This one is taking much longer than I ever expected, and I have a looming road trip which probably won't improve productivity so I'm thinking I'll split the chapter in half, for now at least. I also wonder if it's also moving too fast in my planned way but this IS a short story and the full chapter as planned would have marked the halfway point. I'm sure y'all will realize where the holdup is, but I've also been stretching myself real thin recently. (And yes I say this when I've left VC hanging for 2 years now, so maybe I need to throw them a bone next.) I may reshuffle the chapters later.
"Diamond rope... Silver chain... Pretty noose is pretty pain..." Tails sang while looking over the device attached to his wrist, and by extension the several-mile drop he was nonchalantly walking along the edge of. Rouge would probably not have appreciated his choice, but when life throws you into an extreme situation, you gotta roll with it somehow.
That derailed his stream of conscious. She just seemed to have that effect. She was very much on the forefront of his mind, due in no small part to the fact he was still getting over her hostile attitude earlier. Not that he shouldn't have seen it coming; it was hardly a shocker that someone with a lack of moral standing wouldn't be especially nice. While he didn't exactly expect to be friends, he didn't see why she was so eager to act like they were enemies either. If someone could blow me up, I'd be super nice to them... That, and her smug little spoiled attitude. She had an overly high opinion of herself, was clearly used to having things her way, and enjoyed letting you know. You don't need social skills when you're sufficiently attractive because people will overlook your personal flaws... Must be nice... Guess I'M just not cute enough to offset an additional tail...
Their first conversation had crashed and burned, with her belittling, insulting, and even embarrassing him in front of the other GUN agents. It had been a long time since he had to deal with anything like that. But back then there was a reason; Rouge on the other hand didn't seem to have any real motive to be hostile to him, which was arguably worse. He would probably have called her a jerk, if he didn't have a notion that her attitude was just an act, a shield of defiance in the face of her involuntary service she was simply displacing onto him.
Their second conversation could actually qualify as friendly, if still snarky, but he could deal with snarky. Maybe it wasn't a coincidence they were alone that time. The most telling moment though was when she had called him "the weirdest kid I've ever met." He'd heard the sentiment before, in considerably harsher terms, but her reaction afterwards made clear she hadn't meant the extra appendage, which she had never so much as even alluded to at any other point. In fact she actually looked... remorseful? That was a new one. Despite all the mean-spirited jabs, she made it onto the short list of his kind who didn't think anything of his second tail. She was an enigma.
He didn't know where this train of thought was going. Or why he was actually defending her. Maybe he was simply trying to justify to himself that she was actually worthy of... well, he didn't know exactly what he wanted to do either. Prove her wrong? Show her up? Earn her respect? Or maybe all of the above. Not like it would probably matter anyway. He figured the odds of ever seeing her again were low. It wasn't like they directly worked with GUN when the world needed saving. For all he knew she'd spend her free time in the cell of a black site or something- a prospect seeming more likely if her attitude didn't improve.
He stopped and turned to face the building she was in, then fell forward and began 'walking' down the side of the building, his spinning tails standing in for a rappelling line. He eyeballed the building, counted floors, determined where 32 was. The view was all darkened halls from his current position. He kicked off to fly up close for a better look. Not much better- he circled around. Some windows were shaded, but all held largely darkness. There was nothing to see from outside.
How was he reasonably expected to know that she wasn't giving him the slip? She might be able to find a discreet way out of the building. Did GUN overestimate his superpowered abilities? What a laugh- this was probably just liability insurance: they didn't want a member of Team Sonic to get hurt on one of their low-key missions. Which admittedly made sense, but still felt somewhat insulting. Even though he'd survived 20-foot robots armed with ballistic missiles and laser chainsaw arms (with assistance admittedly) they thought some street thugs were 'too risky' for him to encounter. He couldn't help but feel utterly wasted in potential here.
He went up to the roof again. He checked out the vent entrance, his original guess as to a thief's method of entry, and thought it over. In a sense he could be inside the building but it would almost be like he wasn't... even though he would totally be inside the building by all technical definitions. But what GUN didn't know wouldn't hurt. I guess I kinda see how Sonic feels... Kinda.
He climbed in and then down the cramped vertical shaft, which soon opened up into an much wider one. With room enough to fly he let himself drop and fired up his tails again. He counted openings in the shaft until coming to 32. He pulled himself into a vent that might have been even narrower than the one on the roof. For once he was actually grateful to be small; someone of human size would probably get stuck. No wonder Rouge preferred to use the door.
