January, Tuesday 5th. 32XX
Main Street, Cyber City
Lunchtime
Out in the streets of Cyber City, two hedgehogs were walking alongside each other. One slim-build green hedgehog and one brown stout hedgehog who asks; "What'll be our game for today?"
"Pickpocketing obviously. A classic that never gets old and with our skills, it should be easy." The green hedgehog looked about. "I was thinking of looking for places with rich people and ripping them off but then I realised they'll instantly call the cops on us including that asshole Captain Krouch because rich people can't fight their own battles... Well, maybe not all rich people..."
"So, we're aiming for the blue collars this time. Need me for the distractions?"
"As long as you can do something to keep their attention long enough for me to rob them, that's fine by me."
"Won't be a problem for you in clearing their pockets with or without Little John's help." The brown hedgehog nodded as they were over at a bus stop. "So Manic, what sucker are we going for first around here?"
"Hmmmm..." Manic said, thinking a moment as he looked about the area, looking for someone that might at least have more than 20 mobiums in their wallet. He cased every single person on the street at that moment, taking in everything about them and their habits. He then spotted his first victim; a mobian rat around their age buying a soda from a streetside food vendor.
"That guy there." He said, pointing to the rat from a distance. "Judging by the bulge on his left back pocket: I'd say he's a lax guy, being confident enough to keep his wallet in his back pocket and judging by the expensive-looking jacket he's got on combined with the sunglasses; I'd say he's got a little too much money to be living on our side of town which implies he's from the wealthy side of town. Likely out for a stroll.."
"Perfect..." Little John smirked. "Let's go and get to it."
"Alright alright alright~" Manic said with a grin. He then got to his forward position behind a nearby alley, gesturing for Little John to start the distraction. Little John walked over to the rat and approaches him, pulling out one of his form of distractions.
"Uh, exkuse me!" Little John says to him with a fake foreign accent to get his attention before pulling out a city map. "You from around here? Think you kan help me out here with this map, no?"
"Huh?" The rat replied, a slight eastern accent in his voice. "Ye, ye, sure. Where do ya need to go?"
Manic grinned, waiting for the right moment to swing by the guy.
"I'm trying to get to here..." Little John shows him the map, pointing to one part of it. "See?"
"Here, huh?" The rat's attention is on the map. "Hmmm..."
Seeing his chance; Manic quickly walked by the rat, discreetly plucking his wallet from his back pocket and then hurrying away into the next alley down.
"...Thanks!" Little John says to the rat before rejoining Manic elsewhere away from the scene. The green hedgehog grinned as he pulled out the stolen wallet, finding about 200 mobiums inside it.
"Wicked, this guy was packin'!" He said with a cackle, holding up the mobium notes.
"Hot damn..." Little John grinned at the score. "If we get more finds like this, the kids in our neighbourhood will be thinking Christmas has come early when we come back with the haul. His own fault for not having secure pockets against us hehe."
"Damn straight." Manic said with a grin, pocketing the cash. "Maybe we could use some of it to buy toys for the kids at the orphanage?"
"We definitely could." Little John nodded approvingly to that. "But we'll get to that when we're done making our collection for today first..."
Cyber City College Campus, Cyber City
Afternoon
Akira was sitting in class relating to social studies during the third hour session, being a studious and attentive student like he was back in high school. Taking breaks in-between the class sessions to give himself some rest before resuming his studies and working to earn his credits on his first full day of college. Keeping to himself and not get involved with others; the way he's been doing it for three years.
He'd get to meet a few other students and got to see Fiona again whom is in the class with him since she's studying for her degree relating to medicine. However, a rumour has gone around the campus that the red vixen is possibly seeing someone in the college.
Fiona gently tapped her pencil against her textbook boredly but tried her best to listen to the lecture, her mind seemingly elsewhere. Akira could only wonder what sometimes goes through other people's heads and how they each view the world around them. The wolf is seated in the row behind the vixen and sitting slightly above her in the back of the hall where he can see over her head.
'...Where did the rumour come from and who's the one spreading it around in the first place?' Akira ponders to himself as he listens to the lecturer. 'I wonder how Fiona's taking the rumour mill... I'd feel bad if I'm the reason she's getting all this about her and getting on just fine before I came along...'
Fiona's mind was definitely on the gossip spread around about her and if there was one thing she hated, it was people talking about her behind her back. If someone had something to say about her, she'd rather they say it to her face rather than talk about her whenever she wasn't in the room. Even now she felt like all eyes in the college were on her and it wasn't fair.
