Chapter Zero: Regret (Part Two)
Buster turned down the hallway, the stench of gunpowder still choking his throat. Led by the sound of the crying infant, Buster stood outside a doorway, he heard panicked screaming being made outside to anyone who might hear her calls for help.
Buster wasted no time in attempting to open the door but found it locked. He then rammed the door with his body until the hinge gave and the door slammed open. He stumbled inside and was then attacked with a slat of white wood.
The woman attempted to beat, hit, and stab Buster, after receiving a few cheap hits by the improvised weapon, the broken edge of which left several cuts on Buster's head and face but the Mother was easily overpowered as Buster slammed the mother into the wall beside a glass door that led to a balcony. It was then he noticed the monster wailing away in his crib, a wooden slat missing his crib.
The Mother, terrified, looked at her child then at Buster, then the pair made a mad dash for the crib.
The pair collided. Screaming, shouting, begging, wrestling. Buster once again overpowered her and hurled her into the decorative glass doorway that led to the balcony. The mother crashed through the flimsy door and struggled to get to her feet, begging for the intruder to spare her child. To take anything he wanted, just to have mercy on her child.
Buster raised his revolver, pointing it at the woman, "He has to die… he has to die. He's a horrible human being. I'm saving countless lives. You don't understand, I have to do this. I-I didn't want to do this but it's my burden. No one else can fix this. It's up to me. Please. Just let me take the child away. I have no ill will against anyone but him. I'm begging you."
The Mother looked at the fox in disbelief, "You're raving mad."
"Please…" Buster was shaking, breathing deeply, nearly hyperventilating as he awaited an answer.
He never got one, as the mother charged him upon getting to her feet.
Buster fired his revolver, but the mother kept charging toward him, screaming, a shard of glass was held in a death grip in her right hand, tinged red with her blood.
Buster, not sure if he even hit her, fired again and before he knew it she had stabbed him where his neck and shoulder meet, the glass slicing deep inside his flesh.
The two struggled for the gun and in the commotion and panic the last round was accidentally fired from the revolver, hitting the ceiling.
The two begged and pleaded with one another as they struggled, fighting for their lives and for those they loved.
Slowly the woman grew weaker. Her strength, herculean at one point, had vanished. Buster wrestled her down to the ground, noticing for the first time how much blood was... everywhere. It stained his fur and the woman's clothes a dark red, as well as the floor. Buster gently propped the woman against the wall and held her hand as the woman weakly pleaded…
"My baby… my baby… please… please… my sweet child… please..."
Buster lost track of time as he held her hand. He lost track of how long he had cried, apologizing all the while. He was not sure when she passed but he was startled back to his senses when red and blue lights flashed through the balcony and into the room.
"This is the police! You are surrounded! Surrender and come out with your hands up!" A loud voice outside shouted through a megaphone.
Buster let go of the mother's hand and it limply fell to the ground, landing in a pool of her own blood.
Buster stood up, in shock, and walked over to the crib. He picked up the monster, which wailed, crying for its mother and father. The monster that was one day to become Dr. Eggman looked at Benjamin 'Buster' Prower, the infant looked terrified and heartbroken.
Buster held the child, hyper-ventilating. He walked onto the balcony, still holding the wailing child in his weak and bloody hands. A police helicopter shone its spotlight on him as he held the child over the balcony railing.
All he had to do was let go.
All he had to do was let go and everything would be better.
"I just have to let go." Buster said quietly to himself.
"I just have to let go!" He screamed, tears streaming down his face.
"Let go, dammit. Let go!"
Buster walked through the portal that returned him home. He took two steps forward into his home, the flashing lights and roar of the police chopper that came from behind him ceased immediately as the portal that connected to two spaces in time dissipated.
"Benjamin, what in Chaos happened? Why are you covered in blood?"
Benjamin "Buster" Prower took a step forward and collapsed, curling into a ball and hugging himself as he broke down in tears.
"Benjamin, what happened? Benjamin, speak to me!"
"I-I-I-I-I-" Buster said hyper-ventilating.
"Yes? What is it?"
Buster took a deep breath, "I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it..." he said as continued to speak, trailing off, and began mumbling incoherently.
"Benjamin, listen to me."
"I couldn't do it…"
Annabella knelt down in front of him, and shook him, "Listen to me! We're okay. We're going to fix everything, alright? But I need you to listen to me."
Buster continued to speak incoherently, "I'm so sorry Anna. I'm so sorry. I shot you. I shot… I shot them!" Buster broke down in tears again.
"Shhhhhhh, it's okay. I'll live. Now please, listen to me."
"But I shot you." he said as he looked at the ground in shame as Annabella tried in vain to comfort him.
"You're my brother. I love you. You'd have to do a whole lot worse than put a bullet hole in my foot to make me stop loving you."
Buster looked up from the ground staring into his sisters eyes, then, he wrapped his arms around his sister hugging her as he broke down crying yet again. Annabella gently patted his back.
After Buster finally recovered from his shock and panic, Annabella was finally able to speak with him about their plan.
"Listen… we're alive. Colette is alive. We can do Eggman's errand, and make preparations to outsmart him, he didn't bother taking our Chaos Emeralds so he either thinks we're not a threat or he has already planned for anything he thinks we could do. We're playing 5D chess now. We can change the rules and create new board states to change our fate. But to do this we need to prepare. We'll need to obtain seven Chaos Emeralds and use them to defeat Eggman once and for all. I can't do this alone. Benjamin, will you help me? Will you help me save Colette, our parents?"
Buster wiped his eyes and face, nodding, "W-where do we start?"
"While you were gone for less than five minutes from my perspective, I got a new message from Eggman. He says to get Colette back along with a "free" Chaos Emerald, we need to go to the space-time coordinates he provides and capture a violet-furred cat and her silver hedgehog boyfriend.
"W-what?" Buster said.
"That's what he said! Eggman's message also said the cat is a deadly pyrokinetic and the hedgehog, a dangerous user of psychokinesis."
Annabella ended their embrace, then held his hand gently, squeezing it as Buster's body went limp, slumping backwards, his voice filled with despair. "How… how can we ever hope to beat that?"
"Buster, we need you to make weapons and a plan to beat them. We have to beat them. If we work together, we can best them in combat. We have no other choice. No other options."
"Pyrokinesis… and psychokinesis… and they are… they are lovers to boot? There… there's no way!"
"Listen! We'll have the advantage. We can play dirty. Ambush them. They won't see what hits them. We can't do this without you." Annabella pleaded.
Buster closed his eyes, burying his regret deep inside him, as much as was possible, he had to bury any and all weakness that remained and focus his mind on the mission, lest it be the end of him and those he loved.
Buster resolved once more to set things right. He opened his eyes, his body and spirit feeling heavy, but his mind was refocused, "Shouldn't we try to ally with them if they are against Eggman?"
A single tear rolled down Annabella's cheek, "Not if you want to see Colette alive ever again." She said on the verge of crying, just barely keeping her tears contained.
"So we need weapons and a base of operations in the other world..." Buster said.
"Information, resources, any Chaos Emeralds we can nab." Annabella continued.
Buster stood up and held out his hand to his sister, "Then let's get started."