EFS White Base, Grand Canyon, Northern Arizona
September 23, 0079
1755 Hours, MST
Bright watched the boxy shape of the Gunperry approach the mesa from the bridge. They hadn't been gone very long, whoever fired off that flare must have been very cooperative for this to have gone so quickly.
Sayla put Ryu, in the craft's cockpit, on the main screen for Bright.
"Ryu, were you able to find the source of the flare?" he asked.
"I did," he replied. "But you wouldn't believe it if I told you over the lasercomm. It's one of those things you need to see to believe."
Kai was with him. "Think things suck with us being a refugee daycare?" he asked. "Well now the Furries are coming!" He was every bit as snarky as ever, even though the events of the day left him without a smirk.
Ryu gave his co-pilot a cold glare.
"Kai, I don't want to hear any of your crap right now," said Bright, completely tapped for energy. "Listen, I'll come out and meet you. I'll be there in a moment." The transmission ended. Sayla and Mirai joined Bright as he left for the elevator. He faced Reed, still in his chair, slouching. "Will you join us, Lieutenant Reed?"
The only thing Reed moved was his mouth. "You kids go on ahead," he told them. "I need some rest."
None of the trio liked the man's remark. After vomiting out so many woe-is-me's all afternoon, it was no wonder he was so tired. Amuro would have a perfectly good excuse to be exhausted, but not Reed.
The Gunperry slowly descended onto the top of the mesa, kicking up a cloud of dust as it touched down.
Bright, Hayato, Sayla, and Mirai had gathered before the resting craft. With a hiss, its long doors slowly opened like a drawbridge.
What was inside the Gunperry took them by surprise: four colorful creatures, roughly the size of human children. Weirdly enough, they all had the traits of animals and some had metallic limbs.
They all slowly approached the stunned humans, sheepishly.
One of them, a blue-furred thing with spiky quills and little gloves and shoes raised its hand. Its mouth moved and a sound came out: "Um, hi?"
Bright couldn't think of what to say, given the situation. Talking animal people that could walk on two legs? It was like a cartoon come to life or something. "Hello?"
The quilled creature looked like he was stuck in a dry block of cement with six machine guns aimed at his face. He couldn't keep going.
Another one of that group, one with red hair, brown fur, and matching blue boots and vest whispered something into the blue one's ear. Whatever it was calmed him down. "Forgive my friend here," she said with utmost decorum. "I am Princess Sally Alicia Acorn, however outside the boundaries of my country, Nature reigns supreme and titles such as mine are useless. These are my friends, Sonic the Hedgehog—whom you've met, Bunnie D'Coolette, and Matilda the Armadillo."
Bright, by this point, had collected himself much faster than the Hedgehog (the she identified the blue thing as). "I am Lieutenant Junior Grade Bright Noa, Earth Federation Space Forces."
The Hedgehog, Sonic, finally spoke more than one syllable. "Thank you so much, dude—er, sir! We've been trying to get away from those Zeon guys for the past few days without any idea of how to fight them."
"How do you know about Zeon?" asked Sayla. They'd never seen them before, so them knowing about Zeon was a new mystery.
"Not on purpose, believe me," said Sonic. "We didn't even know they existed until a few days ago." He gave them a brief synopsis of everything: a city called El Paso, the search for Bunnie, Beauregard's assassination, the destruction of Sand Blast and Red Rock, and especially those green Cyclopes with pink eyes.
"Those are Zakus," Bright explained. "They're Zeon's standard mobile suits."
"The heck's a mobile suit?" asked Bunnie. "Why'd you need 'em anyway?"
"They're weapons," he explained. "Zeon pioneered them some years before the war started and we never took the technology seriously… and paid a terrible price for not doing so."
Another voice joined in. "Now how's about we ask you a few questions of our own?" Kai was there. Seemed to had spent a tiny bit of time with him when they got picked up: he rolled his eyes when he heard his voice. "First off, what the hell are you and how did you learn to talk?"
