Hop To It [Sonic SI/OC] (2025)

[Devon Fiver]
Two months ago

Devon Fiver was, by his own admission, an uncomplicated man. His job was not one that required more from him than being able to drive, read, and not open letters. For twenty years he'd been a postman, and his route had shifted over time such that he'd driven his mail truck down every last street of Central City. And in a city this big, there was a lot to see. Apartment complexes had been built, inhabited, abandoned, and refurbished into a mom & pop shop with a home above the ground floor, in the time he'd had this job, and he'd noted every change as they happened.

People watching, that was fun too. He'd worked the morning route, the afternoon route, the evening route, AND the special-delivery service, and it was fascinating the different kinds of people you saw out and about at different times of day. From those maniacs who got up at 5 AM to jog to those fine upstanding citizens who peddled entertainment on street corners in every different shape imaginable. Literally, in the case of the contortionist.

So as a postman in Central City, he'd thought he had seen just about everything. He didn't have many feathers left to rustle, as it were.

When he got home from work, on a day like any other, he'd expected a quiet evening with his beautiful and beloved, a short argument over what dinner would be--not him arguing with her, her arguing with herself while Devon backed her up--before going out to the nice Spagonian place that they usually defaulted to in those situations.

He did not expect to find Angora on the sofa, glued to the television with a look of terror.

His first impulse when he saw the footage was to think that she'd put on a monster movie for some reason. An odd thing for her to do, since she didn't like violence much, but not outside the realm of possibility. It was displaying some sort of... sea serpent? Hayden would probably know the proper term.

"What are you watching, dearest?"

Angora jumped. "Devon! Oh, it's awful!"

She burst into tears and threw herself into his arms, while he blinked, bemused. "Is the movie that bad?"

"Movie? What are you--" She shoved him away. "It's not a movie, Dev, it's the news! Station Square was destroyed!"

Devon stared at her. It took several seconds for the words to properly crystalize in his head, but once they did he pulled her to the couch and sat down with her.

It was grim. If it weren't coming from a credible news source, he'd have had trouble believing it. Some... ancient entity called 'Chaos' of all things was riled up by Doctor Robotnik, and it ended up destroying the Square before being stopped. A flood of near-biblical proportions had torn down most of the downtown area and damaged everywhere else--in particular the sewers had been collapsed throughout the city.

The newsreel started showing off images of the destruction. Casinopolis had basically ceased to exist. The train station was still underwater. Both of them hissed when ruined storefronts flashed by, including one that would have been called Inven-Tory's is most of the letters hadn't been missing.

Angora thumbed his shoulder. "Devon, isn't that where Hayden's job is?" she asked, voice steadily rising in pitch.

"Mm."

"This is--someone would tell us if he was hurt, right?'

"Mhm."

"Devon, what if Hayden's hurt? What are we going to do."

Devon gave that question its due consideration. "...The only thing we can do is wait."

"But--!"

"Even if I took my vacation days, if we went down there we'd just be getting in the way." That's what he said, but the truth was that Devon was worried. Of course he was, the city where his son lived was a wreck! But Angora needed him, and she couldn't cope as well as he could, so he kept his face as neutral as possible while he hugged her. "Everything will be fine, Angie. Don't worry. Hayden will be just f-fine."

He hoped he wouldn't be made a liar.

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Life went on. Devon did end up taking a couple sick days to stay close to his wife while she fretted, but eventually he had to get back to work. Their friend, Charlotte, she was around more often, giving Angie another shoulder to cry on, but eventually Angora got tired of moping and started going out again.

Both of them kept an eye on the news religiously though, even as weeks went by without a single shred of news. Everything that came out about Station Square, every scrap about the rebuilding effort, everything they could find out, they did. And still nothing about Hayden.

Angora only got more worried. She was certain that if Hayden was able, he'd have called them to let them know he was okay.

Devon, personally, was more of the mind that no news was good news. If they hadn't recieved a letter of condolences yet, then surely he was still alive.

Or missing. He could also be missing. But Devon was trying to be optimistic for Angora's sake... and a maybe a bit of his own.

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"--proud to say that Station Square is still standing, in spite of it all! Today, we honor the brave rescue workers, the soldiers of the Guardian Units of Nations, all the reconstruction workers diligently rebuilding, and our town's own savior. But before we begin, I want to have a moment of silence in rememberance of those lost to the flood. Few though they may have been, each life lost was a tragedy, and so let us turn our minds towards them one last time, before we look to the future."

