Taismo- Greengate :: ch 10

Tails broke through the door of the flaming house. It shattered so easily from the chars from the fire. The smoke was thick, and there were flames across almost the entire main floor. After taking a horrific glance at the interior of the flaming house, he proceeded further ahead.
“Cosmo?!” Tails hollered, hoping for a response. Cosmo didn’t reply, so he walked further into the room and called her name again louder. “Cosmo!!!???”
Again, he didn’t receive a response, but he did hear cries, coming from a hole in the floor. He ran up to the hole and looked down the pit; all he saw was the darkness of the basement and spirals of flames below.
“I’m coming, Cosmo!!” Tails propelled his tails and jumped into the hole, using his propelling tails to slow himself down to the floor of the basement. He looked around him shielding his eyes from the thick smoke.
“Cosmo! Where are you?!”
“T-Tails??” He heard Cosmo sniffle and cough. He turned to where her voice was coming from and saw her sitting down in a corner hugging her knees, trying to hide from the flames around her, and vigorously shivering; she looked absolutely terrified. There was a wall of fire that separated them, but Tails showed no hesitation to run right through it to her.

He approached her and slowly knelt down to her placing his hand upon her shoulder.
“Y-you came into this burning house to s-save me??” Cosmo whimpered in emotion.
“Of course I did…” Tails explained solemnly, “You’ve saved my life… How could I leave yours to die?”
Cosmo sobbed and leaned forward into his arms, “Tails…” She sniffled and wept, “I’m so scared…”
“Don’t worry, I’ll fly us out of here…” Tails was about to hoist her up when a flaming board fell from the ceiling above them and crashed right on top of his tails, impaling them into the ground. Tails jumped and screamed from this unexpected pain. The irony… it was his only plan to get them out of the house clear from the flames, and now it was taken away. Tails panicked and grabbed a hold of his tails and tugged them free from the burning board and he embraced his tails as painful tears rained out of his eyes.

“My tails!!!!!!”
“Tails!” Cosmo attended to inspect his tails, “Are you okay??”
He tried to move them, but they were so badly sore and bent out of shape that there was no chance that he would be able to fly. Tails gasped and breathed deeply from the shock of pain running through his tails.
“Tails, no…” Cosmo cried and held her hands on his wound, “You’re hurt… Y-you can’t fly now?”
After a few moments of breathing, Tails tried to ignore the pain and grabbed a hold of Cosmo’s hand.
“We need to take the stairs!” He tugged onto her and dragged her along toward the staircase leading out of the basement and to the main floor.

Tails remembered what Cosmo had explained to him: “Our species of plant is so fragile toward fire… Even a spark can ignite us in flames…”
In order to get her out of the building alive, he had to avoid every possible flame from touching her.

Climbing up the stairs there were small patches of fire on some of the steps. Tails hoisted Cosmo up into his arms and carried her over the flames.
“Tails, be careful!” Cosmo worried.
“I won’t let you burn!” Tails persisted.
He made it over the flames and he put her back down away from the fire.

They made it to the main floor, and to their dismay, there was a huge wall of spiraling fire blocking the door. Tails looked around for a different way out. He tugged onto Cosmo and brought her to the stairs leading upstairs.
“We’ll find a way out!” He promised as he brought her up the staircase.
“Tails…” Cosmo sobbed, “We’re not going to make it…”
Tails turned around to look at her in tears, “No, Cosmo!” He protested and held her head to make sure she was looking into his eyes, “We will find a way out!” he said again, “Trust me!”
Cosmo sniffled and hugged him, “I trust you…”
“Good, now come on!” Tails tugged onto her again dragging her up the stairs walking through the smoke.
“T-Tails… I can hardly breathe, and I can’t see…”
“Hang in there Cosmo, and just hold on! I’ll get us out of here!”

They made it to the second floor and walked low under the smoke. Tails searched for a way to get out, but all of the windows were blocked by fire.
“Tails… What do we do…?” Cosmo whimpered. Tails right away tugged onto her again and continued further up the stairs. They made it to the third floor, and flaming boards suddenly came crashing down over them.
“Cosmo look out!!!” Tails dove into her away from harm, and the flaming board crashed onto the floor.
“That was close…” Cosmo cried, “Thank you…”
Tails looked up and focused on escaping. He searched for an exit on this floor, but all of the exits were blocked off by flames here as well. There was even a bit of fire on the stairs. Cosmo held onto Tails and sobbed, “There’s no way out…”
Tails didn’t stand by that, and he went to the staircase and grabbed a hold of his tails, and continuously batted his tails at the flames to put them out. When the flames were out, he grabbed Cosmo’s hand again and continued up the stairs.
“We’re getting out of here, Cosmo!” Tails promised again, “I am not letting you burn!!”

