Collared Sonic: Part 4

Collared Sonic had been surprised by the transmission. Actually, he'd meant to be out of the room by then. Thankfully, Collared Sonic had been held up by Cubot getting stuck in the closet outside his door. He hoped Modern Tails still trusted him.

All this ran through Collared Sonic's mind as he walked to the prison. Being Eggman's right-hand man, while shameful, had the perk of being allowed to go pretty much everywhere. Only Eggman's personal floor was off-limits to Collared Sonic. Collared Sonic's room was on Eggman's floor as an illusion.

The guards saluted Collared Sonic as he came up to the entrance of the jail. Collared Sonic saluted them back and entered. He took a sharp left and entered a password into the door padlock. The door slid closed and a panel opened in the wall. Collared Sonic entered it.

Two passwords worked on the padlock. One opened the door, and one opened the panel. Eggman and Collared Sonic alone knew the second password, or that the panel existed. It was security. Holograms of Modern Sonic and Shadow were in a cell, and their food put there, yes, but the food was transported to the true cell.

The panel was the door of an elevator, and it was headed down. Because of this precaution, no guards stood here. That made it easier. Holograms of whoever came down here to visit (or visited the normal cell) were transported too, so anything Collared Sonic did would be seen normally. This technology dependence could be taken advantage of, which Sonic did. A recording had replaced what was actually going on and would keep Eggman none the wiser until the next attack.

Collared Sonic exited the elevator and walked up to the two prisoners. At the sound of his footsteps, an angry conversation stopped abruptly. The two hedgehogs glared at Collared Sonic.

"What do you want, faker?" Modern Sonic asked sharply.

Collared Sonic smiled.

"You two to be free," he answered, entering a password into the padlock by their cell, "we have to hurry, though. Don't wanna be late, now do we?"

The door opened, and the Moderns eyed it warily.

"Hold up. You've stated many times that you're our enemy. Why are you helping us escape?" Shadow asked.

"Call it a deal. Believe me or not, I was the hero of my world. Then a certain Robuttnik kidnapped my best friend and told me to be his henchman or watch my friend die. What choice did I have?" Collared Sonic shrugged.

"You're way too casual to be telling the truth," Modern Sonic said, crossing his arms.

"Would you rather me tell a sob story, cry, then collapse on the ground sobbing?" Collared Sonic asked, checking his watch, "now, do you want out or not? Your Tails has already freed mine, and we're going to be late meeting up with them."

Modern Sonic seemed to waver. He took a step forward.

"Tails trusts you?" he asked.

Collared Sonic nodded.

"Prove it," Shadow said.

Collared Sonic tapped his watch, pulling a circular piece of metal from the pocket dimension.

"Modern Tails, you there?" he asked.

"Yeah-," Modern Tails answered, but was cut off by Collared Tails.

"I didn't realize that you'd planned a breakout!" the young fox said excitedly.

"I couldn't tell you, Tails," Collared Sonic replied, smiling, "if I did, I would have practically told Robotnik. It had to be a secret."

"Right," Modern Tails said quickly, "why did you break radio silence? Are Sonic and Shadow being stubborn?"

"Yep," Collared Sonic said, looking pointedly at the two shocked hedgehogs, "what button conveniences them to escape?"

"At least let Collared Sonic lead you out, guys," Modern Tails said, "it's your only shot at freedom for a while. No one in the Rebellion can agree on how to save you."

"I hope you're right, Tails," Modern Sonic said, walking out of the cell with confidence, "come on, Shadow."

Shadow growled and followed Modern Sonic out. He glared at Collared Sonic.

"Don't think for a moment that I trust you," he warned.

"I'd be worried if you did," Collared Sonic replied.

With that, Collared Sonic jumped into a triple spin and tunneled in front of the bars. He jumped back out of the tunnel and motioned for the Moderns to follow.

"Pull this over the hole when you come in," Collared Sonic said, tossing the metal circle to Shadow.

He caught it, then paused. Collared Sonic was already in the hole, and Modern Sonic shrugged and followed him. Shadow grumpily came in last, putting the circle of metal over them, making the tunnel dark.

"Come on," Collared Sonic said, "come this way. Put a hand on the wall, will ya?"

"Like I needed you to tell me," Shadow grumbled, doing so. In front of him, Modern Sonic did the same thing.

The tunnel was long, and all three teens were relieved when they saw the moonlight at the end. They stepped out into the night in a forest. The Moderns looked around.

"We're near Restoration HQ," Prime Sonic said.

Collared Sonic nodded.

"Knuckles will meet us there. Tails should be here within an hour," he said, walking towards the HQ, "come on."

As he followed, Shadow looked Collared Sonic up and down. Collared Sonic was excited for Tails to get here, that much was for sure. Only one thing still didn't make sense.

