Sonic the Hedgehog

No Favors

Not once, not twice, but four times did the mentally checked-out Jackal awake, only for the powerful, comforting grasp of sleep to pull him away from consciousness. Even as he lies on a mattress he can't recall getting on, tucked under a thick layer of cover, it took his mind a few minutes to fully reboot. But not nearly as long as it's taking for the cover and nearby cackling firepit to ward off the cold from his body. It's this pain, this discomfort that gets his memory flooding back. Suddenly, his current place of rest becomes one of discomfort when he realizes he didn't get here on his own.

A realization echoed back to him when the front door of the small, wooden cabin opens up. Despite being light, the cold wind that comes rushing in makes him instinctively shrivel up in a fetal position, covering himself with every fabric of the blanket as if he was trying to wear it as a cape. To his relief, the door shuts, and in front of it is a human man. One who simply looks too old- too fragile to live in such a climate. Let alone comfortably. Upon seeing the fully awake Mobian in his bed, the man's eyes light up with delight and he moves closer.

"Hey there," he greets. "You gave me quite the scare my little friend."

Zero's state of bewilderment and discomfort allows him from registering the well-intentioned comment, which he would have most definitely interpreted otherwise. Right now, he's trying to wrap his mind around how he's in the home of a human man. In Ice Cap. The situation is simply too bizarre to not ask more.

"What are you doing out here?" Zero groans as he sits up.

"I could ask the same of you, friend," James responds. "Say what you will about my home selection, but at least I have a vehicle to get about from place to place. How long were you out there for, little fella?"

This time, Zero does not miss the comment about his size, and his boiling insides seem to warm his nearly stone-cold body.

"None of your business."

The old man shrugs, unfazed by the Jackal's attitude, and turns around to pick something up from the floor. In the corner of his eye, Zero recognizes the shiny weapon immediately. His plasma-rifle. Notably intrigued by the oddly shaped weapon, the old man turns around, pondering where someone could've found such a thing.

"At least you got good enough sense to keep a firearm on hand," James remarks, aiming with the unnaturally forged weapon to get a good sense of its feel. "Lotta big game out here. Want my recommendation? Find you a classic. This new stuff takes all the fun outta hunting."

"I have somewhere I have to be," Zero utters, already tired of the elderly man's presence.

"Are you outta your mind?" James asks, concerned, placing the gun on the floor. "When I found you, you had an inch of life in you, boy. And that inch was on its way to becoming a popsicle. Here, let me get my thermostat."

Quickly, the man whirls around, and kneels before a brown cardboard box with "Essentials" sloppily written on the front with a marker. He opens it, and begins digging around, squinting his tired eyes for the particular item he's looking for. Once he finds it, he picks it up with haste, and turns around... then he freezes. The thermostat drops from his left hand, which he begins raising in the air slowly along with his right.

Standing in the center of the cabin, armed with the weapon James so carelessly disregarded, is Zero, holding the man still at gunpoint.

"You said something about transportation, old man," Zero says. "Hand over the keys to the vehicle."

"You don't have to do th-"

"Oh, I know," Zero shrugs. "But I'm doing it anyways. Keys. Now."

Not wanting to test the hostile stranger's patience, James reluctantly complies. He lowers his hand to his right jacket pocket, and from it, he pulls a set of car keys.

"Kick them over."

With a nudge from his boot, the keys slide across the floor, stopping at Zero's feet. Not taking his gaze away from the old man, Zero bends down and swipes the keys from the floor, a satisfied grin etched on his face.

"Why are you doing this?" James asks, his voice slightly shaking. "I saved your life, gave you a place to rest, I-"

"Spare me, old man," Zero says. "I'm more than familiar with you humans' idea of hospitality. You open your borders, you give us a place to stay, then you look down at us like we're dirt. However, I suppose I do owe you some form of compensation. Very well, I will do you the favor of not snuffing out your miserable life."

Lowering the gun, Zero turns around and makes his way out of the cabin. He closes the door behind him, leaving behind a stunned, shaking man, unable to process the cruelty he's just witnessed. The cruelty he is now a victim of.

...