Disclaimer: All non-original characters are property of SEGA, DiC and/or their respective creators.
Inescapable Past, Act 14: Westopolis Calling
The nearer the elevator got to the airship's cargo hold, the tighter Amy gripped Tangle's left hand. The lemur glanced down at the pink hedgehog, wondering whether it was anxiety or anger powering the preteen's clasp. Alas, she found the kid staring dead ahead at the curved brushed steel doors, her face a mask of intense concentration.
This façade cracked the moment the elevator stopped. Tangle nearly winced as Amy squeezed her hand especially hard. She maintained her viselike grip as the doors to the cavernous hold rolled open. It took four progressively more forceful tugs on the hedgehog's arm before she finally agreed to move. Once they'd exited, the lemur breathed a quiet sigh of relief as she looked around.
Infinite, who Amy was desperate to avoid, had conveniently deposited himself on the opposite side of the hold to Whisper. He and Sonar were standing over by the door/ramp controls where they'd cornered Rouge in conversation. Whisper, meanwhile, was perched on a wooden crate, tinkering with the slender rifle laying across her lap. A few inches in front of her, the unconscious Shadow lay bobbing up and down on the Extreme Fear they'd repurposed as a stretcher.
"You're early," said Whisper, not looking up as the duo walked over. Tangle stifled a snicker at the look of shock that overcame Amy.
"Don't pretend you haven't heard her speak before," the lemur whispered, giving the kid the gentlest of elbow nudges.
The hedgehog seemed neither amused nor sufficiently offended to let go of her chaperone's hand. She was too preoccupied studying Shadow.
"Is he okay?" she asked, looking to Whisper.
"He's fine," the yellow wolf replied in a characteristically hushed tone. "Just a deep sleeper."
"Stupid Sleepy Hog," Amy murmured, giving the hoverboard the slightest of kicks. It wobbled on its antigrav field.
"Amy!"
Chaperone and chaperoned looked over their respective shoulders in unison. Tekno was running towards them. She was still wearing the same Alicia Acorn Academy uniform as Amy. The canary's purple blazer made Tangle grimace. She could picture Amy's blazer still lying on the Sky Lounge's floor where it'd fallen when she ran away from Infinite. The sight of Jet and Wave exiting the elevator ruled out any chance of her running up to grab it. Hopefully the kid wouldn't miss it.
While Amy fielded Tekno's questions about her sling-bound left arm, Tangle kept an eye on the two Rogues. Wave seemed visibly irked about something. Traditionally, Jet brushed off the swallow's not-infrequent bitching. This time, however, the hawk's blue eyes soon caught the lemur's gaze and motioned insistently at the canary.
"Err, sorry to interrupt, girls," said Tangle, stooping to the twelve-year-olds' eye level. "I, uh, think the boss is waiting for you."
"Is he?" said Tekno, glancing over her shoulder at the waiting Rogues. "Oh…umm, see you later, I guess?"
"See you later," said Amy, giving her not-so-long-lost friend a firm nod.
Watching the canary scamper back towards the elevator, the pink hedgehog squeaked as the cargo hold shook suddenly.
"Just us landing," said Tangle in quiet reassurance.
"He's your problem now," said Whisper as she slipped off the crate and made a beeline for the front of the hold.
"Our problem?" echoed Amy, sounding indignant on Shadow's behalf.
"Whisp means well," said Tangle, cringing as the hydraulic whine of the hold door's hinges filled the air.
"What's she even doing?" asked the hedgehog over the racket. The wolf was standing with her face virtually pressed against the gradually opening door, holding her rifle in a low-ready position.
"Bodyguarding," replied the lemur, urging her young charge in the same direction. She towed Shadow behind them with her tail.
One deafening minute or so later, the door had opened enough to afford those inside a decent view of the empty airfield they were on. Bracing her rifle's stock against her shoulder, Whisper moved her rifle to a fire-ready position.
"But there's no one out there," whispered the onlooking Amy.
"That's not the point," murmured Tangle patiently.
