Disclaimer: I hereby disclaim all rights to all characters (save for those of my own creation) in this instance of plans going a touch awry… especially for the one who thinks on his feet.

~保護者~

REVIEW REPLIES:

Hello, MelGamingPlays! Yeah, tragedies can strike at any time. And it doesn't matter how strong you think you are, everyone needs allies and friends to help hold them up. Sometimes even that, however, isn't enough... :( But, as far as a tragedy happening now, don't worry. No one's dying right now. XD Lol, right? Them being brothers in the canon would be so awesome!

~保護者~

"Best Laid Plans"

~保護者~

Dawn was just starting to break when Jet finally returned to Mobius. He alighted silently in the grass outside of Tails's home, plainly exhausted (less so physically and more so otherwise) and a bit on the dirtier side. He gazed upon the home for a moment, debating whether or not to go on, but ultimately decided against it. Pivoting on his heel, he strode over to a sturdy tree and sat down amongst it's thick roots. Closing his eyes against the world, he tried to just let his mind go blank, hoping to block out the day's events… at least for now.

"Jet," Steam's voice rang out from above him, within the tree. "What happened after you left?"

Details. Always, people asked about the goddamned details. Now simply wasn't a time where he was willing to share any. So, frowning, he simply stated, "He's dead."

"That's all I needed to know," the hedgehog confirmed, shifting and dropping down to land in a crouch nearby Jet. He promptly took a seat and glanced over. Without actually meaning to, Jet sort of flinched further away, not wanting the proximity right now. "You look like shit," Steam commented vaguely.

Tense, Jet turned his head away. "Hardly," he muttered, denying the truth despite how obvious it was.

Steam rolled his eyes at the hawk, snorting. "You're lying if you really believe that much. After all this, you need to just sit down and relax."

"Relax"... as if. Choosing not to voice that little comment, Jet quickly vied to turn the conversation around. "And what about you?" he softly demanded. Tiny sparks of his temper started to show through his usual mask, but he did his best to maintain his cool. It did him no good to let today's events get to him. "You're injured but hardly resting properly, yourself."

"I'm organizing things in the background to make sure shit doesn't hit the fan as hard as it can," he countered, knowing full well that Jet was right and deciding not to argue that point. "I'm telling you that much so that maybe, one day, you'll listen and do some good for yourself. It doesn't really matter if I die."

Liar… and hardly overflowing with self-worth, Jet silently remarked. He chose to say nothing, wanting nothing more than to just retreat within himself stay there for a while.

"By the way, I did tell the others about Espio's current condition. Anything you don't know, I can fill you in on soon. And if you've got any questions about what I'm doing, feel free to just say so," Steam responded calmly, his gaze flicking across the distance between them.

Stress was prompting Jet to stay completely silent, but eventually he managed a very quiet reply. "Wave told me what was discussed." A bit of a pause, then he added, "And I know enough for now."

"You hungry?" the hedgehog asked this suddenly, his attention moving all at once to Jet. "I know it probably doesn't matter, but I thought I'd ask."

Eating was probably a good idea, all things considered, but Jet didn't want to. So, he fell back on his usual tactic of deny, deny, deny. "No."

Steam sighed a little. "We're stubborn fucks, ya know?" he mused, leaning back against the ground with a noticeable wince. Blue eyes glanced at him. "We don't really like accepting help, or letting other people get involved in our matters."

There were comments that could be made here, but Jet settled on the most obvious one. "It's safer." For them.

"Certainly. But that doesn't change the fact that we're stubborn." He groaned, throwing his hands over his face. "No wonder we didn't get along in my timeline."

Curiosity was a welcome distraction from everything else, so Jet glanced over again. "Hm," he murmured, tone vaguely questioning.

There was a long exhale from the hedgehog, shaking his head. "We met when we were pretty damn young, and from the start we didn't like each other. I didn't like what you did, and you didn't like me, from what I know."

"...What I did," Jet echoed blandly. He suspected he knew well what Steam meant, but he wanted confirmation.

"I didn't like that you were a thief. Nor the friends that surrounded themselves around you. Sonic, Wave, Storm, and Armaris." After a long moment of thought, Steam came to the conclusion that Jet wouldn't know who Armaris was. "Armaris is a black cat who prefers sticking to the shadows and all. She was an excellent thief alongside you guys."

Steam's description tugged at the edges of Jet's memory, and he frowned slightly. Armaris… The name... sounds familiar. He wasn't sure where he'd have heard of such a person before, though he suspected perhaps Shadow or Tails, with their many connections. He wasn't sure, however, due to just how long ago he'd heard the name. But he simply let it go for the time being, despite now wondering if she indeed existed in this timeline as well.

