Chapter Text
Commander Tower didn’t belong here.
His navy blue commander’s uniform was freshly pressed. Everywhere Tails looked, he spotted new ribbons and accolades pressed into the fabric that suggested years of faithful service to the military. His leather shoes and gloves were in an equally pristine state. The Commander’s very essence stood out against the casual, home-like atmosphere of the living room. The house belonged to neither of them, but it was clear who was the intruder here.
Rather than accept the invitation to sit down, Tails looked back toward the front door. Through the open doorway, he could see a sleek, black jet parked on the runway. “Sonic is a light sleeper. He should have heard the plane come in. Where is he?”
Commander Tower raised an eyebrow. “You think all planes make noise? From a technological standpoint, that plane is from one hundred years in the future. It’s very quiet.”
The explanation only worried him more. The technological gap between the islands and the continents was already wide enough. If humans were rebuilding the technology that Chaos Energy had forced them to leave behind sixty years ago, how much worse would it get? They couldn’t keep up if the humans were making century-long leaps into the future overnight.
“How did you find me?” It didn’t terrify him as much as he expected it to, finally being found by G.U.N. Internally, at some point over the past year, he supposed he’d recognized it was bound to happen eventually. They surveilled the islands constantly. Their spies were everywhere. Keeping secrets from them was very hard. If they really wanted to find him, they could figure out how to do it.
Evidently.
Commander Tower gestured to the room around them. “This is a human-sized house. We’ve had eyes on it for a while now. I came over as soon as our surveillance drones caught sight of a plane en route to this destination.”
“Why are you here?” Tails asked. He refused to step into the room and get any closer to him, to this person he’d built up as an enemy in his head for the past several months. It seemed too dangerous. Tails eyed the Commander’s hands, wary that they would reach below his jacket for the gun they both knew he carried. “Are you going to kill me?”
A bewildered expression crossed Tower’s face. “Kill you? No. I’m here to talk.”
Tails didn’t believe him. He swallowed and took a deep breath, trying to keep his voice steady as he responded. “Okay. Then talk.”
“We have a big problem on our hands, Alhazen.” Commander Tower reached into his breast pocket, where he retrieved a folded piece of paper. He flattened it and held it up to Tails. “Two hours ago, this letter was sent to every single printer and email address on the Eggnet. Have you seen it before?”
Tails' blood ran cold when he recognized the words on the paper. Starline had sent the letter to everyone?
He cursed internally. It had been incredibly stupid to assume that Starline knew how to contact him directly. Alhazen’s location was unknown. The technology available to him was also unknown. In that case, sending it everywhere on the Eggnet was the most reliable way to get the message to him. It made sense, even if it had doomed him in the end.
If Commander Tower had a copy, then he could only assume the letter had already spread around the world, too. Everyone knew about the incoming invasion. And they all knew that Starline wanted the Eggman Empire to stop it.
“I’ve seen it,” Tails replied neutrally.
Commander Tower tucked the letter back into his pocket. “This Dr. Starline claims that an alien invasion is coming. What can you tell me about that?”
This was the last person Tails wanted to tell about the Black Arms. A deep-seated, primordial instinct told him to run from the danger in front of him. He suppressed the urge. The door was wide open, but he knew he wasn’t free to leave. Soldiers were probably waiting outside, ready to scoop him up or shoot him if he tried to make a run for it. He was stuck here until Commander Tower got whatever he wanted from him.
Angered at being made to feel like a prisoner again, the comment left his snout before he could stop it. “Alien invasion? There’s another one?”
Commander Tower’s cold gaze did not falter. He waited to respond, letting the silence stretch on long enough that Tails became embarrassed over his outburst. The Commander already viewed him as a security threat, and now he’d just responded antagonistically. Way to prove his point, he thought bitterly.
As the silence turned intolerable, the Commander finally spoke again. “Fine. I’ll tell you what I know first. If Shadow is one of them, we can assume they have similar abilities. The aliens can control human minds. Mobians are immune. Is that correct?”
His pride screamed at him to refuse to answer, to hold on to the only advantage he had, but Tails could recognize the olive branch being offered to him. The humans would need to depend on Mobians to help them with the Black Arms eventually. If Commander Tower was trying to initiate some kind of reciprocal exchange, then Tails would be an idiot to reject him. Even if it pained him to pretend they were meeting as equals.
