FLAMBÉ the FOX

[Tangent]

FLAMBÉ
Yet another SI fic by Tangent
Hot off the grill with another sizzling entree in the Sonic setting!

O o O o O​

My first few days on Mobius were a blur of confusion and fire.

Seriously, way too much fire, not that any of the flames ever seemed to actually hurt me.

I mean, there I was, somehow a fox girl of indeterminate size and age, wandering around alone in the ruins of some abandoned village that only had running water because the damaged water tower somehow hadn't fallen over yet.

And I had to rely on that water to keep putting out the fires I somehow kept causing!

I mean, seriously, all I did was put some old firewood into that Franklin stove and had been trying to remember how to start campfires when the wood just spontaneously combusted with flames so hot the stove itself glowed cherry red for a bit!

That's not normal!

Of course, neither is waking up as some fox kid in an abandoned village, but the sudden fires were a bit much...

That wasn't the only such incident either.

Whenever I tried to start a fire - and by that, I mean legitimately set about preparing to start a fire with actual intent to follow through - the fire would just start all on its own.

Camp fires, stove fires, one candle that went from half melted to liquid wax with ashes for a wick in an instant...

The wax took forever to scrub out of my fur, by the way. Getting it splashed all over me as the candle exploded from the heat hadn't hurt at all, but it had splattered everywhere and felt weird until it was finally all out of my fur.

But that had pretty much settled it in my mind.

I was apparently either a pyromancer or a pyrokinetic.

I briefly considered calling myself Firefox, but ultimately settled on Flambé instead.

O o O o O​

The first attack came as a bit of a surprise, and I hadn't quite realized what was really going on right away.

Oh, I knew I was being attacked - that part was never in question.

It's just that my first thought upon hearing loud buzzing approaching rapidly more or less from behind me and turning around to see what appeared to be a small swarm of giant hornets wasn't "These are Buzzbombers!"

It was more: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! BEES!"

And fire.

So much fire.

By the time my panic attack subsided, half of the abandoned village was just gone and I was standing in a field of rapidly cooling molten glass.

The big scary bees were gone though, so I quickly left the still soft silicate before it hardened, and once I was off of the squishy material I made sure that none of it was sticking to my fur.

The wax disaster had been bad enough, I didn't need to try to figure out how to get glass off of me too.

As my breathing grew steadier and heartbeat slowed down to normal levels, I looked out over the glassy field and noted that there were, surprisingly, insectile husks half sunken into the cooling material.

Which honestly confused me because, given the other evidence, any chitinous carapace should have been reduced to ash and vapor by the temperatures I had inadvertently put out.

While I was waiting for the glass to cool down enough for me to not sink into it, I looked for a nice long stick or rod.

I was still poking at the half-melted, flashwelded remains of one of the destroyed Buzzbombers when a cyborg rabbit found me and called out to her friends who were also investigating the smoking ruins that were all that remained of my first home on Mobius…

O o O o O​

Bunnie Rabbot slowed her steps before she even reached the edge of the glassed-out field.

The air still carried heat - faint now, like a dying engine - but the ground told a louder story. What should have been broken earth and scattered rubble was instead a wide, smooth expanse of fused crystal rippling outward. It caught the light in dull, shifting colors, like the world had tried to become a mirror and given up halfway through.

Badnik parts were embedded in it. Half-melted Buzzbombers from the look of them.

Not intact. Not functional. Just… caught. Twisted metal silhouettes suspended in glass like insects in amber.

And a fox girl, younger than them but maybe a little older than Tails, was squatting near one and poking at it with a stick.

She wasn't wearing anything, but that didn't mean much these days. Clothes were hard to come by, and Bunnie herself had done without for years before Sonic had rescued her from that Bot-on-the-Spot and she ended up joining the Freedom Fighters in Knothole.

"Okay," she muttered under her breath. "That ain't normal."

Behind her, she could hear the others approaching—Rotor's careful, weighted steps; Antoine's more frantic pacing; Sally's steady rhythm that always meant she was already thinking three moves ahead. Sonic would be somewhere nearby too, checking the parameter for any remaining badnik forces.

