When it come down to it, imagine the thickest Antonio Banderas accent you can. You'll see when you get there. I don't know why, but picturing this voice on this character make me weak XD
-Chapter 94: Tell All-
Sonic opened his front door and he and Knuckles were met with an unexpected sight. Across the sea of papers, near his air conditioner, he saw Shadow and Rouge asleep amidst a mountain of cushions. "Sooo, I take it you finished early."
Rouge, half awake, started a near silent giggle and it crescendoed to a semi-audible, devious laugh. She used the muscle tension in her demure laugh to upright body to her feet. A few quick hand motions and she corrected her hair. "Not early. Sooner than we'd anticipated though." Rouge smirked. She gave Shadow a nudge with her foot, woke him, then walked around the couch and sat. She checked her personal phone line for activity.
Sonic and Knuckles gave each other a coy glance.
Shadow sat up with a yawn, unaware of the innuendo made at his expense. He quickly realized where he was. "Finally, you're back." He stood up and straightened his quills. "Gather your team and get Chaotix on the line. We have a report to give. Best we get everyone up to speed at the same time."
"Let's head over to Tails place. He has a scrambler to completely protect our conversation." Sonic grabbed a duffel bag from the closet that contained the first batch of chaos tech that Amy retrieved from Dr. Eggman.
Shadow nodded.
Team Sonic, Cream and Vector gathered at Tails workshop. They video called the remaining members of Chaotix. Tails showcased the new three foot screen he built after Cream's test call with her mother. "It uses the Ulexite scrambler is the best to transmit data without detection. This baby right here, is the safest screen on the whole island."
Vector dialed the office's number for them and it rang. Soon after, Mighty the armadillo, Charmy the bee, and the two newest members of Chaotix, Ray the flying squirrel and Espio the chameleon came on screen. They sat in a conference room setting with various papers scattered about the table. The lighting was dim but the daylight through the window brightly lit the rest of the area. A construction site was viewable out the office window. The makings of a new building could be seen a short distance from where they were.
Before a word was said, a heavy knock sounded from the door.
Tails checked the screen and saw the newest guest. "Hey, Rolph, come in," he said loudly and buzzed the lock.
The guy entered with a distraught expression. "I know I'm interrupting, but this is really important, I can't sit on this kind of info."
Sonic gave the others a quick glance and saw interest in them all.
Shadow was especially intrigued and said, "As long as you end it all by telling us what the hell your eye does."
Sonic buffered with gentle language, "That feels fair; we've been scratching our heads over it."
Rolph tilted his eyebrows downward in confusion. He quickly remembered he used his ability the previous night. "I can do that. Cuz what I'm about to tell ya, I kind of have to anyway." He folded his arms. "After last night, Anne and I needed to find out more. I stole a glance at Dr. Robo-rather, Dr. Eggman, when I borrowed a bit of money this morning. Told him I was heading to the beach to gamble. He's a gamblin man, so that won his favour. After I doubled my money, I went back to repay him, and to look around a bit more. He didn't let me out of his sight so I told him I left my ankle rings in the lab from the night before, and if I could go get them. While I was in there, I tried to look around again. I don't think he knows I was using my sight, as I sneakily peered out the side of this thing," he said and pointed to his eye patch. "Do you all know what a dimensional tesseract is?"
The group collectively said 'no' except for two 'yes's' from Tails and Shadow, one 'maybe' from Julie-Su and half of a drawn out 'what' from Vector.
Rolph facepalmed. "Okay, fucking scratch that, I'm not explaining it beyond...basically, my eye can see shit forward and backwards. It can see possibilities and intentions. I can even detect illness. With my sister, I can transfer the information via touch and she can create a cure for whatever the ailment is with her stinger." He hooked his finger in the shape of the end of Anne's four foot long tail.
The group on the screen took notes while the rest present listened.
Sticks was the first to pop a question. "Why cover that up? You not only have eyes in the back of your head, it's like you got eyes on the tips of your fingers too!" She wiggled her finger tips in his direction.
He furrowed his brow. "I don't want to know everything. I don't want to know when my friends and family die; or when I die, for that matter. Burdening myself with knowledge of someone's impending terminal illness also sucks, especially if Anne can't cure it. She can't fix genetic stuff." Rolph gathered his thoughts. "Anyway, what I saw in the lab was disturbing. He's using nano-technology on his own body. He's got surveillance all over the village that uses the same nano-tech he tole from Project Shadow. He tried his damndest to turn me and my sister against you, too," he said and pointed to Sonic.
"And here I thought we were cool," Sonic said with disappointment then quickly realized at about the same time as everyone else. "Wait, you talked to Eggman last night and borrowed money from him today?"
Rolph nodded.
"Hold the phone," Knuckles spoke up. "Isn't he supposed to be in surgery?"
Rolph nodded again. "He lied about the timeline of his procedure so he could catch his nephew causing trouble for him; also, to spy on everyone who went into his base when they thought he wasn't looking. Everyone is being watched; when I say everyone, I mean literally every single person in this village and the little GooBa...BoGaGa, what are they called, tribe." He couldn't recall the name he'd seen.