“That’s correct,” he responded.
“The aliens would only launch an attack if they were close by. Attacking too far in advance would give us enough time to gather information and find a way to defend ourselves. Do you have an ETA?”
“They’ll get here in three years. They will be close enough to read all infected human minds in one year and close enough to control them in two.”
“Good. We have more time than I expected,” Commander Tower said. He adjusted his gloves casually, pulling the leather snug over his long, branch-like human fingers. “As I said, this is a big problem. I’m sure we’ve come to the same conclusions about what this means for our coexistence.”
The phrasing set off an alarm in his head. Coexistence. Did Tower believe that was under threat?
Before he could ask for clarification, Commander Tower cotntinued speaking. “Dr. Starline wants you to rebuild the Eggman Empire. This has caused a lot of panic among other world leaders. You see, they don’t trust you because they don’t know you. I don’t trust you because I do.” He looked down on Tails sternly. “You’re a child incapable of acting responsibly on your own. You may have outsmarted him in the end, but I believe Eggman kept you in check until his demise. Without him, you’re only bound to fail. Don’t you agree?”
“I—” The accusation that he couldn’t operate without his captor looking over his shoulder made his brain stall. Distantly, it enraged him, but the feeling was out of reach. He mostly just felt insecure. “No. You’re wrong. I kept him in check, not the other way around.”
“Then it was mutual. He needed your focused brain. You needed his perspective and resources. I don’t care that you never wanted to build the empire—either way, you could not have done it on your own.” Commander Tower let the comment sit. When Tails didn’t protest, he continued, “Dr. Starline intends to cut everyone but you out of the fight to protect the planet. As I’m sure you can imagine, this is a set up doomed for failure. It cannot happen.”
“Because I don’t have Robotnik to supervise me, or because you want me to be powerless?” Tails growled.
Commander Tower watched him carefully for a moment. Then he rolled his eyes. “By taking science hostage, you have ensured that you will have power until you die. I will never be able to stop you from having power—but I can control what you do with it.”
Tails felt his tails flick behind him in annoyance. “You can’t control me. No one can.” Not anymore.
“Then let me spell it out for you. When you set the conditions for your Master Emerald deterrence, you betrayed every single islander on the planet. You drew a line at violating their independence and safety. In doing so, you revealed to the world exactly how to punish you.” Commander Tower took a big step forward. Tails took a step back, startled by the sudden advance. “By refusing to resist my blockade in any capacity, you gave up the uncertainty that protected you. Sanctions, blockades—now we know you don’t consider those violations of your conditions. You’ve given us permission to do anything short of infringing on Mobian territory. And believe me, we intend on taking full advantage of the leniency you’ve granted us.”
Tails found it difficult to breathe around the rising panic in his chest. “What—what do you mean?”
“If we fail to stop the aliens in two years, they will use us against you. You are a species they cannot control—that is a major liability to their plans here. They will not tolerate your existence. Once they are close enough to do so, the aliens will occupy our minds and use our knowledge, bodies, and weapons to hunt you down like animals until you no longer pose a threat to their mission. Did you seriously fail to consider this?”
Tails’ mind was racing so fast he didn’t even think to answer his question. He finally arrived at the same logical conclusion as Tower, so he knew what he was going to say next, but he was too scared to tell him what they both already knew. He feared that speaking it into existence would set the world on fire.
Relentless, Tower did it for him. “Humanity is now an existential threat to Mobians in a way we’ve never been before. You have every incentive to strike first to prevent us from being used to kill you. Whether that means wiping us out, weakening us, or destroying our cities—no matter what, you are just as much of a threat to us as we are to you. I have already advised the other human states to take the necessary precautions.”
“Precautions?” Tails asked wearily.
“During last year’s mini-war, our ground and air forces were almost completely eliminated. Our maritime forces survived in much greater numbers. The human navies are en route to surround the islands—if they aren’t already there by now, of course. Their submarines and warships are armed with enough artillery to reduce the islands to rubble. Whether or not this happens depends on your willingness to cooperate with me.” Tails' face was growing hot, and he was terrified that he was going to cry in front of his enemy. He blinked away the tears and tried to put on a brave face. Commander Tower continued, “The conditions for you are simple. You will hand over any and all information you possess about the alien invaders. You will cease all communications with Dr. Starline. If you violate these terms, we will embargo the other islands like I’ve embargoed yours. And finally, if we believe for even a second that you are arranging a preemptive strike against humanity, we will light up those islands one-by-one until nothing is left. I am aware this violates your conditions, but we will gladly sacrifice science if it ensures the survival of the human race. Understood?”