"Question regarding Cere, if you know the answer," he prompted, letting his hands fall onto his chest and his gaze shifting to Jet. "Does she have a… student of her own?"

"One," Jet shrugged. "I don't know who." Truth be told, he'd just yet to have the time to look into her disciple, nor any of the other such "students" that other Gods and Goddesses had taken on in the last few decades or so. Far too much had been going on for far, far too long.

Steam chuckled softly. "In all honesty, if my timeline and yours have enough similarity, Armaris might be that student."

Jet decided now to mention with a meaningful glance to Tails's house (where everyone else was presently resting), "...One of them knows her."

Steam blinked. "Really?" Jet just nodded. "That's interesting. I assume you haven't met her?"

Slowly, Jet shook his head. "No," he answered shortly. "I haven't."

"You should eventually. She can be a bit spazzy, sure, but she can also be… enjoyable at times." Jet's only only response was a vague shrug.

There was a small smile cast from Steam before it fell, causing the hedgehog to groan. Jet quickly turned his head to look. "I heard someone call me spazzy, and I also heard that a certain someone here was problematic recently. Care to explain?"

Blue eyes blinked slowly, then Jet frowned. This is likely her, then, he thought somewhat uncaringly, too tired and upset to feel any traces of potential amusement at her abrupt appearance.

Steam sighed and glanced over at the black cat, frowning. "Why the hell are you here?"

She snorted at him and frowned in return, ice blue eyes narrowed in annoyance. "I've got my reasons."

Deciding to interject, Jet asked her in clipped tones, "And those reasons are?"

"I believe I found an old friend of mine. I wanted to seek him out after giving this dimwit," Armaris' gaze flicked to Steam, "A piece of my mind for the shit he put my teacher through."

"She didn't have to show up. I could have gotten myself out. Just maybe not as fully intact as I am now," Steam retorted.

Now suspicious, Jet rounded on the young Balancer. "What did you do?" he quietly demanded.

The hedgehog inhaled, then exhaled. "Armaris. You're a complete brat." Steam's gaze flicked to Jet. "I went in search of the Balancers."

"You went to his world alone?" Jet hissed at him, temper flaring a degree. He normally had far greater control over said temper these days, but today was just… not one of those days. And he wasn't exactly in the mood to care.

"Yeah, I did. He showed up, tested me, then Cere and Ylden showed up. We all got out of there after that. I also have a damn good idea of where the Balancers are." Steam's own temper was flaring, but he certainly was attempting to keep control of himself. "I am fully capable of making my own choices and being responsible for them."

"You endanger everyone when you behave irresponsibly," Jet remarked harshly. "He well could have decided to continue the conflict with you here."

"I wasn't irresponsible. I know what the hell I'm doing, Jet. Why do you think I showed up in this timeline?" Steam asked, irritation seeping into his tone. "Don't treat me like some kid, dammit!"

"Okay, look, both of you," Armaris snapped, grabbing up Steam by the hair in annoyance. "This argument isn't gonna get anyone anywhere, so let's drop it and pick it back up on a calmer note sometime later." Jet opted to completely ignore both her and Steam after that point and looked away again.

Steam glared backward at Armaris, prompting her to drop him and allow him to stand on his own. "I'm gonna go get some rest. You should do the same, Jet." Without waiting for a response, not that Jet planned on giving one, the hedgehog teleported away.

After a lengthy pause, Jet decided to speak again. "...Your friend," he started slowly. "Who is it?"

"Espio. We met when we were much younger," she explained gently, deciding to sit for the time being.

There was another long silence before Jet finally said, "He's off that way." He gestured vaguely toward the lake that Tails's house had always been near to. He said nothing more beyond giving her that small bit of direction, wanting her to leave so that he could finally achieve the solitude he'd sought by sitting out here in the first place.

She nodded and glanced to him, concern evident in her formerly cold eyes. "Are you okay, Jet?"

The true answer to that was a resounding no, but he refused to admit such. Retreating back into his earlier withdrawn state, Jet simply told her, "I'm fine." He didn't care anymore if he actually sounded convincing, so long as the subject was dropped either way.

"Alright, well," Armaris stood back up, seeing as Jet certainly wasn't in a talkative mood, "I hope to meet you again under better circumstances. Cere speaks highly of you." When he didn't respond, she simply walked away.

