Here's chapter 41. In this chapter Sonic, Amy, Tails, Cosmo, Knuckles, Tikal and their respective children reappear after several chapters without appearing.
Sonic, Amy, Tails, Cosmo, Knuckles, and Tikal were having dinner while they waited for Shadow and Rouge to call them to find out how the mission went. They hoped everything was fine. They all knew that Eggman had become more dangerous over the years, although that was not a problem for any of them, nor for the black hedgehog or the white bat. But what worried them were the agents who were with them. Of course, previously there were agents who infiltrated their base, but for that time, Eggman although if it was danger it was not as much as it is now and they feared that one could die in the middle of the mission or have been left with permanent injuries of which never they would recover.
Meanwhile Rutan and Silver who had already finished dinner were in an armchair with their younger sister Jewel; while the silver hedgehog had the black bat in his arms, the red echidna was giving her a bottle of milk to drink, since that was the baby's dinner. Both brothers were worried about their parents, since they were not used to leaving for many hours without contacting them. Since if they tended to delay, they used to call once an hour, so that they would not worry and confirm that both were okay, and make sure that the three of them were the same. Although the other adults had always assured him that his parents would return, since Shadow lived several experiences that could have killed anyone but not him. And Rouge always managed to save herself from any danger.
Just at that moment one of the communicators began to ring. It was Sonic's communicator. All hearing him approached him. Including Speed, Flora, Alex, Locke II and Pachacamac II who as they had finished dinner were washing the plates, glasses and cutlery that they had used. When they saw who he was calling it was Rouge. So Sonic hit the answer button and the white bat and the hedgehog appeared on the screen, the last one with his typical crossed arms pose with his eyes closed. The red echidna and silver hedgehog let out a sigh of relief when they saw that their parents were safe and sound. And apparently without any scratch.
"Dad mom! They are fine?" Rutan asked.
"Nothing bad happened to you?" asked Silver.
"We are fine and of course nothing bad happened to us. Those robots weren't a big problem" Rouge replied to the questions of her two sons.
"Robots? That means they got to Eggman's base," Knuckles said both by way of question and by way of affirmation.
"Yes, we do. But we had to get out of there" said Shadow without any kind of emotion reflected in his voice.
"That? Why?" Cosmo asked.
"Eggman wasn't there, there was just that pathetic excuse of robot helpers that he has. And it seems that they informed him that there were intruders" answered Shadow.
"And Eggman ended up destroying the base. We were lucky to escape in time, although his robot also escaped and we do not know where they went" finished answering Rouge.
"What! Then there is no longer any trace of where he is!" Amy said quite upset.
"Not at the moment, we can only wait for him to reappear. Because even if we look for him, we don't know if he will have another base and if it were the case we wouldn't know what he would look like" said Shadow.
"We cannot stand idly by. But I think it would be the right thing to do" said Sonic.
"Why do you say that Sonic?" Tikal asked.
"Well, if Eggman went as far as destroying his own base without a second thought, trying to find and enter his new safe hiding place would end in equal results. We can't risk going after him again, because we may not have the same luck and I don't plan to allow any of you to be in such danger" replied Sonic.
"Sonic. Are you sure you're okay? You've never had that attitude of sitting around and waiting" said Tails worried about his best friend.
"Yes I know. It's not like me to say something like that. But since we arrived in this dimension, Eggman has not hesitated to kill innocent people, although he has failed in all his attempts. Look at how he tried to do that with Retsuko and Judy's respective families and friends when he found out that the children had the chaos emeralds. Or even with Jack when we went to find the master emerald. And now this mission, where if it weren't for the fact that they had enough time, the agency agents would have had a tragic destiny. I'm sure that with us if he will succeed if we try to enter his new hideout" said Sonic.
"I understand your concern, but we cannot leave Eggman unguarded. And I can invent something to keep an eye on him without him knowing that we are looking for him or watching him. And don't worry, it won't take long to build it" said Tails to try to change Sonic's point of view on the matter.
"OK that's fine. I think it's a good idea. I think you should start with that tomorrow though. The best thing is to rest for today "said Sonic looking at Tails and then shifting his gaze from him to Shadow and Rouge" And plus you two, you have had a long day. Don't worry about Rutan, Silver and Jewel, we will stay with them until you can come tomorrow."
"It seems good. So I think for the moment that would be it" said Shadow.
"We will see you tomorrow, after breakfast. Goodbye children" said Rouge
"Goodbye mom, goodbye dad" said Rutan and Silver, while Jewel, as he could not speak, only limited himself to moving his arms.