"We're Mobians," said Sally. "We don't exist at your point in time."
"Our point in time?" Bright asked. "What do you mean?"
"That's a long story in itself," said Sonic, "but if you think we're real Mr. Shiny, you'll believe us."
Bright raised an eyebrow at the name. "Shiny?"
"But you still haven't told us how can you talk," said Kai.
"Oh, you don't know?" said Sonic. "You see, when you're a baby, your Mom and Dad talk to you in a funny voice, trying to get you to repeat—!"
"Stop it," said Bright. "Today's been bad enough as it is." It was bad enough that Amuro gave him such a hard time that afternoon, Sonic was already shaping up to be a second Kai.
"I second that," said Sally. "What we're trying to do is get back to home in New Mobotropolis. It's about a day away to the east, in a place called Goldwater Valley."
East, Bright thought, that would take us further inland. I don't even want to imagine the spasms Reed would go through if he learned that.
"Listen," said Bunnie, "we know the Zeons gave y'all the business today, but we would gladly give you a stopover there to fix up your ship a little. Our friends are mighty handy."
"Never heard of a Goldwater Valley," said Mirai "do you have any coordinates?" It was a bit of a weird question to ask, but "east" was too vague.
"I've memorized it ever since the capitol was moved there," she said. "38.5, -78.5."
"You know it like that?" a surprised Bright asked.
"We've had our share of missions taking us away from home," said Sally.
"I don't know how else to say this," said Sonic, bluntly, "but we need all the help we can get going home. The four of us can't deal with Zeon all by ourselves. Dr. Eggman was enough of a pain in the ass as it was, but since he's vanished—!"
Kai broke out laughing. "Eggman? What kind of a name is Eggman? Does he have a sidekick called Toastberg or Waffleton?"
Air hissed through Sonic's teeth. "Shut up! This is serious."
"How can you take a guy seriously if he has a name like 'Eggman'?" the violet-haired teen remarked. "Sounds like a name a five-year-old made up!"
"Dude, if you don't shut the fuck up right now, I am gonna punch your balls out through your ass!"
Kai raised both hands and shook them mockingly. "Oooh, guess I'd better run before the big scary Hedgehog thing goes medieval on me!" He wasn't taking Sonic seriously, though he did leave. Nobody seemed devastated that he was walking away.
"Does that fella always run his mouth like that?" asked Bunnie.
"Sadly," Sayla answered.
At that moment, a little ease came over Bright. Even though Sonic was like Kai in the sarcasm department, he knew when to draw the line.
Nonetheless, how was he going to explain his ship turning into a zoo?
The Bottom of the Barrel Bar and Grill: one of Mobius' roughest spots and a magnet for the seediest characters imaginable. It was originally in the Robo Hobo Jungle—a large junkyard reserved for Dr. Robotnik's discarded creations. Since the retired Ixis Wizard Mammoth Mogul acquired the establishment, he moved it to another ex-Robotnik establishment he'd bought, Casino Night. The saloon-like front appeared to have been grafted to the front of the casino, swing-doors and all, as did the interior.
Said swing-doors opened, as Sapper the Mole stepped inside and approached the bar. Relaxing, though melancholic piano jazz filled the air and the patrons were sparse. Getting service wouldn't be bad at all. "Blue Kahuna," he ordered, "heavy on… the lime." He didn't notice it, but a different robot was tending the bar: red-and-black, like some kind of ball that opened, small blue slits for eyes, a glowing "grin" of a mouth and a thin body with spherical joints. "You're not TK-421."
"TK-421 was shut down today for maintenance, he's also been reassigned to security," it said. "My name is SA-55 Orbot, I'm the new bartender. My counterpart IDI-07 Cubot and I started work yesterday." He hovered over to the shelf to fetch a bottle of vodka.
"You don't look like a Kintobor creation," he noted.
"We weren't," the robot answered. "Dr. Eggman made us."
