Chapter 3
It was late in the evening by the time Sir Charles had recovered. However, despite Tom's insistence, Sir Charles refused to leave his room, equal parts exhausted and humiliated. It fell to Rosie to fill the Green Hills Wachowskis of what was going on.
"It started small." She said. "Minor bits of vandalism, some small burglaries, most things that could be explained away as children being naughty or just happenstance. But things started to get worse. The baker's oven exploded, nearly burning half the village to the ground. The pet shop became overrun by fleas, and animal services shut them down for negligence. It didn't take long, but more and more businesses began to fall into disrepair, and tourists were frightened away. Chuckie couldn't allow it. He's been a pillar of this community since he was a young man, and he couldn't bear the thought of this town becoming yet another strip mall. After all, he still believes in the legend."
"Legend?" Maddie asked, sipping a cup of tea.
"It's a silly thing, really. Allegedly, the old church in the village is the same one where King Arthur found the sword in the stone. The one that proved he was meant to be king. Such a thing to believe: magic and fairytales. Next you'd think elves or pixies exist."
Try alien teenagers that resemble large animals. Tom thought to himself, spying Sonic who was spying through the window.
"It means everything to Charlie, so he did everything he could to fix things. The festival is our last hope, he thinks. It used to bring most of the village's income each and every year. He took the last few pounds he had saved up, and he pooled it with some of the others. They're offering a five thousand pound prize for the annual Arthur drawing ceremony before the great feast and firework jamboree. The festival is our one last chance before things get out of this mess."
She sighed.
"I want dearly to believe it will all work out, but I can't help but feel nervous of it all. Our everything went into this gamble. This house is hard enough to run with full staff, but now we can barely pay Snively. This town, this house, it's all we truly have left."
Tom sighed deeply.
"I wish you guys had of told me about this. We would have done something."
"Not that I wholly disagree, Tom," Maddie piped in, "but I doubt there was much we could actually do. Don't forget we all but had to rebuild the house twice this year."
"Oh my!" Rosie gasped. "Whatever for?"
"Rats." Tom said quickly. "Big, big, big rats."
He couldn't see it, but Tom knew Sonic was glaring at him from the window.
"How positively dreadful." Rosie gasped, tilting her head. "At worst, with the exception of the aforementioned financial difficulties, we've only had a noisy sparrow to contend with. It seems we're both plagued with bad luck."
"True, but it's not all bad." Maddie added. "My sister got married, and boy what a wedding, and we've learned to better appreciate all the good things we've had and received."
"I've even started something of a small baseball team, you might say." Tom added with a chuckle. "Three boys with a lot of pep, and they've really added a spark to our lives that we wouldn't trade for anything."
"Well that's certainly good to hear." Rosie said before shooting the two a mischievous look. "So does that mean I should be expecting grand nieces and nephews soon?"
Tom and Maddie blushed profusely and exchanged glances. Suffice to say, the subject was changed from then on, and conversation became much more casual. By then, Sonic had stopped listening, and he joined Tails and Knuckles under a large tree in the backyard, relaying what he had been told.
"It's the witch!" Knuckles declared. "She has cast a curse on these lands to give it misfortune so that she may have it all to herself."
"She's not an actual witch, Knuckles." Sonic said with a sigh. "She's just a business CEO. Though that might actually be worse."
"Regardless," Tails piped in, "if she is responsible for the vandalism, she is the one with the most to gain, but I'd imagine she's covering her tracks well."
"Then we'll just have to be the ones to sus her out." Sonic said firmly. "After all, she's a human, and we're the only Mobians on earth. What could she do against the three of us?"
"Set the barn on fire?" Knuckles asked.
"I mean, sure, she could probably do that, but it wouldn't do much to us unless we were in it."
"It's probably going to do a lot to the horses since they're in it."
Sonic and Tails suddenly spun around. Sure enough, the barn was now burning in a roaring blaze, both horses still inside and whinnying in a frenzy.