She cast a glance at her colleagues across the hold. Sonar was operating the door controls. Jet's group had joined Infinite and Rouge. They were chattering away quite freely, even exchanging the odd laugh. Holding in a sigh, the lemur rolled her eyes and looked away. The boss had asked if she was happy to take this assignment. No sense in complaining now.
"C'mon," she said once the hydraulic whine abated, leading the hedgehogs to the top of the door/ramp. "There's our ride."
Tangle directed Amy's gaze over to a row of hangars across the vast expanse of tarmac. A boxy white van was parked in front of one. The vehicle was emblazoned with a large red circle: the Red Ring, a symbol borne by ambulances across Mobius. Below it, 'Westopolis University Medical Center' was spelt out in red letters.
"See ya, Whisp," said Tangle, starting down the airship's ramp.
Even with Infinite getting further and further away, Amy kept ahold of her chaperone's hand. Taking it as a sign the kid was starting to trust her, Tangle proceeded across the tarmac with a slight spring in her step. As they neared the ambulance, the driver's door swung open and a milksnake jumped out, wearing dark-green coveralls over her red, black and cream-striped scales.
Then, an identically-dressed blue hyrax appeared around the back of the ambulance. He opened the rear doors, slid out a collapsible gurney and started wheeling it towards Tangle's group. His fellow paramedic walked a few inches in front.
"So…who's the patient here, exactly?" the milksnake asked, looking the lemur and pink hedgehog up and down.
"Oh, uh, that'd be this guy," said Tangle, pushing the Shadow-laden Extreme Gear towards them with her tail.
The hyrax gasped. "Is that…?"
"Yes," said the milksnake, narrowing her apricot eyes at the comatose Ultimate Life Form. "I'm sorry. We can't take this patient."
"B-but it's your job!" Amy blurted, lurching forward. Tangle fought to keep hold of the kid's hand as she fought to wriggle free.
"She's not wrong, Portia," said the hyrax timidly. His reptilian colleague rounded on him.
"And what do I tell Rollo and Mica when they find out who we helped patch up?"
"Honestly, I doubt they'll eve-"
"That flyover didn't fall down by itself, Dassie!"
"He doesn't need patching up!" Tangle growled, letting go of Amy's hand and vaulting over Shadow. She slapped a hand on Portia's shoulder and forcibly turned the paramedic to look at her. "We just need a ride."
The milksnake hissed and pushed the lemur onto her backside. Amy appeared at her side instantaneously.
"Uh, Portia?" said the hyrax.
"What?" she snapped, still glowering at Tangle.
"I think someone's coming."
Both scufflers cocked their heads towards the airship to see Jet striding across the tarmac. He was unaccompanied.
"Do we have a problem?" the hawk asked aloud.
"They won't help Shadow," said Amy, pointing a finger at the paramedics like were standing in a police lineup.
"Oh, won't they?" said the Babylon Rogue, his even tone contradicting the piercing glare he gave the duo. "Is there some kind of strike I wasn't aware of?"
"N-no," stammered Dassie, flattening his round ears.
"Then explain yourselves."
Portia stepped between the hawk and hyrax. "We lost a lot of people during Black Arms. Friends-"
Jet cut her off by loudly spitting on the tarmac.
"Did you personally see that hedgehog blow up any ambulances?" he asked, pointing at Shadow. For several seconds, the milksnake held his gaze. Then, almost imperceptibly, she shook her head.
"Then what're you waiting for?"
The paramedics diligently avoided his watchful blue eyes as they transferred Shadow from the Extreme Gear to the gurney and wheeled him away. Running a hand through his green plumage, Jet sighed and turned to Tangle and Amy.
"See, Miss Rose, violence isn't always the answer," he said, ruffling the pink hedgehog's braided quills. "You two better claim your seats before they try and leave without you."
With that, the Babylon Rogue jumped on the abandoned Extreme Gear and rode it back to the airship. Tangle chuckled to herself as he casually performed a flawless kickflip en route. Shaking her head, she steered the bemused preteen towards the ambulance.
"What was that about?" asked Wave, meeting her fellow Rogue at the foot of the cargo ramp.