"Eggman?" Sapper was a little off guard when he heard this, but not entirely surprised all the same. "What happened? The bastard throw you out because you couldn't kill the Freedom Fighters and Mogul took you in?"
The door to the kitchen swung open and another robot hovered out with an order pad. It had skinny limbs like Orbot, but had a yellow-and-black paint job and was boxier. "Welcome to da Triple-Bee Gee!" it said, with the voice of a young Brooklyn woman. "Would you like a menu?"
"Uh, no," said Sapper. "I'll have a Fire Alarm Burger, no sides."
"Gotcha."
"I take it you're Cubot?" the merc asked.
"Yes I am."
He was able to pull the threads together. "Orbot and I were just talking—uh, mixed, not stirred, Orb—he says you used to work for Eggman. What happened?"
"Oh, you wouldn't believe it!" the yellow robot raved. "Dese guys called Zeon blew da Death Egg out of da sky and den bombed it to kingdom come! It's still fuzzy, bow it happened, but we were all thrown out like junk. We got outta there as soon as da coast was clear and it took a long time to get here—hovering, hitchhiking, you name it. Don't know where all dese new cities and countries came from: Maine, New Yark, Ohiya, Mitchigan…"
"Can't say I've ever heard of any of those," said Sapper, "but I've gone through places I never knew existed on my way up here. That white-out last week probably had a hand in it."
"Here's your drink." Orbot presented his patron with his cocktail in a tall glass: a turquoise beverage on the rocks, garnished with a lime wedge. "It was Dr. Eggman who caused that white-out. He used a Chaos Emerald to generate another Genesis Wave. Sonic and several Freedom Fighters had infiltrated the Death Egg."
It had a tart taste to it, as Sapper liked it. "Why am I not surprised?" He'd heard the story about Sonic's victory over Eggman at the end of Robotnik War II. He let him live. "None of this would have happened if Hero Boy had just killed him there."
"It gets crazier," Cubot kept gushing. "Toins there's other universes and the Doc got hooked up with a scientist from one. Dey built another Death Egg and made it look like a skull. Den day turned alla Sonic's friends inta robots and he teamed up with a robot boy and—!"
"AW! SHADDAP!" someone yelled from a table near the corner. It was a purple weasel with a long tooth. "An hour ago, you sounded serviceable. Now that you've shorted again, I'm thinking of doing some rewiring and I don't know nothing about electric."
"Who the hell are you, and what's your problem?" asked Sapper.
"Nack," the flustered patron growled, his face pink from clearly one drink too many. "Everyone knows who I am. World fffffamous bounty hunter."
"I can smell the beer in your breath from all the way over here," Sapper said, a bit disgusted.
"Look, mate," he said, stumbling forward, "I'm not as think as you drunk I am."
"You don't say?" the Mole said, sarcastically. "Well if you're so famous, how come I've never heard of you?" He took another gulp of his Kahuna. He turned to Cubot. "Might wanna run that order to the kitchen."
"You're putting me on," Nack slurred. "How about all the times I tussled with the Freedom Fighters? Robotnik and Eggman both hired me. I once caught Sonic, y'know."
"Fighting the Freedom Fighters isn't much of an accomplishment," said the assassin, "but then there's the fact that you actually worked at the behest of those two monsters."
"A job's a job."
"That's my philosophy, too," Sapper retorted, "but my standards aren't as nonexistent as yours."
"And with all due respect," said Orbot, "all those incidents with the Freedom Fighters were… failures."
"Shut yer trap, ya bloomin' paperweight!"
Sapper gave a curious look at the robot barman when it revealed this info. "You know, Nack," he said, after taking another drink, "for someone who bills himself as the deadliest hired gun around, you sure are incompetent."
"The old gang would say the same thing," he said, "if I didn't poison their food."
"What a rep," the Mole remarked. "Not only are you inept and unprincipled, you're a coward, too. I'm not giving you any complements."
