Disclaimer: All non-original characters are property of SEGA, DiC and/or their respective creators.
Inescapable Past, Act 20: Incommunicado
Lowering her hard-light rifle, Whisper tucked its stock under her right arm and tentatively raised her mask. Nope, she wasn't seeing things. That really had just happened.
From her vantage point atop the apartment block, she peered down at the Turtloid she'd been about to shoot when it'd suddenly fallen out of the air. It now lay motionless in the middle of the intersection Emer had left carpeted with bits of Badnik. Around it, several more intact Badniks stood frozen in place, still as statues.
Whisper's first thought was to pull her mask back down and touch base with Wave, but she hesitated. Today had been uncomfortably talkative as it was, a situation that wasn't likely to change with Sonar on her way. Sure, it was possible Wave knew what was going on, but it was equally possible the swallow had a raft of her own questions, ready to bombard her with.
With that in mind, Whisper propped her rifle against a humming aircon unit and popped open a pouch on her poncho. Retrieving the small cardboard carton inside, she slipped a cigarillo out, placed it between her lips and lit it. Her first drag brought on a light coughing fit. Tangle had been so distressed to learn she smoked, the wolf had all but stopped of late. Persevering, she took a second drag.
〜
Clove squinted at the ringing cellphone as it vibrated its way across the top of her workstation.
"Shut up!" she snapped, hurling the blaring device across the basement.
It survived its flight, bouncing off the partially-disassembled Moto Bug chassis Cassia was sitting on. The younger pronghorn slipped off her perch and looked down at the phone's screen. Connie, it read.
"Why don't you answer it?" she asked.
"And tell her what?" replied Clove. "That I told them so?"
"Huh," uttered Cassia. Glancing down at the phone again, she stamped on it. Eventually, the ringtone died. "There," she said with a smile.
When her big sister failed to look pleased, she trundled over and hugged her.
"Fuck 'em," said the younger pronghorn. "That's what Janelly at school would say."
Doubly dumbstruck, Clove haltingly returned the embrace. "You're lucky Sister Ilia can't hear you."
Cassia shuddered. "She's way scarier than Connie."
"She was, wasn't she," murmured Clove, resting her chin between her little sister's ears.
Beside them, a grainy image flickered intermittently on a monitor above her workstation. It showed the inside of an elevator car. A curtain of severed electrical cables dangled from its ceiling. Many were discharging showers of sparks. Clove closed her eyes and held her sibling closer. She wanted to put off thinking about the ramifications of Metal Knuckles' breakout for as long as she could.
"Well well well, what have we here?"
Both pronghorns gasped as they looked up. Across the basement, they saw a black jackal and red armadillo abseiling to the bottom of the elevator shaft. Like every other floor in the building, the grubby grey outer doors were jammed open.
"That's him!" squeaked Cassia, thrusting an index finger at the jackal.
Clove hastily grabbed a quarterstaff propped beside her workstation and whirled to face the newcomers. The jackal grinned. Whisking a curved red sword out of a scabbard on his back, he proceeded towards the sisters. Narrowing her eyes, Clove ignited her scythe. The purple blade fizzed and crackled as it arced outwards from the haft. The jackal stopped. His grin faded.
"Who the fuck are you guys?" demanded Cassia, peering out from behind her big sister.
"You first," said Infinite, locking eyes with Clove.
"What do you even want?" Cassia persisted. "Payback?"
"Answers," said the jackal.
"You first," sneered Clove.
"Y'know what? Screw this," said Infinite, jumping to the left.
Clove scarcely had time even to notice the red sphere hurtling towards her. Mighty ricocheted off the elder pronghorn and landed on his feet. Clove was knocked clean off hers. She dominoed into Cassia and the siblings went down in a heap. Infinite deftly caught the scythe the collision had sent flying.
"Are you guys GUN?" wheezed Cassia from beneath her sister.
Infinite gave a guttural scoff.