Desperately, he jumped at the only inconsistency in the Commander’s threat that he could find. “Why are the other humans listening to you? They hate you.”
The blockade on the East Pacific was not popular. Multiple UN resolutions had called for it to end, and even the United Federation’s Congress had passed legislation mandating the return to normal relations with the territory. However, Commander Tower was something of a rogue actor on the issue, and the President seemed intent on enabling him. No one was powerful enough to bring them to heel, so the blockade had endured until the current day.
“They do hate me, yes. They call me heartless, but I take pride in that kind of accusation. In times of crisis, you must be willing to do whatever it takes to survive.” Commander Tower strode to the living room entrance. This time, Tails steeled himself and didn’t back away, even when the Commander looked down on him from several feet above. “Our time on Earth has made humanity soft. The other leaders accepted my guidance because they know that only someone who thinks like a voyager can get us out of this mess alive. They need my perspective, whether they like it or not.”
Think like a voyager. Tails used to be able to do that. If he wanted to help the islands, did that mean . . .?
“This is why you can’t be allowed to lead the charge against the invaders. At least, not alone.” The Commander straightened out his jacket, as though getting ready to leave. “Eggman would have seen this coming from a mile away. Whether you like it or not, you need him. Keep that in mind next time someone begs you to rebuild the empire.”
Commander Tower exited the room. Tails peeked into the hallway, where he watched Commander Tower exit the house and climb into the jet, followed by two soldiers. The door shut. Seconds later, the jet took off, rising into the air with an engine volume equivalent to a car. He was sure it made less noise once it reached altitude. The Commander was right, the jet was quieter than any plane he’d ever seen.
Tears welled in his eyes. Tails didn’t want to cry here, feeling the house was now cursed in some way, and chose to go outside instead. He turned east, remembering the route to the closest beach to the house. At the edge of the sand, he removed his gloves, kicked off his shoes and socks, and made his way to the closest patch of shade. It was a sunny, hot day, so the sand was hot enough to burn his tender pads. He sat in the shade and dug his feet into the sand, relishing in the familiar feeling of sand between his toes. He watched as crabs and lizards moved erratically nearby, wary of the sudden intruder on the beach. Tails had come here with the intention of having a nervous breakdown, but he found that he couldn’t cry in their presence. He was too busy being mesmerized by the way they adjusted to his sudden arrival, eventually returning to business as usual as they accepted that he wasn’t going to disturb them. Flickies dropped to the sand from the trees, watching him nervously as they hopped around and looked for nuts and seeds around the tree. They learned to ignore him too, getting close enough to touch while they explored the sand at his sides. He stayed as still as possible, worried that any movement would scare them away. He didn’t want to bother them.
A part of him would always be jealous of the little animals. Sure, they couldn’t think as well as he did, but they didn’t know anything about what was going on in the world. They never had to worry about the things he did. Especially not these little animals, who lived on an island that was usually uninhabited. The world was changing every day and they had no idea. Or, maybe they did, and they just couldn’t voice their concerns to him. It wasn’t like Tails had bothered to ask how they felt about anything. Sonic talked to little animals all the time. He claimed that what set big animals like them apart from little animals wasn’t their intelligence, or their dexterous paws, but their ability to speak. He liked talking to them because he thought it was rude to reserve his words exclusively for animals who could respond. Tails thought it was a little pointless, but he could remember feeling differently about that kind of thing when he was younger. It was a byproduct of his time with Robotnik, this perceived distance between himself and small animals. It would go away with time. At some point, when he was older, Tails would learn again that there were no small animals or big animals, but only animals who could talk and animals who could not. He would think of himself as living beside all animals instead of above them; as neighbours who were just trying to survive this world together.
If he got to live that long, of course. Stupid aliens.
In the distance, he heard a boom. A few seconds later, he heard a shout near the house. There was another boom, and Tails counted one, two, three, four on his fingers before the trees shook behind him and Sonic appeared beside him on the beach, launching a mountain of sand away as he dug his shoes into the ground to stop his momentum. The animals scurried away, and Tails mourned their absence. Sonic was truly a disruptive force of nature.
