It was one thing to fight a battle that had long been deemed hopeless before your involvement. It was another to be the one to discover that the battle you were fighting was hopeless.
Nickel growled as he watched the metal being he'd slashed to shreds with his electric powers regenerate seamlessly and resume its pursuit of him. All he'd wanted was a short walk outside his house, not to do battle with an unkillable monster.
It would continue to get worse, as when he took a cursory glance around to survey the situation of his surroundings he spotted more of the beings eyeing him up. He wasn't so blind as to fail to understand what kind of problem was brewing.
"Guess I have to run," he huffed to himself. "But if I run, and they follow me, then when I get tired they'll get me no problem."
The obvious option was to try to return to his house, but he risked bringing them along and putting Lily in danger. If he could somehow pull them away from the house before making a run for it...
He picked a direction and bolted, trying to open up as much of an advantage as he could over his pursuers. The deadliest game of Tag he would ever play had begun.
As he ran, he noticed that the number of these creatures was much greater than he'd previously imagined; he had thought that the initial number that had compelled him to run in the first place was bad, but they seemed to multiply and appear indefinitely.
The good news was that they were incredibly lethargic in their pursuit of him, never breaking into a sprint to try to catch him. The bad news was that their sheer numbers meant that he couldn't stop for long at all - even as he circled back around to return to his house, they continued to grow in amount exponentially.
On the way back, he finally encountered a metal creature that was more aggressive and relentless - though of course he would have preferred not to encounter any at all - and it lunged at him to attack. Nickel, the agility of a cat on his side, managed to evade that attempt and continue on, but it was still hot on his trail.
Nearing the building he called home, he had an idea to garner a bit of extra time. He veered to the right and, when he'd gone what seemed like far enough, he stopped on a dime and changed course back to his previous destination.
It worked: the monster slid past him, not reading the sharp turn and allowing him to build a tiny gap.
As it passed by him, however, it managed to make very light contact with his lower right arm. He instinctively brushed the area that had been touched with his left hand as he ran, removing the mental "mark" the contact had made.
Nickel made it into his house, slamming the door behind him. He breathed a sigh, both in relief and in an attempt to stabilise his breathing.
His relief was short-lived, as a sludge-like sensation was spreading over his hands and lower arms. He looked, and noticed that it was due to a strange substance that, distressingly, was the same metallic colour as the beings outside. He was slowly becoming one of them.
Brushing his hand on the door did nothing to get rid of whatever it was. It stayed on his hand and did not come off on the door, despite the door being metal itself.
A cute girlish voice sounded out in the house. "Mister Nickel?"
"Yeah?" he called back.
There was no response apart from the pitter-patter of little feet rushing over, and soon the little xanthic kitten to whom the voice belonged appeared. "Hi mister Nickel!"
Nickel's habitual smile at seeing her twitched in uncertainty as he felt the sludge continue to creep up his arms. "Hi again, Lily."
She quickly approached him for a hug, one that he didn't return as he didn't want whatever was infecting him to spread to her. She obviously noticed, and she pulled away a little to look up at him questioningly.
"Sorry, I can't hug you right now." He showed her his hands, pulling them away when she tried to touch them. "No, don't touch them. The stuff that's on them will spread to you, and I don't want you getting it."
"But mister Nickel..." she began, unsurprisingly unhappy not to get a hug from him, but her complaints went no further as the front door flew open and a swarm of metal monsters began flooding in.
Both felines backed away, Lily letting out a frightened miaow at the sight of them, with their lifeless red eyes and their shiny grey colour and the spikes dotted around their persons. They slowly walked toward them, zombie-like in their movements.
Nickel knew he was already done for. Very soon he would be one of those creatures, and there seemed to be nothing he could do about that. But he wondered if he could delay the horde long enough for someone to notice the situation from outside and save the day.
The idea was swiftly thrown out the window, as he realised that using his power made the metal infection spread faster, seemingly hitching a ride on the surface electricity he generated.
His mind went immediately to Lily, but as much as he would have loved to tell her to run or to hide, it was moot. The creatures seemed able to find them effortlessly; and even if she were able to get out of the house and flee, she stood no chance actually escaping them. If he had had trouble, she wouldn't fare better at all.
