Hop To It - Advance 10

[Mecha]

Mecha’s target lived in a small apartment in the middle of the most crowded part of Empire City, and it made fulfilling the Doctor’s baffling mission somewhat difficult. It made Mecha grateful for his Sonic-mimicking design; all he had to do was find a thrift store with an inattentive staff and he was able to swipe enough clothes from their donation bin to disguise his true nature. As long as no one got close enough to see his optics glowing through his sunglasses, he was able to walk the streets freely.

It was… nice, actually. Not having to hide to be among real people for once.

Knocking on the door to his apartment, Mecha brought up his employee file at Jet Set Records. Hired through a listener-submission contest hosted by the company’s founder and most popular DJ, the picture associated with his profile was… Mecha believed the proper term might be ‘glamorous.’ Expertly coiffed feathers, loud and sequined suit, a confident grin--he certainly looked the part of a popstar.

It had been thirty seconds since the last time Mecha knocked, so he did again. He hoped the parrot answered, or else his mission would require him to break the door down, which could damage the job offer pitch.

…Mecha prepared to bust the door down, but unfortunately it opened before he could.

The gray-feathered bird that answered, bleary-eyed and wearing a faded pink bathrobe, did not match the profile picture much at all.

He blinked sleepily, squinted at him. “Huh? Whozit? S-Sorry, I was asleep. It’s only…” Cosmo looked at his wrist, then seemed at a loss when there was no watch there. He turned instead to face the window on the wall behind him. “...Uh, ten-ish?”

“It is 1:34 PM,” Mecha supplied.

The parrot flinched, waking up a little. “Whoa, I say, th-that’s a nice vocoder you got there.”

“No, it isn’t.” Mecha stuck his hand out, holding the check.

“What’s this?” Cosmo squinted at the slip of paper, then gave up and walked further inside the room. “C’mon in, I s’ppose, I might have something to drink… Where’d I put my glasses last night?”

“That isn’t necessary.” Mecha walked in anyway, taking in the apartment. It was--he searched his dictionary--very ‘bachelor-chic.’ Full of empty coffee cans and takeout containers. Decorative, no doubt. Despite himself, Mecha was compelled to speak. “This isn’t what I expected from a popstar.”

“Pop, maybe, star? Maybe not.” Cosmo dug through a drawer. “Confound it, I always leave them in the strangest places… but no, I’m not famous enough to be called a star yet, no no no.” He looked up, took in the to-him blurry trash and smiled sheepishly. “Ah, excuse the mess. I’ve had a few long nights working this past week.”

“I see.”

Completely unprompted, Cosmo continued. “You see, after my Eggman song went big, I realized several things: one, it was probably in bad taste to make a song sort-of glorifying the man who’s tried to destroy the world twice in the past year. Two, how could I make a song about the mad doctor and not make one about the hero as well? And three, if I’m going to do that, why not about the other heroes as well? And it ballooned into an entire album based on Sonic’s story! The label loved the idea and--ah, here they are.”

Finally finding his glasses between the couch cushions, Cosmo slipped them on and blinked in the light.

“I don’t know how it happens. I suppose I get a little loopy after three in the morning. Let’s see here…”

Mecha, bemused, watched the parrot read the check. His eyes widened, and he took his glasses off to make sure they were the right ones, then read it again.

“...what.”

Mecha’s processor registered amusement. “The Doctor rather liked your song about him.”

“Doctor?” Cosmo looked again. “This was signed by… someone named Ovi Kintobor? Wait.” The gears turned in his sleep-deprived head. “Wait.”

“An alias when he needs a mundane bank account, among other things.” Mecha took his sunglasses off, revealing the yellow optics underneath.

Cosmo’s eyes widened. “Y-y-you--”

“The Doctor wants you to work for him as his full-time theme song composer. Benefits include one sick day a year, free admission to his theme parks before Sonic destroys them, and at least two free meals a day, depending on the quality of your work,” Mecha droned, deliberately fudging the details.

The parrot’s beak flapped wordlessly. Then: “W-what if--Am I allowed to say n-no?”

“Yes.”

Cosmo stared. “...No?”

Mecha nodded once. “Farewell.” He turned and left the apartment, closing the door behind him. Then he paused in the hallway, turning up the gain on his auditory sensors.

Cosmo was still for fourteen entire seconds, then threw himself across the room and started rapidly dialling on the phone. It rang twice, then--

“Professor, I think I messed up!”

“...?”

“Remember that story you told me about when you got kidnapped by people who didn’t like what you were spinning?”

