Chapter 3: Chuting
Smiles faltered as bullets zipped past their heels. GUN came prepared, but they underestimated Tails, Cream and Cheese if they thought bullets would be enough. Cream zigzagged her way towards the rooftop; she has had plenty of practice with Eggman's robots and these were no better.
Her incredible speed surprised Tails. At times, he felt like he was being towed by her rather than carrying the party like he normally did in high-flying situations.
Cheese got the brunt of the hostile greeting. Just like GUN, he had the task of catching up to his nimble friends. Stomach-churning motions coupled with the whizzing bullets' heat trails concocted a cacophony for the senses that had him landing face-first on the skyscraper before Cream picked him up. Cheese shouldn't have eaten all that cake.
"Chao…" he murmured, unfocused eyes twirling in random.
Tails fumbled on his feet upon touching down. The first bullet may have grazed more than the surface of his jet anklet. Still, he refused to show he was in any pain. The fact Cream landed completely unscathed impressed him even more.
"You were amazing!" he exclaimed.
Embarrassed by the burning sensation in her cheeks, Cream hugged Tails to hide it from him. She knew it was right to say something thankful in response, but she couldn't help herself. Once Tails returned the gesture, albeit looser than she would have preferred him to, the fuzz on his chest tickled her nose.
She sneezed, which was both a parting and a return to reality. They were in a decrepit city she called home, hunted by the very people tasked with Sonic's capture years ago. Those people did not give up no matter how wrong they were in their actions and the trio had little doubt they have escaped GUN's watchful eye.
A shimmer creeping behind Tails caught Cream's attention. She had seen it many times before, in the distance over roads on a hot day, but never this close or compact enough to resemble a shape. Her long ears twitched as she tried to pick up a sound. There was definitely something there, something that wanted its identity to remain concealed. It couldn't be trusted.
Cream eyed Cheese, standing perfectly still just in case.
Tails read the shift in mood and perked an eye ridge in hopes of getting an explanation. She was looking in his direction, but her eyes weren't focused on him. More like, behind him.
"Cheese! Get him!" she exclaimed.
The Chao took off like a torpedo, giving Tails barely enough time to register the attack and get out of the way. Despite his size, Cheese had the tenacity to bust open an Eggman robot. His current target wasn't as easy to take down. Sparks flew where Cheese hit. He must have made a good dent because the shimmer disappeared to reveal a gold GUN beetle.
Albeit the floating robot had no weapons, it was far from harmless. The beetle's glowing red eye did its dirty work before Cheese could disable it with Tails' help.
"Additional targets identified."
Cream's ears twitched again. "They're coming!"
"Who's coming?" Tails asked while he inspected the fallen robot. Why would GUN waste military stealth technology on rooftop surveillance? Regular security cameras would have done the job.
Plumes of exhaust smoke were his answer as several large GUN mechs landed on nearby rooftops. They all bore the same insignia, Scorpion Troop F-6t Big Foot.
"Bring her down!" the order sounded off.
Tails had seen enough. Missiles burst out, primed to demolish the building and make short work of the trio.
"Forget I asked! Let's not leave Vanilla waiting!"
He grabbed her arm together with Cheese and they hurried inside the building. There was no way they'd reach the bottom via stairs in time.
Cheese rubbed his forehead. He bumped against an angle in the beetle's armour plating that left a purplish swell. Cream kissed it to make it better.
Tails resisted a chuckle when he had an idea.
"How's your head, Cheese?" he asked.
"Chao?"
"I need it for another go. Think you can open this thing?" He pointed at the doors leading to the elevator shaft.
They were plummeting down the shaft sooner than Cheese realised there were now two bumps on his head. The elevator wires had been cut for some reason, so the shaft was empty. This gave Tails and his friends the head-start they needed to escape the fire that was beginning to consume the top floors; the missiles had exploded on target and the building was a heartbeat away from crushing them.
GUN had packed streets with patrols ordered to shoot on sight. Taking it to the surface would have been suicide, so they were better off letting the building collapse on top of them. Tails didn't like those odds, yet there had to be a way out. GUN always left a fatal flaw in their plans, which made them all the more dangerous. A system assumed perfect was destined to break at its foundation with unintended consequences.
Tails spotted the elevator's wreckage crushed by its own weight at the bottom of the shaft, two levels underground. It took effort for the trio to brake to avoid a similar fate, but they made it where GUN goons were unlikely to target them, judging by the chaos in front of them.