"Why are you doing this?" Shadow asked, "you were an obedient servant of Eggman. Why are you turning on him now?"

"Man, Shadow, you're one to talk," Modern Sonic said.

"I got outside help," Collared Sonic answered, ignoring his counterpart's comment and subsequent silence from Shadow, "without it, I was helpless. I tried to sabotage Eggman's plan as much as I could, but I couldn't even stall."

"Why not? Eggman can't watch you all the time," Modern Sonic pointed out.

"Robotnik can," Collared Sonic said, his hand coming up to his bare neck, then paused and came down, "at least he could."

"Your collar," Shadow realized, "I wondered where it went."

"Oh, that's what was different! I knew something was off, but I couldn't put my finger on it," Modern Sonic said.

"Course you couldn't. It wasn't there," Collared Sonic said, smiling.

Modern Sonic laughed and slapped his counterpart in the back.

"I like your sense of humor," he said.

Shadow wasn't as amused, but things were beginning to make sense. Starting to look familiar...

"So Robotnik watched you all the time. Why were you working for him in the first place?" Shadow asked.

Collared Sonic sighed, but it was a tired one, not an exasperated one.

"I told you that your Tails has rescued mine," he said.

The Moderns waited for more explanation, but none came. Then it hit Modern Sonic.

"Your Tails was a captive!" he exclaimed.

"Sh!" Collared Sonic hissed, whipping around with sudden ferocity, "we're right outside the HQ! Do you want to wake everyone up?!"

With that, he turned and walked stiffly to the door.

The Moderns were startled. Collared Sonic had been warm and friendly a split second before, now he was prickly and hostile. What had just happened?

Collared Sonic noticed their reaction as he reached to knock and relaxed a little, smiling a small smile.

"Sorry, I guess I'm wound pretty tight right now," he apologized.

"It's fine," Shadow said warmly, "you're just worried about Tails."

Collared Sonic scrunched his shoulders in embarrassment and looked at the ground. Modern Sonic looked at Shadow with surprise.

"Could you tell us what happened to get your Tails captured?" Shadow asked, keeping his gaze on Collared Sonic.

Collared Sonic looked at him, but the door opened before he could answer.

"What's taking you guys so long out here?" Knuckles asked, "come in!"

Collared Sonic stepped aside, motioning for the Moderns to go first. Modern Sonic obliged, and Knuckles shook his hand.

"Welcome back," Knuckles said, smiling.

"Glad to be back," Modern Sonic replied.

The two went inside. Shadow walked to the door, then stopped. He looked at Collared Sonic, and Collared Sonic read sympathy in his eyes.

"Join me, will you?" Shadow asked, motioning to the doorway.

Collared Sonic paused, looking uncertain.

"I thought you didn't trust me yet," he said quietly.

Shadow smiled, and it was surprisingly comforting.

"I didn't," he agreed, "until I saw you were a kin spirit. Now, if it isn't too painful, do you mind telling me what happened?"

With that, Shadow shut the door.

"If you want, I know a private clearing we can go too. Silver, Whisper and I go there often. It has a waterfall," Shadow got a playful glint in his eye with the last sentence.

Collared Sonic smiled a little.

"Maybe later," he said, "I want to be back by the time the Tails are."

"It's not far," Shadow assured the young hedgehog.

"Maybe not, but my story is long," Collared Sonic explained, "I appreciate the offer, though. Thanks."

He walked to the door and opened it.

"Come in, Shadow. You're home," Collared Sonic said, motioning for Shadow to come in.

"Hmph," Shadow smiled, coming up to him, "You're right."

The two entered Rebellion HQ together.

Knuckles and Modern Sonic looked up from their conversation as Shadow and Collared Sonic walked in. They seemed surprised that neither hedgehog seemed hurt in any way.

"What went on out there?" Modern Sonic asked.

"We thought you'd fight," Knuckles said.

Collared Sonic shrugged as he and Shadow walked up to them.

"It doesn't concern you," Shadow said.

"Just know you don't have to worry about us fighting constantly," Collared Sonic said.

Knuckles nodded, though Modern Sonic still looked sceptical.

"So you told them?" Knuckles asked.

"Not yet," Collared Sonic admitted, "but they figured out the basics."

Modern Sonic turned to him.

"You didn't say how your Tails got captured," he pointed out.

Collared Sonic met his counterpart's eyes.

"You don't trust me yet," he noticed, "Tails trusts me, and you trust him, but not me. I expected that. I'll tell you what happened, but first you need to understand a few things.

"One: my world is not lush like yours. An ancient civilisation tore itself apart 500 years ago, and in the process wiped out its people and devastated the ecosystem. Two: me and Tails are the only freedom fighters like yours.

