Hop To It - Adventure 8

SB | Ao3

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[Amy]

Amy dropped down from the balloon with a worried sigh. "That was a close one, but we finally gave that big lug the slip. Hopefully it leaves us alone from now on." She walked back into the lobby, edging around the destroyed floor. "I saw no sign of your relatives, Birdie, and I didn't see those guys anywhere either... Oh, I hope they're okay."

She leaned against the railing overlooking the first floor. Birdie perched next to her and tweeted morosely.

"I know. But that rabbit guy was really antsy... and he isn't wrong. This place is dangerous!" Her grip tightened around her hammer. "That stupid tin can. I should have squashed it flat for that!"

She turned to look at the tubes along the wall, two of which held robot replicas of her beloved.

"Oh Sonic. How do you make being a hero look so easy?"

​Amy couldn't deny it. She made a mistake involving those two. Humi and the other one. She was so excited to be a hero, and he was just trying to keep them safe. "Birdie. You don't think... You don't think they--"

A different door hissed open, and Amy twirled, ready to burn some of her feelings away in combat.

When a hare and a mouse stepped through, she dropped her hammer. "Hey, you!"

The hare pointed at himself. "Who, me?"

"That's my line!" The mouse grinned, holding up a robot head nearly as big as her. "Why, I oughta!"

They broke out in laughter, leaving Amy feeling like she missed something, but forget that for now. "You're okay! I was so worried!"

The hare gave her a look, then shrugged. "We handled it. It was a little scary--"

"--But we kicked butt!" Humi declared, showing her prize off. "Adventure!"

"Adventure," the hare agreed. "How about you, Annie? Amy, sorry."

...Well, everything seemed fine, so Amy let her worries fall away. "We didn't see Birdie's family anywhere."

He walked over, humming. "Your friend here's a Flicky, right? Not just a Critter?"

Man, it was awkward that she couldn't remember his name. Hopefully Humi would say it at some point. "He is, yeah. What do you mean by critter?"

He looked surprised. "Oh, is that not what you call them? You know, the animal guys who are smarter than normal but can't talk and mostly live like regular animals. Those guys." He waggled his hand back and forth. "I think the official term is Mobini, but I never liked that one." He gave the robot Sonic duplicates and tapped on the tube holding one of them in suspension. "We found a lot of animals inside robots. So your Flickies are probably in one, too."

Amy blinked. "That... it's really obvious now that you mention it." Gosh, didn't she feel sheepish. "But there's thousands of badniks everywhere! How are we ever going to find the right robot?"

Birdie chirped rapidly, flying in loops as he 'spoke.'

The hare stared with a raised eyebrow.  "You're a little sharp, but I think that's 'Ode to Joy.'"

"He's saying that he escaped from the Egg Carrier," Amy translated. "So maybe the robots with his friends are still there."

"You can speak bird?" Humi asked.

​"C'mon, let's go!" Amy ignored the question in favor of taking off, Birdie following close behind.

It took her a few moments to realize that they weren't following, still focused on the Sonic lookalikes.

"What do you think, Humi? One last act of sabotage?"

"I dunno, Heyu. My pockets are pretty full," Humi said, a little dejectedly.

"We can still break the things. I don't like the looks of these guys."

"I wouldn't if I were you," Amy warned, jogging back over. "Metal Sonic is no joke! You don't want to risk waking him up. He almost beat Sonic one time."

Heyu, which was his name apparently, grunted before accepting the advice. "If you say so. Come on then. Let's get back and restock."

​Amy nodded. "Yeah, and find Birdie's friends!"

"Are we needed for that?" Heyu asked bluntly, following her to the bridge entrance. "I've kind of had my fill of danger today."

Humi smacked his leg, almost falling over from having to hold the robot head one-handed. "Don't be like that, Heyu!"

He sighed heavily. "Fine. But we're stopping for lunch first."

Amy's stomach growled, and she blushed. "...Well, maybe a quick meal."

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[Heyu]​

I was honestly surprised it was still daylight outside. It felt like we were in the tower forever, but I guess it was still morning when we went in. I was half-hoping I could justify stopping this adventure stuff by claiming it was past Humi's bedtime, but on reflection that probably wouldn't have worked either.

I was so tired. Carrying this giant robot head in my pack wasn't helping.

Well, whatever. It was probably best to follow Amy for now anyway, since I wasn't confident I could find my way through the jungle on my own. Grinding on those vines had been a little too fast for me to keep track of where I was while it happened.

"I don't think I mentioned it earlier," Amy said, striking up a conversation, "But I love your dress Humi!"

​Humi beamed. "Thanks! I made it myself!"

Amy turned, walking backwards so she could face Humi directly. "Really? That's super impressive then!"

"Well, people don't usually throw out clothes in my size," Humi said, pulling up the side of her dress in a half-curtsy. "So I had to learn how to make it last."

The pink hedgehog's face went funny. "Throw out?"

"Mhm. It used to look a lot like yours, actually! But it was easier to find pink fabric than red."