~保護者~

Armaris wandered through the forest silently, choosing to allow her body to phase through patches of darkness instead of actually walking around obstacles like the various trees she passed. Her mind was set on finding Espio in all of this, which was undeniably a difficult task for anyone typically. Luckily for her, however, he happened to actually be making noise for once… and plenty of it. Within just a few minutes, the cat had finally located the lone ninja. She hopped into a tree neighboring the one he sat in and offered a small wave. "Remember me?"

Any other person would have been startled, but Espio merely flung another shuriken into the tree ahead of him. This was clearly the source of the noises she had been hearing, as the trunk was already littered with the small projectiles. Lethal black blades jutted out of the wood, filling much of the available space. "You are rather difficult to forget," he remarked, tone neutral.

"I strive for that much, if I'm honest," she explained with a smile, chuckling faintly. Her icy blue eyes had a faint note of happiness to them. Her body was relaxed, unlike the somewhat tense and agitated stance she'd taken in the encounter with Steam. "How have you been?"

He offered a one-shouldered shrug. Despite the fact that he normally didn't feel much inclined to converse with… well, anyone really, he nevertheless followed up his nonverbal reply with a verbal one. "Well enough." His words weren't entirely truthful, but they also largely weren't a lie. And even as he said this, inadvertently implying that things hadn't necessarily been all that bad, he hurled yet more shuriken at the tree. All three hit their marks, perfectly embedding themselves in between multiple others despite the distinctly tiny amount of room between each blade.

"You don't seem all that pleased." Armaris pointed out easily, taking a seat on her perch and raising an eyebrow at him incredulously. "Shit go down recently or… would you rather not talk about it?" She was certainly concerned for his wellbeing, a minute frown suddenly painted onto her face.

Though tempted to, Espio refrained from letting a small scoff. He did his best to put a cap on his temper and responded as evenly as possible, "It's nothing." There was a small pause, then he opted to change the subject. "...Why did you come here?"

Armaris shrugged faintly, "I sensed you here and decided to show up. Thought we could catch up or something." Espio considered this briefly and ultimately voiced no complaint. He started to set aside the shuriken that he'd been holding, but ultimately wound up throwing it, anyway. "So, uhm… What have you been doing lately?" Her gaze fell on his body and ultimately to his ruined eye and arm. However, she didn't let it linger and flicked her focus back to the weapons being thrown, following the flight of each and every one of them easily.

Truth be told, there wasn't a lot to say in response to that. Up until recently, he'd just been living quietly in his home for the most part. Lately, however… "Traveling with them," he remarked with a vague gesture toward Tails's house. After all, aside from two meager battles, travelling was all that they really had been doing overall. He chose, for the moment, to not burden her with the details of why they were all suddenly travelling together again and whatnot, deciding that if she really wanted to know she would just ask.

"Good to know that you've made friends other than me, Espio." Armaris didn't decide to press for the details on this, as she felt she had a decent idea of the situation at hand with their group. "Regardless, I heard you became badass while we were apart. Care to explain?" Amusement flickered in her eyes, a friendly smile slowly appearing on her face.

That little comment actually managed to catch him off-guard and he turned slightly to face her. "What?" he asked, for once mildly confused.

"You. Badass. Pretty self-explanatory, old friend," Armaris laughed, hopping off her branch and attaching herself to the tree he was in.

Espio huffed at her. Certainly, there were things he could no longer remember, but this… her humor… this he remembered. "You have not changed much, in some regards," he murmured.

She rolled her eyes at him, huffing. "I can't change completely or nobody will remember me. It's a special tactic of mine, if you wanna call it that. You're still pretty similar in some regards, too."

Instead of immediately replying, Espio chose to stand up on the slim branch he had been seated upon. Using his good hand, he lightly yanked on a virtually invisible thread that was attached to all of his shuriken, causing them to fly back at him. He effortlessly reigned them in and tucked them away before returning his attention to her. "Staying outside is likely not the best idea," he informed her, though he doubted that she was somehow unaware of this.

"There is one thing that changed about me. I'm not scared of much of anything anymore." Regardless of this statement, she dropped from the tree and smiled to him, motioning him to take the lead.

In response, Espio simply jumped out of tree, being careful to land mostly on his right leg just to be on the safe side. After that, he began walking and asked her out of mild curiosity, "How long will you be in the area?"

"Dunno. It'll just be until whenever I need to head out, I guess." She shrugged, walking after him without hesitation. Espio nodded vaguely and led the way to Tails's house, somehow managing to slip inside without being noticed (which he was grateful for because he was not in the mood for more questioning like earlier). He chose a new seat in the front room - specifically in a dark corner on the other side of the room from the chairs and such - and sat down. Armaris stuck by him, avoiding being seen or otherwise noticed and sat with him.

