Disclaimer: All non-original characters are property of SEGA, DiC and/or their respective creators (hey Ken!).
Inescapable Past, Act 16: Bad Blood
Sitting in the corner of a private room in Westopolis University Medical Center, Whisper dozily watched four undulating lines scroll across a small monitor. The multicolored squiggles represented Shadow's vital signs. They were accompanied by a soundtrack of metronomic beeps, mirroring the unconscious hedgehog's heartbeat. Under normal circumstances, such a constant noise would've driven the wolf mad. In this case, it was helping her stay awake.
Of all the assignments she'd given since she started working for Jet, this one was turning out to be the easiest yet. Besides Tangle's little temper tantrum out in the parking lot, the only trouble she'd had was trying to explain her presence to the hospital's staff. Almost everyone seemed to think she was there to protect them from Shadow, not the other way around. After a fifth conversation had followed the same pattern, she'd given up trying to correct them.
"What's he still doing here?!"
Startled, Whisper grabbed for the hard-light rifle propped against the wall by her chair. She retracted her hand when she saw who was standing in the private room's doorway. A brown muntjac named Leaf. The doctor who had checked Shadow in.
"What's wrong?" asked the wolf, straining to make herself heard over the vital-signs monitor's beeps.
"He should be in surgery already," said Leaf, eyeing the hedgehog's bandaged right thigh. "Has anyone—"
The muntjac stopped short, inhaled sharply, and marched off down the hallway, white coat billowing behind her.
"Sveta!" she yelled, bearing down on an antelope in burgundy scrubs who was hanging out by the Emergency Department's nurses' station. "Isn't it bad enough that we've got ambulance crews willing to withhold treatment? Please tell me you're not—"
"Not what?" snapped the antelope, turning to meet the muntjac head-on.
"Why hasn't Sha—"
Noticing the eyes of everyone in the Emergency Department's waiting area suddenly staring at her, Leaf hesitated. Best not publicize the fact the Ultimate Life Form was in the building.
"Why hasn't that gunshot wound been operated on yet?" she demanded, jabbing a hand in the direction of Shadow's room.
Exhaling calmly, Sveta grabbed the doctor by her stubby antlers, dragged her away from the nurses' station and into an office across the way.
"I know things are still a little rough between us, Leaf, but could you maybe not accuse me of malpractice in front of the whole fricking department in future?" said Sveta.
Holding her ex-wife's steely gaze for a few moments, the muntjac sighed.
"Sorry, Svet. It's just…after what Dassie told us about Portia," she began, pinching a sun-shaped pendant on a silver chain around her neck. "I didn't know there still so much hate around here for that poor hedgehog."
"To be honest, neither did I," said the antelope. "But I don't need to believe in Solaris to know when to let bygones be bygones."
"In that case, why haven't you taken the bullet out yet? You are the duty surgeon, aren't you?"
"As a matter of fact, I'd started prepping a theater for him a half-hour ago. Someone went to get his blood type and then…well, see for yourself."
Sveta passed her ex-wife a clipboard off her desk. Scanning the results of Shadow's blood type test, Leaf's eyes widened. "Inconclusive?! Is that even possible?"
"First time I've seen it," said Sveta. "Point is, I can't even dream of operating on a wound that close to an artery without a blood match. One slip and, well, it hardly takes a surgeon to tell you—"
"What about HemoSynth?" Leaf cut in, invoking the universally-compatible synthetic blood substitute had only been one of the biggest recent advances in Mobian medicine.
Sveta recoiled. "That gunk? For starters, patient consent might be a prob—"
"You heard what Dassie said, Svet," Leaf snapped. "That bullet's been in his leg for almost a week. Don't the words 'lead poisoning' mean anything to you?"
"Stop shouting, Le—"
"Then start acting like a damn trauma surgeon!" her ex-wife shouted. "If it'll make it easier for you, I'll make the call. He is my patient, after all. Just get him under some lights and get whatever's in there out. Use the 'gunk' if you have to. All right?"
"Fine, have it your way," said Sveta curtly. "Why break the habit of a lifetime?"