"GoGoBa," Shadow said.
"Yeah, those assholes," Rolph said with a finger snap. "He's got tabs on em all. No clue why." Rolph leaned on a nearby table as he was listened to. He shrugged, "I couldn't see much with the angle I had, but he's got a robot that used to be a person, frozen in stasis in his first level lab." He looked to Sonic. "He looked like you."
"I bet that was Metal Sonic; and you're saying he's a real guy originally?" Sonic questioned.
Shadow huffed. He took the burlap bag from Rouge with all their stuff in it and grabbed a clutch of papers. "I'll add that to the pile of shit we need to clear up."
"I'm interested to know how he managed that," Tails asked next. "He's not the 'bio-tech' kind of mad scientist; more of a 'science amplified with magical elements' kind of maverick."
Rolph huffed a quick laugh. "Finally, he's got a fake master emerald." That name caught everyone's attention in a bold way. "He showed me and Anne this big old, glowing, green, rock attached to some electrical 'whatevers'. I didn't get the best look at it, but from what I could see, it's not powering anything that he said it was. It looks to be for show."
Shadow grumbled and furiously flipped through sheets. He filled in blanks and connected dots that he'd previously left unconnected.
Rolph turned to Sonic, "I gotta be honest...you frighten me."
"Me? How?" Sonic looked hurt by the accusation.
"It's that wereform you have. Or, what, you got two of em? Can you control either?" Rolph folded his arms tighter. "I gotta see if you'll hurt me or my sister...okay? I can't not know something like that."
Sonic held his arms out at the side and gave him a classic wide smile. "I know I don't want to hurt you. Go ahead."
"I know you won't," he said and flipped his black leather patch up and gave Sonic a solid look over. With a slightly terrified expression he flipped the patch down quickly. "Interesting...I see...I can help."
"You and Anne can cure this?" Sonic brightened up.
"Not quite. You were planning on looking all over the island for the temple that this curse originated from, right?"
Shadow spoke up, "I was going to teleport when the time came."
Rolph nodded. "I looked forward and saw which one was the correct one. Get a pen, I'll mark down the coordinates." He recorded on the papers that contained Shadow and Rouge's handiwork.
"That saves us a lot of trouble. Thank you Rolph." Sonic sat in a nearby chair. "To clarify, I can control the one I turn into on a nightly basis. The one brought on by anger or the new moon is a bit shaky."
"I'll keep that in mind," Rolph said and sighed in relief.
"What did you see when you looked at us last night?" Tails asked.
"Not to be cheesy, but I saw that you're all good people from all kinds of walks of life. I didn't look for long so I didn't see much, I didn't need to," Rolph said with a warm smile.
Cream cooed with a sweet 'aww'.
"If anything else comes up, keep in touch," Shadow requested.
Rolph let out a breath of relief. "I'm so glad I got that off my chest. I'm feeling generous," he said and took a piece of paper from the table. He wrote a short note and handed it to Tails. He pointed a finger at the guy, "Not a minute later." Rolph stood up straight. "That's all I got. Now, I'm off to the beach to sip from cups that look like coconuts while I take dealers money away from them while I flirt with the bus boy. Tootles." Rolph left and headed back to the beach for supper and more blackjack he clearly cheated at to win.
Tails read the note. "...I can do this." He pocketed the message.
"Next order of business," Shadow looked at his papers. "That...covered quite a bit of it...actually." He tossed the papers he no longer needed on the table. He came to one they hadn't touched on. "The only big thing left is 'corruption at town hall."
"Corruption in town hall?" Espio finally spoke in his refined Spanish accent. "I want to talk about this Rolph character. How do we know his words aren't false? How do you measure the ability to see future events?"
Tails said, "Right here." He pat the spot in his tool belt he put the note. "I guess he saw us doubting him and thought we needed proof. I'll let you all know if the note comes true."
Shadow nodded, "We'll set the worry about him aside for now."
"Right on," Sonic said. "Next thing on the agenda: Why is town hall stifling business? They've got Shadow and Rouge hunting for minerals and they're trying to make more of the land unlivable with mining sanctions. What's the deal?"
Once again, Espio spoke up, "Sovereignty."
Shadow's face went blank. "Excuse me?"
Espio grabbed a file from a desk off camera and opened it. "The royal family is thinking about granting sovereignty to Seaside Island and the surrounding archipelago. That knowledge hasn't been made public as of yet, so be chaste in your words. We haven't confirmed if he's decided or not."
Charmy spoke next, "We did a bit of spying to make sure no one in the O'Hedge family was cutting shady deals with anyone overseas. We stumbled on Kind Rob O'Hedge himself saying he was considering it."
Knuckles waved a hand in the air, "Quick question: What is Sovern Tea? Is it bad tea? Is that why he wants to get rid of it?"
He got a chuckle from the group.
Tails explained, "It's all one word, Knuckles. Sovereignty is when a place becomes a kingdom of it's own with a new ruling king and queen."
"Kill me," Shadow muttered, unheard by all but Rouge and Cream.