I looked at her dress. There wasn't a scrap of red to be seen. Amy met my eyes and I shrugged. "She says things like that a lot. I'm getting used to it." I looked around. The trees didn't seem to be thinning, and I couldn't see any of the Mystic Ruins brickwork anywhere. "Hey, uh, Amy? Where are we?"

Amy stopped. "Um..."

Of course. I grumbled and dropped the pack on the ground with a clatter of metal parts. "One sec."

"What are you--" Amy began, but I didn't hear the rest as I started jumping up trees. Funny, but after the morning I had, heights weren't as scary anymore. I made it to the top easily, actually, easier than when we were searching for Amy. I wondered why. But once I had some height, I looked around and saw a clearing nearby, off this road-less-taken we were on.

Dropping back down with only a grunt from the impact, I made my report. "There looks to be something up ahead. Hopefully we can find a proper path from here.

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What we found was confusing. A small, handmade structure with a roof made of huge palm leaves and no walls, a mailbox made of a hollowed log, and a bed with no mattress that took up the entirety of the little... cabin's floorspace. Could you even call it a cabin? A shack? Both of those implied walls.

And there was also an airplane parked next to it.

Amy gasped. "Hey, that's--!"

"That's Tails's plane!" Humi shouted, sounding equal parts shocked and amazed. She bounded over and started crawling all over it. "Do you think he's here? Why would his plane be sitting in the middle of the jungle?"

"Who or what is Tails?" I asked. That sounded familiar.

Humi and Amy both gaped at me. They started talking over each other trying to explain, but I didn't bother trying to parse what was being said because a brain cell kicked into gear and I remembered.

"Wait, you mean Sonic's sidekick? The two-tailed fox? His name is Tails?" I asked, a little incredulous, because Mobians could have some pretty on-the-nose names--my own mother was named Angora--but just Tails seemed like it would be too much.

"It's not his birth name," Amy explained, "But it's what he wants to be called." Which was fair enough, I guess. I was hardly one to call out an uninspired nickname. She turned to the plane Humi was still sitting on top of, and frowned. "But last I heard he was still working on this one... I guess all the recent chaos made him finish it."

Humi hopped down and pointed out a streak of mud on its underside. "I think it was a crash-landing!"

I tilted my head. "Why do you say that?"

She answered by just pointing, and we looked to see the long furrow dug into the ground on the edge of the clearing.

"...Alright, that tracks." I blinked, then grinned. "And it left one, too. Ha!"

Humi stuck her tongue out. "Boo!"

Amy walked over, inspecting it. "But this ditch is pointed the wrong way. Someone picked it up out of this and then put it over there."

I pushed against the plane experimentally, and utterly failed to budge it. "That seems unlikely. Anyone who could do that would have to be big."

"Myes?" a dull, drawling voice responded.

I turned, and found myself having to look up to meet the unblinking eyes of the largest Mobian I've ever seen. He was as wide as he was tall, but his arms were rippling with muscles big enough to show through his fur. His ears were nearly as big as mine.

​I stared at him. He stared at me. Then he walked around, and gave me a view of both the fish (each the size of Humi or bigger) draped across one shoulder and the large frog sitting on the other. "Is this your... house?" I asked.

"Myes." He set the fish down on a huge leaf, then sat himself down on the steps in front of the shack, facing us.

He stared at us. We stared at him.

"...Make yourselves at home," he said finally, holding up one of the fish. He quickly built a campfire with practised ease, though the actual lighting presented difficulty. "Cooking will take a while, but I caught more den enough." His matches weren't cooperating with him.

The cat's sudden appearance had us all thoroughly off-balance, until Humi finally smiled and skipped over. "Hi! I'm Humi! It's nice to finally meet you!"

She held out her hand, and the cat stared at it. Visibly, he seemed to realize something was expected of him, and reached out to shake it. He ended up lifting Humi into the air with every swing of the arm. "I remember you now. I'm Big."

"You sure are," I said, unable to help myself.

"Do you need help with your fire?" Humi asked eagerly. She dug through her pockets, muttering. "Oh, wait. Heyu! You still have my lighter!"

I did? I did. I still wasn't going to let her have it back yet, but I didn't see harm in helping Big out.

It took me a second to get it lit, but once I got the kindling going Big was able to build it up pretty quick. "Thanks, friend."

"Mr. Big?" Amy began, walking forward. "Why do you have Tails's plane?"

"I flew it."

I twitched at that, and glanced at the plane's cockpit. It would have been a tight fit. "You can fly that?"

"...No." He quickly constructed a spit over the fire and speared a fish on it. "But I had to get off the giant ship somehow."

"You were on the Egg Carrier?" Amy asked. "What were you doing up there?"

Big shrugged. "Bad robots took Froggy." The frog on his shoulder croaked. "Had to get him back. Then der was a big monster dat ate the gems like the ones in the plane, and it ate Froggy too, but the nice hedgehog helped me get him back."

