Chapter 4: What Matters
Cheese had to free Cream. The Chao propelled himself forward like a cannonball, hitting Vanilla in the shoulder. There was a crack. A red stain soon formed on her dress, but it did not loosen her grip on Cream.
The little rabbit was too scared to move. Even as she screamed that the monster about to eat her was not her mother, she knew deep down there wasn't a home in this world left for her. The very thing she had anchored her life to ceased to exist.
Tails wouldn't stand for this. He swept Vanilla off balance with his tails and rolled into a ball to knock her down. The arm Cheese had hit twitched unnaturally, which gave Tails an opening to yank Cream away.
Just as he put out his hand to grab her, Vanilla's dislocated claw twitched again, leaving a horizontal scratch on Tails' face. This disoriented the fox, who became easy prey. Vanilla put her pincers around his neck to lift him above the ground while she stood up.
Tails could hear her gargle excitedly now that she had two morsels in her clutches. Cream had fainted and strength was escaping Tails with every squeeze of the claw around his neck. He could neither inhale nor exhale, much to Vanilla's satisfaction.
She wasn't done, though. Tails found himself smashed against the furniture that wasn't reduced to splinters yet. The force of impact knocked the air out of his lungs, only to back up when it couldn't go past his throat. Tails writhed in agony, losing control of his arms. He couldn't keep holding on to the Chaos Emerald, so it fell to the floor with a clinking sound.
Vanilla's bloody irises became visible again. Her body convulsed from the sight as if the emerald's very presence was attacking her. The emerald seemed to react to her as well, its light growing brighter, stopping just short of a flash of Chaos Control.
She threw the hostages at the emerald one by one to push it away and broke the front door down on her way out in a fit of white hot panic. The emerald's sheen returned to normal when she left, leaving a scared, hurt and confused Chao to resuscitate his friends.
Tails coughed out something nasty that had gathered in his throat while he couldn't breathe and rasped for air when he realised the monster he used to call Vanilla was gone. His lungs greedily took in more than they could fit, making the cough worse. It felt too good to breathe again even if it caused a needling pain in his throat.
He found Cream lying unconscious on the floor. Still gasping for air, he wiped the saliva dripping from his mouth and realised his face was burning up. Vanilla's scratch added to the clawing he got from the shadow during his flight.
Cheese kept tugging on Cream's arm in hopes of waking her up. She wasn't breathing, which meant Tails had to act fast. He took a steady breath, opened her mouth and lowered his head, eyes closed, to connect with her lips.
What he got was a scream and a kick in the chin. "Get away from me!"
For a little rabbit, she could pack a punch. "Ow! I think I chipped a tooth…" Tails inspected his canines; one of them was visibly shorter than the others. He then turned to Cream, who looked more frightened by the toothy display. "What's the big idea? I was doing CPR."
She continued shaking in a corner, her head drooping low. Cheese fluttered towards her with a hug of consolation, but was refused. Cream didn't want anyone to touch her. All she wanted was for things to go back to normal. Every time she blinked and saw the same stains on her dress, smelled the same putrid odours and felt a physical pain branching all the way to her heart and mind, she wanted to cry more. She must have been a horrible-horrible daughter if this was the punishment she deserved.
Her home lay in ruins, her mother – a monster ready to feast on her flesh and blood. She had no more family. She was alone. All alone in a sad world without anyone to protect her. Not even herself.
Tails went to the kitchen to check on a few things. He didn't have a heart to listen to her mumbling self-flagellation or look at the blood dripping from her ear, a part of which was sliced off during the encounter.
The Chaos Emerald could heal physical wounds. Emotional experiences were a different story. Whenever Tails faced one of those, he preferred hunkering down in a box of logic to reason himself out of the problem. It didn't give him the warm feeling a hug did, but he had the hard facts on his side and that was enough to trudge forward.
A corrosive substance had eaten through the kitchen sink, so he steered clear of tap water. The fridge had plenty of food, though. This didn't make much sense; Vanilla's behaviour resembled that of a hungry animal, yet she had plenty of food left. She even had some meat in storage for the occasional guest.
Tails went for the one thing he considered safe, bottled water. He splashed some on his face, resisting the hissy sensation of an irritated wound, and drank the rest before raiding Vanilla's first-aid kit. He recognised most of the medicines there and felt it would make Cream more at ease if he went ahead in her presence. He grabbed an extra bottle of water, in case she wanted some.
He found her on the same spot, now examining her ears. She had always assumed they were of equal length, but seeing the difference now had her doubting herself. If she stiffened the injured ear, they were of the same length. Almost. Cream wasn't sure nor did she want to be.
