Fanfiction: Mighty's Date

This is the second Chaotix fanfiction off me, for those who aren't aware! In this one, Mighty's fallen in love with a girl, and Charmy and Ray have to help him get ready for their date! But can the combined forces of Ray, Charmy, Cream, Tails and Marine really get everything done in a day? And with Mighty insistant that all of the Chaotix come, can Charmy and Ray restrain the two guys who completely lost the plot after just two weeks? Intersting facts about it;

-Again, this story will be rubbish.
-This is a romance-ish fic, with quite a few couples (Mighty/Honey, Charmy/Cream and Tails/Marine). No, I don't support Mighty/Honey or Tails/Marine, but this idea has been kicking around my head since before my first fanfiction was even close to being done!
-This is a sequel to 'Time Crawls When You're Not Detecting', so you should read that if you want this one to make sense. It's the definition of insanity unleaded.

And additional note;

-Again, this story is set two years in the future to the current timeline, and Sonic Chronicles is seen as non-canon.
-Again, no status quo change has occured since said current timeline...except for what happened in the last story, of course!
-And again, you can ask me questions about it.


So, introducing the second story of the Insane Chaotix Anthology!



Mighty’s Date


Chapter One; A Day at the Lavender Courier Service

The treehouse headquarters of the Lavender Courier Service was rather tatty. It didn’t have the latest gadgets, nor was it exactly comfortable with its wooden furniture, but its serene peace and beautiful surrounding had been perfect for Mighty, especially in the twilight of now. He could spend all day there, enamoured by the smells of the lavender fields from where his service took its name. From up in the treehouse, the fields looked like a sea of royal velvet, with insect sailors boating upon it.

One particular insect was flying at high speed towards the treehouse; Charmy had just finished transporting some jewellery to a client a few miles away and was finishing for the day. He flew through the entrance at the bottom of the treehouse, exhausted. He took off his small shoulder bag and threw it onto the desk where Mighty was sitting as Ray peeped over from the sofa to see his friend. “Wow, Mighty, today was really hectic!” Charmy sighed as he flew over to where Ray was. Mighty didn’t appear to notice, however. “I mean, I got seven people today! Seven, all wanting me to fly at least a few dozen miles to transport some small object like a necklace or a pair of shoes!” He looked over at the calendar on the wall, and noted that there wasn’t even a special occasion to coincide with the spike in activity. “Can you think of some reason Mighty?” He reached over for his book on botany and began to read it, and yet Mighty still didn’t answer.

“Ray, what’s up with Mighty? Is he mad at me?” Charmy suddenly turned to the nervous squirrel, catching him off guard. “N-Not at all! In fact, he’s rather…giddy.” “Giddy?” Charmy asked, confused. “Y-You see, we had to deliver something to the Women’s Gala today, a-and Bean came up to us and lead us over to Amy Rose and…and” “Honey…” Mighty interjected, with dreamy content. “She’s the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen, Charmy. I’ve fallen in love!” Charmy was just even more confused. “So, you’ve fallen in love with a bee? I thought that’d be reserved for me!” Ray giggled and corrected him. “N-No, silly! Honey’s a cat. She knew Bean and Amy from a long while ago in a tournament. And she accepted Mighty’s offer of coming here for a date tomorrow night, so we need to get ourselves ready for her!” Charmy sighed as he looked over to his lovesick friend, hoping that they wouldn’t be too busy the following day.

After munching down on a few carrots and peas for his dinner, Charmy went back into the living area as Mighty was about to lie out the plans for the date the next evening. “Well, first of all, we need to make ourselves look nice! Ray, you know somewhere which does cheap collars and bow ties?” Ray nodded, holding a piece of paper with some addresses on, with a tailor being at the top. “Great! I’ve also put down the address of a good florist, and a disk jockey!” Mighty then turned to Charmy. “You…I know you like that little rabbit, and she likes you too, right?” Charmy clenched his fists and blushed deeply. “No one’s explicitly said anything, thank you very much!” Mighty grinned as Charmy sunk into the sofa, and continued. “Well, I know that she’s a great cook, so I was hoping that you might be able to talk her into cooking the romantic meal for us all. Don’t you think that’s a good idea?” Charmy stayed quiet, although he didn’t outright disagree with the notion. “And Tails and Marine can come along and help us prepare the place for her! It’s gotta be nice for guests, regardless of who they are!” Charmy lamented about what he had been asked to do. If only that had been Mighty’s only request!




