Disclaimer: All non-original characters are property of SEGA or their respective creators.
Inescapable Past, Act 29: Home Truths
"Already back in school, huh?" said Vector, knocking back the last of his carrot smoothie.
"You should've seen me try to talk her out of it," said Bunnie, taking a sip of her own smoothie, "Probably would've had more luck persuading Sal to throw in the towel back in the day."
The crocodile grinned. "That sounds like Vanilla's little girl, alright. Stubbornest Mobian I ever met."
"Never had the pleasure of finding out myself," said Bunnie solemnly.
Vector's grin vanished. "Bunnie, just why is Cream staying with you? You hardly even—"
"I was willing and able when no one else was, sugar," the rabbit snapped, "I seem to recall you declining an invitation to that particular conversation."
The crocodile shrank from her green-eyed glare.
"I couldn't leave that observation room," he muttered, "Vanilla was still hanging on. I couldn't just give her up for—"
"Sugar, we were talking about a sleepover, not fostering arrangements!" spluttered Bunnie, "Look, I know Rote got a little carried away fetching her bed and toys like he did, but you know how it is with him. Guy's heart is as big as he is."
She paused for a mouthful of carrot smoothie.
"Point is, I didn't sign up to be that little angel's foster-momma. Her bed just happens to be in my guestroom."
Chastened, Vector slouched forward on his stool, resting his folded arms on the gym's smoothie bar Bunnie was standing behind.
"Sorry, Bunnie," he mumbled.
"Forget it, sugar," said the rabbit, patting the crocodile's snout with her bionic hand, "I know how much that little sweetheart's momma meant to you."
Vector eyed her quizzically. Did she really understand the nature of his bond with Vanilla, or had she jumped to the conclusion everyone else on Mobius seemed to about him being in love with her? (Well, everyone on Mobius but Espio.)
"Thanks, Bunnie," he said quietly, deciding now wasn't the time to articulate the finer points of his asexuality.
"That's fine," she said, "Now, d'you want me to fix you another smoothie before we go? I've got other flavors, I promise."
"Actually, I'd rather just getting moving," said Vector, rising from his stool.
"Darn it, sugar, I've known hedgehogs with more patience than you right now!"
Bunnie walked out from behind the smoothie bar and draped her organic arm over his scaly green shoulders.
"Cream ain't gonna be done for a while yet. Not unless you think you're more exciting to her than volleyball."
Vector sighed. The three main things Cream had inherited from her late mother were those big floppy ears, a dogmatic respect for rules and etiquette, and an abiding love of volleyball. There would be no winning that battle.
"What do we do in the meantime?" he said.
Bunnie laughed. "Bored of listening to me already, huh, sugar?"
The subsequent look on the crocodile's face made her laugh even harder.
"Just busting your chops, sugar," she said, patting his back, "Seriously, though, I've my own gym, remember? C'mon, let's see what you can bench these days."
〜
"Are you okay?" asked Cassia, "You seem kinda gloomy for a guy who just got out of jail."
Espio looked blankly at the pronghorn, sitting beside him on the wing of an inert Balkiry somewhere in Metropolis's South Sector. Her luminous yellow eyes looked back at him questioningly as she munched on a potato chip.
"You should see me when I'm working," he said.
"Oh yeah?" said Cassia, idly licking paprika dust off her fingertips, "What job do you do?"
"For the most part, Mobians pay me to watch other Mobians who don't know they're being watched."
Stuffing another handful of chips into her mouth, the pronghorn chewed thoughtfully.
"Not gonna lie. That sounds kind of messed-up," she said flatly.
The chameleon smirked. "You and Mighty would get on."
"Yeah, probably," said Cassia airily, "He helped me and Cloey out big-time."
"He's…like that," said Espio, glancing across the street at the backstreet garage Mighty had led them to in their search for transportation.
Its proprietor, a squirrel who gave his name as Shorty, had supposedly been part of the old Freedom Fighter cell that used to help restive Metropolitans escape the walled city. Of course, this being one of Mighty's contacts, there was every chance he and Shorty had once been more than mere comrades.
He wasn't sure how he felt about that, or why he felt he should even have an opinion either way.
"So, is Mighty, like, your boyfriend?"
Espio's gaze snapped back to Cassia. He was met by the same inquisitive yet impassive yellow stare as before/
"He…used to be."