〜
"If you're so worried about your sister blowing her top, take my car and drive your own spiky ass back up there!"
Jolted out of her starstruck reverie, Tangle cast a cautious glance around the tram they were on. Thankfully, their fellow passengers were too absorbed in their own phones to pay any mind to the testy armadillo at the back. She was sure there'd be a lot more interest if they knew the guy Mighty was chewing out was called Sonic.
"I've got no idea how long this is going to take. Just take the car. I'll pick it up wherever you decide to leave it, okay? Okay. Good. Just go easy on it. That thing wasn't as cheap as you are."
Hanging up, Mighty leant back in his seat and sighed.
"Thanks for that," he said wearily, handing Tangle back her phone.
"No problem," said the lemur.
Shielding the phone's screen with her left hand, she opened up her Recent Calls list and almost squealed. At the top of the list was a string of numbers she didn't recognize, together with a recent timestamp. She swiftly locked and pocketed the device, lest her inner fangirl take control of her thumbs. She could angst over dropping her tweenage idol an appreciative, politely-worded text later.
Perhaps inevitably, she spent the remainder of the tram ride drafting fan mail in her head. Meanwhile, Mighty gazed quietly out the window at the heavily-scaffolded streets of Westopolis's Central Business District, as he had done for most of the journey from Westopolis University. After her campus chatathon with Amy, the contrast was almost enough to give Tangle whiplash.
Not that he hadn't talked to her at all. On their way from the helipad to the campus's tram stop, he'd been in full-on interrogation mode. However, it hadn't taken him long to work out how little Tangle knew about Espio's current predicament, let alone what he'd been up to with Shadow and Amy before their Metropolis escapade. After she'd recounted her scuffle with the chameleon in that New Tek City slum, he'd clammed up.
Desperate not to disappoint a real-life Freedom Fighter, Tangle had suggested her boss might be of more help. In truth, she'd been thinking more of Rouge than Jet (the bat would surely be able to find out if GUN had Espio, right?) but she didn't dare go over her boss's head. Thus, they were on their way to Babylon Enterprises' Westopolis headquarters.
"This is us," said Tangle, tapping Mighty on the shoulder with her tail as 'Next Stop: Six Tree Park' scrolled across LED displays around the tram car.
The lemur led the way to the nearest door and hopped out as it opened. The sudden shift in weight caused the whole tram to wobble, provoking a chorus of startled yelps and profanities. Although it travelled the same routes as the city's old streetcars, this 'hover-tram' levitated six inches above the old rails. Tangle studiously ignored the passengers' reproachful glares as it pulled away.
"There it is," she said, pointing to completely unremarkable skyscraper a short distance away.
Between them and it lay Six Tree Park, a grassy hexagon crisscrossed by six footpaths that met at its middle. There, the park's six arboreal namesakes stood clustered in a small grove. As they made their way off the tram stop platform and across the road, it struck Tangle that her boss would probably have some questions of his own.
"Umm, Mighty?" she said, repositioning herself to walk backwards in front of him as they entered Six Tree Park. "Could I, like, ask you something?"
The armadillo smiled. "You're welcome to try."
"Okay, so, you know you said Espio is your ex-boyfriend?" said the lemur. "Well, uh, why did you take a four-hour helicopter ride here if you're not, y'know, together anymore?"
Mighty chuckled. "Let's just say it wasn't that kind of breakup."
Tangle cocked an eyebrow. "How many kinds of breakup are there?"
"How old are you, kid?" he asked.
"Err, fifteen," she replied. "Why? Am I, like, too young to understand?"
The armadillo raised his eyebrows at her preemptive indignation.
"Not necessarily, but you probably wouldn't have been watching much news during the Chaotix Crew's heyday."
"The Chaotix Crew?" said Tangle. "You mean like the Detective Agency?"
Mighty visibly shuddered. "Don't even get me started on that mess."
"So, uh, not the same thing?"
"To say the least," the armadillo grumbled. "We used to help folks wherever we could, any way we could, and we'd be happy with whatever those folks could spare. But charging folks money to snoop on other Mobians?"