“Did you talk to Starline?” Sonic asked. He seemed to be in a better mood than before, and Tails felt a little bad for what he was about to tell him.
“I did. It didn’t go very well.”
Sonic blinked. Then he sat beside him in the shade, close enough that their shoulders touched. It was an inviting touch, an unvoiced offer of further affection if Tails needed it. Tails had never been very touchy-feely. But after today . . .
He launched to the side, worming his arms into the places on Sonic’s back where his quills couldn’t hurt him and then squeezed as tight as he could. He shoved his face into the hedgehog’s shoulder, unable to hold back the tears any longer. Time slowed, and Tails sobbed away all the heartbreak and terror from the day into Sonic’s fur, a rare moment where he felt his own age—like a kid who needed comfort from an adult. Or, in this case, a hedgehog who was seven years older than him. Close enough.
Sonic rubbed soothing circles into his back. “What did Starline do to make you so upset?”
Tails hiccuped. “Starline wasn’t mean. The Commander of G.U.N. came to visit me.”
“Wait, what?” Sonic’s paws stopped moving. “He was here? When?”
“I don’t know when he got here. He was waiting for me in the living room.” Tails knew how Sonic would take it, so he reassured him quickly, “The plane was really advanced. It barely made any noise. I didn’t hear it land, either.”
“Why was he here?”
With a sigh, Tails pushed himself off of Sonic and hugged his knees to his chest. He explained everything he knew about the Black Arms, and how G.U.N. and the other humans were reacting. “A year ago, I would have thought of the same thing,” Tails said. He rested his chin on his knees and watched the waves hit the shore. “I would have seen it coming. I don’t know why I didn’t.”
Sonic was quiet for a long time. Then he muttered, “You need to tell Amy.”
Tails groaned and pushed his palms into his eyes. He was right—if the Restoration saw a bunch of ships approaching the islands, they would assume the worst and tell Knuckles to destroy the Master Emerald. Then they would have no hopes of beating the Black Arms at all.
Reluctant to leave the beach, Tails got up slowly. When he looked down, there was a blank expression on Sonic’s face that intrigued him. “What do you think? About . . . everything.”
The hedgehog shrugged. “I don’t know. All this strategy stuff is your forte, not mine.”
“Then tell me your gut feeling.”
“I . . .” Sonic frowned. “It reminds me of what you and Eggman did to Knuckles. He’s threatening you into doing nothing.”
Except this time, the bombs threatening to blow up what Tails cared about were real. “You knew Robotnik was bluffing. Do you think the Commander is doing the same thing?”
Again, Sonic shrugged. “Eggman never made threats—he just did stuff. It was weird enough that I knew he was lying. I don’t know anything about the Commander. I couldn’t tell you.”
“Okay. Thanks anyways.”
Tails walked over to the grass, where he slipped on his gloves and shoes. He waited at the edge for a moment, giving Sonic the opportunity to get up and follow him. The hedgehog didn’t seem intent on moving. He continued to face the ocean, and Tails decided to give him some space and head back to the house on his own. If the news had upset Tails, it was probably upsetting Sonic, too. And the hedgehog preferred to deal with things alone.
In the house’s basement, he snooped around until he found a landline phone close to the command terminal. He punched in Amy’s number and pressed the receiver against his ear.
After a few rings, she picked up. “Hello?”
“Amy, it’s Tails. There’s something important—” He was cut off when Amy spoke again.
“Yeah, I’m doing great actually! Thanks for asking,” she said sarcastically.
He rolled his eyes. “This is serious.”
“So is checking in on your friends! Do you even care about me?”
This was a losing battle. With a sigh, he gave in. “Hi, Amy. How are you?”
“I’m a little annoyed, actually. I gave someone in the Restoration the specific task of hitting the tell-Knuckles-to-destroy-the-Master-Emerald switch if there was a human invasion. She said, ‘Okay, Amy, I can do that for you! I love you. You’re the best not-boss, not-authority-figure-because-we-don’t-do-that-here leader I’ve ever had!’ And I said, ‘Wow, thank you. That means so much to me. It’s great to have not-subordinates who take initiative and act on their own!’ You’ll never guess what happened when she saw a military plane fly over the islands. She called me to ask if she should press it!” Amy clicked her tongue in annoyance. “Like, her only job was to decide if she should press it or not. And she still asked me! This place is full of sheep. Did you know that phrase doesn’t translate well over here? I used it the other day and everyone took it literally. One of them told me, ‘Amy, none of us are sheep. I’m literally a lemur.’ Like, obviously! But whatever. I think I need to lay off the animal metaphors. How are you doing? Are you having a good time with the whole alien invasion thing?”
