Here we go. THIS is the final stretch.
Chapter 101: Progress
"Would you look at that; Tails finally called." Sonic stood from his armchair.
Mina stopped her search for the 'right music' on her phone. She leaned on the arm of the sofa. "You're leaving?" she asked.
Rouge heard something in the distance and tilted her ears toward it. She chose to not care and ignored the sound.
Sonic nodded, "Only for a little bit. Tails has a surprise for me that's apparently going to 'save me lots of money in the long run'. Check it out, they're back," he said as he looked out the side window. Julie-Su drove up to the front of the house in a small white truck loaded with a pile of fruit in the back. Knuckles was presumably in there somewhere.
The two parked by the front door and Knuckles jumped off the back. The pile of fruits he held in place for the trip fell into the sand. "Hey, bro. Wassup?" he said with a wave.
Sonic waved back as he came through the front door, "Not much. I'm heading to Tails place for a minute."
"Want us to wait?" Jules asked as she stepped out of the driver's seat. She turned around and lifted a massive box, with a blender pictured on the side, from the passenger seat.
"Nah, get started, I'll only be a couple minutes," Sonic said and sped off.
Seconds later, at Tails place, he let himself in. "There you are. I've been working all week on these."
"Lay it on me," Sonic said and rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
Tails had something hidden beneath a white sheet on his workbench. "Since your transformation changes with the position of the sun and moon, this should take the guess work off of when you should remove your shoes. I give to you," he said and pulled back the sheet. "Smart Sneakers!"
A pair of Sonic's red shoes laid on the table.
He blinked in confusion. "Uh...what now?"
Tails chuckled and picked up the sneakers. "When you put these on, they conform to the exact shape and size of your foot. When you transform, they grow accordingly."
"No way!" Sonic slipped his current shoes off and put the new ones on. "That's awesome. Thanks, bro."
Tails smiled a wide proud smile. "Just you wait. The bigger shoes look a bit different. Let's say: They have spikes."
"Woah-ho-ho, now we're talking. Thanks a bunch, man," he said and fist bumped his best bud. "You wanna come over? Knucks and Jules came back with a literal mountain of fruit for smoothies."
Tails blushed a little and rubbed the back of his neck, "As tempting as that is, I have too much to do around here. Thanks though."
"No prob. I'll tell everyone you said 'hi'," he said and noticed an extra pair of shoes by the front door. He deliberately ignored them and waved, "Catch ya later," he said with a smirk and finally vanished into the now sinking sun.
Tails sighed. "He totally saw Cream's shoes," he said with a shy smile. He got back to work.
On his way back, in the middle of town, an all too familiar sight laid before him. Anne and Rolph argued loudly in public. "Hey, you two. What's up?"
Anne pointed a finger at her brother, "He fucked up and won't fess up!"
"I didn't fuck up! It's gotta be you!" Rolph yelled back.
"Woah, hang on, what happened?" Sonic tried to grasp the situation better.
Anne held up her dual bangled wrist. "We got zapped and don't know why!"
"I'm telling you I didn't do anything!" Rolph snapped again. "On toppa' that, we can't find Ultimate anywhere. The hivemind can't feel him at all," he said and poked his head.
"Ultimate?"
"Shadow," Anne corrected him.
"Come on, we're all at Knucks place now. Let's go ask. It was probably an accident." Sonic led the twins back to the house.
The sound and smell of fruits blending could be experienced from outside the door. "Letting you know up front, there's drugs in the cookies, don't eat em," he said and led them past the sugary 'adult' treats, to the living room with the others. Knuckles and Jules had a folding table full of fruit set up. They made smoothies in the living room, where everyone sat for the sake of comfort.
Mina played a new song on the big stereo. She wirelessly casted it, "How about this one?" she said to Shadow who still peacefully rested in the beanbag chair.
He gave a thumbs up then laid flat again.
Mina noticed the three walk in, "Welcome back," she said and pointed to Shadow, "He likes Sak! And big band music."
Shadow nodded. "I believe it's the level of structure to the music itself. There's a lot of layers. You can't have such pristine sounds unless everyone's coordinated and rehearsed. It's a clear show of effort," Shadow calmly said.
"He's here?" Anne asked as she acknowledged her sibling disappearing into the soft seat he'd claimed.
Shadow lifted his head and saw them. "I am; why are you?" he asked.
Rolph and Anne sat down next to one another on the sofa, next to Mina. "Which one of us needed the zap?" Rolph asked, "Cuz I've been good...as far as you know," he said and made light of the gambling he'd cheated at.
"Neither of you," Shadow said and sat up. He looked at Rouge who now searched for their things.