He spat on the ground.
"It goes against just about everything the Chaotix Crew stood for. Vector had no right calling it Chaotix anything—"
"Is that why you and Espio broke up?" Tangle put in.
"Well, uh, it was certainly a factor," said Mighty. "His friend was sick of moving around so much. I don't do well staying in any one place for too long. He had, err, other obligations with his friend that predated us, so that we split."
Tangle tilted her head. "Sorry if I missed some, like, nuance or whatever, but that sounds like a totally standard kind of breakup."
The armadillo grinned. "I'm don't recall it was anything exciting."
"Then what did you mean?"
"Well, for one thing, I still love every scale on that dumb lizard," said Mighty brightly. "He's never told me he feels any different."
"B-but what if you find him and he-gah!"
Tangle landed on her butt as she ran out of park, clipping her heel on an uneven piece of sidewalk.
"If he's moved on, he's moved on," said the armadillo, helping the lemur up. "Just knowing he's alive will be good enough for me."
〜
"You sure you don't want me to stick around, Sally?" asked Rotor as he pulled up on the curb outside the Station Square offices of KSAT 93.9 AM The Source, the Acorn Kingdom's favorite radio station.
"Very sure," said Sally patiently, unfastening her seatbelt. He'd been asking similar questions since he'd picked her up. "To tell you the truth, I'm not 100% sure what Hershey's ETA even is. She'll have had to avoid Metropolis completely."
"But you could be up there for hou—"
"Rotor, it's a radio station, not a dive bar," said Sally, opening her door and slipping out onto the sidewalk. "I'll see you later."
The chipmunk closed the pickup truck's passenger door before the walrus could protest further. His concern was sweet but unnecessary. It wasn't as if she'd had the stress of work on top of everything else today, not that Rotor would've known that. Like most of Mobius, he was still in the dark about her and Sonic.
Putting her hands in the pockets of her blue gilet, the chipmunk started towards the radio station. She wasn't sure whether to expect to find the owner and a camera-wielding intern lying in wait for a photo op. She seemed to have lost some of her shine somewhat since renouncing her royal title. Indeed, she'd had to give the station owner a discount on his kids' tuition for Alicia Acorn Academy before he'd let Hershey borrow his helicopter.
Sally paused to look over her shoulder as she heard Rotor finally driving away. Smirking to herself, she vowed not to tease him later. Were it not for the walrus, she would have had to walk here. Her own black sedan was already in the station's parking lot where Hershey had left it, and Sonic's offer of a ride in Mighty's convertible hadn't been worth the risk.
She and Sonic had gotten talking about Amy over lunch earlier. Even as he was saying how he didn't regret being so heavy-handed in his rejection of her proposition, Sally had picked up on plenty of cues that told her boyfriend's conscience was anything but clear.
Fearing he might sense an opportunity to make amends - and all too aware that she lacked the power to change his mind once it was made up - Sally had practically hustled him out to the car and turned the keys herself.
She knew they couldn't their reconciliation a secret indefinitely, especially not from the rest of the Knothole contingent. It was a minor miracle nobody they hadn't already told – Hershey, Bunnie, Nicole, Sonia, Manic, Mina, Ash and now Mighty - still didn't seem to suspect a thing. She couldn't say for sure when the right time to come clean would be. She just knew now wasn't that time.
〜
"Oh, uh, better let me do the talking when we're in there," said Tangle as the duo's ascent to the 42nd floor of Babylon Enterprises HQ neared its end.
"Yes, ma'am," said Mighty.
Nodding her thanks, the lemur turned to face the elevator doors. Soon enough, the bell pinged, they rolled open, and she was confronted by an empty desk. Which was odd. Where was Sonar?
Jet had had the skyscraper's top floor completely remodeled, reducing a dozen offices to just two: one for him, one for Storm, both spanning roughly half the floor. The small lobby area doubled as Sonar's office. For reasons Tangle was still waiting to have explained to her, Wave worked out of a different building altogether.