The pronghorn wrinkled her nose. "Used to be? But you've been holding his hand this whole time!"
"And what does that prove?"
"It's what my friend Janelly does with her boyfriend on the way to school," said Cassia, sounding a note of supreme confidence in her reasoning.
Espio curled his lip. Regrettably, the kid was more right than she realized about the handholding. From the moment after they were ambushed in the GUN cellblock, throughout the blind march, and onwards into the South Sector, he and Mighty hadn't let go of each other for millisecond until they stopped here.
"It's…complicated."
"Oh, please," groaned Cassia, rolling her eyes, "People say that on TV all the time. Cloey calls it, like, a, uh…a 'cop-out', I think."
She paused for another chip.
"But, like, is he your boyfriend or what?"
Espio cocked a brow. She was as persistent an interrogator as those GUN cats.
"Carry on like this and GUN might have to talk to your sister about giving you a job."
Cassia cringed. "A job? No thanks. I get enough homework already."
Before she could press him for an answer again, something across the street drew her attention. distracted her. The chameleon allowed himself a moment of clam before he looked up and saw Clove emerging from Shorty's garage. Behind her followed Mighty, wheeling a motorcycle…with a sidecar.
Narrowing his eyes, Espio glanced down at his bandaged left arm. He balled his hand into a fist over and over. After ten reps, the pain forced him to stop. He groaned. That settled who was driving.
"It's okay," said Cassia, patting the small of the chameleon's back, "Janelly's boyfriend is always doing stuff to embarrass her, too."
〜
Lighting a cigarillo, Whisper stepped on the door she'd just kicked down. From the lack of anyone screaming bloody murder at her, she could only surmise no one was home. Just to make sure, she checked the apartment's bedroom, then the bathroom. Yep. Definitely no one there.
"Way to go, boss," she mumbled between drags.
She'd volunteered to check in on Tangle after the lemur failed to show for her first morning at whatever school Jet had dumped her in as punishment for that Mighty escapade. In doing so, he'd apparently driven a raw but potentially very handy addition to his security detail out of town.
Probably for the best, Whisper thought. Definitely, in fact.
There was just one problem: the kid hadn't said goodbye to her. The bubbly wacko could vanish off the face of Mobius if she wanted, but not without at least shaking her hand first. Mercifully, she didn't have to be Claire Voyance to work out where she might have gone.
The wolf plucked her cellphone out of her denim skirt's back-pocket and turned it off. She was due some time off anyway.
〜
"Where did all these cars suddenly come from?" grumbled Sally Acorn, dropping back into her seat.
She'd just peeped out of the black sedan's sunroof. All six lanes of the King Sebastian Boulevard, the main thoroughfare in and out of downtown Station Square, were clogged with vehicles.
Sitting at the wheel beside her, Hershey smiled wryly. "Someone's forgetting their family birthdays again."
"Another one already?" said Sally, "Who is it this time?"
"Tomorrow's your great-great-grandma Martina's birthday."
Sally furrowed her brow. "I thought Daddy decided two generations was enough."
The black cat shrugged. "Queen Martina made the cut. You Squarians love your Emerald Hill Zone, I guess."
"'You Squarians' says the Squarian," said Sally.
"Who're you calling Squarian?" countered Hershey, "I'm from Oakland."
"Are not."
"Am too."
The childish back-and-forth went on until the truck in front of the sedan jerked forward. The banter petered out. Tangle's amazement did not. Meeting Sally Acorn face-to-face had been one thing. Seeing the ex-princess already losing track of her former kingdom's public holidays — holidays honouring her ancestors, no less — had the lemur feeling like she might faint. Or was that just the heat?
Sweet Solaris, it was hot in here!
Removing her blazer and rolling up her sleeves had accomplished next to nothing. The fact she was still wearing more than Sally and Hershey put together wasn't lost on her, but this didn't seem the right time or place to start undressing. Sure, she seemed to be more comfortable about her body than most tenth-graders, but she was no less fifteen.
"Psst, Mobius to Amy, you okay over there?" she half-whispered, prodding Amy with the tip of her tail.
The hedgehog looked up from the book in her lap.
"Uh-huh," she uttered, less convincingly than Tangle would've liked.
"Good," said the lemur.
She smiled faintly. Amy didn't reciprocate. Turning the book's page with her tail, Tangle looked away, leaving the twelve-year-old to reimmerse herself in Agent Silver & The Onyx City Conspiracy. It's where she seemed happiest right now, much to the lemur's bemusement.