"Where's our bag?" she asked the room.
Everyone looked around. Mina checked behind her. She'd sat up against a small burlap bag. "Is this it?"
Rouge got up and took it from her. "Oopsie." She removed the emerald heart necklace she'd wrapped in a cloth for safe keeping. "I didn't have a hard box to keep this in."
Mina held up her hands to her face. "I'm sorry you two. That thing activates your rings, doesn't it? I didn't even see that bag there."
Rolph raised a finger and was about to scold her when Anne slapped him in the ear with her tail, "Ow!"
"It's okay Mina. Accidents happen," she said and rubbed her brother's shoulder gently with her mid-tail.
He rolled his eye. "Right, social setting, get to know the celebrity, whatever, you fuckin' fangirl," he said and lounged back. He leaned forward again, "Sorry, it is nice to meet you." He sat back again. "Electrocution shoots right through my eye and hurts a lot. I have a headache."
Shadow sat up completely. He crossed a leg beneath him and held the other knee to his chest, "Not to be rude or anything, miss Mina, but how do you know the inhibitor rings? In fact, you know a few things you probably shouldn't, like, about the Chaos Emeralds...why? We've been doing our best to keep this situation under-wraps for a while now," he asked calmly.
"If I could butt in," Sonic said and raised a hand. "Mina's a celebrity. If there's someone who's going to have a lot of influence in the public domain, it's her. If we ever need to reach out for help, her voice is louder than all of ours put together."
"I see. That makes sense," Shadow nodded.
Mina flashed him a peace sign with a wide smile. "I got you covered."
"What's in the cookies, anyway?" Anne asked as she revealed her tail had pilfered a cookie. She shoved the full thing in her mouth all at once.
"What did I say!? Bah, whatever," Sonic said and let it go.
"You'd eat something like that without knowing what's in it first? That's kind of dangerous," Mina said.
Anne shook her head. "Not for me." She showed the full length of her tail that was nearly as long as the rest of her body. "Each chemical I eat, I can make a copy of. Each copy lengthens my tail. It was only a couple feet long when I grew to my adult form."
"Wait? You can make THC with your tail because you ate that?" Mina's eyes widened. "You'd have been a blast in collage."
Anne laughed.
"What other things can you make?" she queried on.
"All kinds of stuff from medicine, venom, some mold spores and even hormones," she said and leaned toward Shadow. "I did some reading at the library today and found out I can actually make the stuff to control my 'heat cycle'. So, you're welcome."
"I'll embrace any bit of good news I can," he said and laid back down and tightly shut his eyes. "Mmm."
Mina rubbed her face. "I'm starting to feel it too," she said with a chuckle. "What do you mean 'heat cycle'?"
Anne went on, "The Black Arm are few and far between; there's only a handful of us left, on this planet and others. The drive to 'populate' is something the hivemind likes to help us focus on."
Sonic turned to Shadow, "What about you? Does the Black Arm encourage you to 'populate' on peoples couches?"
Shadow raised a fist and spoke with an oddly calm voice, "No. And if you ask me something like that again, I'll 'populate' your face with my fist."
They laughed.
"It's so long," Mina said as Anne enticed her with a tail wiggle.
"Yep. I made sure to have as many chemical combinations as possible. When we executed our escape from the lab, the scientists couldn't predict what I was going to use to subdue them. I can create cocktails that are lethal to any terrestrial creature. I drank everything under the sink and ate every colourful plant in the jungle to get my tail this long."
Rolph nodded as he was handed a small purple smoothie from Julie-Su, "Thanks. My eye could see which chemicals were and weren't useful, and which ones would be too difficult to endure after consuming. Like the one that would have literally melted your throat if you ate it."
"Thank you," Anne took her pink smoothie from Jules' other hand. "We avoided that one, for sure. The only one I'd say I regret is hot pepper we found; sadly, it ended up being the one that worked best against Hugh; rather, it would have." She pointed to the tip of her tail. "I can do a few other things with this. The blade is an Non-Newtonian fluid that solidifies when I flex it." She flexed her tail end and produced a three inch serrated blade from the tip of her tail. She guzzled the pink drink in a second. "The stinger-" she said and pointed to the hooked part of her tail as it produced a clear, curved barb. "-is right here. I can inject stuff directly or, if need be, I can douse the blade and use that. The stinger itself has a sheath on it, a single cell thick, that detaches and plugs the point of entry. That way, whatever I inject, can't easily be siphoned out again." Anne got up and went to the smoothie table to experiment with flavours.
