#themightyhumanbroom

The acrid tang of smoke and melted steel stung inside of Lanolin’s nose. Restoration HQ was gone, reduced to a coagulated heap of rubble under the weight of the airship. She could hardly tell where the ship ended and the ruins of HQ began; it was about as jumbled as her own thoughts, even as she shook her head to make the issues inside settle in order.

“Where is Clutch now?” Former Commander Rose’s voice sounded distant, but Clutch’s name sounded through the figurative water in Lanolin’s ears loud and clear.

“Dunno. Eggman took him off somewhere. For all we know, he’s . . .” Sonic made a creaking sound in the back of his throat, and from the corner of her eye Lanolin saw him draw a finger across his neck. “But I can look into it. See if there are any leads.”

“You?” Lanolin felt more than heard herself say the word as she pushed herself to her feet and turned to face him. Former Commander Rose glanced between them, one hand still on Director Jewel’s shoulder, as Sonic stiffened and crossed his arms.

“Yeah. Me. Got a problem?”

“Yes. Several.” A ferocious shaking like an electric current ran through Lanolin’s system as the colors around her burst into sharper focus. She could still hear herself speaking, though it was difficult against the pounding in her ears. Her chest tightened, her breaths coming shallower as she pointed a finger at his chest. “Starting with—you were the Phantom Rider. You disrupted the races and put people in danger. And you worked with Dr Eggman.”

“I worked with Clutch,” Director Jewel said quietly, and Tangle wrapped her tail around Director Jewel’s small frame. “I—”

“That’s different,” Lanolin said. “You didn’t know what type of person he was. Sonic knows who Eggman was, and he still made the deal.”

“It was the only way to draw enough attention away from Clean Sweep’s operations so Tails and Amy could sneak in and find out what was going on,” Sonic said flatly. “I did what I—”

“You worked with Eggman,” Lanolin repeated, and she took a step forward. Former Commander Rose and Tails stepped closer to Sonic. “How are we supposed to trust anything you say?”

“We can trust him because he’s Sonic,” Tangle snapped. “Besides, you let Mimic be on our team, so who are you to talk?”

Lanolin closed her eyes. “I’m not proud that I fell for his disguise. But unless you kept something else from me other than Sonic’s identity, I’m not aware of you having any proof of who Duo really was, either.” 

“Look,” Sonic interrupted, as Tangle winced. “I get it. You don’t approve of what I did. You’re not the first to feel that way, and you probably won’t be the last. But we can sit here and argue about it all day, or we can get a move on with something actually productive.”

“Sonic’s right,” Former Commander Rose said. “Lanolin, Sonic didn’t want to work with Eggman, but it seemed like the only choice available to us at the time.”

“What about reaching out to your allies in the Restoration? Speaking with Belle, or Director Jewel, or me?”

“You?” Sonic scoffed. “Like you wanted to hear it. You yelled at us to get off the track!”

“Did you want to be run over by extreme gears going hundreds of miles per hour?” 

“That’s not the—”

“Point? You’re right. It isn’t.” Adrenaline was coursing through Lanolin so strongly now that her voice shook with it. “The point is, not only did you choose to work with Dr Eggman this time, but you let him go. You had a chance to stop him leaving on the airship, didn’t you? You could have, and you didn’t.” 

“Sounds like a lot of speculation from someone who wasn’t even there.”

“It’s what you always do. You wait for him to attack, fight him just enough so that he leaves, and then you run off to the next adventure, leaving everyone else to pick up the pieces and wait for the next attack.” Lanolin balled her fingers into fists. “You never strike first, and you never strike for good. You could stop him and others like him for good and you never do, and all of us are the ones who have to deal with the consequences!”

“Fuck yeah!”

Lanolin’s head snapped up as Surge’s voice rang out across the crowd. High above them, Surge and Kit lounged on their extreme gears, Surge leaning over the side of her bike, her acid green quills hanging around her face.

“Preach it, Puffs!” Surge added, her hands cupped around her muzzle to amplify her voice. “It’s about time someone got it!” 

“Oh boy,” Former Commander Rose muttered, as Sonic shot a stormy glare into the sky. “I’m sure this will end well.” In a louder voice, she added, “If you’re going to join the conversation, mind coming down here so we don’t have to shout?”

