"That's three. Four, counting the real one."
Pretzel glanced up to see the fox—Tails, wasn't it?—pausing to wipe the sweat from his brow. The AC was beginning to feel insufficient. She couldn't imagine what it was like outside.
Tails glanced at his little flashy-glowy thing. "Miles Electric", he called it, which seemed like a strange name. Then again, this was coming from the one who let herself be dubbed "Pretzel".
"I thought Shadow would have contacted us by now," Tails muttered, face wrinkled with… concern? Yes, that was it. "They should have arrived hours ago." He flinched as something that sounded very big and very metallic banged loudly against the door, as opposed to the usual thuds of fists, feet, faces, and the occasional pitchfork. "We're running out of time."
Pretzel lashed her tail, glancing at the scratches on the floor. It reminded her of the map everyone had been looking at. Absentmindedly, she brushed a paw over the fur usually hidden by her crest. Hopefully it was helping—
She realized far, far too late what she should have known from the start.
"They're flying straight to Light Gaia." She barked urgently, and Tails yelped as she landed on his shoulder, claws digging into his orange fur. She stared intently into his eyes. "Sonic is going to lose control, if he hasn't already."
Tails sucked in a breath. "Then you need to get to them." He jumped away from the table, and Pretzel flung herself into the air before she fell off. Tails started running around the room, grabbing pieces of equipment. The pink hedgehog—Annie? Army?—leapt to her feet as well, eager to help.
"We need to get to the Tornado." Tails glanced warily at the shaking door. There was a pointed thud to emphasize his point. A chink of light broke through the thick wood.
"I thought you said it would take hours to get there with the Tornado!" Any protested.
"We can't activate the temple without Sonic," Pretzel reminded them.
Tails nodded. "We have to fly. I think I have a prototype engine at Professor Pickle's lab. That should help us get there faster."
Aglet perked up. "Oh! I was helping the Professor, I know where it is! But how are we going to get to Spagonia?" She hefted her hammer uncertainly. "I'd rather not hurt them, if we can help it."
"I'm thinking, I'm thinking," Tails muttered, pacing back and forth. He glanced up at the roof. "Pretzel, you can fly, right?"
"And I use wings to do it." Pretzel muttered, nodding.
Tails sighed, but there was no time to return to their recurring argument (it didn't matter how many big words he used or how confused he made her, flying with his tails was just unnatural. Wings, now those were the way to go.) "There's a loft above us. Amy, I'll fly with you out the window, and Pretzel can follow us with her wings."
"Okay!" Amy looked relieved as she put her hammer back in… well, hammerspace. It was almost as bizarre as flying with your tails, but it was also helpful to Pretzel, as Amy had been teaching her how to do it. Much easier than carrying everything in her mouth. Made her jaws ache less. Amy even said Pretzel was a natural, which was a lie, but a lie Pretzel appreciated.
Tails finished gathering his things—he seemed to keep hammerspace in his toolbelt, because there was no way all those noisy tools could fit in those tiny pouches—and climbed up on a shelf, pushing open what seemed to be a door in the roof, presumably leading to this "loft". He climbed up and reached his hand down to pull Amy up. The door shaking was intensifying, and Pretzel flapped up to join them as with a loud CRACK, yet more sunlight was let in. Tails latched the floor-ceiling-door, and they all crouched in the stuffy dark of the loft, holding their breaths. Below, there was a splintering sound and several shouts.
Tails winced. "I hope they don't break anything too valuable," he whispered.
Pretzel shrugged. "They can fix it when they're un-brainwashed."
Tails and Amy exchanged glances before making their way to a grimy window.
"The latch is rusted shut," Tails muttered. He grabbed the window frame and tugged it, growling with effort. Amy joined him, and they both tried to force it open. It didn't budge. Typical.
Hearing the banging on the floor-roof-door thing, Pretzel nudged them aside and grabbed the window frame herself. Like she'd do any better. But hey, being the manifestation of darkness had to count for something, right?
BANG
They all flinched. They'd have company soon. Baring her teeth, Pretzel batted her doubts away, focusing on the growling voice in her head. She dug her claws in and pulled. The wood creaked and groaned as she pulled it from the wall. Tails and Amy winced in sync as the glass cracked and the wall above the window splintered.
"If Light Gaia doesn't kill us, the owner will," Tails muttered, crawling out the window. Amy giggled nervously.
"If Light Gaia doesn't kill us, I will personally pay the owner. In blood, if necessary." Pretzel watched as Amy took Tails' hands and jumped off the windowsill. Once the two of them were safely in the air, Pretzel took off after them.