“...?”

“I think I just almost got kidnapped for making something they liked too much!”

“...!”

Mecha let out a metallic snort and left, content that a call to the police didn’t seem likely. Or maybe it was, he didn’t much care either way.

He wondered if he could spare a moment to visit the Mystic Ruins again… Maybe. Maybe not. The Doctor was used to him being slow at this point, surely. Yes, he’d drag his feet and maximize his time between missions. It wasn’t like the Doctor needed him for anything important right now, or ever.

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

[Sonic]

Every so often, Sonic liked to go and revisit his old stomping grounds at Green Hill, all the way on South Island. It wasn’t something he liked to talk about, not even to Tails, but Green Hill was part of his earliest memories. It was where Sonic began.

There were lots of places in the world with loops and corkscrews and ramps leading up sheer cliffs and all sorts of other awesome freerunning potential, but in all his travels Sonic had never found a place with more than South Island, and Green Hill was the tops for Sonic’s idea of a casual morning jog. Exciting enough to get his blood pumping, but easy enough that he didn’t have to focus much and could just relax, let the wind blow through his quills, and just be.

He didn’t think he’d ever put down roots; his home was wherever he laid down for a nap. But in the privacy of his thoughts, he’d admit that Green Hill felt more like home than anywhere else he’d ever been.

He wondered if Eggman felt the same way, because his badniks were swarming the place again. But hey, running through Green Hill while chasing down Eggman and fighting his robots was practically nostalgic. It wouldn’t quite be the same without him.

Sonic sped through a loop and dove off a ramp, hurtling through the air and curled into a ball. He aimed for a Leon and crashed through it, and more surprisingly, through the wall behind it. Thin stone, maybe, but maybe not. When Sonic uncurled to see where he was, he was mildly surprised to find himself in a familiar cave with a giant spring sitting on the floor. Wasn’t there supposed to be a giant ring here?

He looked up, trying to see if the spring led somewhere, but the cave was too tall to see the roof… in fact, it was taller than the cliffed outside.

Sonic grinned. He was always up for something new!

He jumped on the spring, and went for a ride--

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

[Humi]

“Are you sure it’s waterproof?”

“Not yet, obviously, but it will be.”

“But what if it springs a leak?”

“It’s not going to, unless you three do something wrong.”

“Oh no! What if we do something wrong?!”

Humi sighed, rubbing her forehead. “Ono--”

“You should install escape pods. And, and maybe some redundant systems. Or airlock doors! Definitely escape pods, though--where can we get life jackets--”

Humi set the hammer down and snagged the hovering Omochao out of the air, turning a dial on the side of its head until its voice fell to inaudibility. After she let it go again, Ono tried to reach up to turn its voice back up, but couldn’t get a grip on the dial with its simplified hands.

“So you can just do that, huh? Good to know,” the shark guy said, watching with interest while leaning up against the cliff wall.

“Was it a long trip back here, Razor?” Humi asked. She stepped back to survey her work so far.

“A couple days of swimming,” he said grimly. “And they would not shut up.” He shuddered. “Why do you keep these guys around?”

“They’re funny, usually… Ono not so much, but the other two balance him out.” Unfortunately Yuno and Dono were charging back at the house. For whatever reason Ono’s battery life was better than theirs. Humi’s current theory was that Ono was some sort of prototype for the current Omochao model that escaped the lab during development, but the bot itself refused to answer questions.

Razor shrugged. “If you say so. By the way, I think the rotor needs to be reshaped if you want better thrust.” He grinned. “I’d be happy to model; my fins do a good job getting me around.”

Humi waved him off. “Big! Can you come here?”

She was building the sub at the docks, just so they’d have less distance to haul it. Razor, the shark that found the Omochao and brought them home, stuck around when he found out she was making a submarine. Big was just fishing, as usual.

“Coming.” Big reeled in his line and walked over.

Humi handed him the propeller. “Can you bend the fins a little?”

“Like this?”

“Razor?”

The shark flashed a thumbs up. “Looks good to me.”

“Thank you Big!” Humi stood up to slot it into place, but wobbled alarmingly and nearly fell over. Heyu, reading nearby, was suddenly there, holding her.

“You alright there, packrat?”

“I’m f--” She paused. “I’m fine. Mostly. I’ve got a bit of a headache all of a sudden.” Humi frowned, holding her stomach. “A little queasy, maybe?”

Heyu set her down. “Hm. What did you have for lunch? Maybe Fry’s eggs went bad without him noticing.”