The screen turned dark as Mayor Gildenhall finished his speech and bowed his head. Three columns of names began scrolling up the screen, and Devon felt his fingers creak and Angora grasped it. They both leaned forward, scanning the list for one name in particular.

"...I don't see it," she breathed.

"I don't either."

They both relaxed fractionally. But not entirely, as they still didn't know what had happened.

When the screen brightened again, the mayor called a small fox boy to the stage and began making a grandiose speech about bravery. "I don't understand," Angora admitted after a minute. "What did that boy do to save the city?"

"I don't think he said," Devon admitted, distracted. The camera angle changed to give a better view of the crowd. It was overwhelmingly human, as to be expected, but Station Square had a few more Mobians than Central--that is, a higher fraction of the population was Mobians. There were probably more Mobians overall in Centr--"Angora, look!"

Devon leaned forward, nearly pushing Angie over in the process as he pointed out something in the crowd.

"What? What?"

"Look! Those are his ears!"

"What?!"

She followed his finger. At the edge of the crowd, at a point where a group of Mobians bordered more humans, a long pair of brown ears could be made out over the humans' heads. The same color as Angora, the same shape as Devon's.

The camera cut back to the stage. "Ack! No, go back!"

"Angie, that was him."

"You really think so?"

"I'd know our son's ears anywhere. That's how I always found him in the crowd before, after all."

They both leaned back into the couch, letting out identical sighs as they watched the rest of the broadcast. They saw those ears a few more times, but never more than that, but it was enough for Angora to agree: Hayden was alright after all.

"...But why hasn't he called?"

"Maybe the phone lines haven't got put back yet?" Devon suggested, though he already knew that--

"No, that was one of the first things they fixed, remember? To help coordinate construction?"

"I don't know, dear." Though, he had a suspicion. There were a couple of ways in which Hayden took after Angora more than him...

---------------------------------

Not long after, less than an hour after the award ceremony broadcast ended, they recieved a call. It wasn't a number they recognized, so Devon let it go to voicemail.

BEEP

"Hey Mom, Dad, it's me, Hayden. Sorry for not calling you for a while, but I've got a thing happening and I might need to--"

Devon's eyes widened, but Angora shoved him aside before he could answer. "-click- Hayden? Is that you?"

Positioning his ears to pick up the answer, Devon watched the conga line of emotion play across his wife's face. First sheer, unmitigated relief--which Devon could definitely relate to--which transitioned into joy, then changed to suspicion, frustration--

"Hey, Mom. Is my old room still set up?"

"What?"

"It's okay if I visit for a while, right?"

--and finally, settling on indignant rage.

"Hayden Ulysses Fiver, WHAT do you think you're doing?!"

A perplexed pause. "I'm calling you?"

"I have been WORRIED SICK for TWO MONTHS, and never heard anything from you, and you have the nerve to call me up, casual as you please, like nothing's wrong? I thought you were DEAD!"

Devon put a hand over his face and walked a few steps away while his wife worked off two months of nerves on the poor boy; though he'd be lying if he didn't say he had it coming. Devon let his own tension bleed out, out of view of Angora, and had only just managed to recompose himself when she finally dropped the phone and started pacing the kitchen, ranting quietly to herself.

He picked the reciever back up. "...Son?"

A sigh. "Hey Dad. Sorry about all this."

Devon smiled softly. "I'm just glad to hear you're okay."

---------------------------------
Shortly

When Devon said his goodbyes and hung up, he went and found Angora sulking on the couch in the living room.

He took a seat beside her and pulled her close. "He's coming over tomorrow."

"Well, he'd better," Angora said gruffly.

"And he's bringing guests."

She blinked, shocked out of her anger, and gave him a look. "What?"

Devon shrugged. "I'm not sure. He was being a little cagey. Says his 'roommates' are coming with him."

"Since when did he have roommates?"

He just shrugged again.

Angora sighed, then stood up and stretched while Dev watched. "Well," she said, and a bit of life seeped into her voice that hadn't been there ever since they heard the news. "I suppose we better get ready to recieve guests. Hayden better have a good excuse for being too busy to call us." She grinned viciously. "And if he's bringing his friends over..."

"Don't embarrass the boy too badly, Angie," Devon warned. "I bet he's had it pretty rough the past few weeks."

"He's had it rough?" Angora laughed. "More than a parent worrying over their child? I think not! Come on, I need help finding his old cartoon bedsheets. He's going to need to sleep somewhere after all!"

Devon sighed fondly. He stood up and followed after. "Yes, dearest."