Hop To It - Break 2

I stared at the assortment of rings laid out on the desk in front of me. Picking up one, size small, and another one that was much larger, I tried to put one through the other.

The second the small one started passing through the larger ring, a harsh buzz filled my ears, and I pulled back.

“Interesting reaction,” I muttered, making a note of it in my journal. “No idea what it means, but interesting.”

After a week of living together, Humi and I, we’d already started setting a routine in place. Wake up when the sun comes up, because the songbirds are loud. Breakfast (note to self, figure out a long-term solution to the food situation, since granola was going to get old fast). Next came reading lessons. I still didn’t know what I was doing with that, but I think it was going well so far. 

By lunch, we went out to Final Egg to collect scrap. You could never have enough scrap. And if, in the process, we made the place useless to Robotnik if he ever tried to reclaim it, all the better. There were still a lot of active badniks in that place. They mostly milled around aimlessly, since most of the actual facilities were shut down, but they still attacked when they saw us.

Honestly? I thought it was good practice. If I could help it I’d never get involved in saving the world again, but you know. Just in case, it was good to have the practice.

Once Humi’s pockets were full, we swung by Big’s shack to wave hi before heading to Tails’ Workshop.

And that was where we were now, because while Tails and Humi hung out, I was exploring my own interests.

I don’t know why rings were so fascinating to me. Something just told me that there was more to them than it seemed.

I picked up one in particular that I’d found the other day. Amy said--or rather, Birdie said--that rings popped up wherever the Chaos Emeralds had been used, and it seemed to be true. I kicked a fern the other day, and a ring fell out. I could only imagine that the Square was crawling with them. I wondered if that would make reconstruction difficult. The casinos probably wouldn’t like it, chips growing out of the walls.

Did they grow out of the walls? The ring I got from the fern wasn’t small, I definitely should have been able to see it beforehand.

Whatever, I didn’t feel like thinking about things that include the word ‘quantum’ at the moment. I just took the ring in my hand and slipped it on my finger. It fit snugly around my middle finger. 

I clenched and unclenched my fist, and for a moment I almost fooled myself into thinking I felt different, but no. It was just a shiny bit of jewelry right now.

Amy had wandered off a few days ago. She really didn’t seem bothered by the loss of her house. Instead, she felt like using it as an excuse to go back to running after Sonic, and who knew where he was right now.

I stared at the ring on my finger, then reached out and found a second ring the same size and put it on my other hand.

Let’s see. Chaos energy… What was chaotic? Was it literal chaos or were they named by someone who just thought it sounded cool? I guess those weren’t exclusive.

After a moment of thought, I stood from the desk and stepped into the center of Tails’s living area. I clasped my hands together, and--

Oh, wait a minute.

I didn’t feel anything, but when the rings on my fingers came into contact, the fur on my arms stood on end, like I had a build-up of static electricity. And I remembered that Robotnik and Humi both had used rings for power generation. Was it because I completed a circuit?

Let’s see. I thought for a moment. Then I held up my hands, and clapped them together.

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

[Humi]

Tails turned off the circular saw and looked up with a frown. “Did you hear something?”

“What?” Humi took the protective earmuffs off. “Hear what?”

“A loud bang.”

“No?”

“Huh. I guess I imagined it.” He shrugged and got back to work.

Humi was having so much fun! Tails was as cool as she always thought he was. He was smart, and nice, and he listened to new ideas while having lots of his own. She thought she’d learned more in a week hanging out with him than in a month working by herself.

“Have you thought about what you want him to look like?” Tails asked, finishing his cut and moving to sand the metal bar down. She was pretty sure he was working on a part for the arm.

“I’m fine with him looking like he did before,” Humi said. “A lot like Gamma, except he had two hands. And then he could retract them and extend weapons in their place!”

Tails smiled excitedly. “Oh, that’ll be interesting. I wonder if Iota’s brain might have a copy of his schematics…”

Humi looked at the head in question, sitting over by where Tails was keeping Gamma.

Getting the Flicky out of Gamma was sad. And confusing, since Pinkie (what Amy called her) seemed to immediately know what was up already. She and the other Flickies flew around the workshop and nuzzled Amy, and Gamma, and even Tails before flying away.

Now the goodnik--a word Humi came up with all by herself, thank you--was shut down in the corner. He looked like he could spring back to life any moment, but he wasn’t going to.

