Blood Bonds

Part 17 - A "Bear"-y Tense Situation

The day for the Public Services' class field trip had finally come, and Nutmeg felt her heart soar as her trainees loaded off G.U.N.'s armored tanks, F.V.R. lanyards around each of their necks. The small group crowded behind the counter and Scarlet directed everyone to attend to one task in the soup kitchen. One trainee set out the disposable bowls and spoons, another attended to depositing water bottles, and the rest tended directly to making and depositing the soup. Eclipse's eyes stung from the amount of moisture in the air as the others chattered warmheartedly around the steaming soup pot behind him. He wiped the forming rheum from the corners of his eyelids and uncertainly handed the burning water bottles to the gracious Mobians sitting along the alleyway, dragging the cooler which held them by the handle with his lanky tail. To the homeless folks, the water was delightfully cool, but to Eclipse, the condensation forming on the outside of each bottle was a horribly uncomfortable sensation to his skin. He looked around for Nutmeg and headed over, intending to ask if they had any disposable gloves.

The ground began to shake, just slightly, but enough to make him pause his walk and glance around uncertainly. The Head Mistress noticed and looked over questioningly, before her eyes widened and she leapt over the counter, running towards him. Eclipse spun around as the quaking stopped and a frightening shriek from above penetrated everyone's ears. A bizarre, bear-like creature towered over the alleyway, leering over the gathering of Mobians who seemed ant-like compared to it. On its face was a hauntingly familiar steel mask, with two red eye-holes, and strange black-and-white spiral patterns in the mask's ears. The rest of the beast was completely black, save for the random white scratch marks scattered across its hulking form, and the monster swiped a burly clawed paw across the side of a building, shattering the windows and raining glass down on everyone in the alley. Nutmeg grabbed Eclipse and pulled him beside her, shielding him with her own body from the hailing shards. The G.U.N. officers on the other side of the beast fired their guns and peppered its hide in bullets, but the beast seemed to only grow annoyed and more intent on bombarding its enclosed prey.

"It's one of Infinite's berserk anomalies!" Scarlet called frantically from behind the counter.

The Head Mistress released the alien and looked over. "We need to evacuate the trainees-!"

"How? That thing is between us and the tanks!" The panicked hedgehog yelled back. "We're cornered!"

Nutmeg silently looked back up at the anomaly as it slowly began to advance, its eyes blazing and its enormous claws swinging. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and sighed deeply. Then, the squirrel grabbed Eclipse by his wrist and pulled him after her deeper into the alley, over to the kitchen. She rounded up everyone else she had brought with her and directed them to stay behind the counter, or else. It was the first time the trainees had ever been threatened by a Head Counselor, but they were all reassured by her determined demeanor. The squirrel seemed to have a plan.

"Scarlet, I'll distract the anomaly while you send a SOS call to Shadow. Then we can do a formation two with the attack directed from the left side." The flying squirrel jumped onto the steel counter and then jumped again into the air, spreading her arm flaps as she caught a small current and swept through the air towards the agitated gremlin. All the homeless in line for the soup kitchen cowered away from the monster, receding closer to the back as the squirrel began gliding around the bear's head, catching its attention.

"Heard!" Scarlet held up her wrist and pressed a finger against her inhibitor ring, which then beeped a cheery melody. "Headquarters, this is Head Counselor Scarlet requesting backup. Please page Agent Shadow and send him our coordinates. Over."

She then rocketed over to the side of the alleyway Nutmeg was gliding closest to and began running up the wall, catching up to the squirrel's altitude. The speeding hedgehog slammed a Chaos Spear into the side of the bear's face, drawing the enraged thing's attention to her.