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> Nine felt like a dead weight. It was [i]not[/i] an experience he cared to repeat.
> 
> He gritted his teeth as he spun his organic white-tipped tails, feeling the drag of his mechanical ones more than usual. They were… sort of functional? They kept twitching and jerking of their own accord, but he could at least coil and recoil them at will. Whatever that horrific noise was, it had taken out all the other electronic devices in the visible vicinity and it had clearly messed with the programming in his tails. He needed to get them into his lab in the Grim as soon as possible. That was, assuming they could even find their way [i]back[/i] to the Grim. They had no Paradox Prism, and no Prism energy since Nine had drained it all out of Sonic. 
> 
> A trickle of shame, like ice, ran down Nine’s chest and dripped into the pit of his belly. He smashed a nearby window, in part to provide an escape route and in part to vent his feelings, and glanced over at Sonic. Time seemed to slow. 
> 
> His friend was stood in the open doorway atop the rubble that used to be the cannon, his blue fur clearly visible through the dust could which had been kicked up from his attack. He had turned to look at the blonde human on the floor, concern evident on his face even from here. One of the uniformed humans outside was pointing a thin-barrelled gun right at Nine’s only friend in the multiverse. The uniformed human’s hand squeezed on the trigger and fired a slim silver dart. Nine coiled his legs against his body and used the wall to push himself forward, arms outstretched. He started to shout Sonic’s name, but only part of the sound was out when the dart embedded itself into his friend’s thigh. Sonic just had time to half-twist back round in surprise when an electric charge flickered over his fur and his body convulsed. As he started to fall, he performed one last miracle – his hands threw up towards the doorframe and the second dart, which Nine hadn’t even noticed, ploughed straight into his arm. 
> 
> Sonic’s body was still in the split second it took Nine to land next to him. He’d meant to grab Sonic’s arm and use his mechanical tails to hoist him to the side of the doorframe out of sight of the humans outside, but now his extra tails were not responding [i]at all[/i]. Two of them were lying limp on the floor, two were twitching and convulsing, and the last one was pointing threateningly at the blonde man. Nine was crouched in the open, weaponless but very much [i]looking[/i] like a threat, and his friend was motionless on the ground. 
> 
> Nine grabbed one of the darts with one hand and yanked it out. Careful to avoid the tip, he threw it back at the human who had fired it. At the same time, he groped for his friend’s wrist with his other hand. There! A pulse. So these morons were looking to take them both alive, then.
> 
> The calculations ran through Nine’s brain at megaspeed. His mechanical tails would be a hindrance in battle if he couldn’t get them under control, even if he could fight without them, which wasn’t a guarantee. The last time he had tried to fight back without his mechanical tails… yeesh. If he grabbed Sonic and tried to make a break for it, there was no doubt they wouldn’t get far. This shatterspace’s atmosphere considerably knocked his top speed down. His tails being a dead weight knocked it down further, and if he also had to carry Sonic… The inevitable conclusion was a vice on his heart. They wouldn’t [i]both[/i] make it out of here. And if the humans were using nonlethal weapons, neither of them were in [i]immediate[/i] danger if they stayed.
> 
> Nine was not a stranger to making tough decisions. He’d already sacrificed his best friend once to save the multiverse. He just wasn’t expecting to have to do it again so soon – and this time to save his own worthless skin. 
> 
> The fox pressed his hands against the ground, spun his furry tails and pushed off against the ground. He flew straight through the window he’d smashed, his mechanical tails dragging behind him, and shot upwards. His tails hurt from rotating round as fast as they could go and his eyes stung from the wind and tears. He broke through the lower cloud layer, levelled himself out and, using the clouds as cover, shot off in a random direction. It didn’t matter where he ended up. All that mattered was what he was leaving behind.