NOTES:
Here we go again. Been a long time since I updated, I know, I know. Unfortunately, lately, I'm only really felt my creative muse calling when it means avoiding doing important work. It'd strangle the damn thing if it were tangible and real. As it is, I'm hoping that, by finally posting some stuff, I can silence it and finally focus on actual real life work again.
But anyway: COA:ACO! Time to finish this big beast off. Since the finale is turning out so freakin' huge, its gonna be split into two chapters: 9 and 10. For you guys who were waiting for some serious fights and action, well. You'll get it. you know how it is. The longer the buildup, the bigger the fights.
Let me also apologize for the delay in the update. I know how much it sucks to read an incomplete fic, especially when its a long one like this. Redoing the ending for COA here was a surprising amount of work, and I've been pretty hassled with real life over the last few months. Not a great excuse, but if I don't have the urge, I can't really get much written. That's enough rambling, I guess. Back to COA! Here's to finishing it off soon (chap 9 is done, 10 is still in the works)
I've also decided to make the chapters shorter, but more numerous. Each one should be about 20 pages rather than 30. Chapter 9 will thus have 5 parts to it rather than 3.
"For every state war is always incessant and lifelong against every other state…
For what most men call 'peace,' this is really only a name – in truth, all states
by their very nature are always engaged in an informal war against all other states."
- Plato, Laws (1.626A)
THE CYCLE OF AGES
CHAPTER NINE:
Crossing the Rubicon
It was the most shameful scam Geoffrey St. John had ever seen.
Once word had broken out about the formerly secret peace talks between the Kingdom of Acorn and the Eggman Empire, the so called 'Echidnapolis Accords' had quickly degenerated into a media frenzy. The Echidnapolis government played up their involvement as hosts and as a neutral party, shamelessly promoting themselves as peace makers and touting the victory of their policy of non-intervention. They sold seats outside the conference hall, as if the whole thing were a grand performance, and within a week they transformed the out of the way ranch in Mushroom Hill zone into a three ring circus.
Geoffrey shielded his eyes from the flashes of light as the great mass of ravenous reporters buzzed and beamed all around him. He wasn't even the focus of their attention; Sally held every eye as she explained the finer details of one of the many points of contention that the conference had to iron out. Diplomacy of this nature had little precedent in modern Mobian culture, and the unique nature of the event made it all the more appealing. With every day, it seemed more and more Mobians pinned their hopes for the future on the most dubious of promises.
Beyond the reporters stood lines of security - Echidnapolis handled much of it, but each delegation had its own detail as well. The King had sent his finest to keep his daughter and son safe as they presided over this great moment in history. The Eggman Empire had sent some of its "finest" as well: two entire units of imposing, white colored Combots were in place to defend their delegation. The echidna paid the security risk little mind. The Eggman Empire itself was half a world away and the echidna felt smug and secure on their little floating island.
Sally fielded another question, smiling reassuringly as she did so.
She was stunning, as usual. The Kingdom had hired professionals to give her a proper royal appearance, and he knew that every morning she endured hours of primping and styling. This was followed by hours in a room with a dozen others, hammering out details of the cease fire. Technically, she was present only as an advisor to Prince Elias, who was the formal head of the Mobian delegation, and had been since his first tentative meeting with Snively two weeks ago.
Geoffrey has been there for that, and he was here now; it was clear as day for everyone to realize where the real power lay in their little group now that Sally was formally present. Elias has a rather timid personality and the King had given him very little negotiating authority. He had presented Snively with a number of demands, and to everyone surprise, the Empire had followed through with many of them. They had even suggested, and honorably participated, in a small joint venture a week ago. It was a promising start, but St. John was unconvinced.
He gave Sally a quick look, seeing past her cheery façade to the tired young woman beneath. She lowered her hand to her side, and made a tiny hidden gesture with her pinky finger. Geoffrey stood nearby as Head of Security, and catching the gesture, he motioned for his men to move in. Everyone knew that once security started to tighten around the Princess that it would be over, and quite a few reporters resorted to shouting out questions. Geoffrey flattened his ears and tried to drone it all out.
"Princess! Princess, please!"
Sighing, Sally pointed to the reporter, probably hoping to calm the whole pack by throwing them another bone or two.
"Princess, can you confirm the withdrawal of Eggman forces from Emerald Hill Zone?"
"We can," she replied. "And we appreciate this good faith gesture by the Empire."
The reporter pressed on. "Is it true that royal forces have withdrawn from our own encirclement of Starlight City?"
"I have no comments to make regarding our military deployments."
She started to turn away from the podium, and St. John's security flanked her as she left. These impromptu press conferences has to be vexing, especially after a day's negotiations, and the questions themselves needed better vetting. If only they had people trained to handle the media… but up until recently, there had been little to no news media among the general Mobian population. Mobian society was having some difficulty keeping pace with their technology.
Supervising the procession personally, St. John followed the Princess as she retreated to a sealed off villa where the Mobian delegation were housed. Along the way, he saw a flock of hungry gulls with press passes mobbing another small group of delegates. He paused, narrowing his eyes in distaste.