"If we were, I doubt you'd be alive," he said, handing the scythe to Mighty.
"Then who?" groaned Clove, rubbing her lower torso.
The jackal grinned. "You first, Egghead—"
"Cloey's no Egghead!" Cassia piped up.
"Isn't she?" said Infinite. "So why does she appear to be running a Badnik hotel?"
"They made her do it!"
"Shut up, Cassie!" snapped Clove as she tried to cover her little sister's mouth.
"Why don't you…just tell them?" said Cassia, fending off the hand intent on silencing her. "They're not cops!"
"She's right," said Mighty sternly, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Infinite. "We're not."
"Then what are you?" spat Clove.
"A Freedom Fighter until recentl," replied Mighty. "That guy's just a merc with a—"
"That's enough out of you," Infinite cut in. "Your turn, Egghead."
Clove's purple eyes darted between two Mobians standing over her.
"Just them tell, Cloey," whined Cassia. "Tell them it's not your fault."
The elder pronghorn glanced down at her sibling. Had her tear ducts not been cauterized when she received her bionic eyes, she looked like she would've been crying.
Dropping her head, Clove sighed. "Fine."
〜
"Thanks again, Miss Clove!" beamed the elderly polecat, testing the mended light switch once more for good measure.
"You're welcome, Sylvia," said the smiling pronghorn, hefting her toolbox off the kitchen floor.
"I'm sorry I couldn't do any better than that stew."
"Please, it'll be the best meal we've had all week," said Clove, picking up the beaten-up old lunch pail that contained her homecooked payment.
"Oh, you are sweet," cooed Sylvia, clasping her hands together.
The pronghorn forced a smile. She'd meant every word.
"Well, until next time, Sylvia," she said, ducking out of the pokey kitchen.
"See you soon," the old polecat called after her.
"Hopefully not too soon," Clove muttered to herself as she slipped out into the hallway and made for the stairs. The elevator wasn't worth the gamble if she wanted to try and beat Cassia home from school.
Outside, it was another suffocatingly hot summer day in Metropolis. The unrelenting sun had spent the morning and early afternoon heating up the concrete jungle that was the South Sector. Clove lasted all of ten paces with her toolbox and lunch pail before she gave in and zipped open her grey coveralls to the waist.
Continuing down the block in marginally less discomfort, she came to an intersection watched over by one of GUN's Big Foot mechs. While waiting at a crossing, she watched a group of kids scramble about on the sidewalk in the mech's shadow, vying for candies dropped by the pilot on high. One scavenger in particular, a tuatara with a bionic leg, caught Clove's eye.
It wasn't the youngster's prosthetic that piqued her interest. Those were common enough in Robotnik's former stronghold. It was her pleated cerulean skirt with suspenders that crossed at the back, worn over a white shirt with a stringy red ribbon tied under the collar. Either Cassia's school had let out early or it was later she thought.
Whatever the case, Clove hurried the rest of the way home. She found her first-floor apartment's front door ajar. Rolling her eyes, Clove prodded the door marked 'Custodian' with a steel toecap. As it opened, the toolbox and lunch pail hit the hallway floor with a thud.
"Hey, Cloey," said Cassia, her cerulean suspender-skirt swirling as she spun around. "Look who's here!"
Clove was already looking at the brown lynx lurking in the corner of the pokey loungeroom. A pair of luminous red eyes stared back over her little sister's head. The last time Clove had seen them, they'd been from afar as she and Cassia fled Badnik Island.
"Connie?" said the elder pronghorn.
"Duh," uttered Cassia, approaching the door. She went to pick up the toolbox. After three goes, she grabbed the lunch pail instead.
"That's dinner," said Clove, spying an opportunity to buy herself some time. "Go lay the table, would you?"
"Sure," chirped Cassia, plodding off towards the kitchen.
Once she was gone, Clove started across the loungeroom, intending to grab Connie by her purple jacket's lapels and pin her against the wall. The lynx slowly opened her jacket. Two rows of gleaming throwing knives stopped Clove in her tracks.