Bunnie kept her eyes forward.

Because there was something else notable.

A set of footprints leading across the glass.

Sunk shallow, as if someone had been walking across thick mud or damp clay. An even pace, with no sign of hurrying or stumbling. Not staggered like a retreat under fire.

Just… walking. Casual. Almost wandering.

They led from the center of the destruction all the way out toward the edge of the glassy field.

Bunnie's eyes narrowed slightly. She rather strongly suspected that if she compared those footprints to the feet of the girl, they'd be an uncomfortably close match.

The girl hadn't noticed them yet. Or maybe she had and didn't care, but Bunnie was betting on the former rather than the later. No hostile posture. No weapons. No scanning for targets. No fear response that matched what the landscape suggested should be there.

Just confusion. And curiosity.

And something else Bunnie didn't like seeing in kids who looked that small in the middle of what looked like a battlefield:

The poor thing was shaking slightly.

Maybe a bit of it was part of an adrenalin crash, but Bunnie was pretty sure the girl had not eaten recently.

Those were hunger shakes.

The poor thing had not eaten recently. Not so long that her ribs were showing or anything, but long enough to matter.

The fox turned the stick slightly, scraping at the warped metal. It didn't move like a Badnik anymore. It barely moved like anything that had ever had a purpose.

Bunnie exhaled slowly.

"…Ain't no way she did this on purpose," she said quietly, mostly to herself.

Behind her, Antoine made a sound that was halfway between a gasp and a protest. "Mon dieu—! Bunnie, zat is zhe epicenter of—of—"

"Not now, 'Toine" Bunnie cut in, still watching the fox. "Get some rations and a canteen."

The coyote glanced at Bunnie, then took a closer look at the girl. "Ah, yes. I zhe it as well. I will be returning immediately with zhe rations."

Rotor had gone silent. That was never a good sign.

Sally's voice finally came, measured. "Bunnie. Thoughts?"

Bunnie didn't take her eyes off the fox.

The footprints made sense now. Not escape. Not pursuit.

Just… movement. After.

Like whoever had made them had been walking away from something they didn't understand.

Or trying to figure out what came next.

The fox shifted again, tilting her head slightly as she examined the wreckage. Still not looking at them. Still not reacting to the group at all.

Bunnie's shoulders eased a fraction.

"…That's a kid," she said simply.

...

Sonic's voice, finally, from somewhere off to the side. "You sure?"

Bunnie didn't answer right away.

She watched the way the fox held the stick. No tension. No readiness. Just idle motion. The way she sat didn't belong to someone who had claimed victory.

It belonged to someone who had run out of answers and stopped moving for a second.

Bunnie stepped forward, slow and deliberate, making sure her footsteps rang out clearly over the glass.

The fox didn't flinch.

Just turned enough to look at them, then tilted her head as if confused.

That, more than anything, settled it.

Bunnie lowered her voice. "Yeah. I'm sure."

...

Then, softer—almost to herself:

"…Just a kid sittin' in the middle of a whole lotta wrong."

Spoiler: Flambé the Fox

Flambé the Fox - once she gets something really really fire resistant to wear...

And yes, made with AI tools. Still came out pretty good though, even with the errors.

 

[Navrin]

Whenever I tried to start a fire - and by that, I mean legitimately set about preparing to start a fire with actual intent to follow through - the fire would just start all on it's own.

Click to shrink...

it's should be its. You want the possessive, not the contraction of it is/was.

Thank you for writing and sharing; looking forward to where this goes.

 

[Tangent]

FLAMBÉ
Yet another SI fic by Tangent
Hot off the grill with another sizzling entree in the Sonic setting!

O o O o O​

I…

Well, I honestly don't know what I was expecting at this point.

