Sonic Review 201: Thanks :D
shdowhunt60: Heh, I know XD Cliffhangers are fun!
And so it begins, Espio thought grimly.
They were in the ruins of Oil Ocean Zone, the chameleon having rationalized that this particular Zone hadn't been a particularly desirable residence when it had been in one piece, never mind after Raker had blown most of it up singlehandedly. The infrastructure of the buildings was still there, since Mobian construction teams tended to look to the future and the smartest among them had realized that the future of a Zone built among so much explosive material wasn't likely to be a long one.
Regardless of aesthetics, or lack thereof, Oil Ocean was the one Zone that Robotnik wasn't likely to bother with, since Espio was sure there was nothing there that the doctor would want. There was nothing there that anyone wanted, since Mobius had been getting its fuel and power from far more eco-friendly sources such as lava. Lava was a little harder to handle than oil, but on the plus side, if it accidentally spilled into the sea there was far less risk of receiving a lawsuit from a pod of pissed off dolphins.
Of course, it was still snowing, since Robotnik was never a man to do things by halves, but Oil Ocean's proximity to the active volcano which housed both the Hill Top and Mystic Cave Zones meant that the cold weather had established far less of a foothold. Here the snow was only a foot or so deep, and further up the sides of the volcano and on the surrounding ground for about half a mile, there was no snow at all.
In spite of the warmer temperatures, no one else was around. Espio supposed that was hardly surprising. The explosion which had taken out the Zone had caused a huge collapse several meters thick at the entrance to Mystic Cave, destroying the cable cars and the parts of Metropolis closest to the border. These days, if you wanted to go from one end of Westside Island to the other, you did so by boat.
And no one's going anywhere, not now it's so cold. Even if they had been, no one wanted to approach a Zone where so many had died at once.
"Why'd we leave Scrap Brain?" Charmy demanded.
Espio didn't look up from rooting in the soil as he replied, "Because Green Hill Zone surrendered to Robotnik. Now that one Zone has surrendered, the others are far more likely to follow suit. I imagine he's going to put far more pressure on the rest of South Island, since the more Zones he controls there, the smaller the chances of anyone going to help Green Hill. Bridge is too small a Zone to be of much use to anyone, Jungle hasn't suffered too badly with the weather given its climate, although it's still struggling, and Robotnik can't do much from inside Labyrinth. Scrap Brain is large, it's fairly high up so there's a definite military advantage and taking it will enable him to put pressure on the other Zones from both sides. Therefore, it's a logical assumption that things in Scrap Brain are about to get very, very ugly."
"Oh." Charmy landed on the hovercar's hood, kicking his legs. "I thought it's 'cause you didn't want your mom coming back and finding you."
That had certainly played a large part in his decision, although Espio was damned if he'd let Charmy know that. Instead he just said, "Don't be stupid. Why would I care about that?"
There was a short pause.
"So, uh, are we gonna live here now?" Charmy wanted to know, his voice smaller than usual.
"Until the snow stops, yeah." Espio sat down, rubbing his legs. They'd rented a hovercar, loading it up with supplies until it could barely get off the ground, and gone straight to Oil Ocean, heading for the volcano. The chameleon had rationalized that there would be no shops readily available, and so any kind of edible food or farmland would be found on the slopes, where the soil was the most fertile.
"I mean, isn't there someplace else we could go?" Charmy persisted.
Espio shot him a look. "Now what's wrong with you?"
The little bee pointed to the ruins and Espio felt his heart sink.
People were coming out of the ruins. A lot of them, all looking alike and all moving with the same kind of uniform sameness. What little light there was gleamed off their dark bodies and the chameleon stared at them, trying to work out what he was seeing.
"Are those robots?" Charmy asked.
Espio shook his head. "No; robots would be firing at us by now. Besides, there's nothing here Robotnik would want to guard. I think..." He hesitated, staring at the group. More and more figures were emerging, moving and joining ranks with the others until he couldn't hope to count them.
"I think they're ants," he said at last, although he didn't sound certain. Mobian ants never left their nests, not in big groups like this, yet it was hard to see what else they could be. Unlike many other Mobian insects, ants still retained all six legs, although only four of them were used for walking. The other two had evolved to serve as arms and the general body shape had changed as well, to the point where they were more like insectoid centaurs.
At the word ants, Charmy let out a squeak and darted behind him. Glancing over his shoulder at the little bee, who was now hiding behind one of the boxes, Espio snapped, "Now what?"
Charmy cringed a little further behind his meager cover. "Ants're bad news, Espie!"
The chameleon raised an eye ridge. "You didn't complain when UT Nest sent those construction workers to repair our offices."
"Well, no, 'cause there were about fifty of them an' only one of me," the little bee answered with a pragmatism Espio would have never believed him capable of.
Wonderful. The one place on Mobius they could count on being reasonably safe and it was already taken. Not only that, it was taken by the one species that his young companion had a big problem with.
"What's wrong with ants?" he asked.
"They have nests!"
"So do bees," Espio retorted, then off the little bee's sudden glare, changed this to, "Well, hives."
"But the Hive—" Charmy was careful to pronounce the capital H— "is the best hive, Espie. Ants and termites and all those creatures only build nests 'cause they're jealous of bees' hives and wanna copy them."
Espio folded his arms and stared at Charmy, torn between irritation and – much to his surprise – amusement.
"Are there any other species on Mobius that aren't jealous of the hive?" he asked.
Charmy shrugged, not meeting his gaze. "Are there any other species on Mobius who're welcome in chameleon lands?"