“Did you press it?” he asked nervously.
“Nah. If they were invading, I figured they’d use more than one plane, you know?”
The relief was palpable. “Oh, thank you. It would have been really bad if you did.” He bit the inside of his cheek as he recalled what she said earlier. “Did you really offload the button pushing to a single person?”
“I didn’t offload it. I’m not allowed to tell people what to do! Although, I’ve discovered you can kind of get around it by implying they should do something instead. So, what I did was track down the most anxious person in the Restoration—that I trust, of course—and then snuck in a comment about how she’d be a perfect button pusher into an unrelated conversation. The next day, I asked if anyone wanted to take up the responsibility of pushing the button, and she volunteered. It worked out perfectly!” That sounded like a roundabout way of telling someone what to do, but Tails chose not to comment. “Anyways, I chose her because she’s one of the most neurotic people I know. She won’t push the button until a human is physically shoving a gun into her face. I trust her not to overreact to small things. Now that I think of it, it’s probably a good sign that she asked my opinion about pushing the button earlier. It gives us the opportunity to finetune our threshold of response a little bit.”
“Threshold of response?” Tails laughed airily in disbelief. “I didn’t realize you used military lingo.”
“I watched a few videos explaining how your deterrence worked. It’s pretty interesting,” Amy said. “Okay, I know you didn’t call me to ask me how I was doing. What’s up?”
“That plane you saw belongs to Commander Tower. He came to visit me on Cocoa Island.” For the second time that day, he summarized his conversations with Starline and the Commander. “You might see a lot of military ships near the islands soon. Don’t let anyone push the button over it.”
Amy hummed for several seconds. “So what? He’s obviously trying to scare you.”
“Amy, this is a serious threat. If I make the wrong move, we could lose the islands.”
“Well, duh. I’m not saying you should test him on that front. Let the humans embargo the islands. We’ll get over it.”
“No, we won’t. We’re lucky to have good land for farming—we can feed ourselves. Not all the other islands will be able to hold out for as long as we have.”
Amy groaned. “Oh, my God. You’re just like Sonic.”
“What?”
“Um, I don’t know if you remember, but you and Eggman kind of psychologically terrorized him for four years straight. He puts on a brave face around you, but me? I’ve seen him at his worst. I know what he looks like when he’s on the verge of giving up. And it’s looking a lot like you right now.”
“I’m not giving up.”
“You’re not exactly trying, either. We’re not helpless. Stop acting like it.”
“I just don’t know what to do,” Tails said quietly.
“Well, then let’s figure something out together. Let’s play the ‘why’ game—we used it in the resistance to try to uncover Eggman’s plans. Why is the Commander threatening the islands?”
“To stop me from attacking humanity.”
“Why?”
Tails held in an annoyed sigh. “Because the aliens can mind control humans and not us.”
“Why?”
“Because . . .” The question gave him pause. “I don’t know. It’s probably a biological difference.”
“Probably?”
Amy was right. He didn’t know that for sure. “What else could it be?”
“Hey, don’t ask me. I’m not a scientist. You figure it out.”
“I’m not that kind of scientist. I do physics.”
“Oh, geez. If only you could talk to someone who knows human and Mobian bodies really well . . . like some kind of medical doctor who probably had to study both species to get his degree . . .”
“If I talk to Starline, the other islands will get embargoed.”
“Uh huh, sure. And how is Tower supposed to even know you’re talking to him? Take the risk! He’s obviously bluffing.”
Her insistence that Commander Tower was bluffing made him reconsider his initial assumption. Was it even possible for the Commander to know when he was talking to Starline? If he was capable of intercepting their messages, he wouldn’t have needed to fly all the way out here for information. Amy was probably right—as long as Tails was careful, he could keep communicating with Starline without anyone finding out.
Suddenly, the situation felt a little less impossible. Tails wanted to get working right away. “You’re right. Thanks, Amy.”
