Hop To It - Advance 25

[...]

The stationmaster looked up from behind the counter as Razor entered the station. “Howdy, fella. What was all that ruckus I heard from over yonder?”

The shark frowned confusedly. “We had a… public disturbance. It should be all over now. I think.”

The old man nodded slowly. “That explains this one, then.” He stepped out from behind the counter. Tamara was wrapped around his leg, eyes shrunken to pinpricks. “She seems a mite disturbed, alright.”

Razor sighed. He crouched down and, gently as possible, pried the hedgehog off the man’s pants. A few quills got left behind. “Easy does it, come on…”

Tamara squeezed her eyes shut and groaned. “I knew this would happen, I always knew it would happen someday. Eggman knows about me, and he thinks that I’m Sonic. I can’t match Sonic! I’m doomed…”

“Relax, girl, he figured out you weren’t him before you even left the village,” Razor assured her. He led her over to a bench. “And he’s gone now anyway.”

“Chao.”

The little Chao climbed down from Razor’s shoulder and into Tamara’s lap, who absentmindedly started petting him. The Chao nudged her like a pushy cat, and Tamara slowly started to relax.

The stationmaster frowned as he pulled a quill out of his trouser leg. “Miss, I’m not sure what happened but it sounded messy. I can send you on the train back home, if that’d make you feel safe.”

Tamara shook her head. “I don’t--I don’t think I should be alone right now. Safety in numbers. I’ll come back to the village.”

“Are you sure?” Razor asked.

“Mhm.”

The old man shrugged. “Suit yourself. You take care of each other now.”

Tamara stood, still holding the Chao, and flinched as a wave crashed loudly against the cliffs below.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” a booming voice called.

“That’d be Waverly,” Razor said. “Do you mind if we go fill her in first?”

Tamara blinked. “Who’s Waverly?”

Razor grinned. “Someone who’s always made me feel safe. No one messes with her more than once.”

The stationmaster snorted. “I bet. She’d squash’em flat.”

“Exactly.”

Tamara nodded. “Okay.”

As they stepped out of the station and started down the stairs to the docks, they looked up as a helicopter flew overhead, coming over the mountains from the direction of Station Square.

Razor bared his teeth, not knowing what it was, but Tamara actually relaxed.

“Oh, good. G.U.N. is here.”

-----------------------------------

[Iota]

Iota lifted the branch morosely, bruised lemons still clinging to it. A bitcrushed sound of distress left his speakers. The lemon tree was still young; the Vespas’ attention had accelerated its growth past the sapling stage, but it couldn’t be called fully grown yet either.

Tactics: Is this one of those trees that takes well to grafting?

Analytics: Database incomplete. Knowledge of biology is centered largely on animal life, not botany.

Encyclopedia: Lemon trees take grafting well, and entire new trees can be grown from cuttings. However, knowledge on how this is done is unavailable. Recommendation: consult the bees.

Iota made a half-hearted, pointless attempt to reattach the branch to the tree. He knew it wouldn’t be that simple, but he tried anyway. How sad.

Taking a few steps away, Iota looked over the rest of the village. Everyone had mostly calmed down now; Fry and Honey were fixing the bees’ roof, Sheldon was collecting pieces of his shack that weren’t too damaged to be reused, and Fritz was helping Spud with his damaged crops. All of them, particularly Spud, kept glancing up at the sky as if just waiting for Eggman to return.

Current directive: take care of the village. Well, the village seemed to be taking care of itself.

The door to the bee house opened, and Waxer stepped out. After spending so much time in the air, he looked unsteady on his feet, so Iota hurried over to help him.

“Careful, friend. Are you sure you should be up and about already?” he asked, careful not to touch his splinted wing.

Waxer chuckled, though he winced from the motion. “I’m fine, Iota, don’t worry.” He pointed a thumb up at the roof. “I can’t exactly sleep with the hammering going on, and anyway I hate lying on my stomach.” Despite his assurances, it was clear he was in a fair bit of pain.

Iota looked around and zeroed in on the remains of the picnic tables. “Nevertheless,” he said, before stepping over and quickly assembling the wooden boards into a simple stool.

Waxer sat down gratefully. Iota wished he could add some sort of support, but leaning against a back would only aggravate his wing.

Honey flew down. “Dear, are you alright? Do you need something to eat?”

“I’m fine, dearest,” he promised. “...Although, Mr. Fry, do you have any painkillers?”