I mean, I was only just sort of coming to terms with my rather abrupt change in species and gender. Which, honestly, I didn't mind nearly as much as the fact that I had woken up in the ruins of a village that had apparently been abandoned years - or possibly even decades - ago. I was getting hungry, the water quality was questionable, any cans and jars I found had labels so simplified that they just said what was supposed to be in them without giving any sort of best by or expiration dates.

Well, I did find a whole case of Genuine Artificial Cheesefood Substitute that I had been desperate enough to get into.

Everything else, though?

Honestly, it horrified me.

I didn't dare even try to open any of it for fear of releasing Mum-Ra onto the land or something else equally absurd.

So there I was, still in the middle of the glassy field, poking at a half melted husk of a giant mechanical hornet that I had yet to correctly identify as being a Buzzbomber as giant mechanical wasps and hornets were too widely used for me to click on them as even coming from a game at all, let alone a specific cartoon or comic book.

Look, all I'm saying is that a motobug would have been far more iconic and identifiable to me. I only associated weaponized ladybugs with one game, while weaponized hornets could literally have had any number of sources!

Besides, my pyrokinetic panic attack had apparently melted off the big googly eyes that would otherwise have been a dead giveaway, leaving the mechanical husks as feeling more generic to me than they probably really were.

The point is, there I was, poking at a mechanical horror the size of one of my legs with a stick, when I heard slow steps like tapshoes approaching from somewhere behind and to the left of me. Slow enough and far enough away that I'm not immediately alarmed, even though I do turn to look out of a proper sense of caution.

Can anyone really blame me for my mind going blank when I see what looks like a version of some very familiar characters who all appear to have been reinterpreted through the lens of some very recent Jim Carrey movies?

…Okay.

So, either I had finally snapped, the questionable water had gotten to me, or I had just been isekai'd way harder than I thought.

Because standing there - just… standing there, like this was completely normal - were what looked like a group of very familiar characters.

Not cosplayers.

Not people in costumes.

Not "inspired by."

No, these were the real deal. Or at least, they looked close enough to the real deal that my brain had decided to stop supplying useful thoughts and instead loop on recognition error.

A chipmunk. In blue boots and absolutely nothing else.

A… coyote? In a uniform that looked like it had lost a fight with both fashion and practicality.

A walrus. Just - just a walrus.

And a rabbit.

A rabbit with a very noticeable amount of metal.

…

I stared at them.

They stared at me.

Nobody said anything.

Which was good, because if they had, I was pretty sure my response would have been something deeply articulate like:

"Uh."

Focus.

Okay.

Brain, do the thing!

…

Nothing?

Great.

Fantastic.

First impressions were going amazingly.

Do not panic.

Do not panic.

Panicking was how I got the glass field.

Panicking was how I turned "giant robot wasps" into "localized geological event."

Panicking again in front of what were very likely the closest thing to allies I was going to find seemed like a terrible idea.

So.

New plan.

Do nothing.

No sudden movements.

No fire.

Definitely no fire.

I very carefully did not drop the stick, because dropping things suddenly also felt like the kind of action that might escalate a situation for absolutely no reason.

Also, because it was currently the only thing between me and the lingering, deeply irrational fear that the half-melted mechanical hornet at my feet might suddenly decide it wasn't done being a problem yet.

Right.

Yes.

Priorities.

The rabbit - cybernetic, definitely cybernetic, okay, brain, we are just accepting that now - was closest.

I feel like I should know their names.

No, I know I should know their names, but my stupid brain was pulling the same stunt it has way back when I forgot my own sister's name in the middle of introducing her to one of my friends!

…

Really?

My brain called that up instead of their actual names?

Well, the cyborg bunny…

BUNNIE!

Her name was Bunnie, and that was Sally, Rotor, and Antoine!

Wait, where was I?

Oh yeah…

Bunnie didn't look aggressive.

Actually, none of them did.

Cautious, yes.

Concerned, definitely.

But not aggressive.

That was good.

That was very good.

Which meant I should probably say something.

Something normal.

Something that didn't immediately confirm that I had no idea what was going on, where I was, or how I had just accidentally committed what felt like a small-scale environmental disaster.