“He ain’t got eggs today, mac.” Razor shrugged. “I tried to get an omelette earlier. He’s out.”

“I feel fine, pops, really.”

“Mmm. Shelldon made some ginger ale the other day,” Heyu said. “I’ll go check and see if he’s got any left. Big, keep an eye on her.”

“Aye aye.”

He hopped up the cliff and vanished from sight, and Humi sighed. She wasn’t sure why she felt so sick all of a sudden. She was fine earlier! It almost felt like when she had Mecha Sonic in her pocket. That had sucked.

Big sniffed loudly. “Do you need anything else?”

“Not right now, Big. Thanks.”

Ono, still struggling with his volume dial, finally managed to turn it back up. “That was mean!”

“It was peaceful,” she rebutted. Then she sighed. “I’m sorry, but if you want this to get done, you’ve got to stop hovering.”

Big leaned down over her, looking at the half-finished vehicle. “You’re spending an awful long time on this one thing, mousie.”

“Well I’m building it for someone else,” Humi pointed out. “If something I’m using breaks, I can just fix it, but if this one breaks out at sea, I won’t be there. I’ve got to focus on doing it right the first time, and that takes more time.”

In truth, it was taking a lot less time than it could have. Those five thousand dollars she spent from the VRY-GD job bought her a very good computer, but the machining equipment was a lot more expensive than she expected; however, she still managed to get some from her raids on the Final Egg, so making the struts and specialty parts she needed was no problem. The problem was that Ono kept changing its mind about what it wanted! There just wasn’t enough space to put everything it wanted in.

She stepped out of the miniature sub and wiped her brow. “That’s the radar system done, though I guess we won’t know until it’s in the water if it works…”

“Is radar important?” Ono asked worriedly.

Razor laughed. “If you don’t want to hit anything, yeah, it is.”

“Oh no…”

“Urgh…” Her stomach was really bothering her.

A welcome distraction from her stomach came in the form of a distant whistle-toot, as the tram came from the tunnel above and pulled into the station.

“Visitors?” Big asked curiously.

“More neighbors, maybe,” Humi said. They walked up the stairs to greet whoever it was, and to Humi’s delight-- “Amy!”

“Wh--Oh, Humi, hi!” Amy pulled Humi into a hug, then gave Big one as well. She turned to Razor, who’d followed them, and faltered. “Sorry, I don’t know who you are.”

He waved her away. “S’alright. You don’t wanna hug me anyway, my skin is rough.”

“I think I have a cream for that you can borrow.”

“That’s not--”

“Anyway, is Tails here yet?” Amy asked, giving Humi her full attention again.

She blinked. “No?” She smiled. “Why, is he going to be? I haven’t seen him in a while!”

“I assumed he would, mostly because you guys are the only friends we have who have, like… a house?” Amy smiled sheepishly. “I’d throw his party at my place, but I’m still, um, looking for one.”

Big nodded seriously.

Humi just tilted her head, puzzled. “You’re throwing a party for Tails? What’s the occasion?” Not that he didn’t deserve one, she just didn’t know what he’d done recently to make one necessary.

“Didn’t you know?” Amy pulled out a brightly wrapped box. “It’s his ninth birthday soon!”

Humi’s eyes widened. Tails’ birthday?

“Oh, you really didn’t know--of course not, when would it have come up?” Amy chastised herself. “Darn. Um, if you want, I can let you say this one’s from you, I got him a couple things while I was--”

“No! No, I’ll make him something,” Humi insisted.

She had no idea what she was going to make, and it was just another project to add to the pile, but this was important. Hm… Maybe this would be a good reason to do the Y-Mi next…

Amy put her hands up. “Okay! I won’t stop you.” She sits on the nearby bench, inviting Humi to sit next to her. “I’m surprised he’s not here. I thought for sure he and Sonic would be; I saw Sonic in a music video, and I recognized the set as the Egg Carrier! So I thought--”

“That wasn’t Sonic,” Humi interrupted, smiling weakly. Ugh, her stomach…

Amy blinked. “Huh? Yes it was.”

“No, that was a local. A girl named Tamara. I met her when we helped make the video.”

Amy squinted. “Are you serious?”

A nod.

“Ugh!” Amy slumped, through her head over the back of the bench. “I think I know who you’re talking about now… Sigh.” She sat up. “Well, whatever. One day, I’ll get that Sonic, and he’ll have no choice but to marry me!”

Razor made a face. “Eh, what? I lost track of what we were talking about.”

“I wasn’t talking to you,” Amy said testily.