Before Espio could even decide if he wanted to think of something to say, he realized people were walking back to the house. Internally, he sighed. So much for solitude… and quiet.

Mere seconds later, Tails walked into the small home with Sonic and Cream in tow. It took several good long minutes for anyone to notice the little haunted corner, but eventually Tails spotted the pair. "Oh - Hey, there," he called over in greeting. There was a note of questioning to his tone, and he glanced specifically at Armaris for just a moment.

She gave a wave of response, blinking a few times. "Heya," she greeted, smiling.

Unsurprisingly, Tails smiled right back. Wasting no time or energy on suspicion (he really wasn't a suspicious person at heart), he went straight into polite introductions. "If you don't mind my asking, what's your name? I'm Miles, but people usually call me 'Tails'."

"Name's Armaris," she explained, sitting up straight for once.

Something in the young inventor's eyes lit up straight away. "Oh, I've heard of you!" he exclaimed, perhaps a touch excited. "You're a student of one of the Goddesses, aren't you?" Espio flicked the cat a glance while Sonic and Cream traded bemused looks.

Armaris nodded, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. "Yeah… I am. Student of Cere."

"That's awesome," Tails grinned, his words spoken with feeling.

Cream interjected. "Cere?" she echoed, all innocent and wide-eyed curiosity.

Recognizing the request for information, Espio closed his eye and told her, "The Goddess of Judgement."

The bunny blinked once. "...Ah. I see."

Armaris blinked a few times. "You guys are oddly in the know. How'd you learn all this?"

"Being friends with an Immortal has its perks," Tails winked, tone light and joking. Sonic managed a small chuckle at him.

She rolled her eyes in response, chuckling softly. "Fair enough, I suppose."

Sonic changed the subject on them all right about then. "So… guessing you two know each other?" he asked, glancing between Armaris and Espio (who had apparently decided to ignore everyone now and thus didn't acknowledge the question).

"Yeah. Met when we were pretty young," the cat shrugged faintly. "We hung around each other a lot back then."

Now curious in spite of himself, Sonic turned to Espio. "Was that before or after you and I met and I picked that stupid fight?" There was no real answer given other than a small shrug, and Sonic huffed. "Anyway," he continued, turning back to Armaris, "are you planning on sticking around a while?"

"I guess. I don't have much to do, and I'm kinda just doing my own thing for a bit."

~保護者~

"Seems that everyone is kind of doing that for now," Tails agreed. Then he added, "You're welcome to stay with us for however long you'd like. We don't mind or anything."

She nodded gently, smiling. "Thanks for that. I'll probably be off on my own so as to not be in your hair and all, but I'll stick around for sure."

"Alright," Tails answered with an understanding smile.

"Anyway, with that, I'll head off and explore a bit," she waved, casting the group a smile and fixating her gaze on Espio for a moment, her smile widening before she teleported off. Espio glanced very briefly in her direction just as he vanished, then simply looked away again, resuming ignoring the world.

~保護者~

Sonic shifted on the makeshift bed he had crashed on the night before in Tails's front room and groaned. Sensitive ears flicking, he drowsily batted at a buzzing fly and muttered, "The hell is all that vibrating?"

Cream, who had slept on one of couches (as Tails had no guest rooms), yawned audibly before murmuring, "I don't know… a phone, perhaps?" Sonic listened as she sat up and called out, "Espio-san, do you know what that noise is?"

It took Sonic a second to realize that he did, in fact, very vaguely feel the presence of a third person somewhere in the vicinity. Actually, he sensed two other people, and one of them was just entering the space from the hall that lead to Tails's room. It didn't take a genius to tell that this second person was, in fact, the inventor himself. "Uh, I think it's Shadow's communicator," he called back from the kitchen. A few seconds later, Sonic caught the words, "Jeez, what the heck…"

Finally prompted to get up, Sonic did as such and opened his eyes. "What's going on, Tails?" he asked, gaze swinging to where his half-brother still rested on Tails's second couch. He was still powered down for now, but chances were he'd wind up waking up before too much longer.

Tails walked slowly into view. "People are absolutely blowing up his inboxes," he commented, shaking his head. "Guess a lot of stuff went down yesterday…"

Growing concerned, Sonic asked, "What stuff?"

This earned a gusty sigh from the fox. "It looks like a bunch of tornadoes touched down all at once yesterday and caused a lot of damage… and a particularly large one whipped up in that area where we confronted the Tel'or."

A light bulb turned on in Sonic's head. That must have been Jet.