"Come out to the coast, we'll get together, have a few laughs..." Safe bet he'd never have another opportunity to use that line again. He crawled forward until reaching a junction. Deliberating his choices, he could faintly pick out a pleasant smell wafting in from one direction. Perfume- and he knew the source. He headed that way. When he figured that he was in hostile territory, he began inching forward with the utmost of care to avoid making any noise. The going was slow and tedious but patience was a necessary virtue if one hoped to emulate the movements of a ninja...
"Tails?" He froze in place, then realized it was Rouge's voice, very close and with a touch of unease. "Is that you?"
After a moment's hesitation he answered. "Uh, yeah... How did you know?"
"I can hear you, genius. You don't exactly have catlike tread in there."
He groaned. "Was I really making a lot of noise?"
"Well actually, no. These guys probably wouldn't have noticed," she said with a surprising touch of diplomacy before adding, "Not half bad kid, but not half as good as me either." He almost groaned again; the line sounded like something Sonic might say, if he were even MORE... Arrogant? Vain? Narcissistic, certainly. He crawled up to the next vent grate to meet the bat's peering eyes.
"Hey Rouge," he said belatedly.
"Hey cutie. What are you doing in there? I thought you said you weren't coming in with me. Is this part of the mission too or do you just normally spy on girls at night?"
"NO," he shot back probably a second too fast. He did, technically, though not specifically, whenever he felt like going out and doing the superhero prowl- they just happened to be the target demographic for trouble after dark. "What are YOU doing here?" he countered in an attempt to shift the wedge.
That caught her off guard. "What do you mean? I was in the middle of the mission here when you interrupted me," she answered a second too slow. For a thief, he would not have expected her to be such a terrible liar.
"Rrrrrright... so how's that going?"
"It's... coming along."
"Uh huh." He didn't question what exactly 'coming along' meant and instead looked around the room, or perhaps more accurately a chamber or maybe even a hall due to its size. The decor had Japanese flavor and a lot of flair: statues, vases, and other pieces of art that were probably high in value on display. "I don't see any computers in this room."
"Yeah, it must be somewhere else."
"But there are some really nice-looking things in here."
"Now that you mention it..." The disinterest was feigned... poorly- she couldn't even keep a straight face, as if fully aware he wasn't going to buy it. She had no doubt already cased the room's contents. Even under these circumstances? Seriously?
"You're not embellishing upon the operational parameters here are you?"
Her expression changed to annoyance as she crossed her arms. "Kid, I don't know what you just said but I'm pretty sure that I'm offended by your suggestion."
He couldn't help himself. "Sorry, it's just kind of my thing to indulge in the occasional exhibition of vernacular prowess."
"Okay, somehow I actually understood that." She then smirked in what seemed to be her trademark style. "But you never said what YOU were doing here either."
The wedge had been shifted back- HE was the one embellishing upon parameters there. "I was getting kind of bored just waiting," he admitted casually. Now THAT'S a Sonic line if I ever heard one...
"It hasn't even been an hour," she said in mock exasperation. "Sheesh, you kids today..."
"Oh, I'm sorry, ma'am. I thought you were under 40." They gave each other their best unamused deadpans for maybe three seconds before they cracked out into grins. "Don't worry, I won't tell on you."
"Aw, thanks sweetie. I won't tell on you either." The conversation tapped out for the moment, there was a silence before she asked, "So... are you gonna leave and give a girl some privacy here?"
"Why? Do you require privacy to do your job? It's not like we don't already know what you're doing in here, being how we sent you in to do it in the first place."
"Yeah, but I get all nervous when I'm being watched. It affects how well I work."
Somehow he kept from laughing out loud at the richness of that coming from someone so brazen in appearance. If anything I think that's backwards... "Or I could stay here while you go find the objective."
"You're being a smartass about this, aren't you?" she asked, all but dropping the charade at this point.
He was trying to think of a suitably witty response when they simultaneously snapped to the sound of approaching footsteps. Several sets of them. "Uh, Rouge? Was there anybody else in here?"
"Yeah, I think about six or so." Dead serious now.
"Uh, I think they're all coming this way."
She gave him a fierce look and a pointed finger. "Tails, this had better not be YOUR fault."
"MY fault?" he responded indignantly. "How?"
"Maybe if they heard you thumping around inside that tin can..."
"Or maybe they smelled that gallon of perfume you're wearing," he shot back.
She subtly turned her head towards her outstretched arm and sniffed. Her expression went damn. "I might have overdid it a little tonight," she conceded.
"You'd better get out of here, like, NOW."
