"Angel Island is right there!"
"I know, Monsieur Jones."
"No need to organize an expedition, just walk right over!"
"You have mentioned zat, Monsieur, many times."
"Of course the feds have to pick now of all times to do their jobs!"
Staring blearily off into the distance I absently brushed off more sea salt, stuck listening to Jones bitch and moan. He'd been bitching and moaning pretty much all night, the whiny ass. He was probably doubly irritated from being tired seeing as most of us had been able to get any real shut eye. Turns out all the hotels and such in town were pretty much along the beach so the wave smashed every window and soaked every room. So now everyone was stuck out in the streets, some locals had opened up their homes but there were a lot of tourists and such in town. Jones, despite his connections, was just as shit out of luck as the rest of us though the man was at least used to some hard livin.
'Just wish he'd stop his bitchin, he ain't the only one that had to go sleepless.' I grumbled inwardly.
"Haaaa… Goo-haa-good morning, Miss AJ." I heard Cream yawn and mumble sleepily.
Looking over, I saw the little rabbit waking from fitful slumber. She and her mother, Vanilla, had managed to snag a cot together as opposed to trying to sleep on the ground like most of us. Not that it did Vanilla any good seeing as she spent the entire night, laying there wide awake and clutching her daughter to her side on the narrow cot. In fact it wouldn't surprise me none if making sure Cream didn't roll off in her sleep was what kept Vanilla awake the whole night. It was something I woulda done for Emerson and couldn't help but respect the motherly mobian for it.
"Mornin sugercube." I greeted, smiling despite myself at the sight of the little rabbit yawning and stretching. "How about ya hop on over and give me some decent company?"
"Okay!" Cream replied and I caught the grateful look Vanilla shot me before falling asleep on the spot.
'Looks like I was right on the money.'
Cream strolled on over and took a seat on the sidewalk next to me. She joined me in silently taking in the sights for a while. The low drone of people talking filled the air, other unfortunates like myself lined the streets, either sitting on bare pavement or a lucky "few" sleeping on cots. There were actually a lot of cots, just too bad there were just a whole hell of a lot more people that needed em. Kinda wish they had at least corralled us somewhere inside but I wouldn't have been surprised if they did and it was already full.
"Miss AJ! When did you get a gun?" Gasped the little mobian.
"This little beauty." I patted Emerson's revolver holstered on my hip. "Jones, Jacque and I went back to see if our luggage got offloaded before the wave hit. Turns out it did and we were able to get a few things."
Never had I been so glad Jones was in such a hurry to leave as soon as we docked. Luxury cruises didn't let passengers keep firearms on themselves. If Jones hadn't bribed the crew to unload our stuff first, Earl's knife and Emerson's revolver woulda been sunk with the ship. The idea of losing them to something as normal as some natural disaster would have gutted me. Though as it turned out that disaster wasn't as natural as it looked.
'The last time Angel Island fell from the sky, that crazy Doctor was involved.' I mused 'It's never fallen before, it just can't be bad luck it falls all on its own now! The Doctor is involved and if he's around then that means…'
Subconsciously I found my hand drifting over to Earl's knife and Emerson's revolver strapped at my hip. My fingers ghosted across the handles of both and I could already imagine drawing em on him.
"But… why do you need weapons Miss AJ?"
Looking over I couldn't help but pause at the completely aghast look Cream was sending me. It had me confused for a moment, at her age my son had known how important weapons were, but it came to me soon enough. Vanilla had that look of being that sort of 'well-to-do' type and it wouldn't surprise me none if Cream had grown up in some fancy manor. Both of them had to have been enjoying that safe and soft livin.
'Am I going to have to give a little girl a talk about needing to protect yourself?' Warily I looked over to Vanilla and saw her utterly dead to the world in exhaustion. 'Fuck sake… I would be pissed as all hell if I caught anyone parenting Emerson but Vanilla needs the sleep, hell I need the sleep too but someone needs to keep watch.'