“You’re welcome. Now, go use that big brain of yours and save the planet.”
The call ended. Tails took a deep breath and put down the phone. It’s okay, you’ve got this, he told himself, and forced himself to believe it.
At the computer station, he stood on the chair and opened Robotnik’s email. Then he selected the reply chain with Starline and sent a new message:
Why are Mobians immune?
Black Doom has no idea. We’re an anomaly.
Is it biological?
It must be! I believe you mean to ask if our immunity is innate —meaning something we just so happen to have that others cannot acquire easily. Is this what you wanted to know?
Yes. Is it innate?
Maybe. Maybe not. Humans and Mobians look and act differently from each other. Can you name the single innate feature we have in common?
Opposable thumbs.
Plenty of animals have opposable thumbs. Before you guess again, many animals also walk on two legs. Some of them are nearly as smart as us. What elevates humans and Mobians above them is our capacity for language.
Many animals have mastered basic communication. They have signals for danger, confusion, even love—but they cannot communicate more than one idea at a time. A bird, upon noticing a predator, may call to its friends, “Danger! Leave!” Humans and Mobians, when in danger, may say, “Look out! Let’s hide and then leave when the enemy is gone!” Do you see the difference?
Yes. We can communicate multiple steps at a time. Animals cannot. What does this have to do with our immunity?
On both Earth and Terra, only one species developed the capacity for language. I’m sure there are millions of planets out there whose most intelligent animals have not developed language at all. There are probably millions more who do have language, but it cannot be heard or comprehended by us for various reasons.
In the grand picture of the universe, it’s very strange that humans and Mobians are so alike that we can speak and understand each other’s languages. What are the chances that two aliens would have mouths, throats, and tongues similar enough to reliably replicate the phonetics of each other’s languages? What are the chances the language centres of our brains responsible for processing sounds and symbols into meaning would be capable of understanding the intricacies of alien languages? Our sample size is small, sure, but it feels statistically near impossible. How could two alien species develop so similarly, despite evolving thousands of lightyears away from each other?
With this information in mind, I would like to propose a theory:
Humans and Mobians are the same species.
This wasn’t how Tails had expected this conversation to go at all.
The same species?
Why not? Foxes like you have several variations of themselves all over the planet—red foxes, arctic foxes, desert foxes, and more. What if that is all we are, variations of the same common ancestor?
You think we share a common ancestor?
I think it’s worth considering. In such a short time, we have already met two peoples from different planets. There must be many more out there. Some of them are probably more advanced than humans ever were at their technological peak. They may hop around planets, leaving behind the seeds of life as they go. What if that is why Earth and Terra are so similar?
What, like we’re the offspring of some kind of interstellar empire?
Sure! Either way, I consider humans to be the same species as Mobians. So, to answer your question: our immunity to the spores is innate now , likely passed through our genes, but its origin is environmental.
Meaning that we acquired it by living on Earth.
Precisely!
If Mobian immunity to the spores was environmental, did that mean humans could also be immunized against Black Doom’s hive mind?
Clearly, living on the planet wasn’t enough to do it. Black Doom had killed every single human in the hospital. Whatever immunized Mobians hadn’t been available to them.
Of course, this was assuming Mobians were even immune in the first place. Hmm . . .
How do you know Black Doom isn’t lying to you about Mobians being immune? Pitting humans and Mobians against each other is a great way to make us waste a lot of time.
You’ve interacted with Shadow before. Did Black Doom control you? Did he read your mind?
A good point. If Black Doom had been able to read Tails' mind in the burrow, he would have learned that the ARK was rigged to explode. Why let Shadow go there if it would potentially risk his life?
Actually, wait, no—Black Doom should have known the ARK was rigged to explode. Doctor Robotnik had been aboard the colony when Shadow used the Eclipse Cannon. At the time, Tails had just told Robotnik he was going to kill him with explosions. When Black Doom read Robotnik’s mind, he would have learned that Shadow was walking into a trap.
Except he didn’t protect Shadow at all. He’d allowed him to use the Eclipse Cannon and blow himself up.
Why? It didn’t make any sense. Of all people, Robotnik was guaranteed to be infected. He’d spent too much time with G.U.N. officials as a child to be uninfected. Those spores had been in his blood since he was very young.