Eventually and thankfully, the class rang which ended the session with all the students getting up to collect her belongings. Akira would fetch his items from his table before exiting the class. He'd sighted Fiona walking away in the hall before going over to catch up with her, coming up next to a fellow victim of today's rumours.
"Hi Fiona..." The wolf greeted the vixen with a smile before relaxing the mouth to a neutral one. "Say, is the rumour mill usually this bad or is it that slow of a month for goss—"
Fiona slammed the palm of her hand against the wall suddenly, growling and seething with rage. "Those damn phonies... They just can't find the fucking balls to talk to me to my face..."
She looked to Akira, brow furrowed. "If I find out who spread this rumor, I'm gonna beat them into a fucking vegetable."
'Shit, this aspiring med student will be keeping the ER room busy if she does that...' Akira could understand her frustration over the situation, though didn't agree with the suggested idea of violence against the author of the rumours. Plus she'd no doubt get arrested over it if she did even though the other person probably deserves it.
"I'd like to know as much as you do on who started it and why we're being paired together in it. Who'd be the usual suspect around the campus when it comes to rumours and gossip?" He asks calmly, one hand on his bag-strap.
"Well, there's a rogue's gallery of people who would do that..." Fiona replied, trying go calm down. "The issue is figuring out which of them did it..."
"Oh lookie here, it's Fiona and her new boyfriend..." A pink lizard mobian in a red dress and a red bow on her pink hair came up to them, wearing a smug grin on her face. "Who'd have figured the rumours were true after all?"
"Uh, who are you exactly?" Akira raised a brow.
"Pardon me, my name is Migu Veruca..." The lizard introduces herself to the wolf. "My daddy is the new Mayor's head chef and my mommy is a member of the C.C.P.T.A or Cyber City Parent Teacher Association in case you're wondering what that means..."
Already, Akira thought this Migu person has a real condescending air around her with a gaze that looked down on him like he's some peasant while she's some royal princess and her "charming" voice sounded plasticity with a matching smile. "I see. Say, what makes you think me and Fiona here are together?"
"Well, I was under the impression that you both were an item..." Migu gave Fiona a smug, knowing look before turning her head back to him. "Considering you both walked in together and all yesterday. Guess I had you and Fiona figured wrong then."
"You the one to spread the rumours around?"
"Me?" Migu tries to act all innocent. "Maybe I might have ran my mouth to a friend or two after seeing the pair of you together who then started passing along to their friends... But I didn't mean to cause you both discomfort with this rumour mill. I do sincerely apologise to you both..."
Akira glanced over to Fiona, knowing as well as her that Migu is full of enough bull to fertilise the whole of Green Hill Zone. He's more willing to believe she purposefully spread those rumours against Fiona for a reason while having her status protecting her from the vixen's wrath against her and he happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time to get caught up in it.
"Izzat so?" Fiona mused, her anger welling up inside her like magma inside of one of the volcanoes in Hilltop Zone, "Tell me something Migu... You're pretty well-off, right? Like, you're privileged enough to basically do whatever you want and think nothing of the consequences, correct?"
"My Fiona dear, I can do whatever I want as long as I am turning in good grades and staying out of trouble." Migu said with a scornful chuckle, looking at Fiona. "I know my daddy makes more in a week's salary cooking patties than either you or Wolfy here would be earning in a month on a poultry sum. Of course, I'm not inclined to know how you make your ends' meet including the "physical" labour that'd go into it..."
"So, you think that gives you the right to say and do whatever you want?" Akira says to the lizard and stepping in front of Fiona to stop her from going off on her over the physical remark, something sparking in him. "You know, you're the classic example of the inverse ratio between the size of the mouth and the size of the brain."
Then added with a knowing look and affliction that mirrors Migu's almost spot-on; "In case you're wondering what that means, your mouth's bigger than your brain considering you like to make it hinge up and down a lot with very little substance to what you say coming out of it."
If words were a murder weapon, Akira would be charged for the second degree homicide of Migu Veruca's pride through his statement to her. Migu's reptilian eyes narrowed into a harsh glare at the wolf with a growl, losing the smug face from earlier and replaced by an angry sneer. "How dare you speak to me like that you litter runt... If that's how you address other women, then no wonder you're not with this bottom-feeder bitch here. I wouldn't want to be dating a mutt like you."
"You know Migu, that's the first honest thing you've said since you started talking to me." Akira retorted with an impassive face on him and crossing the arms across the chest. "Your sneer really matches your eyes there."
"UGH!" Migu's left eye twitch before huffing like an imp being told off. "Hmph, I'm sure you won't be feeling so full of yourself when you meet my brothers. Especially my oldest brother Ant—"
"I don't care about what you have to say or your threats because it doesn't change what I think of you..." The bespectacled red wolf said to her. "An ill-mannered harpy with an annoying voice to match and a personality to compliment it."