"And it looks like some people are concerned that Shadow's been out with us so much lately," Tails continued, "instead of doing… whatever exactly it was he was doing in the compound before. …'The compound' being that place where we found Shadow after you were revived, by the way." When Sonic didn't reply, unsure of what to say, Tails spoke again. "Most of the rest of this stuff looks to be pretty minor, but a lot of people are definitely concerned by his absence."

Sonic almost found himself smirking. "Kind of sounds like how things were when Jet was still in charge of Babylon," he mused. "He constantly had people on his ass about stuff, no matter where he was or what he was doing."

Cream actually did manage to smile. "You're right. And at least we can take comfort in the fact that nothing is very wrong right now. Though, the tornado damage will need to be dealt with at some point."

"Yeah," Tails nodded. His eyes skimmed over some more messages for just a moment longer before he turned the screen off and set the device aside. "Well… I guess we'll just leave this be for now. Shadow can handle it."

With that tiny bit of interest dead and gone now, Sonic stretched and stood up. "So now what? Tein's probably gone now, or will be soon, and I imagine the same is soon to be true about his Tel'or armies. So, what are we supposed to do now?"

"Yes, wasn't Tein the most immediate problem?" Cream agreed.

"Absolutely, he was," Tails was quick to confirm. "But he was far from the largest. But as far as what, specifically, we should be doing next… I just don't know. We'll need to talk to Wave and to Jet, whenever he gets back."

"Yeah… alright." Sonic slapped at the fly again and glanced over his shoulder. Door's open… figures. "Just so you know, you let the most annoying-ass fly in the house."

Tails glanced at the door as well, then cracked a smile. "Eh, we'll live. Assuming that fly doesn't have any super powers."

"I swear to god, if that's even possible…" Sonic started to say, aghast.

This made his old friend bust up laughing. "Dude, you look so scared!" he exclaimed.

"Oh, shut up!"

"Heck, no, that was great!"

"Whatever…"

Wiping a slight tear from his eye, Tails cheerfully assured, "Don't worry, no Mobian wildlife can have powers like you and I can. Well, normal wildlife, at any rate. Things like yokai and some of the other ancient creatures that used to populate much of the planet can, but creatures like flies or… I don't know, fish and such? No. So don't worry about it."

That was a relief, Sonic supposed. Just the idea of a bug being able to breathe fire or some shit… That's just too much.

"Anyway," Cream interjected lightly, "what are we doing about breakfast?"

"Oh, don't worry about that," Tails told her. "See, I have this new invention - Well, I won't bore you guys with all the details, but basically it rewards me with instant food." He grinned at them. "Care to test it?"

"Sounds good to me," Sonic chuckled. The trio made their way into the kitchen and set about having breakfast together. It was a largely uneventful affair, with the only exception being the multitudinous jokes and whatnot that they shared to help pass the time. It was a welcome distraction from all the tension and uncertainty and nerves as of late, certainly. And, by the time their small meal was finished, they were each in a decidedly happy mood. It showed in the easy, relaxed smirk Sonic wore, the gentle laughs Cream let out now and then, the brightness in Tails's expression… "You know, it's nice to relax once in a while," Sonic told them. "I miss the days when we were able to do this sort of thing all the time."

"Me, too," Tails agreed with a wistful smile. "I miss all the group gatherings, the outings we all went on to go play in the snow or have a picnic or… whatever, really."

"I miss those, too," Cream murmured warmly. "Those days were so wonderful."

Anything Sonic might have been about to say in response was interrupted when he heard the distinct sound of blankets shifting. Excusing himself from the conversation, he walked out of the kitchen and back into the front room to be greeted by the sight of Shadow sitting up on the couch. The darker hedgehog blinked several times, as though to focus his vision, then flicked a glance to Sonic. Relieved that Shadow seemed to be fine, Sonic greeted, "Hey, welcome back. You feeling alright?"

A small pause, then Shadow nodded. "Yes."

"Everything in working order?"

"I'll know soon enough."

Figuring that maybe some systems were still coming back online or something, Sonic didn't pursue that line of questioning. Though, he admitted to himself that he was curious. Instead, he disappeared back into the kitchen for just a second before returning in a flash with a plate and some toast. It was likely the only thing that stubborn half-brother of his might kind of eat, after all. "So, luckily for you, you didn't miss much while you were out of it," he informed Shadow after presenting said hedgehog with the plate.

"Much?" Shadow echoed. He reluctantly took the plate, but made no move to start eating yet.

Sonic was quick to fill Shadow in on what few things had happened since the day before, ending with, "Oh, and your communicator started blowing up this morning. Tails glanced over some of the messages and said that none of it was too serious, but a lot of people were trying to get ahold of you."

Shadow huffed. "They love to act as though things will obliterate themselves if I'm gone for even a day," he muttered.

