Glacial

My second fic that I have ever published and the first one that I have fully translated in English. Got inspiration while studying at biology's baccalaureate.

I don't know would it be cool or not to be cold-blooded. Temperature would always be convenient but on the other hand, when it gets colder, you couldn't move... Is that why there is no snow levels in Knuckles' Chaotix, Sonic Heroes or Rivals 2? :D (And yes, I know insects are also ectothermic, but as we are talking about Sonic characters, I think Charmy would also be homeothermic. He just looks like it.)

Charmy Bee woke up. The room was still dark, but a bit of early morning's light came trough the blinds. And it was freezing. Trembling, the bee wrapped up tightly in one of the thickest blankets. There sure was many of them because just the former evening Charmy had, for fun, built a nice, comfy nest in his bed from all extra blankets, rugs and pillows. The bee glanced an alarm on a nightstand. The bigger hand pointed at three and the shorter at six. For a short moment, the bee wondered what he should do. Then he came to the conclusion that it was too cold to sleep, so he hopped out of the bed, still wrapped in the blanket, and went to the upstairs corridor. From the two older detectives Espio would more likely wake up, so Charmy skittered into his room. The chameleon was still asleep, tightly wrapped in his blanket, back towards the door.

"Espio. Espio, wake up." Charmy tried to jostle him awake, but for the bees surprise he didn't wake up. The bee climbed on the bed and over the chameleon, so he could talk straight to his face.

"Wake up! It's awfully cold in here!"

The lizard didn't even whine. Then Charmy noticed how much lighter Espio's colour was than normally.

"Wake up, now!" the bee grew impatient, pulled off the blanket over his friend and started furiously shake him from his shoulder, but suddenly stopped. Espio was as cold as the room around them. A horrible thought came into bees mind. Charmy jumped over the chameleon to the ground and stumbling in the blanket, he ran over to his boss's room. He clambered on the bed and attacked the crocodile.

"VECTOR! WAKE UP! ESPIO IS DEAD! VECTOR!"

Silently grunting, the crocodile slowly opened one eye and firstly saw the hysteric bee.

"Go bother Espio." he mumbled and tried to continue sleeping.

"I already tried, but he didn't wake up! Espio is dead!" Charmy repeated and didn't stop his twaddle until the crocodile got up. Vector felt extremely rigid, like if he had aged twenty years.

"Is it that cold?" he murmured, also taking a blanket for himself and slowly followed Charmy into Espio's room.

"Look! He's all pale and cold and doesn't move at all!"

Vector walked up to the chameleon and glanced him a moment.

"Espio isn't dead, but in torpor. I guess it really is very cold in here." the crocodile explained and Charmy stopped his frantic jumping.

"Torpor?" he repeated. "...And what do you mean 'I guess'?"

"Yeah. All reptiles are cold-blooded and when it comes cold enough, body functions slow down and one will fall in torpor. It's kinda like sleeping. And one doesn't really feel the cold either." Vector told and put the blanket over Espio, which Charmy had earlier took off.

"Why the coldness can't be felt?" Charmy asked.

"Because if you are at the same temperature as the environment, you just don't feel it."

"Huh? But you are a reptile too, why aren't you in torpor?"

"I'm that much bigger. so I don't cool down so quickly," Vector continued answering while dragging out of the room, a very confused bee at his heels. "But why isn't the heating working..."

Charmy followed his boss down the stairs and in the broom cupboard, where Vector first tried if the lights worked (they didn't) and then opened a metal locker in the wall.

"Charmy, could you bring me a flashlight or something." he asked and Charmy did so. Soon the bee came back and gave a flashlight to the crocodile, who in its light started to examine grey objects inside the metal locker.

"What are those?" Charmy asked after a short astonishment.

"Circuit breakers. If one of them is burnt, the heating might not work..."

Charmy impatiently shifted weight from feet to another and occasionally jumped a few times to keep himself warm.

"None of them seems to been blown." Vector said after awhile.

"Then why is it this cold?" Charmy kept on asking and started to get frustrated because Vector was so slow.

"Maybe the electricity is off. What time is it?"

Charmy ran into the kitchen to see a wall clock.

"Uhhh, almost seven o'clock."

Vector closed the circuit breaker locker and the cupboard's door and went to the office room.

"Let's hear news in that battery radio. Maybe there will be told what is going on." the crocodile explained. Charmy ran ahead of him into the office, took an old battery operated radio from one closet's subshell, lifted it on the table and turned it on. In the meantime, Vector managed to drag himself to the spot and slumped in the huge office chair to adjust the right frequency at the radio. After a moment of crackling, they could hear an epic music leading to news and a reporter started speaking. Charmy climbed into Vector's lap to listen and try to keep himself warm.

"I'm Elowyn Brown and this is seven o'clock's news, good morning. The frosted front which arrived last night has been much colder than expected. Multiple messages of blackouts have come from the city and vicinity. It's supposed that several transformers have run down. The incidence is right now under investigation and it's intended to be fixed as fast as possible. More information in an hour. The mayor of Water Palace..."

"Well, there it came already." Vector replied and turned the radio's volume down.

"What are we gonna do now?" Charmy asked.

"Let's try to keep ourselves warm and make Espio resuscitate." the crocodile answered.

