FicWad

Author's note
This chapter is special in an important respect. It contains in its entirety the full text of another story of mine, called "Locked Together." Please note that this story is also copyrighted by Sonic Lightspeed, and may not be redistributed without permission. Do not repost or edit; it is only for viewing on www.netraptor.org/fanfiction and only within "Nothing Special", by Sonic Lightspeed, in chapter 4. Contact me for more information or if you notice it elsewhere. Apologies for the more noble-minded of you; I'm shutting up now. :-)


It was as Sonic and Sally were walking through Knothole, talking idly, that they heard a crash. They glanced at each other, then to the source of the sound. It had come from the supply hut.

"Hello?" Sonic called, peering around the door and venturing inside. The whole hut was full of crates of food, packaged up in different boxes for future use and preservation.

There was the sound of someone coughing, and Tails emerged from behind the pile, brushing the dust off his fur. "Oh, hi, Sonic," he said, a bit weakly.

"Tails?" Sally asked. "What're you doing here?"

Tails looked slightly guilty, and passed his gaze to the floor and then the ceiling. "Um, I was getting breakfast for me and Nintex," he said.

"Breakfast?" Sally repeated, looking a bit concerned. "But Tails, it's... it's eleven o'clock!"

"Yeah, that's why all the food is gone from the community hut, isn't it? I don't know what happened. First we overslept - because story time didn't really work - then we started talking, and we sort of forgot to eat."

"C'mon, Tails," Sonic said. "What can you talk about for... what, two hours?"

Tails paused. "Lots of stuff, just talking about Knothole and me."

"Oh, right," Sonic said. It had only just occurred to him that Nintex had been interested in Tails in the medical hut. Maybe his sleeping arrangements had been a bad choice. "Um, Tails, little bro... have you thought that Nintex might be a spy?"

The idea had never even occurred to Tails, and he shrank back, slightly fearfully. "A - a spy? But - but he's so nice! He's real friendly!"

Sally took over. "Tails, we don't know for sure. He's probably just a random person, and if that's true then it's all okay. But we can't be certain. He came here from Robotropolis, and Robotnik might have sent him. If he was a spy, he would pretend to be nice, so that someone could tell him all about Knothole, and about the Freedom Fighters. Imagine what would happen if Robotnik found out about Sir Charles."

Tails was silent. He was slowly taking it all in. "I didn't tell him about Uncle Chuck." he said finally. "I was just... oh, gosh, don't worry, I won't say anything important. I didn't realise."

"Don't worry, little bro," Sonic said, messing up his fur. "Doesn't sound like a problem."

Sally leaned down at him. "There's no harm in making friends," she asserted. "But you do need breakfast, and he is our guest."

"I fell over, round there," Tails said. "Everything's all in different boxes, and I was trying to put all our food together."

"I'll help," Sally said. "Don't worry about Nintex. Let's just make sure he doesn't starve."


Five minutes later, they had put together a suitable breakfast on a large tray. Making sure Tails was being careful, Sally left him to return to the community hut. Tails found himself walking up to the door of his own hut without thinking about it. Instead he was focused on what Sonic and Sally had said, and was determined to be a little more careful about what he divulged.

He reached the door. Inside, he knew, Nintex would be on his laptop computer, doing who-knows-what to it. He had just grasped the door handle, when from inside came a sharp "Ah!", and he put his ears to the door and listened instead. There was the sound of typing, but nothing else.

He turned the handle and opened the door.

Nintex jumped and looked up at Tails. He was still at Tails' desk, where he had been left, and the screen faced away from the door.

"Hi, Tails," Nintex said, pressing the Escape key absently. "Ooh, what's mine? I'm hungry."

"Hi," Tails said, although the word caught in his throat and came out in pieces. He sat down, but stayed tensely silent for a moment. Finally he found his voice. "Take whatever you want, but I..."

"You want some too?" Nintex grinned.

"...Yeah," Tails said weakly, glancing at the screen. "What're you doing?"

Nintex scrolled back up to the document he had been typing. "Something I remember from years ago. Sonic said he wanted me to be tonight's storyteller, so I thought that I might as well do something that will keep you thinking for the next few days. This one's a real puzzle."

" 'Locked Together'? " Tails asked, reading the title.

"It's not for reading now," Nintex said, and laughed sharply - Tails winced. "My life isn't nearly as interesting as Sonic's is, so I'm going to read this in the storytelling time." He closed the file. "You can hear it then."

There was a long moment of awkward silence.

"Is something the matter?" Nintex asked, looking at Tails. "You seem awfully quiet."

