Disclaimer: All non-original characters are property of SEGA, DiC and/or their respective creators.
Inescapable Past, Act 21: In The Midnight Hour
Turn it off and go to sleep, Leaf typed into her phone.
Sipping her coffee while she waited for three bouncing dots to appear, the muntjac noticed the clock in the corner of her phone's screen strike midnight.
Don't go thinking you're missing school tomorrow, she added in a second message.
Fine, her daughter Mercy typed back instantaneously.
Sleep tight, Leaf replied.
Watching the green circle around the photo of her 14-year-old daughter's smiling face fade, the muntjac pocketed her phone and gulped down the last of her coffee in triumph. She was getting pretty good at this parenting-by-text thing. A little too good, perhaps. Such was life for a single mother whose boss persistently had her working nights.
Those darn Eggheads just had to go pick a worknight to scare the life out of her daughter. Young Mercy had only just gotten over months of Black Doom-induced night terrors. Grainy footage of rampaging Badniks plastered over every TV station and website on Mobius was the last thing that child needed.
Leaf thanked Solaris she'd still been at school when the news first broke. She'd counselled her as best as she could via text over the evening. However, now it was clear those Badniks wouldn't be marching towards Westopolis, she'd put her hoof down.
The muntjac dropped her cup in a bin on her way out of the breakroom and set off on her midnight rounds. After a long walk through the gloomy hallways of Westopolis University Medical Centre, she came to a door where a security guard sat snoozing on a folding chair.
Keen to not disturb the sleeping sentry, Leaf forewent knocking and eased the guarded door open. She was welcomed inside by the metronomic beep of Shadow's vital signs monitor. The black hedgehog was still tucked up in bed, apparently unmoved.
As for the white bat who'd stayed behind when Jet and his motley entourage left, she was knelt at the foot of his bed. Her elbows were resting on the corner of her mattress, eyes shut, head bowed, forehead pressed against her clasped hands.
Leaf kept quiet, reluctant to disturb a fellow Solarian at prayer. Her fingers idly sought out the sun-shaped pendant around her neck. She pinched it as she looked on. Soon enough, Rouge lifted her head. Catching the doctor's eye, she smirked slightly.
"Oh."
"I'm sorry," said the muntjac. "I should've knocked."
Rouge waved away the apology as she stood up. "Please, doc, you're the one who's actually helping him."
Leaf wrinkled her nose, tempted to affirm her own belief in the power of prayer. When she saw the bat's gaze had already shifted to Shadow, she bit her tongue and approached his bedside.
"I don't suppose I need to ask if he's moved at all?" she said, giving the comatose hedgehog a cursory once-over.
"Not even a twitch," said Rouge gravely.
"I see," said Leaf, checking the tubes connecting Shadow to the dialysis machine. It hummed quietly as it filtered his predominantly synthetic blood.
She turned around to find the bat's gaze still fixed on the hedgehog. She was hugging herself with one arm, mouth pressed against her fist. She looked close to tears. Leaf frowned sympathetically.
"I'm sorry if this is a little forward, but if it'll help at all, there's a chapel on the next floor up."
Rouge glanced up at her. She lowered her fist to reveal a wry smile.
"Can't really say I'm that type," she said. "What you saw just now, it's, uh…more of an old habit."
Leaf nodded, suddenly relieved she hadn't vouched for prayer-power.
"You can take the girl out of Soleanna but, well, y'know…"
"You're from Soleanna?"
"Among other places," said the bat, abruptly returning her gaze back to Shadow.
Leaf took that as her cue.
"Well, I or someone else will check in again in a few hours."
As the door closed behind the muntjac, Rouge grimaced.
"You can take the girl out of Soleanna?" she muttered to herself.
She couldn't even remember the last time she'd told someone she'd grown up in that old city. If she was letting slip information like that to complete strangers, she was in worse shape than she thought. Trapsing over to a corner of the room, she collapsed into the armchair there.
"That was your fault," she said, shooting an accusatory glare at Shadow.
"What was?" murmured the Ultimate Life Form.
〜
"How did you bastards do it?" Corporal Jian wondered aloud, shining her flashlight on the circular depression in the concrete at her feet.
The white tigress was standing in what had been Commander Volta's office at GUN headquarters. Now, in the words of one colleague, it was the tidiest bombsite on Mobius. That was the prevailing theory, anyway. A mysterious explosive that'd somehow stripped the floor and walls bare, vaporized the ceiling, and blown out all the windows without inflicting major structural damage.
That little weirdo Arnem Abacus had proposed some kind of watered-down antimatter device. Jian thought magic was a likelier explanation, not that anyone had asked her. Indeed, she was supposed to be in her quarters right now. That was where Captain Topaz had told her to go, but she wasn't about to let her girlfriend pull rank on her and get away with it.