Tails sat down, keeping his distance from her, and worked on a few wounds with the first aid kit. At the same time, he gestured to Cheese to flutter over and hand Cream the water.
She smiled. It was a relief.
"Thank you for taking care of me, Tails. I'll try to care for myself more from now on."
Even though he didn't buy her smile, he mirrored it. "It's what friends do…"
Tails saw her walk to her room. It would have been better if she didn't. He heard her sob while she rummaged through her remaining possessions. The pickings weren't good; she had to go for mildly torn, if clean, clothes before disappearing again. This time, in the bathroom.
Cheese sang a quiet song by the bathroom door. He had realised the situation was bad, but it stopped getting worse and something good could be waiting just around the corner!
He stopped singing when he heard her scream. Cream rushed out of the bathroom and threw herself at Tails, who was just about finished with the bandages.
"It's okay, Cream. I'm here. Shh," Tails whispered. He felt immensely guilty for Cream experiencing such misfortunes. He didn't know what it was this time, but he knew it was his fault and that, together with Vanilla's words, still rang in his head.
"The water, Tails! It's yellow and it's…not water! Look at what it did to my gloves!"
They were blackened. The colour was spreading on the fabric.
"Acid… Here, let me." Tails helped her dispose of the gloves and used the spare water bottle to wash down any remaining acid from her delicate palms. He should have warned her not to use the tap. He had seen what it did to the sink. It was his fault. At least she didn't try to use the shower… Tails shuddered at the thought.
"Chao! Chao!" Cheese yelled, pointing at the bathroom. The acid or whatever GUN had replaced tap water with was flowing out of the bathroom in a yellowish vapour cloud. Thankfully, Cheese rescued Cream's clothes.
Tails turned away once he realised she hadn't finished dressing up.
They left the apartment complex without breathing another word. Tails was sure to grasp the Chaos Emerald firmly before rearing his head out into the street. Vanilla was hacking away at a GUN patrol nearby. The mech didn't stand a chance; she outmanoeuvred its shots and used every opportunity to pound at the cockpit. Tails felt sorry for the human pilot, a drone forced into submission by an unrelenting system. A few moments ago, that pilot may have been targeting Tails and his friends on the skyscraper, but Tails still forgave him, considering what would happen when Vanilla broke through.
If there were other survivors who behaved like her, it explained why he didn't see any bodies. GUN had their work cut out for them and this time the enemy had enemies of their own.
He wouldn't call Vanilla a friend, contrary to the proverb. Whatever had happened to her, assuming it was her in the first place, glazed over her personality with a feral lust for destruction and an equally feral fear of the Chaos Emerald he had in his possession.
"Cream, Cheese, I need you to listen very carefully. We're going to make a run for the airport as quickly as possible. It's a straight line for the most part, so all you have to do is run. Don't look sideways. In fact, you might as well close your eyes and keep going no matter what happens."
She nodded. "Let's not count to three."
Tails noticed her reluctance to join hands and hoped it would pass like things tend to. Her resolve to keep her eyes open, even as the trio sped past the mech under Vanilla's assault, inspired confidence that would be the case. Cream's gaze did meet Vanilla's during the brief encounter, yet he couldn't read into it. Vanilla continued pounding on the GUN robot with increasing force and that was all he needed to know. By the time they reached the airport, she would be too far to catch up.
Wishful thinking fell to the challenge of traversing streets congested with debris and hostile GUN patrols. There were more of them near the train station and these looked better equipped than the standard Big Foot model.
To make matters worse, they seemed to be aware of the trio's approach. Lights flashed and engines roared as dozens upon dozens of mechs rushed to stop their advance.
"No matter what, Tails?" Cream asked.
GUN barricaded the road ahead as well as any feasible detours. Going underground now that the water supply was tainted with acid would have been reckless. The high road would only give their missiles easy target practice. If only he could talk to the people inside the metal monsters…
A flurry of bullets made them shift lanes to hide behind a chunk of metal debris. Tails took an unplanned breather, eyes darting around in search of a solution.
Silver tips tailed by plumes of smoke were approaching; GUN didn't waste time escalating the encounter. The missiles were bound to make short work of the blockage and the three hiding behind it.
"Yes!" Tails exclaimed, having an eureka moment. "Sonic Riders don't stop for anything," he said as he removed his jet anklets and affixed them to two even-looking pieces of metal. "Let's do it-"
"-to it!" Cream gleefully added and picked up one of the improvised Extreme Gears.