The fourth floor was almost completely engulfed in flames, with hardly a path to escape.
“Taaaails…” Cosmo held him tight, “We can’t get any higher… We’re on the top floor…”
Tails looked around him for another way out. He managed to spot a fire extinguisher on the other side of the room across the flames.
“Wait here, Cosmo!” Tails ordered, and he left Cosmo where there was no flames, and he ran through the thick smoke and fire to get the fire extinguisher.
“Tails, be careful!!!” Cosmo shrieked.
Tails got the fire extinguisher and started to spray at the fire around him, and made a clear path toward Cosmo. He grabbed onto her hand and pulled her through the clear path as he continued spraying the contents from the fire extinguisher ahead of them making a path away from the fire and headed toward a window. Once he got to the window, he lifted it open and climbed out.
“That’s a long way down…” Cosmo whimpered.

They heard a propeller noise from above them. They looked to see what was above, and they could see it was one of ACE’s helicopters.
“What now…” Tails grunted.
However, a rope ladder came falling down from the helicopter door, and he saw Lucas in the helicopter waving his hand as a gesture to climb up.
“Father!” Cosmo smiled in hope. Lucas couldn’t reach the rope close enough to them.
“I think we’re going to have to get to the roof to reach it!” Tails explained, “Cosmo, climb up the eavesdrops. You go first!”
“Oh, okay…” Cosmo nodded and climbed out of the window, climbing up the eavesdrops as instructed. Tails started to climb after her.

They made it onto to the roof and Lucas above tried to get the ladder closer to them. Fire was swirling around on the roof around them. The rope ladder was lowered closer and closer to them, and Tails managed to catch it.
“You go first!” Tails handed Cosmo the rope ladder.
“Okay, Tails…” Cosmo stepped up onto the rope and climbed up the ladder. On her way up, the roof Tails stood on began to crumble, and flames roared up through a crack.
“AAAH!” Cosmo screamed and climbed faster. Tails reached for the rope again, but a burst of flames came up from beneath him forcing him to back away and shield his eyes.
“Tails, grab the rope!” Cosmo cried.
Tails tried to head back to the rope, when a rising blaze of fire ignited from beneath him, sending him through a hole back into the house through the roof. Cosmo could only see Tails fall beneath into the flames and heard him scream on his way down.
“OH MY GOSH!! TAILS, NO!!”

The entire house started to cave in, and it all came crashing down.
“TAILS!!” Cosmo screamed and cried, “NO THIS CAN’T HAPPEN!!”
Soon the entire house collapsed into a flaming heap, spitting ashes and smoke above it.

Tears rained down from Cosmo’s eyes as she hung there on the rope ladder watching the horrible sight beneath her.

Lucas pulled the rope ladder up and got Cosmo into the helicopter.
“Cosmo.” Lucas hugged her, “Are you alright?”
“T…Tails…” Was all Cosmo could say as she sobbed into his shoulder.
“…I’m… really sorry…” Lucas said weakly, “This is my fault… I should have seen it sooner…”
“Father…” Cosmo wept, “Why did this have to happen…?”
“I don’t know…” Lucas said in hurt, “But it never should have…”

They remained in silence as they brought the helicopter down onto the ground below. Cosmo stepped out of the helicopter in tears in front of her house, which was now a big heap of charred boards and ash. She felt sick inside as Tails kept on sticking to her mind. She slowly paced herself toward the pile and she climbed onto the heap of boards and ashes. “TAILS?!!” She sobbed as she searched in the pile for the one she secretly loved. Lucas, Galaxina and Earthia all watched her search and lowered their heads in sorrow. They knew for certain Tails was gone, and they felt horrible for what Cosmo was going through.
“TAILS WHERE ARE YOU?!!” Cosmo cried, denying that she lost him.
“Cosmo…” Earthia sighed. Cosmo turned to see her mother, “W-what…?”
“Tails… isn’t going to come back…” She said in a choke.
“YES HE IS!!” Cosmo screamed and looked back to the pile digging through ashes and boards. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t find Tails, and she felt her heart shatter into a million pieces as she began to realize that he was gone… but she continued to search despite everything that told her he wasn’t coming back.
“He’s in there…” She whispered to herself, “I know he is…”