The Eggman Wars: Ch. 8

6:23 pm

Mobius City

Inside a small, white-walled hospital, nurses and attendants were scurrying around the narrow hallways in their customary white gowns, clipboards tucked under one arm. Since the blizzard, more and more citizens were pouring in the hospital, mainly for relief and shelter. Tails, Cosmo, and Collin had finished cutting clear paths around and through Mobius City utilizing Tails' Ice-Twister, and were just about finished depositing the remainder of their supplies at the front desk in case they missed anyone.

The fox and his friends at the moment were sitting casually on one of the benches outside a specific room, remaining silent; exhausted after a long day. Cosmo was leaning her head against Tails, who had his twin tails wrapped around her. Collin had picked up a stray clipboard off of the ground and was twirling it around out of boredom.

An hour ago, the three of them had brought their mysterious guest to the hospital for immediate attention, and were now waiting for the results…

Finally, the door opened and a small, neatly dressed nurse walked out. The three of them quickly stood to attention as she approached the small group of friends.

"How is she?" Tails asked, concerned. The dim light from the fluorescent light bulbs overhead fell across his muzzle, causing him to squint slightly.

"She'll be fine. Good thing you brought her here quickly though or else she might be in a much worse condition…" The nurse responded caringly. In the distance, another nurse was seen pushing a cart across the hallway into another room. Probably more people waiting to be attended to from the blizzard…

"Can we see her?" Collin hesitantly asked, trying to peer over the nurse's shoulders into the room behind her.

The nurse smiled sadly and shook her head. "I'm sorry, she's not ready to have anyone around quite yet. I'll let you know once she's ready though."

"Oh okay…" Collin sighed despondently, trailing off, looking down at his feet.

"In the meantime, why don't you three make yourselves comfortable?" The nurse kindly suggested. "There's a cafeteria down the hallway in case any of you are hungry. I'm sure you all must be tired after what you all did today." The nurse replied and winked, indicating with her hand the direction of the dining hall.

Tails nodded his head and accepted the offer gratefully. "Thank you. And it's what we love doing anyways." He smiled softly as the nurse turned around and reentered the room, slowly shutting the door behind.

Collin let out a long, exasperated sigh. "What do we do now..?"

"I hope she'll be alright…" Cosmo softly said, also glancing at the closed blinds on the windowsill.

"The nurse said she'll be fine, don't worry about it." Tails replied, flashing a quick grin. "How about we get something to drink while we wait?"

"Okay!" Cosmo beamed back at Tails, who smiled back and began ambling down the hallway with her and Collin trailing behind.

Outside the cozy hospital, night was just about settling in as the temperature sharply dropped and gusts of chilly winds blew from the atmosphere. Despite the hospital's heating system, it was becoming rather cold indoors as the three friends arrived at the cafeteria and ordered three cups of hot chocolate, sitting down at a nearby table with other customers casually talking in the background.

"I didn't expect there to be so many people here.." Collin noticed, looking around at the other people sitting at surrounding tables. "Usually there aren't even half as much people as there are now.."

Tails shrugged, also noticing it. "It could be that the blizzard knocked the power out of some people's houses, so they have no choice but to take refugee here."

"When do you think all the snow is going to melt?" Cosmo asked, sipping her hot chocolate carefully, making sure not to burn her lips.

"Well, it is only mid-autumn, so unless the temperatures rise soon, it could stay this way once winter comes along.." Tails explained thoughtfully.

"Well I kind of like it this way. It's so cool to see mountains of snow piled everywhere!" Collin replied excitedly, ideas of building huge snow-sculptures and snowball fights dancing in the back of his mind.

"I like snow too, but I also miss seeing the pretty, colorful flowers blooming everywhere and the trees full of lush, green leaves.." Cosmo quietly answered, sighing happily as she reminisced of distant memories of her visit to planet Breezy a while ago.

Tails in response wordlessly wrapped his twin tails around her as she shivered slightly under the cold.

"Well on the bright side, there's always springtime to look forwards to!" He replied and winked, smiling cheerfully.

"You're right! I had forgotten how beautiful your planet seemed when I first arrived here.. Seems like it was such a long time ago.." Cosmo sighed again, closing her eyes and leaning into Tails' warm body as he snuggled back. The hot chocolate he had just recently consumed left a sweet taste in his mouth and made him feel drowsy, slowly closing his eyes..

"How do you think the rest of them are doing?" Collin suddenly asked, catching Tails off guard.

"Hmm? What?" Tails asked, blinking to ward off his drowsiness.

"I mean, how do you think the battle is going against Eggman? Do you think they've already won?" Collin clarified, wondering what the yellow fox thought about the situation.

"I don't really know," Tails contemplated slowly, "But if I had to pick Sonic and Knuckles and Amy or Eggman, then it's almost a no-brainer." He chuckled, relieving Collin slightly as he thought about his friends back in the army.

"Who knows? Sonic just might come rushing in here any minute now." Tails glanced ahead at the revolving doors in the main lobby, but more out of show than hopeful anticipation.