"Showing off already, Connie?" asked a deep voice behind the pronghorn. "Put 'em away."
Clove looked over her shoulder at the front door she'd neglected to close. A broad-shouldered water buffalo stood in the doorway.
"Axel?" she breathed.
"Well remembered," said the buffalo, stepping inside the apartment. "Do you remember Diesel too?"
He motioned to a similarly-proportioned brown bear behind him. Clove watched the brawny ursid bring her toolbox in from the hallway before closing the door.
"Connie brought friends?!" interjected Cassia, poking her head out of the kitchen. "Umm, I'm not sure we're gonna have enough food…"
Axel chuckled. "Don't you worry, young lady. We've already eaten."
"Oh…okay," said Cassia. She flashed a smile and retracted her head.
"I see those bionics are holding up," said Axel. "What was the lifespan on those again?"
"Long enough," said Clove tersely.
"I hope so," said Axel. "Was that silly little outfit a school uniform?"
"You think a kid would choose to wear something like that?"
The water buffalo smiled wryly. "You'd be surprised how many Mobians thought we enjoyed wearing those uniforms the good Doctor insisted upon."
"Didn't you?"
"I won't deny they had certain advantages, though they chafed awfully in the heat—"
Connie cleared her throat loudly. "Could we get to the—"
"It's ready, Cloey!" called Cassia from the kitchen.
Diesel laughed into his fist.
"Go ahead," said the water buffalo. "We'll wait."
Clove stared daggers at her uninvited guests as she stalked off to the kitchen. She would've slammed the door if it didn't mean explaining why to Cassia afterwards. Seeing her little sister was already seated at the tiny kitchen table, tucking into Sylvia's stew, she calmly closed it behind her.
As the latch went, those luminous yellow eyes shot up anyway. "Why're you closing it?"
"Because your gossip is none of their business," said Clove, taking her seat.
From there, the sisters' dinnertime routine proceeded as normal. Between mouthfuls of stew, Cassia delivered a breathless account of her day at school while Clove struggled to keep track of who'd allegedly said what about who at recess.
Today, she wasn't really even trying to follow. She was less interested in what her little sister had to say than how she was saying it: ebulliently, like she couldn't get the words out fast enough. It was the happiest she'd sounded since they'd left the orphanage.
"Cassie, I need you to stay in here for a little while," said Clove, getting up from the bowl of stew she'd barely touched. "You've got homework, right?"
Cassia frowned but nodded. "Uh, sure…can I listen to stuff?"
"As loud as you like," said Clove.
Resisting the urge to pat the kid between the ears — she'd been less tolerant of that lately — the elder pronghorn reluctantly returned to the loungeroom. She found Diesel lingering by the front door, arms folded.
"You expecting someone else?" she asked.
"Expecting? No, but these streets have eyes," said Axel from over on the couch. "Now sit."
Clove looked to the water buffalo. He was pointing at a footstool opposite the couch. She eyed her scythe hanging on the wall.
"Don't even try," said Connie. She was on the couch beside Axel.
The pronghorn sighed and sat down.
"I trust that 'Custodian' plaque on the door isn't just for show?" said Axel.
Clove looked at him, down at her grey coveralls, then back up at him.
"Point taken. Anyway, does your role come with the power to evict?"
"Evict? I'm the custodian, not the landlady—"
"That's not what he's asked," said Connie, leaning forward. "Can you kick residents out or not?"
"Theoretically—"
"Superb!" Axel cut in. "We'll give you two weeks to clear this place out before we start making deliveries."
Clove's eyes widened. "I can't just—"
"Yes you can," snapped Connie. "I seem recall you're quite adept at doing the unthinkable where your little sister's concerned."
Clove lowered her eyes to evade Connie's stare. The first time she'd seen those red eyes, she and a then-deafblind Cassia been living at an orphanage for disabled children run by the Sisters of the Sun, an order of Solarian nuns. It'd been their home since their grandmother's passing. Connie's visit had had to do with a nearby island the Eggman Empire had designs on.