She could understand her being less than jazzed about sitting in a gymnasium with a bunch of shrieky volleyballing six-year-olds — Dulcy had invited them to help out with Cream's class's P.E. lesson — but they were on their way to see Shadow. Where was the hype?
Just then, a howling guitar solo shattered the calm inside the car.
"Crap! Sorry, girls," gibbered Sally, fumbling her cellphone out of her blue gilet's inside-pocket, "Hi, Eli, what's…?"
Tangle leaned forward as the chipmunk trailed off, ears pricked. Hershey reached behind and gently pushed her back into her seat.
"She'll share anything worth sharing," said the cat, eyeing the lemur in her rear-view mirror.
Tangle sheepishly averted her gaze, clutching the knot of her yellow-and-black-striped necktie. In her bodyguarding lessons, Infinite had always ragged on her about her inability to go unnoticed. Maybe he hadn't just been being mean after all.
"Well…there's a thing," said Sally, pocketing her cellphone.
"What's up?" asked Hershey.
"He's been holding off admitting Shadow so we could see him first," she said, "The doctors are starting to get on Elias's back about it."
"Well, that's mightily thoughtful of him, but…"
The cat trailed off, eyeing the all-encompassing traffic.
"I know," sighed Sally.
Tangle tensed as the chipmunk suddenly looked round at her. Not at Amy. Just at her.
"Could I ask a favor of you, Tangela?"
"Mmhmm?" the lemur hummed, words failing her.
"Could you walk Amy down to the hospital? We're cutting things a little fine."
Tangle suddenly found her fingers touching her right temple in a salute.
"Yes, ma'am, Principal Acorn!" she blurted, as psyched to escape the roasting sedan as she was to be taking orders from the heroine of Knothole Village.
She stabbed her seatbelt buckle with a finger while her tail unfastened the unsuspecting Amy's. Then, the fluffy appendage plucked the book from the hedgehog's right hand.
"C'mon, kiddo, let's go see your pal!"
Seizing her freed hand, the lemur practically hauled the twelve-year-old across the backseat and out onto the sidewalk. Watching the uniformed youngsters take off down the sidewalk, Hershey smirked.
"Are you sure you can't magic up some scholarship for that kid?" said the cat.
Sally frowned, glancing at the discarded blush-pink blazer on the backseat.
"Why? She's already got a school."
"Be serious for a minute, Sal," said Hershey flatly, "
"She and Tails hit it off—"
"Sure, for all five of the minutes he lasted in Knothole."
Sally curled his lip at the casual reference to what was still an unhappy memory.
When Sonic had brought Tails to Knothole Village after the hoo-ha on Westside Island, the lifelong islander hadn't taken easily to life in a landlocked forest. He'd been a little trooper at first, but eventually, he and Sonic had had to move out to a secluded royal retreat down on the Acorn Kingdom coast.
That relocation had been a factor, if not the decisive factor, in their initial breakup.
"It's not like she's ever struggled to make friends before. She'll be fine at school."
Hershey raised her eyes to the sunroof. "I'm not talking about who she'll eat lunch with, Sal—"
"Then what are you talking about?" Sally demanded.
"Like, who's she going to talk her problems out with?" said Hershey, "And believe me, there will be problems. You and Elias got off lightly with your private tutors."
Sally groaned. "Do you have to keep bringing that up?"
"I didn't mean it like that. Just take it from someone who spent her childhood in plaid dresses: there's going to be an adjustment period and it might not be pretty."
The chipmunk shot her driver a sideward glance, eyeing up her red bodywarmer and blue neckerchief.
"You…used to wear clothes?"
"In Oakland? Sure."
"What changed?"
"I rebelled."
"You and me both," muttered Sally. Those turquoise harem pants had been the final straw in her mother's attempts to dress her up.
"Anyway, all I'm saying is Amy's gonna need someone else to be there for her. It's not like she'll be able to come running to you once she's at the Academy."
The chipmunk frowned. "Why the hell not?"
"How do you think being cozy with the principal will look to the other kids?" said Hershey pointedly, "They'll tease her like crazy."
Sally grimaced. "Is everyone from Oakland this gloomy?"
"Oh, so now I'm not Squarian after all?" countered Hershey.
"Shut up and drive," said Sally, looking away.