Here's chapter 42. This chapter culminates an event that has been seen with Aggretsuko's children since previous chapters.
Decoe, Bocoe, and Bokkun had just seen what Dr. Eggman showed them he found in Zootopia and also explained that it triggered its use, as he discovered it while researching the city in recent days. That was one of the reasons why he was not at their base (now destroyed) all day. Since he was doing more undercover investigations on that city, observing its inhabitants and looking for anything of interest that could serve him for his plans other than what he found a few days ago, shortly after he lost the opportunity to obtain the emerald teacher, who had not yet been able to locate and did not know where her enemies took her.
"Wow, Dr, it's amazing what you can do with that. But how he discovered the city he was in?" asked Bokkun.
"Well, in previous days I was doing my research on this version of planet earth, to see if it had similarities with planet earth in my dimension. Apart from the fact that it is inhabited by anthropomorphic animals like Mobius, I did not find many differences. If I found stories that in prehistoric times there was cannibalism of carnivores towards herbivores, which lasted until the Middle Ages, if I'm honest that did not surprise me at all, but it does surprise me that it never happened on our planet" said Eggman giving the first part of your answer.
Hearing that, the three robots were in shock. They did not expect that this behavior existed in the past in this version of planet earth and more taking into account how both carnivorous and herbivorous inhabitants got along so well, from what little they had seen.
"But the important thing is that when I got curious to see if Station Square city existed in this dimension, I came across Zootopia city. It turns out that Station Square does not exist in this dimension, but Zootopia takes its place in this dimension, since it shares the same perimeter and ironically the same number of inhabitants. When I found out about the history of that city, I discovered what it had just shown them and I decided to bring it up".
"But then when can we use it to our advantage?" Decoe asked.
"I guess it won't be long before I can carry out his plan," said Bocoe.
"It all depends, since I have to do some tests before carrying it out, but in the plan we will use the eight ships that appeared next to us when we reached this dimension" said Eggman.
"Oh, and how did it go with those ships?" asked Bokkun.
"See them with your own eyes," Eggman replied as he pressed the button on a control that he took in his hand.
A hatch opened in one of the walls and all the ships appeared on the screen. These had certain changes compared to before, they had several additions on the surface, all were now colored red, black, yellow and white, they had the Eggman logo on one side. But the important thing was the changes made inside where the controls were located. Now they could only be controlled remotely without the need for a pilot. So no one who tried to take them could handle them, thus avoiding the possibilities that they could be stolen by one of their enemies or by whoever the original owners of those ships were.
"These ships when they are ready, we will use them to spy on the city of Tokyo. They will have devices that will prevent them from being seen and located. But that will only be in the hours before we start the plan to distract Sonic, since the small cameras will not do what these ships will do" said Eggman quite proud of the plan they had in mind at the time.
…
In a small store in Tokyo there were a group of workers from Carrier Man Trading Co., Ltd. They were sitting at a set of tables that were close to each other. The place was not very crowded, apart from them there were some of the people who came to that city for chaos control a few days ago: Such as the rabbit and the toad that came from the Lylat star system, or also the fox and his two boar apprentices who came from another part of the country. They were practically not crowded, so they could chat without the others present knowing what was going on.
Haida, Retsuko, Ookami, Fenneko, Komiya, Tsunoda, Manumaru, and Resasuke were sitting next to each other. They had finished telling him what had happened the night before to his work colleagues who were sitting together in front of them, these being Kabae, Anai and the interns Jack, Louis, Collot, Durham, Miguno and Voss, each sitting side by side with the exception of Voss who was sitting on Collot's shoulder, which was an old custom between them since they attended Cherryton Academy a few years ago when they were in their teens and which has never changed over the years.
Now everyone understood why the four sets of parents had a mixture of sadness and worry throughout the day and why Retsuko and Fenneko had fallen asleep during the workday before lunchtime. It was not surprising for any of them, and more so for Kabae that she was the only one of the group that invited them there that she had sons, (3 in total) and a nephew; of which her first son was already in high school, her second son was in middle school, while her youngest son (Kabasuke) and her nephew were in elementary school at the time.
"So that's why they've been like this all day," Kabae said, being the first to speak after her teammates finished telling what was happening to them.
