FicWad

He lay on the bed inside the medical hut, awakening. His eyes stayed closed, but Doctor Shepherd noticed something different about the way Nintex was breathing. After a moment he realised it was because he was talking himself into wakefulness, muttering:

"And... crying... distance... dark place... what... they listened to... but nothing... without... defence... somehow... thrashing... darkness..."

His eyes opened and he looked right up at Doctor Shepherd.

"Oh, hello," he said. "Where am I?"

The collie sat down on a wooden chair next to him. "Hi, I'm Doctor Shepherd. My, my, a broken leg. You're in Knothole, and I need to ask you a few simple questions, nothing serious."

Nintex nodded and the doctor picked up a clipboard and pencil.

"Name?"

"Nintex, N-I-N-T-E-X. Hanyu, H-A-N-Y-U."

"Age?"

"Sixteen next June."

"Fifteen, then. Species? In full, please."

Nintex hung his head and remained silent for a few seconds, before saying, "Kitsune."

Doctor Shepherd eyed him at this, his glance passing down to Nintex's tail. "You're quite mistaken," he said icily. "And please don't dump religious garbage on me or anyone else. Now, once more: Species?"

"Fox, grey."

"Much better," he said, his smile returning as he wrote that down in the Species column.

"But you must have already worked that out, doctor."

"Indeed, but it is polite to ask. Any particular allergies?"


When the doctor had finished asking Nintex questions, he left him with a glass of water and went over to the community hut, where Sally was talking to the others. She paused as he looked in from around the door.

"Excuse me," he said. "The fox, Nintex, he's awake. He won't be able to move for a good while, but you can talk to him and ask him any pertinent questions."

"Excellent," Sally said.

Beside her, Sonic cracked his knuckles in something like eager irritation. "Finally, now he can explain what he was doing there."

There was a moment's pause.

"Um," Sally finally said, lifting her head to the others around the room. "Let's go and meet our new arrival."

"Oh, not all of you," Doctor Shepherd said. "Sonic, Sally, okay." He scanned the room for anyone else important and his eyes found someone. "Tails, you too."

He left, leaving the fox looking mildly confused. "I didn't do something wrong, did I?" he asked.

"No," Sonic said. "C'mon." The three followed Doctor Shepherd over the expanse of Knothole to the medical hut, and one by one they filed through the door. There were not enough seats, so Sonic remained standing while the other three sat down. Nintex watched them with something between boredom and confusion.

"Hi," he said. "Did I do something celebrity-worthy while I was unconscious? Four is a crowd... or is it three...?" He paused to mull it over with himself, then realised how rude he was being. "...um, sorry... I'm Nintex Hanyu, hello..." He waved from his sideways position on the bed.

"Hi," said Sally. "This is Sonic, that's Tails, and I'm Sally. Welcome to Knothole."

"Thanks."

"We'd like to know exactly how you came to Robotropolis," Sally continued, and Sonic nodded vigorously. "You see, I intended to return here through a teleporter hidden there a few days back, on a previous mission. Unfortunately, when it did activate, it was for you and not me. Your unlucky timing might have had... disastrous consequences, if Sonic had not had the sense to come back for me."

Nintex looked depressed at Sally's explanation. "I'm sorry, I didn't know. I was hiding from the SWATbots under the junk, and it all just fell on me. Pure luck that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Sonic jumped in. "I just don't buy it. So you're saying, the exact moment that Sally was scheduled to return, you were there, she was late, and you just happened to find the teleporter by accident?"

"Sonic!" Tails said. "You're being rude."

"Little bro, things like that don't just happen. He could be a spy, an operative, and we just don't know. This guy is a stranger and it just doesn't make any sense." He looked down at Nintex.

"I'm just another person," Nintex said. There was a long pause.

"There was something else," Sally said, breaking the silence. "When you were leaving the city, do you remember screaming?"

"Yeah," Nintex said. "One of the robots crashed right down on my leg. It was hurting before then, but at that point it was just too much."

"Well," Sally said, "what do you think would have happened if anyone in the city had heard you?"

Nintex thought about it for a few seconds. Then, his thoughtful expression filled itself with fear, and he took a shuddering breath before asking, "What happened?"

"Five others screamed back," Sally said. "I saw them. They looked insane. They were..." She ground to a halt.

Nintex watched her. "Five. Those five are good friends of mine. I was looking after them in the city - that's why I was there - until a spybot spotted me. I ran for it, but one of them hit me with a laser on the way out. I hit my leg on a metal post as I fell, and I had to crawl my way out of the city."

"Looks like you were lucky my distractions were going on," Sally said. "But Nintex, the five... friends... Well, I saw them. I'm sorry, Nintex. Robotnik's put them into... his machine."

Nintex stared blankly for a moment, as this registered. "You mean..." he said, "you mean I've... I've lost them?"

Sally nodded, and Tails instinctively put a hand on Nintex's shoulder as the grey fox leaned his face towards the pillow. Tails thought he was crying, but after a moment Nintex turned back towards them. The tears were refusing to come.

Suddenly Tails looked at Doctor Shepherd. "Um," he asked, "why am I here?"

The doctor didn't notice for a second, then said, "Uh, Nintex... well, Nintex said something earlier, and I wanted to see how he would react to you."

