Disclaimer: All non-original characters are property of SEGA, DiC and/or their respective creators.
Inescapable Past, Act 18: Enter Jemerl
Janelly recoiled violently as a Balkiry shot by her bedroom window. So violently, the tapir nearly toppled off her top bunk. Teetering on the edge of her mattress, the eleven-year-old held her breath as one bunk down, her little brother Marky mumbled something in his sleep. Eventually, she heard him turn over. Exhaling, she shuffled back over to the window. It wasn't like there was anything else to do.
Their mother had sent them both to bed hours ago, well before Janelly's bedtime. If the streets of Metropolis weren't crawling with Badniks, she would've kicked up more of a fuss. As it was, it wasn't as if Mommy was in the loungeroom enjoying herself. She was sitting there in the dark, maybe saying a little prayer to Solaris, waiting for Daddy to call. He worked on a construction crew at GUN's base. No one had heard from anyone since the first big explosions that afternoon.
Hers and Marky's journey home from school was still a bit of a blur. One moment, long division had been about to make her cry. The next, a teacher was escorting them and the other kids from their building through the streets, yelling to take cover whenever Badniks went scuttling by. It'd been kind of exciting. A little bit fun, even. Now, though, she just wanted her Daddy home safe.
Living on the top floor have her an unparalleled view of the intersection he crossed every day on his way to work. What's more, despite all the mayhem, most of the streetlights had come on like normal. Hence why the little tapir hadn't even put her PJs on yet. She would keep watch all night if she had to.
Out in the loungeroom, the siblings' mother looked up from her cellphone as she heard a crash, followed by Janelly's scream. She scrambled across the apartment and kicked open the bedroom's door.
"Janey? Marky?!" she yelled, shining her phone's flashlight inside. All it illuminated was a thick dust cloud.
"We're okay, Mommy!" Janelly spluttered in the darkness.
Their mother dared to relax, only to stiffen when she saw two blue orbs hovering towards her through the dusty haze. Hand on heart, she watched as a yellow robot the height of a full-grown Mobian emerged from her children's bedroom. She backed out of its way. It sauntered past her, down the hallway to the apartment's front door and let itself out.
"Make a note of that address," said Jet, standing in his office aboard the Babylon Guardian, "We'll send them a cheque for the roof."
"Cute gesture. You still missed, though," said Wave.
Peering over her bank of monitors at him, she smirked. The hawk was clad in a black body-glove so form-fitting, it looked like he'd raided Rouge's closet. This was in addition to heavy black boots, VR goggles, and bulky gauntlets that doubled the width of his fingers. The gear comprised the prototype 'haptic suit' he was using to remotely control Emerl's body.
She and Tekno had gotten round the issue of the underpowered Chaos Emerald by cutting off certain internal systems from the Gizoid's arcane power supply. As she'd put it to Storm, they'd basically unplugged Emerl's brain. In a very literal sense, the lights were on, but no one was home.
"Whatever. The scanner picked up anything yet?" said Jet, walking on the spot as he guided Emerl down the apartment building's winding stairsl.
The airship had been circling just above the cloud line for hours, trying to ascertain what was controlling the unusually well-coordinated Badniks infesting Metropolis's South Sector. Scans had been inconclusive; hence this move to try and kick the Buzz Bombers' nest.
"Let me worry about that. Just hurry up and whack some Badniks," said Wave, "Any leads, Whisper?"
"Have a visual on a Newtron one block over. Due south," said Whisper, radioing from her vantage point atop the apartment building. She had made her way into the South Sector on foot while the airship circled.
"I see it," said Jet, spying the bright-green Badnik clinging to a lamppost.
Emerl started down the block at a jog. Spotting the approaching robot, the Newtron opened its mouth. Seeing its energy ball splash harmlessly off the Gizoid, it activated its camouflage. Meanwhile, Emerl grabbed the base of the lamppost with both hands and shook it.
When that failed to shift the Badnik, it ripped the light fitting out of the ground and shook it some more. From Wave's perspective, Jet looked like he was waving an imaginary club at an imaginary pinata. Down on the ground, the hapless Newtron soon landed on the potholed road, its camouflage flickering. It exploded in a flash of green light, courtesy of Whisper's hard-light rifle.
"Target down," said the wolf over the radio.
"Good," said Wave, "Do that ten more times and we might get somewhere. I'll rouse the troops."
The swallow switched channels on her headset. "Infinite?"
"Copy," replied the jackal.
"Spare me the jargon," said Wave, "Jemerl and Whisper just swatted their first Badnik. Go get ready."