Tails decided, after some debate between him, Humi and Amy, that the best course of action was to help Humi rebuild Iota before trying to bring back Gamma. Eggman’s tech was weird, and super advanced, and while Tails was smart he was all self-taught. He’d never tried to fix a badnik before, just figure out new and better ways to break them. Working on Iota would help him threefold: first, it would get him used to working on Eggman’s tech. Second, whatever power source they ended up using for Iota could then be replicated for Gamma. And third, it might be nice for Gamma to see a brother goodnik when he woke up.

That last one was more of a fun bonus than an actual reason, but that was good enough for Humi!

“Did I say thank you for doing this yet?” Humi asked. She turned her focus on the car suspension she was working on. Her goal with it was to make it so Iota would be able to fall from great heights without damaging himself.

“You did, but I told you already, this is fun!” Tails looked over their collection of spare parts and selected a mostly undented sheet of armor that Humi and Heyu pulled off one of Final Egg’s sentries. “After the Tornado 2, I didn’t have another project ongoing. I kinda wonder how good I’ll do at building a robot, compared to Eggman. I still don’t know how he made Gamma so… aware.”

Humi nodded, frowning slightly. She knew exactly enough about programming to know that she didn’t know anything about it. That was half the reason she was trying so hard at Heyu’s reading lessons. “Do you think Gamma would let us copy his… base? Programming? Is that right?”

Tails frowned, thinking. “...I don’t know, that feels. Wrong. Hopefully we won’t have to. I checked, Iota does have lots of circuitry in his headcase. If we’re lucky he might already have the common base program of the E-100 series, and we’ll just have to write up his personality.” He looked at her. “Any ideas for that?”

Now it was Humi’s turn to think. She didn’t want a killbot, even if that sounded awesome. And while Gamma was cool, it would be weird if she just built Gamma, again. Not that Gamma seemed to know who he was, really. Mostly, she just wanted a cool friend to hang out with. A cool robo-buddy like in the movies, with lots of gadgets built into every nook and cranny! But that wasn’t really a personality.

“I guess… He’ll just become his own person,” she finally settled on. Yeah, that sounded--huh? “Hey, what are you laughing at?”

Tails was trying to hide his snickering behind his hand. “S-sorry, it’s just… Y-you were sticking your tongue out and it looked silly.”

She was? Humi tried to look at her own mouth and immediately failed on account of her nose being in the way. She ended up scowling. “Don’t laugh at me!”

“I w-wasn’t!”

“You still are!” Humi pulled a foam ball from her pocket and threw it at Tails. It hit him on the head and he burst out laughing.

Humi threw something heavier next, and he had to duck under the table to avoid it.

“Oi!”

Humi froze mid-throw as Heyu stuck his head in the workshop.

The hare gave them both the stinkeye. “No throwing things in the room full of sharp edges and heavy metals.”

Humi dropped the gear. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine!” Tails popped back up, wearing a hardhat. “I’ve got protection!”

Heyu looked unimpressed. “Uh-huh.” He coughed. “How are things going?”

Humi brightened. “Pretty good! I think we’ll be able to start putting him together in a few days, right?” she asked, looking at Tails.

The fox nodded. “If you guys keep bringing me parts from the Eggman base, definitely. It’s so much faster when I don’t have to machine new parts from scratch.”

“You remember what I said about weapons, right?”

Tails and Humi’s faces both flattened. Together, in a bored voice, they said, “No weapons until we know he won’t go crazy.”

“Good.” Heyu nodded, satisfied, and turned to leave. “It’s getting near to five, and I saw your kitchen has the stuff. How do you kids feel about spaghetti tonight?”

Humi nodded. “Yes!”

“Sounds good!”

“Excellent. I’ll get started.”

Humi tilted her head. “Heyu?”

“Who, me?”

“Why do your gloves look like they’ve been burned?” In fact, his face looked a little ashen too, and not in the metaphorical sense.

The hare stiffened and hid his hands behind his back. “No they don’t. Nothing blew up in my face. Stop asking questions.” He cleared his throat and left quickly.

Humi and Tails exchanged a look. Then it was Humi’s turn to start laughing.

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

[Heyu]

My ears were still ringing--hah, ringing--when I started filling the pot for the pasta.

While the water poured, I wet a paper towel and wiped my face off. I don’t even know where the ash came from, since the rings were still wrapped around my fingers, perfectly unharmed. I didn’t expect that reaction. Still, I was going to call it progress. An explosion of any kind means, by necessity, that a transfer of energy is taking place. Maybe my body was acting as a circuit, and bringing the rings together closed it to let the energy flow. Now, if I could just figure out how to do so in a controlled manner…

When I tried to wipe the ash off my hands, my gloves started coming apart. 

“Great. Wonderful, even.” 