"... So I can protect all of us." I eventually answered, hopefully Vanilla wouldn't be too upset.
"Protect us from what, Miss AJ?" Cream asked wide eyed. "It can't be the tsunami, that would be silly!"
"Look darlin, not every danger is going to be something like a uh… a tornado, an earthquake and the like." I explained and without really thinking about it I started patting the little lop eared girl's head. "Sometimes ya gotta worry about other people trying to hurt you."
"But… Why would anyone try to hurt us, Miss AJ?" Cream wondered, just heart on her sleeve utterly horrified at the idea.
I just really didn't want to do this. If it were Emerson asking this stuff I'd just up and say 'Some idjits don't learn till they have a gun in their face'. Cream though… cute, innocent little thing like her… she deserved to keep on going like that a while yet. I suppose a little white lie couldn't hurt, can't be much different than giving Emerson the stork story until he was older.
"Well… sure we're all suffering through this together but you still got them bad guys like the crazy Doctor to worry about." It wasn't as big an excuse as it could be, considering the circumstance. "Plus he is just the biggest and meanest around. There are still plenty of littler bad guys to look out for."
"Oh… that's a good point, Miss AJ!" Cream exclaimed.
'There we go, one innocence bubble unpopped.'
Just as I thought that though I spotted a really pissed off looking bear mobian stomping down the street, made doubly easier by the fact he wasn't little like most mobians. Just like Vanilla this bear was one of those sorts that grew to be the size of a human for some reason. Though from what I heard it was more often than not that bear mobians were bigger, something to do with the fact their inborn trait was being generally tougher all around. That was it though, a bear mobian was as strong as it looked, no pint sized little fuzz ball lifting boulders. That toughness was trouble though, my hunting rifle was still packed away and all I had on hand was just Emerson's revolver.
The bear mobian was completely bedraggled looking. He must have gotten washed away because his fur and clothes were filled with salt. Maybe he looked a lot more like a friendly sort a day ago, blonde fur, a tropical shirt in bright warm colors, red shorts, sandals and the typical mobian gloves. Now he was a big mean looking bear who'd obviously gone the whole night without sleep like the rest of us and not taking it near as well.
Growling and grumbling loud enough to be heard over the low buzz of the crowd the bear mobian stalked over the street, lookin like he was hoping someone would do him the favor of crossing his path. Course no one did and of course he lost patience and snapped his eyes over to the nearest cot. Picking the one damn cot that would make his bullshit my problem I sat up straight as he stomped over, looking like he was just going to throw Vanilla out of the cot.
The bear mobian's eyes snapped over to me as I purposefully made a sudden motion and rested my hand on my pistol. He seemed none too impressed but a soft hissing noise had me glancing to the side. Jacque, still seated on the ground, had opened his mouth as widely as he could, something that would have dislocated mine if I tried copying the snake. His fangs were extended and dripped with venom. On the other side of the snake, Jones was doing the same as me and making it clear he was armed and willing.
Narrowing his eyes and panting in anger the bear mobian glanced at all us. Finally he gave one last huff and turned away from Vanilla's cot. I watched the bear leave, ready to draw on him, but he seemed genuine in leaving, no doubt to hassle some less armed folks. It was only when I saw Jacque and Jones relax out in the corner of my eye that I did too.
"Thanks." I thanked the human and mobian, getting nods in return.
"Don't make a habit of that." Jones muttered and got an eye roll from Jacque.
"What was that, Miss AJ?" Cream asked and I looked over to see a confused look, she must have missed that little exchange.
"Just glad these two are friends and all." I replied and could hear a small scoff come from Jones.
"It's nice to have supportive friends!" Cream smiled briefly before looking curious. "How did you meet your friends, Miss AJ?"