Snively stood out as the most vocal of the Eggman delegation, but Shadow was its golden boy. Their version of Sally, he supposed. Silent, brooding, and supremely confident, Shadow rarely spoke, but when he did the media hung on every word. The things he said: that the Eggman Empire was still strong, that it would and would fight on if the cease fire was not signed, that it would uphold its agreements as long as its territory was not violated… Mobians believed him. Mobians wanted to believe him.
'You must fight; you must endure; you must lose brothers and sisters, fathers and sons' - these were not the words Mobians wanted to hear. They had lost fathers and sons for decades. They had lost them against the humans, against each other, and against the Eggman. They did not want to lose their loved ones any more.
But they had to.
If need be, they had to be willing to lose everything to gain victory.
Such decisions, however, were out of his hands. His duty was to obey his Lord and the Family Royal. This was the natural order, and without it there was only savagery and chaos. The Source of All had ordained this arrangement as the most ideal and the most proper in all creation, and it was the obligation of all Source-fearing Mobians to obey. As such, he threw himself into the delegation's security arrangements.
His men were all hand picked for their loyalty. The Royal delegation was an eclectic lot: once it became a serious exercise in diplomacy, a great many nobles had wished to take part in the glory they believed would follow a "victory of the pen." They all wanted their name on the peace documents, and they all had ample advice to give. At present, the Prince and Princess demanded the most attention, but there were also two Ministers of State, a Viceroy, and no less than five Dukes in attendance.
St. John's security detail had promptly swollen into a small army of almost a hundred. He drilled them constantly and worked hard to integrate the new males and females under his command. Every morning he double checked all the security arrangements, supervised electronics and counter-intelligence sweeps, and still found time to be in the field himself. He knew the names of every security agent he was responsible for, and could recall from memory where they were supposed to be at any given time that day.
This was his duty.
This was the love he had in his heart for the Royal Family and for its Princess.
"Mr. St. John…?"
"What is it?" he asked, raising his voice. They had only recently gotten back to the villa, and he was half way to double check with the local communications security team. Their enemies were technologically sophisticated (as were their kind hosts), and if they had a weak spot, it was that they were working from a position of weakness in terms of electronic counter-intelligence.
"The Crown Princess wishes to see you, sir."
St. John nodded to himself. "I'll be over in a moment."
"Yes, sir."
Diverting course from the rotunda in the East Wing to the Princess's rooms in the southern section of the villa, Geoffrey reflected on the problem of electronic warfare. He and his men did as much as they could to maintain secrecy, but he was well aware of their limitations. The sleeping arrangements of the Prince and Princess were changed regularly, and both were known only to a few servants and the core security. An assassination attempt was still fairly likely, but Geoffrey was confident he could thwart any potential plans. The more difficult problem was with the conference itself.
It was lousy with spies.
He snorted derisively. Not that it should have surprised anyone. The echidna were spying, the Empire was spying, the humans were spying, and probably even the dingo. Within those circles, there were even more spies: the echidna had two intelligence services, one civilian and one military, and the Mobians were likewise a mess of interests. St. John had even felt the need to set aside a small group inside his own security force to handle independent intelligence gathering. It was a necessary evil… to salvage some remnant of victory from this debacle of a peace conference.
He smoothed over his royal uniform and went to see the future Queen.
Be the time he knocked and received permission to enter, Sally was struggling to escape a particularly cunning trap: the corset she had been forced to wear under her stately gown. He stood in silence – and silent amusement – as she finally just tore the thing off, freeing her torso to breathe for the first time in hours. Courtly fashion seemed to involve great forbearance on the part of its dignified ladies. Tossing the troublesome garment on the floor, much to the grief of one of her handmaids, Sally pointed at the skunk.
"Not one word," she warned.
"I wouldn't think of it."
She then turned to her poor young handmaid. "Go on, I'll take care of the rest of this junk…"
"But M'lady," the young lady tried to argue. She was a vixen, maybe fifteen, and also dressed in heavy courtly attire. She glanced worriedly between the Princess and her guest. After a second she acquiesced, bowed her head, and left.
"New girl?" he asked when the young vixen was gone.
Sally nodded, carefully picking the stylized metal pins from her carmine colored hair. He waited, watching her un-ladylike demeanor grow more and more pronounced as she become more and more relaxed. Waiting for her, he took a nearby chair from the dresser and sat down.
"I want your take on the proposal for Scrap Brain Zone."
St. John blinked, surprised by the question. "Why ask me?"
"You've been in the military for almost two decades now, Geoffrey," she answered. "I've been hearing some grumbling lately on the part of our armed forces. I think you have more experience than any of my so called advisors here."
That was likely true, he realized. Sally had a good grasp of strategy and tactics herself, but most of the Mobian nobility that had escaped roboticization were rather… ill suited to managing policy. The defense of the realm fell traditionally to the many lords of the land, but they had lost the crème of their society to the Great War and the humans' brutal war machines.