"Just another Westopolitan with a fricking grudge," replied the hawk, dismounting the hoverboard. "Whisper?"
"Hmm?" uttered the wolf at the top of the ramp.
"Grab yourself a board and go make sure those jumped-up cabbies don't try anything," he said, eyeing the ambulance. The hyrax was already closing the rear doors. "Actually, take this one."
"Being a little paranoid, aren't you?" said Wave as Whisper leapt nimbly onto the Extreme Gear from halfway up the ramp, rifle still in hand. Jet ignored her.
"Sonar?" he said.
"Yeah?" said the teal fennec, looking up from her cellphone. She was sifting through the usual avalanche of notifications that hit her inbox after every airship ride.
"Try finding a lost-and-found number or whatever for unattended Freedom Fighters, would you? Tangle's got better things to be doing."
"Like what? Homework?" quipped Infinite. Jet ignored him, too.
"Also, could someone find out what the hell's going on in Metropolis?"
〜
"Tell us who you work for, or I'll take that horn off with a chainsaw!" spat the white tigress.
Shackled to a chair, wrists bound behind his back, Espio lifted his drooping head high enough for his half-open eyes to meet his interrogator's incendiary green glare.
"I work for whoever pays me," he said weakly.
Rage drained from the tigress's face at this unexpected breakthrough. Those were the first words the chameleon had spoken in an hour.
"Who pays you?" she asked.
"Jealous spouses, usually," said Espio. "No one at the moment."
The tigress bared her teeth and made as if to pounce.
"Stand down, corporal!" yelled a distorted female voice through an unseen speaker.
His interrogator froze but continued snarling at him until the only door in the starkly lit white cube of a room swung open. She dashed through it.
"A chainsaw?" said Topaz, slamming the interrogation room door behind her girlfriend. "Seriously, Jian?"
"It made him talk, didn't it?" the tigress countered, avoiding the lioness's gaze as she adjusted her red bandanna.
"We already knew he was a private eye. He was taunting you."
"Excuse me for trying to help," muttered Jian, turning on her heel.
Topaz rolled her eyes as her girlfriend stormed out of the shadowy anteroom. If chainsaws were the tigress's idea of help, she probably better off without it. Of course, she shouldn't have let Jian inside the interrogation room in the first place. Why had she thought a mech pilot might succeed where a career intelligence officer had failed? Would she have been this loose with protocol if their relationship was still under wraps?
Pushing the thought away, Topaz turned back to Espio, looking through the anteroom's large window: the transparent side of a one-way mirror. How was he still conscious? Sure, that nasty bite on his left forearm had been treated and bandaged, but even so, she'd seen the trail of blood leading to the Commander's gutted office where the chameleon had been found.
Ironically, that wound may've saved his life. If the stubbornness he'd shown in the last hour was anything to go by, he would've probably tried to fight the troopers that arrested him if he'd been able to raise his fists. Rotating her aching shoulder, she flopped into a chair facing the one-way mirror and reached for a polystyrene cup of coffee. Sweet Solaris, she was tired.
"That Egghead still not talking?"
Topaz jumped out of her chair and wheeled round, sloshing coffee all over her chair. A yellow-furred thylacine with black chevron-shaped stripes on his forehead and tapered muzzle stood in the anteroom's doorway.
"Piss off, Maw," she snarled.
"You'll need another promotion before we can be on first-name terms, Captain," said Major Maw, casually closing the door behind him.
"This area's Intelligence Wing-only…sir," said the lioness, forcing out the honorific.
"Let's not stand on ceremony, Captain," said Maw, flashing a grin.
Faced with rows of the steel teeth that'd bitten Espio's arm, Topaz lunged for the handgun on the table beside her chair. "You're not settling any scores today, sir."
Maw leant back against the doorframe and crossed his arms. His grin grew broader.
"This 'pointing guns at senior officers' is getting to be a habit of yours, Captain," he said, sounding convincingly unfazed by the loaded firearm. "Won't do wonders for your career."
"Hasn't hurt so far," said Topaz. "Now piss off."