"Yes, this has put us all in such a difficult time" Haida said, wishing he had a glass of beer in his hands at that moment, wanting to forget his problems at that moment, but Retsuko, Fenneko and Ookami stopped him, already they knew what he got when he got drunk.
"Look I know it is difficult to raise children, and I understand that sometimes the decisions that parents make to keep children safe, but tell me something you four first" said the hippopotamus looking at the hyena, the female red panda, at the red maned wolf and fennec fox. "Do you think your children are in such danger that they have to leave town after what happened at the weekend?"
Haida, Retsuko, Ookami and Fenneko knew not, and even Sonic and the others had promised them that while they were in town they would not allow Eggman to harm them or the children, but the latter was something they could not say. , or at least not to Kabae or Anai, since the others present did know that they had contact with the mobians.
"No. We do not believe they are in danger" said the four in unison.
"And you four" said the hippopotamus now looking at the meerkat, the gazelle, the pallas cat and the male red panda. "You think that something could happen to your children if they stay at home and be watched at all times. Or they even think that they are not safe with who is taking care of them at this moment".
"No, we know they are safe" Tsunoda said on behalf of the four of them.
"If that's the case, then I think they shouldn't send their children out of town at the moment, everything has been quiet since that day. If an evacuation order was decreed by the government, there would be something else," said Anai.
"Besides, if it were the case that you were children, and were sent out of town against your will, would you like that to happen?" Louis asked.
The four sets of parents looked at each other and Ookami replied on behalf of all "No, we wouldn't like it."
"Well, I think for the moment you can tell your children that you will not leave for the moment, but that the possibility of leaving will only occur if another serious event occurs in the city. Don't worry about leaving for the moment," said Jack.
Collot, Durham, Miguno, and Voss nodded in agreement with what their friend said.
That little advice they gave them was helpful, no one had thought of that idea, but they just waited for the children to accept that. But they would lose nothing by trying. Anything for their children to stop that cold demeanor towards them.
After their little reunion was over, it was time for everyone to go home. Kabae took a taxi, as did Anai to leave, while the others took the subway. On her walk Retsuko noticed something that she had not realized in the entire meeting, and it was that Legoshi was not present with the other co-workers. Is it because he realized that she is afraid of him? She now had something else to feel bad about. Once the train arrived at the station, everyone got on and managed to find empty seats to sit on, luckily the train was not full.
…
Retsuko's mother and grandmother were at home, it was not long before it was time for the children's parents to arrive. They had already prepared dinner for Haida and Retsuko, they hoped the other parents could stay for a few minutes as they also prepared some food for them as well. Although both red pandas were watching the news, they could not concentrate very well on them due to the concern for the children, since commonly they in those moments when their parents were late to get home they usually stayed with them and together they watched the TV program that children liked that was broadcast at that time.
Just at that moment they heard a group of footsteps approaching and when the door was opened the 4 pairs of parents entered the house. When the door closed, the two red pandas came to greet them. The expression they had on their faces was no longer the same as they had when they left for work that morning. Now they had a look that reflected some kind of hope. Apparently that meeting with their coworkers helped them something or at least that's what the two red pandas thought when they saw them. Since they did not look sad or desperate, although the dark circles in their eyes were still visible in the eight adults.
"Mother, grandmother. There is something we have to tell them, but they have to listen to us, I think it will be the only way that the problem with the children will be fixed" said Retsuko.
Hearing the serious tone of her daughter/her granddaughter, they motioned for them to go to the kitchen and talk over dinner.
The children had not said anything when they heard that their parents arrived, although they were curious about what they were going to talk about, since fixing the situation with them seemed interesting to listen to, but since they were far from the kitchen, they could not understand what what the adults said. They spent 20 minutes listening, until they finally listened to their parents (and in Koka's case, also to his grandmother and great-grandmother). The four children approached the living room where the adults were, who made a sign for her to sit on the couch.
There each of the adults began to explain the decision they had reached and that they would not go anywhere, but although the children were happy to hear that first part, their happiness did not last long or at least they did not lose the complete happiness, since after knowing that if the government gave the order to evacuate the city if another event such as the weekend happened, they would have to leave the city, but until something like this happened they would not have to worry. The kids just hoped that Mobius' heroes (whom only Koka and Hana had known) could stop Eggman even before he tried to attack the city again, so they wouldn't have to leave.
Well, so far the chapter. I hope you liked it.