"As you know, Princess," he tried to keep his tone professional, despite it being just the two of them in the room. There was a time when he would have been tempted to be more familiar with her, but that had been nipped in the bud more than a year ago. "We control the entirety of Scrap Brain Zone already. Accepting it as a demilitarized zone means conceding our gains around Starlight City."
Sally sat on the edge of her bed, now back to her usual state of undress. She slipped on a pair of gloves and boots with a long sigh. For Mobians, the extremities were the most intimate parts of the body: the ones you used the most, and the ones that were the most sensitive. As a result, while most Mobians never bothered with clothes on their torsos, almost all put great thought into what they wore on their hands and especially their feet.
"To formulate a workable peace plan, we need a workable border," Sally replied, lying on the bed and propping her had up on her elbow. "Is Scrap Brain Zone defensible from our side?"
"Yes, Princess Sally. It is."
"But you don't think we should take it?" she assumed.
"It's a straight line from Starlight to Robotropolis. We can completely bypass the defenses in The Ring." St. John let out a long sigh. "You know all this already. Our push to take Starlight is the best option we have for knocking Eggman out of the war. If we hadn't stopped offensive operations…"
"We'd be in the streets of Robotropolis," she finished. "Yes, I've heard as much before. But thousands of Mobians would be dead who aren't now. All to get us there."
St. John turned stony silent.
"Speak your mind, Goeff," she urged him. "Please. That's why you're here. I just want someone who disagrees to tell me the truth about what they think."
"Princess," he replied, thinking over his response for a few seconds. "During the war, when the humans made their first major push towards Mobotropolis, there was a city in their way. We never had many transportation hubs, and this was one of them. Winter was getting close, and we needed time to regroup our forces. The decision was made to turn the city into a fortress."
St. John closed his eyes, as if remembering it firsthand.
"We pressed the peasantry... the civilians I mean, into service. Building bunkers and tunnels and armor traps and lines of defense. His Majesty sent more and more soldiers to the city and we armed those who could fight. We commandeered any vehicles and any fuel we could, and rationed out food and water. As things got worse in the battle, there was less and less for the civilians. All of it had to go to those who could fight."
"Andopolis," Sally said, recognizing the city and the history.
Geoffrey nodded.
"The city held for three months. Three months, against all odds. It slowed the humans long enough for winter. Only a month later, with the capital itself besieged, Jules rescued that man, and the war finally began to turn around."
That man, of course, being Robotnick. In the end, they had replaced one enemy with another, but no one had known that at the time. Still, Sally could see what Geoffrey was saying: that a bloody sacrifice would have to be made, even of the innocent, for the greater long term good.
"The Mobians of this great Kingdom live to serve the King and the Source," he explained. "So long as the Kingdom prevails, Mobiankind shall prevail. I… worry, privately, that if we do not strike now, while we have the advantage… that it will be lost forever."
"Fortune favors the bold?"
"Maybe," he conceded. "But I know it doesn't favor the timid. Princess," he then asked, a little anxiously. "What about yourself? You have fought this fight as long as anyone. Do you believe this peace can work?"
Sally didn't answer at first, and after a few seconds, St. John started to wonder if he had been out of line. The two of them had been close once. At one point, he had even heard whispers that the King would arrange something between them. Embarrassments and misunderstandings had followed, compounded by an adversarial relationship he had developed with Sonic. He was just now working to regain the royal favor he had so rapidly lost.
"I think Robotnick is too smart to be allowed to bide his time," Sally finally said. "No matter how badly beaten, he will always come back. Always. It's in his nature."
He didn't understand. "Then…why?"
Sally huffed. "Right now, I think we have to do what we can to save as many lives as we can. There is not a single Robian working for Robotnick out of choice. They are his greatest victims, and I have never condoned strikes against them. I never will."
St. John nodded in sympathy. "You'll never get those Robians back, Sally. When you negotiate with hostage takers, it only encourages them. …I know this personally."
"They're family, Geoffrey. Family." Sally sat up and gave him a stern look. Thinking aloud seemed to have given her resolve a booster shot. "A hundred thousand family members that we have the opportunity to save. Bloodlessly! If we attack now, how many of them will survive? And besides, have you seen those pictures from Knothole? The protests?"
He grunted. "I have."
"It's a madhouse out there. If I don't at least try and resolve this and get those men and women back, then half the country will probably erupt in riots!"
St. John scowled, but not at her.
"There is no room in a just society for rebels and traitors," he all but whispered, but quickly caught himself and covered up the words with a rough cough.
"I don't have a choice anymore," Sally cupped her chin, frowning at the situation they'd all been stuck in. "We'll just have to wait and play this out. We're taking every precaution with the Robians. If Robotnick tries anything, we'll know, and the war will be back on."
"And if there is no foul play?" he asked. "What then?"
Sally gave him an unusually shrewd look. "I'm sure that, once we have what we want, we can manufacture a pretext for starting the war again. I don't intend to let Robotnick recover long enough to beat us into the ground and I know he can't go more than a few months without sending some new toy out to try and kill Sonic."