"Holy chili dogs!" Sonic exclaimed, taking off like a shot with Knuckles in pursuit.
Tails spun his tails, readying to follow, when a glimmer of movement caught his eye. He caught a smallish shape breaking from the barn and towards the forest, vanishing into the thicket. Tails looked back to the fire, and then towards the forest.
"Knuckles and Sonic can handle the fire." He said. "That had to be the vandal responsible."
Without another thought, Tails took off, flying as high as his twin tails would allow while taking out his radar to scan for the fleeing suspect. As for Sonic and Knuckles, they were left with the conundrum of the burning barn. Chester, Sir Charles' stallion, had broken free of his pen and was already outside, but he had refused to go far because as Anny, still heavy with a foal, had been too weak to run. Sonic quickly assessed the situation, running over possible solutions. He knew there was a lake up the road, and he spied a bucket, but he wondered if even he could be a one man bucket brigade to an effective ability.
"Guess I'm gonna have to try." He said assuringly, taking the bucket. "Knux, you get the horse. I'll about putting out this fire."
"Agreed!"
As Sonic took off, Knuckles immediately bowled his way inside, smashing through the door, not minding the flames, and he set his sights on the large pen that Anny was kept in. Thankfully, the bulk of the flames were in the hay bales in the rafters, likely the source of the fire, so Anny was unharmed for the most part. However, it wouldn't be long before the roof itself came crashing down.
"I wonder if this is what Sonic means when he says the roof is on fire at our dance parties." He mused. "If so, then he is even more sick and childish than I thought."
He rushed over to Anny, who immediately reared up at the sigh of what, to her, looked like an enormous spiked rat. Knuckles jumped back to avoid her crashing hooves, and then he spied a length of rope coiled on a hook. He quickly grabbed it, made a small knot and loop, twirled it over his head, and then lobbed it at the mare. The loop snaked around her throat and fastened tightly. On instinct, Anny went limp, heeding the lead as Knuckles eased her out of the pen. At that moment, a large beam came crashing down from the rafters. Quick as a flash, Knuckles zipped up onto Anny's back, reared back his fist as it charged with red lightning, and with one solid blow it blasted the wood to splinters.
"No time for the pleasantries, miss." He told Anny before swatting her hard on the rump.
At last, the old mare's fight or flight instincts kicked in, and she raced for the open door. Chester was there waiting, and he nuzzled the spooked mare to calm her as Knuckles guided the both of them to safety. Meanwhile, Sonic had found the lake where he filled his bucket. He then ran back and forth from the lake and back to the barn, shoveling out water faster than the speed of heat. It was moments like this that Sonic was thankful to his old friend inertia, that, courtesy of centripetal motion, kept the water in the bucket long enough for Sonic to splash the water on the fire. But even with Sonic's speed, it was an incredible distance he was covering, and the fire was all over the barn. The only way to put out the blaze without losing the barn completely would be if he could just put it out all at once. As Sonic ran back to the lake again, he turned in the direction of the barn, and he held up his hands as though he were taking a picture.
"If this works, it'll probably be the coolest thing I've ever done. If it doesn't, then there's going to be a lot of angry fisherman for nothing tomorrow."
With that, Sonic began to run around the lake as fast as he could, arcs of blue lighting surrounding his body as he moved faster and faster. The result came from a large funnel of kinetic energy that began to snake upwards, creating a vacuum effect that sucked up the water with it. When he felt enough moisture had been gathered, Sonic started to ride the wind, using his speed to both stay just outside of the funnel's radius, but to also manipulate it's angle to the point that it was now aimed directly at the farm house. Afterwards, Sonic snaked his way down to the tail of the funnel, and he released the pent up energy he had been building through his run. The resulting implosion not only dispelled the funnel, but it lobbed the water through the air like a massive, heavy balloon. Knuckles had just gotten clear when the ball of liquid went sailing overhead, and with a deafening splash followed by a relieved hiss, he looked in time to see that the barn, while significantly charred, was no longer burning and still standing. By then, the front door opened, and Knuckles made a very hasty exit into the upper limbs of a tall tree. Rosie, Tom, Maddie, and a very much revived Sir Charles came rushing out, Rosie and Maddie running up to check on the horses and yet to be born foal whilst Tom and Sir Charles inspected the barn.