"Well I uh-" Suddenly a loud squawk and screech filled the air, I winced at it but Cream gave a full body flinch and recoiled like she bit down with a sensitive tooth. Vanilla for her part gave a truly unhappy whine in her sleep and just rolled onto her side. Just goes to show utterly exhausted momma rabbit was.
Looking towards the noise I saw a man in uniform standing atop a police car fussing with a megaphone. As the angry murmuring of the crowd started to rise the man handed the megaphone down to someone for a moment before getting it back.
"ATTENTION! Anyone displaced or seeking refuge from the damages caused by the tsunami is to make way to Main Street! All train stations will work at all hours to carry passengers to Main Street! Once at Main Street evacuation efforts organized by GUN will carry people out of the city down the Speed Highway! Please make way to Main Street as soon as possible, food and water will be provided for all who need it! That is all!"
The murmuring of the crowd grew louder and some shouted questions and demanded answers but the man was already stepping down. It wasn't exactly an easy night for anyone, all was quick to get pissed off even at the offer of help but food, water and the prospect of escape was quick to get everyone up and walking.
Sighing I stood up along with Jacque, Jones and Cream. Even the booming of the megaphone and loud rumbling of the crowd didn't wake up Vanilla. It was probably going to all of us to wake her up and I can imagine how upset she'd be at barely getting ten minutes of sleep.
'Here's hoping we can catch a few hours over on Main.' I thought listlessly.
"Now they're making us go away from Angel Island!"
"I know Monsieur."
"We have to slip away, Jacque. I'm not missing the opportunity to get to Angel Island by foot!"
"Monsieur, we don't exactly have much in ze way of supplies. We should at least stock up on what we can get before trekking through ze jungle."
"Fine! But we're going to have to slip away, I know how the feds work. Once we're in they'll make us stay."
"On ze run from the authorities again, Monsieur? How we are not wanted in every country we visit, I'll never know."
Right, I was supposed to be tagging along with these two. Did I really want to be going head first into some weird flying island covered in ruins? Crazy Doc Eggman would be there, no doubts there, and so would he. Jones certainly had experience tussling with both lawful and unlawful types, which was weird what with him just being an archeology type, but this was a fella who had whole armies of bots. Fighting a bunch of regular folk was one thing but did I trust him to know how to handle Doc Eggman?
'He'd probably just avoid him by focusing on treasure hunting in some ruins. You'd think that would be the very thing to do. After all, what reason would some crazed scientist type have in some old musty ruins? Well considering he had been focused on digging up some ruins the last time I saw the fella it would be just our luck if we ended up digging in the same place.'
A problem for later, better focus on waking up momma rabbit…
Food…
After a long night of sleeplessness and being covered in sea salt and wet clothes some hot food would be just the thing. So the scent that drifted over us all as we wandered past checkpoints into Main Street was just plain heavenly. Vanilla clearly thought the same and immediately walked towards the smell, little Cream hand in hand. I didn't hesitate to follow right behind them.
The Main Street of Station Square was this huge six line road with these garden like dividers going down the middle. Looking one way I could see that Main ran all the way through the city from the way I could see the distant ocean. Despite all this room the place was already getting swamped with people. Everywhere I worked there were surly looking folks in color vacation clothes pouring in from the connecting streets. Definitely a whole hell lotta vacations just got ruined…
Now we were heading towards a particularly crowded section of street. It wasn't hard to see why, if the mouth watering smell of cooking food didn't draw ya the sight of a hundred different food trucks parked along the road would. Still trailing behind the two rabbits we walked up to one truck with an image of a burger, fries and hotdogs on it. Then we ended up having to walk away a couple dozen meters because apparently the crowds were multiple lines.