Unless . . . he had been infected, and was then cured by the time Tails put his escape plan into motion.
Is Black Doom available right now?
Why?
Morbid curiosity. Robotnik had no idea I was planning to kill him. Did he have anything on his mind when Shadow went up to the ARK?
He got his response thirty minutes later.
Here is Black Doom’s response verbatim:
“Humans only think of themselves. He was sad when Shadow revealed his plan to destroy the Earth, because it meant the planet would no longer be conquered by his empire.”
Tails laughed. What a liar!
As soon as Shadow touched down on the ARK, Robotnik would have realized how the hedgehog fit into Tails' plan to kill him. He wouldn’t have been mourning his empire—he would have been mourning himself.
Black Doom hadn’t been able to read Robotnik’s mind, and he was lying to make up for it. This was all the evidence Tails needed: Robotnik was immune to the spores.
Then what set Robotnik apart from other humans? What set him apart from the humans in the hospital?
When the humans arrived on Earth, they’d changed their environments to suit their needs. The Earth looked very different than it had sixty years ago, except in places like the East Pacific, whose environment had only been minimally disrupted by human activity. Sonic and Tails had specifically made sure that Robotnik did not harm the environment. What if, for the most part, the environmental factor that had once immunized Mobians was now gone? And now it remained only in the most unchanged corners of the planet?
Unlike other humans, Robotnik had lived in one of these unchanged corners for multiple years. He must have interacted with the immunizing agent at some point during his time on the islands. The cure was nearby—Tails just had to find it.
With a smile, Tails spun the chair in a circle as everything became increasingly clear:
If the cure was only available on the islands, then the militaries couldn’t risk destroying them. Not without potentially letting the entire human race be absorbed into an alien’s hive mind.
Finally, Tails had an advantage. All that was left to do now was figure out a way to exploit it.
When he got dizzy from spinning, he grabbed the desk to stop himself and slid off the chair. Sonic had compared Tower’s trick with the navy forces to Robotnik’s false threat against Knuckles. Amy had done something similar by assuming the human was bluffing. Take a risk, she’d said. Maybe she was right. Tails had let G.U.N. embargo the East Pacific for too long because he hadn’t been willing to take the necessary steps to defend them. If there was a time to demonstrate his determination to protect the world’s island territories, it was now.
Tails created a new email draft. Just like when he’d made his Master Emerald threat, he sent the email to the Interstellar Radio Receiver contact inbox.
Hello. This is Alhazen.
The Black Arms can control humans through spores. I have reason to believe humans can be immunized. The curing agent is native to this planet but not available everywhere. A version of it exists in the East Pacific. More of it likely exists in the areas of the planet least altered by human activity: the island territories.
I will find evidence. For the sake of your own survival, I recommend you hold your fire.
Tails made his way to the command terminal on the other side of the room, a big screen with multiple buttons and a keyboard that allowed him to control the empire’s badnik forces. Since Sonic and the world was unpredictable, the AI in the badniks was designed to operate on unspecific orders. Tails intended to use that to his advantage today.
He issued a simple command to the 150 sea-based badniks in his possession: find every warship and submarine surrounding the world’s Mobian island territories—and then destroy them.
The sea-based badniks were armed with torpedoes, and many of the robots themselves were strapped with powerful explosives that detonated once they crashed themselves against the hull of their targets. By the time they appeared on the navies’ radars, it would be too late for them to save themselves. The world’s maritime forces were about to be wiped out in one blow.
For the next few hours, he watched the badniks travel the oceans and take out their targets. He sent flying badniks to watch the carnage from above, pleased to see that the humans had accepted his warning and did not retaliate against the islands. They were safe.
Eventually, his attention was broken by the sound of a ringing phone. It wasn’t the phone in the basement. Curious, Tails followed the sound out of the basement, tracking it down to the living room.
A smart phone awaited him on a shelf in the bookcase. Its screen displayed the caller’s information:
CMD TOWER
The Commander had left a phone for him. Did he want a direct line of communication? Weird. Tails had thought he didn’t want him involved in the fight against the Black Arms at all.
The success of his recent attack gave him the confidence he needed to answer the call. “Hello?”
“Give me one reason not to strike back right now.”
This time, the threat didn’t scare him. “I’ve fought alien invasions before. You need me.”
