Ch 2: Corrie
A choked gasp shuddered through the quiet house, causing Sonic to jerk awake. As he was rubbing the sleep from his eyes, the girl on the couch bolted upright with a piercing scream that felt like a slap in the face. Moments later, Sonia burst through one of the doors, the slam covering Sonic's muttered "Why would you do that?" The girl gave Sonia a deer-in-the-headlights stare as Garth hurried in, Tails and Manic shuffling in behind him.
"What the heck happened?" Sonia demanded.
"It's just a log cabin," Sonic continued to mumble.
The girl blinked her wild eyes before asking "Where am I?"
"What's so scary about a log cabin?"
"Bro," Manic whispered, catching Sonic's attention, "shut up." This elicited a death glare from the older brother.
Garth stepped forward to address the startled girl, giving her his name. "This is my home," he said. "We're just outside The Forest in the Southeastern district. "Holding out his hand, he gently asked, "What's your name dear?"
The lavender chipmunk took his hand and answered "It's Corrie, sir." She dropped his hand, seeming much calmer now, and nervously rubbed her shoulder. "Would you guys be able to help me get home?" she asked timidly.
"Of course!" Tails piped up, "We can take you in my plane!"
"Thank you," Corrie replied graciously before patting her pockets, calmly at first, but quickly growing frantic. "Where is my phone?" she asked, beginning to panic. "Where is my bag?!"
She looked up when she heard Sonic whistling nonchalantly and noticed him holding up her dingey, gray bag with one finger, and she lunged for it. With it now safe in her possesion, she opened it and dug around.
"It's not here!" she exclaimed. "And neither is the-the…thing! The shiney…gem thing!"
"Chaos emerald?" Tails offered, holding the teal jewel up.
"You guys know what they are?" Corrie asked, baffled. "How? And, why do you have it?"
"Well, you know," Sonic started to answer, "we came all the way out here looking for it and you happen to fall out of the sky with crazy Chaos energy coming from your bag, so naturally, we check it out."
"Wait!" You saw me falling?" she asked.
"Oh yeah!" Sonic waved a careless hand at the memory. Of course we just stood there and watched! Oh…no. That was the part where I caught you!" His poorly executed attempt at sarcasm fell short with the confused distraught girl (as well as his annoyed siblings and the very serious, concerned host). "Miiiiight've smaked your head on a tree in the process…but I saved your life!" He added the last part awkwardly.
Corrie rubbed the back of her head. "So that's why it hurts so much."
Sonic scratched absently at his ear. "Heh, sorry 'bout that!"
Corrie sat up straighter and smiled softly. "No worries," she said tranquilly, "It's like you said. I'm alive and well, and that's all that matters."
Sonia was next to speak, when she sat down beside her. "So, Corrie. How do you know about the Chaos emeralds?"
She inhaled thoughtfully through her teeth" It's sorta…hard to explain, and it's really more my sister, so I'm sure she could tell you better."
"Do you need to get in contact with your folks?" Manic asked.
"Yeah, I do, but I must have dropped my phone somewhere in the process of trying to escape from the mountain."
"Not to worry," Garth said, "I have a screen you can use to call your family."
"Thank you, sir!" Corrie answered and she followed him to the dial pad where she put in her home code. The screen above flickered to life and a speaker with three audio lines blinked on it.
"Hello?" a girl's desperate voice answered and a brown wolf with fluffy hair appeared on-screen.
Corrie sighed with relief. "Linzee," she breathed.
The wolf's eyes went wide. "OMIGAD CORRIE!" she cried, her voice cracked and sounded rough, most likely from crying.
"WHAT?!" was heard from several voices along with screeching chairs and shuffling feet. A few more faces crowded the screen, including an orange, black-haired chipmunk boy, a beagle pup, and a light blue meerkat woman, all craning to see.
"Corrie Elizabeth!" the meerkat cried woefully, tears beginning to fill her eyes. "You gave me a heart attack!"
"Moooomm," Corrie drawled through her teeth, "I'm sorry! I got lost, it's not like I could help it!" Her mother sniffed. "But, as you can see, I'm safe now, and I'll be home soon. OK?"
"Hey!" the beagle boy shouted in excitement. "Is that who I think it is?"