Lemme tell ya, standing there in the sun with a grumbling stomach on no sleep? Fun…
Eventually we got to take our orders. It was about then I realized that I hadn't been able to exchange my Chunese yuan for UZA dollars yet. Just as I was about fucking lose it then and there in the middle of everybody I noticed a big FREE! sign taped to the side of the truck. Sighing explosively I stood there and watched as Vanilla and Cream got their food. Cream got a little burger and fries while Vanilla settled for a fairly large hotdog, pretty much the entire time she had to wave off the offer of a salad or their stuff being garnished with relish. My turn came around and I just got this big jaw dislocating monster of a triple patty burger with everything on it. We then went and managed to find a free spot along the dividers to sit on and eat our food.
'Mmm… there is a couple stuff on this burger I don't really like but,' I thought after taking a bite. 'Somehow it all tastes great together.'
"Thank you for watching over Cream, Miss AJ." Vanilla said softly, somehow still looking elegant despite eating a hotdog.
Annabelle Jackson always felt like a mouthful to me, always preferred being just 'AJ'. People can earn the full name later if they want. Besides, Mama was not me.
"It were nothin, not like I babysat her very long." I replied between bites.
"Still, thank you all the same." Mama Rabbit said, taking a dainty bite of her hotdog. "I can tell you have experience with children, Miss AJ. Do you have any or care for them perhaps?"
"I had the one, half raised him up all on my lonesome when his dad died." Looking past Vanilla at Cream happily munching on fries I couldn't help but reminisce on Emerson at that age. "It weren't easy, often we had to work together to bring the bread home. But you don't choose to work the frontier for an easy life and I never regretted livin it or raising up Emerson in it."
"Emerson, now there is an old and noble name." Vanilla remarked and I couldn't help but blush at that.
"Well… I guess I did find it in some book." I think it was some history book, don't really remember my schooling all too well but considering Vanilla's remark that was probably what it was.
"It was popular among the more distinguished lines of mobian nobility and royalty." Vanilla explained with a small smile.
"Well shucks, didn't mean anything grand by naming him that."
Emerson was a mobian name? Well that was… I guess it didn't really matter where it came from now didn't it? I liked the name and my husband at the time hadn't minded it none so that's what I named my son. Suppose I would have minded it mightily a couple years ago but what could have beens didn't really matter all that much.
"How is he if I might ask?"
"He…"
It was like my brain tripped over itself, I hated to remind myself I was alone now and my family was all dead. It was one thing if Emerson had moved down the road or something with a sweetheart of his but… he was dead, murdered. So was Earl, the man who I was all but already married to. The empty spots in my heart ached horribly and it took everything just to not break into tears again.
Suddenly arms were wrapped around me.
"I'm so sorry, AJ, I'm so very sorry." Vanilla murmured softly as she held me close.
It was as if I was a little girl again and Ma was holding me after Pa died, the memory came so suddenly it was too much to stop myself from crying. I felt so embarrassed, a grown ass woman crying and needed to be comforted like I was a little girl woken up by a nightmare. At least I stopped myself from just sobbing and choking on my own tears. So I sat there silently crying and at least no one really noticed what was going on. I don't think my pride could have taken it if Cream looked up and saw me crying.
I wanna say I sucked it up and stopped crying but to my shame I stayed there, being held in Vanilla's arms like I was her own child needing comfort. It was only when it felt like I had no more tears left that I was able to pull myself away. Thank the Holy Mother and her Saints that I hadn't completely broken down, I think Cream would have noticed if I was choking and shaking like some hysterical woman.
As I pulled away, Vanilla leaned back before reaching out and holding me by the shoulders. She looked me square in the eye for a long moment before smiling.
"Are you feeling better, AJ?" She asked.
"Much… what happened to 'Miss'?" I asked jokingly, wincing a little at a rather wet sniff my nose made.
"I think the last thing you need right now is formalities." She replied before returning to her food. "What's a bit of casualness between friends?"
"I guess so…" I mumbled a reply before returning to my own food.