Upturned cars bled a dying flame, having consumed most of the oxygen in the dank dark underground parking lot. Tails' eyes watered from the fumes and it looked like Cream would suffocate before the building collapsed if they didn't find a way out ASAP.
Without power to keep the sprinklers working, the fires must have been allowed to burn for a long time if they had produced so much smoke. The thick layer hanging just above the floor obscured Tails' steps until he accidentally splashed into a puddle.
"They had power when this started…" he murmured as he reached down to the puddle. The water was still trickling towards the drain. Just as he thought he had found the exit, he heard weeping behind him. "Don't cry, Cream. I've found the way out!"
"T-that wasn't me, Tails." She was quivering, but she told the truth.
"Chao!"
Tails put his hand over Cheese's mouth and gestured for him to keep quiet. They were not alone.
Not intending to make happenstance acquaintances, Tails carefully removed the water drain's cover. Cheese would go first, followed by Cream. Tails didn't want to send his friends into the sewers ahead of himself, but he had to be there to put the drain cover back where it belonged. This was an escape hatch built for three as far as Tails was concerned.
Smells bombarded the trio on their way down the sludgy chute into Station Square's sewers. Tails had explored them on his previous adventures; the experience was new to Cream, though. Having all sorts of dirt stuck to her dress ahead of the meeting with mama got her teary-eyed again.
Tails patted her on the shoulder. "Sometimes this is what being a hero is about. I'm sure Vanilla will understand."
She nodded. The noise upstairs had turned extreme by that point, prompting them to make haste.
The sewers seemed to be in better shape than the town's surface. Other than a few cave-ins forcing the three to change course, the underground network showed little evidence of the chaos raging above. The low sewage level didn't look promising; it was much higher every time Tails had been there. The occasional uptick and flushing noise gave him hope there were survivors, Vanilla being one of them.
Fresh blood stains congregating far from manholes levelled his optimism, yet he didn't stop to examine them up close or share his sentiment with Cream and Cheese. A pest big enough to leave such stains did not exist.
Tremors distracted him from the unwieldy thought. Something was going on out in the street above. Silently, the trio approached a manhole, light from above shining through the cracks onto their dirty faces, until a large foot covered the light with a loud metallic clank. A GUN patrol, no doubt.
As Tails got ready to get a move on, he overheard a conversation. One of the voices sounded painfully familiar, an aural cocktail of snide deceit and robotics.
"Report."
"Heavy losses, sir. The situation has gotten out of hand. We need to-"
"Non-statutory combat assessment obsolete. Were the targets eliminated?"
"Sir, yes, sir."
"I see…." The robotic voice paused. "Outstanding progress. Armoured train ETA is 45 minutes. Hold position until the wipe team arrives."
"W-wipe team, sir?"
"We need to reassert control. Expect resistance when they are forced out into the open."
Just when Tails thought GUN had stooped to their lowest, the organisation found a way to surprise him. It made perfect sense why they were so eager to get him out of the picture. Whatever the military was up to, they had clearly committed crimes if a wipe was in play. Considering the nuclear arsenal they brought to Station Square, the whole city was running on a timer.
Vanilla's house stood just a few blocks away from that patrol. Robotic stomps became more frequent as the trio approached their destination. Tails hated himself for letting Cream have her detour nearly as much as he hated refusing to answer her questions. She has heard enough lies for one day.
An intense light going forward caught his attention. There was a cave-in in front of Vanilla's house, only this one looked like it was made by an explosion rather than an earthquake. The crater exposed them to all eyes out in the street, a conclusion Tails reached too late to retreat.
"Mama, I'm coming!" Cream exclaimed as she took off to enter the building.
"No, wait!"
Tails' request fell on deaf ears; the rabbit was too overwhelmed with emotion. Cheese invited Tails to follow suit before zipping off inside himself. Tails hesitated to get out of the crater. He has had enough of the burning cityscape to avoid looking at the desolate streets, a view that made him sick to his stomach.
GUN had outdone themselves in making the city look like a war zone. Another building collapsed in the distance, adding to the chorus of car sirens still alive after the shelling that peppered the streets with craters. Most windows in the nearby buildings were shattered. Some were lined with scraps of clothes and blood; the inhabitants must have been so desperate to escape they jumped for it.
Vanilla's flat had one of those windows. A shred of her lavender dress thrashed impaled on a shard of glass stuck in the frame. A red stain on the pavement marked where she had landed.