Taking her first tentative step out of the elevator, Tangle heard voices off to her right. They were emanating from a set of double doors that led to Jet's office. One was wedged open. Signaling for Mighty to follow, she made her way over and peered inside. The hawk was sat at his chrome semicircular desk. Sonar hovered over his left shoulder. They were staring intently as something on the desk.
"Uh, boss?" said Tangle meekly as she put her round. Jet and Sonar's heads both snapped up.
"You?!" blurted the hawk, his blue eyes widening.
Startled, Tangle looked over her shoulder at Mighty. He had stopped in the doorway. She looked back at her boss and her purple eyes widened. He was holding a blocky handgun-like weapon. She looked at Mighty again. He'd raised his hands.
"I guess I should've asked who your boss was," he said, sounding unnervingly relaxed for a Mobian being held at gunpoint.
"Tangle, get away from him!" barked Jet, drawing the lemur's gaze back towards him.
"B-b-but he's w-with me," she gibbered.
"With you?" said Sonar
Nodding furiously, Tangle then watched as Jet seemed to size her and Mighty up.
"You've got no idea who this hobo is, do you?" he said, more as a statement than question.
"I know he's called Mi—"
"Get over here," Jet snapped, pointing to a patch of floor beside his desk.
Reluctantly, the lemur complied, glancing back at Mighty as she shuffled across the carpet emblazoned with the Babylon Rogues' old insignia. Supposedly the Rogues were still arguing over Babylon Enterprises' official branding, hence the tower's unadorned exterior. Meanwhile, Jet handed his weapon to Sonar.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he hissed, pivoting his chair towards Tangle.
"He's just looking for some help—"
"Some help?" Jet scoffed. "Where did you even find him?"
"The hospital. He was in the helicopter with Amy's friend."
"I see. Why didn't you call ahead?"
"I thought you trusted me—"
"To babysit, yes, but it would seem you might need a babysitter yourself," said Jet, pivoting back towards Mighty. "I gather you haven't told young Tangle here about Pearl City."
"What's to tell?" said the armadillo.
The hawk scowled. "How about the absolute fortune you cost me?"
"He's only looking for his boyfriend!" Tangle piped up.
"Ex-boyfriend," Mighty corrected her.
"Really?" said Sonar. "How adorable."
"Indeed," said Jet. "But how the hell did you imagine we'd be able to help—"
"It's Espio, boss!" Tangle cut in. "C'mon, boss, can't we just ask Rou—"
The hawk hammered his desk with a fist and glowered at the lemur. "Not. Another. Word."
"Look, J-Bird, are you going to shoot me or not?" said Mighty.
"J-Bird? I should you shoot you just for calling me that," Tangle heard Jet mutter. He gestured for Sonar to lower her weapon. "Okay, here's my offer: promise you'll keep that carapace-encased ass of yours away from Westopolis and we'll forget my astonishingly naïve bodyguard here even met you in the first place."
"Why?" said the armadillo. "What kind of racket are you running this time, J-Bird?"
"Take it or leave it," said the hawk. "But if you'd rather be arrested for trespassing, that's fine, too. In the meantime, Storm's just across the hall."
To Tangle's surprise (and slight disappointment), the Freedom Fighter wavered.
"Can I at least say bye to the kid?" said Mighty.
"There she is," said Jet. "Knock yourself out."
"You know what I mean, J-Bi—"
"She'll meet you downstairs," the hawk snapped. "Now, Sonny, if you please."
Tangle looked on with a growing sense of foreboding as the teal fennec stepped out from behind the desk and ushered Mighty out of the office. The instant the door slammed behind them, Jet pivoted back to her.
"I expected better from you, Tangle. I really did."
She wrinkled her nose. "But nothing happened—"
"You led a complete stranger in here on the basis that he appeared to be pals with someone from the Knothole mob. Is that about right?"
"Amy knew him, too," Tangle countered.
"And let's just look where her taste in friends has gotten her," said Jet.
The lemur shifted on the spot. She wanted to mention the conversation between Mighty and Sonic she'd overheard, but short of ringing that number on her cellphone, what proof could she offer? She wrapped her tail around herself as the hopelessness of her predicament sank in.