I peeled them off and they practically disintegrated. I had a couple extra pairs, but they were still back at Humi’s warehouse, so I’d have to go barehanded for now.

I took the pot out of the sink and put it on the stove, then while I waited for the water to boil I leaned against the counter.

We needed new clothes. Humi especially, since I was pretty sure she only had that one dress. I hadn’t said anything yet, but it was pretty nasty, despite her best efforts, and it looked like it could fall apart any minute. I had an old pink shirt I wore at the store during Valentine’s week, and it would be big enough on her that she could use it as a dress, but I had a feeling she wouldn’t be happy about not having pockets.

“Hm,” I said, talking to myself now. “I wonder if a trip to Central isn’t in the cards soon.”

I frowned. Thinking about Central City made me feel like I was forgetting something. Ah well, it would come to me or it wouldn’t.

The train station was the first thing the Square got back up and running, since all the people who lost their homes needed a way to get somewhere else in the meantime, and since the roads were all ruined and ferries were spooked by the tidal wave, the trains were the best way left. The line to Mystic Station wasn’t running, but we still had the handcar, and we could transfer to Central from there. Plenty of shopping to do in the big city.

Tails and Humi stepped into the kitchen just as I started putting the noodles in. “Hey, guys.”

“How long until dinner?” Humi asked bluntly, staring at the pot.

I chuckled. “Oh, ten, twenty minutes? Still getting used to the range of this range. Enough time for you two to clean up. You’re covered in…” I waved vaguely, since I didn’t actually know what was in their fur. “Grease? Oil? Whatever it is, don’t get it near the food.”

Humi pouted, but Tails went up to start washing his hands without complaint, so she didn’t whine either.

“I was thinking of taking a train to Central City sometime soon,” I said. “Humi, you and I both need a new set of clothes.”

“What’s wrong with the dress I’m wearing?” Humi asked.

“Nothing’s wrong with it,” I lied, “But it’s nice to have a few sets so you can clean some while you wear the others. Or just to have a change every now and then.”

“Amy wears the same dress everyday.”

“Actually she doesn’t,” Tails said, drying his hands. “She’s got a bunch of copies of the same dress.”

Thanks for the backup Tails, but also what? “What? Why?” I asked, because I thought that was something that only happened in cartoons.

He shrugged. “When it comes to Amy, I just assume that it’s because she thinks Sonic would like it.” He stepped aside to let Humi hop on the stepstool.

“Well alright then.” That girl was ridiculous. Next time she showed up I might have a word with her… Anyway, Humi still looked uncertain, so I continued. “I need to get a new vest anyway,” I said, lifting the lapels for emphasis. “I like the extra pockets, but this color is blech.”

“It really isn’t your look,” Humi agreed, brightening. “Extra pockets, huh?”

“What wrong with the color?” Tails asked, frowning. “It’s the same color as Sonic’s quills.”

I snapped my fingers and pointed at him, mentally taking note of the way it made my ring chime. “Exactly! That’s the problem. When we went into the Final Egg the first time, it made all of Robotnik’s security systems target me. We only got in a fight with Iota because he wanted to attack anything that was blue!”

“Huh.” Tails tilted his head. An ear flicked. “...Say, if you don’t want it--”

I shrugged it off and tossed it in his face. “All yours, kid.”

He yelped and fell over, surprised by the fabric assault, and while Humi was snickering over his plight I grabbed a can of pasta sauce from the cupboard.

“Sorry it’s only the canned stuff. If you’d had some bell peppers, I might have tried to make my mom’s homemade sauce, but this’ll be good enough for government w--”

Wait.

I froze in the act of popping the top off the can, eyes widening.

Humi looked over at my sudden silence. “Heyu?”

I slowly turned my head to her, not moving the rest of my body. “I haven’t called my parents yet.”

Tails blinked. “Your parents?”

I set the can aside and paced around the room. “Tails, do you have a phone in this place?” I needed to call them immediately. There was no possibility whatsoever that news of the disaster hadn’t reached them, and I’d forgotten to contact them for a week!

“Oh, it’s…” Tails flew up and pulled a level I hadn’t noticed by the fridge, and a wall panel turned around like a trapdoor, the wall phone mounted on the other side. “Right here.”

“Yes, thank you.” I reached out and started dialling.

Of course, on the fifth digit, the phone rang on its own.

I blinked, thrown off balance, but accepted the call anyway. “Hello?”

“Hello, is this the residence of Miles Prower?” answered a woman’s voice.

I looked over at Tails. “It is, yes,” I said. Almost unconsciously my customer service voice asserted itself, and I added, “Might I ask who this is who needs to speak with him?”