There was a long silence. Tails was ready to gloat, taking his silence for shock, but then the Commander sighed on the other end of the line.
“I’m disappointed, Alhazen. Do you take me for a fool?”
His words chipped at Tails' confidence. “What?”
“I’m sure you tracked the badniks as they hit their targets. Did you see them hit anything near the United Federation’s island territories?”
His memory provided a blank. The implications of Commander Tower’s words dawned on him quickly. “You didn't send any of your forces to the islands. You knew I was going to strike back.”
“This is a time of true crisis, Alhazen. If we didn’t act right away, we were going to end up killing each other.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ll walk you through it. When the letter leaked, every single human leader called me and assured me, at some point during our conversation, they had faith you would not turn your robots against humanity to protect yourself. What does that mean to you?”
Tails sighed. “They were asking you for confirmation, which means they were scared I was going to do it.”
“Very good. I encouraged them to explore their insecurities. You’ve never given them a reason to distrust you. When you took the fate of science into your own hands, you made reasonable demands only. You have patiently weathered the storm of my blockade even when it has violated international law. You have proven over and over again that you are patient, risk-averse, and perfectly rational. Do you feel the same about us?”
The absurdity of the question punched a laugh out of him. “No. What reason do I have to trust you?”
“That is precisely the problem. The other leaders know you have no reason to trust them. Therefore, you know that they know that you have no reason to trust them. In war time, there is a law of double perception: you base your decisions not on what you think of the enemy, but on what you think the enemy thinks of you. The leaders were concerned that you would eventually come to the conclusion that if you can’t trust humans, then they can’t trust you, and therefore they must prepare for your worst intentions. Which would be . . .?”
His paw tightened around the phone. “A direct attack on humanity.”
“To prevent an all-out war, humanity’s best option would be to bomb the East Pacific territories and destroy your badniks before you could turn them against us. You would then have every incentive to use your badniks before we could destroy them. Do you understand now? If I didn’t step in, we would have hurt each other severely.”
As much as Tails loathed to admit it, the logic tracked. Commander Tower was right—the mutual paranoia could have devolved into a conflict much worse than what had happened today.
“I pushed the other leaders to confront you directly, knowing it would force you to act. If you were going to conserve your badniks for countervalue strikes, that was the time to do it. But you didn’t. You used your robots to attack their ships, and in turn you have demonstrated that you have no intention of killing us before the Black Arms get here. We can now all work together without mutual suspicion. You’re welcome.”
Tails couldn’t tell if he’d been saved or tricked. He wasn’t the only one who would be feeling this way, too. “The other humans will be mad when they find out. You sacrificed their navies.”
“Do you think I did this out of the goodness of my heart? Billions of dollars have been funneled secrelty into G.U.N.’s reconstruction since I took over. You just dealt such a huge blow to the other militaries that they have no hopes of competing with us at all. I plan to reveal this during the fallout of your attack. Once they realize how far ahead we are, they will fall into line behind my leadership. This is a good thing. Humans need a unified front, and I’m the only person I trust to do whatever it takes to protect the planet.”
Tails scowled. “I can think like a voyager, too.”
“Don’t bother. If you want to help, you will defer to my leadership like the others. You are no longer allowed to act unilaterally. I want to hear about every move before you make it. You will not do anything without my permission. Do you understand?”
“I don’t have to find the cure. You just said everyone trusts me not to hurt them. I can do what Starline asked and build my own army. I don’t need you.”
“Did you forget what I said earlier? Your Master Emerald deterrence protects the islands from occupation only. There are many things I can do to hurt you that fall short of that criteria. Don’t test me.”
The line went dead. Phone in paw, Tails left the house in a daze as he thought everything over. The weight of the world was heavy on his shoulders, a feeling he hadn’t experienced since he was in the burrow. He needed to talk to someone about what had just happened, so he hung a right to return to the beach where he hoped to find Sonic. The hedgehog was a good listener. He would know what to say to make him feel better.
When Tails was a few metres away from the house, a shrill whine rang from behind. He turned back to face the house, not understanding what he was hearing—
The house exploded. The force of it knocked Tails back, sending him flying several feet into the air. He landed hard on the runway, where he slammed his head against the pavement before rolling to a stop. His vision was blurry. A grey mass floated into the sky—smoke? Then a blue blur streaked across his vision, and darkness became all he could see.