That got under the fanged sniper's skin. He charged forward, arm and fist cocked for a John Wayne punch. It was never thrown; Sapper jumped up and kicked Nack hard in the chin. He went off his feet, flying backward a short ways, before landing on his back, out cold. About a second later, a stream of fluid arced from the unconscious Weasel's crotch.
"And you can't even hold your water, either."
Two SWATbots dragged the out-of-commission Weasel out of the bar, his tail drawing a streak of urine toward the swing doors.
"Sorry, about the mess," said the hitman, as coldly as his last remark. The burger came, with jalapeno and banana pepper chips baked into the patty. "Just one more Kahuna, the same way." This is all your fault Sonic. The world's changed forever and it's all your fault.
Reed had already passed out from exhaustion. Today alone, he could have probably out-complained every refugee in the living block. It wouldn't take long for him to wake up, though. The door to the elevator hissed open to reveal Bright, Mirai, and Sayla had returned to the bridge… with strange company. He stared at the four… things… for a moment, utterly silent.
With an awkward look, the small blue one uncomfortably smiled and curled up its fingers. "Haha… Mmreow?"
Reed fell out of the chair screaming like a little girl in a tank full of frogs. "BRIGHT, WHAT IN THE GREEN HELL ARE THOSE THINGS!?"
"We're not entirely sure, Lieutenant," he said. "They're the ones who fired off that flare. They call themselves 'Mobians'."
He didn't know what to say. The only way something like that could have happened, he thought, is if Zeon had somehow created human-animal hybrids, but for what purpose? He remembered a story about the medieval tyrant Joseph Stalin having once tried to crossbreed humans and apes; did the Zabis succeed where he'd failed?
"Uh, Bright," the blue one said, glancing at the acting captain, "who's Mr. Sunshine over there?"
"He's First Lieutenant Sean William Reed," Bright explained. "He was supposed to direct us during re-entry this morning, the Zeons threw a big wrench in that plan."
"I can tell they like to do that," the creature remarked, as they all entered the bridge. "Listen, I'm gonna get to the bottom line. We just need two things: answers and a way home."
"Answers?" Sayla asked.
"Like, what even IS Zeon?" he asked. "When we left New Mobotropolis, we didn't even know about it until we got this place called El Paso and found it crawling with soldiers."
"It's a country we're at war with," Mirai explained. "It's on the other side of the moon."
"You've been through El Paso?" asked Bright.
"It was a brief stop on our way to find Bunnie, here," said the one with red hair. "There were also remains of a battle just outside the city. A vehicle labelled EFGF was among the wreckage. I think it may have belonged to you, in hindsight."
"Yes, the Ground Forces," said Bright. "Several months ago, Zeon took over more than half of the Earth's surface. Most of this continent is under their thumb."
"I knew that these fellas were tough," the yellow rabbit-like one remarked. "But I didn't reckon on them being so big on the Robotnik Scale."
"You still haven't told us where you… all came from," said Reed. He wasn't exactly in on what the four were supposed to be, "all" was as much as he could do.
A bit of silence overtook the bridge before the redheaded rodent finally broke it. "Would you believe us if we said we're from this planet 12,000 years in the future?"
Given the oddity of the situation, none of the humans were prepared to dismiss the claim.
"Tell us," she continued. "In the past few days, was there ever a bright flash of light that swept over everything recently?"
"As a matter of fact," said Bright, "something like that happened on Tuesday as the ship was on its way to Side 7? I assume you may know about it?"
"Remember a moment ago what I said about Dr. Eggman?" said Sonic, the name the blue creature had been introduced with. "I mean, before that Kai dude started acting like an ass. He caused it. He'd captured Sally and turned her into a robot—and that's a story in itself—and when we were getting close to saving her, he… tried to rewrite reality as he saw fit with the use of seven powerful stones called Chaos Emeralds. I tried to fix the mess he made, but he screwed everything up. It was only later that we found out that Earth in our time, Mobius, had merged with itself in the ancient past, eons before the advent of the Mobian race."