Rolph added, "I can see which chemicals are needed using my eye. Using touch, I transfer the information to her. She concocts what's needed and then can use her stinger or blade accordingly. Stinger is good for stealth while the blade is better for combat."
Anne tossed a lime in the air and sliced it clean of skin and into five equal segments. The bits fell into the blender. "It can also do my culinary stuff too."
"That's kick ass," Julie-Su said and began tossing fruits to Anne. She did her best to get them peeled and pared before they hit the table. When they finished loading the blender, Anne cleaned her tail with a damp cloth and continued, "I learnd a lot at the library today. Not just about 'hormones', various other things regarding biology too. I'm actually able to help people with genetic disorders if I can administer multiple doses. Sadly, if I stop, everything goes back to the way it was. For example, harlequin ichthyosis, a sever genetic skin disorder without a cure. If I'm able to administer the right proteins, enzymes and supplements, the symptoms of the disorder would disappear completely. Sadly, as soon as I stop treatment, they would return."
Rolph turned to Sonic, "Before I forget, and before it's too late, leave for the Goober's village in exactly eleven minutes."
Sonic had been intently listening to Anne talk about her tail, he'd lost track of time. He smirked. "If I wait too long, I'll transform while I'm there."
Rolph sighed in delight after finishing a large mouthful of his second smoothie. "I'm aware."
Sonic chuckled to himself. "If you say so."
His prediction of dealing with the Gogo'Ba's came true, he needn't a eye for the future either.
"I can't tell you anything," the Gogo'Ba chief said.
Sonic groaned. "Why not? If I don't know where the temple is at, I'm stuck like this for life," Sonic said as he knelt on the cushion straight across from the chief.
"It would be an affront to our culture to know that a ugh, hedgehog, is the chosen one. Forget it. I won't help someone who's unabashedly appropriating our culture." He sat smugly on his chair. With two hands atop his cane, he tapped it against the dirt floor twice. Footsteps could be heard by the door flap.
"I didn't do this to myself. It was an accident," Sonic said with frustration.
"Regardless. My people would view me helping you as an affront to our culture."
Sonic made a fist. "How!?"
The chief pointed his cane in Sonic's face. "Are you saying that I'm supposed to tell all of my people and the people of the surrounding villages, that none of Chinchilla kind were good enough to be the vessel for our most sacred deity?! Guilt can kill. I'm going to ask you to leave now," he said and tapped his cane an additional two times.
Two guards with tired eyes came in and stood on either side of Sonic.
"They'll see you out," he said and cocked his head to the side. "I hope this is the last time we speak on the matter."
Sonic grumbled as the two guards took his arms and led him out of the tent and through the village. Halfway to the exit, the sun finally sank far enough and triggered Sonic's transformation.
His body grew bulky, his teeth sharpened and his eyes flared a bright green.
The Gogo'Ba people fell to their knees and bowed to the 'werehog' that stood before them. "Omm, omm, omm."
Sonic looked up and saw the chief at the door of his tent. He gave a sly smirk and shrugged at the guy.
They approached one another once again. "Your timing is impeccable...I guess I have no choice." The chief turned to his highest, most well dressed, official overseer. "Do I?"
The woman shook her head. She placed her hands in the baggy sleeves of her red coat.
"Ugh, fine. The temple is on Angle island. It's in the lowest chamber of the most eastern tower. Provided it's still standing, it should have a yellow exterior and pinkish roof. There, you happy?"
"Oooom, ba-ba-ba, ommm," the villagers chanted as they bowed up and down once, from their kneeling positions.
"Yes-yes, shamelessly worship the thieving hedgehog," the chief rolled his eyes.
"Would you chill out," Sonic said and wrote a few numbers in the soil with a sharp claw. "There, go dig up the lost Gogo'Ba village."
The chief looked at the ground and back to the sharp-toothed beast. "Would you have not told us about this if I didn't give you what you wanted?"
He shrugged, "Probably not."
"Hmm, seems the 'side of evil' the 'side of good' don't matter much to you these days." The chief scoffed.
"Pff," Sonic brushed him off and looked for a suitable tree to swing from. "I don't have time for this. The transformation has to do with nighttime and the moon, which are never constant. They're always changing. Something about 'many faces'. I don't know. Draw up your own analogy for it. Later," he said, stretched his arm to the nearest sturdy tree and swung off.
"...rude," the chief said and turned back to his hut.
"Omm, go-go-go, omm," the villagers chanted again.
"Would you all cut it out? He's gone," he sighed and retreated to his tent.
The villagers slowly got to their feet and were clueless as to where their new 'god' had gone.
Hope y'all are doing good in this difficult time. :D