Collin shrugged and laughed as well. "Yeah, I don't think Eggman has a chance in this war either."

The young light-brown weasel stood up from the table, setting his empty cup of hot chocolate aside.

"I'm going to go back and check and see if our guest is alright. Do you mind?"

Tails shook his head. "Not at all! We'll be there in a second." He gently nudged Cosmo, who slowly woke up, yawning.

"Hmm..? What time is it..?" She sleepily asked, gently resting her head against Tails' shoulder.

"It's time for you to wake up!" Tails dryly replied, smirking.

Cosmo giggled in response and sat up straight, letting Tails help her up from her chair. "You're really too kind.." She remarked mockingly, her eyes twinkling, full of innocent, childish laughter.

"I know." Tails wryly commented, drawing another giggle from Cosmo. "Come on, let's go." He gently picked her up in his arms and started to carry her bridal-style across the hospital to the room…

Once the three of them arrived, Collin was the first to gently knock on the wooden door.

"Come in!" A muffled reply sounded from inside as he cautiously opened the door, curiously peering in.

The interior of the room was like any other; a dreary gray color painted on the walls and ceiling. A nurse's desk lay on the far side, scattered messily with papers and other tools. In the middle of the room rested a small, hospital bed. The young light-blue squirrel was sitting on top of it, her legs swinging over the side as she was looking down at her feet, politely waiting.

"She just woke up a few moments ago and she's feeling fine." The nurse quickly informed the three. "We might have to keep her here for the night in case she has caught anything or there's something we might have missed when running the tests, but she should be okay. You three can talk to her if you want now. I'll be right outside if you need me." With that, the nurse gave a pleasant nod to them and briskly left the room.

As the door gently closed shut, there was a moment or two of awkward silence between the four of them.

"So.. umm.. hi! What's your name?" Collin was the first to speak up, breaking the silence.

"Hope.." The squirrel courteously replied, still looking down at the ground.

"That's a really pretty name.." Cosmo complemented, drawing a small smile from the squirrel.

"Thank you.. my mother gave it to me before she passed away…" Hope softly answered sighing.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.." Tails kindly apologized, his expression softening.

Hope finally looked up at him and managed a small smile. "It's okay, it happened a long time ago anyways." She let out another soft sigh. "Thank you all for saving me by the way, I'm indebted to you all.."

Collin grinned. "Well we weren't about to leave a pretty girl like you lying in the middle of the road.."

"Thanks.." Hope mumbled, blushing slightly before staring down at the ground again.

"Well I'm Tails," Tails responded, introducing himself. "And this is Cosmo and Collin.."

Hope smiled and shyly mumbled a quick "hello", acknowledging the rest of them with a nod.

"Can I ask you a question? Do you mind?" Tails suddenly asked.

Hope shook her head. "Nope, not at all!" She kindly replied.

"What were you doing before you passed out like that? What happened?" Tails asked curiously, trying to figure out what could have been the cause of Hope's situation.

"Hmm.." Hope looked up thoughtfully, trying to remember. "I remember I was chasing after something, but I must have lost track of time before I passed out…"

"Do you have any parents or relatives?" Collin piped up.

Hope shook her head. "No.. Ever since the blizzard, I've been having to fend for myself in the cold."

Cosmo gasped. "That's terrible! You mean to say you've been outside this entire time!"

Hope slowly nodded to the horror of the other three.

"Well that definitely explains why you must have passed out. If you expose yourself to extremely cold temperatures, your body starts to function more slowly and without proper treatment, you could get dehydrated or even worse, hypothermia." Tails explained.

"Well I'm glad we found you before anything like that happened!" Collin exclaimed worriedly.

"It's alright. I'm used to the cold anyways.." Hope replied quietly.

Tails shook his head. "Still... If you don't have any parents or relatives, why don't you stay with us once you get cleared to leave the hospital by the doctors?"

Hope vigorously shook her head. "No, I couldn't. I wouldn't want to burden you—"

Cosmo smiled. "You wouldn't. We've all had to face with losing parents before, and we all know how it feels."

"You wouldn't be a burden at all!" Tails answered, smiling.

Hope sighed. "Still, you don't have to worry about me. I'll be alright; I've been doing well by myself so far anyways."

"And is that why we found you lying in the middle of the road?" Collin asked, smirking.

"Well.." Hope started, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation.

"At least you could accompany us! We're going to fight Eggman once you're all better!" Collin replied cheerfully.

"Wait, you mean you're going to fight Eggman? Like, as in the army?" Hope suddenly asked, seemingly surprised.

Collin nodded slowly. "Why? What is it?"

"Oh, um..." Hope trailed off. "It's nothing..." She sighed thoughtfully.

Tails frowned, puzzled. "Are you sure?"

"Well… umm..." Hope let out a long, quiet sigh. "Oh alright it's just when I was chasing this certain something, it mentioned an army at one point.."

"Really? What did it look like?" Tails asked, suddenly curious of where this was headed.

