Hop To It - Advance 19

[Heyu]

Being able to adjust the size of my rings had more uses than I thought. Where before the only things I could easily levitate with more rings and other chaos-heavy stuff like the Emeralds and their variants, now I could make rings to fit anything I wanted to carry. Right now, for example, I had expanded a pair to take the place of a barrel’s hoops so that I could tote it down to the docks without bothering Big or the Hunter.

It was still heavy though. A full barrel half my height and thrice my width was, it turns out, pushing the limit of what I could levitate without a headache.

After carefully navigating the stairs I plopped it down on the wharf. “There you go, Miss Waverly, one of Shelldon’s finest. He found a new cache of dragonfruit. Don’t worry, I taste-tested it; it’s pretty good.”

The whale pulled herself onto the dock and grabbed the barrel with both hands. “Thank you, Sir Fiver.” She pulled the top off like it was a giant, wooden soda can and took a long sip, smiling delightedly. Perhaps unsurprisingly, an underwater civilization didn’t have many options of beverages. “This is nice. I wonder how it’s made…”

I grinned. “Shelldon loves to talk about the process, so I’m sure he’d let you watch next time he makes a batch.”

Waverly looked up at the train station, and then past that to the trees visible on top of the cliffs. “Does Humi need anything else from me?” she asked, trying to disguise the excitement in her voice.

I winced at her volume, but kept smiling. “She’s already got your measurements for the braces, don’t worry. You just relax, they’ll be done soon.” I hummed. “Why don’t you go swim towards the Emerald Coast? You’d cause quite the spectacle with the tourists.”

“You think so?” She looked down at her ‘clothes’ (term applied generously) with a frown. “I’ve seen the others wandering around, and I’m given to believe that I’m… underdressed.”

“For the city, yes, for the beach? You’ll do fine.” Still, she had a point, the seaweed-based wrappings she wore right now weren’t very modest. “It’s bound to be less boring than waiting here.”

“Maybe.” She downed the rest of her drink, satisfied. “Thank you again for the drink. I don’t know if I’ll go that far, but I think I will go find some food. I will return.”

She set the barrel down and threw herself back into the water, giving me only a second to realize what was going to happen before I got drenched in seawater. Thankfully, I’d anticipated this and was wearing flip-flops and a rain jacket instead of my usual clothes.

This wasn’t the first time it had happened. Waverly didn’t seem to grasp the concept of ‘splash zones.’ I couldn’t blame her, of course; ‘dry’ was probably a new one as well.

I grabbed the now much lighter barrel and made my way back to the village.

…Not to be rude or anything, but I was kind of hoping that Waverly didn’t stick around once her order was done. She would be a… logistical problem. “Although I suppose… there’s a few aquatic caves around, we could probably expand one for her if we needed to; Humi really needs to build that digger bot, it’d solve so many problems… I’ll feel more comfortable about Spud’s tunnels once they’ve been worked on by something other than a shovel and a pick.” I sighed. Now I was talking to myself.

My ears fidgeted, and I looked up as I passed to see the tram pulling into the station. Figuring I might as well greet whoever it was, I flipped the barrel over and took a seat while I waited for them to come down the stairs.

First I saw the spiky blue head, and then I had to mentally readjust when I saw the red tracksuit. “Tamara! This is a surprise,” I greeted with a smile. “What brings you out here? Cosmo call you again?”

The hedgehog girl made a face. “No, actually I’m here because Ms. Maddie gave me a hundred bucks to deliver this to you.”

“Deliver wh--oh.” She dropped a manilla held together with paperclips into my hands. Curious, I opened it up and found several documents with pictures; some sort of nervous-looking red marsupial, a black wolf, some bear, a monkey with rainbow tie-dye fur… “What’s all this?” I took the monkey’s accompanying paper and skimmed through it.

The city is too gray for me, but I don’t want to go back to the islands. My career is here! I want the best of both worlds, living close to nature but still have access to the big city when I need it! That’s why I want to move out to Mystic Ruins, where--

I blinked, then grabbed another paper, the wolf’s.

Been getting some odd looks from people lately. Mostly humans. I miss the simple life back on the islands. If there’s any Islander-style villages nearby, that’d be perfect for me.

The others were more of the same. Mobians who wanted to get away from the city, and for some reason they were all trying to come here. I looked up at Tamara. “Do you know anything about this?”

She quirked an eyebrow. “I didn’t read it, dude. It looked official, I’m not about to get in that kind of trouble.”

“No, that’s fair.” I ran a hand over my ears. “Good grief. And Miss Gildenhall said to give it to me?”

She nodded, and I groaned internally.