Chapter Two; What Mighty Wants Off Charmy

Mighty had been rattling off now for a few hours, just going over the specific details of what he wanted for tomorrow night. Ray and Charmy, being so young had nearly fallen asleep staring at the stars. They were twinkling like glitter in the midnight blue sky, luring them to a state of security. Mighty suddenly stopped his technicality talk to follow a new train of thought. “Say, Charmy, Honey said that she had been in a tournament, with Bean and Amy.” Charmy forced himself to listen, as tired as he was. “It was some Sonic Championship or other, where they had to go and decide who was to stop Dr.Eggman. You don’t happen to remember the other competitors, do you?” Charmy smiled as he thought back to it, the memories of Sonic beating up Metal Sonic springing back to his mind as if it had happened yesterday. “Uh, yeah, of course I do! There was Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Fang, Espio, Bean, Bark, and that Honey girl you’ve fallen in love with.”

Ray watched as Charmy settled back down into the sofa, still smiling all the way. He looked up dozily as Mighty grinned from ear to ear at this remark. Ray began to settle back into his seat…until he was startled awake as Charmy shot up looking distressed. “W-Wait a minute! That stuff…what I said…I was just asleep…I-I…” Mighty brushed his worry aside. “So, Espio was also in it? Hey, that’s perfect! We haven’t seen him and Vector since you left them during that G.U.N experiment!” Charmy was outright panicking now, trying to deter Mighty from what he was about to ask of him “M-Mighty, I don’t think what y-you’re thinking is such a…a good--" “Nonsense, Charmy! It’d be great to see how they’re doing, and it’d make Honey feel more relaxed, and Espio could provide entertainment with his stoic Ninjutsu! Yeah, I want you to get your Chaotix colleagues on the job, too! Pay them if needs be!” Mighty skipped merrily as he went to bed and told Charmy and Ray to have a good night’s sleep.

Ray and Charmy, however, were still up after he’d gone. “N-Now that I think about it, we haven’t seen them since that experiment! Why didn’t you tell us how they were after?” Ray asked to Charmy, the latter not sure what he should do. “That’s the problem Ray; I left them for just two weeks, and they seemed to have…changed…in that time” Ray was extremely curious. “Changed? R-Really, enough to make your scared of showing them to H-Honey?” “Well, let’s put it like this; I entered to office and was greeted with a stench to make a skunk cry, I delivered Espio’s Ninjutsu equipment and he responded by attacking me, he went to the debriefing wearing headphones and chains, and both of them insist that this change is how they’ve always been and that Espio’s stoics was just a personality blip. And when I was gone, they’d done things like bingeing, getting drunk, rocking out, having farting contests…” Ray motioned for Charmy to stop speaking, as he shuddered and gagged. “Oh my! That sounds so gross! Why would anyone…h-how would they act in front of Honey?!” Charmy slowly got up and hovered to his bedroom door, as Ray looked on, concerned. “That’s why I’m worried Ray. But that’s not here nor there, we need to sleep on it and think of a plan of action in the morning. Charmy went into the small bedroom and called to Ray. “Goodnight, Ray” he said as he slowly shut the door, leaving Ray alone. Ray contemplated what Charmy had told him, before deciding not to dwell on it further lest he ended up being sick, and made his way to his own bedroom, without munching the acorn stash he had saved for now.

So far thigs are being set, tough if Espio changed that much it's sure going to be one crazy party. (also I can already imagine Vector's change)

Truthfully, Vector didn't actually change all THAT much, aside from being more willing to gross out. Charmy was just used to Vector showering his big brother attitude onto him, and now he's found out that he was just a stand-in for Espio and is obviously affected by this truth. The original didn't dwell on it until the very last couple of paragraphs, but this should show his reaction better.

