Happy Birthday, Maia! And a happy birthday to my cousin! Hope you like your gift.
It's a rock.
It is not!
Uh huh... sure...
Ugh. Well, anyway, enjoy the chapter.
And we don't own anything. Nothing... but our own souls.
If you're trying to go all Zen on them, fail.
(Sticks out tongue)
Memoirs of a Forgotten Family
Chapter XXIV: Fourth
"Arg! Ya gotta be kidding!"
Maia frowned, looking up at her babysitter as he paced frantically from one end of the tight corridor to the other. One hand held a phone firmly in place next to his head. The other waved in the air to match the frenzied tone of his voice.
"C'mon!" Vector pleaded, "There's gotta be a way to- oh! Thank god!" He sighed in relief, slumping against the wall, "Well, okay, so yer computer's down, but ya got it saved off-site, right? Well, then, can't we just-? No? That won't work? Then maybe we can just print it off at school?"
The person on the other end mumbled something for a while. Maia strained her ears, but failed to hear more than incoherent mumbling.
Vector frowned, "Are you serious? Well, is there anyone you can get to- wait," Vector's eyes drifted towards her, and his face brightened, "I got someone here who can fix yer computer... yes, I'm sure she can. Remember the music player I had that shot out laser beams? Yeah, that was her evil doing... okay, we'll be right over."
The phone clicked off, and Vector turned to Maia, picking her up and placing her on his shoulder. She giggled a little -she'd always loved rides- and asked, "Where are we going?"
"My friend's house. We were workin' on some homework over the phone and his computer flipped out, so you're gonna need to fix it."
"Okay," A pause, "Who's your friend?"
"A cocky, whiny little prima donna of a bird. But you can call 'em Jet."
When the door to the house opened, the first thing that happened was Jet himself, expression somewhat relieved as he let them into the house, then immediately peered behind them to see who Vector brought to fix his computer.
The second thing that happened was Maia squealing.
Jet spun around in time to see the young kit Vector had brought jump over to his younger brother, embracing him fondly, while young Bean returned the gesture. Although puzzled, he couldn't help but smile as they chattered away about nothing.
"They met some time ago, at the park," Vector explained, keeping his voice low as to not catch their attention, "I always knew Maia sorta missed him."
The green bird shrugged, "Cool. Now, about my computer..."
"Ah, right," Vector whistled, catching the kids' attention, "Maia! Come fix Jet's computer. You two can play when yer finished Maia."
The kit pouted, "Aw, all right," She waved to Bean and followed Vector up a small stairwell, also followed by a stunned Jet. When Jet arrived at his own room, Maia was sitting in front of the computer, staring idly at it, while Vector stood over her.
"You sure about this buddy?" Jet whispered.
Almost immediately, Vector replied, "Of course. Just watch."
After a moment of consideration, Maia's small finger slowly descended upon a button, tapping it once and deliberately. Tongue sticking out, she then, just as slowly, pressed another one. Before Jet could comment, she cracked her knuckles and began tapping keys frantically, eyes never leaving the screen. Once again, the bird found himself slack-jawed as Vector simply grinned triumphantly.
"Done," Maia replied soon after, sounding almost bored. She jumped off the chair and ran downstairs to once again play with Bean.
Vector grinned, "Wow, she did a good job! I don't remember your computer running this fast!"
Jet snapped out of his trance, "Wha-? Huh? How did she-?"
"She's a freakin' genius, that's how!" Vector grinned, "Now hand me the thumb drive so we can print this off!"
Numbly, Jet obeyed and watched as Vector worked quickly to bring up the document and set it to 'print'.
It was around this time that a sharp shriek went off downstairs. Too deep to be Maia's, too feminine to be Bean's. Both teens' eyes widened as they raced to the stairwell in time to see Jet and Bean's mother yank the young bird away from Maia, him protesting all the while.
"Mom!" Jet raced down the stairs, "What do you think you're doing?"