The pink lizard fumed hot air through her nostrils before storming off in indignant rage. With that, Migu had just been utterly destroyed by his well-placed retorts.
"Yeah, walk away you Slutty PlayMobian Chao Doll!" Fiona called after her, seething with rage. Though soon calmed herself a little more as she looked to Akira for a moment.
"...You didn't have to do that, you know..." She said with gratitude. "But I understand why you did. I guess the last thing you wanted was for me to get in trouble for beating her into a coma even if in my opinion; it would've been fuckin' worth it."
"People like her are a dime a dozen and if what she says is true, her family would make your life here hell should they learn who made a great vegetable out of their daughter." Akira turns to Fiona, hands in his pockets. "I lost interested the moment she opened her gob and I couldn't let her talk trash to you like that as your "boyfriend". I figured she'd be the one responsible for the rumours and being bold enough to let you know she's behind it all."
"Yeah..." Fiona replied, a light smile present. "...Thanks for that..."
"You're welcome. I wouldn't date her if my life depended on it with how nasty her personality is from that one meeting alone. I'm probably high on her shit-list now after that, assuming she even knows what my name is since she didn't address me by it."
"I wouldn't be surprised if I was on the same list by association alone."
"You must have already been on that list well before I came along if she's doing stuff like that to you."
"Honestly, I never bothered with that witch." Fiona replied with a tut. "She's too crabby to be worth it."
"Not that it matters to her wether you did her wrong or not, she'll pull shit like that and knowing you can't do anything to her. Folks like her don't need much reason to be an ass towards others lower on the social ladder than them, thinking their status gives them license to do that." Akira says to the vixen. "Besides, you seem like a nice person having to put up with crap like that. You saved me the trouble of having to make pleasantries with anybody from the fraternity house row."
"Mmm... Still; if I could, I would kick her ass so badly her great-grandchildren would feel it generations away from now..."
"That's if her family doesn't already know who we are from yesterday through her and would suspect you first-thing. Let her say whatever she wants. She'll be opening her mouth to the wrong people someday if she doesn't learn to shut it now or her boastfulness sets her up to be knocked down by karma and embarrass her family." He fishes out his family heirloom watch from his pocket to show her it before pocketing the item again. "Anyways, I gotta go get this looked at over at 48th Street. I'll see you later."
"Totally..." Fiona replied, checking her time. "I gotta meet with some friends soon."
"Okay, I shouldn't be keeping you up then. Bye." Akira took his leave and soon left the hallway the red vixen was in, heading off to exit the campus ground to go get that old analogue watch of his looked at.
The afternoon air of the city was filled with the sounds of the hustle and bustle of city life.
"...Dang, it's like the rate of good catches today has crawled to a near stop. We need to make some more good catches before we call it a day or they start calling the police on us and have him on our asses again." Little John groans to Manic as the pair were walking up through the clean streets of Cyber City together.
"I know, I know, I know..." Manic replied, a pair of gold-framed aviator sunglasses worn over his eyes, "We just gotta find the right guy… Someone well-off but not snobby enough to call the cops instantly…"
"Someone who isn't too in the know of Cyber City's politics nor too wise to our ways?"
"Yeah. That and being well-off enough to waste money on useless tat."
"Basically a nerd." Little John nodded, then spotting something in his sights. "Speaking of nerds, I think I see one riiiight over there..."
He pointed over to a red wolf with glasses a few feet away from them pulling out an analogue watch to glance over it while looking at his phone before putting it away again and walking on to wherever he's going to while they shadowed him. "How much you'd reckon we would get if we got that watch off that fool?"
"Probably two hundred mobiums. Depends on how old it is and it's condition."
"Then let's go and do our thing with him. He'll be a right sucker to knock off..."
Akira was looking through his phone, wondering why that mysterious app keeps reappearing every time he bins it when Little John went up to him. Little John having a map out ready and all. "Exkuse me good sir, I'm a tourist and I was wondering if you kould help me out here whenever it's not an inkonvenienke for you."
"Well, not sure if I'm much help there." Akira told him with a sigh. "New around here."
"Some pointers would help me very mukh." The brown hedgehog said, trying to stall and distract the wolf long enough for Manic to get at the pocket holding the family watch they saw him with earlier. Forced to alter his approach a bit on the spot due to the unforeseen roadblock.