"Oh, yeah?" Sonic chuckled. "Guess you should count yourself lucky that they were quiet for this long, then." Shadow grumbled some sort of an agreement. What little Sonic managed to catch made his amusement only grow, but he forced himself to steer the conversation to more pertinent matters. "Anyway… what do you think about Armaris? From what you've heard, at least."

Considering that he'd so far only heard what Sonic had told him, it wasn't terribly surprising that he didn't seem to have much of an opinion. "What do you think of her?" he countered evenly.

Blue shoulders shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, we did only just meet."

"But?" Shadow pressed.

"But, I mean… Espio trusts her, apparently." Sonic tugged gently on one ear. "That's not a small thing, coming from him. And she does seem nice and all that, plus she's apparently the student of some Goddess. So… maybe the rest of us can trust her, too."

Pitch black ears flicked very slightly in a display of some unspoken thought or emotion. "...You used to trust your own judgement," Shadow commented slowly. "Why do you hesitate now?"

Sonic felt his ears lower and he looked away. "Look, I've been wrong before. Maybe not massively, but that's not the point. I used to be confident just because I had to, because people always looked to my dumb ass for leadership and I always had to be sure. Except, I almost never actually was 'sure'. I could've put people in real danger."

There was silence for a short time before Shadow finally spoke again. "Stop being stupid," he huffed. Before Sonic could even shoot back at him, he continued, "Your judgement of people is seldom incorrect, and it certainly isn't now. If there was a problem of any kind with this person, do you not think that he," Shadow gestured to Espio, who was sitting well across the room and gazing distractedly out a window, "would be distrustful and suspicious, as he so often is? Do you think that Cream, with all her mental ability, would have failed to sense anything wrong?"

"I-" Sonic started to say, but Shadow cut him off.

"For that matter," Shadow continued, "your ability to read the hearts of others seldom fails you. If there was a real risk, it would have been detected. Now do everyone a favor and stop being a complete idiot."

"I am not being an idiot," Sonic muttered.

Shadow gave Sonic a pointed look. "Inability to trust oneself can lead to extreme danger," he warned simply. "You know better than to fall into that trap. You are being an idiot, and it needs to stop."

Letting out a soft growl, Sonic crossed his arms. "I hate you," he muttered crossly, though he didn't mean it.

"I can live with that." With that smart-ass remark, Shadow simply took a bite of his toast.

Before Sonic could really formulate a halfway-decent retort, the front door opened. In walked Wave, and Sonic gave her a small nod of greeting. "Hey, Wave. You get the barriers back up?"

Wave sat down heavily on a couch. "Yeah, did that hours ago. They're definitely weaker in places now, but they're functional again."

"Did you get any rest at all?" Sonic frowned at her, taking in her appearance as he claimed his own seat on the opposite couch.

Wave sort of shrugged at him. "No, but I'm fine. I'll take a nap or something if I need it."

Sensing that he wasn't going to win this argument if he started it, Sonic let it go. Instead, he asked, "Do you know if Jet's come back yet?"

The swallow nodded. "Yeah. He's been sitting out in the woods since sometime last night." She paused, thought for a second, then added, "And he's fine, by the way. As in, he's not wounded."

Physically, at any rate. Sonic returned her nod. "Yeah… okay. That's good." He grew quiet for a few short moments before something occurred to him. "Hey… where'd Steam go? And Armaris?" Twisting around, he levelled his gaze on Espio. "You've been up, have you seen them?" Espio barely even shrugged, not really answering and not turning away from the window.

Sonic huffed. Helpful. He turned back to Wave. "Back on subject… think Jet's up to letting me talk to him?"

She shrugged a little. "Hard to say. He's kind of shut down right now. He won't really engage with me much. I don't know what he's thinking or feeling or… anything." Head tilting, she considered the situation and slowly added, "But even so… he let me talk to him, even if he didn't reply much. I think it's best to leave him be as much as possible right now, but you can probably go see him."

Satisfied overall with this answer, Sonic didn't wait any longer. He teleported straight out into the woods and stretched out his senses. Following the faint wisps of aura that his friend was letting out, he soon approached the normally elusive hawk. "Hey," he greeted, taking a seat beside Jet.

Thankfully, Jet didn't flinch away or show any signs of great discomfort. It was a good sign that he was mostly calm at the moment. Whether it was because he was genuinely calm or forcing himself to be, though… that was another matter entirely. Wave had been correct in saying that Jet had largely shut himself down emotionally speaking. However, that was sometimes the first step that he took in an effort to cope. Sonic knew that. Wave knew that. So Sonic didn't bother Jet about it. Not for now, at least. If it persisted for too long, he would do something then. There were other things they needed to focus on at the moment.