Her terms were simple: help her and her goons clear the island of locals, then serve as caretaker of the facility Robotnik planned to build. In return, Cassia and the other orphans would receive all the bionics and prostheses they could hope for. With no prospect of becoming a nun herself, saying no never really felt like an option.
It hadn't been her proudest moment, but she'd found it hard to regret. The fact that the base — later known as Badnik Island — turned out to be little more than a glorified dumping ground for Robotnik's outmoded inventions had helped ease her conscience.
"What if I refuse?" asked Clove meekly.
"Then Connie's friends can let the whole South Sector know the former Steward of Badnik Island walks among them," said Axel. "I would estimate it would take, say, until nightfall for word to get round. They're very efficient like that."
The ensuing silence was broken by the noise of Cassia shouting out the chorus of some song by Mina. It resonated loud and clear through the thin wall.
Glancing wistfully at the kitchen door, Clove dropped her head and sighed. "Fine."
〜
"Wow…that's cold," remarked Infinite. "Is that where all those 'Niks came from? Badnik Island?"
The kneeling Clove nodded solemnly.
"How did you get them in?"
"Tunnels," said Mighty. "There're hundreds of them under this place. We had a cell that used to smuggle folks out of here through them."
"Good for them," said Infinite, folding his arms. "Well, that was a cute story. I even believe most of it. There's just that little detail about you maintaining you're not an Egghead—"
"Weren't you listening?" snapped Cassia, jumping to her feet. Moving too quickly for Clove to grab her, she squared up to the smirking jackal.
"Attentively so," said Infinite, stooping to the younger pronghorn's eye-level. "She just told us how she cut a deal with Robotnik. She even worked for the guy. Far as I'm concerned, that makes her an Egghead. Plain and simple."
Cassia squinted her luminous yellow eyes. Then, she spat in Infinite's face. The loogie struck him right between the eyes. Mighty lurched sideways, putting the snarling jackal in an armlock before he could brandish his ruby cutlass. Meanwhile, Clove grabbed Cassia by her cerulean skirt's suspenders and pulled her onto her backside.
"Let's just drop it, shall we?" murmured the armadillo.
"You just can't keep your hands off me, can you?" mumbled Infinite, slipping free of the armlock with ease. He sheathed his sword, wiped his face, and looked down at Cassia. "There's something your big brave sister still hasn't told us: how did she know when to turn these Badniks on?"
"Axel has someone inside GUN," said Clove.
"Big surprise there," said Infinite, "What's their name? Sleet?"
"Sleet?" echoed Clove thoughtfully. "Wait, that guy? No, not him…err, em-something…Maul, maybe?"
The jackal's eyes widened. "Maw?"
"Yeah, that's it—"
"Off your asses, ladies," snapped Infinite. "You're coming with us."
"We are?" said Cassia.
"They are?" said Mighty. "Where?"
"The roof. The hoverbike can take the extra weight."
The armadillo cocked a brow. "I seem to recall your boss having a thing about uninvited guests."
"Quit worrying, Freedom Fighter. We're not going near any airship," said Infinite, starting towards the jammed-open elevator doors. "Does that thing still work?"
When no reply was forthcoming, the jackal span round to find Clove still kneeling, still holding Cassia by her skirt's suspenders.
"Problem?" he asked.
"If we go with you, we might never be able to come back," said Clove. "I didn't just throw everyone who lived here out on the street. I found them other places. Told them they could move back in once we, uh, had everything fixed. If someone sees us with you guys and gets the wrong idea…it could ruin everything."
"I don't give a shit about your house of cards, Egghead!" growled Infinite. "Someone's life might depend on the right pair of ears hearing your little sob story, so get moving."
"Whose life?" asked Cassia meekly.
"His boyfriend's," said Infinite, pointing at Mighty. "Now, does that elevator work or not?"