The gator finished climbing down from the roof and sighed. “‘Fraid not. What about you, tinman? Heyu got any in the house?”

“He should,” Iota agreed. “I am not sure where he keeps it, but I assume it’s in the kitchen somewhere. Don’t worry, I’ll pop in and--hm?”

Iota cut himself off as a sound became audible in the distance, rapidly approaching. Everyone in the village stopped what they were doing as black helicopter appeared over the trees. The G.U.N. logo was prominently stamped on the side.

They needed someplace clear to land, but there were still… bits, everywhere.

Tactical: Here’s an idea.

Iota stretched his arms straight up as high as they could go, getting the attention of the chopper’s pilot, and made a wide sweeping gesture towards his home; specifically, behind it.

It took some charades, but he eventually got them to land in their backyard.

Iota ran to meet them, joined by Shelby from wherever she’d been hiding, and arrived in time to see Rouge the Bat stepping out as the blades spun down.

She smiled as she saw him. “Iota! What’s the situation?”

---------------------------------

[Humi]

Humi felt ill.

Nauseous, even, in exactly the same way that having a person in her pocket made her feel. She felt like this when she put Mecha Sonic in there, and she felt like this just before Sonic suddenly popped out of there a few weeks ago. Was she inside her own pocket, somehow?

Ugh, she couldn’t think about that through this headache, and the bright colors were not helping. She was glad she stole Eggman’s sunglasses.

The trek through Sky Canyon wasn’t hard with both Knuckles and Gamma assisting. If she was in a better state of mind she might have found it beautiful. Distantly, she couldn’t help but dwell on the fact that she was on the floating landmass of Angel Island, and it was really freaking cool! But she needed to focus right now.

Knuckles occasionally broke away from the trail to find something, looking for the ‘key’ to the Special Zone, and once he finally found it, Humi was whisked away to somewhere that boggled the mind and turned her stomach.

It was a perfectly flat plane of red checkerboard tiles, stretching as far as she could see, but the space honestly seemed pretty small. There was definitely an edge, and when she crossed it she ended up wrapping around to the other side.

If she squinted in any of the four directions available to her, she could almost see herself in the distance…

But aside from the seeping unknowable horror of that whole mess, trying to take too much of the Special Zone in at once made her headache worse, so she didn’t.

The only thing here was rings. Lots and lots of rings.

Humi wasn’t sure how long she spent chasing her own tail and grabbing rings in this nightmare dimension, but after an uncertain length of time, space folded back in on itself, the fourth dimension went away again, and she landed on her stomach in the real world.

“Whoa, you took that landing hard. Are you okay?” she heard Knuckles ask.

Shakily, Humi picked herself up and blinked. “I don’t know.” The echidna reached out to help her up, but Humi held up a hand to stop him. “Don’t. Unless you want me to throw up on your shoes.”

A canteen was pressed into her hand, and Humi gulped down some water. It would either settle her stomach or make her vomit faster, and either way she’d feel better afterwards. Thankfully this time it was the former.

Gamma grabbed her by the back of her shirt and gently lifted her onto her feet. “Did you retrieve the Emerald?”

“I hope so, or else I’ll have to find the key again,” Knuckles grumbled.

Humi handed the empty canteen back. “I dunno.”

“Hm? What?”

“Not you,” Humi said, pushing the Omochao away from her.

Humi reached for the rings she’d collected--she didn’t know how many she ended up finding, just that there were a lot of them--and ended up grasping air. They were gone, like they were never there at all. Confused, Humi reached deeper into her pocket…

...and her fingers wrapped around a familiar pointed shape.

The white Emerald sat in the palm of her hand, and Humi smiled. Everything still sucked right now, but now something wrong had been made right as far as she was concerned.

“Okay.” She nodded once to herself. “Let’s get back to the shrine. I’ve got batteries to make and animals to free. And then we go into round two.”

“You’re gonna go after Eggman again?” Knuckles asked. “So soon?”

Humi nodded. “Absolutely.” She hesitated. “Well, no, I’m going to go find Heyu, and then make Eggman wish he’d never showed his ugly face in my home. Gotta keep my priorities straight.”

She picked up speed, running through the pathways of Sky Canyon back towards the shrine. She tucked the glasses into her pocket to keep them from falling off her nose at these speeds.

Gamma sprouted his propellers and floated overhead while Knuckles followed on foot. The goodnik stayed low, and attempted to offer her a ride, but Humi was so focused she didn’t notice.