Oh, and of course there is the change between who was Vector's little follower and thus who Vector is more willing to make compromises for. Let's just say Mighty might get more than a solo Ninjutsu showing...

And to emphasise my last post, here's chapter 3!






Chapter Three; Collecting the Cook

Cream was waking up from a peaceful slumber. The sunlight beamed into her bedroom like rays of silk, and made her grandiose duvet covers glimmer like morning dew. This is what she got for being so rich, and yet she wasn’t quite satisfied with her lavish lifestyle. She got up from out of bed, and began to make her way downstairs. Before she made it to the bottom of the spiral staircase, her mother called up to her. “Oh, Cream! One of your friends is here to ask you something! Perhaps you should hurry on through and speak to him!” Vanilla then went back to preparing their cereal for breakfast. ‘Him?’ Cream thought to herself. ‘But Tails never would ask me for anything for his machine work! I wonder if it’s…’

Cream ran as fast as she could to the main conservatory. Sure enough, waiting to greet her was an anxious-looking Charmy Bee. “Oh, hello Charmy” she greeted, embracing him in a hug. “Um, hello Cream!” he answered back, simply standing there like a sore thumb. “I assume that you haven’t come here just for fun. So, what can I do for you?” Charmy hesitated as Cream looking on patiently. “Well Cream, I…my friend Mighty is hold a date tonight. You see, he fell in love with some cat called Honey, and…” Cream giggled as she sussed what he wanted. “And let me guess, he wants a romantic dinner, so he asked you to ask me if I would cook for them?” Charmy was taken aback by her bluntness, so he tried to soften the request. “W-Well, you’d be invited to join in the actual fun of course, and you could have some time with Tails and Marine…And I’m not making this sound any better, am I?” Cream laughed at Charmy’s fruitless attempts to make it sound more in her interests. “Charmy, you know I love to cook! Ever since Amy started showing me how, I haven’t been able to resist a chance to have a go!” She started to make her way to the dining hall, “If you just wait there until I’ve had my cereal, I’ll gladly join you on your merry way!”

As Cream and Charmy were making their way to the Lavender headquarters, they looked around at the beautiful meadows they were crossing. “This meadow certainly smells so sweet, don’t you agree?” Cream whispered as she skipped along the grassy path. Charmy followed, happily singing in agreement. Cream then suddenly stopped, looking forlorn. Charmy landed and held her hand. “Cream, what’s wrong?” She looked at him and smiled. “It must be great having friends that consider you close without needing to compromise on other friendships!” “I don’t know what you mean.” Charmy answered looking bewildered at her spontaneous thought. “Well, Mighty considers you a valuable friend even though you’re not always there, right?” Charmy smiled. “Yeah, I guess he does, or he wouldn’t want me to help out!” “And then there’s nervous ol’ Ray!” “Ahuh, and the way he always turns to me when he’s nervous since I usually know some sort of herbal remedy to ease his shivers!” Charmy flew back up in the air, laughing happily. “And then there’s Tails and Marine! They always appreciate a little hyperness to cheer them up!” “Actually, I think Tails appreciates me more for calming Marine down before she gets too into her pirate fantasies!” He circled overhead, before diving through the flowers and feeling the heather flow beneath his fingertips. “And then there’s Vector and Espio! Having someone to be Vector’s favourite little brother takes a lot off a ninja’s mind!” Cream beamed happily, until she spotted Charmy; with that remark, he’d gone from a blissful daze to almost being mournful. “Heh, yeah, Vector’s favourite little brother…I can’t say that for certain, Cream” he sighed, trying to hide the fact he was certainly lying about his uncertainty. “Come on, Mighty will be worried if we’re any longer.” He zipped ahead of Cream, leaving her to hurry behind as she wondered what she had said to make him so upset.

Wee, chapters 4, 5 and 6 are done! The latter two were originally supposed to be just one chapter, and they're still longer than average split up!