"Am I fired?" she asked meekly, fiddling with the gray tip of her tail.
Jet sighed. "You're a good kid. Just…maybe more of a kid than I gave you credit for. Still, not much sense in wasting all Infinite's hard work. Consider yourself on probation."
"What does that mean?"
"You'll be supervised while on duty. Probably not much different from when you first joined us."
Tangle curled her lip. Did that mean she'd be back to making Infinite and Sonar endless espressos?
"How long for?"
"As long as it takes," said Jet. "Anyway, I suspect Sonny might be getting twitchy down there. Keep it quick. We have the mayor's gala tonight."
"Yes, boss."
Tangle hugged her tail as she shuffled out of the office. She wanted this to feel like one of her many walks out of her high school vice-principal's office, having been handed yet more detention. She just couldn't seem to reconcile the two scenarios. Detention was something predictable, finite. But probation? It sounded like a potential life sentence. She was still hugging her tail when the elevator reached the first floor.
"He sure took his time with you, huh," remarked Sonar as the doors opened. "Keep your head up, kiddo."
The fennec ruffled the fur between Tangle's ears as they passed each other going in and out of the elevator. The lemur kept quiet.
"You okay, kid?" asked Mighty, rising from a couch across the lobby's marbled floor.
"I think I just got demoted," replied Tangle, looking down at her amber high-tops as she tottered over.
"I am so sorry—"
"Don't be," the lemur said, shaking her head. "Please."
In spite of feeling like she was being overpunished, she had to admit taking someone she'd literally just met into the inner sanctum of the Mobian who paid her to protect him was plain bad bodyguarding. The question was, what had Mighty done in the past that'd gotten Jet so worked up?
"Well, I guess this is goodbye," said the armadillo, extending a hand. "Thanks for—"
Tangle looked down at his hand, then at his face. "Mighty, what happened in Pearl City?"
"Isn't J-Bird timing you or something?" he said, retracting his hand.
The lemur glanced at the elevator. "Sonny would've stuck around if he was."
"Well, you might want to get comfortable," said Mighty, retaking his seat on the couch. Tangle perched beside him. "You heard of Pearl City before?"
"Not before today. Where even is it?"
"Way down south. Tiny little town. I doubt whoever named it had actually seen a real city."
"What's with the 'Pearl'?"
"Those things are probably why the place even exists. The seabed down there is covered in them. I'm actually kind of surprised J-Bird hasn't tried to take the place over, now he's 'legit'. Could be that he's waiting for Zorabel to roll over—"
"Zorabel?" Tangle cut in. "Who's that?"
"Old Zorabel? She's the Queen of Pearls!"
"The what?"
"Just some ancient loris. Nobody seems to quite know how ancient. She's run that town for decades. Lives in a big house with her five daughters and all junk your boss sold her."
Tangle tilted her head. "Junk?"
"Old Zorabel's always had a thing for older than her, and things don't come much older than Babylonian artifacts. I'm not entirely sure how J-Bird convinced her he dug up all those statues and other 'artifacts' is such good condition but—"
"He was ripping off an old lady?!" Tangle blurted.
"Well, yeah, but don't go feeling too sorry for old Zorabel—"
"Why not? The boss was taking advantage of her, wasn't he?"
"Hey, it ain't like anyone else in Pearl City lives in a house like hers."
"But then, if she, like, had it coming, why you did bust him?"
"Well, technically, I didn't," said Mighty. "There was a small Freedom Fighter cell, same as most places. They'd did most of the important stuff. It was just safer for those guys if Zorabel and J-Bird both thought it was all some meddlesome out-of-towner's handiwork."
Tangle leant back on the couch, her curiosity stifled by what she'd learned about her boss. She suddenly couldn't help thinking of what that food truckie Ebony had said. Something like 'what if the money Jet was spending shouldn't be his to spend in the first place?'
How many of those buildings outside were being paid for with his Pearl City haul? What about her salary? Nibbling her lip, she peered down at her amber high-tops. They hadn't come cheap. How many meals could some pearl diver's poor kids not have missed if Jet hadn't stolen the money she'd paid for them?