This visit was more about redemption than petty insubordination, though. When Topaz had essentially sent her to bed, the lioness had barely been able to keep her eyes open. Even so, she'd stayed down in the basement holding facility (the so-called Dungeon) to make sure no one like Major Maw snuck down to revenge themselves on that taciturn chameleon.
Jian suspected Topaz's refusal to let her take a shift guarding his cell was punishment for her outburst about removing the chameleon's horn with a buzzsaw. Thus, here she was, hunting for something that could both win back her girlfriend's trust and break that reticent reptile's poker face.
The tigress blinked as her flashlight suddenly became exponentially brighter. She looked up from the circle of cracked concrete, only to be dazzled by a vee-shaped beam of light. It grew rapidly larger and brighter.
Jian dropped to the floor. She felt a rush of wind across her back as whatever the vee-shaped light was attached to whizzed overhead. She was about to jump up something heavy landed on her back.
"Sorry about that," said the Mobian as he straddled her back. "Nothing personal."
"Who…are you?" wheezed Jian, winded from the impact.
The gruff-voiced Mobian didn't reply. Instead, he pulled her arms behind her back and wrenched the tigress to her feet. In front of them, the vehicle she'd dodged — some sort of flying snowmobile — had landed. Its vee-shaped headlight still blazed, illuminating most of the gutted office to some extent. Jian's breath caught in her throat as she saw who was dismounting the vehicle.
"Hello, Jian," said Infinite, locking eyes with her.
The tigress bared her teeth and hissed.
"You know her?" asked Mighty, wrestling to keep the struggling Jian in her armlock.
"Just enough to wish I didn't," said Infinite, maintaining eye contact with the writhing corporal.
The jackal whisked his ruby cutlass out of the scabbard on his back and held the crystalline blade's tip a hair's breadth from her neck. Jian scowled, then settled.
"Why're you here?" she asked curtly. "Returning to the scene?"
Infinite spat on the ground at her feet.
"This ain't my work," he said. "But I didn't come here to speak with a minion. Where's that brownnosing fleabag you call a leader?"
The tigress held Infinite's unwavering heterochromatic gaze for a spell. Eventually, she smirked.
"I'm sorry, was that 'take me to your leader'? Are you serious?"
"Damn right, we're serious!" Cassia piped up, running forward to kick Jian in the shin.
Blindsided, Infinite rounded on the young pronghorn and shoved her to floor. Clove came running to her little sister's defence, Igniting her scythe.
"Put it away, Egghead!" barked the jackal.
"Egghead?" said Jian.
Infinite's eyes snapped back to the tigress. He brandished his sword again.
"Wherever Sleet is, take us there," he growled. "After you, Freedom Fighter."
With that, Mighty began steering Jian towards the hole in the wall where the office door used to be. Jian resisted every step of the way, stumbling along in front of the armadillo in a vain attempt to trip them both up. When they were within spitting distance of the exit, Mighty pushed Jian up against the concrete wall.
"Look, I won't pretend to know your history with that…guy," he murmured, glancing sidelong at Infinite. The jackal looked to be bickering with Clove. "However, I'm reliably informed the love of my life is somewhere in these walls, and right now, seeing him again means more to me than your arms staying in one piece. So, how about you just try and work with me here?"
〜
Tangle sat up in the roadside thicket and shook her fist at the retreating taillights of the car that'd nearly rearended her. She'd panicked and bailed early, only for the car to veer around her Extreme Gear at the last minute. Maybe she should've brought a second head lamp to light up her butt.
With a little help from her tail, the lemur stood up and swept grass off her windbreaker and leggings. On the one hand, that had been her only near-miss since leaving Westopolis. On the other hand, her legs already ached from standing, and she had several hours more hoverboarding ahead.
It was almost enough to make her want to turn back. Just as well she'd posted her keys through her apartment's mail slot after she'd locked it. There'd be no yellow plaid skirts in her future, no siree!
Tangle stepped back onto her Extreme Gear and popped the collar of her white polo shirt, hoping it might keep some of the wind off her neck. Then, adjusting her head lamp, she got underway.
Station Square, here she came.
〜
Mighty wanted nothing so much as to release Jian as he bundled her through the door she'd been leading them to. His earlier threat had had limited impact. The tigress had outdone every obstinate toddler on Mobius in her efforts to frustrate their journey down through the tower. Only Infinite intermittently waving his sword in her face had kept her cooperative.
"Where now?" grunted Mighty, withstanding another breakout attempt by Jian as the others filed in behind them.
"Let's give that a try, shall we?" said Infinite, pointing to a door on the far side of the room. "Kid, stay here. Egghead, come with me."
Mighty furrowed his brow as he watched the jackal and elder pronghorn cross the room.
"What're you doing?" he asked.
"Not knocking," said Infinite, sheathing his ruby cutlass. He turned to Clove. "Does that toy of yours work on wood?"
"It works on Badniks," said Clove, igniting the scythe.
"Good enough," said the jackal, nodding approvingly at the purple blade fizzing and crackling as it arced outwards. He looked to the door. "Cut it open."
