Taismo- City of the Dead :: 7

~Time Left: 16 hours, 30 minutes.

Tails woke up an hour and a half later and his eyes were lit open from all the pain, and he was ready to jump and panic.

“Tails, stay calm! Just relax, and try not to move too much.” Cosmo warned, “You’ve been through a lot, don’t panic, it’ll make it worse.”

Tails looked around and felt dizzy. He put his right hand over his forehead and groaned, “My head… Why does it hurt…?” He felt around and noticed that there was a bandage wrapped around his forehead, “Cosmo, what happened…?”

“You got a pretty big hit to the head, so I bandaged it up with some pillowcases from around the room.” Cosmo explained.

Tails then noticed that his left arm was also wrapped in a pillowcase bandage hanging from around his shoulders, “What the…”

“Try not to move your left arm, it’s broken…” Cosmo sighed.

Tails sighed and tears rolled down his face. He sat up and rested his head into his right palm, “How am I supposed to protect you in this condition…?”

Cosmo was speechless. She didn’t know what she could say that would brighten things up.

“How long have I been out…?” Tails asked.

Cosmo shrugged, “About an hour and a half. None of the dark foxes seemed to have found us in here… Fortunate too, because you were unconscious.” She sat down beside Tails and gently rubbed his back, “So how are you feeling right now…?”

“I should be okay…” Tails assured, “I’m just worried how this arm will affect me later…” He then took Cosmo’s hand and looked at her eye to eye, “How about you Cosmo, are you okay? Are you hurt?”

Cosmo tipped her head and slightly laughed, “You should be worrying more about yourself right now, Tails. I’m fine.”

“But I’m not worried about myself.” Tails exclaimed, “I’m worried about you!” He began to cry and whimper, “I don’t want to lose you again, Cosmo! You mean everything to me!”

“Tails…” Cosmo started to cry too, “I don’t want you to keep hurting yourself for me---”

”Cosmo!” Tails interrupted and pulled Cosmo closer to him and he kissed her crying harder, “I’d give my life for you! I love you so much… I couldn’t bear losing you again…”

“Tails…” Cosmo started to whisper as she cried, “Please, calm down… I want you to rest, okay?”

“But I…”

“Tails, please.” Cosmo begged, “Lay down and relax.”

Tails sighed and nodded, and tried to lay down. Cosmo stroked Tails’ forehead to relax him and they kept trading smiles.

~Time Left: 15 hours, 10 minutes.

Another hour and 20 minutes went by. Tails was finally getting some sleep and Cosmo kept watch. Tails woke up with a sudden scare and he sat up and looked around.

“Bad dream?” Cosmo asked. Tails shook his head, “I don’t think so. I think I heard something…”

A few seconds later they both heard a thud from the ceiling.

“There it is again!” Tails worried. Cosmo whimpered, “I heard it too…”

Tails stood up and tried picking Cosmo up. “Agh!”

“Tails?” Cosmo was concerned about Tails’ condition.

“My arm…” Tails ignored it and picked Cosmo up with his one good arm and held onto her securely. He then flew out the door in time before a dark fox broke into the room from the ceiling with attempts to surprise attack them, but failed and lost them.

The dark fox found the blood-stained pillows from Tails’ open cuts and chuckled. “It’s fresh. They were just here. They must have left through the door…” He thought, “They’re not going to get far…” He then flew out the door and began his search for the pair.

~Time Left: 15 hours, 0 minutes.

It didn’t take long before the dark fox found Tails and Cosmo. They were in the corner of an alley behind cardboard boxes. Apparently it was the best spot they could find for now.

“Tails!” Cosmo saw the dark fox after them.

“Dang…” Tails grumbled, “We were being followed…”

The dark fox went to the ground and cornered them grinning. Tails stood defensively in front of Cosmo, mistakenly hurting himself because he had forgotten about his broken arm.

“Tails, you’re such a fool.” The dark fox laughed, “You know, you ‘could’ just give us Cosmo so we can rid her and you can go home safe. Or would you rather have more pain delivered?”

Tails frowned, “I’d rather die!!”

The dark fox laughed and took a quick kick to Tails’ broken arm. Tails grabbed his arm falling to his knees and shrieked from the pain.

“That isn’t fair!” Cosmo shouted, “Are you freaks all about cheap shots?!”

“Heh…” The dark fox continued his laughter, “Who said anything about this being a fair game?”

A few moments after Tails was put onto his knees in pain, he quickly rose back up and with his good arm delivered a punch into the dark fox’s chin when he didn’t expect it. The dark fox took a few startling steps backwards, then stopped for a chuckle, “You’re not even half way done here, Tails. Do you really believe you can hold onto that plant for much longer?”

“YES!” Tails ran up to the dark fox and forcefully slammed his right elbow into the dark fox’s stomach.

“Enough small play!” The dark fox swatted Tails away from him and charged up a ball of energy in his palm. “You want to die, fox, then so be it!”

Tails flew off the ground toward the sky, “Take this up here!”

The dark fox angrily followed Tails and left Cosmo. “I don’t toy with my prey like you, fool!” He shouted and fired the black bolt of lightning he had charged, which headed for Tails above him.

Tails looked back and saw the bolt heading for him. He quickly moved to the side a bit, but unfortunately he wasn’t fast enough. The bolt skinned his right ear clear off. It vaporized into ashes and blew away in the wind. Tails quickly grabbed his missing ear and shrieked. It gave a powerful sting. He let go of his ear and discovered that his hearing in that ear was gone.

Tails stopped and looked back at the dark fox following him; Tails was incredibly furious. Tails flew down with all of his strength and collided into the dark fox and they both started to fall. Tails landed on top of the dark fox on the ledge of a building rooftop. They collided into the ground hard; Tails knocked himself out from the crash for a few moments… Soon after, Tails woke up and found that he was lying in a pile of ashes…

Tails flew down to Cosmo and limped into her arms.

“Tails…” Cosmo cried, “Your ear…”

“I’m just glad you’re safe…” Tails sighed.

“But your ear!” Cosmo worried. Tails shushed her, “It’s okay, Cosmo. A deaf ear isn’t going to bring me down.”

Cosmo gasped, “You’re deaf in that ear???”

Tails sighed, “Sorry I mentioned that… Just please, don’t worry… We’ll get through this… It’s not over yet, but we’ll make it…”

Cosmo hugged onto Tails and sobbed over his shoulder, “I can’t stand to see you getting hurt!!”

“I’ve been hurt for 5 years, Cosmo…” Tails exclaimed, “Losing you was far worse… And I’m willing to put up with anything so I don’t have to relive that.”

Cosmo kept crying over his shoulder, “I’m sorry I left you… I’m sorry…”

Tails gently hugged Cosmo closer and whispered, “Don’t cry… It’s not your fault… It never was your fault… And simply having you in my arms at this very moment heals all my pains…”

“Tails…”

”Cosmo…” Tails whispered, “I’m never going to let you go again…”