"So we wait," she concluded. "It isn't perfect, but there's no other option."
Tesslik City
(New Megapolis)
Massive flying airships cast long shadows over the great domed and arched city of New Megapolis, formerly the industrial factory city of Tesslik. Unfurled banners sported the still proud logo of GUN from every corner, sedate blue and white among the garish neon of commercial signs and advertisements. The city had been converted in the most total sense of the word: even in the present, the air was all but choked by clouds of insect sized microbots that worked ceaselessly to construct and convert the old infrastructure into something more than it had been before.
Vast hexagonal shapes stood out against the dark night sky, glowing with hot pinpricks of light: a new dome under construction. Beneath it, stone and steel statues stood atop plaques exalting human triumphs and survival. Clean running water and intricate fountains flanked columnated buildings, juxtaposed by the flicker of security force fields and tesla coils. It was truly a marvel of a city, built in record time by revolutionary technology.
Only one thing was missing.
Among the streets and venues, hardly a man or woman could be seen. The immaculate roads were all but devoid of traffic, the parks empty, and even the shopping districts - on closer inspection - were only working at partial capacity. Small groups of men and women in uniform moved together, but they were like islands in a featureless sea. A far larger army of mechanical servitors tended to them and manned most of the services no human was available to fill.
This was the depopulated paradise of New Megapolis, population: 80,000. This was the largest and most populous human city in the world. This was the capital city of the GUN Remnant and the Terran Protectorate. A city that could be said to lack for nothing more than people to populate it.
Deep within the heart of this city, within the vast fortified and shielded bunker complex that was the Grand Rotunda, the center of government, a black and white clad figure reclined behind a vast desk of imperial oak. Wall-to-wall screens displayed a very different picture than was actually outside: in here, one could see an near perfect replication of Old Station Square, bustling with people down below. A bright blue sky stretched overhead, with hardly a cloud in sight.
This was the sitting room of Mastermind, the masked man who had come to the aid of GUN after the fall of Station Square. With only his personal finances and contacts, he had pursued a personal war against the mainland Mobian races even before that tragedy. None could have guess that fate would smile upon him so: handing him the mantle of highest human authority through such a twist of circumstance and opportunity. Once condemned as a dangerous radical, he now sat in judgment of those that had once forced him into exile.
This was the nameless man: Mastermind.
Running a hand over the gunmetal mask he never removed, Mastermind let his mind wander back to the past. He had been condemned as a radical, but none had understood just how personal the war with the Mobians had been. It wasn't just one group against another. It wasn't just a clash of one civilization and another. It wasn't just a race war. The truth was much worse...
Opening his eyes, he returned his attention to the projected screen in front of him. It was more news covering the so called "peace accord" between the Kingdom of Acorn and the Eggman Empire. More bad news, in other words. Before joining him in his great crusade, GUN had seen fit to arm and assist the Mobians in their war. The Eggman Empire was enemy to all nations, and the Mobians were manning most of the frontlines. Mastermind did not fault that decision, but now it was time for a more balanced foreign policy. Other powers were needed to check the Kingdom before it could defeat the Eggman Empire.
Ideally, all the little furry rats would kill each other, allowing mankind to resume its place in the natural order. Which was at the top, of course. But this peace accord was troubling. All his plans required the destruction of Robotnik and his forces, and at present, with a ceasefire along the Eggman/Mobian border, that left GUN the only major faction still fighting the madman's forces. Even if the Mobians and robots went back to tearing each other apart in a few months, that would be plenty of time for GUN's forces to become bloodied to the point of incapacitation. Already their salvage operation at the crashed Egg Carrier was under fierce attack.
He needed... they needed... more time for other "asymmetrical warfare" projects to pan out. At least things there were proceeding apace. Once that project came to fruition, it would be easy to bring the last few independent human city states, like Soleanna, back in line. Then, with humanity reunited and so empowered, they could sweep across the world and restore the natural order of things.
How he would relish that moment!
Mastermind unclenched his fist and took a deep breath to calm himself. Patience. It would not be wise to celebrate too early, and it was never productive to allow oneself to become angry or overly passionate about anything. That only led to clouded judgments and fatal mistakes.
A small chime alerted him to an expected incoming communication. It was Mya, no doubt with some more information about that Kitsune matter he had asked her and Weaver to look into. Mya Florentine - he had styled himself the moniker of Mastermind, but Mya was a true genius. One of GUN's ambitious "young turks," she had a keen and exhaustive intellect, and a ruthlessness he knew just how to make use of.
He remembered when she had first come to his attention: his spies within GUN a few years ago had informed him of a newcomer with an ambitious project to recreate the Black Arms as a slave army. It was a radical proposition. The damned Black Arms had been what cost mankind the war... well, them, and Robotnik's betrayal. The arrival of the Black Arms comet was what had forced the military to neutralize the native Mobian threat, and to build the array of space based weaponry that constituted the ARK and the Orbital Shield Ring.