"Alright but you'll get better directions from other people who'd know this city better than I would." Akira said as he took a look at the map Little John was holding. He felt a nagging suspicion with the brown hedgehog and subtly stood where he'd be able to find a reflective surface nearby without tipping off the hedgehog to what he's doing. Manic grinned as he began to approach Akira, readying himself as he then tried to snatch the watch once he was close enough, aiming to grab the watch quickly and pass right by Akira.
"So, where do you need to get to in this city?" Akira asks Little John as he looks over at the map.
"Uh, I need to get to the kity museum." The hedgehog said to him.
"The museum's right here..." Akira pointed out on the map, gesturing over to the museum marked out on it. Starting to doubt the act.
"Oh, I suppose I'd like to know the fastest route to it..." Little John tries to salvage the deception as Akira narrows his eyes in suspicion. Manic then quickly grabbed Akira's watch without him noticing, quickly pocketing it as he walked away casually.
"Uh-huh... Sure..." Akira said doubtfully as he glances at the reflection through his gut instinct to catch Manic walking away in the other direction opposite of him like he had just walked past him except the wolf knew he hadn't and when he instinctively checked his pocket where the watch is, his nagging suspicion with the brown hedgehog proven correct. Especially when the hedgehog's slightly panicking expression gave the game away to him.
'That thieving asshole!' The wolf's thoughts were filled with his anger over the watch's theft. Losing a wallet would have been one thing and something he'd be willing to accept the loss of but not that watch. Suddenly and quickly, the red wolf sped off in the direction Manic went in before Little John could try to restrain him.
"MANIC, RUN!" Little John warned Manic as he watches the lupine speed over towards the hedgehog with a livid expression.
"Oh, shit!" Manic exclaims. He quickly began running away; using his own knowledge of the terrain of the city to his advantage.
Having been in the city for as long as he has, he's managed to memorize the layout of the entire city; both sides included as well as the layout of all the rooftops, the sewers, subway tunnels, underground malls and walkways. At the moment, Manic was using the terrain of the market district to his advantage as he ran, utilizing his full parkour skills as he did so.
Yet despite his street knowledge and parkour skills, they didn't seem to be doing a whole lot to lose or shake off the red wolf that's hot on his trail as they ran through the market district. Being that he's able to do parkour as well and sprinting with fierce speeds to stay on the hedgehog while running through Cyber City.
Akira had called for the police earlier but when the nearest one looks like he's better off retiring from the force with his age than he is chasing a criminal, so he was on his own in pursuing the thief. He'd chase him into one of the city parks. Manic ran about in the woodland path area of the park, aiming to lose Akira in the trees and foliage. Try as he might, the wolf is steadfast on his tail.
The wolf chased him out of the park and through a sidewalk of in the main streets, even running across a four-way road junction with the latter scrambling to lose him. They'd cut through a shopping mall by taking the parking lot entrance and then exiting through a Meh Burger restaurant to be back out into the streets.
The two would then end up at a nearby movie production that has Luke Periwinkle doing a scene at a coffee shop, going on about a cliched how fate can be changed if one wills it hard enough spiel to a co-star playing a character opposite of him. The pair managing to ruin the take by running across the background where the camera can pick up on them and enraging the director in the process.
They'd soon encounter a purple wolfess-weasel hybrid walking in the opposite direction along the way, Manic bulling past her when she was in his path while Akira merely brushes past her as he altered his trajectory a bit to avoid knocking her down and instead making her spin out like a topspin. "Oi, you pack of bastards!"
"SORRY!" Akira called out to her, continuing on after Manic and disappearing around a corner. Their chase were beginning to bring them near towards the Geno City side of the metropolis and the wolf refusing to let up on the thieving hedgehog. Akira held a stern grimace as he kept up with Manic's pace, slowly closing the gap between them. Those running lessons he took in his high school days are coming in handy now in today's situation.
Manic glanced behind himself as he saw Akira still following him. 'Gods, this fuckin' guy! Lucky for me I know a shortcut past the checkpoint...'
He quickly ran into an alley near the checkpoint. Then quickly opened a maintenance door and slipped on through and ending up in the other pathway in a back alley; quickly picking up his pace as he ran through the alleyway. The hedgehog figured he'd lost the wolf and that he wouldn't be so determined in his pursuit as to actually follow him into Geno City.
That is until he sighted a flash of red zooming through the alleyway he's in. Manic exclaimed when he saw the flash of red. "What!? Dammit!"
He quickly changed direction as he began climbing up a nearby fire escape to take the chase to the rooftops. Akira wasn't long in following him up on the ladder to the rooftops and chasing him from there, the wolf's speed in getting up the fire ladder left him to cover more of the gap between them whenever they got to running on their feet again.
