Soft Targets.
Sendoa pulled her motorbike into her apartment and tossed her keys in some random direction before plopping on the couch. The city was going down hill, and quickly. She pulled up her laptop and checked the Mobotropolis news. She often checked the news for things as simple as what was the latest fad so she could keep things at least slightly normal. What's an informant to do when her clients expect only the best things? She chuckled at her thought. Not many would be happy to have her gathering information. To be honest, her clients were often angry with her fir some reason before they met her, and had come to grips with the fact that they needed her to get the information, or they could go without.
The son of one of her clients was arrested, there were three new murders in a serial case. Violence was erupting everywhere and causing her to lose clients It started around the time that Robo-geek released that new drug. It might have been a candy. The news about the new craze as of late never really interested her. It was a fad that would die out soon enough. Besides that, the large amounts of info that she gathered today exhausted her and made thinking straight a near impossibility.
"I probably need food," she said aloud as she placed her laptop on that ground and stretched out her muscles that were sore. More than likely it was because of the crash she experienced with a certain blue hedgehog. She walked into her kitchen and grabbed an apple. As she was ready to take a bite, the annoying high pitched ring of her cell could be heard. "'Ello, how may I help you?" She answered in a cheery tone that was saved for clients so they could have a pleasant experience.
"I need information and can you make it quick? The person on the other end of the line sounded impatient, elderly, and educated. There was a faint clicking of a pen in the background. More than likely he had a bad day and was taking his frustrations out on a pen? Sendoa observed. She also recognized the voice as a regular client. She just couldn't seem to guess which one "I need information on a new employee." It was her favorite client, or maybe she was his favorite informant as she had no favorites. In the very least it was because she was the only informant the he knew. He was the head officer of G.U.N., and he rarely gained information on his own. He paid her prices fair enough so who was she to complain.
"Name?" She pulled up her list of contacts. While she preferred to work alone, working with someone else was undeniably quicker. Especially when there could be twenty people gathering information. Sadly though, she could never get her nineteen contacts to all get on the same page long enough to work on the same project.
"Turquoise Stone," He than, in a attempt to insult her intelligence, began to spelling out the name. Sendoa clenched her fist and released it, a weak attempt to control the anger that was easily written on her face. She took a deep breath before she next spoke, her words dripping with honey coated venom that seemed sickeningly sweet, hinting at the dangers of her anger.
"Since I have other cases, I will get to yours as soon as I can. " After not only his insult to intelligence, which seemed to come from the mind-frame of him having an education through college, and her, quite knowingly to him, stopped hers at high school, he took every advantage to insult her for her choices. He paid good, but gave too many boring jobs and a tongue sharper than that of a snake.
He seemed to agree for she heard the familiar click at the other end of being hung up on, and the dial tone. She flipped her phone closed.
Getting up, she decided some rest was in order due to her day's excitement. She stepped out to her small balcony. On her balcony was a chair that was made of a fabric cushion over a straw frame, covered in leaves from the oak branch that hanged slightly over the edge of her balcony. In front of the chair that had more leaves, showing evidence of her absence from her home.
Sitting comfortably in her chair, holding her legs close to her body. Before long the rays of the sun had peaked over the edges of the horizon. Colors of gold, orange and red lighting up her balcony and reaching through the window, leaving her shadow and filling her home with the very dim light that mixed will with the colors of the red hues in her living room. She enjoyed the slight warmth the sunrise brought her before getting up and retreating to her room.
As soon as she turned on her light, she noticed a a lump, about the size of a very small human, or maybe a small Mobian on her bed under the covers. They stirred to the sudden light. She, being in a good mood from seeing the sun begin to rise and the new added workload, turned off the light and went to lay back down on the couch, waiting until the person got up.
However sleep wouldn't come easy, and the need for it was apparent on her face. She got up yet again and began to clean some, noticing little bits of food here and there were missing. She had a guest bedroom, but she kept the door closed and locked, No one truly came to visit and stayed long enough so it was easiest to keep it closed off.