"Sonic?!" Amy blurted out, then coughed. "I mean, you met Sonic?"

"If that's his name." Big shrugged again.

You know something, it was almost gratifying to meet someone else who got dragged into this whole situation, and who seemed to have even less an idea as to what was happening than I did, but something nagged at me. "Gems?" In the plane? I inspected the aircraft a little closer. All in all, it was an odd beast. I didn't blame him for crashing it, since it didn't seem to have landing gear. Judging by Amy's comments, it might not have been fully finished. It had four wings tilted in an 'X' formation, and it sat on the ground with its nose cone tilted into the dirt.

The nose cone... was oddest of all, since it was transparent. Inside was a structure that sure enough looked like a cut gemstone. A big one, too.

"Is that a Chaos Emerald?" Amy asked. Birdie chirped, seemingly confirming it.

A Chaos Emerald. I... knew that term. I think? "Those are real?"

Humi climbed up my shoulder to get a closer look. She stared at it intently. "...Huh. What's a Chaos Emerald?"

"They're these super powerful artifacts!" Amy said, pumping her fists. "Eggman's always trying to get them, and Sonic has to find them first!"

"I had one," Big said placidly, not paying full attention. "Froggy ate it and the bad robots took it out of him. I miss it. It was pretty."

​"You just... had one?" Amy asked. "How?"

"I found it a few moons ago. It made me feel strong when I held it, so I kept it." Big punctuated his statement by flexing his arm.

Humi touched the nose cone, staring at the Emerald inside. "...Are these things important?"

Amy nodded fervently. "You heard what I said about Eggman wanting them, right?"

"And the big monster grew even bigger when it ate dem," Big offered, slowly turning the fish.

​"And wasn't..." I said slowly, half-remembered news stories floating from the depths of memory. "Weren't these how he was powering the Death Egg? That huge space weapon of his?"

Amy nodded seriously. "Big, you should take this back to Sonic as soon as possible."

"Okay." Big paused for a very long time, not making a move. "Where is he?"

Amy raised a hand, then lowered it. "Uh..."

"Maybe you should take the plane back to Tails's workshop instead, since it's his plane," Humi suggested. She sounded unusually serious, and I looked at her concerned.

"Okay." Big paused for a long time. "Where is that?"

"He lives in that warehouse on the cape, by the train station."

Wait a minute, that also sounded familiar. "...Wait, is the genius kid you mentioned earlier Tails? The one who inspired you to figure out machines?"

To my surprise, Humi actually looked away in embarrassment. "Maybe."

Amy made a squealing sound that I dutifully ignored for Humi's sake. Instead I cleared my throat. "I think we've sidetracked long enough. Mr. Big, can you tell us how to get to the main path from here?" My stomach growled.

Big looked up from the fire. "Are you sure you can't stay for lunch? There's plenty."

Fish wasn't really my thing... But the only thing we had at Humi's place was granola. I looked at Amy. She was holding her stomach too. "That fish looks good," she allowed.

I looked at Humi next, and remembered how lightweight she was. "Alright, why not?"

Big smiled, the first time since he showed up that his expression had changed. "It's nice having food with friends."

That I could agree with. And then I remembered the veggies in our backpack, and offered them up. Humi pulled some of her salvaged scrap out and managed to put together a serviceable cauldron for making fish stew.

Fish weren't my thing, but it was a pretty good meal anyway.

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[Eggman]​

This was an unmitigated disaster. Sonic was in the Final Egg gauntlet right now, and the Egg Viper was not ready.

"Eta! What is the meaning of this?!"

"Malfunction," the robot droned in its infuriatingly slow voice. Eggman made a note to fix that. "E-108 Iota. Was awakened. By the intruders. Before they. Escaped." It pointed at the mess on the floor. "It was. Not. Finished. And attacked. Anything. Blue."​

That explained the mess in Lab A and the pile of junk by the hangar door. Eggman growled, massaging his forehead. "I can't believe this... How soon can the Egg Viper be made ready?"

Eta hummed as it calculated, taking into account the damages to the Final Egg's production facilities and transit time. "Estimated at: 40 minutes."​

Inexcusable. Sonic would be here in half that time if he was lucky. "I didn't think I'd have to do this, but I'm forced to resort to my last resort. Activate Mecha Sonic!"

Mecha Sonic Mk. III was a prototype, built for the express purpose of stress-testing new weapons systems to be integrated into his true pride, Metal Sonic. Mecha was never meant to see combat and lacked true intelligence, but he hadn't had time to apply Metal Sonic's upgrades, and with all of his Elite units destroyed or missing, he had no choice. He sent the prompt to awaken Mecha Sonic, and allowed himself a moment to feel worry.

This campaign was a disaster. He didn't understand how it all went so wr--wait a minute.

"Eta, the hedgehog only just got here," he said, confused. "Who were the intruders?"

Eta beeped. "A hare. And a mouse. Identities. Unknown."

New players? Unanticipated pieces on the board? Well, that would explain some things…