Chapter Four; Taking the Tinkers

Meanwhile, Ray had set about to Tails’ Workshop in order to retrieve assistance from Tails and Marine. After Blaze and Silver had initially stayed over on their own, they had invited Marine along to do the same. However, to get her out of their hair, they offered for her to stay with Tails in order to hone her ship-building skills, which Tails had initially been reluctant to do. Now, they got along swimmingly, and Ray was sure they wouldn't turn down the chance to help the guy who had helped them gel.

“H-Hey Tails! Hey Marine!” Ray greeted as Tails and Marine opened the door to let him in. The Workshop was small, but it did have room for two people to live in. “That second person would usually be Sonic,” Tails began to explain, walking them through to the only place they could call a living room, “Amy suddenly decided that she wanted him over at her apartment though, so Blaze asked me to let Marine stay with me.” Ray smirked as Tails finished, leaving him puzzled. “Huh? Is there something…wrong?” “Nothing’s wrong! I-In fact, it look like you like m-more than you let on!” Ray and Marine started to laugh, as Tails could only blush as he stood there by the iron fireplace. “Do you like it more than you let on, mate? Don’t be afraid t’admit it, I ain’t gonna get in your face about it!” Marine chirped, making Tails even more embarrassed. “Shouldn’t Ray be pressing on with what matters? What have you come to ask?”

Ray regained his composure after laughing himself silly, and then got straight to the point. “L-Look, Charmy’s friend Mighty has a date tonight, and he wanted some help with things like c-cooking and decorating. Would you two like to help put? Y-You’d be invited to the fun!” Marine glanced at Tails, whose face had lit up considerably. “Of course we would, Right Marine?” Marine started to hop on the spot as she happily replied “Yeah, ‘course! We wouldn’t have got along so well if Charmy hadn’t ‘ave helped us settle in and helped keep the peace while we were still trying t’break the ice!” Marine suddenly stopped, and pondered. “Y’know, didn’t you say that Charmy has been more outgoing and helpful in general these past few weeks, Tails?” “He has!” Tails said, somewhat jarred by this. “Spends much less time at the detective agency, at the very least…” Ray went rigid as the conversation got awkward for him. Should he say why Charmy’s been like this? Before he could decide, Tails and Marine made the decision for him. “Speaking of which, surely Mighty wanted the rest of the Chaotix to help! Let’s go ask them for support!” Tails suggested as he made his way out of the Workshop. “Strewth, that’s a brill idea! We can go annoy the ninja while we’re at it, too!” Marine followed him out, Ray again being left alone momentarily. “T-They’re gonna be in for one h-heck of a shock…”



Chapter Five; Bringing the Bonkers

Tails already knew the way to the Chaotix Detective Agency from meeting with Charmy before. The three kids approached the swamp at full pelt, Tails and Marine chatting away as they did so. They confidently crossed the swamp, while Ray glanced around at the blending textures surrounding them and listened to the sounds of the fauna frolicking amongst the grassy banks. When he got to the other side, he had noticed that Tails and Marine had suddenly stopped in shock. “Ray?” Marine turned around to him, holding her nose with her fingers. “Does it always…stink this bad?” Ray didn’t know how to answer that. “I-I…I guess not…” “It was as clean as a whistle when I last visited!” Tails interrupted. “What gives?” Tails swept the foliage to the side, and the Chaotix headquarters came into view. They stared in horror; what once was a tatty but clean building was surrounded by bins, stuffed to the brim with garbage. There were remains of food, newspapers and other unidentifiable objects scattered about beside there. And, as they crept inside being careful not to be caught out by anything unpleasant, they found that it was scarcely better indoors.