“Or you go even farther up,” Sonic suggested, as Surge and Kit swung their extreme gears in wide, descending arcs. “Into outer space, maybe. I hear the stars beautiful this time of year.”

“And miss you getting what’s been coming to you?” Surge sneered, her grin parted to reveal her fangs. “Not a chance.” 

Sonic rolled his eyes. “There’s nothing ‘coming to me.’” His gaze snapped back to Lanolin. “You don’t like the way I handle things? Fine. That’s your business. But I’m not gonna change the way I do things just because you have a problem.”

“Sonic,” Tails hedged; the hand he placed on Sonic’s arm was shaken off. “I don’t think this is the best way to—”

“I wouldn’t expect you to,” Lanolin cut across him. “After all, villages being destroyed and people dying wasn’t enough to change your mind before. Why would what I say be any different?”

Sonic’s quills raised so sharply they were blue knives against the smoke-filled sky. “You’ve got a lotta nerve—”

“What, you think she’s wrong?” Surge asked. She leaned across her handlebars, malice radiating off her. “You’re gonna look at her and tell her that she’s wrong? Don’t forget, Kit and I only exist because of what you didn’t do.” 

“What Starline chose to do was horrible, but it wasn’t Sonic’s fault,” Tails said, his fur standing on end as his tails lashed. “He never wanted—”

“What he wanted means jack shit in the face of what happened. If he had a chance to end Starline and didn’t take it—”

“Yeah, because murder solves everything,” Sonic spat. “Because no one has ever changed for the better when they were given the chance to do so. Because being able to run fast gives me the right to decide who lives and who dies.”

“Prisons exist,” Lanolin said. “And with the powers you have, you have the ability to make sure that those who would cause harm stay there. You choose not to.” 

Sonic threw his hands in the air. “Fine! That’s your opinion! Now, are we done here? ‘Cause I can think of a thousand better things to do than stand here and listen to this.”

“No. We aren’t done, because you can’t be trusted.” Lanolin shifted her focus to Director Jewel, who was still seated on the ground, her tears leaking into Tangle’s tail fur. “Director Jewel, I request that Sonic be removed from any operations related to Dr Eggman, Clutch the Opossum, and-or Mimic the Octopus.” 

Whisper went rigid at Mimic’s name, and as Director Jewel opened her mouth to answer, Sonic cut across her. He leaned forward, a shit-eating grin on his face as he said, “Guess what? I was never on any operations. Guess you didn’t get the memo, but I’m not an official member of the Restoration!”

“He’s right,” Director Jewel said quietly. “Sonic just helps when he can.”

“And he can help a lot,” Tangle said. “Look, I know you’re really mad. I think we all have a lot to talk about. But Sonic has done a lot of good over the years. I don’t think kicking him out is the right thing to do.”

“We can’t trust him,” Lanolin said. “And his way doesn’t work.” 

“And what’s your way?” Sonic demanded. “Put Eggman down like a rabid ricky?”

“Bring the battle to him,” Lanolin shot back. “Take him and any like him into custody, where they can’t hurt others anymore.”

“Won’t be enough for Mimic,” Whisper said, and all eyes turned to her. Through her mask, her focus was locked on Lanolin. “He was in prison before. Escaped. It won’t stop him.”

“It can,” Tangle said, and her tail loosened around Jewel as she took a step toward Whisper. “C’mon, we’ve been through this. We can make sure he stays in prison for good this time. I’m sure Tails can help make something even Mimic won’t be able to get out of.”

“Prison development isn’t really my forte,” Tails said, and as Tangle shot him a pleading look, hastily added, “But I can look into reinforced security measures. There have been multiple advancements in physical security in recent years; I’m sure they could be modified to suit a prison.”

“Yeah, because that’s what I raised you to do,” Sonic muttered. “Lock people up.” Tails’ ears flattened against his head as his tails drooped.

Whisper’s grip tightened around her wispon. She still hadn’t shifted her focus away from Lanolin. “You really want to go after Mimic?”

“He’s on the list,” Lanolin said. Whisper nodded, and the tension left her shoulders. 

“Oh, you’ve got a list now!” Sonic’s foot tapped against the ground; his quills had not relaxed. “You know, I was just thinking that a hit list is what the Restoration always needed.”