"Like I hadn't enough to worry about!" Sir Charles exclaimed, very nearly in tears as he stared at the family barn in ruins. "How in the blazes did this happen?"
"Freak lightning storm?" Tom offered, though there was clearly not a cloud in the sky. Those boys have some serious explaining to do!
While Knuckles waited in the wings, Sonic soon joined him, terribly exhausted, but no less proud of himself.
"Gotta say," he panted, "we work well together when you're not trying to kill me."
"When are you going to let that go?" Knuckles muttered. "Regardless, you are quite correct. This was indeed a glorious day that they will right songs about. I'll be honest with you, Sonic, I never would have thought you could do something like that."
"I didn't either." Sonic confessed. "That could have gone wrong in soooo many different ways. Thankfully, I was able to figure it out, though next time I'll be sure to have Tails do the math for me."
The both of them stood there for a long moment of silence.
"TAILS!!!"
…………………………………..
It hadn't taken the little genius long to pick up on the arsonist's trail, and soon enough he had tracked them down to the thickest parts of the woods. Using the uppermost branches for cover, Tails hovered about until he spied the shape. He now realized that it was joined by two more, and one of them was very big. Tails had to squint, but after a moment he made an interesting discovery.
The arsonist had a tail!
In fact, now that the moon had positioned itself by the approaching hour, it had cast a silver beam down on the three. The arsonist was a dark blue wolf with squinty eyes and a penchant for twitching, which might allude to him not being of sound mind. The second and old girl was a rabbit with a white pelt and a more relaxed personality judging from how she casually inspected her nails. The third and largest was a grizzly bear with a permanent scowl on his face, and he appeared to be the boss of the group as he approached.
"Well?" The bear asked gruffly. "Did you do it or what?"
"Sure! Slur! Dur!" The wolf giggled manically. "Set on fire! Rolled like a tire! The barn's expire!"
The bear mustered perhaps the tiniest grin that Tails had ever seen.
"Good. That should send more than enough of a message to those beatniks."
"I don't know why we're even bothering." The rabbit muttered tiredly, inspecting her nails more closely. "This is all nothing but a hassle. I've got better things to do than play stooge."
The bear shot her a glance.
"Don't forget, Carrotia, that this may be our only chance to get home. Once we find the cave of Avalon, we'll get everything we ever could have wanted."
"Cave of Avalon?" Tails whispered, edging just a little closer.
"Gee, Bearenger, could you talk any louder?" Carrotia muttered dryly. "I think they can hear you all the way in Albany."
"Don't be ridiculous." Bearenger grunted. "Faulke may be an idiot, but even he knows how to get caught. That's our policy: no witnesses."
"That's right!" Faulk giggled. "No witness! All fitness! Love a game of chess!"
Tails had edged just a bit closer, but hadn't realized just how old the branch he was on was. Without warning, it buckled under his weight and snapped. Tails let out a shout, and he landed on his chin smack dab in the middle of the three thugs. Slowly, Tails sat up carefully, massaging his face, and then he became aware of the sneering faces aimed at him. He looked up at them, and he offered a sheepish grin.
"Eh, hi there. Lovely evening for a stroll?"
The three glared at him, and then Carrotia looked to Bearenger.
"No witnesses, huh? Sounds like we need to change our policy."
"Not if I do this!" Bearenger roared, bringing down a massive fist on Tails.
The fox nimbly dodged and rolled out of the way, rising to his feet and spinning his tails.
"Lovely meeting you, but I really gotta go!"
He took off into the air, Faulke waving at him numbly, as Bearenger threw a rock to no avail.
"Oh for crying out loud! Carrotia!"
"Yeah yeah. Little ol' me to the rescue again. I wonder if my cousin Bunnie ever has to put up with this nonsense."
