Chapter Text
The kit sat at the table thumbing for the next page in the morning paper. It was a poorly edited local bit, but the news was still news. He didn’t need reminding that a war was going on, but when you’re this far from home, sometimes you can be left out of the loop.
The front three pages were littered with shoddy details on more bombings on the eastern seaboard. Sonic’s handy work no doubt, the fox thought to himself. The government’s overtones were obvious and quickly covered up the meaning behind the targets only condemning the rebels for more senseless killings and destruction of property.
The shorter than average human girl behind the counter watched him with apprehension as he wrapped his hands around the still warm cup of coffee and lifted it to his lips. It was dark, but far from rich, and left a thick after taste of what seemed like motor oil in his mouth. Even in the small towns were their kind was still permitted it was obvious the humans were averse to associating with the Mobians. The fear in the girl’s eyes suggested that she thought she was in real danger.
This town in particular appeared to have seen some of the worst of the fighting after Julian and his associates were elected. Their iron fist quickly closed around the Mobians with little warning. It was only after too many humans got caught in the crossfire did Julian’s strikes become more surgical. The media hadn’t always been on his side and the initial backlash was tremendous. However, to Julian and sadly to the majority of the population, it was just the cost of getting things done. It was not easy to win a war when the opposing side was willing to get their hands a lot dirtier.
The pup dumped the rest of the tar like liquid into his mouth and tossed the paper back onto the uneven splinter ridden plywood table in front of him. He shouldered the pack that was sitting on the chair next to him and slid his black leather gloves on back over his paws, fastening them tight so that his tendons shown through the matt black fabric. Slowly approaching the girl at the counter, he was careful not loose eye contact with her. She needed to stay quiet, but it didn’t need to be done the hard way.
“What do I owe you for the coffee and paper?”
“I know who you are,” she proclaimed through a meek voice while stealing glances down at his two tails. “I have seen you on the news.”
The Kit smiled at the thought of being famous, but this was what he was afraid of. He reached into a pocket on his combat vest and produced a note of the largest denomination of currency and set it on the counter between them.
“Will this cover it?”
Her eyes widened at the sight of so much money, but she didn’t say anything. Money was next to useless to the Mobians aside from buying the most basic of goods. They had all the weapons they needed and everything else they could simply steal. Tails produced another note of the same amount and put placed it on top of the first.
“Do you know my name?” He asked.
“Miles Prower,” she responded quickly, eying the money still.
“And how about yours?”
She hesitated for sometime before responding, “Mara.”
“Well Mara,” Tails began, “It’s nice to meet you. Now that we both know each other I was hoping we could come to an agreement.”
The girl looked back at him inquisitively.
“Perhaps,” Tails said as he produced a third bill, “We could agree that a fox with only one Tail was here today?”
Mara slid a hand across the counter and hastily grabbed the money while looking out across the diner to make sure no one else was around. The kit turned to leave, but she spoke again.
“What are you here for? The only time I ever hear anything about you is after someone is dead.”
“No one that didn’t deserve it,” Tails said without turning back to face her.
“No one here deserves anything you got for them, fox.” She replied in a cool almost smug voice.
Tails spun around and slammed his fist into the counter, letting his teeth show over a quivering bottom lip. Mara recoiled backwards in both fear and surprise.
“You don’t think I know what any of this is like!” he growled as he motioned to the deteriorating state of her diner. “Having your home destroyed, people you love killed, or even things worse than that. I am not here to make trouble for any of you.”
For a moment he thought he spotted some pity in her eyes, but it was quickly washed away in tears of fear. The girl seemed to break down in front of him. Great he thought, and now I have to deal with this. Tails walked around to the other side of the counter slowly approaching Mara as she backed herself into a corner and curled into a ball. Cautiously he reached down and placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled her back to her feet. He walked her back into the front of the room and sat her at the same table he had been sitting at. Pulling up another chair he waited for her sobs to dissipate before speaking.
“You are braver than you look kid. But my guess is living in a place like this will do that do you. How many people that you know have died here?”
She sobbed again and the water works doubled but her voice came out somewhat defiant all the same, “What’s it to you?”
Tails raised an eyebrow, “Well I didn’t kill them did I?”
“No, but you may as well have,” she nearly spat. “You brought this war to our town.”
Tails wanted to laugh, but that wouldn’t be fair to do.
“We didn’t start this, your government did. They bombed this place to hell and didn’t give two shits that you or anyone you knew was here. I suppose that’s our fault too.”
She didn’t respond, only stared at him with ripples in her eyes and tears slowly falling down her cheek.
“You and I, we are not so different. I bet your parents are dead too.”
She shot an angry look at him that only confirmed the fact.
“My parents died in the first attack, back when no one even saw it coming. But we were labeled as terrorist, so excessive force was deemed ‘acceptable’,” Tails said as he picked up the pot of coffee and poured her a drink, “and anyone who was caught in the crossfire was just another casualty of war. But those are just words, it was still murder.”
