Buster turned down the hallway, the stench of gunpowder still choking his throat. Led by the sound of the crying infant, Buster stood outside a doorway, he heard panicked screaming being made outside to anyone who might hear her calls for help.
Buster wasted no time in attempting to open the door but found it locked. He then rammed the door with his body until the hinge gave and the door slammed open. He stumbled inside and was then attacked with a slat of white wood.
The woman attempted to beat, hit, and stab Buster, after receiving a few cheap hits by the improvised weapon, the broken edge of which left several cuts on Buster's head and face but the Mother was easily overpowered as Buster slammed the mother into the wall beside a glass door that led to a balcony. It was then he noticed the monster wailing away in his crib, a wooden slat missing his crib.
The Mother, terrified, looked at her child then at Buster, then the pair made a mad dash for the crib.
The pair collided. Screaming, shouting, begging, wrestling. Buster once again overpowered her and hurled her into the decorative glass doorway that led to the balcony. The mother crashed through the flimsy door and struggled to get to her feet, begging for the intruder to spare her child. To take anything he wanted, just to have mercy on her child.
Buster raised his revolver, pointing it at the woman, "He has to die… he has to die. He's a horrible human being. I'm saving countless lives. You don't understand, I have to do this. I-I didn't want to do this but it's my burden. No one else can fix this. It's up to me. Please. Just let me take the child away. I have no ill will against anyone but him. I'm begging you."
The Mother looked at the fox in disbelief, "You're raving mad."
"Please…" Buster was shaking, breathing deeply, nearly hyperventilating as he awaited an answer.
He never got one, as the mother charged him upon getting to her feet.
Buster fired his revolver, but the mother kept charging toward him, screaming, a shard of glass was held in a death grip in her right hand, tinged red with her blood.
Buster, not sure if he even hit her, fired again and before he knew it she had stabbed him where his neck and shoulder meet, the glass slicing deep inside his flesh.
The two struggled for the gun and in the commotion and panic the last round was accidentally fired from the revolver, hitting the ceiling.
The two begged and pleaded with one another as they struggled, fighting for their lives and for those they loved.
Slowly the woman grew weaker. Her strength, herculean at one point, had vanished. Buster wrestled her down to the ground, noticing for the first time how much blood was... everywhere. It stained his fur and the woman's clothes a dark red, as well as the floor. Buster gently propped the woman against the wall and held her hand as the woman weakly pleaded…
"My baby… my baby… please… please… my sweet child… please..."
Buster lost track of time as he held her hand. He lost track of how long he had cried, apologizing all the while. He was not sure when she passed but he was startled back to his senses when red and blue lights flashed through the balcony and into the room.
"This is the police! You are surrounded! Surrender and come out with your hands up!" A loud voice outside shouted through a megaphone.
Buster let go of the mother's hand and it limply fell to the ground, landing in a pool of her own blood.
Buster stood up, in shock, and walked over to the crib. He picked up the monster, which wailed, crying for its mother and father. The monster that was one day to become Dr. Eggman looked at Benjamin 'Buster' Prower, the infant looked terrified and heartbroken.
Buster held the child, hyper-ventilating. He walked onto the balcony, still holding the wailing child in his weak and bloody hands. A police helicopter shone its spotlight on him as he held the child over the balcony railing.
All he had to do was let go.
All he had to do was let go and everything would be better.
"I just have to let go." Buster said quietly to himself.
"I just have to let go!" He screamed, tears streaming down his face.
"Let go, dammit. Let go!"
…
Buster walked through the portal that returned him home. He took two steps forward into his home, the flashing lights and roar of the police chopper that came from behind him ceased immediately as the portal that connected to two spaces in time dissipated.
"Benjamin, what in Chaos happened? Why are you covered in blood?"
Benjamin "Buster" Prower took a step forward and collapsed, curling into a ball and hugging himself as he broke down in tears.
"Benjamin, what happened? Benjamin, speak to me!"
"I-I-I-I-I-" Buster said hyper-ventilating.
"Yes? What is it?"
Buster took a deep breath, "I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it..." he said as continued to speak, trailing off, and began mumbling incoherently.
"Benjamin, listen to me."
"I couldn't do it…"
Annabella knelt down in front of him, and shook him, "Listen to me! We're okay. We're going to fix everything, alright? But I need you to listen to me."
Buster continued to speak incoherently, "I'm so sorry Anna. I'm so sorry. I shot you. I shot… I shot them!" Buster broke down in tears again.