“Strewth!” Marine could only say as she stepped into some sort of mouldy sandwich. “So what’s up with these blokes, eh?” Tails was left without an answer to that. “Maybe…the Chaotix are out and squatters took over? We should tell Charmy so he can come and claim it back!” The slowly slunk into the main area, and saw that the TV was still on, thus indicating that there was indeed life in the building. “The s-seat of the sofa is still warm, guys!” Ray stuttered as he tripped over an unsuspecting couple of pairs of shoes. “I don’t think Vector and Espio would go anywhere that far without their shoes…or gloves” Tails exclaimed as he pointed to two pairs of gloves sitting on the side table. He then perked his ears up as he noticed sound coming from upstairs. “And I don’t think squatters would play their rock music so loud, either!” Ray whimpered as Tails and Marine were discussing what was going on. Any time now, they’d be heard. Any time now, there’d be two sets of footsteps rushing down to see who had intruded into the main area. He just wanted to hide, but he had to stay for the sake of his friends. As if on cue, a sudden thud was heard from upstairs.

“Eek!” Ray squeaked as he jumped back startled. “What on Earth is the matter with you, Ray? It’s not as if they’re going to hurt us.” Tails tried to reassure Ray, but the unexpected heaviness and slowness of the next few thuds made him doubt his own words. Marine watched as he and Ray backed up until they stumbled onto the sofa. “Do you know something we don’t, mate? Because y’seemed awfully unwilling t’come here…” Tails grasped Ray by his arms and pulled them to the seat. “Well, do you? Do you?!” Ray was panicking, and could only muster a few coherent thoughts. “W-Well, Charmy said…t-they…h-he…G-G.U.N” He was cut short when a voice called out from the top of the stairs down to them. “Yo, man! Me an’ Vec didn’ order anythin’ from the mail service! Can’t yer pester some lovey dovey couple who did?” Tails was hysterical at this point, hating the fact he wasn’t in the know. “Ray, was that who I thought it was? Was it?! WAS IT?!” he screeched, unaware that he was just attracting more attention to them. “Tails, y’should calm down before--" Marine turned around and was cut off by two larger figures standing in the doorway. They had most certainly been caught.





Chapter Six; Time Crawls When You’re Doing Anything

The first thing that Marine noticed about Vector and Espio was how much…bulkier they were. Not just around the waist, but it seemed that Espio’s arms were stronger. Speaking of which, she noticed that he was wearing headphones, and a chain around his neck. ‘Just as Charmy said he was…’ thought Ray to himself. It seemed that since Charmy has been more outgoing, however, there had been another, more subtle change; both Vector and Espio were wearing more bandages across their body, and both sets of headphones were adorned with tiny little shuriken emblems. “Um, have you two hurt yourselves? Is that why you’re wearing bandages?” Marine asked pluckily. Tails and Ray simply sat there, not knowing what to say or do to the radically changed tenants.

Vector huffed in response, annoyed that she didn’t understand their significance. “No, y’lil’ brat! I‘ve been a good leader an’ allowed Esp to train me in the art of Ninjitsu…Ninjatso…Ninjarino…” “The art of Kickin’ Arse, buddy! We were jus’ meditatin’ upstairs when you pints came in an’ decided to take the place as yer own!” Espio chipped in, proudly standing at Vector’s side. Tails stood up, flustered. “Meditating? With that racket going on? I wouldn’t be able to do anything with that rock music blasting my ear drums!” “Well, y’obviously jus’ don’t appreciate it, then! It’s the best stuff to zone out with!” Marine tugged at Tails’ arm, trying to deter him from confrontation. “Okay, but what about this mess? The stink is awful, how can you put up with it?” “While Vector learned the art of Ninjutsu, I’ve been learnin’ the art of ‘Put yer feet up, relax, an’ don’t shift yer arse for anythin’ except t’do a case’. It’s been workin’ out so much better than what we had before!” Espio laughed as Vector grinned at his comment, obviously chuffed at his enthusiasm. “But I don’t…I can’t…why?” “T-Tails…” Ray stopped Tails, hoping to close the debate. “I-I don’t know why exactly, but Charmy did say that he was doing all of his case work o-outside of the office in order to not encroach on the brotherly love in the office. I guess he’s the guy to ask if you want a straight answer.”