"I'm fine," Tails said. "Listen, I need to go get ready for... for something, I'll, um, see you later."

Then he practically ran out the door. Outside, he leaned on the wall beside it, out of Nintex's line of sight, breathing hard, trying to calm down.

Nintex looked out, slightly pained.


"That's all I have," Sally said. "We drop in, walk this path here, take the ducts through to /here/, and Sir Charles's base is /here/. And I suppose that's all we can prepare."

"Does he know we're coming?" Sonic asked.

"No," Sally admitted. "I can't get in touch with him. But according to the transfer information, he comes off-shift between seven and nine in the morning. We'll have to meet him then."

"So you mean, we have to wait till tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Sally said, sounding a little dejected. "Let's hope Robotnik doesn't find us by then."

"Cheer up, Sal," Sonic said optimistically. "It'll be cool. And there's a plus side to the delay, you know."

"What's that?"

"I get to hear Nintex's story," he explained. "Or at least, I think he'll try. He'll muck it up, betcha." He laughed, but Sally just shook her head.


Nintex was no longer thinking about the story. He was worried about Tails. The fox had run from him, and that was just awful. Nintex had no idea what had happened to cause it, but something about him had made Tails run.

Although he had made sure to look up, and even questioned some passing villagers, Tails had pretty much vanished from sight. Returning to the hut at lunchtime, however, Nintex discovered that Tails' laptop computer had vanished. At least he was still here... somewhere.

Lunch went by (late, for Nintex), and dinner. Someone had spied Tails in the supply hut again, so he wasn't going hungry. And at one point Nintex had seen two tail-tips from behind his hut, although by the time he had got there - hobbling on his crutches - Tails had either outran him or flown off.

It had occurred to Nintex, for the first time, that Tails was not only a kitsune.

He was also a kid, and easily scared.

Nintex gave up as the sun went down, and the rest of Knothole got the fire ready.


Tails made for an odd sight. He had placed himself lengthwise on a very thick branch, some way up one of the largest trees the Great Forest had to offer. Below him was enough in leaves and branches to make him invisible from underneath. On his lap was his computer, and his teeth were gritted as he searched through the hard drive.

'Locked Together', Nintex's bizarre story, was one of the first things he had found, and he had spent some time staring at it, wondering if it contained some kind of hidden message. Unable to decipher it, he had gone through the list of the other files that Nintex had opened up. There were quite a few system files, but nothing that seemed suspicious. For some of them, Tails would even admit to having opened on other systems, including Nicole.

Then he checked the keystroke logs. Tails always kept the logger active, since one day months ago, when he had lost half an hour's work when he forgot to save a file. Inside the log, Nintex seemed to have written a detailed description of Knothole, Tails, Sonic and Sally. He seemed to have typed the file out, but not saved it. Which could mean anything. He could have e-mailed it.

Tails had spent some time in the treetops, and much of it in tears. Sonic's revelation had come as a big shock. Although Tails had had plenty of time to think, his imagination had worked against him, fancying stories of Nintex spying in on Sonic and Sally, listening to them talk about Uncle Chuck.

And in each scene, Tails was watching him, and doing nothing.


"I think she's broken," Sally said, defeated.

Sonic looked at the device. "What's the matter, Sal?"

"Nicole," the squirrel replied. "She keeps telling me there's a fault in operations. I think she needs a new processor unit."

Sonic winced. "Those things are expensive," he said.

Sally nodded, putting the unit down on the table. "Some things are working - you wouldn't even know there was something wrong! - but some things are just plain failing. I can't do a lot with her on my own."

"What about Robotnik?" Sonic asked. "Could we borrow something off him? After all, we are visiting him tomorrow."

"It would be too deep in the machinery," Sally replied, shaking her head. "We'd have to disassemble it completely, then weld it off. Not possible. We'll have to send off to one of the cities." She sighed heavily. "I don't think she's up to coming with us," she said.

"You make her sound like a sick person," Sonic said, smiling.

Sally nodded.


"How many others are we waiting for?" Nintex asked, leaning forward towards the now-roaring fire.

"Doctor Shepherd wanted to listen in," Sally said. "Other than that... wait..." She counted each person round the circle, then realised who was missing. "Where's Tails?"

The absence of Tails from a storytelling session disconcerted her. Usually Tails was the first there.

"Has anyone seen Tails?" Sally called out.

But Nintex, beside her, replied, "I haven't seen him all day. And I think he engineered that."

Sally was quiet for a moment. "Oh," she finally said. "Well, that's not very good. Hope he's okay." She already had a good idea of what had happened.

Sonic walked up from his check of Knothole. "Looks like everyone's here, except Tails," he said, almost without thinking. "Want me to go fetch him?"