The body was missing. In fact, there were no bodies, limbs or signs of life out in the street. All of the trees that he could see were charred down to the trunk.
He feared leaving Cream to her own devices, lest realisation would hit her sooner than he could offer her solace. Tails threw caution to the wind and put his tails to work. Entering through the broken window was faster than taking the stairs. If GUN had assumed they were dead, no one was going to search for them. Though, the Chaos Emerald in his hand was a dead giveaway of movement to anyone equipped to detect its vibrations.
Once inside, he became witness to the most touchingly improbable scene, a mother and daughter reunited. Sobbing and cooing filled the room.
"I'm so happy to have you back," Vanilla said. She embraced Cream so tight Tails couldn't hear the rabbit's response, buried in Vanilla's chest. "All is well, Cream. Mama's here and she'll protect you." She stroked Cream's head in an effort to calm her down. "It's okay, sweet pea, I forgive you for abandoning me. Bless your little emerald heart for guiding you home."
Exhaustion, both physical and mental, took over Tails when he failed to process what was going on. Only one word escaped him as he flopped on the floor, "Vanilla!"
She smirked without looking his way. "And you brought home your friend. How adorable. I'd ask what he did to you to make you this filthy, but a mother forgives."
Tails flushed with shame. It has been a while since anyone last chided him as bluntly. He didn't know what to say until Vanilla worded it out for him.
"Thank you for coming, Tails. Cream will need to clean up and think about what you've done, so you may go home."
Clean up? The apartment was a mess and Vanilla looked even worse. Broken furniture that someone tried to chew up lined torn wallpaper bits with scratch marks that went deep into the concrete. Feathers from a pillow lingered in the air above a totalled bed. Tails' heart fluttered when he found himself considering the offer. He'd never leave Cream in such conditions! Home or not, GUN were about to force the survivors out and wipe Station Square from existence. Vanilla was crazy if she thought he'd just up and leave.
She must have sensed his resolve because the look she gave him was that of contempt and disgust. Her bloodshot eyes focused on him until he realised the gravity of the situation. Vanilla was threatening him, and the longer he examined her, the more aggressive her stature became. The features she initially tried to hide from him emerged to a gruesome effect.
Her grimace edged past the rim of her snout, a row of bloodied predatory teeth glaring at him. The furrows Vanilla left on Cream's head with every stroke of the hand deepened when razor-sharp claws punctured through the fabric of Vanilla's gloves.
Leaving Cream in the hands of this…creature guaranteed she'd be gone by the time GUN got their chance to blow everything to kingdom come.
"Cream, n-now that we've found your mother, I think we should evacuate like GUN told us to."
Vanilla hissed at the mention of the organisation's name. She took a step forward, leaving a red footprint where she had stood. It was trickling down her leg the entire time.
"You're better off not talking to strangers, little boy. GUN are the cause of the sadness you see all around you."
As tainted tears dripped from her unblinking eyes onto Cream's head, he did see sadness in them, but that was just a part of what she let him see. There was anger, pain and something else he couldn't put his finger on. Despite inching closer to the window to hold his distance from Vanilla, he refused to give up.
Vanilla pressed on, "I entrusted my only daughter to you and what did you do? You lied and you hurt. Her little emerald heart is now beating with sadness because of you. Have you not had enough?! You won't stand between me and my daughter."
She was right. Tails did cause Cream a lot of pain, and if he had his way, she'd have to endure even more. Sometimes, pain was what being a hero was about and he was willing to endure abuse for Cream's sake. Tails took a deep breath to gather the rest of his courage and moved towards Vanilla.
"Or what?" he asked.
Her crimson-filled eyes glowed with glee at the challenge. Shrinking pupils above jaws dripping in anticipation gave Tails the missing puzzle piece. Hunger. It was hunger that had clouded her consciousness and now Tails stirred up a hurricane.
Vanilla was going to grace him with a response, only she had a more pressing matter on her hands. Cream started fidgeting, which meant she was ripe for a demonstration. Vanilla grabbed Cream by the sides, fully exposing her deformed claws as they sliced the gloves open. Cream screamed when the pressure at the tips of Vanilla's pincers cut into her skin.
"It's a sad world, sweet pea. Let mama protect you!" Vanilla's pupils rolled up to the back of her head while her jaw opened wider than it should have been possible, letting Cream see her fate in her mother's gargling throat.