"Have you lost your mind?" blurted Jian. "He's armed!"
Infinite scoffed.
"That mutt's never carried a loaded weapon in his life," he said, eyeing Clove expectantly.
The elder pronghorn stayed put, her face a picture of unease. "Are you…sure about that?"
"Never been surer," said Infinite. "He's too cautious."
Clove cocked a brow. "Too cautious?"
"Yeah. Too cautious someone might try and shoot him with it," said the jackal, placing on a hand on the sword hilt over his shoulder. "Now, get slicing, Egghead."
The pronghorn muttered something under her breath as she stepped up to the closed door. Carefully positioning her feet, she drew the scythe back over her head. Holding it there, she breathed deep, exhaled sharply, then carved a long vertical gash in the varnished oakwood.
No sooner had Clove withdrawn the scythe than Infinite went shoulder first through the ruined door. Jian grunted as Mighty pushed her to the floor and clambered across the office. He barged the nonplussed Clove aside and barreled through the door, broadening the hole Infinite had made.
In the office beyond, he found only an unoccupied desk piled high with paperwork. Behind it hung a tattered black flag bearing the letters 'DOW' in white paint. As the armadillo looked around hither and thither, he heard a noise like…was that gagging?
Mighty cracked his knuckles, walked up to the desk, and effortlessly hurled it aside, sending up a snowstorm of white paper. Through the fluttering documents, he glimpsed Infinite on his knees, straddling another Mobian's torso, his hands round their neck.
The other Mobian, a blue wolf in a black dress uniform, was vainly tugging at the jackal's wrists.
"This doesn't help Espio!" growled Mighty, wrapping his arm around Infinite's neck.
"Screw your boyfriend!" Infinite spat through gritted teeth.
Beneath them, the wolf gagged again, more quietly than before.
"Let go!" snarled Mighty, his headlock becoming a stranglehold. "This wasn't our deal."
"Shove…your deal!"
Tightening his hold as much as possible, the armadillo leaned backwards, forcing Infinite to straighten his spine and stretch his arms to keep ahold of the wolf. The further he leaned, the lesser the pressure on the hapless Mobian's throat.
"I go any further, your neck goes pop," Mighty murmured into Infinite's ear.
"Then let…go!" the jackal gurgled.
"You first."
Unleashing a strained, guttural yowl filtered through clenched teeth, Infinite let go.
Mighty didn't, keeping the jackal in a fractionally looser headlock as he forced him to his feet and away from the gasping wolf.
"Colonel Sleet!" yelled Jian, bursting into the room. She dropped to her knees beside the wolf and helped him sit upright.
Rubbing his neck, Sleet's orange eyes rose to meet Infinite's heterochromatic glare.
"Still can't find reliable help, old friend?" he said.
The jackal bared his teeth. Sleet reciprocated with a toothy grin. Gently pushing Jian away, he retrieved his black peaked cap, placed it atop his head, stood up and thumped Infinite in the face.
"That is for screwing up my filing," he said coolly, massaging his knuckles as his erstwhile strangler lolled unconscious in Mighty's arms.
While the armadillo laid the limp jackal out, Sleet looked to Clove and Cassia lurking in the office doorway. His eyes zeroed in on Cassia.
"A schoolchild?" he murmured to Jian. "Just how hard up for help is he?"
"They're not with him," interjected Mighty as he straightened up. "Nor am I."
Jian scoffed aloud. "Like hell you aren't—"
"I can speak for myself, thank you, corporal," Sleet cut in, wagging a paw in her face.
"Sorry, sir," muttered the tigress.
"Not with him, you say?" said Sleet, looking back and forth between Mighty and Clove. "How else would you characterize this…shall we say raid? Let's call it a raid."
"This fucker made us come," Cassia piped up, marching inside the office to kick Infinite in the side.
"Did he indeed?" said Sleet. "To what end, child?"
"My big sister has something she needs to tell you," said the pronghorn flatly.
"Like what?" said Jian, eyeing Clove skeptically.
"I'll look forward to hearing it, whatever it is," said Sleet, turning to Mighty. "What about you?"
"We've got the 'love of his life' somewhere around here, apparently," said Jian bitterly.
The wolf narrowed his eyes. "Would this 'love' happen to have purple scales and a truly disgusting tongue?"
The armadillo's face lit up like a searchlight.
"That'd be a yes, then," said Sleet, turning to Jian. "Corporal, stay here with this vagabond. Don't hesitate to wake Lieutenant Urchino if you need to, but only Urchino. Understood?"
"Yes, sir," said the tigress, saluting. "Where will you be?"
"Accompanying our visitors here downstairs.
"Alone?! Sir, you can't be—"
"Save it, Corporal. This fine young Mobian literally saved my neck," said Sleet, draping an arm around Mighty's shoulders. "The least we can do is let him see his boyfriend."