Mighty perked up as he saw two gaudily-colored shoes flying across the lobby. Before he could ask what was going on, a barefooted Tangle had yanked him to his feet and was leading him to the front door. If what she was about to do got her a one-way ticket back to Spiral Hill, so be it. She just hoped she'd be able to sleep tonight.
〜
"3. 2. 1."
With a grunt, Wave crowbarred open a panel below Emerl's main chest plate, revealing six cone-shaped recesses.
"Check it out. Cupholders," said Tekno, peering inside the Gizoid.
"Just put in it," said Wave, setting the crowbar down on the workbench.
"Okay," said the canary, carefully slotting the blue Chaos Emerald into one of the recesses.
Wave closed the compartment and took a cautious step back. Silence reigned in laboratory as both birds stared at the Gizoid's unlit eyes. Tekno emitted a short, sharp gasp as the bulbous optics seemed to flicker. Alas, the faint blue glow faded as quickly as it'd appeared. A minute passed. No other signs of life were forthcoming.
Watching from her perch on another workbench across the lab, Rouge sighed. So much for that, then. She looked back at her phone while the birds began their analysis. They were soon interrupted by the laboratory's phone. Wave answered it grudgingly.
"Yeah? Really? Here? Huh. Okay. What's she after? Oh."
The swallow glanced up at Rouge.
"It's for you," she said.
〜
Down in the first-floor lobby of the Babylon Enterprises Research & Innovation Complex — called 'BERIC' by Wave and the 'Waveplex' by everyone else — Tangle was getting fidgety. It felt conceivable that someone wouldn't have noticed her absence from HQ by now. It could only be a matter of time before the boss sent someone after her.
At the same time, her crisis of conscience continued to simmer. Her thoughts had moved onto her snazzy athleisurewear, all of which had only cost marginally less than the tainted high-tops. She wasn't about to go tearing her clothes off (even her undies were designer), but she had begun a mental inventory of her closet, trying to think of clothes she hadn't bought with potentially dirty money. Thus far, only her old blush-pink school uniform had made the grade.
"Tangle?" said Rouge, entering the lobby through the security door by the reception desk.
The lemur sprang to her feet. "You're here!"
"I am," said the bewildered bat, glancing at Mighty lounging on the couch the fifteen-year-old had vacated. He waved to her. "But why're you here?"
"I, uh, need to, like, ask a favor," said Tangle haltingly. She stiffened as Rouge walked right up to her, painted eyelids narrowed.
"What're you up to, sweetie?" the bat whispered. "And who is that?"
"Espio's boyfr-err-e-ex-boyfriend," the lemur gibbered. "He needs your help."
Rouge cocked her head to the right, taking another look at the armadillo. He was the picture of tranquility. Looking back at Tangle, she grabbed the teen's wrist and forcibly walked her across the lobby to the ladies' bathroom.
"Do I even need to ask if Jet knows you're here?" asked the bat, leaning against the inside of the bathroom door.
"You're not going to tell on me, are you?" said the lemur, nervously rubbing a forearm. "Please don't tell on me."
Rouge couldn't help laughing. "How little you know me. What was it that, uh—"
"Mighty," said Tangle. "His name's Mighty."
"Right. Mighty," said Rouge thoughtfully, as if saying the name out loud would help her figure out which bell it had rung in her head. When it didn't, she shrugged. "What does Mighty want with my help?"
"He just wants to know if Espio's okay. You've still got friends in GUN, right?"
The bat grimaced. "I suppose you could still call them friends. What's the boss's problem?"
"Mighty screwed up some scam he was running way back," said Tangle venomously, looking at her shoeless feet.
Rouge frowned. "Sweetie, you know those birds were called Rogues for a reason, right?"
"He told me he was just a sky pirate!" the lemur countered. "It's different when he's ripping off a town of, like, normal folks."
"Is this really about helping Mighty?" asked the bat, moving closer. "Or are you just trying to stick it to the boss?"
"Can't it be both?" said Tangle meekly, glancing up from her feet. "Can you believe he's actually friends with Sonic?"