"Oh you think?" She vanished from sight immediately after delivering that last piece of snark. Sonic would have been proud. He crawled away from the opening and out of sight as well, then thought about what HE was going to do. Rouge had been compromised. Maybe it was her fault, maybe it was his, maybe it was neither. He wasn't supposed to help her with the mission; he wasn't even really supposed to be here in the first place. But he really didn't like the idea of leaving her on her own, especially on the off chance it actually might have been his fault. He figured he had already broken orders, so in for a penny, in for a pound. Besides, he already had an escape route out of this place that she might need, if he could find a big enough vent panel to actually enter through.
Fortunately the answer presented itself in the affirmative: a sufficiently large vent grate in a maintenance room of some sort. Lacking any tools to open it, he simply planted his arms and legs against the vent and pushed with his back to the 'ceiling' of the ducts. Two corners on one end of the grate popped out and the panel swung downward like a trapdoor. He was unprepared for the abrupt give but was able to touch down with a dignified 3-point landing. He waited and listened. The running machinery provided a fair amount of ambient noise; nobody seemed to have heard his entry.
He took some time to stuff one tail inside his suit, awkwardly curling it up behind his back. It wasn't very comfortable but he figured nothing good could come of a criminal organization knowing that he had broken into their offices. There, just a normal single-tailed anthropomorphic fox now... if there were any of THOSE on Earth either. He cracked the door and checked if the coast was clear. His canine senses of hearing and smell told him that it was.
The lights were all on now. The tenants were officially on the hunt for intruders. So much for the dark suits. Where was Rouge? He followed her scent and stayed far away from any others. The smell trail was getting stronger and stronger when he suddenly realized someone was around the very next corner and stopped dead... Or was there? He wasn't so sure now, but felt a hundred times more uneasy as opposed to relieved. Why'd she have to overkill on the perfume? He crept up to the corner, kept low, and peeked around... There didn't seem to be anybody, but...
"Up here." If the voice hadn't been so quiet he might have jumped. It was her of course- he should have known. He looked to where she had wedged herself up against the ceiling, arms and legs just barely spanning the length of the hall. An unobservant person might have passed underneath and been none the wiser. He was slightly envious, not having sufficiently long limbs to perform that move himself. The bat dropped to the floor as quiet as a ninja and possibly even more gracefully. "What are you doing here, kid?"
Her irritated tone suggested that the question was really WHY are you here? "Well gee, I just figured that since all these guys are looking for you, maybe you might need some help getting out of here."
"Thanks sweetie, but I don't." Her tone seemed prideful rather than disdainful. She walked right past him without waiting for a response.
He simply followed her and decided not to bother mentioning his escape route. She was a woman with a goal, obviously knew what she was doing, and didn't seem very receptive to any suggestions from him anyway. As long as they got out, fine. Maybe her way was even better. But he was compelled to ask, "You DID already complete the mission, right?"
"Right," she answered plainly, either not realizing that she was contradicting her earlier lie or just simply not caring. He kept that bit to himself though as they navigated the halls. She suddenly flattened against the wall as they approached an intersection, looked back and held out a hand in the universal signal for 'wait.'
Not that it was needed; he heard what she did: someone was talking, and to a number of others. "There's at least one intruder in here. You guys stay here, the rest of us will search the place..."
Tails had a hunch that they weren't cops. Criminals wouldn't want them in their place of operations; any security systems here were probably strictly internal. He whispered, "I'm guessing that's the way out?"
"Yeah. Looks like there's a few of them in the way."
"A few?" he questioned. "There's like, ten of them, at least."
She looked at him with a curious expression. "You can tell?"
He tapped his nose, unable to resist feeling a little bit proud. "I can smell."
"Are you sure?" She was clearly skeptical but seemed genuinely interested in a second assessment.
"Unless it's just a few guys wearing three different aftershaves apiece-"
"Okay," she cut him off, unamused. Before he could suggest his alternate route at least some of the group began heading their way. They turned and headed back the way they came, Rouge taking the lead like before. She turned into the closest doorway and he followed, into a wide open area that looked like the room he had previously seen her although he wasn't sure if it was in fact the same one. It had the same decorative flair but he hadn't seen what was either a fountain or reflecting pond. She stopped; he stopped. There were a number of doors leading to who knew where. She was clearly trying to choose one though her expression suggested she didn't have any more of an idea where they could lead than he did. By now the group had reached the intersection they were previously at. The white bat tried one of the doors to find it opened. The lights were off inside and there were no outer windows either, but it appeared to be a meeting room. They went in and she silently shut the door behind them, plunging the room back into pitch darkness.
