Chapter Seventeen:
Almost There. Maybe.
"Faster, Sonic, faster!" A young voice called out into the warm morning.
"You want to go faster huh?" An older voice replied, not too much older. It was still light and full of barely contended energy that surpassed almost everything.
"YES!" Tails, a golden brown fox kit, said and pulled some of the older anthro's quills out of his face so he could see where they were going, "Yes, yes, faster! Please!"
Sonic laughed and shook his head so that his long, streaked quills fell over the boy, sheltering him from the soon-to-be strong winds, "You'd better hang on tight then Tails, coz' we're… off!"
The fox kit gave what sounded like a girl-ish squeal of pure delight as he clung to Sonic's neck when the tall hedgehog Anthro took off. Not anywhere near his full speed for he wanted to stay in the park, and though fast was still mostly in the 'normal' range so not to draw any more attention than being a blue anthro hedgehog.
"Heh." Jessy smiled, looking up from the screen of the laptop she had rented, "At least they're having fun." the woman added as she put on an ear piece. Jessy set up the web-cam on top of the computer screen just in case she got lucky, before she logged onto her special account. She was sitting in the outdoor part of a cyber café, at the farthest back table so she and the two Anthros could have some privacy.
Amy had gone her own way a few days ago, having been dropped off at a passing Nomadic Nation's caravan. The pink anthro had been surprised that they had gone straight to the Sand Sun clan instead of the closer town.
In fact, Amy had been very nervous as they approached the settled and powered down hover craft, custom altered cargo haulers. Each one of the d-class craft were five stories tall, big enough to fit a semi-truck and a half inside, they were as wide as an apartment and able to hold many people. Several families each, or stores, and the line of this convoy was thirty six strong.
"Are you sure we should go here?" Amy had asked, clearly worried as she walked beside Jessy, who was walking her motorcycle. Hanging onto it with one hand while taking off her helmet. Amy glanced back as Sonic scooped up Tails to carry, her ears angled back.
"Yeah, the Sand Suns have the best relations with the authorities." Jessy nodded, "And help mediate with anthros and other minorities down farther south, their just migrating up north for the summer and getting out of the tornado alley."
"But... they're..." Amy stuttered.
"They're what?" Tails had innocently asked, attention dragged away from his fascination of the parked hover craft and people outside.
"They're nomads." The female hedgehog said in a half whisper as she clutched her bag.
Jessy arched an eyebrow, for a moment surprised, and then admirably annoyed to find that kind of animosity in the girl. "So?"
"Yeah, we're nomads." Sonic said as he walked past Amy, giving her an odd look of his own as he shifted Tails before he walked right in and asked to see the caravan's leader and security man.
"Its okay," Jessy had said, grasping Amy's shoulder in reassurance, "We're not that bad. Come on, they'll help you lodge the complaint about that hunter robot, and I said I'll find you a ride to one of your friend."
That had been a week and a half ago now, the Sand Suns didn't know where Fox Valley was, but offered the knowledge of a few people who might know. Jessy turned partly and shoved a card she had her contact's information on into one of the inner pockets of her riding jacket that was behind her on the chair back. Three drinks were on the table, her own and one for each of the two boys when they got back.
The mechanic sat back with the laptop in her lap and tapped the side of the computer a bit impatiently.
"Come on R…be online, be online, be online… be… there you are!" Clicking on the tiny bat icon that represented her contact, Jessy turned the web-cam on, "Hey R, its Jessica. Pick up, I can see that you're on batty."
"Jessica?" A smooth voice said into the earpiece, "I thought you were long gone by now on your trip."
"You wish." Jessy waved at the web-cam, "I am on my trip though, with a friend."
"Hmmm…" she could hear the amused chuckle even though all she could see of the other female. A picture of a red rose with bat wings was in place of another web-cam window, "How are you doing?"
"Good, but I need to pull part of that favor you owe me." Jessy leaned back in her seat again, reaching for her iced coffee drink on the table.
"I thought you forgot about that…"
"Again with the 'you wish,' thing." The mechanic smiled, "You took off without paying for the repairs I did to your bike. I'm not going to forget that."
"(sigh) Alright, what do you need Jessica?"