She flexed an arm, and a small, carrot-shaped object slid out from her sleeve. She followed Tails flight path with her eyes, reached back, wound up, and she hurled the object as hard as she could. It flew straight and true until it made contact with Tails' back. There was a click, followed by a boom as it exploded. Tails shouted with pain as he was sent back to the ground with a harsh thud. Bearenger didn't waste a minute as he rushed in, grabbing Tails by his namesake and swiftly tying the two of them into a knot.
"No more flying for you, foxy! You're grounded, and by that I mean into dust!"
Tails swiftly pulled himself free, his tails contorting and twisting as they desperately tried to unfurl.
"I'm not out of this yet." Tails growled. "I've got more in my bag of tricks that…"
He reached for his bag, only to find it was no longer looped over his shoulder. He heard a chuckle, and he could see Carrotia holding up his missing item.
"You mean this back of tricks, sweetheart? Sorry, honey, but you're out of luck this time."
"Little fox in a box, now set the box on fire!" Faulke cheered in a singsong voice.
He raised his arms, revealing small bracers, and from small spigots on said bracers came tongues of white hot fire. Tails ducked, but this proved costly as Bearenger followed up with an uppercut, knocking Tails in the air as Carrotia knocked him down again with her carrot explosives. Back and forth, Tails was pummeled relentlessly with punches, fire, and explosives on all sides. He was little more than a rag doll in a hurricane, tossed to and fro with wild abandon before landing harshly against the base of a tree. The three thugs started to close in on him, Bearenger popping his knuckles while grinning wickedly.
"This has been fun kid. Beating you down has done wonders for my stress and anger management, but sadly the game is over and we got places to be."
He sat Tails up, the poor boy only barely conscious and unable to look him in the eye.
"But don't worry. This isn't anything personal. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
He wound up his fist for what would surely be the final blow, and no hope seemed to be in sight. But, just as Bearenger was about to land his strike, something went whistling through the air, and the next thing the big grizzly knew his own fist was planted firmly into his own face, a bola tying the two together. Stunned and partly blind, Bearenger dropped Tails and staggered back. A moment later, something else whistled through the air and plunged into Faulke's chest, sending shockwaves throughout his body. Rather than pain, this seemed to delight the wolf, though he did inevitably collapse in a fried heap. This gave Carrotia, the last thug standing, plenty of room to see the arrow with the taser taped to the end fall to the ground. It hadn't broke the wolf's skin, but the fact that someone had managed to nail him so fiercely, following of course taking out a big brute like Bearenger with his own fist, was sign enough that she was dealing with a pro. She drew her last pair of carrot bombs, and she looked around the clearing for where the attacker sprung from.
"Show yourself!" She called out, trying to hide the squeak in his voice. "Just so you know, I'm not afraid of you! I've been doing this gig for years, now, and I can handle anything you can dish out! So bring it on!"
There was a thump, and Carrotia realized that someone was standing behind her, and she could hear a sword being drawn.
"Be careful what you wish for."
Carrotia squealed with fright, spinning around and hurling her carrots, only to miss by a mile as the figure was right behind him. The bombs went off harmlessly, and Carrotia was helpless before the hooded figure as they raised their sword up high.
"No, wait!" Carrotia pleaded. "Please, don't kill me!"
The sword went down, and the hilt rested against the rabbit's skull with a solid clunk. Carrotia was knocked unconscious, though whether from the blow or merely her own terror was up for debate. As she hit the ground, the figure set their sights on Tails. They approached him, but they stopped when they spied his bag, his father's medal having fallen out. They picked it up, brushing a thumb over the acorn emblem, and then they looked at Tails again.
"Sir Amadeus?" They gasped. "No, you're far too young. His child then? How did you get all the way out here?"
Clearly, Tails didn't have the chance to answer, but the figure could be patient. They scooped up the boy, and they started deeper into the forest, leaving the thugs to eventually rouse themselves and scatter with little more than some broken stems and scattered leaves to prove they were there.