“Well dang, fine.”

“Urgh…” Humi leaned forward.

Amy frowned, worried. “Hey, are you okay?”

“She’s been feeling sick,” Big informed her.

“Oh no, are you--”

“What is it?”

“Not you, Humi!”

“What about you?”

“That’s not what I--”

Humi clutched her head. One of her pockets bulged, and spat out a… surfboard? “I… didn’t put that… in there…?” She held a hand to her mouth. “I’m going to throw up…”

What happened actually felt worse than throwing up; her body definitely reacted to whatever was happening, but the actual sensation was coming from somewhere else. A bright light flashed in front of her eyes, and Humi fell off the bench, body sagging in relief as the thing that was causing her so much distress was violently thrown from her pocket and landed on the ground with a grunt of pain.

“Oof… talk about a wild ride.”

“Sonic?!”

“Amy?”

Humi opened her eyes with some difficulty. “Sonic…?”

On the ground in front of her, the blue hedgehog rubbed his head where he must have landed on it. “Hey, Amy. Guys. Ouch.” He stood up and brushed his quills back. “That was fun right until the ending.” He looked around. “Where am I? Wait, is this Station Square?”

“You!” Big helped Humi up, and she pointed an angry finger at Sonic. “What were you doing in my pocket?! People aren’t supposed to be in there!”

Sonic blinked. “In your--I dunno how I got in there. I was doing a special zone!”

Humi didn’t know what that even was, but her retort died when Sonic held up a Chaos Emerald. The white one. Hers.

“It’s a thing the Emeralds do. They make these crazy places to hide from people in, and to get them you’ve gotta do a sick obstacle course.” He tossed the gem from hand to hand. “No clue how it spat me out here. I kinda thought that special zones weren’t, you know, real.”

“I think I remember those…” Amy mused. “I might have run into one on Little Planet.”

Big raised a hand. “Does it involve a really big ring? Cuz I got my Emerald way back when I tripped and fell into a big ring.”

“Usually yeah, but this one I got to from some kinda magic spring.”

Razor growled. “What the hell are you people talking about?!”

“Oh no, I think they’ve gone crazy,” Ono whispered.

The shark slapped it out of the air. “You’re a children’s toy trying to pilot a homemade submarine, you’re part of the insanity!”

Humi giggled. She felt much better now. And the discomfort and nausea was worth it if she got to get her Emerald back…

She reached out to take it, and Sonic held it away from her. “Sorry, Humi, no can do.”

Humi’s expression flattened. “What.”

“Egghead’s on the move again, and I want the Emeralds on hand in case I need them,” Sonic said, smirking. “Don’t worry, I’ll give it back afterwards… you know, as long as they don’t go flying off again.”

Humi stared at him, long enough for his smile to dip a bit. Then she sighed.

“Yeah, okay. But can I borrow it for a second? I’m working on a project right now that it’ll help with.”

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

Humi led them down to the half-finished sub, examining it with a critical look. She clicked her tongue and dove inside. Working quickly, and with Big and Razor’s help, she quickly applied as much of the outer shell as she could; the more enclosed it was, the easier it would be to make the inside bigger.

After fifteen minutes, Sonic started tapping his shoe impatiently. “Is this going to be much longer? Not to rush you, but I kinda left Tails flying around South Island on his own, and it’s going to be a long run back.”

Humi groaned. She finished one final expanded panel and climbed out of the top hatch. “Here,” she said blandly, tossing it back to him. “Why do you need to run back, anyway? Didn’t you use Chaos Control once?”

Sonic paused, already turning to go. “...Can you believe I forgot I could do that?”

Now it was Amy’s turn to look unimpressed. “You forgot the time you teleported out of a self-destructing escape pod flying through space?”

“He what?”

“Gimme a break,” Sonic defended, ignoring the shark’s incredulous shout. “That was only, like, the sixth wildest thing that happened that day. Between the ghosts, the giant lizard, the moon blowing up--”

Razor smacked himself. “Maybe Waverly was right. I should come to the surface more often.”

Sonic shook himself. “Anyway. I don’t want to let Tails wait for me any longer than I have to. Oh, here.” He dug into his quills and tossed a poorly-wrapped brown paper package to Humi, who caught it clumsily. “I got that for Tails’ birthday. Don’t want it to break while I kick Egghead’s butt. See ya! Time to go!”

He raised the white Emerald up, and it started glowing.

Amy wrapped her arms around his waist. “Not without me!”

“Wha? Amy!”

And they vanished.