Except that Gerald's great Shield Ring and Eclipse Cannon had never worked as promised, and the old man had become more obsessed with genetically engineering super powered black rats and curing his granddaughter's NIDS than protecting the planet and mankind's great legacy. Countless other scientists had toiled to finish Gerald's work before the Black Arms arrived, and all had failed. On the ground, even the supposedly quick "ten month war" against the Mobians stalled, due to Gerald's damned grandson. It was a disaster on every level.
Then, just as expected, the Black Arms comet arrived. Crushed between renewed Mobian opposition on the mainland, corrupt traitors from within, and the Black Arms from orbit, the old Federation had been annihilated. In the end, the Black Arms had been destroyed, but Overland itself was a devastated wasteland, the Orbital Ring and the ARK were gone, and the mainland and the colonies there were lost. Humanity survived in only a few Hidden Cities... ground based ARKs built as last resort contingencies. Cities like Station Square and Soleanna.
So, he had been rather stunned to hear that anyone would even think about resurrecting the hated Black Arms, even as a weapon to crush the Mobians and Robotnik. Mya's work in making a new Black Doom, one that could be controlled by its human handlers, was revolutionary. The first major "field test" of the new Black Arms against Downunda had been both success and failure, but from that moment on, Mya had been on his mind. She was just the sort of exemplary human being he wanted working under him... so to speak.
Central to her work was to unravel some of the more perplexing and frankly vexing aspects of Mobian physiology: most notably their proclivity towards manifesting Chaos Energy. There was nothing more troublesome than having to carpet nuke a section of otherwise pristine real estate simply to wipe out some glowing super powered mouse or hedgehog or whatever. If only Gerald hadn't turned traitor, he could well have unraveled these secrets already...! Regardless, when he had learned about some of that two tailed fox's recent activities, he had asked Mya to look into the situation. He had always had a hunch that the two tailed mutation in that boy could be something important.
"Mya," he spoke, as her call came through. The chestnut haired woman flicked a stream of dyed blonde back behind her ear. That little bit of gold was the only easy way to distinguish between her and her twin sister, Aya. As usual, she seemed all business.
"Sir," she began. "I called to confirm that we've finally made a breakthrough in getting the new specimens working properly. It was just as you suspected. The problem was in our in vitro fertilization and maturation procedures. They work fine for humans and normal Mobians..."
"But not these special types," Mastermind concluded. "Yes. I'd heard something similar when I researched those Mobian 'Chaos Magics' as they call them. It made sense that it would apply here as well."
"Well," Mya added with a smile. "It helped that we got such a rich sample to work with. I'll admit I was a bit unsure whether the scheme would even work. I didn't expect those Mobian smugglers would so readily trust the hardware we provided them."
"Still, it took a few tries. Out of the thirty subjects we impregnated with fertilized zygotes, eleven have expired. Thirteen of the surviving embryos have not tested for significant chaos energy generation. Of the remaining six, only three seem to have actually tapped into the Chaos Force itself at this point in their development. We hope to bring all six to term to better understand how gestation affects chaos sensitivity."
"Control species?"
"All vulpines between the ages of sixteen and twenty. They were the closest breed matches we could get our hands on. Again, our underworld contacts in The Ring were very helpful filling our requisition requests. We cleaned them up, checked to make sure they fit our requirements, and the prognosis looks good. I don't dare accelerate growth in the clones at this delicate stage. That was one of our mistakes with Subject N."
"Six months, then?"
"Eight, to be on the safe side, sir. We don't want to have to start from scratch. Once we've confirmed our preliminary findings and our data from before.... yes, I feel confident in going forward with more human trials."
"Excellent. We can wait. We must move carefully, Mya. It would not do for lives to be wasted because of incomplete research," he spoke earnestly. Human life was a precious thing, and not to be expended needlessly.
"I'll leave it in your capable hands," he continued, "I'm going out on a little fact finding mission. You are in provisional command until I return. I trust you won't let me down."
"Of course not sir," she stated with a crisp salute.
Mastermind nodded once more before rising from his seat and stepping out of the room, the guards by the door standing at attention as he walked by. Walking unescorted down the hallway, the soldiers stopped their usual routines and gave their commander the same salute Mya had done just a few moments earlier. Behind his mask, he allowed himself a brief self-indulgent smile.
Yes, his personal guard were loyal enough, and he could trust Mya's group as well. Aya Florentine and her associates were less... committed to his goals. That group would have to be watched. It especially wouldn't do for them to learn too much about the special projects he and Mya were betting the future of humankind on.
They simply wouldn't understand.
But they would... soon enough.
Tails went through the morning's routines and exercises with a smile and a spring in his step. In fact, he had done so for more than a week, ever since coming back from an ostensibly secret mission far to the west. He had let that slip a few days ago to both Tempest and Nail, claiming that he'd had a "great time with Rouge out west" and that the "vacation had been just what he's needed to unwind." It all sounded... frankly, really strange, out of character, and suspicious.
