Chapter Four: The Spill

The nice thing about Station Square is that they were way more prepared than Tails' runway.

When I stepped off the train, I only slipped a little. The grizzly bear almost lost her footing, too, so I figured I wasn't doing too badly. Still, neither of us had a huge problem getting out of the station into the town itself. As I turned down a street, I heard her call out to me.

"Sonic! Where are you going?"

… I rolled my eyes and debated telling her. On one hand… she was clearly a fan. What if she followed me? What if she told Amy or something?

On the other hand, I had fallen face-first into her fuzzy sweater and taken her water. I kinda owed her some kinda evidence I wasn't a creep.

I turned around. "Grocery store!" I shouted. I waited until she caught up to me a little bit, and then added. "Tails is sick. Picking up some stuff for him."

She frowned. Not the look you want on a big bear, but somehow it didn't seem all that threatening. "Oh… well… I hope he's better soon." Her eyes rolled up as she seemed to think for a second. "Are you going to Nakamart?"

Huh. I hadn't thought about which store I was going to. Nakamart had better prices, but on the other hand, Drummond's across the road was local. So I had options.

"Probably. Or Drummond's."

She smiled, a knowing twinkle in her eyes. "You'll probably decide when you get there."

I nodded, raising an eyebrow, frowning a little. "What gave you that idea?"

She shrugged, grinning. "I don't know. Just seems like something you'd do. I need to go, but maybe I'll see you around. Sorry, Sonic." She kept going straight, past the corner.

I rolled my eyes and kept walking. Fangirls.

The walk there was pretty uneventful, though. I got a lot of stares and comments from passersby… my face musta looked pretty bad… One woman even stopped and asked me, "Did that pink girl do this to you?" I told her no, I was sparring with Knuckles. Somehow that seemed more believable than slipping and sliding all over the place and getting kneed in the emeralds by a huge bear. Maybe it was the way I was walking? I was sure my strides weren't as loose as normal.

Anyway, before long I made my way to the shopping district outside of town. Maybe "shopping district" isn't the right word. I don't know. I just know it's a less congested area outside the city that's full of malls and grocery stores and book stores. The kinda big old corporate stuff they can't fit inside the city itself 'cause the blocks are so small. There were grocery stores inside the city, sure, but these ones were near the train station. I guess all the farms used to be out this way, before they paved 'em over for parking lots. Go figure. Good intentions, right?

I stood at the end of the sidewalk. To my right, a ways off, was Drummond's. Drummond's is a local chain, started a couple cities over. I like to shop there, you know, buy local and stuff, but the Drummond's there isn't really as clean as the Nakamart. If you went over to Westopolis, though, it was the exact opposite. Management's something, I guess. But, Nakamart's prices are usually lower, my money was kinda tight, and it was closer besides, just a small walk off to my left, so I went there.

I was pretty sure it was going to be a pretty simple trip: grab medicine, grab food, pay, go. I grabbed a shopping cart and headed over toward the medicine. As I walked that way, I passed by the floral section, and I found myself wondering if maybe bringing something green into the house would help improve Tails' mood. He wasn't as much of a nature guy as me, but a little spider plant or something couldn't hurt, right?

Then my cart stopped, sending a little jolt up into my wrists.

I looked up. Some kinda stretchy orange fence was set up around the pharmacy area… I looked up and I could see the little sign that said "pain relievers" just behind it, and a mess of little tiny boxes all over the floor behind it.

"What the…?" I started. I looked outside. I could see the sun. A few times I'd popped in here at three in the morning and seen the orange fence up and some guy riding one of those wax machines behind it, but broad daylight? I looked back again, and tried to figure out if I could just reach past the fence. If I'd been the werehog, maybe, but I wasn't; I could see my arm was too short.

"Hi, Sonic. Too bad you weren't here earlier." I looked up at the sound of the voice, and was greeted by a tiny human stock girl in an apron.

I didn't like where that was heading.

"A robot was in here looking for something earlier. Made a huge mess."

I really, really didn't like where that was heading. "Orange?"

"Yellow, and square, actually. We can't let anyone back there until we get it cleaned up…" she apologized, giving a little shrug.

I stared at the kid, incredulous. "So, I'm good enough to stop the robot for you, but not good enough to jump the fence and get what I came here to shop for after he throws some stuff around?"

I regretted it immediately. She frowned at me, eyes narrowing just a little. "You know that's not what I meant. Honestly, I would just let you through but… it's a liability thing. I'd lose my job. I'm supposed to call security if anyone the GUN thinks might hop the fence shows up, but I…" She thought, looking up, before returning her gaze to me. "I don't know, you're Sonic. You're reasonable."

She was right. I am reasonable, and I was losing my cool with someone who definitely didn't deserve it. I decided to try and keep my bad mood in check. "Hey…" I frowned, looking down a bit. "I don't blame you. I'm just kinda frustrated is all. As you can see, I had a little trouble on my way here. Need something for this eye," I fibbed. If Eggman was tearing up the pharmacy of a grocery store, especially the same part of it I was heading to, maybe I didn't want to spread around that Tails wasn't up to fighting him.

"I'm sure one of my coworkers has some in a purse."

"No, thanks. It's fine. I gotta get other stuff anyway."

She sighed heavily. "You're going down the road, aren't you?"

I nodded. "Sorry, dudette. I can't really walk around the other store with your bags on my arm."

I walked past her, peeking at her nametag on the way past. Amanda. Pretty sure if I went and told the boss how nice she was to me, then went somewhere else, that wouldn't look good for her. I decided I'd remember her, and find some way to put in a good word for her some other day.

I parked my cart in the corral and walked back outside, into the cold.