Marine suddenly tugged again at Tails’ arm, smiling as she cleared her throat. “Anyway, guys, Mighty just wanted a favour off y’blokes!” The reptiles turned to her in interest. “Y’see, Mighty’s entertaining a girl t’night…” “A girl? Oh, ain’t that so grand, Esp?” Vector chuckled as he made fun of Mighty’s apparent lovesick state. “Ooh, I can just imagine the kissy faces bein’ thrown about, Vec!” Espio exaggerated his own face, and kissed Vector squarely on the lip. Vector kept chuckling as he blushed deeply. Tails just rolled his eyes and continued where Marine had left off. “The girl is Honey, guys. I don’t suppose you remember her, Espio?” Espio looked thoughtful as he tried to remember her. “Hmm…Oh, yeah, that Championship! I beat ‘er three rounds to one, an’ then lost out to Knuckles. I was jus’ fourteen back then, too. Good times!” He swished his tail to emphasise the last point. “M-Mighty was hoping that you and Vector would be able to come along tonight, maybe entertain her with your n-ninja skills!” Ray finished, and Espio frowned as he noticed the language he was using. “What’s up, pal?” Vector asked him, surprised at his solemn expression. “You mean he…doesn’t want Vector to show off?” “D-Don’t be daft! Mighty just doesn’t know he can do ninja stuff, yet!” Ray shyly grinned, as Tails glared at him for opening yet another can of worms. “I’m sure he’d let him do tricks too, anything to woo Honey more!” Espio cheered up, and both he and Vector hugged Ray hard, to the point that he almost couldn’t breath. “That sounds ace then! We’ll be there for the girl!” Vector began. “An’ don’t forget the music…or the free food!” Espio finished. They both let Ray out of the embrace and high fived each other, cheering and chatting as the kids let themselves out of the office.

On the way back, Tails seemed none too impressed with Ray. “We should have bolted when we had the chance! Why did you insist on keeping them happy?” “H-Hey, they’re bigger than me, Tails! And this really isn’t like you, why have you been so hostile?” Tails turned away from Ray and Marine as he looked down to the ground. “I…I just feel sorry for Charmy. Knuckles told me that they were in that G.U.N experiment, and he even said that Espio seemed a little funny, but I thought having Charmy back to be the annoying bee mascot would return things the way they were for him, restore the status quo if you will.” He then dashed slightly ahead, as Ray and Marine silently watched. “ I guess…I underestimated the power of two best buddies almost being like brothers, and, of all people, I should have known better than that”.

Ooh, flashy changing banner is flashy...and changing!

Got chapters 7,8 and 9 up! The guys are debriefed by Mighty, and temporarily split to do stuff. After this, there's like three chapters of the same until the night arrives. Until then, here's your torture!





Chapter Seven; Another Meeting


Later, at around midday, Ray, Charmy, Tails, Marine and Cream were gathered in the Lavender headquarters. As Mighty finished off the notes for the meeting, everyone else was eating down salad lunches, with various types of lettuces, tomatoes, apples, coleslaw and other such food items. As they approached finishing the lot, Mighty got up from his seat and walked to the front of the living area. There, he lightly tapped the wall to get the attention of everyone in the room. “So, how much of the time did you spend drawing love hearts, Mighty?” Charmy teased. Mighty glared back at him, clearing his throat as he straightened out the paper.

“Well, I suppose everyone one knows why they’re here, right?” The attendees nodded in confirmation. “As of now, we have just eight hours to get everything sorted, and I want it done to the best that we can do it!” Mighty walked forward and put his hand on Ray’s shoulder. “Ray, you’re going to the shopping centre to get all the items we need, that would be flowers, food, some cleaning stuff, new clothes and some decorations.” Ray made a mental note of this as he recalled the addresses from the note he had the night before. “You’ll be heading out with Cream and Marine, since they know what a girl likes in a guy!” his voice squeaked on the last note, and Ray had to stifle his childish giggles. All the same, he wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about being teamed with the girls…

“Charmy, since you have the technical skill, you’re staying here to hook up the electronics.” Charmy wondered how ramming a computer equated to technical skill, but nonetheless accepted his role. “You’ll be working with Tails to do it. Hopefully you two can keep it down while I practice my lines to Honey. Do you think that she’d be more inclined to sweet puns, or cat puns?” Charmy hovered off his seat and teased Mighty a little more. “I’m sure she’d be more welcoming to someone who could speak with a straight tongue in front of her!”