“Good. Good… good grief.” I shifted through the papers, thinking… No, I couldn’t handle it just then. I folded them back up and looked at Tamara. “No point in standing around here. You came all this way, you wanna come get a bite to eat? Fry’s still around and he’s started doing a lunch menu. Fries and burgers and all that.”

Tamara looked back up at the train, waiting in the station, frowning. “Well… I might as well.”

“Capital. C’mon, let’s go to the village, so you can eat, and I can…” I stared at the folder. “...think.”

“Cool.” We started moving that direction, and I felt her staring at me. “Why are you carrying around that barrel?”

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

[Station Square]

It was a perfectly normal day. Tourism was only just now falling back to pre-ARK Crisis levels, and the Square was doing well. Twinkle Park was currently at half capacity, so the park would be turning a profit today even while the lines for the rides were short and moving fast. Casinopolis was getting ready to open its doors for the day, expecting a big turnout.

Emerald Coast’s beaches were enjoying blue skies and choice waves. One woman was lounging on the beach near the pier when a tour boat came back in to dock, and she was close enough to hear some of them gushing about seeing a whale swim beside them, though there seemed to be some argument over the details; one young man insisted the whale had winked at him, while his friend told him it was ‘wishful thinking,’ which the woman thought was an odd reaction.

Eh, whatever. It wasn’t her business.

Elsewhere, Mayor Gildenhall was meeting with his office’s social media expert, who was trying very hard to explain why the mayor’s proposed tourism slogan for the new year (“It’s Hip to be at the Square!”) might need some workshopping.

The young man eventually left, promising to ‘make it work,’ and the mayor leaned back in his chair, satisfied. He turned to look out the windows of his office, hands clasped over his stomach.

Then he stood up fast enough to knock his chair over, mouth agape, and grabbed his phone to call the police chief.

On the beach, the woman grimaced as a shadow passed in front of her face. “Hey, buddy, can you move out of my sun?”

No response. With a groan, she opened her eyes and sat up to chastise whoever was blocking the light.

But whatever she was going to say died on her lips, because there was no one nearby. The shade was coming from the sky, and it wasn’t a cloud.

Whatever it was, it was big, purple, and shaped like a manta ray.

The woman stared, shocked.

A ways down the beach, a giant head lifted up out of the shallows and looked at the flying manta with a perplexed expression. “I’ve heard of flying fish, but I had no idea they got so big…” Waverly said to herself. Although, on second viewing, it looked more like metal than flesh.

It was only a single vessel, and so it didn’t cause as much panic as it could have, especially when it became apparent that the vessel was merely passing by, not attacking the Square. But no one could look at it without worrying. After all, the last time they saw the Eggman logo, it was trying to blow them up.

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

[Heyu]

I sat at Shelldon’s bar, using the counter to draw up some plans.

So, there’s our house at the end of the road, and we’ve got lots of yard around us that Iota’s using to garden, we have to keep that; one side is that public park he’s working on, the other side is where he planted that lemon tree, so we can call that a picnic area, and the backyard of course if Humi’s space. She needs the space to test out her larger inventions.

In fact, that’s where she and Tails were right now, building Waverly’s leg braces. Iota was planting flowers in the park; Waxer helped him find some huge bouncy ones in the jungle to be added to the obstacle course.

Amy’s claimed the lot next door on our right, Shelldon’s across the street from her, the bees are next to him, and there’s a free lot across from them… then Fry’s parked his truck next to that lot by the entrance, and Spud’s farm is across from him.

Okay, so that left… one lot free. And I’ve got five people wanting to move here. We could expand the road leading to Vanilla’s place and the Chao Garden, between Amy and the unclaimed lot, and extend the neighborhood in that direction, but Iota would have a fit over the trees we’d need to tear down. Are treehouses viable? There were some pretty big trees out here, and the monkey guy would probably like that--wait, no, is that typecasting? Hm.

I was certainly glad that Maddie hadn’t just sent them here and hoped for the best like she’d done with the Vespas, but what I didn’t understand was why was this being made MY decision? How did that happen?

I turned around in my seat and glared at the village. “And that’s another thing,” I muttered, tapping my chin. “If we keep growing, we need to figure out a name for this place…” I blinked, noticing a tent set up under the lemon tree. “What?”

“What’s wrong with Mystic Ruins?” someone asked, sitting down next to me. The blue cat that had been loitering around the place for a few days smirked at me. She tapped the counter and dropped a few bills, and Shelldon appeared out of nowhere and traded them for a mug of something before vanishing again.

I blinked, then took a second to compose myself. “Sorry, hi. I don’t think we’ve properly met. I’m Heyu.”

She shook my hand. “Shelby. We actually have a mutual friend.”

“Do we?”