Words.

Use words.

I opened my mouth.

"…Hi?"

…Nailed it.

 

[Tangent]

FLAMBÉ
Yet another SI fic by Tangent
Hot off the grill with another sizzling entree in the Sonic setting!

O o O o O​

The van was quieter on the return trip because none of them had agreed on what anything meant yet.

They had come to investigate the ruins of Grovedale not because it had refugees but because it had been abandoned for nearly a decade - too exposed, too vulnerable to badnik patrols, and long since written off as uninhabitable. However, badnik activity had been spotted in the region recently, and Grovedale was the only location of note anywhere nearby.

So, they had gone to confirm what, exactly, had stirred in what was supposed to be an abandoned village.

Buzzbomber debris had been confirmed. Melted, warped, and in some cases flashwelded structures fused with the surrounding ground.

But there had been no battlefield.

No pursuit signatures.

No evidence of sustained combat.

Just a single point of overwhelming force.

Rotor had stopped short of calling it anything definitive.

Sally had done the same.

Antoine had carefully said nothing at all, as a mere child was undeserving of wild inflammatory speculation, and he was well aware of how his worries sometimes got the better of him.

Bunnie had not offered a theory.

She had simply carried the fox girl out of the site and into the van as though that was the only part of the situation that required certainty.

Now, on the road back to Knothole, that same fox girl sat between Bunnie and the interior wall of the vehicle, wrapped loosely in a spare field blanket.

She had not spoken since departure, other than to give her name when coaxed.

Flambé.

It definitely suited her, if what they suspected was true.

She hadn't really said much. Didn't answer questions about her family or friends and barely spoke even when giving her name.

Just one name. No other identifier. Not even a "the Fox," although her Mobian subtype was self-evident anyway.

Fire related, but on the lighter, more whimsical side.

What they had seen back in Grovedale was anything but light and whimsical.

Earth and stone don't become a field of glass due to whimsy, and weathered ruins don't become burnt-out husks lightly.

Flambé had not resisted movement at any point.

She had eaten when food was offered.

Not quickly. Not eagerly. But steadily enough to suggest that hunger had been present long before anyone had thought to name it.

She had drunk from the canteen as if it had been the sweetest water ever and had to be reminded to take slow sips.

Rotor had observed both of those carefully.

Sally had also noted them without comment.

Antoine had tried twice to begin conversation and abandoned both attempts before completion, focussing instead on driving the van.

Sonic had said almost nothing at all.

The van's suspension shifted as it moved over uneven terrain. The Great Forest only had a few old roads running through it, and nobody maintained them - Robotnik through neglect, and the Freedom Fighters out of necessity to keep Knothole hidden.

Inside the van, the fox girl adjusted slightly with the motion, then settled again, leaning a fraction closer to Bunnie without conscious decision.

Bunnie noticed immediately but did not comment. She just adjusted her arm, so the contact remained stable.

At some point, the rations came out again.

No one objected.

The food was not remarkable. Standard field provisions - functional, engineered for caloric intake rather than comfort. Made from what they could raise and grow in Knothole. But it was consistent, warm enough, and real enough to matter in a way that distinction alone could not explain.

Flambé ate when prompted, then continued eating without prompting until she had her fill.

There were more rations left over from the portion than there should have been for a child her size, but nobody forced the issue - Flambé could finish the rest later at her own pace.

The girl's posture shifted subtly after that. A gradual relaxation of her stiff posture, as if the effort required to remain fully alert had exceeded available reserves. Her head tilted slightly toward Bunnie's shoulder, then rested there. There was no hesitation over Bunnie's cybernetic arm. No worry, concern, nor even any visible curiosity.

Just casual acceptance that the rabbit was a safe person.

Bunnie went still for half a second, then very carefully adjusted her position so the contact did not break.

Sally, who had been seated on the other side of the girl just looked at Bunnie and nodded. They hadn't really meant to board the van in the order that they had, but also hadn't wanted to make a big deal out of Bunnie's metal arm being presented towards Flambé either. Fortunately, the girl didn't seem to be the type to be put off by prosthetics or the implications behind them.