Mighty flinched and turned to Ray. He had shuffled off his own seat and sneaked to the treehouse entrance; he’d told Charmy about how Mighty had been so struck with love that he had frozen in one place and that he had to drag him out! Ray smiled sheepishly as Mighty growled quietly. “Uh, I g-guess we should be getting the stuff then! Cream, Marine, this way!” He disappeared down the ladder as Cream and Marine shot off after him, worried about Mighty’s none-too-pleasant mood. Charmy just lead Tails through to another passage, where a tube fed down to a secret garden and the location of the date. “Alright, meeting dismissed!” Mighty yelled as he went back to his desk to draw more love hearts.





Chapter Eight; Finding Cod is a Piece of Cake!



It was easy enough to get to town. Once there, Ray, Marine and Cream set about collecting all the items on the list. First were the flowers. “Excuse me, miss florist!” Cream called in her usual sweet tone, “Can I please request some lovely pink roses and some beautiful blue bluebells?” The shopkeeper smiled as she collected the requested flowers, thinking about what a change it was to have someone polite for once, and Cream was off on her way. Meanwhile, Ray and Marine weren’t have as much luck finding suitable decorations. “Strewth, I hate this modern silver junk” Marine cried, exasperated, as she kicked over the eleventh futuristic vase they’d seen. “Is there any nice wooden stuff that’d look good in a treehouse? Not even anythin’ for a ship?!” While she had been ranting off angrily to the managers, Ray had slinked off to the garden centre, picked up a few pinecones and wooden statues, paid for the items and finally had to pull her away from the security guards after he was done.

The next items to get when they all reunited were the clothes. “Oh, Mighty and Charmy wrote down what they wanted to wear! I think they just wanted a new collar and some coloured bow ties…” Ray commented, as they were about to enter the launderette. “Sounds typical of you boys, always being minimalistic” Cream replied. “Tails just wants that too, but we can buy them here while we wash mine and Marine’s dresses in the washing--" Cream was cut off by a rather wet sensation on her shoe. “C-rikey, this place looks like it’s had a flood in ‘ere!” Marine stammered, trying to keep her shoes dry. An elderly lady walked up to the three while carrying a bucket. “Oh, it’s not as bad as it was a few weeks ago, but I’m afraid all the launderettes of the town are still out of order!” Cream and Marine were shocked at the fact they couldn’t go anywhere in town to wash the dresses. “You see, dearies, G.U.N flooded all of them for reasons unbeknownst to anyone in the town!” Ray mused for a second. “It’s almost as if they were trying to stop someone washing clothes on purpose, like they had a vendetta against washing socks…” He then to the lady with a list drawn out. “Anyway, could I please buy four collars and four bow ties, please? I’d like them in black, orange, sun yellow and orange-yellow if they’re available. Oh, and perhaps I could also purchase some ear plugs…?”

In the supermarket, Marine was getting confused as to where things were while looking for some j-cloths, eggs and coley. “Ugh, do they really have t’put the cleaning stuff next to the sauces, yet put the fish on the other side of the store? Why can’t the food be with the food?” Cream quietly collected the ingredients for her flan, while Ray wandered around aimlessly, feeling a little left out due to not knowing what specific items to get. Eventually, he spotted some nice earthy cushions. “Hey, I think these would go great as a central area in the garden!” He tried to pull six of them off the pile, but one of them got caught underneath the wooden statues. As soon as he moved them, they toppled down straight on him, and he let out a muffled scream. The girls, now with full baskets, rushed over to the pile and heaved him out of the sea of cushions. “Ray, you’ve gotta watch were you’re putting things!” Marine laughed as she hoisted two of the cushions over her shoulder. “S-Sorry, gu-girls! I was just a bit loaded with the wood and ties and stuff…”. After zipping away from the same security guards that were at the furnishing shop and paying for the goods without being noticed, they had made their way out of the town and decided to make a detour to Cream’s mansion. Why? “I hope mother doesn’t mind having a sudden urgent washload to do!”





