sure you keep my engine going! Zip! You have to wind me every so often."
"Thank you so much!" Tails said, and paused, "Uh, what did you say your name was?"
"Unit Six-Sixty-C! Zap! Tock!"
Tails giggled. "Maybe I'll just call you Zap-Tock. Or Tock... do you like Tock?"
"I like Unit Six-Sixty-C, kiddo, but that's fine, I guess. Zap."
Tails walked over to the ledge he had walked in from, and looked down. The fire had extinguished itself. Tock hovered beside his head with a propeller blade sticking out of his back beside the key.
"You can fly!" Tails announced, "Neat! So can I!" He spun his own tails around in circles and took off, hovering just above the ground.
"That is an incredible trick, yes?" came a voice, and Tails instantly realised that it wasn't Tock's. He landed and turned around.
There was an army of birds standing in the room, now. Birds with military uniforms, or what looked like them, and very military styled guns, all pointed towards him. They must have gotten in through some back entrance. Tails froze solid.
"Incredible!" the bird in the lead announced, and it was grinning. Its eyes were darkened by some kind of helmet, and his beak had teeth in it that were sharp like fangs. Needless to say, he was scary.
"That is an effect we have not seen before, yes? The ability to FLY! Finally, your kind is beginning to evolve! To adapt to be like your masters! This is an exceptional occasion! One question remains, though..." He stepped closer, his grin fading. "Who... ARE you?"
"Who are YOU?" Tails snapped back, gaining courage. "THAT is the question!"
"We are the Armada." the bird announced at once, "The Armada we are. And I am Overdraw. You will come with us, yes?"
"Not on your life." Tails replied, and took a step backward.
The Armada aimed their guns at him. "Yes, we must have you! You must be studied!" Overdraw said with some kind of insane excitement. Tails tried to take another step back, but there were no more steps to take. He slipped off the ledge.
By the time he knew he was falling, it was too late to completely save himself, but he spun his tails anyway, hoping to cushion the blow. Instead, he went into a spin, went through a tree and landed on the ground hard. He landed on his backside, crushing one of his tails underneath him.
"AAAARGH!" he screamed, and rolled over. His injured tail felt cramped and very hot. After a while, Tock came down next to him.
"They're after you!" he announced, "Zoink! Better get going! Come on!"
"My tail!" Tails moaned, but he picked himself up anyway and wandered away with the small robot.
It was slow going, but they weren't persued... at least, they didn't think so. And the sun began to disappear towards the horizon by the time they approached their destination...

***

Transmission sent out by the Armada, a month and a half earlier - 20th April 2000:

Begin transmission
WE ARE THE ARMADA.
THE ARMADA WE ARE.
We are close to our goals.
Our research is paying off.
But there are complications.
There is a troublemaker in our midst,
Making trouble,
He is of THEIR kind, of the foxes,
He has come across the land,
And he has brought talk of revolution with him.
He speaks of politics.
Of rights.
He must be eliminated.
Therefore, he must be seperated from his people.
He must be taken.
He must be eliminated.
For the sake of the project.
Nobody defies us.
Nobody escapes us.
Ever.
End transmission.

***

11:00 am - TWO HOURS EARLIER
June 5, 2000

He lay on the beach for a long time.
Sopping wet, cold and sandy, Tails picked himself up and looked about himself. Had he really almost drowned? What happened?
(do not resist)
That's right.. The Armada happened. They had taken his plane and he'd done an overboard dive. Now he was here, on the shore of Kitsune Atole. It dawned on him that he didn't know why they called it an atole, because it was definately an island - small, but only vaguely banana-shaped, and an atole was usually close enough to a full ring surrounding a lagoon. But such thoughts were meaningless, because he realised why he had come, and that was to find his father. And now he was here.
Knowing not what he was doing, Tails ran into the forest that ran against the beach. He didn't know what he was looking for or where he might find it, and he ended up running in circles.
"Okay, focus." he said to himself, and stood still, "Where am I going? I probably need to find a village, or something."
He looked through the trees, and could see the mountains he had seen when he flew over. Maybe, he thought, if he could get on top of one of those, he could get a panoramic view of the whole island. So, he set off into the forest again, always keeping one eye on the mountain peaks he could see through the canopy. He was walking for over an hour before he decided to rest.

