Disclaimer: All non-original characters are property of SEGA or their respective creators.
Inescapable Past, Act 35: Bugging Out
"Just admit it, will you?" snapped Sonia, "I fucked up!"
Sonic and Manic exchanged frowns as their sister got up from the table and stalked out of the suite. It was the outcome the brothers had spent the last twenty minutes trying to avoid. However, as the tour's self-appointed head of security, Sonia seemed determined to take the blame for the bomb on the table.
Prized off the tour bus's gas tank, the device had been meticulously disarmed and disassembled by Tails and Cyrus. They were now helping Espio and Amy sweep the concert site for any other surprises. Mighty was guarding the two would-be bombers in the tour bus while Ash organized a discrete handover to the local cops.
Ash, like Mina, was treating the bomb scare like it was a blown fuse in an amp stack. There was no question in the mongooses' minds that the concert was going go ahead. The triplets had assembled at the hotel to decide whether or not they agreed. Then Sonia had kicked off.
"Y'know, if we just wanna vote anyway, two out of three is still a majority," said Manic.
Sonic grimaced. "Let's just give her a minute to cool off."
"A minute? She's had a fricking half-hour!"
The blue hedgehog stayed quiet. The green hedgehog frowned.
"You aren't actually thinking of bailing, are you?" asked Manic pointedly, "What about all the cosplayers?"
The eldest triplet cringed. The youngest triplet grinned.
"Just how many?" asked Sonic squeamishly.
"Dozens. Loads more than the last show. Kinda makes me wish we were selling blue dye ourselves."
Sonic groaned and looked at his phone. Manic's grin gave way to another frown.
"Don't tell me you're giving Principal Acorn a vote," he said.
"Relax," said Sonic, "Sal hasn't even seen the message yet."
〜
On an upper floor of the King Maximilian Acorn Free Hospital, Shadow and Sally were holding hands again.
They'd just finished listening to their uninvited guest, a softly-spoken yellow wolf, explain what had become of all Shadow's blood. The black hedgehog was a little shaken by the story — intentionally cutting an anesthetized patient's vein mid-surgery sounded like something even GUN would think twice about — but judging by the strength of her grip, Sally was the more shocked.
"Sally?" said Shadow quietly.
The faraway look in the chipmunk's blue eyes gradually faded as she turned to him.
"Oh…sorry," she muttered, releasing his hand.
"It's fine," he said.
Recognizing the look of a Mobian who didn't want to be looked at, Shadow cocked his head towards the yellow wolf. She was sat beside the humming dialysis machine.
"You know both our names. Now tell us yours," he said flatly.
"Whisper," said Whisper.
"Whisper?" echoed Sally thoughtfully.
Shadow looked back across at the chipmunk.
"You know her?" he asked.
"Err, no…sorry," mumbled Sally, hastily looking down at her cellphone.
Not entirely convinced, Shadow turned back to Whisper.
"I'm guessing you didn't drop by just to tell us that," he said, "What do you want?"
"Your friend Rouge—"
Shadow scoffed aloud. 'Friend' wasn't the word he would use right now.
Whisper wrinkled her nose at the interruption.
"Your…Rouge said you would know where I could find Tangle. I need to see her."
"Tangle?" echoed Shadow, furrowing his brow. The name rang a bell, but only faintly.
"Do you mean Tangela?" Sally piped up.
Whisper's eyes opened wide, as if the chipmunk had called the lemur something obscene.
"You call her that?" asked the wolf, "She…lets you call her that?"
Sally cocked a brow. "She hasn't said not to."
Whisper smiled to herself.
"How could she? You are who you are."
Then, the smile vanished.
"Where is she?" the wolf demanded.
"Echo Beach," replied Sally.
〜
"Are you absolutely sure you don't want a clean top?" asked Mina, folding her arms.
Tangle nodded shyly. "I'm…I'm sure."
"Okay," said the mongoose smilingly, "I'll just get you another one of these, then."
Grabbing the lemur's empty soda can, Mina sauntered off across the deserted backstage enclosure.
"This is too weird," Tangle murmured to herself, leaning back on the sun-lounger.
Accidentally foiling an assassination attempt by presumed Eggheads?
Okay, she could handle that.
Being saved from mortal peril by her favorite singer?
A bit wild, but yeah, okay.
Being waited upon and plied with free clothes by her favorite singer?
Now that was insane.
Tangle peered down at the neat bootprint that big bear had left on the front of her white polo. Sure, she wouldn't mind a change of top, but what kinds of top would the Songoose have to hand in her backstage trailer?