Life had been really rough to say the least in the past few weeks. Losing my family, getting mixed up in Jone's crazy shit, getting caught up in some latest take over the world thing by the Mad Doctor. Cream and Vanilla though, they were good people and I would happily stand by that even in the face of a few friends back home I'd shared some… opinions with not too long ago. Stuff I'd been so sure about now felt rather shameful, it… it was confusing to me but I felt like Earl would have been happy to know I felt this way now. Earl's more accepting opinions regarding mobians was stuff I never really understood, I felt more like he was still naive somehow despite his age and one bad dust up with the goats would fix it. Instead it was Earl's willingness to talk to them that got us prospecting lands without being attacked… It was in remembrance of his kindness that the goats wanted to keep the old deal.
'You always did say all I needed was one good experience with a mobian.' I thought fondly. 'Well, Earl I had several and have to admit… they're not all bad. Don't mind having a few furry folks as friends, don't mind it at all.'
Speaking of friends…
I looked up to see where Jones and Jacque had settled in with their own food. But no matter where I looked I couldn't find the two! Did they run off to go scrounge up some supplies instead of eating straight away?! Here I was thinking the two were right behind me the entire time when in reality I got distracted by food and got separated from them.
Still looking around I tried coming up with some idea of how to two the two down or slip out past the checkpoints. Maybe I could at least make my own way to Angel Island and see if we just happen to run into each other? Ah hell, I was no tracker and hadn't had much cause to try being sneaky. Sure there were a lot of people moving through the checkpoints but they were all coming in, it wouldn't be hard at all to spot the one person trying to walk out. Maybe I could pretend I was some local? Just heading back home from volunteering time serving out food? I had to try! I couldn't miss my chance to take a swing at that fucker who killed my family! Sure it'd be smarter to bide my time and wait for a better chance, but you didn't get anywhere just waiting for good things to fall into your lap either. Whether by lucky hit or the perfect shot I'd be killing that rabbit even if it were the last thing I'd do!
'Just have to figure out a way to slip outta here…'
Reginald the Rabbit
Leaning back against the throne I took in the view.
The vessel entrusted to me as part of my new command had in fact been the manta ray shaped one Robotnik and I had initially flown in on. Said ship had some serial number like designation instead of a proper name. Not feeling especially attached to something that would likely be shot full of holes by GUN I just redesignated it as the 'Manta'. I would have loved to say the ship was packed to the ceiling with expendable badniks but sadly that just wasn't the case. Other than the assigned Egg Robos and E-100s the only other machines in my employ were a squadron of non animal shaped jet badniks, something Robotnik may have forgotten in the hold, and my trio of repaired custom badniks. Attempts to order the vast swarms of badniks in the outpost to augment my forces were met with either blank stares or me being outright ignored. Clearly Robotnik was of the opinion it was time to prove myself able to command a force whose numbers I had to preserve as much as possible.
'Of course that is assuming this is actually a test and not Robotnik deciding to make my job difficult out of personal amusement.' Something that was depressingly likely unfortunately for me. 'One hundred high performance badniks, ten experimental badniks personally made by the Doctor, twenty four jet fighters armed with energy weapons and missiles and my three personal badniks. Is that enough to hold off GUN for who knows how long this whole thing is going to last? I got the implication that this whole thing isn't supposed to go on longer than a couple days…'
A couple days to accomplish… whatever it is that Robotnik wanted to do. The man wasn't talking out of a desire for drama so really it could be another take over the world scheme or something much more localized. Could I really hold off the might of the UZA based GUN for several days? Certainly the Doctor could do it but he'd just endlessly replace any losses against GUN, either grinding them down or smashing them apart. That was what always happened, GUN's attempts to resist the Eggman Empire would ultimately fail and oftentimes without even slowing the Empire down. Could I do the same with a limited number of high performance badniks? Maybe if Metal Sonic was amongst the number I'd be much less uncertain in my chances. And maybe I was underestimating how dangerous these elite badnik units would be but it was damned hard to look past the fact I barely had more than a hundred of them.