No one spoke for a while, letting the quiet rumbling of the engine and the subtle sound of tires rolling against the road fill the vehicle.

Antoine only turned on the headlights only after the van was much deeper into the Great Forest where the overhead canopy was thick enough that the shade made it more vital to see the irregular bumps and potholes.

Rotor was the first to speak after the long silence.

"She fell asleep," he said quietly.

"Yes," Sally replied, simply confirming what she and Bunnie already knew.

Rotor nodded once. "Not unexpected, given prior indicators of exhaustion, trauma load, and caloric shortage."

Antoine lowered his voice as he dared a brief glance back from the driver's seat. "She just… fell asleep?"

Bunnie glanced down briefly at the fox girl resting against her. "Yeah," she said softly. "She did."

Sonic, seated farther back, tilted his head slightly. "That's… fast."

Bunnie's voice stayed low. "Ain't been safe in a while."

That statement did not require expansion.

Sally did not challenge it.

Instead, she shifted her attention toward the sleeping child.

There was a long pause.

Then, more quietly:

"We should review what we know," she said.

Rotor adjusted his glasses. "That depends on when we consider her to have become capable of providing reliable testimony."

Antoine frowned. "She is a child."

"That does not resolve data integrity concerns," Rotor replied.

Sonic exhaled lightly. "You're both overthinking it."

Sally did not respond immediately as she looked over the sleeping figure for a moment longer than the others.

Then she spoke up: "We start with what we observed," she said. "Not what we assume."

Again, nobody said anything for a while as they gathered their thoughts.

Finally Bunnie spoke, still careful not to disturb the child leaning against her.

"She didn't run," she said. "Back there. Didn't fight. Didn't even hesitate when I touched her or picked her up."

Sonic gave a small shrug. "Could be shock."

"Could be," Bunnie agreed, but did not sound convinced.

The van continued its steady progression.

Outside, the forest thickened in places, thinning in others. The path was one known only to those who had learned how to remain unseen in a world that did not want them to be.

Inside, the group fell into quieter observation.

Because the sleeping fox girl had shifted the problem slightly.

Before, she had been an anomaly that required interpretation, but now she was an unknown variable that could not be questioned without risk of waking her.

Rotor eventually spoke again: "We still don't know who she is. Not really. Just her name alone doesn't tell us much."

"It tells us that her folks expected a firecracker," Bunnie noted.

"Or she changed her name like I did when I got my speed," Sonic pointed out.

Bunnie looked down at the sleeping child again. "I don't think she's refusing anything," she said. "I think she just… stopped having to hold herself together for a minute."

No one argued with that because it was consistent with what they were seeing.

"Ah… I know what I did not see," said Antoine D'Coolette after a moment, lifting a hand from the steering wheel as if to steady the thought. "Zere were no bodies. None. Only zose Buzzbombers - rien d'autre. No bones, no ash, not even ze scent of… of death." He drew himself up slightly, a touch of firmness entering his voice. "Whatever else 'as occurred at Grovedale, I do not believe zat is something we must be worrying about."

The van continued toward Knothole and for the first time since Grovedale, the silence inside it was not tense.

It was careful.

Because whatever they had brought back with them was no longer actively trying to survive the moment.

She was, for now, resting inside it.

 

[Tangent]

FLAMBÉ
Yet another SI fic by Tangent
Hot off the grill with another sizzling entree in the Sonic setting!

O o O o O​

I was woken up when we got to Knothole.

Well, not Knothole proper as such, but more one of the presumably hidden access tunnels—this one attached to a garage cavern for various vehicles, like the van they had used.

Honestly, I was kind of excited about the prospect of what Knothole might be like. I only had vague memories of it from the cartoon and comic book, but still - a hidden rebel base in a forest sounded like it should come with at least a bit of dramatic flair.