Shelby’s smirk widened. “Mhm. I take pictures, sometimes for the news.”

Right, she took the photo for Tails’ birthday. Wait. “News? You mean you know Penny?”

“Ding ding ding!” she sang. “And in one guess, too. So much for those hints I came up with.” She took a sip of her drink. She hummed appreciatively, then I suppose she must have drunk a bit too fast because she choked and started coughing.

My hand went to my belt. “Peppermint?”

Shelby nodded, accepting the candy. “Thanks. I gotta say, this isn’t what I expected when I came out here. Penny made you sound way more interesting.”

I considered that, ultimately deciding to take it as a compliment. “Well, I don’t know what she could have told you. I only became interesting recently. I haven’t seen her in person since we graduated.”

She fanned a few polaroids out and dropped them on the counter. “I’ll say. Been a busy year for you, huh?”

I focused on the photos, not bothered. There was a good one of me on the roof with my trumpet, and I laughed. “Hey, not bad.” Still don’t know what possessed me to do that. “Too bad you weren’t here a few days earlier, or you might have gotten one for the sasquatch zines.”

Shelby’s tail flicked. “So, how does some random nobody end up in the same social circle as Sonic the Hedgehog?”

I raised a finger. “Point of order: after weighing the evidence, I’d like to clarify that Sonic and I are both in Amy’s circle of friends. I’ve barely met Sonic himself.”

“The pink hedgehog?” 

We both turned to look at Amy, striding around her lot with a long stick. She appeared to be using it to measure out the dimensions of her future house. I only knew that’s what she was doing because I overheard Fry giving her instructions on how to put together her floorplan. Big was following behind her, carving furrows in the ground with his hand at her instruction.

Shelby shook her head. “What about Prower? I wanted to talk to him, too.”

“He’s busy right now,” I said. Levelling a mild glare at her, I added, “I’d remind you that the kid is eigh--I mean, nine. I hope I don’t have to worry about a reporter trying to corner a kid for some reason.”

To my relief, she looked insulted. “What kind of schlock jockey do you think I am? If the kid doesn’t want to talk, we won’t talk!”

“Good.” I turned my focus back to the pictures and rifled through them. “You plan on staying long, Shelby?”

“What? Uh, maybe.” It seemed she wasn’t expecting the questions being turned on her. “That’s my tent out there. I was mostly out here to interview you, since you’re kind of a mystery, but I don’t know if I’ll stay put here forever. It’d get annoying fast.”

I shelved the concept of me being considered mysterious and focused on the second half of her claim. “Annoying how?” I asked, frowning. This place was pretty cozy now that the repairs were over and done with.

“You don’t exactly have public utilities here. Not even a restroom,” she said bluntly. “If the Vespa couple weren’t so nice and letting me use their shower, I wouldn’t be able to stand it.”

Ah, that’s true, wasn’t it… I turned my attention back to the folder of newcomers. Amy showed me the mess of pipes in Spud’s tunnels once we got back. All our utilities were being sent through from the train station, and that was only meant for my and Humi’s place…

“That’s a problem, sure enough,” I sighed, pushing the folder away again. I’d deal with it later.

“Not to mention the grocery situation,” she went on. She downed the rest of her drink. “Riding back to the city to get your food’s got to be annoying. What if you’ve got ice cream?”

“I like riding the train,” I said, though I conceded her point.

Why, I ask again, did I have to be the one worrying about this? Gaia.

Shelby snatched the manilla folder and flipped through it, letting out a whistle. “Popular, aren’t we? Yeah, I dunno how you’re gonna fit these guys out here.”

“It’s a problem,” I agreed. I turned back to the photos. “But I’m sure we’ll figure it out. We’ve got a couple of geniuses out here.” I wonder if I could call in a favor… I remembered Rouge being weirded out by how much money I didn’t ask for after the ARK. Come to think of it, how much did I have left-- “Oho, hey, look at this.”

I picked up the picture from Tails’ birthday. It was a darn good picture. The entire village, all our friends except Sonic… “You sure you don’t want to do this professionally?”

Shelby scoffed. “What, pictures of parties? And give up looking for juicy scoops? Boring.” She preened. “But yeah, I do good work, don’t I?”

“I wonder, if I asked you to--” I started, only to be cut off by a metallic crash from behind the house.

Everyone turned to look in that direction, then went about their business.

I stood up. “Nice talking to you, but I should see what that’s about.”

Shelby grinned and waved dismissively. “Go on then. Don’t think I’ve forgotten about getting your story though, beanpole.”

I rolled my eyes--Never heard that one before--and made my way around to our backyard.

A pair of ten-foot-tall metal legs stood--well, lay--in the yard. Humi was lying on the ground in a daze while Tails fretted over her, and I hurried over.