"Oh... Do we have a fireplace?"

"No. I should probably mason one so we wouldn't be this helpless in moments like these. Did you have all those duvets in your bed?"

"Yup!"

"Good. Let's get them." Vector slowly stood up, still having Charmy in his lap, and went back upstairs. They took all the blankets and pillows from Charmy's bed and moved them to Vector's bed because there they all would fit. Vector brought also stiff with cold Espio with them and the trio wrapped into blankets (well Espio was actually wrapped since he still didn't wake up).

"I guess this should do it. Good night." Vector yawned and closed his eyes.

"It's morning." Charmy remarked and the crocodile just mumbled something. The bee glanced ceiling and walls, poked Espio few times, who still didn't react, and then the bee also decided to try sleeping. After what felt like an eternity of time, a clock rang half past seven and Charmy's eyes flew open. He couldn't get asleep anymore. Besides he started to get hungry. But the bee didn't want to leave the bed because it was still horribly cold everywhere. In half an hour the news would come again. However, Charmy soon got so bored that he decided to at least get the battery radio. The bee took a deep breath and sneaked out from the blankets, trying to move them as little as possible so the warmth wouldn't escape. Heroicly he flew downstairs, reached out the radio from the office's table and ran into the kitchen to get a bunch of bananas and struggled his way back to Vector's room. Trembling from cold, the bee dashed into the bed and dug between blankets. The radio and the bananas rolled at the foot. Charmy glanced the reptiles at his both sides. Vector slept with headphones on his ears, silently snoring. Espio has nearly got his normal color back, and the chameleon didn't look as lifeless as earlier. Charmy sighed in relief.

After warming up, the bee burrowed his way trough blankets and tails to the radio and bananas. First, he peeled a banana for himself and then started turning the radio over and found the power button. Crackling came out of the speakers so loud that Charmy dropped his banana on the floor. Hastily the bee turned the volume button and managed to lower the strength of sound. The button had probably turned in some moment. A classical music started to play in radio. When the bee's heartthrob calmed down, he noticed that Espio was finally awake. Vector was so deep in sleep that he hadn't woke up, or then he just hadn't heard the noise trough the music that played from his own headphones.

"What..." stunned Espio mumbled and looked around. Before he could get a wind of anything, Charmy already dashed towards him.

"Last night came to a grim frost and the electricity is out and I thought you were dead and then I woke Vector and we listened to the news and then we all came here to warm up." the bee explained so fast that dazed Espio understood nearly nothing.

"Uh... Explain that again. And thus I can understand something." the chameleon asked. Charmy got his banana from the floor, wrapped back into blankets and started to tell the morning's events. Soon Espio knew what was going on. The clock came eight and they choose to listen to the news. The same reporter spoke again.

"...the nightly blackouts are under repair and electricity should come back in couple hours..."

"Couple hours! But there is nothing to do since it's so cold!" Charmy protested.

"Undeniably, it is a long time for you." Espio replied.

"What am I gonna do this whole time?" Charmy asked and stared Espio, waiting.

"Why don't you find a good radio channel and listen to it." the chameleon suggested and laid his head back on the pillow. Normally he would have quickly risen up as time being so much, but now he would probably just fall into torpor again if he got out of the warm bed.

Charmy turned the frequency button finding nothing promising, and then he noticed that Espio looked like sleeping again.

"Don't sleep! I'll be bored on my own!" he shouted, shaking the chameleon's shoulder, and silently sighing the chameleon opened one eye. Vector mumbled something unclear. After staring each other a moment with the bee, Espio sat up and took duvets around himself. Charmy smiled pleased, got rest of the bananas and sat down next to the lizard.

"Do you want one?" he offered a banana.

"No thanks." Espio answered and tried his best to keep his eyes open. Charmy peeled next banana and started eating it while wondering various things.

"Espio?"

"Mmh?"

"Why your colour was different when I tried to wake you up?"

"You mean pale?"

"Yes."

"Chameleons got paler while sleeping and we change colour depending on temperature anyway."

"But you don't change colour every time it gets colder."

"I don't. I have learned to control it."

"Oh," Charmy remained a moment thinking and then remembered what he had talked with Vector earlier. "Do you feel coldness?"

"Not really, but I still notice it when moving gets harder."

"Right," Charmy said while still not actually understanding. "It would be cool to be a reptile." he replied then. Espio smiled a bit.

"Except mornings like this." he commented. Charmy laughed.

"Indeed. You and Vector are like grampses 'cause you are now so slow."

"Admittedly."

Some audiobook began on radio and Charmy decided to listen to it. Espio laid down again and both quieted to listen. The audiobook turned out being a detective story, and Charmy got very excited about it. From time to time he had problems to stood still, but still, he surprised Espio with his patience. And even though Charmy had hard times entertaining himself, he still didn't want to get out of the warm blankets. Due to necessity, he bravely decided to stay at least as long as the audiobook would last. Maybe theretofore the electricity would be back and Vector and Espio would also get up.

The audiobook finished. When the bee didn't immediately start moving and twaddling, Espio rose to take a look at him. Charmy was in deep sleep. The chameleon smiled a little and laid his head back on the pillow. Maybe he could also still get some sleep.