"Touche," Espio conceded, a grim smile touching his mouth. "You said you weren't a typical bee."
Charmy caught hold of a broken pole with one hand and zoomed around it three times before answering, "I'm not. But do the ants know that?"
He had a point, Espio admitted to himself, but he wasn't beaten yet. It would be beyond stupid to contest this Zone with an ant colony, but the chameleon hoped they might be prevailed upon to share.
Moving slowly, he rose to his feet and started toward them, then stopped after a few paces.
"You can go invisible, right Espie?" Charmy said very fast.
"I can, but that won't do you much good."
"I can fly!"
"So can some of them, by the look of it," Espio pointed out, although he didn't know if ants could fight very well in the air. If they couldn't, and given Charmy had a stinger and extensive knowledge of how to use it, the little bee would probably be able to escape if things turned nasty.
The chameleon was less certain of his own ability to get to safety. Turning invisible was one thing, and being cold-blooded meant he didn't give off body heat, but it wouldn't conceal his smell. Just how good were an ant's senses, anyway?
The group in front of him conferred for a few moments, then one of them stepped forward and Espio relaxed. If the ants had been planning to attack, they would have rushed him en masse. Sending a spokesperson forward meant that they wanted to parley, not fight. Mobian ants were as insular as bees, but friendly to the point where all construction work and excavation projects were usually contracted out to the nearest ant colony. It was possible that they just might get out of this in one piece.
Carefully, he moved toward the group, Charmy holding onto his shoulders with the clear intention of using the chameleon as a shield should it come to blows. When they were two meters apart, both parties drew to a halt.
"Help you with something?" Espio asked, once it became apparent that the ant was waiting for him to break the silence.
The ant cleared his throat with a noise like a fingernail being dragged over a comb.
"My name is Kikka. We couldn't help noticing that this Zone seems to be somewhat in need of repair."
That was ants for you. No time for pleasantries; just cut the crap and get straight down to the chase. Espio rather liked that about them.
"And I suppose you're offering to make those repairs," he said pleasantly.
"Yes."
The chameleon nodded once. It was a tempting offer, since ant buildings tended to come with built-in insulation. If he and Charmy were going to be here for any length of time, they could do a lot worse than have the place rebuilt. Hell, it could serve as a good, solid base for anyone who needed it.
Refugees from Green Hill Zone, for one thing, he thought.
"So why haven't you done anything about it before?"
"Because we want something in return," Kikka answered candidly, "and nobody's come along until now that we could make any kind of a deal with."
That was more or less the answer he'd been expecting, although Kikka's use of the word deal unsettled Espio a little.
"And just how much paperwork is this deal going to involve?" he demanded. Anyone who dealt with ants and their construction firms very soon learned the importance of asking that question. The ants viewed other species' legal contracts to be horribly vague and avoided using them wherever possible, producing instead reams of legal and technical jargon that ended up being roughly the same length as many bestselling novels. Espio had once tried to study a contract prior to signing it, but had surrendered at page three hundred and eighty seven and gone to bed with a splitting headache, only to find when he woke up that Vector had signed on his behalf.
Kikka shrugged. "Not as much as you might think. It's not a contract job so much as an exchange. What we really want are exclusive underground rights."
Espio hesitated. Although ants were professional and courteous enough, they could turn seriously nasty if you tried to trick them or welshed on a deal, and underground construction rights were extremely difficult to come by. Of course, since they were ants, that might help a little; what ants didn't know about building underground and digging out tunnels wasn't worth knowing, and they were so red-hot on health and safety while they were digging that it would probably be safe.
Except it's all hypothetical. He couldn't promise what he hadn't got, and not only that; he wasn't a registered citizen of Oil Ocean, so he couldn't even apply on Kikka's behalf.
"Sorry. I can't help you with those," he answered at last. "I don't have that kind of authority. Charmy and I are refugees here, not citizens."
Kikka shrugged again. "Refugees or not, I don't see anyone else in this place. Do you?"
It was a crazy, radical idea, but if Espio hadn't been a little radical himself, he never would have left his colony. And the ant was right; it wasn't like he'd have to fight anyone for the position of authority.
"What happens if other people start moving in once you've got it fixed? And it will be you guys doing the fixing, by the way. I can't even put up a shelf, let alone a building."
Kikka shifted the weight on his back legs and said, "If other people do come, they'll look to you since you'll be there when they arrive. There were very few survivors when the Zone went up, and those that did survive have built new lives for themselves in other places by now."
"They might come back. And if they did, they might protest about finding an apartment where their favorite bakery used to be, or some such crap."
"Given the weather, chameleon, I somehow don't think civic planning will be much of a priority for them," Kikka answered. "If it is, you can always turn them away in favor of more appreciative refugees."
The power the ant was proposing to offer him made Espio light-headed for a minute, then he recovered himself.
"And what exactly do you get out of this? No, wait, I'll rephrase that: why do you want the underground rights here of all places?"
A third shrug. "Simple. The queens are looking to expand our colony to Westside Island. The cost of underground rights in places like Emerald Hill and Metropolis are extortionate, but Oil Ocean's reasonably central and so unpopular that whoever was in charge would be receptive to any offer. Unfortunately, it blew up before anything could be finalized, which brings us back to the main point. We fix the buildings, you let us build a nest underground and if you're ousted at any time, we won't hold the new boss's decision against you."
Hundreds of possibilities flashed through Espio's mind in an instant, followed just as fast by his decision. The ants could prove very useful allies, and so the chameleon smirked and held out a hand.
"You got a deal."