"I don't know. It's hard to describe it other than the fact that it's a red colored robot that sort of looks like a fox…"

"Metal Raymond?" Tails asked, now intrigued.

"Hmm? Excuse me?" Hope asked blankly.

"Oh, never mind. It's nothing." Tails shook his head absentmindedly.

"Why were you chasing it in the first place?" Collin asked the blue squirrel.

"Well... I had found this really shiny gem hidden in the snow, but the robot came up and snatched it away from me."

"You found a chaos emerald? And Metal Raymond took it? Wow, I'm really starting to get suspicious of what Eggman is really up to.." Tails muttered warily. "I've got to call Sonic and tell him everything if you don't mind." He hurriedly said before he and Cosmo left the room, leaving Collin and Hope behind in slight confusion.

"So… umm… How are you feeling?" Collin asked shyly. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Tails speaking into his com-link headset, undoubtedly telling Sonic everything.

"I'm feeling good, thank you." Hope replied softly, smiling, brining Collin back to the moment.

"Oh, well, that's good to hear…" Collin said, smiling back.

"Mhmm…" Hope agreed, slowly nodding. She trailed off as the two of them suddenly made eye contact, blushed, and quickly looked in opposite directions, an awkward tension growing.

Suddenly at that moment while trying to continue their conversation, Collin remembered about the knife he had taken from Hope.

"What's this?" Collin asked, whipping out the knife he had found hidden in Hope's back pocket and dangling it in front of her widened eyes.

Hope gasped, and tried to snatch it away from Collin. "Give me that! It's none of your business!" She made an attempt to grab it, but Collin was too quick for her, pulling his hand back just in time.

"I've seen this before. It isn't yours, is it?" Collin asked suspiciously, turning the knife around in the dim light, watching it gleam brightly. He inspected the dark blue color, which seemed to swirl around and around formlessly.

Hope sighed. "No, it's not. It's my brother Harper's. He gave it to me before he left to join the army…"

"He just left you alone like that?" Collin asked in shock. "And I thought you said you didn't have any relatives!"

"Sorry, I lied…" Hope apologized. " But my brother and I don't get along very well after our parents died, so we generally avoid and try not to associate ourselves with each other." Hope explained.

"Oh…" Collin softly said, speechless.

"And he left for the army because he didn't want to have to bear the responsibility of having to take care of me… Besides, he knew I could handle myself…" Hope said.

"If we hadn't found you, you could have been in a much worse condition! The nurse even said so!" Collin exclaimed.

Hope let out a long sigh and remained silent, looking at the ground in shame.

Collin also sighed. "I'm sorry." He finally said.

"For what?" Hope asked, confused.

"I shouldn't have tried to pester you with all these questions. I should probably leave now." Collin slowly got up to leave, turning his back to Hope.

"Wait, please don't…" Hope softly called after him, reaching out with one hand and gently touching him on the shoulder.

"Why? The nurse said we should take it easy on you before you're fully recovered." Collin replied sympathetically.

"I AM fully recovered. Besides, I want you to stay here with me…"

"Are you sure? I've been told I'm a bit of a nuisance sometimes…" Collin answered forlornly.

"I don't think it's true. You're the only person that's cared about me like this. Thank you… Collin…" Hope blushed, softly smiling.

"No problem… Hope…" Collin replied, also slightly blushing, turning back around again.

It was at that moment that Tails and Cosmo came back in the room.

"I've told Sonic about Metal Raymond supposedly collecting chaos emeralds and bringing them to Eggman." Tails briefly told Collin. "We're to stay put until he calls us and tells us what to do, so it looks like we won't be doing anything anytime soon."

"We're going to spending the night around here?" Collin asked in wonder. He yawned, stretching his arms out wide. "Man.. I'm really tired though…" He muttered under his breath.

"Looks like it. Cosmo and I are going upstairs to where the hospital has kindly prepared a couple of bedrooms for us. Coming?" Tails kindly asked.

But Collin had already drifted off to sleep at the foot of the hospital bed, curled up and snoring peacefully.

"Oh great. What should we do now..?" Tails wondered out loud, grinning slightly.

"I'll look after him, don't worry." Hope suddenly spoke up, surprising Tails.

"Umm, if you want I guess… Thank you!" Tails thanked her gratefully.

"No problem… It's the least I could do anyways…" Hope smiled softly.

"Goodnight! Take care!" Cosmo cheerfully called out before she and Tails left to go to their room.

Hope made ready to sleep as well, but as she lay down, she caught Collin sleeping out of the corner of her eye.

"He looks so peaceful… and cute…" Hope suddenly thought, blushing. "And I hope he's not cold…" She thought she saw Collin shiver slightly, but maybe that was her imagination.

"Oh well, better safe than sorry anyways…" Hope sighed and carefully slid off her bed, lying down on the cold, hard floor. She curled up next to Collin, also falling asleep with her tail wrapped cozily wrapped around him, a peaceful smile etching itself onto her soft facial features...