“Everyone okay?”

Tails jumped at my voice. “Humi tried to pilot the legs and--”

“It didn’t work,” she finished, sitting up and rubbing her head. “Ugh.”

I looked at the--well, I guess the best way to describe them was ‘pants.’ Trousers, if you preferred; Waverly had legs, but a combination of her size and weight plus mostly using her tail to swim meant that they weren’t strong enough to hold her up on land. Humi was making it so the whale could just slip her legs inside these braces and walk around.

They looked pretty good, as expected of something the two geniuses worked together on. 

Currently, the legs were collapsed on the ground. “I guess that crashing sound was you falling over.”

“Mhm.” Humi sounded annoyed. “I forgot something important.”

“The rig works,” Tails said, hesitantly. “Technically. But we don’t know how to… uh, control them.”

I tilted my head, and stared at the modified game controller in his hands.

Seeing my look, he smiled sheepishly. “We can make them walk around remotely, but Waverly’s not going to want that. Ideally, she’ll be able to use them as if they’re just an extension of her own legs, but…”

“I don’t know how.” Humi gave the rig a weak kick, setting the metal ringing.

A thought occurred, and I dug through my pouches--incidentally realizing I’d hung on to the birthday picture and handed it to Tails for now--and grabbed a small business card for one Linus Starr.

I remembered, he was working on some sort of prosthetics that were just as good or better than the real thing. He’d probably have the answer for this…

…but I don’t know if he’d be willing to help. He was probably busy working on his presentation, and besides that it was rude to call him just to ask for help, right?

“Hm…” No, calling Starr wasn’t the play here, though I’d keep it in mind if all else failed. It got me thinking about my own research though, and I stowed the card away before pulling out one of the gem shards.

…Knuckles was able to use his connection to the Master Emerald to track it, and they came back together really easily once he wanted it. The Emeralds resonated with each other. Maybe these shards from the same artificial emerald had a connection, too.

“I have an idea,” I said slowly. “But it might be a long shot.” Humi and Tails looked up at me. She scowled when she saw the shard in my hand, and I held it up. “Hear me out, here. Let me try something.”

I took a second shard out and floated the two gems between my hands, focusing on the energy flowing through and between them. There was definitely something there; I was sure it could work.

“Okay, so. You can use these things as batteries, right? That means you can convert chaos to electricity.”

“More or less,” Humi said, reluctantly. “What about it?”

I frowned, concentrating on the connection between the shards. I moved my fingers, feeling for something; I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I was pretty sure this would work. To my senses, I felt both shards pulsing, in sync, and let one of them fall to the ground. I nodded to Tails, who picked it up, and then grabbed the other--and sharply moved it a foot to the left.

The shard in Tails’ hand jerked, and he gasped.

“I thought so,” I said, grinning. “These gem shards can act as relays between each other. I bet you can use that. All Mobians have Chaos energy; if you can get Waverly’s own energy to interact with one shard, it can send signals to the other shard, and that will allow her to control the rig!”

While I was talking, Humi’s dour expression shifted into something more thoughtful, mirrored by Tails. The kids turned to each other and had a silent conversation, before Tails said. “...It could work.”

“Maybe if I put one on a belt, or maybe a necklace?” Humi pondered.

“A transponder, connecting to a receiver in the walker rig, which converts it to signals the rig can understand--”

“--if it’s basically thought-controlled, we might be able to work in that transforming feature after all--”

“--it’d take a little longer, but it’ll be worth it!” Tails declared, starting to get excited.

Humi sighed, but smiled anyway. “I’ve only got eight shards left since I put four into the Y-Mis, and this would be two more, but this is a good use for them. Yeah, let’s do it!”

I nodded, pleased to have helped, then clapped my hands. “First! You guys have been working all morning. Let’s take a break to eat, alright?”

A brief moment of protest was cut short by rumbling stomachs, so I herded them back around the front to head to Fry’s.

Humi took the picture from Tails and made a noise. “Aw, Fritz isn’t in this one.”

“That’s the little blue fox, right?” Tails asked. “I haven’t met him yet.”

“He’s nice, but nervous,” Humi said. “Reminds me of… things. I’ve been meaning to get him involved in some stuff, but he keeps disappearing. At least he’s doing okay with Spud.”

She handed the photo back to me and I frowned at it. Sure enough, the fennec was nowhere to be seen. Although… I looked to the sides of the photo, to see if he was hiding in the bushes again.

I blinked, and looked closer. “Kids, am I crazy or are there yellow eyes looking out of the background here?” They looked familiar…

And then I looked up, because someone screamed. A giant purple manta ray was flying over the mountains.