Tails thought about that. "I don't understand," he said, adjusting his position in the chair.

But as he did, Nintex caught sight of his two tails, and everyone in the room heard his intake of breath. Suddenly realising he was being looked at, Nintex shook his head. "Um, nothing. Um, I'm sorry, but I really need some peace and quiet. Is there anything else you need to ask me?"

Sally thought, then shook her head no. "I'll leave you to it," she said, standing up. She shook Nintex's hand and then left. Sonic gave him a blatantly mistrustful look and sped out. Tails walked to the door, but seemed unwilling to walk through it, turning back to stare at Nintex, wondering what all of that had meant. Finally he dragged his eyes away and shut the door behind him, mystified.


"And then he crept up behind me, and grabbed me around the neck!" Sonic said enthusiastically, arms waving to keep everyone's attention at him. The campfire gave him a nice reddish glow to go with his tale of bravado, and kept them warm in the chill of night. Three days had passed, and Sonic couldn't keep his audience entertained with the story of Robotropolis's howling. Sally had helped him along with that, but today someone had suggested that someone else tell a different tale. Perish the thought! So in his quest to keep the spotlight he reverted to an old story of an encounter with Metal Sonic, his robotic counterpart.

"I felt his steel - steel! - hands wrap themselves around me, and instantly I knew what it was. It was difficult to breathe, but I backtracked, pushing us both back into the wall and making him let go."

Tails sat opposite Sonic in the circle, with the fire between them, watching him with interest, although he was getting a little restless by a story that he had heard many, many, times. He could see others in the circle fidgeting and toying with bits of dirt on the ground, and wondered how long it would be before someone left the circle completely. It would not be the first time, by any means - especially for Sonic.

"I turned around to face him, and he threw a punch at me. I dodged and grabbed his arms. We sort of grappled for a bit, then he threw me off and turned to run back into... let's see, he turned around, and I chased him and caught him just as he got to the middle of the bridge. Of... there was this big reactor, and it ran on either side of the bridge. It was metal, the bridge I mean, and there were rails on either side but they weren't much good."

Beside Tails, Sally leaned over and quietly asked him, "Was there a reactor last time?"

Tails whispered back, "We're not meant to be there yet. He'll realise in a moment that he's in the wrong place." He smiled at the thought, turning his attention once again back to Sonic.

"I tripped him up," Sonic said, "and he fell to the ground. I spindashed him, and that pushed him up again. He turned to face me, and said, 'Now you will die, Hedgehog!'

"So I said, 'Go ahead. Make my day.'

"He ran forward, making to punch me again, but I leapt right over him and kicked him from behind. He fell backw-"

He was interrupted by a click from afar, much quieter than he was but apparently more interesting, as his entire audience turned to glance in that direction. It had come from the medical hut, where Doctor Shepherd was opening the door for Nintex, who was on crutches. Nintex hobbled over to the group, to stand opposite Sonic and behind Tails, whose neck was hurting from having to peer straight up.

Several people offered friendly greetings to Nintex, but Sonic passed him a disgusted look, both for stealing his audience's attention and for... for existing in the first place. He had obviously not forgiven him for using the teleporter.

"What's all this?" Nintex cheerily asked the group, smiling wide.

Sonic stared at him. "Storytelling," he said through gritted teeth.

Nintex's eyebrows raised, and he paused, then said, "Mind if I listen?"

Sonic said nothing, and Nintex moved in to sit between Sally and Tails, who shuffled apart for him. Sally helped him down from the crutches.

Nintex nodded to Sonic politely, which seemed to make Sonic's anger worse, but he recovered when he remembered where he was in the story. "Metal Sonic fell backwards to the ground. I gained all my strength and ran as fast as I could towards him. I hit him head-on and once again he stumbled to the ground."

He paused to stare at Nintex, who was chuckling, but kept going nonetheless.

"He lifted himself to his feet, and it looked like he was still as strong as ever, so I made for him. He stepped backwards, remembering he had to get back to base before Robotnik started his attack, and caught me off-guard by running right past me. A moment later he was off the bridge and then flying off towards Robotnik's base."

Sonic stopped again, but this time it was not Nintex but Knuckles, who called out, "So nothing interesting happened with the bridge? Why all the detail - was it there for suspense?" He had never heard the story before.

"No, it was there because it was there," Sonic said, annoyed, then paused. Tails grinned as he saw the sudden realisation appear on his face. Sonic stood there silently for several seconds. "No, wait," he said finally. "No, the bridge wasn't there, that was later. The bridge was over the reactor at Robotnik's base; Metal Sonic fought me in the corridor..."

"So the reactor wasn't there either?" Knuckles, confused and annoyed, asked a silenced Sonic.

Nintex was shaking his head and grinning. Sonic saw him and pointed a finger. "What's your problem, Mr. Hanyu?" he called.

Nintex didn't reply, but he didn't stop grinning either.

Sonic was so furious at the fox's attitude that he didn't notice that grins had already passed all the way around the circle (save Knuckles). He threw up his hands and yelled, "Well, if you think you can do better, go on then! Tomorrow night, you can try!"

And he stormed out of the circle, seething.