The bird glared sharply at her eldest son, a deep scowl imprinted on her beak, "Jet! Did you let this... thing in here?"
"She's not a thing!" Vector snapped, racing down the stairwell and stopping behind Maia, placing a large claw on her shoulder, "She's only a little kid! Have some decency, Lady!"
She frowned, her feathers beginning to ruffle, "Excuse me, young man? Did your mother teach you any manners?"
The crocodile seemed ready to charge at the mention of his mother, but Jet interfered, directing both Vector and Maia to the door as he spoke, "Sorry, Mom. They were just here to help me with some computer troubles. They're leaving now!" She didn't look happy, but the woman nodded and guided Bean away from the three retreating backs. Once outside, Jet looked back towards his friend in apology, "Sorry, man. She's always like this."
"S'alright," Vector nodded, picking up Maia to place her, once again, on his shoulders, "...hey, listen. Maia's birthday is this Sunday. If you can... could you get Bean over ta her house? She'd love that."
Jet frowned at the suggestion, puzzling it over, before finally nodding, "Yeah, that can be done. I'll see you tomorrow, Vector. Goodnight."
"'night."
"Absolutely not."
"C'mon, Shadow!"
The hedgehog frowned, turning around to face his employee, "I'm not going to have some strange boy over here on Maia's birthday. It's a special day and it's reserved for loved one's. Frankly, you're lucky Maia likes you so much."
Vector huffed, obviously not discouraged, "Look, Bean and Jet are really nice. And Maia and Bean seemed ta really hit it off!"
"...yes, because I want to hear that my almost four-year old daughter 'hit it off' with a boy I don't know."
"Ya know what I think?" Vector paused for a moment, as if waiting for Shadow to respond, "I think you're scared!"
Shadow blinked, "...excuse me?"
"Yer scared 'cause yer little girl's growin' up faster than you'd like. She's makin' friends and startin' school and she doesn't need ya much anymore," Shadow frowned, trying to look intimidating, and Vector continued, figuring he hit the nail on the head, "But ya know what? She's gonna make friends, and she's gonna meet boys, but at the end of the day, when she really needs help, she's gonna turn ta you. Cause yer not just her Dad -yer the most important person in her life. And as long as ya keep bein' exactly what she needs, that's not gonna change anytime soon."
The ebony hedgehog seemed to consider this for a moment before nodding, "All right. They may come. And Vector?" The crocodile sent him a questioning look, "Make sure you and your friend keep quiet about Maia's talent."
Vector nodded before taking off.
When the door opened that Sunday, Jet wasn't sure what to expect. Whatever it was, though, it was not an angry looking hedgehog glaring him and his brother down before moving to allow them into the house.
Jet glanced around briefly, admiring the pictures on the wall. Some were of humans. Some were of the black hedgehog, either with a blond human girl or his daughter. In some of the pictures, he looked... almost happy. It was shocking, to say the least.
Bean squirmed from his wings, but at this point it didn't matter. He set the kid lose, smiling when he heard the boy shriek with joy, followed by the chattering of two little kids.
"Hey, hey!" Vector greeted, a large grin on his face, "Glad ya could join us. Not much of a party -we decided against that after last year- but it's relaxin' and not very high maintenance. Especially with Bean keepin' Maia busy."
The two paused to watch Maia and Bean play. The two were keeping to the ground -a result of both having 'no flying indoors' rules- and seemed to be playing a game of good vs. evil. And for some reason, Vector seemed completely unsurprised that Maia chose to be evil.
"I AM THE AMAZING DR. ROBOTNIK, GREATEST SCIENTIFIC GENIUS IN THE WORLD!" Maia roared, standing on the couch and pointing her finger menacingly at Bean, "IF YOU ARE TRULY SUCH A GREAT HERO, THEN JUST TRY TO STOP MY EVIL PLANS!"