Seems like the gap between the thief and victim has decreased considerably since the chase began. Manic picked up his pace even more, jumping from the rooftop he climbed onto the next with ease.
Akira kept on him and they'd jump over through a few more of the rooftops, nearly mistiming a jump on one of them. Eventually, the green hedgehog led him to a set of steel fire evacuation stairs at the side of one abandoned building and quickly ran down them to bring the chase back to street levels with the pursuing lupus closing more of the distance thanks to the stairs that they're only a van's length away from each other.
Manic quickly made his way through the streets outside the abandoned building, being sure to try to increase the gap between him and Akira.
The attempt to increase the gap proved futile and when they ran through another alleyway, the wolf would soon catch up to him as he rugby tackles the green hedgehog right when he was exiting it through the other side. The wolf's momentum causing them both to collide with a silver trashcan in a narrow street littered with closed shops, boarded up windows, a dead tree, cracks on the pavements, worn roads and graffiti on the brick walls.
"Uhh..." Akira was the first to recover from the collision with the trash can before crawling over to Manic and retrieve his stolen watch from one of the pockets before getting off him to examine the still-broken analogue watch, panting from the sprinting he had to do. "I'll be taking that back... Jackass..."
"Fuck, man..." Manic said, picking himself up while panting and the two ready to throw hands. "The fuck is wrong with you?! It's a fucking watch! They're a dime a dozen here you well-off douchebag!"
"Fuck you and who are you to be calling others douchebags when you're going around pickpocketing people with that pal of yours back there!?" Akira retorted, holding up his watch for Manic to get a good look at it. "This is a heirloom you tried to steal and as your working eyeballs can tell, it ain't working right now nor is it going to be seeing anymore than the chump change you'd making by stealing from grannies!"
"Oh, so you think I steal just for the hell of it; do you?" Manic growled, glaring at him. "Look around you! This half of the city is a shitshow and people are suffering. Mayor thinks that building a buncha new affordable housing will fix everything! He's so focused on making things better that he doesn't truly realise how bad things are here! Families are living on the streets, orphaned children wasting away in local orphanage and those struggling with addictions are simply being thrown into the local sanitarium! I steal so that I can help these people! I do it for their benefit!"
Akira said back to Manic with furrowed brows. "I try getting away from my old shambles of a life but of course, the world thought it ain't done having fun in making me suffer... People of his kind are two-faced beings who are either out to put themselves on top at the expense of people like us or they're useful idiots for others with seldom promises kept. Those other folks you mentioned deserves better than that but that doesn't excuse what you're doing either and probably only contributing to the problem..."
"A question that really keeps me up at night..." Manic shakes his head. "I try my damndest to make things better for people living here, y'know... Do what I can so that others can have a better quality of life..."
"Is there really no other better ways to go about it?" Akira got out a pack of cigarette from his jacket pocket and sticks one of them in his mouth before lighting it with a lighter. Needing something to calm the nerves.
"It's the only way that will make an impact on those I steal from. Way too many people in the good half of town are blissfully ignorant of how things are over here... Freedom from Ignorance... Apparently, that's the mindset over there..."
"War is peace, Freedom is slavery and Ignorance is strength. United in hatred, urging others to find themselves in the collective rather be independent and the people in charge knows best even when they're wrong or contradicting themselves by changing the facts to suit the current narrative." Akira puffs out smoke from his cigarette. "They're either apathetic to what's going on or they're more concerned in surviving through the day like I am."
"It's no way to live..." Manic replied, sighing quietly. "The world can't go on like this... It just can't..."
"What else could we do other than live through the length of a piece by Olivier Messiaen commenting on the decay of society and it's rot towards destruction? If we're judged by celestial beings on how the planet meets the mortality, morality and spirituality standards without people like Sonic the Hedgehog there to save our asses, we'd be all matters of screwed..." Akira scratches one side of his chin with his pinky while holding the cigarette between his index and middle fingers.
"So then what do we do?" Manic asked, putting a piece of bubble gum in his mouth and beginning to chew it. Still on guard just in case.
"Going after people in positions of power that abuses their positions to do what they want is easier said than done when you're not Sonic and going after criminals backed by the law is a whole other story entirely, we'd be squashed sooner beneath their heel than it takes to fry an egg." Akira thought about it, tapping the ashes off the end of his cigarette with his thumb on the side of it. "I'd be like Doctor Omega in knowing how to figure out brilliant solutions to the issues and helping out people. We already got enough warriors in our society, we need more healers and thinkers worth their salt to balance it out."
"Yeah..." Manic was taken aback by his insight. "Yeah, I agree with that entirely... Sorry I tried to take your watch earlier... I had no idea you were on the level..."