The four of them stared at the spot where they’d been standing. Big shrugged and placidly went back to his fishing, while Humi just rolled her eyes and got back to work. She had a lot more room to work with now. “So, Ono, what were some of those ideas again? They just got a lot more viable.”

“Did all of that really just happen?” Razor asked, bewildered.

Heyu poked his head over the side of the cliff, holding a thermos. “Sorry it took so long, Shelldon had to make a new batch.” He noticed Razor’s expression. “Did something happen?”

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

[Iota]

Iota was content. Life was good, he was surrounded on all sides by nature, he was making new friends, and his gardening was going well.

The flowerbeds immediately surrounding their home were planted and marked, and were just waiting to sprout. As they were now sharing the clearing with several others, Iota turned his focus to creating a public garden--a park area almost, and he had chosen to outline the area in a unique way. Heyu and Humi told him an anecdote once of how Heyu had accidentally sent them grinding down a large, steep vine from the top of a tree and nearly flew off a mountaintop at the end. Heyu recalled the story with fondness, though Humi did not. Iota thought it sounded like great fun, if only it were closer to the ground, so on one of his walks through the jungle he snagged a few nice thick vines, and was going to use them to create a long rope fence that, once completed, anyone who wanted to could grind on for fun.

It was harder than it sounded, but thankfully he had help now.

Waxer drove a sturdy metal stake into the ground and screwed the trellis to it at three points. “A vine that thick,” he explained while Iota listened, “is going to want to wrap around something sturdy, and preferably thicker than the vine itself. These boards’ll be able to hold it, if you hand them to me? Right, and we thread the vine through the slat and wrap it around, see? Now it can continue off to the next post, and I’m thinking you might want a spiral section here, so--”

Honey clasped her hands together. “Not so fast, dear, we need to help the vine take root first.” She removed her glove, revealing surprisingly sharp claws, and scraped lightly at the wood. “This isn’t a toxic paint, is it? The vine won’t want to grasp it if it is.”

“It’s not paint at all, Honey, it’s white oak. That’s just the color it is.”

“Really? This far south? You know we aren’t established yet, dear.”

“It was on clearance, my dearest.”

“Oh, brilliant. That’s my smart little shopper.~”

“Oh, you.”

Iota scanned the bees as they coaxed the vine into rooting itself. His sensors detected the tiniest motes of chaos energy as the plant sent out tiny fibers to dig into the wood. “Wonder: Fascinating. What else can you do like that?”

Waxer chuckled, theatrically buffing his knuckles against his chest. “Oh, well, nothing… except that for a summer project I raised a tree from an apple seed. Just a sprout in May, and fruiting enough to fill a barrel by the end of July.”

“They weren’t very good apples,” Honey added. “They grew too fast. But the year after that they were delicious.”

“Golden delicious, Honey.”

“Yes they were, my favorite.”

“I know, that’s why I chose that breed.”

“Oh, Waxer…”

Iota faked a loud cough into his fist. “How long have you two known each other, exactly?”

“Always,” was the immediate response from both of them.

“I remember seeing her on the first day of first grade… so cute, so kind…”

“He was such a nerd back then,” Honey faux-whispered. “I thought he looked like a dork.”

“Putting up with me when I was a stupid kid…”

“He got pollen all over the place. Of course, I only found out later he was shaking so bad because he was nervous talking to me. He didn’t get the nerve to actually ask me out until we were fourteen.”

“How could a mere boy not be nervous when talking to the most beautiful of Gaia’s creatures?”

“Oh, Waxer…”

Iota coughed again. “Are you enjoying your new home?”

“Oh, yes!” Honey clapped. “It’s exactly what he wanted! A little hive all our own, with plenty of room if we ever want to…” She blushed, giggling as she buried herself in her neck fluff. “Oh, I dare not say it!”

“Say what, Honey?” Waxer waggled his eyebrows. “Hm?”

“Oh, Waxer…”

…The Vespas were good people, but they were… awkward to be around for too long. Iota looked about for something to change the subject, hopefully towards something that wouldn’t reset them back to the endless flirting, and saw Humi and Heyu walking back into the clearing.

“Alert: I will step aside to… take care of something. I will return shortly to continue the garden… oh, very well, get on with it then,” he finished, exasperated, because as soon as they realized it was a break they started making out. Iota walked away briskly.

Heyu looked up as he approached. “Hey, big man, how’s your project going?”

Iota sighed loudly and exaggeratedly. “Mate, they’re exhausting.”