After Jet murmured a greeting in reply, Sonic turned to him. "So, what do you suggest we do about the Tel'or? Aren't there supposed to be scores of th-"

"I dealt with it," Jet quietly interrupted. "They're gone."

Sonic's mouth closed. He opened it again to speak, fell short, then closed it again. I keep forgetting how much more powerful everyone is now. After a moment, he finally just sighed and nodded. "Right… of course you did." Jet didn't appear to have anything to say to that, so Sonic continued. "With Tein and his armies are gone, I guess we can just focus on the demons now, right?"

Much to Sonic's surprise, Jet shook his head. "Not quite." He didn't immediately continue, so Sonic started to open his mouth to speak. However, Jet spoke again before Sonic could voice any questions. "There are other dark forces at work. Each threat overlaps the others in such a manner that we cannot adequately deal with one without doing the same for the others."

Aghast, Sonic could only mutter, "I didn't know… I don't even think Tails and the others know, do they? They never mentioned…" He trailed off.

"You didn't know because I haven't had the chance to explain," Jet responded, frowning faintly at the distant horizon. A second later, he stood up.

Emerald eyes blinked at him. "You're leaving?"

"We're on the brink of war on several fronts," Jet patiently explained, turning around to face his friend. "I cannot be idle."

Sonic understood. He feels he's wasting time. I know that feeling. Pursing his lips together, he also stood. "So what do you want us to do, then? We need to know about all these other threats."

"Travel to the land of hollow winds," Jet told him vaguely. "There are artifacts there that can explain."

Now it was Sonic's turn to frown. "Where is that? I've never heard of it before."

Jet turned away, plainly ready to take off. "Ask Wave. She knows."

Before he could go, Sonic quickly asked, "Where do we go after we're done there?"

"Wait for me on Babylon." Once more, Jet's answer managed to be surprising. "I'll meet you there." And with that, he was gone.

~保護者~

"Quick question."

Wave paused in what she was doing (namely fussing with her communicator, which apparently had an unsightly crack on the screen) and looked up. Her eyes landed upon Tails, the only other person currently sharing the fox's front room with her. Hating to be cooped up, Espio had gone outside several minutes ago while Cream busied herself with getting a drink in the kitchen. Shadow was in the workshop, taking some kind of a call meanwhile, and Steam and Armaris were… wherever it was they'd been all morning. That left Wave alone with Tails, and he was waiting for some kind of a response. "Sure," she shrugged. "Shoot."

Glancing toward his open front door, Tails sighed. "Honestly, there's something that's been bugging me for a while," he admitted. "It's about Espio, specifically regarding everything that's come to light in recent days."

There were a few different ways this conversation could potentially go, Wave knew, so she waited to see where her friend would steer it. "Go on."

Normally bright and happy eyes were clouded with worry. "I just… can't understand how he could have never known about this. ...Well, I take that back. I know there's probably stuff he can't remember, all things considered. But is it unreasonable to expect that he'd have retained at least some memory of all this?" Tails shrugged at himself. "Then again, though, that does assume that he knew about any of this to begin with… and we don't know that he did. It's not like he ever gave any hints of knowledge about this stuff in the past."

"That's true," Wave conceded. "There's a possibility that he really was never informed by his parents or anyone else. Maybe they thought they were protecting him by not saying anything. Stuff like that happens."

"Certainly it does, but…" Trailing off, Tails gained a slow frown of thought. After a moment or two, he continued. "It goes without saying that his people are extraordinarily secretive and private, so it's hard to know much about them. But from what I do know about them, they don't really shelter their children like that, generally. They're raised to be warriors, after all. You know?"

"That's true, but there are other factors at play here. Based on what Steam said, Espio's parents actively resisted their heritage despite having been born into an at-the-time unbroken family line of evil." Wave leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms, frowning unhappily at the content of their conversation. "It's possible, at least somewhat so, that they were ashamed of where they had come from. Or maybe they hated it. Maybe they just plain wanted nothing to do with it. All are possible reasons for not revealing that heritage to him."

Tails pursed his lips together. "Yeah… maybe."

"Why do you ask?" Wave asked. She fixed him with an even ask. "It's hardly relevant at this point."

"No, I know. It's just…" The fox sighed again. "I don't know. It's just hard to accept all of this, I guess. And, for me at least, the fact that even he doesn't know… possibly never knew… that makes it harder.

She supposed it made sense, in a way. Inclining her head, Wave stifled a small sigh of her own. "I think I get it. But, accept it or not, like it or not, this is reality. All we can do is cope with it however we can. There's nothing else to do."