"Comparatively few people fight against Robotnik, our Eggman. There were ancient heros, but they fell with their people. Three: I found Tails in the wilderness when he was a baby, only a year or so old, and took him in. He's the most important thing in my life, consisting of most of it. Four:-"

Collared Sonic gave a small snicker.

"...Four: Tails is only 4 ½."

"What?" Modern Sonic asked, not sure he heard his counterpart right.

"Tails is four and a half," Collared Sonic punctuated.

Shadow was just as shocked as Modern Sonic, but Knuckles already knew this.

"That's why Collared Sonic has to protect his Tails," he explained.

"What happened, then?" Modern Sonic asked again, more softly this time.

Eyes closed, Collared Sonic sighed deeply. Cautiously, he let the memory return.

Two cars raced along the desert. The first was an elite race car, painted red with black and yellow stripes across the middle. An orange mustache waved in the wind, attached to the hood. The second car, chasing the other, was a rundown pickup. The driver of the first car, Scratch, and his passenger, Grounder, were robotic henchmen of Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Their pursuers were Sonic and Tails, Heros of Mobius.

"Try catching us now, hedgehog!" Scratch called over his shoulder.

The chicken robot laughed in his trademark "ha ha, ha ha!"

Grounder laughed too.

"Yeah!" he shouted, "we're in a race car, and you're not!"

"We're faster!" Scratch crowed.

"Fat chance, featherbrain," Sonic muttered, gripping the wheel harder.

"Want me to fly up to 'em?" Tails asked eagerly, "I can catch up to them!"

"Nah," Sonic answered, "I know you can make it, but there's a way to win when you're the slow-mo."

Tails looked at Sonic with a worried expression.

"You okay?" he asked, "you don't like being the slow-mo."

"I know," Sonic said, "and I'm fine. I'm just worried they're trying to separate us. Plus that guy threw us in here, like he was in on the plan. Not to mention the spikes. I don't like it, Tails, we're staying here."

Tails looked at the spikes around the handle, preventing the duo from leaving the truck. He shuddered.

"You're right," he said, "it does seem like a trap. Is this what Destiny warned us about?"

Grounder glanced back at the truck.

"I think they know it's a trap," he said.

"Stupid!" Scratch said, smacking Grounder in the head, "of course they know it's a trap. That's part of the fun! Haha, haha!"

"It is?" Grounder asked.

"Of course!" Scratch said, annoyed that he had to explain this simple tactic, "nothing makes Sonic so agitated as knowing Tails is in danger and not being able to do anything."

"But Tails isn't in danger, he's just in the truck," Grounder pointed out.

Scratch rolled his eyes.

"Grounder, it's so simple: he and Tails were thrown into the truck, surrounded by spikes. We're making him chase us, so we're obviously up to something big. But he doesn't know what, or how to stop it. That makes him really nervous," Scratch finished.

"Oh," Grounder laughed, "he doesn't know what's coming!"

"Exactly," Scratch agreed, then looked ahead of him, "we're coming up on the area. Prepare to plant the bomb!"

Grounder crouched and pulled a slender bomb from under the seat. He put his other hand on the door handle.

"Bomb in position," he reported.

"Spikes removed!" Scratch said, pulling a lever on the floor.

Grounder stuck the bomb in a pre-dug hole.

"Bomb planted!" he said happily, "we got Sonic now!"

"Ha ha, ha ha!" Scratch agreed.

"The spikes are gone!" Tails told Sonic.

"And there's a bomb!" Sonic shouted.

Before Tails could react, Sonic had unbuckled himself and Tails, opened the door and pulled him out. The truck hit the bomb and exploded, sending Sonic and Tails flying through the air. They landed hard between a rare two trees. As soon as they landed, Tails was wrenched from Sonic's grip.

"Sonic!" he shouted.

"Tails!" Sonic tried to reach him but was held back by hostile hands.

"Sonic!" Tails shouted again, voice full of fear.

"Tails!" Sonic struggled to break free of the hands holding him down.

He felt a sharp pain in the back of his head, then darkness.

Collared Sonic trailed off. His head had lowered over the course of the story. Knuckles put his hand on the hedgehog's shoulder.

"You've fixed it now," he said.

Collared Sonic nodded.

"Even if it's fixed, that doesn't make the memory any less painful," Shadow pointed out.

"...I can't imagine..." Modern Sonic mumbled, "sorry about asking."

"It's fine," Collared Sonic said, "I needed to tell you, even if you trusted me fully."

The conversation lulled, and Shadow looked out the window. There was more here, he knew it. Something told him this was just a recent example of a much larger story.

"Raising a kid while fighting Robotnik," Shadow mused, "that's impressive."