The question was directed at Sally, who replied, "Check his hut; if he's there, ask him if he wants to come."

Sonic gave her the thumbs-up, and walked off towards Tails' hut, wondering what was going on. He hadn't realised that Tails had reacted badly to Nintex. Tails' hut was soundless.

Sonic knocked on the door. "Tails, little bro, are you in there?" he asked quietly.

There was a sniffle, a pause, and the door opened. The next moment Sonic found himself in a hug that never quite reached his shoulders. The fur under Tails' eyes were matted and clumped from crying.

"Oh, Sonic, it was Nintex!" he choked. "I didn't mean it, I'm sorry! I stayed away from him after you said he was a spy, I didn't say a word..."

Sonic felt a lump rise in his throat. He finally understood. "Oh, /Tails/... you shouldn't have worried. I told you not to worry, didn't I?"

It took several minutes to calm Tails down. Tails admitted that he had already read Nintex's story, but agreed to listen anyway, to help him relax.

Nintex looked surprised when Sonic rounded the corner, holding Tails' hand, and sat down at the fire. Sally moved to join them, concerned at Tails' still-ragged state. Nintex's audience was complete, however. "Is everyone ready?" he asked.

Around the circle, everyone nodded assent.

"Right," he said, leaning forward again, tail twitching. "The story I've got for you is something I wrote some years back. It's not about me, but it's just... well, it's very short."

Knuckles interrupted: "Once upon a time, the end."

Nintex chuckled, as did several others. Tails did, but it came out choked. "Not that short," Nintex replied, "but still short. And it isn't obvious, either. I'll say it's about three days before someone tells me what it's all about."

"Get on with it!" Sally called, laughing. "Stop boasting!"

"Fair enough," Nintex said, eyebrows raised. "Here we go."

Tails listened to the words as they came, familiar to him and no one else.

"I slowly came across the bridge with my love," Nintex said clearly.

Across the campfire, Sonic gawked, but uncharacteristically remained quiet. Beside him, Sally put Nicole down. The unit was set to record Nintex's story. That, at least, Sally trusted her to get right.

"She smiled sweetly at me. She tried to speak but nothing happened, and I found the same thing; my lips moved, but I couldn't find the words."

Nintex paused. Sonic wasn't sure if it was from nerves, or for dramatic effect. Nothing dramatic had happened, but Sonic had already realised that this was not an action story.

"After a moment we walked off the bridge, stopping just at the other side."

Pause. Nintex had his audience's undivided attention. It was clear from the way he was speaking that he was reciting something he had memorised, as opposed to the improvisation that Sonic's storytelling was always filled with.

" 'We're slaves to ourselves,' she said."

Nintex smiled at the frown that had appeared on Sonic's face.

" 'We have to follow,' I replied. 'We have to. Or we'll just see ourselves as nothing. I do love you, really... we're moving again...' "

Pause again. Nintex adjusted his weight on his crutches, seemingly deep in thought.

"I glanced back at the water's surface, but the force kept me moving away, and I had to look forward. Not that I minded. The water was so difficult, we both felt it."

Sonic was staring at the ground impatiently, clearly aware that he had no chance of figuring out what was going on unless Nintex made it obvious.

"We passed another pond, and again we were locked together by feelings we couldn't have. If I could have moved a muscle, I would have started throwing insults at my master, past the water's surface. As it was, I had to calmly speak silence into the air, and watch the world under the water, as our vantage point rippled its dead-still image."

Pause again.

Pause.

Sonic suddenly looked up at Nintex, who had shut his mouth and had a triumphant look on his face. He didn't resume speaking.

"That's it?!" Sonic cried.

"That's it," Nintex affirmed.

"But that's..." He couldn't really find the word for it, and ended up spluttering nothing coherent.

And for the first time in a good while, Tails was laughing.


Although the storytelling that night was more successful than Sonic's, the night before, it didn't really help in the way it was meant to. Nobody slept very well, because everyone was pondering Nintex's story. Even Tails had no idea, although it didn't really put him out. Nintex had been in silent victory for some time, and that feeling kept him awake too.

Sonic and Sally had a good excuse to go to sleep early, since they had to be up at six-thirty to have breakfast before heading to Robotropolis. It was good, then, that Nintex's story was short, and not so good that it was confusing. Sally slept well, pushing 'Locked Together' to the back of her mind, but Sonic was taunted by the idea that Nintex was better at this than he was. And he wasn't yet ready to trust the fox, either.