“Slow down!”

“I can’t!” Humi shouted back. “Time’s a-wastin’!”

-----------------------------

Knuckles grumbled as she kept running, ducking under a low-hanging root that Knuckles had to stop to climb over. “She’s being ridiculous.”

“She is heading into danger.”

The echidna looked up at Gamma, who’d hung back to talk to him. “I don’t know, I think she’s doing alright. She beat Eggman once already. I just wish she’d pace herself.”

“...” Gamma looked forward. Humi hadn’t noticed them stopping and was gaining a lead, but the Omochao was following her, and he trusted it would keep an eye on her. “She beat Dr. Eggman because he was not expecting her, and the Egg Saucer was designed to combat Sonic. Eggman now knows to consider her a threat--worse, an insult. Continuing to challenge him could lead to escalation that she is unable to match.”

Knuckles folded his arms, thinking. “Maybe. Maybe. But that’s why we need to strike now while he’s off balance,” he pointed out. “If you manage to knock your opponent off his rhythm, the worst thing you can do is let him find his footing again.”

Gamma’s fans hummed. “...Logical. Perhaps you have a point. If I understand the situation, Sonic is also currently hunting him; an assault from multiple fronts might overwhelm him.”

He grinned. “That too. Plus, I could go for kicking some badnik butt--no offense. We got swarmed so badly back there that I didn’t get to enjoy it!”

“Indeed,” Gamma droned. “...If you wish to join her attack, we should hurry; otherwise she might leave the instant her robots are up and running.”

“Let’s go, then! Can’t let her have all the fun!”

------------------------------

[Rouge]

Here was the whole, unblemished truth about Rouge the Bat: she was an inherently selfish person.

She wasn’t cruel, or evil, or anything like that. She just looked out for number one, and maybe gave some consideration to others if she felt like it. Rouge joined G.U.N. for her own reasons, and none of those reasons included being a hero.

The list of people she could say she liked wasn’t big. There was Knuckles, who she respected as nearly her equal as a treasure hunter; Topaz, probably the only person in G.U.N. who she would call a friend as they traded favors back and forth; Shadow, who saved her life and then gave up his own to save everyone…

…If she was being honest with herself, you couldn’t go through what happened on the ARK with someone without forming a kind of camaraderie over it. Rouge didn’t know much about the others who were there that day, on a personal level anyway--but she’d be lying if she said she didn’t keep an eye on them. Being a spy had to have some perks after all.

Seeing Heyu, Humi and Iota’s home after the attack was upsetting. Not for what had happened to it, since compared to what the Doctor was capable of they actually got off pretty light. No, it was what it represented: Eggman knew where they lived and was willing to attack their home directly. The Doctor could be hard to predict at the best of times. Today it was a kidnapping, tomorrow it might be worse.

Despite all that, she kept an easy smile on her face as she looked over everything.

“Careful with that,” Smithy warned, setting his massive gun down to help the alligator fix a hole in a wall. “You can’t just cover that up, I think the blast hit a support beam.”

Fry blinked, surprised, and gave it a closer look. “...Hey, you’re right.” He lightly rapped a fist against his noggin. “Stupid. I must be tense if I’m making silly mistakes like that. I built this house!”

“Hey, it’s nothing to be ashamed of,” the lion said, smiling. “You’ve had a rough day. Maybe you should take a break.”

“I still need to patch this up,” Fry denied, shaking his head. “And then I need to finally take a look at my poor truck…”

“Hm. Alright, but let me help you,” Smithy insisted. “Architecture isn’t really my thing, but I dabble. Let me show you how I reinforced my old hideout before I joined up…”

Rouge nodded to herself. The red lion was well-suited to working with civilians. He was personable, always willing to help, and cut a dashing figure in that uniform. Smithy was going to go far, if he decided to stick with G.U.N. after all.

And on the other hand…

“No, stop movin--stop moving, I said!”

“It hurts!”

“Of course it hurts! Because you won’t stop fidgeting!”

Starr’s bedside manner left a lot to be desired, but credit where it was due, he immediately started tending to the injured once he stepped out of the helicopter. Shelldon’s missing antenna was given some antibiotics that Starr claimed would speed up his natural regeneration, and the blue cat was given some pills for her bruises. Then he moved on to the main event…

Waxer twitched, teeth clenched hard enough to creak, and Starr examined his wing. Rouge, as a winged Mobian herself, had to admit that she wouldn’t know where to begin with the bee, but Private Starr’s medical education proved comprehensive.