12:23 pm

Sitting himself underneath a tree, he looked at the lushness around him. Strangely enough, there weren't any birds singing, because that would make it a perfect scene.
In fact, Tails noted, there didn't seem to be any animals at all. Something flew overhead, but it wasn't a bird. It was like a jetplane, or something. It was followed by three more, moving at something that must have been close to the speed of sound. They zipped past overhead, and before he could get a close look, they were already well and gone.
"Are they looking for me?" Tails asked, and then answered himself,
"Probably."
The jets flew over again, slower this time, having done a full circle, and Tails thought he saw one of them drop something into the trees. Or was it his imagination?
In any case, he decided it was time to pick himself up and get moving. If he stayed where he was, it might be easier to find him, and he didn't want to be captured by any tropical island government before he got to find his father.
"What if they got him, too?" he wondered, and dismissed the thought. His father would be smarter than that, wouldn't he?
Then he heard the sound and smelled the stench. The former was some kind of crackling noise, and the latter was like petrol and smoke. It confused him for a while, until it got considerably hotter, and he heard a tree crash to the ground behind him.

12:45 pm

"!!FIRE!!" his mind screamed at him, "But where'd it come from?"
Another of the jets flew over, and dropped something into the trees very nearby. They exploded into flames at once, and Tails realised what they were doing - they were napalming the entire forest to flush him out! Or to kill him, he supposed, whichever came first. Knowing this, he bolted as fast as he could, his tails spinning like a propellor behind him. The heat was getting unbearable...

10:45 am

...he opened his eyes and realised that he couldn't see, the water stung them so badly. Which way was up? Which way was down? It was so cold...

12:46 pm

...he tripped over a stick and went head-over-heels into the dirt. The flames were all around him, now. They spread so fast! And the heat... the heat...

10:46 am

...if he could just see the sun then it would be alright, the sun would show him which way was up, which way to go, but he was panicking...

12:47 pm

...staring up at the sun, so bright it hurt his head, the flames all around him, he ripped himself to his feet, but there was nowhere to go, blocked off completely, and he didn't know what direction...

10:47 am

...running out of air now, thrashing his limbs around, but something brushed past them, something under his arm now and he hung on, hung on for dear life...

12:48 pm

...bolting into the flames now, bolting into the intense heat, bolting so fast that he almost ran into the mountain when he got to it...

10:48 am

...something under the other arm as well now, something like a fish, it was a dolphin! a dolphin! the dolphins were under his arms and he could see the sun now and they were going towards it...

12:49 pm

...climbing now, climbing so fast that his arms and legs hurt, but he was getting away from the flames, he could see the sun above him now and he was climbing towards it...

10:00 am - TWO HOURS, FORTY-NINE MINUTES EARLIER
June 5, 2000

The Tornado 2 finally left the Dark Sea behind, and Tails, from the cockpit, could see his destination. It rose out of the endless ocean like a huge green whale - Kitsune Atole.
"That's not an atole." he said to himself, and suddenly the thought occured to him that it might not be his destination at all. But no, it had to be. As far as his atlas knew, anyway, this was the only piece of land between the coast of the mainland and the coast of the next continent.
It took him quite a while to bring the little biplane close enough to make out any features on the island. It appeared to have a cluster of tall mountains surrounded by dense forest. It wasn't very big at all - if his father was there, it shouldn't be extraordinarily difficult to find him. There was a crackling sound on his radio, and then there was a loud booming voice that startled him.
"WE ARE THE ARMADA. THE ARMADA WE ARE."
After a little while contemplating this, Tails reached to his radio and replied, "Uh, I copy, Armada. This is Tornado Two, a private small plane, requesting permission to land..."
"Do not resist." Armada replied immediately, "You are in Armada airspace. Turn around or your aircraft will be impounded. Do not resist."
"Armada, this is an emergency," Tails bluffed, thinking quickly, "I am requesting permission to land and refuel."
"Do not resist." Armada replied, and there was no further transmission. "Armada? Do you copy? Do you copy, Armada? Oh great." Tails took hold of his control stick and tried to turn the plane, but it wouldn't budge. Instead, he realised that he was losing velocity, and he heard the clanking sound of the landing gear going down.
He wasn't in control of his plane, anymore.
Suddenly, he felt the overriding certainty that he didn't want to go where this mysterious Armada was taking him. He bailed out of the Tornado 2, and he was already in the open air before he realised that the wind was blowing too strong for him to fly, and so he fell instead. He fell like a rock, towards the ocean. As he fell, he wondered what was going to become of him, what his adventure had in store for him...

By five o'clock the next day, he would have his answer...