After a day or two, Tempest had contacted Sally, and between checking on how she was handling this ridiculous peace farce (as he liked to call it), he asked what was "far to the west" and what would be considered a nice vacation spot. She'd told him that there was a place called Casino Night out west, and that it was a lawless city of gambling, whoring and all manner of illicit and illegal activity. Apparently, some people considered that to be a fun place to unwind. Tempest couldn't quite wrap his head around it all.
After a while, he'd even worked up enough desperate curiosity to find Rouge in her little spy shack outside town and ask her about it. As expected, she still had some of the boy's smell clinging onto her, just as he had some of her scent despite his attempts to wash it off. She, too, seemed unusually upbeat and happy. It was immeasurably odd, and when she offered him a bitter drink of something called "coffee" he felt the need to leave before his head imploded.
What the hell was going on?
Were the two having some sort of affair together? He didn't dare ask outright - it was simply improper to delve into another kitsune's personal matters when the turan'ha was all but over and they were accepted as adults - but it certainly looked that way. The two had gone on some sort of trip together, come back, and frequently ended up in each other's company. The boy's constant reek of bat confirmed it. They were definitely up to something together, and when men and women were up to something together outside a city in a secluded cabin, it didn't take a detective to guess what that was.
So: it had come to this, then.
Eventually, even Nail clued into things, despite his atrophied senses of smell. As he eventually confided in the older kitsune, the echidna didn't seem to know what to make of the situation. At first he had been concerned (as if Tempest hadn't), but then he had taken in the changes in their young charge: Tails was solidly attentive, engaging even! He listened and debated with Nail about even the most esoteric and kabalistic fields of Chaos Energy study, and Tempest noticed that the boy seemed to have a peace of mind he had lacked before. Even Rouge, from what they could see, was entirely pleased with how things were turning out.
There just wasn't much to complain about.
But still: it had come to THIS.
"Miles," Tempest said, hoping he didn't sound as anxious as he probably did. Next to him, Nail stood with his arms crossed and eyes closed... probably wishing he wasn't about to be in this conversation. Tails, currently relaxing after a hearty lunch (under Tempest's tutelage, his cooking had improved dramatically), looked up as his two sort-of-still-mentors curiously.
"Miles," Tempest said again. "We'd like to have a talk with you."
"About...?" the young kitsune asked.
"About...." Tempest trailed off. "About..."
"About safe sex," Nail finally said.
Silence.
Tails chuckled and looked up at the sky.
"That's it?" he asked. Both older Mobians sputtered for lack of a response.
"Miles, I've warned you before about polluting your bloodline!" Tempest finally declared. "Tradition states...!"
"I'm well aware," Tails interrupted him. "Don't worry about it."
"But," Tempest felt the need to keep at the subject, now that it had finally been broached. "But, you... and that bat..."
"What about Rouge and myself?" Tails asked innocently.
Tempest just sputtered.
Nail cleared his throat. "Tails. We simply wanted to remind you that you're only a young man. We don't want to see you in any sort of compromising situations."
"I know," Tails said, looking at the two of them with a friendly smile. "I'm touched that you guys want to give me the talk, but it really isn't necessary. Though, while you're here, Nail... I looked into that matter of technomagic that you brought up the other day. I was able to glean some new information from my contacts in GUN. Would you like to see?"
The young kitsune held out a datapad with one hand, smiling all the while.
It took a few seconds, but Nail relented and quickly started devouring the new information. Tempest had no idea what "technomagic" was, but he knew Nail was obsessed with learning what he could about different religious and magical arts. He had obviously been successfully diverted onto another topic. Still, the older fox couldn't help but wonder if the boy wasn't just being amiable. This was all just too strange.
"So, you two aren't...?" Tempest tried to ask.
Tails just smirked.
"I never said that."
Tempest raised an eyebrow in mute confusion.
"Relax," Tails said, leaning back against the tree behind him to stare at the clouds. "Its a nice day, isn't it? I think I'll take a quick run before I get back to work. Care to join me?"
That... did sound nice: an invigorating run through the woods, maybe find a new game trail far from the city? But still. Tempest couldn't help thinking something was up. Then again: the boy seemed fine and happy. He seemed to have grown into an upstanding (aka strong) kitsune. He was still a little on the runty side, but he had those weird chaos powers to compensate. This was just what he had hoped for, wasn't it?
Wasn't it?
"Something strange is going on."
The impromptu meeting involved neither Tempest nor Nail. Instead, Bunnie, Antoine, Cream and Rotor had decided to converge on Sonic's place. Sally, who couldn't be present in person, had to telecommute. Unfortunately, that meant using the monitor in Sonic's living room, which in turn meant he couldn't zone out and play video games. Instead he reclined against the couch with a bag of chips, silently praying the meeting ended so he could get back to some serious business. Like getting an A rank on that last level, damnit.
"I don't see what's the problem," Sonic groused, looking up at his guests and friends. "So my little bro is tappin' that. I say we congratulate him!"
"Sonic!" a trio of female voices snarled as one.
"Ok. Ouch. Please use your indoor voices," he grumbled, holding his ears.
"Rouge is a known criminal!" Sally explained. The digital image of her crossed her arms angrily. "Tails should know better than to get involved than with someone like that."