"It's alright. People would think I'm well-off just because I ain't not sleeping on a bench. I had to sell off some things before moving here for some cash and need a bit of it to afford whatever repair costs I have to pay for the watch over at that shop in 48th Street just to make it work again. It's an old analogue and I don't intend to sell it off any time now nor ever and that means having to risk chasing whoever takes it to get it back." He then takes notice of his new environments as he'd take out his phone to check the screen. "By the way, what part of the city are we in now? Has to be Geno City with how rundown this street looks."
Nearby, there's a rusted sign that reads Shōga Street. Additionally, the graffiti on the wall nearest to them showed a skull with crossbones and an electric bolt under it which Manic instantly recognises as a gang symbol as well as a turf marker on who the area belongs to.
"We should leave this area right now..." Manic said with neither he or Akira catching the phone audibly making a confirmation on the words 'Geno City'. "It's prime gang territory here."
"...And what gang rules this territory?" Akira dares to ask. Before he could ponder the situation he only just realised now he's in, an unpleasant voice and the sounds of glass bottles clanking against each other greeted the pair.
"Well, well, well... Look like the green thief has decided to be bold enough to set foot in my turf today and brought a new friend along too..."
Akira turned his head over to the owner of the malevolent voice, sighting a green lizard with a blonde mohawk in a yellow and red letterman jacket, a black torn t-shirt with an electric bolt just like the one in the wall graffiti, blue jeans, a pair of sneakers and black sunglasses to cast a thuggish air around him.
He'd be accompanied by three other lizards aka his three brothers. One purple and goofy-looking, one green with a sadistic glint in his eyes while playing with a switchblade in one hand and one green with a crazy grin on him as he clanks the bottles on his fingertips together in a repetitive motion.
"Shit..." Manic muttered, reading the situation good and alert. "...Heya, Anton... You uh... You look great today. We were just leaving actually, so we'll just be on our way-"
"Who says you can leave without his permission!?" Suddenly, a young street hoodlum in a red hoodie pops out of the alleyway the pair came through. Followed by the appearance of more hoodlums from other parts of the street and all bearing melee weapons including the rat familiar Manic robbed from earlier.
"Is he the one who nicked your wallet with the help of that Fatso earlier?" The lizard named Anton asks the rat with a little glance.
"Ya." The rat said, then added in an eastern language which apparently Anton understood. "*The young needle pig stole my shit earlier.*"
"I see..." Anton looked back to Manic with a furrowed brow. "So you've taken to stealing from my hard-working and hard-earning gang now? Is that it, huh? You not satisfied enough as it is stealing from other people that you're resorting to taking from us and hoping I wouldn't notice? You took two hundred and that two hundred needs to be given back now."
"Has your dada never told you that your habits would be the end of you someday?" The green lizard patronisingly wags his finger at the hedgehog before clapping his hands together when he remembered something as he let off a chuckle. "Oh I forgot, he's dead and buried ten feet under ground. Dead like the bug he is."
"...Heh..." Manic said, wincing a little. "Y'know, I wouldn't normally steal from people from gangs... But your buddy there? Ratboy Genius over there? He's wearing a two hundred mobium designer brand jacket. He probably got the money from his daddy who had to bribe the store to hold the jacket because the clothing from that brand Supremo and that shit flies off shelves fast. It's hot commodity and only accessible to the rich and the privileged. That kinda money could feed a family for at least a week and he spent it on a fucking jacket. I'd say this kinda wealth is better redistributed, don't you?"
"Spare me the Communist Robin Hood bull Manic..." Anton retorted. "You and Fatty aren't above stealing from middle class people nor above pocketing ill-gotten gains for yourselves. You can't seem to earn money fair and square like normal people would, you have to compulsively steal it from someone else who had to slave away hours of their lives to earn just to make end's meet as your "favourite" policeman would so eloquently put it in his own words."
"Give the two hundred mobiums back and I'll let you along with your faggot friend there go." The lizard demanded with a sour sneer. Crossing his arms as he taps his foot on the ground.
"Yeah, give!" Said the crazy grinning lizard with a cackle.
"We'll give you back the two hundred and we'll go, okay?" Akira says to the lizard, trying to play the peacekeeping negotiator in this situation as he glances back to Manic and whispers; "Give them back the two hundred. Now."
Manic seethed a bit as if trying to control his anger. He side-glanced Anton and his gang, then sighed. He reached into his own belt-worn loot bag, then retrieved the two hundred mobiums he took and held them in Anton's eyesight as he slowly approached to give it back.