That blue hedgehog girl, standing nearby, watched wide-eyed as Starr handled the wing without concern for Waxer’s state.

“The good news,” Starr mused, applying some silvery fluid to the crease in the bent wing, “is that it’s a clean break, as I’m sure you can tell. Now, most insects in nature can’t heal a broken wing, as they tend to only grow them during their final molt. Insect Mobians, on the other hand, have more in common with mammals than insects. The biology on display is actually fascinating.”

Waxer gasped painfully.

“Mr. Starr, please be gentle with him,” Honey begged.

“Hush, I’m working.” He took a moment to fix his hair. “As I was saying. Insect Mobians possess a mixture of mammalian and insectoid features, but the wings are almost pure insect. Almost. It is actually possible to coax the wing into repairing itself using a special mixture, as seen here,” he added, gesturing with the paint-tube-like gel in his hand. “Insect Mobians tend to live in insular communities, such as the Ant Kingdom or Apiary Island, and as such this mixture is typically only created by medical personnel there.”

Honey blinked. “Yes, my parents are one of the ones who make it. It’s quite expensive--”

“Nonsense,” Starr scoffed, sparing her a considering glance. “It’s simple to make.” He finished applying the gel, then quickly re-splinted Waxer’s wing. “Do not remove this for at least three days. Just like a broken limb, if it heals incorrectly you will have to break it again if you ever want it to work right.”

Waxer turned a little pale. “Yessir, no sir, I absolutely will not fly for--three days?” he asked, registering what he said.

“Yes indeed.”

“Mr. Starr, again, my parents make this stuff,” Honey said. “It should take at least three coats over two weeks to heal.”

“Mm, yes. That would be true,” Starr said, smirking. “But I am a genius.”

“You invented your own formula?” the blue hedgehog asked, sounding impressed.

Starr preened. “I certainly did. Quicker-acting, longer-lasting, and it comes in three pleasant floral scents.” He faltered slightly. “It, ah, does have one small side effect.”

Honey glared at him.

“The gel does… stain. Even after his wing heals it will most likely retain a silvery sheen along where the break happened.”

The bees both relaxed. “Oh, is that all? I can live with that,” Waxer said, relieved. “And hey, I’m feeling better already.”

“Yes, there was a very mild paralytic in there, too,” Starr explained, standing up and dusting himself off. “Deadens the pain and disrupts the nerves to keep it from twitching and rubbing the gel away. Once you can feel your wing again you should be able to remove the splint--eugh.”

Honey pulled the platypus into a hug. “Thank you, sir!”

“Get off of me.”

Rouge huffed, amused. The kid was a jerk, but by all accounts he did good work.

The kid. Oh, she amused herself. Starr was ten years older than her and somehow she was his superior officer. She bet he’d be livid if he found out, fufufu…

Rouge wished that that coyote boy had come with them, but Palisade had judged him ‘emotionally compromised’ after Starr’s demonstration. Rouge thought that was a harsh description for what he was going through, but she agreed that his mind probably wouldn’t be on the mission.

Maybe next time.

Corporal House approached with Iota in tow, having finished whatever exchange they were having. “Agent Rouge, is everything alright on your end?”

“Everything’s fine, Alf.”

House relaxed. “Oh, good.” He straightened. “What are our next orders, Agent?”

Orders. Why was she team lead on this again? Right, Topaz was busy… there was a reason Rouge tended to work solo missions. “Hm… Iota, do we have any new info?”

“I’m afraid not,” the goodnik said, shaking his head. “As far as I know, Sonic and Humi are still chasing Eggman.”

Rouge considered that, then pulled out her phone and dialled a number. “I’m shocked that you don’t have a built-in phone, Easter Egg.” Iota’s optics flickered as he looked down at himself, confused. “Not my best nickname, I’ll admit. I’ll come up with something better.”

Rouge’ phone clicked. “Hey, bat girl.”

“Humi! Good, I was worried after the last call.” The girl sounded much less angry now, which was a relief.

“Huh? Why?” There was a shuffling sound on the other end. “Hey, I’m on Angel Island with Knuckles right now, want to say hi?”

Rouge chuckled. “I’ll catch up with him later, I’m on the clock right now.” Then she frowned. “What are you doing on Angel Island?”