Corrie smiled, turning to face the hedgehogs and fox, who beamed at her and then at the boy when she turned back to him. "They sure are!" she told him, chuckling at his little fan-boy fit. "They actually saved me, and this is Garth." She waved her hand toward him. "He took care of us until I could get a hold of you guys."
The orange chipmunk leaned forward to speak. "Thank you all for keeping my sister safe. It means more to us than you'll ever know."
The keeper and the four freedom fighters responded gracefully, some more humble than "others".
"We're all set to go," Sonic said, "so we can take her to you as soon as possible."
"I've got to go now guys!" Corrie told her family.
"I don't want to say 'goodbye'!" her sniffley mother answered.
"You don't have to!" she assured. "I'll be home soon!"
"Ok then. Be quick, stay safe!" The woman sighed, blowing a kiss.
"We will," Corrie responded, and shut off the call.
"Well," Sonic clapped his hands once as he spoke, "let's get going guys!"
They all gave quick 'thank you's as they went to put their stuff together. Corrie brought up the rear as the others went out the front door, but she was caught by a hand on her shoulder. She turned around to meet Garth's concerned eyes.
"It's you, isn't it?" he asked in a hushed voice, causing her to raise a confused eyebrow. "You're the one?"
Her eyes widened slightly before she lowered her head in understanding. "Yes, I-I believe so," she answered sedately.
"I thought I'd never see this day." His voice was full of awe, and his eyes – with wonder. "The road ahead of you is a long and dangerous one, but well worth the travel." She looked up at him with sad, disbelieving eyes. Hand still on her shoulder, he continued. "Don't be afraid to let the Light shine, child." He gave her shoulder a last reassuring squeeze. "Peace and blessings be with you, my dear."
"Hey!" Corrie turned to see Sonic leaning in the doorway. "Are you coming or what?" he asked playfully. "I thought your folks were worried about you."
"Oh, right. Sorry!" She started toward him, but turned and said, "Thank you again," to Garth. Then he smiled and closed the door.
"The Tornado is in a clearing just a ways off. We'll have to walk there, but then we can fly you home." Tails told Corrie.
She smiled softly. "I don't mind. I'm just thankful you're doing this for me."
Sonic waved a hand at her and replied, "Pffft! Don't even worry about it!"
"Really?" Corrie asked dubiously.
"Sure!" Sonic answered, walking backwards to see them. "We help people out all the time!"
"Well, I know, but," she turned away, embarrassed, "I just never thought it'd be me." She looked back up at them. "What inspired you to start helping others the way you do?" The heroes gazed off thoughtfully, seeming taken by surprise. "What is it?" she asked, tilting her head curiously.
"It's just that, I don't think we've really ever thought about it." Sonic answered, the other 3 shrugging and shaking their heads. "Heh! Most people ask trivial stuff like 'What's your favorite color?' or 'What's your favorite food?' Well, not really that, everyone pretty much knows that, but even more than that, people come up to us with stuff like 'Wow! That move this one time was way past cool!' and 'OMG, remember that one mission? That was awesome!' but I dunno. That's actually kinda deep."
Corrie watched him intensely as he rambled on, trying hard to not crack up when he did his impression of apparent fan boys and girls. "Well," she started, reining in her amusement, "did you guys wake up one morning and decide you wanted to save the world? Or did it just happen that way?"
Manic butt in.
"Hey, look, you don't need to listen to him," he glanced up at his brother, who grimaced back, and continued, "ever."
Eyebrows creasing out of concern, Corrie thought the safest response was simply "Ok."
"Our parents were freedom fighters when we were little, so we just sort of grew up with it," Manic told her, "but we had our own reasons for keeping up the fight, until Robotnik was finished off."
"So, basically," Sonic butt back in, "yeah, it just happened."
"Thanks bro. I really needed your help," Manic said glaring at Sonic.
"Of course!" he replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "You know I'm always here for you, little bro!"
"I'm still taller than you," Manic mumbled.
Irritated, Sonic yelled in singsong "By an iiiiinch!"
"Will both of you shut up?!" Sonia shouted over them. "I swear you guys act like you're 6!" Both brothers rolled their eyes and turned away.
"So, do they not get along very well?" Corrie asked quietly, looking at them first, then at Sonia.
"Well," she began, "sometimes they do, and sometimes…..they really don't."
Corrie nodded and left it at that as they approached and started to board the Tornado.