Tails was too tired for anything but sleep when the session was over. His episode had made him weary. He remained in his hut, and when Nintex rejoined him, although looking slightly uncomfortable, Tails made no complaint. He slept more soundly than he expected.

Although he was awakened prematurely. One ear flicked at an unexpected /click/. Then he was awake, and disoriented.

It was dark, just breaking into dawn. The clock on his desk told him it was quarter to seven. And -

And Nintex was gone.

That, more than anything else, ensured Tails' wakefulness. He was up in a second, looking out the door which should have been closed. It was just ajar, a light zephyr finding its way in.

Tails made his way out. He knew that he would never have got up this early on his own. Knothole was mostly dark, but the lights in the community hut were on. Doubtless Sonic and Sally were in there, eating and planning. So where was Nintex? Maybe he was with them?

When Tails opened the community hut, it was not what he was expecting. Sonic and Sally were not here, but Nintex was, along with Rotor, Knothole's mechanic, and Doctor Shepherd, who looked irritated that he was up so early. Nintex and Rotor were talking amongst themselves, and between them was the teleporter that Sonic and Sally were due to use.

"Months' work, this darn thing," Rotor was saying. "More technology in this than in your average supercomputer." He looked up. "Oh, hi, Tails! Up so early?"

"He woke me up," Tails explained, pointing at Nintex, who shrugged.

"Sonic and Sally are getting food," Rotor explained, and instantly Tails understood. The supply hut. But they wouldn't eat there, if Tails knew them. They both liked all the company they could get.

A thought occurred to Tails. "Rotor, how long will they be gone?" he asked.

The walrus thought about it. "Till whenever they're back, I 'spose. They have to take down a satellite. It's all up to how good Sir Charles's info is."

Sonic and Sally burst into the room, laughing too loudly. Sally continued, "Yeah, but it'll be soda next time, and you'll get all sticky." That brought the room to dead silence. Sonic looked very wet, too.

"What?" he asked.

From then on, while the two of them ate, preparing for the trip using a map for help (Nicole's projector no longer worked), Tails sat far enough away to think clearly. The two of them were both hyperactive.

Rotor listened into their plans, then set up the teleporter for a double jump. It took a minute or two, but Sally took longer to eat than that, and final preparations were made to cover for that time. She was getting a little tense as the final minutes approached.

Tails had stopped watching them. Their plans didn't include him, so watching seemed a waste of time. All it would do was give him a reason to fret at their lateness. He remembered yesterday, and was tired of fretting.

So instead he ate, aware that getting back to sleep would prove impossible. Doctor Shepherd watched from a corner, idly eating as well. Nintex and Rotor were sitting by the teleporter unit, waiting for Sonic and Sally to finish up and use it.

Suddenly Tails' heart missed a beat. Rotor was looking at Sonic and Sally, and not at Nintex. He had missed the momentary glance that Nintex gave the room, before brushing the controls of the teleporter with one finger. Tails' eyes widened and he quickly looked away, putting his nose right on his table.

I told you not to worry, didn't I? said Sonic's voice inside his head. Don't worry about Nintex, Sally affirmed. But now the images of his imagination were reawakening. Sonic and Sally appearing suspended five hundred feet about the ground. Sonic and Sally appearing in a deep ocean, with no islands on any side. Sonic and Sally appearing half-embedded in the side of a metal building. Tails winced, but then shook his head clear.

I'm tired of fretting/, said the voice inside his head that was his own. And as Rotor set the teleporter down on the ground, Tails made no comment. After all, Nintex hadn't actually /touched the controls, had he? He'd just waved his hand close to them...

"Sonic, Sally," Rotor said. Nintex, Tails noticed, stood well back from the teleporter. But then again, so did Doctor Shepherd.

Sonic and Sally moved towards the dish, and Tails had the massive feeling of impending disaster, although he had never heard himself quieter.

"Good luck," Rotor said.

"Thanks," Sonic replied.

Sonic stepped up onto the unit. The dish glowed a bright blue for a second, and then Sonic was gone.

Tails stood up and walked closer, his mind taunting him. You know Sonic just died, don't you? And it's all your fault...

Sally stepped on the unit, and vanished.

And now she's dead too...

It took Tails, and everyone else, a moment to realise what had gone wrong. The teleporter was still there, expecting a third person.

"What the hell -" Rotor began. Then Nintex shoved him right out of the way and threw himself at the unit.

"No!" Tails yelled, also jumping. He was too low, however. While Nintex made a wobbly landing on the dish, which lit up blue, Tails fell short, hands just gripping the pad and accidentally forcing the controls into a new setting.

Then he held onto the device for dear life, as the world flashed a brilliant blue, and the hut vanished from around him.