Rouge smiled indulgently, tousling the fur between the lemur's ears. "If he says so, sweetie."
Tangle swatted the offending hand away with her tail. Her expression turned deathly serious. "Are you gonna help Mighty or not?"
"Yes. Yes, I will."
The lemur hurriedly averted her gaze as the bat casually reached into her cleavage. After a moment's rummaging, her hand emerged pinching a SIM card between her thumb and forefinger.
"Here's hoping Topaz isn't busy," said Rouge, levering the back panel off her cellphone.
〜
"Boss! Boss!" roared Storm, waving his arms wildly as he burst into Jet's office.
Jet and Sonar looked up from a diagram of the dining room where they'd be hosting the mayor tonight. They'd been working on the seating plan since before Tangle barged in.
"Have you seen this?"
The albatross came barreling towards the desk and shoved a cellphone in his fellow Rogue's face. A split-second later, Sonar dodged out the way as the hawk snatched the device, did a 180 in his chair and walked to the nearest window. It was all he could to keep from throwing the phone across the office.
The website of The Westopolis Gleaner, a local newspaper Babylon Enterprises had recently purchased, was onscreen. The top headline read 'BADNIK DEMANDS GUN GIVE UP METROPOLIS, RELEASE ROBOTNIK'. Below it, the green eyes of Metal Knuckles stared up at him. Jet stared right back at the grainy image, his grip on the phone tightening into a fist.
Mere weeks ago, he and Wave had reluctantly admitted defeat in their quest for one of Robotnik's robotic doppelgangers. It seemed all of them – Silver Sonic, Mecha Knuckles and so on – had met similar fates to the wholly dismembered Metal Sonic. Where on Mobius had this one been hiding?
"Sonny?" said Jet calmly without turning around.
"Yes, boss?"
"Try and get Wave on the line."
"You got it."
"Call her cell. I'm not in the mood for that switchboard dance today."
He stayed by the window while the fennec carried out his orders.
"No answer, boss," she said eventually.
Jet groaned.
"Try Rouge. She should still be there."
"Okay," replied Sonar, bringing up the bat's number. "Hey Rouge. Can you put Wave on? Oh, you're not…wait, what? Go again. Who did you say…? Tangle?!"
Jet spun on his heel, eyes ablaze. He gestured manically for his henchwoman to hit mute.
"Forget Wave. Just tell her to lock the place down. That kid goes nowhere."
Relaying his instructions, Sonar hung up. "Now what?"
"Call the mayor, tell him we're rescheduling, then find out wherever Infinite's got to, pick a minivan and meet us at the Waveplex."
The fennec could hardly have left the office faster. Clearly someone was as happy as him to be free of the damned seating plan. Grunting, Jet turned to Storm.
"Grab your Gear, my friend," he said, tossing the albatross his phone. "We've got another stop to make first."
〜
In the Waveplex's first-floor lobby, it had become Mighty's turn to get fidgety. Rouge had confirmed what he'd both expected and dreaded: GUN had Espio. He was alive, but for how much longer?
Now he knew the full extent of what Shadow's raiding party had done – Vice Commander dead, Commander on life support – he could all too easily imagine GUN rushing to execute the chameleon, if only to boost the troops' morale. Where was Vector when he wanted him?
"Tangle?" a familiar voice hollered.
The armadillo stopped his pacing as Jet strode into the lobby with a burly albatross following one step behind. Both had hoverboards tucked under their arms.
"Too late, J-Bird," said Mighty, maneuvering himself between the oncoming Rogues and the couch where Tangle sat hugging her knees. "The bat lady already call-ugh!"
Storm sent the armadillo flying with a swing of his Extreme Gear.
"Storm, find somewhere secure to put that shitkicker," said Jet, barely even glancing at the dazed Mighty. "As for you, young lady."
"H-hey!" Tangle whined as the hawk forced her to her feet by way of a pinched ear. Realizing resistance would only make it hurt more, the lemur let herself be towed through the security door by reception and inside an empty conference room.