If it wasn't sparkly stagewear, it would surely be something crazy-expensive from a Soleannese fashion house or impractically skimpy from a Central City boutique. Anything like that would look plain dumb with her cargo shorts and high-tops.
Besides, she just wanted to feel comfy right now, and dorky as the polo might be, it was certainly comfy.
"Tangle?"
The lemur's head shot up to see Amy standing over by the chocolate fountain.
"Oh boy," she breathed, forcing a weak smile.
Tangle went to sit up as the hedgehog approached. Her aching ribs said otherwise, and she sank back onto the sun-lounger.
"Are you feeling any better now?" asked Amy primly.
Tangle snorted, trying not to laugh for the sake of her poor sternum.
"You dork," she said, "What're you sounding so polite for?"
Amy bit her lip.
"I just thought—"
"I'd be mad at you?"
The hedgehog nodded.
Tangle sighed heavily. A little too heavily for her ribs' liking. She winced slightly.
"I thought I was the dumb kid here," she muttered, "You think I'm gonna stay mad at you for kissing me?"
Amy shuffled her feet uneasily.
"Don't get me wrong, your timing sucked, but…I mean, c'mon, it's not like there's a queue."
The lemur hooked the hedgehog with her tail, pulled her closer to the sun-lounger, then bent her over it until their noses were almost touching.
"Just…try picking a better moment next time," said Tangle softly.
Amy nodded eagerly.
"Okay," she whispered.
Tangle planted a light kiss on the twelve-year-old's lips. A beaming smile duly blossomed on the hedgehog's face. Tangle didn't smile.
"Umm, could I, like, ask you something?" she said, suddenly sounding a lot less sure of herself.
"Uh-huh?" uttered Amy.
"D'you think there's, like, a chance one of your friends could get me the ever-loving fuck out of this place?"
The hedgehog swiftly straightened up.
"Huh? Wh-what do you mean?" she gibbered, "What about the concert?"
"Screw the concert. I just wanna be a million miles away from that bear wh-who…"
Tangle paused to steady her breathing.
"I thought I was gonna die back there, Amy. Like, genuinely."
She tucked her tail under her chin and hugged the mass of stripy fur.
"I never had to handle anything like that with Jet. There was always Whisp, Infinite, someone watching my back."
She shut her eyes, trying to stop tears from welling up. It worked…mostly.
"Please, Amy, I just…I wanna be that zany kid who's always in detention again. Just for a little while."
〜
"If you won't kill those two, I will!" snarled Connie, shutting off the connection to Diesel's communicator as an armadillo tore it off his wrist.
"No you won't," said Axel coolly.
"Just try and stop me," the lynx growled, turning away from the console, "You think he won't give us up the first chance he gets?"
"It won't really matter if there's no one here to find."
Connie narrowed her luminous red eyes. "The hell are you talking about?"
"A fresh approach," said the water buffalo, "We tried dusting off the doc's old toys, and it's gone about as well for us as it did for him."
The lynx sighed and folded her arms. "What's the alternative?"
Axel perched on the rim of the shell of a partially-disassembled Turtloid.
"Ever heard of Project Remaster?" he asked.
"Project what?" replied Connie.
"That figures," sighed Axel, "What about Doc Starline?"
The lynx cocked a brow. The water buffalo rolled his eyes.
"Grab yourself a drink. This may take a while."
〜
"Ready to go?" asked the squatting Sonia.
Tangle coiled her tail around the purple hedgehog's waist, then nodded.
Sonia smiled and scooped the lemur up in her arms. Turning away from the sun-lounger, they started across the backstage enclosure. Peering up at her carrier's face, Tangle felt her cheeks ignite. Sonic's sister was pretty.
Like, really pretty…
Suddenly scared she'd be caught gawking, the lemur looked elsewhere. Under one of the backstage enclosure's gazebos, she saw Amy raiding the complimentary snack bar. Unimpeded by her sling-bound arm, she was busily tossing fistfuls of candy into a bag dangling from her mouth.
"Should we tell her that it's hardly a road trip we're going on?" mused Sonia.
"Nah," uttered Tangle, "She's cute."
The lemur's eyes widened as the word left her lips.
'Cool', she had meant to say, not 'cute', even if the preteen did look freaking adorable foraging for treats like that.
"You and her both," laughed Sonia.
Tangle bit her lip.