“What the Restoration needs is for its efforts to not be destroyed every couple of months because known criminals are allowed to roam free,” Lanolin snapped. “That means taking direct action against those who would harm everyone else. We know that Dr Eggman took Clutch into custody. So if we can locate where Dr Eggman is, we’ll likely find them both. Once we find them, we can deal with them.”

“By arresting them,” Tangle said, and she shot Whisper a nervous look. “By arresting them, right?”

Surge snorted. “Good luck building anything that’ll keep Eggshit imprisoned. You might be able to keep Takoyaki Tim behind bars, but there’s no way you’ll keep the doc locked in there. If nothing else, his loyal blue rustbucket will bust him out in ten minutes, tops.” She shot Sonic another scathing smirk. “Unlike this one, the rustbucket is proactive.” 

“Tell me,” Sonic said acidly, “if you didn’t have Kit backing you up, how long do you think you would have lasted against Metal? Three minutes? One?”

“If you didn’t have him,” Kit said, and he jerked his head toward Tails, “how long do you think you would have lasted, at all?” 

“This has all gotten out of hand,” Former Commander Rose interrupted, even as Sonic opened his mouth to respond. “I understand that tempers are high, and why. But right now, it’s most important that we work together. Rather than running off after Eggman, or Clutch, or anyone else, we need to focus on making sure that the Restoration’s refugees have somewhere safe to go.”

“With all due respect, how long will those places remain safe?” Lanolin asked.

Former Commander Rose closed her eyes. “We can’t think about that right now. We just have to take this one step at a time.” 

“There are many of us. There is no reason why we can’t do both at once.”

Lanolin turned as the Chaotix—Vector the Crocodile, Charmy Bee, and Espio the Chameleon—strode up to meet them. Espio was the one who had spoken, and he crossed the group to offer Director Jewel a handkerchief, which she accepted gratefully.

“Yeah, I’m with Espio,” Vector said, his voice a low growl. “Y’all can do what you do best, gettin’ the Restoration folks sorted. But we can do what we do best, which is trackin’ down those who don’t wanna be found.” 

“We’ll find ‘em in no time!” Charmy said, and he did a loop in the air. “Team Chaotix never fails!”

“Great! That’s what I wanted to do anyway,” Sonic said, and he rolled his shoulders so that the joints cracked. “So—”

“No offense, Sonic,” Espio cut in, “but we’d prefer if you didn’t join us, after your most recent escapade.” 

Sonic groaned. “Oh, come on. You guys, too?”

Vector jerked his thumb at Lanolin. “We were listening from over on the sidelines, and I gotta say, we think this lady had a point. You haven’t really been on the up-and-up lately.” 

“And we’d like to make sure no one is allowed to escape,” Espio added.

Sonic glared at them. “Fine. You do what you want, and I’ll do the same.” He glanced between Former Commander Rose and Tails. “You two coming with, or are you staying here?”

“I’m on your side,” Former Commander Rose said, and she took one of his hands between her own. “You know I am. But I can’t abandon the people here. They need me.”

Sonic nodded. “I can respect that. Tails?”

“I’m with you, Sonic.”

“Great.” Sonic squeezed Former Commander Rose's shoulder, then grabbed Tails’ wrist and was gone in a crack of thunder. 

“Okay,” Former Commander Rose said, and she took a deep breath. “So that’s . . . that’s Sonic and Tails sorted. Lanolin? What do you plan to do?”

Lanolin glanced at the Chaotix, all three of whom looked back to her. “Do you plan to search for Dr Eggman?” 

Vector grinned, showing all of his teeth. “Oh, we won’t just search for him. We’ll find him. You can put all your money on that.” 

Lanolin nodded. “Good. Then I’ll help. We’re searching for both him and Clutch the Opossum, as well as Mimic the Octopus.”

Vector whistled. “That sure is a list, but it’s nothing we can’t handle, right boys?”

“Right!” Charmy cheered.

“Coming too,” Whisper murmured, and Surge leaned across her handlebars again.

“If you’re gunning for Eggshit’s head, then count me and Drippy in, too.”

Espio made a face. “Only if you mind your mouth. We don’t need Charmy picking up that language.”

“Aw, Espio, I know what shit means!”

“Okay,” Former Commander Rose loudly interrupted. “So that’s what all of you will be doing. Tangle?”

Tangle looked between Director Jewel and Whisper, her face contorted in a pained wince. Finally, she said, “I’m going with Whisper. I think . . . I think I should.”