She realized that there wasn't much to do and was quickly finished. To clear more of her boredom, she walked back into her room to watch the young figure sleep, pulling a chair from her dining room. A small head peaked out and showed a small Mobian child that she had seen on the streets before once or twice. Normally when the police were chasing the young boy, either for stealing by the looks of the bulge he was carrying, or breaking into a home and getting caught, which was made obvious when he was occasionally clean. However, the cleanliness never seemed to last long enough for m=him to make a good lasting impression.
He was a brown hedgehog that had a tawny color when he was clean, but at the moment carried a very dark brown, with patches of his true color fighting to be seen. He had deep chocolate brown eyes that held more sorrow than a child should, showing none of the light of innocence.
"Sorry ma'am, was lookin' fo some food 'n a bed 'at was warm" he sounded as if he was scared that Sendoa was going to call the police, however her smile seemed to put all his fears to rest.
"Since I need someone to keep this place clean, and organize all my books, I'll let you stay. However, if you piss me off, I'm kicking you out. You only get one chance. In return you get a room and food as well as all the things you need to look presentable and work efficiently." He offer wasn't very fair,but she was tired of doing all the work of maintaining a place one could work in while doing all the jobs that others seemed to demand of her.
He stared into her pale violet orbs, seeming to weigh his options. For a kid, he seems pretty smart I wonder how high he got in his education before he ended up like this. Before long, he seemed to nod, but it was slow and unsure. She gave him a bright smile, and he gave a small cautious smile back.
"Good, well, let's get you bathed and maybe go get some other clothes besides those rags. I need my new worker to look like he has had better days and didn't live in the streets." She pulled him up and dragged him to the the bathroom. She turned on the water, and let him hold his hand under the faucet to let her know what temperature he liked the water. When he was happy, she got a rag for him and a towel. Showing him where the things he would need were. After apologizing for the female scented items, she walked out of the bathroom and unlocked the guest bedroom for the young child before walking into her room and beginning to change her now dirt covered sheets that smelled of rotting foods and sweat.
She pulled new sheets onto her bed and changed out of her work clothing into a pair of extremely short shorts and a tank-top that she wore only around the house due to tears and stains. She collapsed down onto her bed and covered herself with her quilt. Sleep then came easily and she let herself be consumed by the comforting darkness of relaxation and rest.
Sonic's home
After the incident with the girl who called herself Sendoa, Sonic, now laying on his couch, mulled things over.
All he knew was that the girl was a black fox, and from what she said, an informant. That left little room for imagination. He got up and paced around, seeing as he could never stay down for long. What do informants even do? He mentally questioned her job as he noticed the sun had begun to rise. He stared for a moment wondering what she was possibly doing. Probably gaining information on some random thing. Or at the very least, sleeping. Unless she is some insomniac. He mentally laughed at the thought of an insomniac driving a motorbike and lazed some more on the couch before his phone rang.
Getting up to answer, he was instantly annoyed at whoever called.
"Sonic, it's Tails." His little 'brother' said on the phone. He yawned a quick moment before scratching the back of his head and running his fingers through his quills.
"What's up? Did you make a new invention?" Sonic seemed only slightly interested in what Tails was saying about his new invention, however what was being said confused him and before long he tuned it out. His thoughts were on the amount of pain his face was in.
"Sonic, are you even listening to me?" Tails seemed to have caught the attention of the blue hedgehog as he realized that Tails had probably asked a question that needed an answer.
"Uhhh...The answer is yes?" His words came out as more of a question and got a slight groan from the yellow, two-tailed fox. He laughed nervously, before speaking again, "I got kicked in the face on the way home, so I can't really say I am paying much attention to anything." This got a slight chuckle and some teasing from the yellow fox.
"Well, you should get some rest then. Later" Tails hung up, and Sonic went to lay back down. He closed his eyes and ignored all his thoughts before falling asleep and dreaming dreamless thoughts of flower fields and running.