Sonic scratched his chin. "Um.. how so?"
"Sonic," Sally said, trying to keep calm. "Tails' knowledge of our military deployments and technical resources is unsurpassed. Who knows what he could let slip during any... um... potential pillow talk?"
"Please!" Sonic huffed. "That doesn't actually happen."
"How did Fiona learn about our formerly secret HQ last year again? The one we just rebuilt only to have it destroyed by the Suppression Squad?"
"Umm..."
"Or maybe I should ask if you know how I learned about how you and Chris used to..."
Sonic looked at his friends, still holding the remote for the monitor with the mute button depressed. Grinning, but quickly bit his lip and watched as Sally kept talking, completely unaware that she had been put on mute. Her gesturing and vexed expression did little to comfort any present as to what she was actually describing.
"...and, needless to say, we had to go and hunt down every single picture including Amy's collection of..."
"Hahaha," Sonic said the laugh rather than actually laughing. "Its funny story, really hilarious, but now isn't the time. We have serious stuff to talk about, Sal!"
"I like funny stories," Rotor said in a quiet voice.
"...thank the Source no one else knew about it. That boy had to have been the worst influence on you I've ever seen," Sally finally wound down. "Anyway... wait, what was the point again? Oh yes: the pillow talk."
"Yeah. that," Sonic bashfully conceded. "Let's talk about Tails instead of me, please."
"My point is that Rouge could be milking the poor boy for information. Our vital military secrets. This represents a serious potential security risk!" Sally concluded. "That isn't even counting the shock he'll have when he learns that she's just using him!"
Sonic started to open his mouth, but wisely closed it.
"Bunnie," Sally directed her response to the southern belle. "What do you think? How long has this been going on?"
"Ah didn't know much about it mahself," Bunnie explained, sitting down next to a quiet and pensive Antoine. "Cream was the one who figured it out."
"Ma'am," Cream spoke up, sensing she had the chance to do so. She was a little flustered being around so many Freedom Fighter legends, but it helped to calm the nerves when they acted like idiotic teenagers instead of infallible commanders and decision makers.
"For a while now, I've been working closely with Mr. Prower," she said, not sure how to address him in the company of his peers like this. 'Mr. Tails' just didn't sound professional, even though that was what she preferred. "Ever since that attack by the Babylon Rogues, as you'll recall."
"Go on," Sally prompted.
"Well, as you know, Mr. Prower..."
"Tails is fine, dear. He's only a little older than you are."
Which was beside the point: he was a commanding officer among the Freedom Fighters and someone she deeply respected. It felt a little odd not adding any honorific. She'd never call the Princess a nickname like "Sal" to her face.
"As you know, Tails was slightly delayed coming back from his excursion to the Blue Typhoon battleship. I believe he may have taken the opportunity to have... some sort of illicit rendezvous with Miss Rouge. Tails has often spoken fondly of his time working with GUN, and seemed sympathetic to their views on certain subjects."
"Revolutionary views?" Sally asked. It went unsaid that, by revolutionary, she meant republican.
"No Ma'am. He seemed to admire their scientific accomplishments mostly."
Sally nodded. "That makes sense. What does this have to do with Rouge?"
"Well, it is fairly well known that Miss Rouge has contacts with some human groups. I wouldn't be surprised if the two had met before, back in Station Square."
Everyone turned to the one Mobian who had been there.
Sonic shrugged. "Maybe."
"Maybe?" Sally inquired. "Didn't you know who he was spending time with?"
"I dunno," Sonic conceded. "It wasn't like I was always looking over his shoulder or anything. We hung out you-know-where and had adventures and stuff. Chris' family and GUN financed some of his work, I know that, and I knew he was taking some classes in the city."
"Sonic, those 'classes in the city' were him getting a university degree. And you didn't even know about it."
"Whatever," Sonic said with a shrug. "That's boring stuff. Tails knows I don't deal with things like that. And before you say, 'oh Sonic, why don't you care about what your friend is doing!' ...I do care! Just that he doesn't bug me with stuff he knows I'm not good with when we hang out. That's just the way Tails is. Not like anyone here knows what he spends most of his time doing anyway."
Sonic smirked at silencing everyone in the room. He had a point and they knew it.
"Tails never mentioned being... close to Rouge before," Rotor spoke up. "Yes, I did ask him about her before, and he never said anything that seemed endearing. I don't think they're just reigniting an old flame or whatever."
"I was seeing him tze other day," Antoine chimed in with his two cents. "He seemed very happy."
"He's getting laid, of course he's happy," Sonic deadpanned.
"Sonic!" There came the chorus of three again. The hedgehog hero sighed.
"That isn't everything though," Cream spoke up, having been interrupted before. "There's more."
All eyes fell on her.
"While I was surprised and a bit... put off by what I suspected, things got a bit stranger later. I'd scheduled an appointment with him three days ago, and found Rouge just about to leave. While neither said anything to me, it looked like she had been there for some time. The central room in Tails' hut was in a state of disarray I had not seen before."