He absorbed the information. "Someone new will be in charge? Do we do that democratically, or do we draw names out of a hat?" Knuckles asked another breathtaking question.
"Seriously, get a big robot, step on me, kill me now," Shadow continued to be distraught.
Tails was thoughtful, "Hmm, I think the royal family picks from their linage. So a duke or an earl would be assigned to become the new king."
Knuckles looked offended. "Well that's sexist. What if a Susan or a Lara wanted to become queen? Or other guys names? Like, Knuckles, or Jay, or," he said and Rouge cut him off.
"Or Maurice," she said jokingly.
Tails and Sonic were stunned.
Rouge didn't expect a reaction. "Just throwing out a name, darling. Trying to be part of the conversation," she said and pulled a pocket mirror from her bag and reapplied some powder.
Jules spoke up, "No, no, Knuckie, duke and earl are titles given to royal family members directly related to the king. They're in charge of different things in the kingdom. They basically function as the government."
Knuckles folded his arms. "That still doesn't seem fair. Unfair and rude; if I could be Frank...I'd do a good job," he said and paused.
"Nothing is fair," Shadow lamented.
"...do you just want to be named 'Frank', Knuckles," Tails asked.
"If they'll let me be king, yeah," he said and got a laugh from the room.
"Try knocking up a royal. It worked for that idiot," Shadow snarked, still unnoticed but for Cream and Rouge. Before he could say anything, Sonic chimed in.
"If I was king, I'd definitely declare a 'free chili dog day'," he said with conviction.
Shadow snapped, "Of course you would!" He yelled at the ceiling and stunned all in the room and on the screen. He continued. "My guess is that they want to sell the land to the new king, rather than locals who can't pay the higher prices. It also saves them a lot of paperwork in the long run."
Sonic pondered the notion. "Paperwork does really suck. Especially when it takes up fifty percent of your living room."
"It'll be moved tomorrow when the Iron Kingdom is long gone," Shadow assured him.
They finished their talking points and the meeting ended later than expected. It was dark when Tails next looked at the note in his pocket. He gulped and ignored it and what it could have possibly meant.
The project he and Cream worked on for the last couple days was finished. It was a small square bed, with a light blue painted frame sat atop the workbench. Some of the fabric Cream's sister BG gave her made a fluffy mattress of blue and a small yellow crescent moon shaped pillow.
Cream placed cheese in the small bed. She clasped her hands together. "It's adorable." She turned around and gave him a hug. "Thank you."
Tails blushed. "No problem. I had a lot of fun helping you make it."
Cream held the hug a bit longer than normal before she let go. "I know you're used to working with machines all the time. I'm happy this didn't bore you."
He gave her a smile. "I think that's why I had fun. I got to use my analog tools for the carved frame. I actually started out using woodworking tools before I got into the high-tech stuff." As he pulled away from the embrace his glove took her ear with it. "Oops, sorry," he said and carefully laid her ear behind her again.
Cream looked up at him and their eyes locked.
"Your ear is really soft," he said with nervousness.
She blushed and smiled shyly, "Kind of like your tails," she said and was drawn into another hug. She felt Tails tails on either side of her contributed to the hug.
Finally, with enough courage built up, Tails leaned in and kissed Cream deeply.
She was shocked but returned the gesture.
After their first kiss ended, Cream couldn't help but snicker a little.
"What's so funny?" he asked, also smirking and unaware why.
She looked up at him, "Was that what was on the note?"
Tails shook his head. "That's what I thought too." He showed her the note, "Take Cream home and be at her door at exactly eight minutes to the hour."
"That's almost a half hour later than normal." Cream gave it thought, "Maybe knowing your future means it's subject to change," she gasped, "Unless that kiss wasn't it." She got sparkly eyed and held her cheeks. "Like a shooting star or ball lightening. If it's one of those, I'd have two super special events in one night."
"Aw," He blushed. "Those are oddly specific," Tails said and placed the note back in his pocket. "We've got an extra twenty minutes. Want to get a green tea before bed?"
She nodded happily.
Shortly after, they enjoyed the smell of percolating tea at Tails home. The time came to walk home.
On the way there, it started to drizzle. "I got this," Tails said and activated a button on his wrist communicator. A yellow shield of lightening swirled above them.
The drizzle went from a sprinkling to a downpour in no time. By the time they were at Cream's front door, their shoes were drenched.
"Was it the rain?" Tails asked as they took shelter under the eve of Cream's home.
Cream's eyes widened in fear. "I know what it is!"
"What?" Tails was shocked.
She looked him in the eyes and with a monotone voice, "Thunder."
Tails returned her expression of dismay. He looked at his watch. "Less than a minute."
"You won't get home in time," Cream said and opened the front door. "Come in and wait it out."
Cream's family was already in bed, save for BG, who was in the kitchen to witness her sister sneak a boy into the house after hours. They quickly ran by the door and into her room for what BG thought was something other than to hide from the giant clap of thunder that sounded over head only seconds later.
BG went to her room and gave Staci a very brief and excited phone call. "She finally did it, she snuck him in. You owe me five bucks."
XD