"You will never win, Dr. Robotnik!" Bean called out, "Cause I'm gonna stop you and smash all your robots!" The two giggled as Bean proceeded to chase Maia, occasionally dodging pillows thrown at him. Vector and Jet grinned, finding the two kids bizarrely entertaining. Even Shadow, watching from a dark corner, couldn't help but smile and roll his eyes and he went to check on the cake. Yes, everything seemed to be going fine for his now four-year old little girl.
That is, until a harsh knock echoed through the hallway.
Shadow went to begrudgingly answer it, not noticing the pale look that the teenagers' faces shared, or the way young Bean retreated from fighting the Amazing Dr. Robotnik with a pillow and retreated behind his brother's legs.
With a cold glare already plastered on his face, Shadow answered the door.
It was without warning that the large female bird strolled in, glancing sharply around the abode until she spotted her two sons, "JET! BEAN!" She snarled, "'WHAT do you think you're DOING?"
Jet seemed too stunned to speak, so Bean piped up from behind his legs, "W-we were just celebratin' Maia's birthday..."
"Well, now you're coming home!" She snapped, grasping Jet with one wing and Bean with the other, "I will not have my boys associate with dangerous freaks like these!" At the sound of the word freak, Maia's ears flattened against her head and began whimpering softly. Vector rushed over to the woman, trying to talk her out of this, only to be shoved roughly aside, "And don't think you'll be seeing anymore of my son! You're just as much a freak as the little rat in the corner."
At that comment, Maia started bawling.
And Shadow saw red.
The door slammed shut in a millisecond, a dark wind brushing by the birds as it did. The mother bird frowned, "What on Mobius-?"
"Excuse me," Shadow appeared in front of her, glaring. Despite being shorter than the mother bird, Shadow's glare caused her to back away, blinking in surprise and slight terror, "You enter MY house, insult MY daughter, and lay a hand on MY employee, and you don't think I want to have a word with you?"
"W-well," She stuttered, mostly out of surprise, "Well, I'm just to collect my boys..."
"I'm sure they wouldn't mind if we had a little... 'talk', don't you?" And with that, Shadow grasped her wing as roughly as he could, dragging her out of the room, through the kitchen and out the back door.
Silence followed the resulting slam. Vector, at this point, had finished comforting Maia, who was now playing with Bean, though more in attempt to distract him than anything. The crocodile's efforts now went towards reaffirming to his friend for the twentieth time that no, Shadow wouldn't kill his mother.
The back door opened.
Everyone watched as Shadow came out first, a soft smile on his face. Following immediately behind him was the mother bird, grinning widely.
"Pardon me, kids," She whispered in a gentle voice, "I'll go home now. Make sure not to stay out too late."
And, with that, she left. Jet broke the silence that followed, "Dude, what did you do to my mom?"
"Just had a little... 'talk' with her. She'll be fine," Shadow assured, then smiled down as Maia tugged on his leg. Without a thought, he picked her up, "Don't worry, Maia. She won't bug you again. And if anyone else does... just tell me, okay dear?"
"Yes, daddy," Maia smiled faintly, snuggling into her father's chest.
"Now," Shadow turned to the teenagers, both of whom were watching with fascination, "Who wants cake?"
DON'T DO IT GUYS! IT'S A TRAP! THE CAKE IS A LIE!
Oh, quit being so melodramatic. Anyways, that's the chapter. As to what Shadow did to the mother bird...
...you don't wanna know.
...yeah. So, anyways, read and review. Hey, does anyone else feel a little disoriented?
They would if they'd been sitting in the dark staring at a bright screen and typing for two hours without a break! Geez, go get some rest.
Whatever you say, Mommy... (Faints)
And now a moment with MidnightBell: THE EVIL DOCTOR POTATO IS GOING TO DESTROY ALL THE RESTERANTS WITH HIS ANTI-FOOD VISION! AVENGERS ASSEMBLARGGGASDHGFSDF