I was a bit less excited when they brought out the tin tubs, brass kettles, and shampoo that was probably locally made…

"Oh, don't give us that look, darlin'," Bunnie chided gently, even as she guided me toward one of the tubs. Sally followed along behind us with brushes, combs, and towels already in hand like this was routine.

"Knothole's deep in the forest," Bunnie continued. "We gotta watch for ticks, lice, fleas—all the usual nasties. The boys are doin' their part too, over there with their own tub."

I glanced over.

Sure enough, the guys were already setting up a second bathing area a short distance away. Sonic looked relaxed as ever, Rotor was already half-focused on filling kettles to fill the tub with, and Antoine stood with his arms folded, watching the setup with the tired expression of someone who had been doing this for far too many years.

"Yes, yes," Antoine said, with the calm resignation of familiarity rather than complaint. "We are still doing zis, are we? After all zis time."

He exhaled lightly through his nose and gestured faintly toward the tubs.

"One would zink the matter of parasites in our environment would be less… persistent by now."

Sonic smirked as he passed. "Welcome to nature, dude."

Antoine didn't look at him. "Yes. Nature. Always so committed to its inconveniences."

"It's just part of the ecosystem," Rotor said as he adjusted the kettle setup.

"zat," Antoine replied after a beat, "is not comforting in ze way you intend it to be."

Bunnie gave a soft chuckle beside me. "You'll be fine, sugah."

Antoine gave a small, resigned nod, already moving toward the tubs with the posture of someone who had accepted this a regular insult to civilization.

"Of course," he said mildly. "As always."

I resigned myself to the prospect of taking a bath, actually being even more nervous about it apparently being a social event, although I wasn't looking forward to drying out my wet fur afterwards. Still, it made sense - pests and parasites were a serious issue deep in the woods, and nobody could check their own entire bodies by themselves.

I did wonder if the water was hot enough though. I mean, I could see what was either steam or mist coming off of it as Bunnie and Sally poured the water from the kettles into the tub, and I helped with that part too just to speed things up, but the kettles didn't feel hot to me.

Nothing did.

They didn't feel cold to me either, so I doubt it was going to be an ice bath.

Curious, I stuck my hand into the tub.

Ooh, tingly!

A spread of tiny bubbles formed around my fingers, clinging to my fur in a strange, fizzing sensation - like the water itself had decided to wake up and notice me.

Was the water carbonated?

That was… honestly kind of exciting.

Without thinking too hard about it, I climbed straight in, ready to experience the new sensation of sparkly bathwater!

O o O o O​

Sally paused mid-motion with a kettle still in her hands.

Bunnie didn't move either - but her attention sharpened instantly.

The water had been prepared carefully. Measured. Kettles heated to a comfortable bathing temperature, suitable for field conditions, and added to the bathwater.

No soap or other cleaning agent had been added yet, so there was no immediate explanation for the fizz of tiny bubbles that promptly surrounded Flambé. The water simply wasn't supposed to do that.

Then steam began to rise more heavily from the tub. An immediate, steady climb in heat, as if something within the water had decided their carefully curated heating had not been enough.

Sally slowly set the kettle down.

"…Okay," she said quietly as she considered what may be happening.

Bunnie exhaled through her nose. "Yeah," she murmured as her eyes stayed on the tub, steady and assessing. "That's… not normal."

"No, it isn't," Sally agreed.

Neither of them moved to intervene yet due to the simple fact that neither of them had enough information yet to justify action.

The steam continued to build slowly but steadily, and in that rising heat, the shape of the problem was becoming clearer even if its name still wasn't.

One thing was evident though - the girl would not have to worry about the usual forest parasites…

O o O o O​

After my bath, Sally dabbed my…

Hold on.

Why was my fur already dry?

And Bunnie was very carefully using her left arm—the cybernetic one—to brush and comb my fur.

I blinked.

Oh.

Oh no.

That wasn't carbonation.

That hadn't been carbonation at all, had it?

My brain tried to reconstruct what I had felt in the tub. The fizzing. The bubbles. The sudden "better" warmth that had settled in so naturally.