From what he had seen in the brief moment of illumination, the contents of the room were a table and a bunch of chairs, with a distinct lack of any decent hiding places. But there was no time to find another room now; the search party was just behind them. "Come here," Rouge whispered, grabbing his shoulders and practically dragging him backwards in the direction of the door. She pressed up to the wall and pulled him into a tight hold. He emitted a slight vocalization of his confusion. She went, "Ssshhh." He shushed.
Several members of the search party were just outside now. The fox and bat were utterly still except for the subtle tremor running through each of their bodies. Rouge was definitely the more composed of the two. Between the present danger and their close physical contact, Tails was quite uncomfortable under the circumstances, although there was something about her hold that felt oddly... comforting? He wondered if she was doing it consciously, or if she was even doing it at all and he was just imagining it.
Somebody was coming this way. The door opened- to their left. The light came on. The person fully entered the room, pushing the door further in the process. It swung towards them, gradually blocking their view... and thus also hiding them from sight. Another clever trick- it just might even actually work if the searchers weren't thorough. He turned his head as the door was about to hit his snout. It hit his left foot instead. The newcomer kept walking forward, seemingly unaware that the door had stopped well short of the wall.
A view of the room gradually revealed itself: the man who had entered was walking deeper into the room, away from them... as the door slowly swung back on its own accord. He quickly reached for the doorknob, Rouge's hand landing on top of his a split second later. He/they pulled the door back quickly. TOO quickly. There was no audible reaction from the man, just a tense few moments. You did NOT notice that... You did NOT notice that... He started walking back towards the door. They both held their breath and became completely silent- Tails was just thinking really loud. You are leaving... You are leaving... The man was now just on the opposite side of the door... and seemed to be standing there. You are NOT going to look behind-
The door was suddenly flung aside as the man looked behind it. "Hey!" Before Tails could react, Rouge shoved him to the side and down to the floor. He heard what sounded like several solid bodily impacts accompanied by male grunts, and looked up just in time to see the man roll across the table and topple a chair. The man didn't seem about to get back up. That was good, but the noisy episode hadn't gone unheard by his friends, judging from the yelling in the hall.
He asked, "What now?"
She turned the lights back off. "Get ready to run. And follow me." It was a simple, if questionably likely to succeed, plan. Her presence moved into place between him and the door, her wings spreading just barely audible. Somebody threw the door open. The bat launched forward and crashed into the lead men before they could even register she was there, as if trying to break through an NFL defensive line. It went probably about as well as it could have. She managed to knock the first couple guys over but the doorway clipped her wings and she went down as well, whereupon the rest of the mob jumped on her.
They hadn't noticed him also hiding in the dark room. Well, let's go for a spare... He 'followed', with some improvisation: instead diving at the group just as they were rising up with the bat in hand, knocking down everybody on one side. She immediately took advantage of the distraction to get away from the mob, though one maintained hold of an arm. She pivoted and kicked the man in the gut. He doubled over, putting his head in range of another kick. He let go and went down. Tails snapped out of watching and realized someone was reaching for HIM. He somersaulted away on pure reflex, coming back up on his feet by Rouge, assuming his best ready stance while the crowd spread out to trap them against the wall. They looked quite surprised. Someone asked, "Who the hell are they?"
He took in their situation. There were 15 guys or so. They didn't have any visible weapons- that was good. But the prospect of simply escaping was slim. The ceiling was too low to safely fly over them- they'd be well within reach. He had no idea how fast Rouge was on her feet. It looked like they would probably have to go straight through them.
Rouge spoke low so that only he could hear. "You CAN fight, right kid?"
Yeah, I'm gonna cut it there, because that's where the holdup is. Apparently I'm nowhere near as creative at fisticuffs as I am shootouts. Which brings us to a point in need of addressing: when it came to me thinking up ground rules for writing Sonic stories, I had decided that the characters would generally- without going in-depth into what is or isn't physically possible by supersonic hedgehogs- be more modestly superpowered than in the games where they easily destroyed robots (wouldn't be much fun playing as characters who couldn't fight enemies), unless they had a Chaos Emerald or something (like perhaps a ring ala Sonic X but I never got that far in the planning stages.) There wouldn't be any action in this story otherwise. So call it a liberty.
Also, for a free personal protip: you've probably grasped by now I strictly swear by the name Tails, which can lead to issues when a character is named after their most prominent and often used features... I find simply using he/him to be fully sufficient 90% of the time, unless the name would eliminate confusion.