“I know it’s easy to blame us,” he went on, “but do me a favor and think about it from our side... And I mean the side you know, not that shit that’s written in the papers. Only people like you really know what happened.”
Mara nodded in agreement, “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. I lost my temper, it’s me who should be sorry. People see me and they are afraid because of what the wanted posters and news casters say, not because they know me.”
Tails grabbed his trench coat from the hook by the door and threw it on. Two tailed foxes tended to stick out in a small town.
“You are welcome back any time,” Mara said as he reached for the handle.
Tails only nodded as he pushed the door open and walked out into the dull black sky and faded yellow glow of the street lamps. His target was a few blocks away, but his feet were in no hurry to get there. Even so early in the morning people were out and about, more often than not stumbling around drunk. Most passed him by with a few extra feet between them, not thinking too much about the vulpine with a burnt sienna muzzle. Others stopped and did the appropriate amount of staring before moving on.
The young fox eyed a copper in his patrol car down the way but didn’t may much mind to him. He didn’t need to draw any suspicion to himself by ducking down an alley way. With his hands buried his pockets and the collar on his coat high, he just kept walking until the car pulled up next to him.
“Aye buddy you got papers?” The copper said as he rolled down the window.
Tails brought himself in a stumbling manner to face the cop and with as little coordination as he could muster reached inside his jacket for some false documents. With luck he would appear like some drunken scum wondering the street. He was certain his sagging eyelids would help play the part. The copper yanked the documents from his hand and gave them a quick look over.
“What are you do’n out here this time o’night.”
The kit just stared at him blankly, they both knew it wasn’t a serious question.
“Oh get lost you drunkard,” the cooper said as he flung the papers back into Tails’ chest. “I don’t want to see you around here no more.”
Once he gathered up his papers, Tails kept on walking even though he could feel the copper’s eyes buried into the back of his scull like two ice picks. After he rounded the corner, he knew it was the last he would see of him. Small town coppers were too used to nothing happening to lift much more than a single finger. They just liked to feel important but rarely liked to do any real work.
The steel factory loomed in the distance, its silhouette barley traceable against the early morning sky. After Sonic had begun to make a mockery Julian’s dominion in the populated cities, their need for materials was being outsourced to places like this, where ‘mishaps’ went more unnoticed. In truth it was one of the best things to happen for the resistance yet. The further away they were from the dominions control, the more lax security was.
When he arrived at the cheap woven aluminum fence that encircled his target, the kit ducked into the shadows behind a wooden shed removing his small pack from underneath the trench coat he was wearing. He clipped a holster to his belt and donned pair of combat glasses. The HUD came to life on the lenses slowing bringing details of the world around him to life. When he pulled out his pistol the HUD registered it as both loaded and chambered. After he attached the silencer he placed it in the holster before producing a small aerosol can. With just a few quick sprays the fence melted revealing a much easy route then going over the barb wire at the top.
The steel factory was sparsely lit with same faint yellow lamps the lined the streets, making it easy to move around the building unseen and unheard. However, all of the entrances still had guards posted. Tails had already scouted out the whole facility and knew that whoever had the south east guard post had drawn the short straw for tonight.
Tails was crawling along the ground towards the guard’s hut. The faint sound of late TV shows could be heard emanating from within. This was always the hard part, and for more reasons than one. This poor sap was either about to die or wake up with the worst headache of his life. Tails tried to tell himself that this guy had already picked his side when he signed up for security with the cronies, but this far outside of their reach more than likely this guy just needed the money.
With his back pressed firm against the guard house Tails fumbled for the wires that snaked into its innards. The HUD in his glasses showed the wire with the current and with a quick flick of his knife the TV went quiet and the lights went out, but to his surprise nothing followed. When he stood up he found the guard asleep in his chair.
“Lazy ass,” the kit muttered to himself.
Tails walked up to the door and threw it open. The guard snapped awake but he was already staring down the barrel of a loaded gun. He wanted to scream, but he thought better of it when Tails pressed a single finger against his lips.
“Keys,” Tails said softly.
The guard cautiously reached for his belt and unclipped the keys.
“Thanks,” the fox replied as he tore them from his hand. “Now I need you to stay quiet.”
Like all security guards this one wore bullet proof everything. Bullet proof however, was hardly coinciding with pain free. The guard saw what was coming, but before he could yell for help there was high pitched tink followed quickly by low pitched thunk. In these close of quarters a shot to the head while wearing a helmet more often than not resulted in a nice big concussion with a large bruise. This case was no exception.
Tails slid the door to the guard house close behind him as he left. Now all he needed to do was blow the place up. His fur stood on end still, right down to the tips of his two tails, bristling in the cool morning wind. With a new surge of adrenalin the two tailed fox made for the door.