"Can you get me a list of locations of all Warp Rings in Oregon and Washington, and where they go?" Jessy said taking another sip. "We're looking for a place called Fax Valley, but the other info could come in handy."
"Fox Valley huh?" 'R' paused, thinking, "I think I've heard of that place. It's one of the few areas that are inhabited almost completely by Anthros. Fox types mostly as you can guess by the name."
"Think you can find it for me?" Jessy tilted her head to one side.
"Easily." The other woman said, sniffing in distain at the thought of doubt.
The nomad could hear the other's smile as well, "I'll be here just for the day so…" Jessy started to say.
"It would be better if you can come meet me."
"Where?" She eyed the displayed connection on the screen.
"Breezy's. Think you can make it in a few days?"
Jessy made a face, doing the mental calculations of distance to the Metropolis Zone. There was a sort of check point, not really a border crossing to get into as well. "Maybe... Kind of have a few complications."
"Oh?" The voice asked.
"I'm not alone, and we ran into one of those Hunter Robots from the news." Jessy sighed, thinking of the emblem on it. Then the lack of a response had her glancing down first at the wireless connection, then the chat window. "R? You still there?"
"What kind of hunter robot?" The rich voice asked, no longer sounding just shy of lazy. 'R' had an alertness to her voice as if standing or sitting up right.
Jessy frowned a bit, and gave a basic description of what happened, and when prompted also described the shape and color. Though her voice was lowered so not to draw attention from the other people near the café.
"Did it have an emblem?" R asked, she was still typing just audibly on her end. "Like this?"
A link popped up in the chat window, and Jessy investigated it. She frowned at the image that showed up, the smaller circles in a larger on, and the 'hay' like bunches that made the whole ling look like a face with a mustache. "Exactly like that."
"I'll have the list for you luv'. But we really need to talk about this."
"Okay… thanks batty, oh and-"
"JESSY! Jessy!"
"AH! Watch the laptop Tails!" The woman lifted the computer up with one hand, glad that her drink was safe on the table again as Tails bounced into her lap and preceded to glomp onto her neck once more.
"Jessy, you won't believe how fast Sonic can go!" the boy's two tails spun against one another as he used his hands to show Jessy just how fast the hedgehog could go by flinging them out to one side, "He was like 'We're OFF!' and ZOOOOOM! We were going, like… like… the speed of light!"
"Really? The speed of light?" Jessy laughed putting the laptop down on the table, but was still connected by the ear piece.
"Yeah! It was SO cool!" Tails caught sight of the computer and his large ears came up, "What's that?"
"It's a portable computer Tails, like the ones we saw in the Café earlier. I'm talking to a friend with it." Jessy tapped the earpiece then pointed to the rose picture and the web-cam that had lit up in the conversation with the hunter robot.
"How?" Tails asked, neatly distracted from farther animating how Sonic could run.
"The internet, I'll show you in just a minute okay? Say hi to R before she goes." Jessy waved at the web-cam, hearing 'R' chuckle softly.
"Ahhh… hi?" Tails shyly waved at the picture, not quite sure if he would be seen since he couldn't see anyone.
"Up here." Jessy pointed to the web-cam again before she and Tails waved with a, "Bye R!"
'R' chuckled again, "Cute kit, I take it you're he's the reason you want the information."
The picture of the rose darkened as the other signed off at the same time Sonic leaned over Jessy and Tails to get his drink. "Mmmm…" The hedgehog smiled as he sat beside the two. "Thanks sis."
"No problem. Here Tails, try this." Jessy said handing a green colored drink to the fox, "It's the kiwi Italian soda I promised you."
"Oooo…" Tails carefully took a sip then brightened up, "It's good!"
"I told you so." Sonic grinned, shifting in his seat so he was sitting sideways partly, with one leg over the armrest. He and Jessy smiled at one another as the kit happily drank his new favorite drink, as he proclaimed a half a second later. Jessy laughed as she pulled the ear piece out and hugged Tails, unable to resist anymore.
Queen's note- Okay, some bonus chapters are coming up, any cameos you as the readers would like to see? I have several that are planned, such as, to name a few, Charles (he's coming back!), Bill (lets see who remembers him 8D) and as mentioned, Breezy is coming in…and so much awards for our blue hero