"Tell me," said Jet, letting her go. "Were you hinting at something when you asked if you were fired earlier?"
Massaging her sore ear, Tangle scowled reproachfully. "I know about Pearl City."
Jet rolled his eyes. "I'll bet you do."
"How could you—?"
"It was another life. Besides, that mad old crone st—"
He stopped midsentence and scratched the underside of his beak.
"Why am I even explaining myself to you? You're the one in the shit here. Also, if you're as up to date on that Pearl City…episode as you claim, you'll understand the risks that interfering hobo poses to what we're trying to build here. Why help him? D'you think buddying up with some washed-up old Freedom Fighter will magically make you one? The war's over, kid, and it wasn't even the Knothole gang that won it."
The hawk took a deep breath, as if to calm himself.
"So, anyway, did I misjudge how you'd feel about probation? Did the idea of being Infinite's sidekick not sound all that bad aft—"
"If you're gonna send me home, just say so, boss," Tangle cut in.
"Ah, so I'm still 'boss' at least," said Jet. "No, Tangle, I'm not sending you home, and not just because it'll annoy Infinite."
He unslung a backpack hanging off his left shoulder and dropped it on the glass-topped conference table.
"That, young lady, is for you."
Eyeing the plain black backpack warily, the lemur hooked one of its straps with her tail and delivered it into her arms. She unzipped it and her face dropped.
"You can't be seri—!"
"Oh, I'm deathly serious," he said coolly. "If you're going to behave like a child, you can dress like one. Now get changed. I've got a job for you to do."
Jet left her gazing forlornly at the backpack's contents. Out in the hallway, he was surprised to find Rouge lurking outside the elevator. Evidently Storm had used some initiative.
"Was this a new record, or do you betray everyone you work for in a matter of hours?" he said.
"If you're going to roast me, can you do it upstairs?" said the bat curtly. "Tekno's doing her thing."
"She is? That's excellent," said Jet. "But no, no we can't. You've got somewhere else to be."
"I do?"
"Indeed. Admittedly, I can't quite remember how long Whisper's been babysitting Shadow, but I'd say it's probably time someone else took a turn." His beak curved into a sly smile. "Who better for him to wake up than your friendly face?"
The bat's jade eyes widened. "He nearly shot me last time I saw him."
"Lucky for you, Whisper's probably the only one with a gun down there. If not, well, you should've thought of that before you gave Tangle that freebie. Speaking of whom."
He stepped to one side as the conference room door's handle turned and a particularly glum-faced lemur emerged.
"Tangle?" said Rouge, momentarily failing to recognize her.
Where there had been an amber tanktop, there was now a black sweater vest and white three-buttoned polo shirt. Where there had been black leggings, there was now a yellow plaid skirt. Her previously bare feet had gained black socks and a pair of clean white tennis shoes. Fingerless gloves were the only remnant of her previous outfit.
"What're you wearing?" said the bat before she could stop herself.
"Meet Babylon Polytechnical School's newest student," said Jet.
"St-student?!" blurted Tangle.
"What? Did you think I made you get dressed up for fun?" the hawk asked. "Figured you might want to wear that in a little. Didn't think you liked skirts, though."
"Pants had nowhere for my tail," the lemur mumbled. It sounded to Rouge like they were far from the first item of clothing she'd had that trouble with.
"Oh," uttered Jet. "We'll get you an appointment with Wave's tailor when you get back."
"Get back? Where from?"
"The hospital," he said. "Don't think you don't still work for me, Tangle. You'll just be part-time for a while. Anyway, let's go."
Jet turned heel and headed in the direction of the lobby. Rouge draped an arm over Tangle's stooped shoulders as they followed behind him.
"If you want to stop by your place and change, I won't tell if you won't," the bat whispered.
"It's…fine," murmured Tangle, tugging fussily at her polo's oversized collar. "My old one was worse."
Infinite and Sonar were waiting for them in the lobby. The teal fennec looked on edge, turning her cellphone over in her hands.
"Something wrong, Sonny?" asked Jet.
"Whisper called when we were parking out front.," said Sonar. "She says someone just almost killed Shadow."