A petite hand gripped his infected one in what he assumed to be fear, and he knew right then that that was it. He hadn't wanted to give Lily the mystery condition wilfully, but in going against his instruction she'd sealed her fate with him.
"Mister Nickel? What do we do?" Lily asked timidly.
Knowing that it now didn't matter what he did with her, he turned around, crouched down and gave her the hug that she'd wanted earlier, although it was much less joyous than either of them - certainly Nickel - would have liked it to be. "Don't worry. Just hold on to me and close your eyes," he told her. "We'll be fine."
It was a complete lie, but it did wonders to placate her. She did as he had said, and the horde descended upon them.
Nickel felt the sludge spread over the rest of his arms. Then his collar and lapel. The rest of his chest. His torso. His thighs. His legs. His neck. His face.
And then... he felt nothing.
.
.
.
When he came to, he was outside and in a crowd who were all just as disoriented as he was. They all seemed terribly confused as to how they got there, understandable as Nickel didn't know himself.
In his quick surveillance of the area, he spotted familiar yellow fur, the owner of which seeing him at the same time and sprinting over to throw herself into his arms. He returned the embrace with just as much vigour, though he still took care to ensure he wasn't squeezing her.
He could hear the tears in her voice; evidently the graveness of the situation they had found themselves in hadn't been lost on her. "M-Mister Nickel..."
"I'm here, Lily," he spoke softly as he rubbed her back, doing his best to soothe her. "I'm here. We're okay. You're okay."
"I w-was scared."
"I know you were. I was too, you know."
She pulled back, locking eyes with him. "Really, m-mister Nickel?"
"Mhm." He managed a tiny smile. "But I told you it would be alright - and it turned out to be, didn't it?" He ghost-booped her with a tiny spark, and that pulled a giggle from her as she covered her nose with her hands.
"You were right, mister Nickel," Lily said, her tears subsiding little by little.
She hugged him again, and as he returned it someone in the crowd yet to be dispersed shouted out, "Look! In the sky! It's Sonic and Silver!"
Sure enough, when they looked, two golden streaks sailed overhead. How on Mobius the person could determine who was up there was a mystery, but no one cared - cheers erupted as they all spotted the flying hedgehogs.
Nickel grinned. "Go on, you two." Lily beside him clapped enthusiastically at the small spectacle.
.
A few days later, Nickel received a message as he was going back home after walking Lily to school. It was from one Amy Rose, which surprised him, and it read: "You are cordially re-invited to the Resistance Headquarters building. Please come as soon as possible."
""Cordially re-invited", huh? What's all that about?" he questioned curiously. The HQ, if he recalled, wasn't too far from his house. He could probably jog quickly over there right away.
So he did just that.
Upon arriving at the door to the HQ, he was about to knock when it opened of its own accord. He'd forgotten that it was semi-automatic.
As he stepped in, he noticed most of the people he'd once rubbed shoulders with, a notable exception being Sonic the Hedgehog. Not surprising, as the speedy blue hero was probably on a run somewhere.
"Oh hey, that was fast!" a voice sounded out, belonging to Amy. She stepped toward him and extended her hand. "Welcome again, Nickel!"
"Wow, you remember me?" Nickel asked as he shook the proffered hand, pleasantly surprised.
"Of course! You were one of the recruits we really liked - plus, you were a capable addition to our roster back then, and we're hoping you can be so again. Nice to have you back!"
"Heh - thanks." He was flattered, he couldn't lie. "Do you want me to report in every single day, like before?"
"Oh - no, no. You don't have to, unless you want to. You can continue to do what you were doing before, but we'll call you in to help us out from time to time. Maybe you can even join an outside team, like - "
Amy was interrupted by a phone ringing somewhere. "Oh - I need to take that. But you get the gist, right?" In her rush, she didn't allow him the opportunity to respond. "Okay, I'll inform the rest when I can. See you later!"
She was gone in a flash. Nickel chuckled at her haste, and he took a look around at his new and old HQ to familiarise himself again with the layout of the huge building. It really was nice to be back.