"Tod, get the cash." Anton ordered the purple lizard as the latter went over to collect the cash from Manic before coming back to the older lizard with it. The larger green lizard counting the bills, Anton looked over to the rat. "Here, your two hundred back."
"Thank you." The rat replied, nodding as he pocketed the bills.
"We square?" Manic asked.
"I think we're more than square today." Anton nodded as he sticks his hands in the letterman jacket. "You can take your fuck buddy with you and get the hell out of my turf."
"Good..." Akira whispers to Manic as they start quickly heading for the alleyway they came through when the red hooded gang member stepped to one side. "Let's get out of he—"
"Hang on there for a moment." Anton called out and the red hooded gang member went back to blocking's the pair's route, the big green lizard pointing at Akira. "Blue cardigan, blue pants and red sneakers... Have you been slagging my sister recently?"
"Huh?" Akira replied with a confused expression.
"Yeah, I heard from my sister that you were badmouthing her today. Calling her ugly, name-calling her as Princess Warts and saying she's a slut..." Anton's voice took on a dark edge. "You think it's alright to be calling my sister all those derogatory words?"
"Hang on, what are you even on about?" Akira replied to the gang leader, glancing a look at Manic as if he had any clue himself. "I haven't been calling anyone those today."
"Well, you called my sister an ill-mannered harpy with an annoying voice and a moron to her face! Does that refreshen your memory?" Akira thought for a moment, wondering who Anton was on about there. Then it dawns on him.
"She was spreading false rumours on someone else and I told her exactly how it is except I never called her any of that. What she is that she's a disingenuous liar who thinks it's okay to pick on others lower in the social ladder than her." Akira narrows his eyes at Anton. "I did her a favour by stopping someone from putting her in a hospital bed. If anything, she's the one you need to give a stern talking to when it comes to spreading lies around."
"Shut the fuck up you four-eyed bastard!" Anton roared, sounding angry in his tone. "You think you're real hilarious to have her sent crying home to me, huh!? You're not going to be laughing today when you find your head under my heel!"
Anton bared his fangs to both Akira and Manic. "You know what Manic, I changed my mind. We're not square til both you and this asshole here are taught a lesson in screwing with my people..."
The lizard snaps his fingers. "Boys... Show them what the Hooligans does to people who don't show any proper respect!"
"Will do big brother..." Hud cackles as he deploys the blade in his switchblade. The gang surrounding the hedgehog and wolf pair slowly closing in on them like a pack of vicious sharks ready to rip them to shreds.
'Shit, shit... We need to get out of here and gotta think fast!' Akira scrambled in his mind to come up with a way out of their current predicament before pointing over Anton. "Wait, is that Sonic over there?!"
"What, where!?" Anton snaps his head around in the direction Akira had pointed at as did some of the others in his gang to look for the Sonic in the area including the hoodlum blocking their escape route. The wolf suddenly shoves the gang member aside to clear the way.
"Come on!"
"Right!" Manic shouted as he quickly followed Akira, hurrying after his newfound acquaintance. The two escaped through the alleyway they had come through earlier and out onto the street on the other side as Anton's gang proceeded to chase after the pair with blood-thirsty intent.
"Which way!?" Akira yelled to Manic in an urgent voice with the two running for their lives from the pursuing mob.
"Fuck, uhhhh... Left! Definitely left!"
The two took a left through the streets of Shōga and ran that way.
"Who the hell have I pissed off there and does he happen to have a sister named Migu!?" Akira asks Manic as they sprinted together.
"Anton Veruca." Manic replied, giving him a quick info-dump. "He's the leader of the Hooligans; one of the most fiercest, deadliest gangs in the city. Even the local police have trouble with him sometimes. More importantly, why the fuck would you insult his sister for any reason? You should know she likes to lie about shit like that! One time she landed a girl in a sanitarium in town simply because she was gonna snitch on her after she caught her smoking pot in the girls bathroom and also yes, her name's Migu!"
"How the fuck was I supposed to know that on my third day here!?" Akira replied as his phone made another confirmation at the name 'Anton Veruca'. "She was going around spreading rumours that both me and a girl were together for no other reason than being a shitster towards her. That girl she was talking shit about? She was going to put her in a coma if I hadn't stepped in and she's studying to become a doctor no less!"
Manic replies, flashing him a quick look. "All I gotta say is: If she wants one of the most deadliest, dangerous foes in the city; one that would break into her house at night, violate her for an hour and then kill her... She can try putting Migu into a coma and see what happens because trust me; Anton does that. No hyperbole. He does that shit."