Chapter Nine; The Usual Girl Talk?



While the others were out shopping, Tails and Charmy were in the secret garden wiring up the audio and lighting. The garden was tended to by Charmy, and it was very pretty. He had been growing some tulips and carnations for Cream with his plant powers, and the result was a dazzling combination of colour, aroma and the sound of non-sentient bees darting in the garden, droning away as they collected the pollen from the flowers like farmers collecting their harvest. As one landed on his ear, Charmy noticed that Tails was drifting from him work, and decided to ask Tails what was on his mind. “Hey Tails, I see that you’re just dozing off a bit there! Can I detect a little bit of lovesickness from you, too?” Tails snapped back into reality from hearing this, and quickly tried to deny any feelings he had, insisting that they were strictly linked by their jobs only. Charmy, being a detective, could see right through him and further interrogated him. “Now then, I saw the way you were with Marine at lunch. Sitting together, chatting, a lot more comfortably than at the start of her stay, may I add? And Ray said that you blushed when he implied that you had feelings for her too!” Tails only went red in the face, hardly able to talk back to Charmy. He eventually mustered up the pluck to question Charmy about his own crush.

“You’re talking as if you don’t have a crush either, Charmy! You gave her your piece of carrot cake earlier, and she was talking about how bad she felt for your bad mood…which I don’t remember you having, but there we go.” Charmy didn’t deny the crush at all, only affirming it through his own quizzing. “She…she said that? Why, I didn’t know she cared about…I mean, she’s never…oh man, I can’t believe it! It might really be true!” He buzzed as he worked faster, spurned on by his crush for Cream possibly being requited. Tails decided to be a little more open about his own feelings for Marine, finally. “Well, I guess you could say that we get along better. She’s improving on her ship building at any rate!” He flicked the switch for the lights, and they began to flash and illuminate the garden spectacularly. “We’ve been sharing the same bedroom too, so I’ve been showing her my manuals on engineering!” He then switched on the sound system, and music began blasting in the air before Tails considered it a successful trial and turned it off again before his eardrums burst. “But that’s not to say she hasn’t helped me; She’s been really upbeat so I haven’t been miserable a single day she’s been there! She’s been brave enough to pull me into activities I wouldn’t have tried before, and now I’m really good on the Jet Ski! She’s been level-headed when I’ve been hostile, so she was the one to propose the offer to Espio! She’s been good with the cooking, so I’ve had some really great dishes! Her quiches are especially…”

Tail trailed off as he saw Charmy stop working and tense up. He suspected that he wasn’t exactly worried about Marine’s cooking, though. He finished tweaking the angle of the lighting and went over to Charmy’s side. “Ray didn’t tell you that he hadn’t just recruited me and Marine, then?” Charmy didn’t answer, instead looking at the flowers. “Don’t you think these carnations are nice, Tails? They make great pollen.” Tails wasn’t sure if Charmy was listening or not, but he continued to explain anyway. “You see, Marine was the one who suggested that we go there, and we were all really surprised at what we saw! Ray told me afterwards that it was all down to the effects of that experiment I was told about. I guess you were too when you first saw it.” Charmy still wouldn’t speak about it. “Do you thin they need preening now, or until abscission sets in?” “If it means anything to you, both Vector and Espio were really hostile to us, as if they were suspicious of anything trying to break them apart. Like an obsession. Like…like what me and Sonic used to be like, with the whole brother thing, you know?” Charmy got up, satisfied that his plants were on course for full growth. “The others should be back by now. You’d better go up there and get the kitchen sorted ready." Tails agreed and approached the exit of the garden, the opening of the tunnel to the treehouse, when he heard Charmy talking, the intended target of his speech uncertain to him. “And yes, I very well do know. It’s what I have with Vector…well, I would have said that a few weeks ago, anyway.” Charmy then smiled and joined Tails, unaware that his friend’s ears were as sensitive as his non-sentient counterparts.