The bubbles weren't carbonation - they were heat cavitation from the water boiling.

I had been boiling the water.

Not in a way I could feel as heat, though. That was the problem.

It had just felt… wet. Tingly from the bubbles but otherwise neutral, and even the foggy vapor rising from the tub had felt more like cool mist than hot steam to me. Like temperature wasn't part of the equation unless I focused on it directly. I hadn't noticed the heat itself.

"…Ah," I said quietly.

Sally looked up from where she was finishing up the last bits of grooming. "Something wrong?"

I hesitated, then decided honesty was probably safer. "I think I may have boiled the bath water."

Nobody said anything for a moment, and even the guys over by the other tub were silent.

Bunnie didn't stop brushing.

Sally's hands paused for half a second - then resumed as if she had decided that stopping would not improve the situation. "…You were in it," She said carefully.

"Yes," I agreed.

After a few more moments of silence, Sally proceeded with a cautious tone. "And you're… fine?"

I considered that.

I felt fine.

Better than fine, actually.

"I think so?" I replied.

Bunnie let out a slow breath through her nose.

"Well," she said, matter-of-factly, "that's gonna take some gettin' used to."

Sally nodded faintly. "Yes. Although, if you can manage to refrain from heating the water any further, we can probably guarantee you a bathhouse spot right over one of the heating vents."

"More practice with tubs first, I would think," Bunnie added pragmatically - and I couldn't blame her for that cautious note.

I looked down at my hands.

So did they.

And for the first time since arriving in Knothole, I was very aware that "getting used to things" might not be something I get to do at my own pace.

This was going to be an issue, wasn't it?

 

[Tangent]

FLAMBÉ
Yet another SI fic by Tangent
Hot off the grill with another sizzling entree in the Sonic setting!

O o O o O​

My vague memories of the cartoon and the comic did not do the village of Knothole any justice at all. Picture Fern Gully combined with an Ewok tree village, only with some of the housing at ground level, and with caves, grottos, and side crevasses everywhere. At one end there is this enormous tree that just goes up and up and up, but it's not the only tree, just the biggest, and at ground level there's moss and ferns and a pink hedgehog staring at me and a stream running from high in a cliff wall on the other side of the huge tree all the way to going over the edge of a cliff at the other…

Wait…

Hold on…

I missed something important there.

Was it the big tree?

No, that wasn't it.

I mean, it's big and all, and I swear dome of the houses in the branches have multiple stories, and the hanging rope-and-plank bridges look like they'd be fun (and terrifying) to explore, but that wasn't it.

"Hi! I'm Amy Rose!"

That was it! The pink hedgehog in the yellow skirt and green blouse! A bit shorter than I am, so probably still her proper physical age?

And I just realized that I'm not even wearing shoes and gloves…

Nevermind - greeting now - die of embarrassment later!

"I'm Flambé," I replied far more shyly than I intended.

"Sonic! You're back!" another young voice called out, causing me to turn and look up at who could only be Tails as he rapidly flew over to where we were.


"That is so cool…" I could only say in awe.

O o O o O​

Sonic relaxed as a tension he hadn't quite been aware of released. When he had first met Tails, the young fox was being rather severely bullied by two other foxes barely any older than he was. On top of that, his parents had apparently recently gone missing, and he had no friends in that particular refugee camp.

So Sonic, who had recently separated from Mighty and Ray after the three failed to rescue Fiona, had taken Tails on as a sort of sidekick for a while.

Only for Tails to be sidelined due to his age when Sonic encountered Sally again and had been recruited into her Freedom Fighter cell.

It had been particularly hard on the young fox because, while nobody bullied him, he was literally the only preteen in the whole village until Amy Rose had been sent over from Mercia for reasons that Sonic still didn't fully understand.

Which would have been nice if they had seen each other as playmates rather than as rivals for his attention.

Flambé just accepting both Amy and Tails had been a small but pleasant surprise, and Sonic could only smile as the two dragged their new friend off to show her all of Knothole.

