Blood Bonds

Part 5 - The New Trainee

Nutmeg didn't know what to expect when she walked into her office in F.V.R. She had sent Batanna to go update the school's roster while the squirrel would handle the introductions, and insisted that Sonic let her deal with the introductions alone. She had seen pictures of Black Arms creatures before, and they were either impractically huge or sinisterly armed with bioweapons of mass destruction. In kinder terms, she had never seen an Black Arms alien she would consider visually appealing, either. However, when she opened the office door and rested her eyes on her new trainee, the flying squirrel was pleasantly surprised. Eclipse looked quite similar to his half-brother, regarding his dark complexion and bright red striping. He also looked quite different than any regular Black Arms alien than she was familiar with, looking almost more Mobian than alien regarding the structure of his body. Upon coming closer, she saw his skin was not black but instead a very dark inky blue. The alien had previously been standing accompanied by a single G.U.N. guard, but upon the squirrel's entrance, the guard saluted and left.

"Hello, are you Eclipse?" She asked politely, catching the alien's attention.

Eclipse turned to face her, and she was intrigued by his bizarre black sclera, with their yellow irises and quivering, staggered pupils.

"Hi, I'm Head Mistress Nutmeg. I'll be your counselor during your stay at F.V.R." She stuck out her hand for a friendly handshake.

He regarded her gloved hand with some disgust, before glancing up at the squirrel, leaving her hand suspended. "Yeah, I'm not exactly keen on being here, but it was part of my deal with your master, so I have to stick around."

Nutmeg lowered her hand without skipping a beat, smiling as she walked past him to the opposite side of her desk. She was used to unkind faces and irritable jerks in her school. After all, all her trainees started out as villains. Eclipse, in juxtaposition, was creeped out by her chipper aura and cheery greeting. She was unlike any Mobian he had known, but then again she was the first Mobian being paid to deal specifically with him.

"How long have you lived on Mobius?" She asked casually, sitting down at her laptop and typing something on her keyboard. "Feel free to have a seat."

"About a year, maybe. Some weird weather your planet's been having lately. I didn't know Mobius' atmosphere occasionally turned red." Eclipse looked around her office as he perched tensely on the edge of the chair facing hers, clutching the seat.

Nutmeg stifled a nervous laugh. "Yeah, that's not how it's always been. We, uh... we've got the problem sorted out, though, so it should return completely to normal soon."

There was a pause of silence, the clacking of the keys the only thing filling the room.

"...Am I the first alien your program has housed?" Eclipse asked, almost self-consciously.

"No, actually." The squirrel continued to type away at her keyboard. "There was a group of Zeti here for a month, but complications came up, so they're no longer here."

"That's vague and... slightly concerning." Eclipse crossed his arms. "Does your 'Foundation for Villain Redemption'," he used air quotes, "actually work?"

"This school's not like a machine," Nutmeg explained. "People don't come in and just immediately feel changed. Those beyond help are sent back to prison to serve the time they owe. Those who show promise of improvement within the first semester are kept in the school, until the trainee goes above and beyond to prove themselves reformed. Of course, change isn't linear. There are those who have their uprisings and downfalls. It happens. So long as they rise back up in the end, it's acceptable."

Eclipse eyed the motivational posters on her walls before noticing a certain section of the wall dedicated to hand-drawn art. His gaze flickered across it, before stopping at the sight of something familiar.

"Who are they?" He asked, pointing at a lovely portrait of five smiling Mobians all standing arm-in-arm.

Nutmeg smiled up at the picture. "Those are the other Head Counselors of F.V.R. They're also my best friends." She then introduced each of them, explaining who was who, and what their role was in the program. Eclipse listened in silent frustration.

"Scarlet's that one?" He asked when she finished, shivering anxiously. "She... looks a lot like someone I know."

"She gets that a lot." Nutmeg smiled back down at her computer screen before hesitating and looking over at the alien. "Would you like to share a room with Fang the panther and his friends, or with our latest and most reclusive trainee, Mephiles?"

"What species is Mephiles?"

"He's not like any other trainee we've had. He refers to himself as Mephiles the dark. He occasionally takes on the appearance of a hedgehog made of crystals, though you'll typically see him as a mouthless blue hedgehog."

Eclipse's frown deepened. "Sheesh. What other kinds of freak-shows do you have in your school?"

"Nobody here is a freak. Just in need of assistance." Nutmeg replied shortly, finishing her typing. The printer beneath her desk began to whir as sheets of paper began to slide out. The pink squirrel picked up the top page and turned it over, handing it to Eclipse. "Here's your schedule. If you'd like, I can give you a tour of the school so you don't get lost."

The alien bit back a nasty comment as he looked at the foreign symbols on the paper. "Uh... a tour would be appreciated."

He followed the exuberant squirrel out of her office and only half-listened as she pointed out various landmarks and hallways, his mind preoccupied with the thought of his four fledglings lost in the forest. In the month he had spent procrastinating his decision, G.U.N. had installed an anti-Chaos chip into his wrist, as well as bound his wrists and ankles with inhibitor rings. He had no way of communicating with his younglings, and when he hesitantly told the Head of Guard about them, Wilkes hadn't taken him seriously.

"Yeah, I'll send some guards to check it out," he had said half-heartedly when Eclipse helped him pinpoint the location of the broken-down aircraft on a map. "But under no circumstance are we removing those rings..."