Heyu threw his head back and laughed. “You don’t know the half of it! You can hear through their walls when you walk by! Trust me, they are so much worse when they think no one can hear them. I swear, they get so cheesy, I can’t even come up with a tortured metaphor about feeding a starving village.”

Iota looked at Humi, riding Heyu’s shoulders. “How about you? Is the submarine going well?”

“Yep! I need some parts from…” She rubbed her hands together. “My lab.”

She broke into cackles while Heyu rolled his eyes fondly. “Keep working on the evil laugh, packrat. You need a soundboard or some--thing!”

Heyu suddenly tripped, faceplanting on the dirt road and sending Humi sprawling. The three of them moved to see what he tripped on and saw a foot-wide hole in the middle of the road that he’d stepped on without noticing.

Heyu’s eye twitched. “...Why.”

A head popped out of the hole, pushing the hare’s leg aside. “What do you want?” A dark orange badger glared at them, holding a shovel.

Looking mystified, Humi asked, “Who are you?”

“I’m Spud. The farmer.” He didn’t expand any further.

Heyu covered his face. When he lowered his hands again he was wearing an expression of infinite patience. “I’m sorry to step in your hole sir, and welcome to the neighborhood. I’m not sure if you’re aware, but your… door, is directly in the middle of the road. You’ll need to move it.”

Spud, the badger, looked around as if seeing the area for the first time. “...Huh. So it is.” He climbed out of the hole and smacked the interior wall with his shovel once, and the entire tunnel instantly collapsed. “This ain’t my door, though, it’s o’er there by the bee house. This were just a hole.”

Heyu’s smile did not move. “...And you were just digging a hole in the middle of the road, because…?”

“I like digging.” With that said, Spud went over to a patch of grassless dirt they’d overlooked previously, dusted off a round wooden lid in the ground and opened it up before dropping down into the other hole.

Heyu’s face cracked. “...great. Let’s get your parts.”

Iota glanced back towards his vine garden. The bees had set up a romantic picnic in the time he’d stepped away. “We are collecting quite the colorful cast, aren’t we?”

“I’ve noticed,” Heyu said shortly.

“I like them,” Humi offered, following after him. “There’s no chance of being lonely here anymore.”

Heyu’s face softened as he picked her back up. “No, I suppose not. That’s a good way to think of it, Humi.” They walked past Shelldon’s shack, waving hello as they did. “And it’s nice not having to get on the train every time we need something.”

There was someone Iota didn’t recognize ordering at Fry’s truck, taking a seat at one of his picnic tables. They looked around with mild wonder but also a sense of distance.

Analytics labelled them as a tourist. “Maybe people are even coming here for some things.”

“Yeah? That’d be something alright.”

Humi folded her arms thoughtfully. “I better get the robot rentals ready soon, if customers are already coming to us…”

“One thing at a time, packrat.” Heyu smiled. “There’s no need to rush.”

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

[?????]

The rabbit, the robot, and the mouse. They all walked together around the house. They laughed, they spoke to each other… They really cared about each other.

He let out a small sigh, ducking when the rabbit’s ears twisted in his direction. The guy had really good hearing, but he was nearly as good at staying still and quiet. When he looked back over the bush again, the robot had split up to go back to the bees, but he stayed watching the mouse as she went inside the shed. The rabbit leaned next to the door, playing with floating rings for a bit before she came back out, switched out of her dress and into a shirt and overalls--still patchy, of course. Everything she wore was patchy.

He watched them go back the way they came and debated with himself for a bit whether he should follow them. He just knew he’d see something cool if he did. The mouse was always making something awesome.

But he didn’t want to get caught, and there just weren’t as many places to hide at the station. So he watched them until they were out of sight, then turned and walked into the jungle towards the mountain cliffs.

He had a little cave out here. It was hidden behind hanging vines and just tall enough for him, a very short person, to stand comfortably. No one would find it by chance… although he guessed he did, so. Maybe they would. But they hadn’t yet.

In the back, he had a pile of robot parts that he took from the big tower deeper in the ruins. He was pretty sure the mouse was the one who broke them, since she was the only other person he’d seen go in there.

Maybe today was the day it would click. The mouse was a kid just like him; if she could do it, he could do it. Right? So he spent some time going over the parts and bits, trying to put them together in ways that made sense, in ways that actually did something. 

Nothing happened. Nothing ever happened. He just couldn’t get it. He never did.

He’d keep trying, but not today. He’d be useful. Someday. For now, though, he just wanted to curl up on his moss bed and nap the day away…

He’d get it next time. For sure.