“I’m prepping for the attack on Eggman’s base. The Island’s floating just a couple miles from it.” Was it? “Right now I’m just waiting for my batteries to finish. It’s a bit of a process.”

That didn’t make much sense to Rouge, but whatever. Humi was overlooking the base right now? So soon? That was honestly pretty impressive. And worrying, but mostly impressive!

…Hm, that gave her an idea.

“Humi, dear, I’m actually in--” She stopped. “You know, you really should come up with a name for this place, but I’m here in your home with a few other G.U.N. agents.”

“Really? How come?”

“Humi, Eggman’s cruiser was spotted out here. Of course we sent someone to investigate.” Rouge tittered. “But forget about that. I think I could lend you a hand with your attack.”

“...hmmm…”

While they were talking, Smithy and Starr finished what they were doing and approached. The lion had a focused look on his face, patiently waiting for whatever came next. Starr’s expression was even more intense as he stared a hole through Iota, making the poor robot shift uncomfortably.

“Query: May I help you, Private?” Iota asked uncertainly.

Starr, almost charmingly by his standards, smiled and waved dismissively. “Oh, a thousand pardons. I was just admiring the craftsmanship. I have some experience in robotics myself, and I can tell you’re well put together.”

“Hey, I can agree to that,” Smithy added. “I’m not as well-rounded as Linus here but I know a well-put-together machine when I see one.”

Relaxing slightly, Iota nodded. “Ah, yes, thank you chaps. I suppose I am.”

Starr’s eyes flashed. “Whoever built you must be quite the mechanist, hm?”

“Agreement: Yes, I’m quite proud of them,” Iota said happily. “I can only imagine what I’d look like if they built me now; they improve constantly.” He looked out over the village, enthusiasm dimming. “Maybe I should cave and let them upgrade me after all. I just hate being a weapon…”

“Hey, no, don’t think of it like that,” Smithy said, stepping forward. “You aren’t a weapon, you have a weapon. Like--” he flexed his fingers, and claws slid out of his paws in a wickedly sharp demonstration of why he wore fingerless gloves. “Do these make me a weapon? Or these?” he asked, pulling on his gums to show off his sharp teeth. “There’s no shame in having more ways to defend others, is there?”

“No, I suppose not.”

Starr’s brow furrowed. “Hold on. You make it sound like you’re still in contact with your creator.”

“Amused: I am.” Iota chuckled. “I was a joint venture by Tails the Fox and Humi the Mouse. I live with one of my creators and see the other frequently.”

“Oh.” Starr said, sounding disappointed. “I’m… my apologies, but I assumed you were an Eggman creation.”

Smithy gave him a weird look, but then shrugged. “I’ll admit, I was wondering.”

Iota waggled one hand ambivalently. “There is nuance. I’ve thought about it a lot, if I’m honest. But I identify as Y-Iota now, not as E-108.”

Starr looked like he wanted to protest, then seemed to think better of it. “Well, I suppose I’m impressed that a mere child, or children I suppose, was able to so closely mimic Eggman’s designs.”

“And still so young, too,” Iota agreed. “I imagine by the time they are grown, Tails and Humi will have surpassed the mad doctor by far.”

The platypus’s eye twitched, but the conversation was cut short by Humi returning to the call.

“Okay, I guess a few extra bodies would be fine,” she said, sounding put out. “But if Eggman shows up again you leave the scrambling to me, got it?”

Rouge laughed. “I can’t make any promises, but we’ll see.”

Humi grumbled. “...Gamma says that Angel Island is off the coast of a place called Ice Paradise.”

“I know the place,” Rouge confirmed. “See you soon, little thief~.”

“I’m not a--!”

She shut her phone with a snap and stowed it away again before turning to the recruits with a grin. “Guess what boys? Time to put your training to the test!”

Smithy’s expression hardened, but Starr lit up. “We’re going to an Eggman base?!”

“Gosh, don’t sound so excited,” Rouge said, chidingly him lightly. “House, can you hold down the fort here in case the situation changes?”

The sole human looked around, apparently startled at being addressed, before nodding. “I guess so. I mean, yes, Agent, I can do that.” He frowned. “But are you sure you can--I mean, this was only meant to be recon and providing aid.”

“We’ll be fine,” Rouge said dismissively. “I’ve beaten up Eggman robots before; just follow my lead, boys,” she said, turning to the lion and the platypus. “Smithy, start her up.”

Time to see if Tower’s ‘hero’ initiative was all it was cracked up to be.