"Only 12,000?" Bright asked. "Humans have only existed for 1,500,000 years, yet things like Hedgehogs and Rabbits were able to gain sentience and speech in a vastly shorter expanse of time? How is that possible?"
"This whole thing's too big to digest in one sitting," said the Hedgehog. "All you need to know at this time is that between now and then, powerful stuff and bad hombres come to Mob—er, Earth. The people back home have no idea what's happened and Eggman's disappeared."
"But that place, Goldwater Valley, what were its coordinates again, Sally?" Mirai asked. "We'll find it."
Sally repeated it. "38.5, -78.5."
Up on his end of the platform, Marker fed the information into his computer. "Confirmed," he announced. "Shenandoah Valley, eighteen klicks south-southwest of Luray, Virginia."
"VIRGINIA!?" Reed shrieked. "That's suicide!"
"Well, if you don't wanna take us," said Sonic, annoyed, "you got an alternative? Maybe something to fight those Zakus of yours?"
"Forget about it!" the lieutenant shouted. "This ship is not going an inch deeper into a Zeon zone and we're not giving up anything." He groaned. After all of today's excitement, the ulcers had come back.
"I don't like agreeing with Lieutenant Reed after all that happened this afternoon," Bright said, vastly calmer than his superior, "but going halfway across the continent in our condition is too risky."
"I understand," said the Hedgehog. "We saw your battle in the Canyon today. That white thing that splashed all those planes was incredible. We don't have anything like it in Acorn. This ship alone would have a much easier time fighting Zeon than we would. But at the same time…" he let out a pained sigh, as if something were pulling on him. He was able to keep on with his explanation, though, "After we left New Mobotropolis to find Bunnie, we hadn't heard a peep out of Eggman. Zeon bombed one of his Dark Egg Legion chapters yesterday along with a Mobian city. This little girl with us is the only survivor of those attacks and we need to get her to safety as well. Despite them attacking one of Eggman's divisions, I keep thinking about a worst-case-scenario. He might try to reach an agreement with them and join forces. It's not enough that Eggman's smart, he's crafty too. If the DEL and Zeon forge an alliance, things are going to be twice as bad for you."
"I… was part of the Desert Chapter," the green Armadillo chimed in. "Our ranks are given robotic implants when we join. That means built-in weapons, enhanced strength, or improved senses. Most of us only joined because we had nowhere left to go."
Bright's brow furrowed. It didn't take a genius to see how something like that would benefit the Zeon war effort.
"Listen to me, Mr. Bright," said Sally. "New Mobotropolis has a force field over it. If you can get there, NICOLE can expand the dome and you can do whatever repairs you need without damage from bombardment."
"But this city of yours isn't aligned with the Federation," he noted.
"We're not with Zeon, either," she pointed out. "You can have repair work done without any legal trouble. I'll see to it."
Bright turned and faced the bow, still in deep thought. Animal people, cybernetics, high-energy gems, time-travel—it would sound like a fever dream, but here they were, wide awake. Now there was the revelation of a new city near the Virginia-West Virginia line full of these "Mobians". They shared a common enemy and brought up a potential threat, if they were to be believed. "How do I know this isn't a trick?" he asked, skeptically.
"I dunno, Bright," said Sonic. "How many Mobians have you run into before today?"
This was a hard bullet to bite, but it was finally severed in twain. "We'll go east."
"Are you out of your fucking mind, Bright!?" said Reed. "There could be another Zeek ambush just waiting for us out there!"
"Lieutenant," Bright said flatly, "Garma Zabi is the leader of the enemy occupying this region. You can bet it all that he's not going to waste time regrouping. It doesn't matter if we go north, south, east, or west, he's still going to try to hit us. I don't completely believe our little guests here, but they seem to know what they're talking about." It was a big gamble bringing Amuro aboard, he thought, when push comes to shove, he saves our skin. This isn't that different.