'What do I do know however is that wasting time bemoaning my fate isn't going to make it better.' I thought, breathing in deeply. 'I at least have the Manta as well, a fairly well armed vessel… I think. It's got a bunch of big energy weapons which should be dangerous to anything GUN can field so I'd say it's well armed. It's not the Egg Carrier but the ship does have built in stealth capabilities and can manage hiding in a clear sky better then the Egg Carrier can. So no matter what I can at least seemingly attack out of nowhere.'
A whir of servos drew my attention and I glanced out of the corner of my eye at my current second in command.
Sigma was no Alfa unfortunately, what with him being all of one day old, but perhaps a tad foolishly I was optimistic for his chances. I held hopes that Sigma would develop a personality just as lifelike as Alfa's and would be a valuable subordinate in the future. As it was I had my work cut for me as Sigma would need to be walked through various responsibilities of a competent second in command, namely keeping my undeserving hide in one piece. No doubt Sigma's various bodyguard subroutines would do a decent job of it without any hand holding but when it comes to my own life, 'decent' just doesn't quite cut it.
The E series badnik wasn't unique in his condition however. Sigma's nine other siblings were just as bland and empty of personality as he was. Which was just perfect considering I had divided the force of Egg Robos into ten squads and made each one a commanding officer. Oh yes, what I needed from my subordinates was to be a bunch of unimaginative dullards who no doubt just bowl over whatever threat they were pointed at. I had no doubts at all that such strategy would work most times but, again, I needed to conserve my forces.
'Now… if only I could be confident that I am not just as big an unimaginative dullard as they are.' I thought with a grimace. 'It's not like I attended some military academy! My strategies in battles so far has been outnumbering the enemy and trying, and failing, to be the ambusher. Come on, think! You're not that stupid! You can learn from mistakes!'
Returning my gaze to the bridge window I continued taking in information from the data feeds.
GUN was incredibly distracted by a number of capsized ships out at sea. Their land forces were working their way up and coast and attending to beleaguered settlements as they went. The vanguard of their advance would reach Station Square within the day. In fact they had messaged ahead and helped organize a partial evacuation effort of the city, something that had nearly given me a heart attack because initially I thought GUN had somehow slipped by me and entered the city. News from the city itself was a bit more varied, various accounts of issues from tourists stranded and left out in the streets by the tsunami, water damage everywhere and flooded sewers. There was something regarding a plane crashing into the sandbar and Sonic somehow being involved.
That last one was potentially interesting just from the Blue Blur's involvement alone but it was also more Robotnik's problem as opposed to mine.
'The GUN vanguard is traveling along the coast on Speed Highway.' I stared at glowing markers on a digital map. 'They have over a hundred vehicles and many more soldiers packed tightly in. These humans are being deployed to help their own afflicted by unnatural disaster. It's now my job to ensure they never get the chance.'
My stomach churned at the prospect of it all. They might not be Sonic but they were men and women coming to help those in need and thus heroes all the same. It… might not be enough to hit them hard enough to make them scatter and run. They may just group up back together in the wilderness and make their way to Station Square. I will likely need to give them a reason to stand and fight.
I looked at another window showing the view of a street camera. A line of buses were being loaded up with humans and mobians alike to be shipped down the coast. Innocent people looking for shelter away from disaster.
'Spirits of my ancestors have mercy upon my soul for what I am about to do…'
-TBC-
Author Note: Well my wrist issues have turned out to be not as severe as I thought and they've healed. But of course I somehow slept bad enough to pinch a nerve and now have to deal with various limb issues. *Insert Theoden: My body is broken* here.
It's about that time to add to the growing legend of Robotnik's newest fleshy enforcer. At this point only being known by select groups and distantly aware of by GUN Intelligence (Probably call them SCOPE… Hmm, Scouting, Covert Operations and Preemptive Engagements) and the CLIP Division because they'd be the ones with ties to Dan Jun. This is the point in time that world infamy gets its start and for a number of good reasons.