"From a year old, no less," Modern Sonic agreed.

Collared Sonic chuckled.

"Hard but rewarding," he said, "it got harder once Tails got to the age where he charged headfirst into the traps with me."

"You went headfirst into traps?" Knuckles sounded surprised.

"Hey, most traps are baited with chili dogs," Collared Sonic shrugged, "besides, the danger has always been fun for me. Unfortunately that mindset took hold in Tails, too."

Shadow chuckled.

"You must have a lot of stories to tell," he said.

Collared Sonic laughed.

"You bet! I don't know how we got into half the situations we wound up in," he said, "the other half are so bizarre I sometimes wonder if they were dreams. But Tails and Robotnik remember, so apparently not."

"I relate to that," Modern Sonic said.

"What're some of your stories?" Collared Sonic asked.

"Well, I've saved planets of aliens, got sucked into a book to rescue a magic genie, gotten warped into an outer dimension, and been King Arthur," Modern Sonic answered, "and you?"

"I've traveled through time, gotten sucked into a fairy tale land, gotten locked in a cursed temple, helped Merhogs, gotten trapped on an abandoned space colony, and barely escaped from a tailored cell for me," Collared Sonic answered, "although the fairy tale one is probably the strangest of them all. Tails was turned into a girl there."

This was met with blank stares.

"Merhogs?" Knuckles asked.

"An abandoned space colony?" Shadow asked.

"Tails turned into a girl?!" Modern Sonic clarified.

"Yes," Collared Sonic smiled.

"Okay, you win," Knuckles said.

"Hey, are those the Tails?" Modern Sonic asked, trying desperately to get the image of a female Tails out of his head.

"Are they?" Collared Sonic asked, zipping to the window to check.

"Slow down, you're inside," Modern Sonic cautioned, "Amy doesn't like high speed running in the HQ."

"Oh, sorry," Collared Sonic said, "but it is them!"

Shadow smiled.

"Good," he said.

"Let's go out and meet 'em," Modern Sonic said, "I don't want to wait- I mean, wake the others up."

Collared Sonic was already out the door.

By the time the three Moderns caught up with Collared Sonic, he and his Tails were in a a tight embrace. It looked like neither would let go of the other for a long time.

"Sonic! Shadow!" Modern Tails called.

That was all the warning Knuckles and Shadow got before Modern Sonic and Tails had raced towards each other. It was so quick, in a blink Modern Sonic was several feet away, hugging a Modern Tails that was trying valiantly to not cry.

"I missed you," Modern Tails said, then looked up at Shadow, "both of you. After Collared called me to "

"They've been separated for a painful three months, with only occasional video calls," he said, "they've had it rough. Tails was in chains hanging on a wall the whole time. He hasn't been able to move for three months. Despite that, he raced me all the way here. He could barely stay in the air for two seconds! I couldn't do that in his situation. That kid is strong."

The other Moderns exchanged looks. Collared Sonic's breakdown made more sense.

"Well, we didn't exactly trust Collared Sonic at first, so I asked him to tell me how he and Tails were kidnapped," Modern Sonic started.

"But as he told us what happened, he became more and more agitated until it seemed like he was telling us what was happening to him right then," Knuckles said, "so I tried to calm him down, but he thought I was an attacker and lashed out at me. We had to restrain him until he calmed down, and when he did, he went limp and we had to hold him up."

"When he saw you outside, he insisted we let him stand by himself," Shadow finished, "so he put up the act you saw."

Modern Tails' eyes were wide, and behind him, Collared Tails looked up at his Sonic.

"Did that actually happen?" he asked in a strong voice.

Collared Sonic sighed.

"...Yes, Tails," he said, "...it actually happened."

Collared Tails closed his eyes and hugged Collared Sonic tighter.

"It's okay now," he said, "you have time to heal."

The Moderns looked at the cub with shock. He was 4, but he knew how to deal with someone who was broken. Just who was this kid?

Collared Tails pulled away from Collared Sonic with some difficulty. He stood, and pulled his Sonic up with him. Even with the 11 year gap, Collared Tails was up to Collared Sonic's chin. The two brothers kept eye contact as they stood, never letting go of the other's hands.

"I promise you will get better here," Collared Tails said with athoraty, "we aren't alone here."

Collared Sonic, still crying, nodded. Modern Sonic came behind him, clearing his throat so his counterpart would know it was him. He put a hand on Collared Sonic's shoulder.

"Your Tails is absolutely right. You have a home here now. Whatever happened that broke you won't trouble you if we have any say. You can rest," Modern Sonic said.

"Thank you," Collared Sonic whispered, looking around the room at the Moderns who were welcoming him and his Tails, "thank you."