"Oh for fuck's sake!" Akira cried as they sped through another street. "How the hell does having a dad being the Mayor's head chef and a mom that's a local P.T.A member produced a child like that!? Let alone a whole bunch of them running a dangerous street gang!"
"Who knows!?" Manic replied, looking on ahead. "Just keep running! We gotta find somewhere to lay low!"
"Still, how high up is he in the underworld and who does he think he is?"
"You want the truth or do you want me to lie to make you feel better?"
"Give me the damn truth!"
"How do I put this... Uhhh... As along as he and his gang remains free and on the streets, we are as good as dead. Like, we're gonna die. For real. Funerals and all. Our loved ones crying over our graves and mourning our deaths. Our names in the obituaries in the newspapers the next day!"
"Don't tell me he's that influential here!" Akira exasperated as the pair ran through another alleyway and the phone making one more confirmation at the word 'influential'. "I didn't move to Cyber City for this shit!"
"Beginning navigation..."
Akira's phone said before the two feels what could be described as a sudden headache wash over the both of them and nearly doubling over themselves when it happened. The wolf cried, clutching his head for a moment whenever he felt the sensation wash over him. "Agh! Is the air around here this rancid or something?"
"Not unless a toxic chemicals truck overturned or somethin'..." Manic replied, holding his head too. "The fuck, man..."
"Whatever, we need to lose these guys and—" Akira stopped speaking when he tuned into his lupine hearing from within the alleyway. "You hear that? I can't hear any of their running anymore. Listen."
They both listened together and all they hear is silence in the air. Manic spoke up; "Maybe we lost them?"
"Seems like it. I hear no footsteps or nothing coming our way."
"Well, that's a relief at least..."
"We out of Anton's turf yet and would you know the safe route back to Cyber City?" Akira was catching his breath.
"Yeah, there's this neat sewer route I take all the time to sneak past the checkpoints."
"Then let's go, I've got someone I'm meant to be seeing later and I need to get back to meet them." Akira said as the pair resumed their movements through the alleyway together, conversing with the green hedgehog. "Your not-foreign friend is probably wondering where you've gone to. Anton know where either of you live or is it something he doesn't know about?"
"Thankfully, that's something he doesn't know." Manic answered with relief. "If he did, I'd be long since dead by now. Doesn't mean I haven't had run-ins with him in the past. Though... Since the last time that happened, I tried my best to keep out of his business."
"Til you stole from that rat recently. Also does he usually fire out that many slurs when he sees two guys he hates together or is he so crass that anything goes with him when he's being an massive asshole in general?"
"He's essentially got no filter with his insults. He's like a character from a crappy sports film."
When they emerged on the other side of the alleyway, the streets looked like a bomb had been dropped on them with buildings looking more depilated to the point that a bunch of them had collapsed in on themselves, the skies took on a dark purplish colour and they both got a post-apocalyptic vibe from it all.
"...Is Geno City really this rundown and what happened to the sky?" Akira murmurs as he looked up at the sky.
"I don't know..." Manic was equally bewildered, glancing up at the skies. "I would say it's possible Eggman or someone attacked the city but even then, the emergency sirens woulda gone off and we'd have gotten emergency notifications on our phones to take cover."
"And we would have gotten caught in the blast radius if the city had been attacked..." Akira said as both he and Manic went off to investigate the now ruined sites of Cyber City together. Exploring more of the dystopian scenery.
When they came upon a still-intact pedestrian bridge situation above a road close to a T-junction near the stairs leading down into the now caved-in subway and by going up the steps to get a better view of Cyber City from their vantage point, both were shocked by what they saw. Cyber City looked like the remains of an apocalyptic war just like Geno City.
"Shit, man..." Manic said uneasily. "What the actual fuck is going on..."
"You got me. I don't know how we managed to go from being chased by Anton's gang to this. I thought I'm losing it but you're seeing it as well..." Akira took in what he's seeing, then shook his head. "Let's keep going. If we're still in Anton's territory, then we need to be out of it."
"The sooner the better..."
The pair headed off again in hopes of getting out of Anton's turf, though the apocalyptic scenery made it a challenge to figure out where they are and Manic's phone which he either presumably stole from some rich sucker or he presumably owns saying there's no cell reception in the area. They'd continue wandering through what remains of the metropolis til they got to a wide open street.
"Feels like we're going around in circles here..." Akira murmurs. "And where did everybody go?"
He'd immediately get his answer when they were suddenly greeted by the appearance of blinding spotlights shining on them from above. "Suspects sighted!"
"Hu—UGH!" Both the wolf and hedgehog were suddenly tackled from nearby. Before either could see who tackled them, they're met with the stock of a rifle that knocked them both out cold...
To Be Continued...