"...You're right." Tails offered a small smile. "Guess I just need to try to relax a bit for now."

The door opened before Wave could answer. Sonic stepped in, looking serious… and determined. "Jet says we need to go," he told them firmly.

His words had Wave and Tails on their feet in a near-instant. "Where?" she demanded.

Looking straight into her eyes, he told her, "To the land of hollow winds."

Immediately, Wave spun around on her heel to face the group's resident shinobi. "Espio, do you still have that crystal I left with you?"

An amber eye blinked once at her. "At home," was the simple reply.

Wave nodded once, looking satisfied. "Good." Turning back to Sonic and Tails, Wave explained, "I know what Jet intends for us to do, but it's something that normally only Immortals can do. However, he took me to do this once before, so I was able to learn about everything. After we returned, he entrusted me with a crystal that I can use just once in order to share the knowledge with someone else." She glanced away from Sonic and to Tails specifically. "I think he'd originally intended for me to do this with you, Espio, and Shadow… whenever he decided it was time to."

Sonic caught on. "But now I'm here and he feels the need to fill everyone in sooner than planned… right?"

"More or less," Wave admitted. "Espio, go get the crystal, please. We'll be ready as soon as you return." Without answering, Espio simply vanished.

"I'll go get Shadow," Tails offered.

"Sounds good," Wave agreed, already heading to the kitchen to inform Cream of their incoming departure.

With everyone else out of the room now, Sonic sighed to himself. "Guess that leaves me to track down Armaris and Steam," he murmured, wandering off toward the door.

"Track down who?" Armaris asked with a touch of amusement in her tone, appearing from his shadow to stand behind him.

Startled, Sonic jumped and whirled around. Then, heart hammering in his chest, he sighed, "Don't do that!"

She blinked and tilted her head. "Why not? I thought you'd know I was there."

"You're as bad as he is," Sonic grumbled, forcing himself to calm down. After that, he continued pointedly, "Anyway, did you hear what Wave and the rest of us were talking about?"

"Mhm. I was listening."

Great. Saves me some trouble. "Alright, good. Any idea where Steam is?"

Armaris frowned thoughtfully for a long moment before shrugging. "I also don't know much about him, so there's no clue where he's gone off to right now."

Sighing again, Sonic decided to look at his communicator. Tails has been messing with this thing a lot, and Steam has one… maybe one of them connected him to the network or some crap. Scrolling through his contacts, he was pleasantly surprised to see Steam's name there. Well, alright, then. Tapping the name once, he began to place a call.

Surprisingly, the call was answered in moments. "What in the actual hell? You realized that I connected to your communicators?"

Sonic's mood dropped even lower than it already was. "Why the hell wouldn't I have?" he retorted quickly.

"You have a strong tendency for the obliviousness that you express. What do you want?"

Torn between wanting to yell at Steam for being such an ass and knowing they didn't have time for this bullshit, Sonic cursed under his breath a few times before speaking again. "Look, Jet wants us all to go somewhere, and I'm assuming that includes your ass."

"Ah, I see. Give me like two minutes and I'll show up. Kicking the ass of someone."

Emerald eyes rolled toward the heavens. "Great. Good to know." Without waiting for an answer, he hung up.

At about the same time, Tails returned with Shadow. "Okay, we're ready to go," the fox stated. "Wave, you guys ready?" he then called.

After another moment or two, Wave and Cream emerged from the kitchen. Much to Sonic's surprise, Espio was behind them. "Yes, we can go now." A pause, then she asked Armaris, "You coming, too?"

"I'll tag along. I assume that it's important, and it'll probably be something good to report back to Cere," Armaris offered in explanation, smiling.

Wave blinked slowly. "Actually… I think your teacher will be privy to at least some of this already. But, yeah, if you're gonna be hanging around us regularly, you'll need to know."

Sonic interjected right about then. "Steam's coming, too. We have to wait for him."

"I'm not waiting more than thirty seconds," Wave announced firmly, arms crossing in a show of stubbornness that reminded Sonic strongly of friends and times long since passed. He did his best to ignore the pang he felt in response to that. Luckily enough, Steam appeared within that thirty seconds. He landed next to Armaris, who immediately gave him a light shove. Seeing this, Wave teleported with all of them to where they needed to go.

~保護者~

7,598 words this time. So sorry for the delay, everyone. Scheduling issues are a pain. XD Anyway, many thanks as always to Blazing Winds for his assistance and I hope you all enjoyed! Posted (at about 11:25 a.m.) 05-01-19.