"Shhhhhhh, it's okay. I'll live. Now please, listen to me."
"But I shot you." he said as he looked at the ground in shame as Annabella tried in vain to comfort him.
"You're my brother. I love you. You'd have to do a whole lot worse than put a bullet hole in my foot to make me stop loving you."
Buster looked up from the ground staring into his sisters eyes, then, he wrapped his arms around his sister hugging her as he broke down crying yet again. Annabella gently patted his back.
After Buster finally recovered from his shock and panic, Annabella was finally able to speak with him about their plan.
"Listen… we're alive. Colette is alive. We can do Eggman's errands, and make preparations to outsmart him. He didn't bother taking our Chaos Emeralds so he either thinks we're not a threat or he has already planned for everything he thinks we could do. We're playing 5D chess now. We can change the rules and create new board states to change our fate. But to do this we need to prepare. We need to plan, and at the very least we'll need to obtain seven Chaos Emeralds and use them to defeat Eggman once and for all. I can't do this alone. Benjamin, will you help me? Will you help me save Colette and our parents?"
Buster wiped his eyes and face, nodding, "W-where do we even start?"
"While you were gone for less than five minutes from my perspective, I got a message from Eggman. He says to get Colette back along with a Chaos Emerald, we will need to do some errands for him. The main task is for us to go to the space-time coordinates he will provide and capture or kill a violet-furred cat Princess and her silver-furred hedgehog boyfriend in the Capital City of the Sol Empire. He will be dropping by sometime soon."
"W-what?" Buster said, utterly perplexed at the gargantuan size of the so-called errand.
"That's what he said!"
"Why use us for this? Couldn't he defeat them? This makes no sense."
"I don't understand it either, but Eggman's message also said the cat Princess is a deadly pyrokinetic and the hedgehog is a dangerous user of psychokinesis. He wants them brought to him while they are young and inexperienced… dead or alive. If we can't manage that, then we… we won't… ever see Colette again."
Annabella wiped tears from her eyes as she ended their embrace, then held his hand gently, squeezing it as Buster's body went limp, slumping backwards. "How… how can we ever hope to beat that? Does Eggman expect us to do the impossible or does he want to force us to run toward our own slaughter?"
"Buster, nothing is impossible-"
"-A pyrokinetic and a psychokinetic! Are you kidding me Anna? If I raise a gun to them, I'll get thrown against a wall then burned alive. It's not possible. It's just not possible. He's toying with us Anna." Buster shouted, suddenly filled with rage and anger over the injustice of life and their current predicament.
"We can beat them. I'm sure of it. We just need to outsmart them. If we work together, I know we can win. We have no other choice or option. If we want to save Colette and our parents, we have to defeat them."
Buster was mentally drained, he sat on the ground, his sister gently rubbing his back as he came to terms with the harsh reality they now faced, "Pyrokinesis… and psychokinesis… and they are lovers to boot? There… there's just no way."
"Listen! We'll have the advantage. We can play dirty. Ambush them. They won't see what hits them. I can't do this without you." Annabella pleaded.
Buster closed his eyes, burying his regret deep inside him, as much as was possible, he had to bury any and all weakness that remained and focus his mind on the mission, lest it be the end of him and those he loved.
Buster resolved once more to set things right. He opened his eyes, his body and spirit feeling heavy, but his mind was refocused, "Shouldn't we try to ally with them if they are so clearly an enemy of Eggman?" Buster said with a glimmer of optimism returning to his voice.
A single tear rolled down Annabella's cheek, "I… I thought of that option too, and we could, but not if you want to see Colette alive ever again. If we do that… if we go against his whims… what is stopping Eggman from killing Colette or turning her into a robotic slave the moment he thinks theres the slightest possibility of our betrayal? I wish we could, but it's just too risky with Colette as his prisoner. The worst part is, if they are enemies of Robotnik, they must be decent people. It's such a shame."
"I think you are right about that. So what's your plan for step one?" Buster said.
"Step one is recon. Gather any information, resources, and any Chaos Emeralds we can find. Anything to give us an advantage. Then we'll plan a trap of some kind and deal with them."
"Sounds simple enough."
"Simple plans work best."
"Then let's get to work. Every second that passes is one second Colette is at the Mercy of Dr. Eggman. We can't waste a second." Buster said while rising to his feet. He moved closer to his sister to assist her as she struggled to stand due to her injured leg. Annabella wrapped her arm around her brother's offered shoulder and together they hobbled to the living room table to begin their plotting.