After that the communication ended. Although the group of mobians were relaxed that at least everyone who participated in the mission is safe. They wondered what Eggman planned to do and why he wasn't at their base in the first place. Something told them it was not good news.
…
Meanwhile, in another part of the city. Retsuko's mother and Retsuko's grandmother were preparing dinner. According to the clock, it was almost time for Haida and Retsuko to go home together with the parents of Koka's friends. They hoped they hadn't had a bad day at work, as could tell when they left that hadn't slept well as had visible dark circles in their eyes. It would not even be surprising if they even fell asleep during work hours or had to buy some coffee to avoid sleep. Although mother and daughter did not know it at the time, their assumptions were not far from reality, since they were true.
When everything was ready, they tried to tell the children that it was time for dinner, but like the previous occasions where they were told to come and eat, they did not answer. They were quiet all day and didn't make any noise. Although if they accepted the food that was left for them at the door, and even when they put their notebooks outside the room if they realized that they were doing the tasks and when checking them they saw that everything was correct. At least they hadn't lost the urge to eat, nor did they want to stop doing their homework. Since one thing that could be said about those 4 children was that they liked to study and they always got good school grades in the exams.
They had no choice but to leave their food at the door as soon as they left, the door opened and closed immediately. As they waited for the children to finish eating, Retsuko's mother's cell phone suddenly began to ring. Seeing that she was her daughter, he answered the call.
Hello, Retsuko. Something happens? You don't usually call when you're about to get home."
"Hey, well, mother. I was calling you to let you know that it will take a little longer to get there".
"Why? Did something bad happen?"
"No, it's just that some coworkers who realized our situation want to help us a bit, so they invited us to talk a bit about this. It will only be an hour. Could you take care of them one more hour?".
"Oh I understand. Well, we can handle it, but give us a call again when they're on their way. I don't like them being out on the streets too late, not after the weekend."
Retsuko in that part was upset, since she was treated as if she were a child, but she could also understand the concern that her mother felt.
"Yes, we will, aside, we will take a taxi to get home faster."
"It's okay. I will try to tell the children to arrive within an hour, although I doubt they want to answer."
Retsuko still felt sad about it, since the children already had exactly 1 day of having started behaving like this. How she wished she could make Koka understand why it was a good idea for them to leave the city for a while, but now she was beginning to doubt if had done the right thing with that. Koka never liked being away from her and Haida. And she was sure that Hana was the same with Ookami and Fenneko. Izumi with Komiya and Tsunoda. And finally Daisuke with Manumaru and Resasuke. But what could they do to make them agree to leave during this time, at least until things improve and he was sure they would return to town.
"Well, we are almost at the place where our colleagues do not take, I will call you when we are on the way home."
"It's okay. Until then".
After that, both red pandas closed the call. The middle-aged red panda went to tell the elderly red panda why Retsuko and the others would be late to get home an hour later. Both went to warn the children that their parents would take a little longer, but again there was no response from them. So they decided to leave alone again. The only thing they noticed is that they left the plates and glasses where they ate and drank water. They both went to wash them.
…
Decoe, Bocoe and Bokkun had landed in a mountainous place, in which there seemed to be no civilization, since nature was intact. Between the three of them they were forced to carry the capsule, since Eggman had told them that they could not leave it in sight so that no one would know of its new hiding place. Fortunately they would not have to go far as they came to a rock formation. Once they hit a rock face that appeared to be nothing to the naked eye. But after finishing the touch, it began to open. Once the three robots entered what appeared to be a cave, still carrying the capsule, the rock formation closed again, leaving no evidence that anyone was there.
After going down stairs for several floors, they finally put the capsule in a safe place and set out to meet their boss, as he had something to show them. He only hoped that he did not try to disarm them again as had happened in previous situations when his plans failed. Finally when they reached a laboratory they saw Eggman was checking something that they could not notice from afar. When he noticed their presence he approached the three robots, although for some reason he had a smile on his face that he used to show when he discovered something interesting that could benefit him.
"Did you want to see us sir?" the three robots asked at the same time.
"Yes, during my absence, I went to a city that is in the United States version of this dimension. The city is called Zootopia. And during my investigations of that city I discovered something that could help to keep Sonic and the others occupied while we can carry out our plan of the domination of this planet" said the scientist in the most evil way that he could at that moment.
Well, so far the chapter. I hope you liked it. As a side note, for those of you who don't know yet, Aggretsuko season 4 trailer was posted on YouTube on Monday night.