Far from complying, Maw tilted his head to see past the lioness through the one-way mirror.
"Y'know, there're some old tricks we used to loosen jaws back in Downunda-"
"I don't want to know what twisted crap you creeps used to get away with it. You're not getting inside that room, sir," the lioness cut in, thumbing the handgun's safety lever. "Go now and I won't tell Colonel Sleet you snuck-"
"I believe that's Commander Sleet, Captain."
"Not yet it's not," Topaz shot back, narrowing her purple eyes at the thylacine as he gradually let himself out. It was like he was hoping she might change her mind if he dawdled long enough.
The instant the anteroom's door closed behind him, the lioness darted across the room and turned the lock. Any other wannabe torturers would have to knock first.
〜
Hershey and Cream walked hand-in-hand through the wood-paneled hallways of the Alicia Acorn Academy, moving against a tide of students bound for the school gates. Just before the bell, Bunnie had called to say her visit to Rotor's workshop had overrun. Something about a loose screw. Hershey wasn't sure if she'd meant an actual screw in one of her limbs or if she was throwing shade at the walrus. Whatever the case, she had custody of Cream for the next hour.
Once they reached the empty principal's office, the little bunny skipped inside and hopped up onto a couch just inside the door. Setting her satchel down beside her, she smoothed out her purple gingham dress, fished out a tablet computer and fired up a spelling test app. Making her way across the office, Hershey retook her seat behind Sally's desk where she'd spent most of her day forging her boss's signature on paychecks and other documents.
It was only administrative task Nicole refused to perform. Something in her programming prevented it, apparently. Not that Hershey was complaining. She'd been grateful for something to do beyond playground monitoring and umpiring the junior varsity netball team's afternoon game. The latter had been a very welcome distraction from the images of antiquated Badniks swarming through the slums of Metropolis that'd flooded her news feed after lunch.
Just then, a phone rang. Hershey reached her cellphone out of her red bodywarmer. It was silent. She reached for the desk drawer where she'd stashed Sally's confiscated phone. That too was silent. It took until the fourth ring for her to realize it was the desk's corded telephone, buried beneath a stack of invoices.
"Hello?" said Hershey.
"Hey, Hersh," said Ari, the academy's groundskeeper. "Got some weirdo on the line from Baloney Entropies or some such pushing hard to speak to Sally. She ain't taking no for an answer, whoever she is."
The black cat rolled her eyes.
"Put her through. I'll deal with it."
"Thanks, Hersh," said the ram, hanging up.
"Hello?" said a feminine voice at the other end. "Principal Acorn?"
"N-no," replied Hershey, a little thrown someone didn't know Sally's voice by ear. "Her…assistant."
"Good enough. My name's Sonar. I'm calling on behalf of Babylon Enterprises in Westopolis. We appear to have come into possession of one of your students. Does the name Amy Rose mean anything to you?"
"Y-yes, she, err, sh-she's one of ours," the cat gibbered.
"Ah, good. Do have anyone available to come pick her up per chance? We're a little stretched on our end."
"I'm…sure we can work something out," said Hershey, picturing Sally driving to Westopolis herself.
"Awesome!"
As soon as she'd confirmed Hershey had her number down correctly, Sonar hung up. The cat was left with the telephone handset still pressed to her face, dialing tone humming in her ear, as she pondered her next step. Priority one was to inform Sally. Now, if only she hadn't talked Sonic into swiping his girlfriend's encrypted cellphone off her nightstand after she fell asleep.
"Cream?" she said, belatedly hanging up the corded phone.
"Yes, Miss Hershey?" said the little bunny, looking up from her tablet.
"Sounds like Bunnie might be a while," the cat lied. "Wanna come see Sally with me?"
Hershey had never seen a child put a tablet away faster. Within seconds, the rabbit was on her feet, satchel on her back, thumbs hooked in its shoulder straps. Pocketing Sally's cellphone and the scrap of paper with Sonar's number on, Hershey stood up. Her hope was turning up with a beaming Cream in tow would stop Sally completely going off at her.