In the midst of her chat with Amy on the sun-lounger, she'd managed to forget that Mina was still around. The mongoose had seen (if not heard) the whole exchange, including her kissing Amy. Word had clearly gotten round, because everyone was acting like they were some sort of couple in the making.
"What was that?" blurted the lemur as the deafening whine of amplified feedback pierced the air.
"That'll just be Ash," said Sonia.
Indeed, the feedback was followed by a flurry of screechy synth notes, coming from the direction of the amphitheater.
Since Sonia was driving them back to Station Square, Ash would be filling in for her on keyboards. It so happened that he was the guy who'd written most of the songs on the setlist, but Tangle still felt a little queasy about the fuss she'd caused.
She figured they'd be flying back. Not so. Something about the local airstrip having no lights meant it'd be a one-way trip for the fox in the green plaid pants. The little guy seemed genuinely guilty about it, despite Amy's best efforts. In the end, he'd thought up a way to ease his conscience.
As she and Sonia stepped out into the backstage parking lot, Tangle saw him kneeling on the minivan's front seat, surrounded by wires, an electric drill in hand. He'd set himself the task of rigging up a screen they could livestream the concert on while they were driving. He would be operating the camera himself.
"Is Tails done yet?" asked Amy as she caught up, snack bag in hand.
"How about you go ask?" replied Sonia.
Amy wrinkled her nose. "I don't wanna rush him."
"I do," said Sonia, "It'd be nice to get you home before midnight."
"It's gonna take that long?" asked Tangle sheepishly.
She glanced at the sky. The sun wasn't close to setting.
"Give or take. I haven't driven for four wheels for a while," said Sonia, "Get that door, would you, Amy?"
The pink hedgehog obligingly ran ahead to slide open the minivan's side-door.
"How's it going, Tails?" she asked, climbing inside.
"Almoth done," replied the fox, speaking around the screws in his mouth.
Tangle felt like a toddler being put into a safety-seat as Sonia carefully maneuvered her onto the minivan's backseat. She even fastened her seatbelt for her.
"Thanks for doing this," she said meekly.
"Thank me once I've gotten you there," said Sonia, ruffling the fur between the lemur's ears.
Tangle tentatively touched the spot of ruffled fur as the door slid shut.
She was really pretty…
The screech of Tails' drill cut short her reverie. She looked across at Amy, who was struggling to open a chocolate bar's wrapper with her one good hand and teeth. The twelve-year-old yipped with delight as she triumphed.
Smirking to herself, Tangle deployed her tail to ruffle Amy's braided quills.
"You gonna share that loot or what?"
〜
"What do you think?" said Manic, dropping into a seat beside Sonic near the back of the amphitheater, "Should we ditch Sonia and use him instead?"
Ash was still onstage, soloing away on Sonia's keytar.
"And who d'you think would take over as manager?" said Sonic.
Manic grimaced. "Good point."
The brothers flinched simultaneously as another squeal of feedback blasted out of the amplifiers.
"Sorry, guys!" Cyrus called up from behind the mixing desk.
Manic waved off the apology.
"What're you doing up here, anyway?" he asked, "Couldn't bear to say goodbye?"
"Tails has it covered," replied Sonic.
"So you're delegating your goodbyes now?" said Manic, "Check out Mr. Fame!"
He moved over one seat to avoid his brother's elbow.
"What do you want?" said Sonic sternly.
"Needed to ask you something," said Manic, retaking his seat.
"Such as?"
"How much longer are you and Sally planning on keeping up this 'we're not together' act?"
Sonic cocked a brow. "What do you care?"
"Espio said something about Amy going to Sally's school—"
"How's that even remotely your busi—"
"I'm making it my business!" snapped Manic, "Someone has to."
"Why?" countered Sonic.
"Because if you think you can keep this up for the next six years, you're an idiot. Sooner or later, one of you'll slip, and it'll be even messier for Sal if she has to explain to the kid she basically adopted she wasn't straight with her because a certain someone was more scared of the Gossip Goddess than the Death Egg!"
Sonic gripped his seat's armrests with trembling hands.
"Finished?" he asked levelly.
"Sure, why not?" said Manic, standing up, "See you backstage, bro."
Watching his brother start towards the steps, Sonic furrowed his brow.
"When you spoke to Espio…was Sonia there?"
"Yeah," said Manic, looking back over his shoulder.
"Did she know you were going to ambush me like this?"
"Yeah."
"Is she going to say anything?"
Manic shrugged. "I guess we'll find out."