“This is the office of the Mayor of Station Square. I’m his secretary, Miss Tilda.” I heard the sound of shuffling papers. “May I speak to Mr. Prower now?”

“Uh.” I looked again, but Tails had already busied himself with draining the pasta. “Hey, use the oven mitt!”

“It’s fine!”

“I’m sorry?”

“No, I was talking to Tails, sorry. He’s, uh, preoccupied, but if you wait a few minutes--”

“I’m afraid I have multiple other calls to make and can’t spare a moment, so I’ll have to ask you to pass the message along.”

“Okay--”

“Mr. Prower’s skills with technology are in demand in Station Square. After his efforts in disarming Dr. Eggman’s missile, Prower is our office’s first choice in dealing with the remnants of the Egg Carrier.”

“Is he now?” I frowned, not that she could see it, but I kept my voice light. “I would think that G.U.N. would be the ones dealing with that.”

“You are correct, but they’ve already had multiple agents be injured by traps and other rogue defense mechanisms. As Mr. Prower has previous experience with Eggman tech, he’s considered the expert on the subject. Reconstruction on the city center can’t begin in earnest until the Egg Carrier is disarmed and deconstructed.”

I hummed and folded my arms. I guess that was true. Tails was the expert. Hm. “...Is there any kind of compensation planned for his efforts?”

“Excuse me?”

“You are asking a child to enter a dangerous environment, after all. You weren’t going to ask him to do it for free, would you?”

“I think I need to speak with Mr. Prower myself now.”

Oh, sure, now that it might cost you, I didn’t say out loud.

“Who is it, Heyu?” Tails asked, walking up next to me. “What was that about something dangerous?”

I hesitated. I really didn’t want this kid to be taken advantage of, but… he was capable, and this was his house and his phone. What was I going to do, lie? “The mayor’s office. They’re asking you to help with dealing with the downed Carrier in the city.”

Tails’s eyes brightened, unfortunately, and he took the phone from my hands to talk. “Hello? Hi, yes, I’m interested!”

I shook my head and stepped aside to mix the sauce into the noodles.

“You munchkins are too eager… Humi, stop that, you’re going to drop it. There’s enough for seconds, you don’t have to pile that much on one plate.”

“It smells so good though!”

It really didn’t… But I chose to take the compliment anyway. I set a plate for Tails before making my own, since Humi already had hers, and ate it there by the counter.

Honestly? The sauce wasn’t bad. Not great, but not bad.

My ears twitched and I tuned back into Tails just as he was hanging up. “Thank you, we’ll discuss the details soon!” He put the receiver down and smiled happily.

“What’s the news?” I asked, handing him his plate.

“Me and Humi are going to help go over Monday to see what we can do about the Carrier!”

My fork clinked against the plate, and I took a deep breath.

Humi perked up. “Who, me?”

“Yeah, you!” Tails said with a nod. “You’ve been working with Eggman parts too, and you told me about how you tore those turrets and things from the first Egg Carrier’s walls. There’s probably going to be a lot of stuff like that!” He paused, as if something occurred to him. “Oh, I probably should have asked if you wanted to first…”

“I do! I do, I do! I love tearing Eggman’s junk apart!” Humi bounced in place, and I groaned. She heard me and gave me a pleading look.

I tried to resist it, but the effort was doomed from the start. Not because I was weak to puppy dog eyes, but because as much as it bothered me, she would probably do a good job.

“...Monday, you said?”

Humi cheered.

While the two little mechanics traded notes on what they encountered on the first Carrier, I quietly finished my plate and put it in the sink. Kid geniuses were a handful.

…I frowned, because I felt like I was forgetting something again. I got distracted from something, but what was it? Let’s see, I was thinking about buying clothes… Going to Central… Uh…

“...and then I blew up the main gun, which is probably what sent the Carrier crashing in the first place,” Tails said, then shuffled for a bit behind me. “Thanks for the vest, Mr. Heyu, this is comfy, and the pockets are nice too!”

“Just Heyu, Tails, I don’t need that ‘mister,’” I groused, a little sourly, turning away from the sink to see what he was talking about.

And then I completely lost my train of thought, because Tails was wearing that blue vest now. Tails, who was half my height and wearing a vest that had been just a little baggy on me. On him, it reached well past his knees; hell, it was practically at his heels.

I snorted, then burst into giggles. “Oh my-hai-hai gosh, that’s adorable.”

The fox kit flushed. “I’m not cute!”

I tried to apologize, but I needed to stop laughing first. And when Humi and finally Tails himself started up, calming down became impossible.