"Tails is a real neat freak," Sonic confirmed. "They were definitely bumpin' uglies in there. I'm really gonna have to grill him for some juicy details next time..."
"Could you please be less of a... a guy?" Sally all but cried.
"I would," Sonic replied. "But I have a feeling you'd be disappointed when you get back from your trip."
Sally groaned. "Sonic!"
He just chuckled. Cream coughed again, to redirect their attention from another round of teasing and bickering. The less she learned lately about her mentors' personal lives, the less she wanted to hear.
"Mister Tails... Tails was quick to clean up, and he kept me from getting a good look around while I waited. However, based on what I did see, I would guess that Rouge happened to... interrupt him while he was working on classified material. I saw some schematics, and when it comes to Tails, I know everything he builds is pretty highly classified."
Bunnie made an angry "tsk" but said nothing.
"In my little bro's defense," Sonic said, quickly. "This is his first fling since that mess with Fiona."
"That doesn't excuse putting personal... affairs before national security," Sally lectured. "Thank you for keeping a spark eye open, Cream."
"Yes, Ma'am," the youngest Mobian present responded crisply.
"Tempest mentioned something was a bit off with Tails lately. I never thought it would be this serious."
"That guy said that, huh?" Sonic huffed. "If anything, this is his fault you know! Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't he come here to make sure Tails didn't end up doing something like this?"
Sally's image wavered a bit, and Sonic inwardly smirked. He was getting pretty tired of Sally jumping to the defense of that jerk. It was like Geoffrey St. John all over again, except worse, because Tails seemed to be spending time with the other kitsune, too. It wasn't that he felt threatened by Tempest's "friendly" relationship with Sally, just that he didn't like the guy!
"Any suggestions on what we should do about this?" Sally asked, avoiding the argument.
"I'll have a talk with him..." Sonic offered. "Problem solved!"
"A talk? A talk about what exactly?"
"You know!" Sonic replied, all too eagerly. "About not doing your girlfriend where she can see, um... state secrets and stuff."
"Sonic... that isn't really going to help," Sally said with a sigh. "The root of the problem is Rouge. She'll just find some other way to get what she wants even if Tails is careful. I hate to admit it, but she'd good at what she does, and you boys don't always think with your big head when it comes to intimacy."
"Hey!" Sonic barked. "I take offense at that!"
"Any other suggestions?"
"We could simply be demanding they end tze affairs," Antoine provided, straightforward as always.
"They'll just continue in secret, hon," Bunnie argued. "You canna break up a couple tha' easily."
Antoine frowned, a little put off by having his idea so quickly dismissed.
Silence.
"I think Mina's still single, right?" Sonic asked, eyebrows wagging.
"Sonic!"
"You know, all your friends must think we're sleeping together."
Tails looked up from his work, eyepiece still hooked up and around his ear. In his hands, a delicate piece of machinery waited impatiently under a hot light. A number of empty unlabeled crates rested against a wall, partly broken up for easier storage. The kitsune's hair was slightly disheveled, but he looked quite pleased with himself, appearance aside.
Behind him, Rouge wore only a large bath towel.
"Well," he said, turning back to his work, bright flares of arclight highlighting his features. "That was rather the point of all this."
"You know, by now most guys would have at least tried something. Especially since we're pretending to be having a secret affair."
"Probably."
Draping her arms over his chest, Rouge slid up behind him, whispering seductively into his ear, "I'm using your shower again. You can feel free to join me, if you like."
"My shower? Again?"
"You have hot water."
Tails grumbled. "Rouge."
Grudgingly, she backed off, an overlarge smile on her face at flustering him so easily. Slapping him lightly on the shoulder, she headed off to the bathroom. Tails didn't even turn to see her go, which rather defeated the purpose of her wearing the towel at all. Oh, she knew he thought about making their little illicit illusion a reality, but she also knew he wasn't yet comfortable with that fact. It reminded her of another Mobian, a certain "ultimate life form," who kept trying to prove to the world that he wasn't as mortal and fallible as he actually was.
Of course, the thought of him, and of what she had agreed to do, made her wince inwardly. She actually wasn't looking forward to it like she had said she would be, back when Tails had proposed the plan. That had mostly been bravado on her part, not that she would ever admit it. It also didn't help that she had been quite happy with living out being Tails "secret illicit lover." It wasn't often she spent time with other Mobians just talking and being taken care of. He'd even discretely taken her out to a few public places tonight, just to drive home the illusion.
He was actually quite a nice guy, killing and war making aside. She just hoped he didn't die tomorrow.
"I was serious before," she remarked over her shoulder. "You need a shower, and there's room in there for two."
To her amusement, his hand twitched.
Turning slightly, he regarded her with one blue eye.
"Thank you, but no."
Wave blinked, surprised into silence by the presence of the last two people she expected to see waiting for her in her room. The female, the fire using feline, sat on Wave's small bed with her fingers steepled together threateningly. Blaze blinked once, and next to her, the still standing albino hedgehog snapped his fingers.
The door closed behind Wave with an ominous thud.