"There!" Tails called, gesturing with his chin over the strangely empty roads and buildings. "The airfield!"
Pretzel squinted into the distance, wincing at the harsh sunlight. "What does it look like?"
"A long strip of pavement with a tower and a lot of airplanes." Tails panted, straining to keep himself and Amy in the air.
"I'll meet you there, then." Pretzel dove away from them before they could argue (and experience told her they would argue, for one reason or another).
One might say that it was rather heroic to fly right towards the mob that wanted to burn her at the sake in order to buy her… friends? In order to buy Tails and Amy some time. But that left out the fact that the mob was a bunch of land-bound humans, and she wasn't actually going to fight them. Just tease them for a bit and then flap away. Her mouth twitched as the mob ran after her in one direction, then trampled each other going in the other. Kind of a let down, actually. Light Gaia didn't seem to be putting much into the brainwashed people anymore, leaving them too dazed with light to actually put much planning into their actions. Of course, that meant Light Gaia was otherwise occupied, which was… good? Probably bad. But right now good.
When Pretzel made it to the airfield, Amy and Tails were debating the ethics of stealing a plane. Rolling her eyes, Pretzel made the decision simpler by grabbing one herself and dragging it out to the strip of pavement thing. Judging from their expressions, this was not normal. Huh. So she had super strength. Would be nice if she'd known that sooner.
Tails got to work on the plane (what he was doing, she didn't know), while Amy ran down the strip to keep lookout. Pretzel paced next to Tails, glancing up at the sky every so often. The heat was unbearable. She felt like she was going to melt into a puddle.
"Tails!" Amy shouted. "Someone's—"
There was a blast of noise (shooting, she somehow remembered as the noise shattered her skull), and Pretzel shot under the plane. Tails and Amy flung themselves to the ground, Amy putting her hands over her ears while Tails shouted something at them both. The plane was suddenly riddled in holes and smoke.
Pretzel swallowed. Trying to ignore the erratic beating of her heart and the bang still ringing in her ears, she dragged herself back out into the sunlight. She could see the weird glow of the brainwashed citizens surrounding the airport in a blurry mass. The light seemed sharper now, brighter. Light Gaia was paying attention again. Lovely.
Her ears cleared, and Tails' voice came through, sharp with urgency. "Pretzel! Over here!" She darted over to him, ducked behind a larger plane, and he took the one real and three fake Chaos Emeralds from nowhere. Pretzel put them into her own hammerspace, panic and practice combining into something like efficiency. "Take the Emeralds and get to Sonic at Christmas Island, okay?" The fox pulled something off his belt and pointed it towards the approaching mass with shaking hands. "We'll hold them off!"
Pretzel pushed into the air, but hesitated, hovering above them. "Why—"
"Go! Save Sonic!" Amy yelled, summoning her hammer as the first attackers broke through the airport gate.
Pretzel glanced between the mob and the planes, then nodded. She swooped over their heads, drawing the meager shadows around her so the shooting couldn't hit her, at least not where it was aiming. She hissed as something, accompanied by that loud loud loud noise, grazed her side. Something dark and liquid oozed from her fur in a thin stream. Humans, always coming up with new ways to cause pain. But they didn't hit her wings. She could fly. And that, she reminded herself around the sharp stinging in her side, was good enough.
Out of the airport, Pretzel glanced back to see the crowd chasing her, leaving the trampled gate and smoking planes behind. Good. WIth any luck, by the time she wasn't a viable target, Tails and Amy would have slipped under Light Gaia's thrall again and no longer be seen as threats. It was an odd thing to hope for, but she held to it. There wasn't much else to do.
She rose higher, coasted on the air, and looked down.
The city burned white. More shooting ripped the air.
If only she could stay.
Her heart stuttered in her chest, and for a long moment she was tempted to do just that. Face the mobs, help Tails and Amy. Pretend it was for a noble reason.
But she knew there was no choice. She knew that, whatever she'd been like before, what she was now wouldn't let her leave him to the fire when she'd felt the burning herself, so many times. What she was now cared, what she was now had to try, what she was now was stupid but maybe stupid was better than a monster. Maybe.
The air felt thin, unstable, like she'd fall at a moments notice, like she couldn't breathe. Like claws were around her throat.
Choking on fear, Pretzel turned her wings to the inevitable. The bright light shone on the horizon like it always had, as much a beacon as the sun above her, if not more. She closed her eyes, but the map to it was etched in her heart, a constant pull to her opposite. To claws and fire and burning and blinding light.
She took a breath. And she flew to Light Gaia.