The path forward wasn't as straight as Tails had hoped, but they had to make do to survive the onslaught. The jet anklets provided sufficient lift to get going whilst the trio's flight abilities took care of the rest. They surprised GUN by hopping over the debris a split second before a missile obliterated it and gaining enough speed to scale a row of office buildings along the street.
Windows shattered as they moved by. There was no use looking back; as soon as they jumped to the next building, the first one was already crumbling under missile fire. The closer they got to the train station, the greater the firepower GUN was throwing at them became.
It wasn't until they heard the cry of the city-wide warning siren that they realised the gravity of the situation. GUN were facing a real threat if they fired up the one sound everyone in the city feared.
Being given this much attention exhilarated Tails. GUN exposed their full might at the train station, which they intended to turn into the trio's grave.
A giant golden walker emerged from behind a corner. Tails immediately noticed the radioactive warning labels emblazoned on its sides. The fact half of its missile pods were empty forebode trouble of the highest calibre; it was the same launcher that almost shot the Tornado 2 out of the sky.
"They can't be serious!" Tails exclaimed. He felt the distance between him and Cream grow.
The jet anklet attached to her hover board malfunctioned and she was losing both lift and speed. Tails had to back up to get her and Cheese. It meant shedding the last advantage he had against GUN.
"Help us, Tails!" he heard Cream yell. Her panic contaminated his thoughts. Muzzle flashes, city fires, a curtain of debris about to swallow them whole, all of it put pressure he did not know how to handle.
"Hang on!"
He swerved against the current of gunfire to bring her back before ground-level goons would find her an easy target. Sparks flew as he pushed the remaining jet anklet to the limit, descending at a crazy angle that had him grinding on the building's metal frame. It was a balancing act he had to get right to save his friends.
"Gotcha!"
Cream and Cheese added more weight than the Extreme Gear could withstand on its own. It refused to go back up. The soldiers out in the street, angered by the trio's audacity, cocked their guns at the opportunity to eliminate the annoyance. Laser markers tagged Tails' chest. There were too many to dodge on their current trajectory.
Tails couldn't avoid meeting GUN's expectations. He grabbed Cream's hand and nodded when she returned the gesture with an iron grip, Cheese clung to her back.
They let the hover board fall and explode under a rocket salvo to give them the distraction they needed to spin into a large ball, tag team-style. Tails had practiced it with Sonic, but he was happy to learn Cream was a natural team player.
With their combined speed and agility, the multi-coloured ball rolled to the edge of the building for a leap across the street to the skyscraper on the opposite side. The sudden shift gave them more breathing space until GUN finished demolishing three more buildings on the side they jumped from.
"I see planes, Tails!" Cream chirped.
They had a clear way forward to the airport. Or so they thought. The acid GUN kept pumping into the city's water supply had eaten through the pipes, bursting out on multiple levels of the building they were scaling. The yellowish fumes flowed down, eating away support. It didn't take long for them to feel the burn. They couldn't keep going this way.
"Remember what I said?" Tails asked.
"No matter what…"
"I'm sorry, Cream."
Tails gave her a parting smile ahead of Thunder Shoot that thrust her into the distance. They were too big a target flying together. By the time GUN realigned their rockets to finish him off, she would already be out of the closed city.
The heat came sooner than he could have anticipated. A supersonic boom blew him out of the sky. It wasn't a bullet or an explosive, just the air sliced away by the crown jewel of GUN's victory, nuclear missiles.
He would not have imagined they were capable of such speed. The ones he saw on his flight to the city were nowhere near as dangerous, nor did they have the grinning logo of the Eggman Empire.
"Eggman!" Tails yelled, plummeting to the gas-covered street. Cream and Cheese were knocked out of the sky just as easily.
Armed GUN beetles floated towards them. Tails fought off the drones attacking him, but they stalled him enough for the others to incapacitate Cream.
His head was pounding with stress as he jumped from beetle to beetle in hopes of getting to Cream before it was too late. Tails' focus narrowed down to her, forgetting everything that was happening around him. A bullet grazed his arm, a rocket singed his tails and the acid cloud burned his side. The wall of pain was waiting to collapse him, but he held it off until Cream was back in his arms, atop a hovering gold beetle.
A nuclear flash high in the distance drowned out the surrounding chaos. Clouds retreated from the violent fireball spreading outward to the city.
"It wasn't us… It wasn't us they were targeting," Tails whispered to himself in disbelief. He hugged Cream instinctively when a dark shadow emerged from the destruction, unscathed.
The unconscious rabbit hugged him back. Tails was yet to put two and two together.