O o O o O​

I let myself be dragged along by Tails and Amy as they gave me the grand tour of Knothole.

Not that I'd remember much of it as they frequently pulled me along the moment one or the other thought of some other bit of the village that I simply had to see right that very moment.

At some point, I had somehow acquired a shabby second-hand set of boots and gloves from somebody as we crossed back and forth up, down, and across the village, but for the life of me i could not remember who gave them to me other than that they were some teenager who had outgrown them a while ago.

Well, at least they smelled clean, so there's that.

I put them on, of course, and my running around became a little more carefree as I no longer worried about stepping on rocks and twigs.

But the real highlight of the tour - at least for me - was when the two showed me a side crevasse off of the main gully that was apparently called Heat Row.

"It's pretty quiet now," Tails was explaining to both Amy and me. "Rotor does some metal casting at one of the workstations, and some of the elders who work these stations are passing on their skills, but… well… we can only bring in so much firewood, and a lot of it has to be stockpiled for winter each year. We have five kilns, but three of them haven't been used for years…"

"Really?" I had the beginnings of an idea. "Show me."

Sure enough, tucked away near the far end of the crevasse was a row of five kiln stations. Two of them looked like they were in use often enough to be cleaned regularly while the other three looked like they only saw occasional light maintenance.

I picked the one at the far end, not that it was really any different from the other four besides being near where some fresh water was coming out of the cliffside and into a trough that ran along the backside of several of the workstations. There were ladles, cups, buckets, and brushes hanging from pegs along the trough, so it was a good bet that the water was drinkable.

No latrine in the crevasse itself, but there was one nearby just outside of it, and no overbearing smell, so they obviously knew better than I how to set one up anyway.

I think…

"Tails, could you fetch Bunnie or Rotor or Sally or whoever I would need to talk to in order to move into one of the kilns?"

"I can do that," Tails nodded. "But why do you want to move into a kiln?"

"I'm a pyrokinetic," I said softly, looking away for a moment.

"A what?" Amy asked.

"It means she starts fires," Tails explained. "With her mind."

"Oh… Oh! That's so cool!"

"Not when I've only had these powers for a few days and am still getting used to them."

Tails saw the issue immediately. "I'll get Sally immediately. Rotor too, and maybe even Bunnie. They'll get you set up properly and maybe work out a way to train control."

"That would be appreciated, thanks," I replied softly.

As Tails flew off, I was relieved that neither of them had wanted immediate proof that I had fire powers.

"Show me!" Amy demanded excitedly.

"What?"

"You have fire magic! I want to see it!"

"That would be pyromancy, not pyrokinesis," I corrected, hoping to deflect her away from accidentally provoking whatever set off my powers. I mean, I'm fairly certain by this point that it's mostly intent based, with maybe a little subconscious use, but just because I was immune to my own powers didn't mean that it was something to play with.

"Potato tomato! Fire is fire! I wanna see you cast a… a… fire arrow!"

"Amy, I'm not going to call up a fire arrow just because you say so!"

"Then what do you call that?" Amy said smugly as she pointed over my head.

I looked up.

Sure enough, there was an arrow of pure flame floating in the air above my head.

I very carefully did not swear in front of Amy Rose, who seemed to be inordinately proud of what she made me do.

Spoiler: Flambé's (fire)starter set

 

[NitroNorm5688]

"Then what do you call that?" Amy said smugly as she pointed over my head.

I looked up.

Sure enough, there was an arrow of pure flame floating in the air above my head.

Click to shrink...

I am actually quite terrified that Flambe made an arrow appear over her head without meaning to. That means that with just a casual thought she could be burning things without even noticing it.

Fire crown of flames when???

 

[Navrin]

Picture Fern Gully combines with an Ewok tree village,

Click to shrink...

combined

Also, does that combination include OSHA compliance? (Ewok villages were one of the very few places in Star Wars where you would find railings to protect against falls.)

I'm glad that she seems to be getting along with the people she's met fairly well.