"Jemerl?" echoed Infinite, "We're actually calling him that?"
"Why not? Just get your asses down to the hold, and don't forget your Spex."
"Already wearing them. Over and out."
Infinite grinned to himself at the Wave's parting groan. Gulping down the last of the liquor-free mojito Mighty had made for him, he got up off his stool at the airship's onboard bar.
"Let's go, girls," he said, heading for the Sky Lounge's exit.
Sonar promptly guzzled down the rest of her own mojito, plus the one Tekno had abandoned after one sip. Caught in the middle of mixing an alcohol-free Monopolitan, Mighty reluctantly put his shaker down and followed after the fennec and canary.
In the elevator, the armadillo stood quietly while his fellow passengers checked over their headsets and smartglasses (the so-called 'Spex'). Wave had declined to give him either, despite Sonar and Tekno speaking up on his behalf.
When the doors opened, the others piled out into the cargo hold. Mighty was slower to emerge, distracted by the small fleet of snowmobile-like vehicles lined up in front of the hold's door. He grimaced. Were they really about to descend six thousand feet riding those puny things?
Trying not think of his first (and last) flight on the Tornado — he'd started off standing on the biplane's upper wing and ended up clinging to it by his fingertips — Mighty turned to the others. They were standing around an open crate over in the corner, tooling up.
"Anything for me in that toybox?" he asked, walking over to join them.
"Thought you Freedom Fighter types didn't do guns," said Infinite as he strapped a sheathed sword to his back.
The jackal grunted, more in surprise than pain, as Sonar elbowed him in the ribs.
"We weren't all like the Knothole gang, doofus," said the fennec, grabbing a blaster-rifle out of the crate. She presented it to Mighty, "He's just not big on sharing."
"You were a Freedom Fighter?" said the armadillo, accepting the weapon.
Sonar smiled. "Once upon a time."
"Whereabouts?"
"Oil Desert."
"Oh," said Mighty, "I don't suppose you know Spike?"
"Know him?" said Sonar, "I was taking orders from him when I left. Why?"
"We, uh, dated for a little while," said the armadillo.
"Spike, huh?" said the fennec, tilting her head, "What happened?"
"Probably not purple and scaly enough," Infinite interjected.
Mighty went to glare at the jackal, only to find a headset dangling in front of his face.
"Compliments of the little girl," said Infinite, nodding over at Tekno.
The canary — still wearing her Alicia Acorn Academy uniform, purple blazer and all — looked up from stringing her crossbow and waved. Mighty eyed the headset warily.
"You sure? I heard what J-Bird did to his last henchman who went rogue."
Infinite rolled his eyes.
"Don't go feeling guilty about Tangle. She treated this job like one big field trip," he said, "And besides, Wave is who we're undermining here. We work for the green bird, not the purple one."
Mighty took the headset.
"Now c'mon, you're riding with me," said Infinite, "Sonny, be a doll and open the door."
The jackal tapped his headset.
"All set down here, Wave. How's Jemerl doing?"
"Keeping busy," said the swallow, glancing over her monitors at Jet.
The hawk was spinning in a circle, arms outstretched. Six thousand feet below, Emerl was in the middle of the same intersection, swinging a Caterkiller round by its antenna. The surrounding asphalt was littered with pieces of twitching Badniks. By now, the antiquated robots were coming at him from three sides.
"Got a location for us yet?" asked Infinite.
"Three, actually. Sending them to your Spex now," said Wave, "Could all be transmitters, could all just be relays. Sorry we couldn't do better than that, but Jet and Whisper can only keep this up for so long."
"Nothing we can't handle," said Infinite as three strings of luminous red numbers appeared on his smartglasses' left lens.
"You can choose who goes where. Now get."
"Screw you," mumbled the jackal, tapping his Spex's frames to flick through the three sets of coordinates. Forwarding two on to Sonar and Tekno, he climbed onto his hoverbike.
"Screw who?" said Tekno, mounting the hoverbike to his right.
"Mind your business," said Infinite, flashing a grin at the preteen. Then, he looked over his shoulder, "Hey, Freedom Fighter, you coming or what?"
Mighty snapped out of his reverie. He'd been gazing out the hold's open door. Flying above the clouds as they were, this was the best view of the Mobian night sky he'd ever had. Maybe he should hit Sonic up for another flight after all, assuming he survived this one. Taking a deep breath, he slung his blaster-rifle over his shoulder and went to take his seat.
Author's Note: Gracias Kima por mantener este espectáculo en la carretera. Lo siento por mi horrible español.