"You're gonna get a goddam court—GUHH!" The ulcers cut Reed short of "martial". The pain had gotten more severe.
"Sayla, could you take Lieutenant Reed down to sick bay?" Bright asked.
Much like Fraw Bow several hours ago, Sayla was doing the honors this time. It still didn't stop Reed from his complaining. "If they sink this ship and capture the Gundam, you are gonna go down in history as the man who singlehandedly kicked the door open for the Zeeks! GAH!"
The elevator shut.
The Rabbit among them shook her head. "There goes one charming fella."
Not a single patron was left in the diner, and all staffers had finished their cleaning duties and went home. All but Chloe, who had already finished wiping the tables and counter. She sat alone in a booth, only accompanied by her thoughts.
"Chloe? What are you still doing here?" Chuck was there.
She was a little startled when she heard her boss. "Mr. Chuck? W-What time is it?"
"It's almost 11:00. Everyone's gone home but you."
"Forgive me," she said. "I've just had a lot on my mind."
"Something seems to be bothering you," he said. "Is it okay to talk about it?"
She blushed. Do I really need to do this? After all you've done for me? "I've got a bit of a problem. Well, a big one actually. Remember when Mina and Ash came by and I froze when I found out who they were?"
Chuck nodded.
"I was still nervous when I finally spoke to them," she said, "and I blurted out that I'd like to play music with her. They invited me over to their trailer today to play my keyboard for them and they want me join their band."
"I see. So what's wrong?"
"I don't want to leave the diner," Chloe told him. "Yeah, I love Mina's music and all, but you've done so much for me, Mr. Chuck—this job and all. Ever since I came over from Furville, you've been like a father to me. I don't want to abandon you or hurt your feelings or anything like that." That was it. Several hours of keeping it corked up inside her and it all came out through the Mouse's tear ducts.
"Chloe, it's alright," he said.
"But Mr. Chuck, playing the keyboard was only a hobby. It's not—!"
"Not a real job?" he finished. "It can be now. Life's funny like that."
"But Mr. Chuck—!"
"Chloe, you've done a great job for me during your time working here," he said. "Now, I think it's time for you to move on to something bigger."
"You're okay with this?"
"Waiting tables isn't something most people strive for," he told her. "Life's given you a golden opportunity to move up in the world."
"But I'm just a regular girl," the Mouse objected. "I'm not super star material, isn't this kind of work more suited for me?"
Chuck laughed. "Egotism was always a non-entity with you, Chloe. The truth is that nobody was ever born famous. Sonic wasn't always the big hero he is today and to be perfectly honest, it was an idea between me and Ash," Chuck admitted.
"Y-You knew?"
"You could really carry a note, you know," he said, "and the crew always said you liked writing songs during your breaks. Though I never pegged you as someone who could play an instrument." He put his palm on her shoulder. She was very rattled after all this. "Listen, I know you feel like this is something that's going to crush you and that you feel safer in this diner. Ash and Mina see your potential, too. The only way you can possibly hurt my feelings is to keep working here."
Chuck had every ace in the deck. Ash, Mina, the band, and now him. What other choice did she have? "I'll do it."
"Attagirl."
She broke down again. She was happy, but the feeling was still very painful and bittersweet.
Her now-ex-boss was there to comfort her.
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
This is the moment you've probably been waiting to happen for over twenty chapters. It wouldn't have made any sense for the Freedom Fighters to show up on Side 7, the logical move was to have them meet the White Base when she got to Earth. I was worried about all the talking between the Mobians and the crew, but HyperionGM believed it worked. The bit with Sapper and Nack was a tougher one, too. I'd decided early on that Orbot and Cubot wouldn't be captured by Garma like their creator had. Where would they go? To Mogul. Big thanks to SonicEvan for input with that and the end of Chloe's job as a waitress, the latter of which GM had a hand in as well.
Also, Sonic versus Kai and an homage to the trailer for the disaster of a Sonic movie!