The world around him swam and blurred, hazing through various degrees of out of focus. Never quite in. He was face down on the ground. It was warm. He expected cold, but the ground was warm, like hot sand on a beach. And it hurt. His hand hurt, his head hurt, it really hurt. A sharp, throbbing pain, worse than anything he'd ever felt before. His instinct was to raise his hand, his good one, up to his head, to where it hurt, but he had to move first. Something dripped down the edge of his helmet and onto his face, and he squeezed his eyes shut, closing out the wavering, nauseating world.
Charmy lay still for several minutes, gritting his teeth, breathing in shattered sobs. He was crying. It hurt so much, he was crying. It took a lot of courage to get his good hand underneath him, to push himself up, and the movement made him feel very ill. He wanted to throw up. Scratch that, he was going to throw up.
"V-Vector...Espio?" Charmy tried to call out for them once he'd finished gagging, but it came out more as a whimper. His own voice sounded strange, like it was muffled, or through a filter. He managed to open his eyes, tried to look around. Couldn't see anyone. A long corridor stretched out in front of him. He raised his hand, feeling over his helmet, trying to work out why blood was on top of it. Because that was what was dripping down his face and onto his shoulders, it was blood. He was bleeding. His hand ghosted over his left antenna...or rather, where his left antenna should have been. He cried out again as a fresh wave of agony shot from the point of contact, and a panicked voice in his head managed to make itself heard. The antenna was gone. It just...wasn't there.
What were you supposed to do when you woke up somewhere weird, all by yourself, a part of your body missing and everything hurting, no memory of what happened beforehand, no clue who had hurt you or why? He knew when he'd grazed a knee or something, Vector would sometimes put a sticky plaster on it, one with smiley faces. Smiley faces would be nice right now. And Vector, if Vector was here it would be better. Or Espio. Or even Knuckles. Just anyone.
But when he called for them, there was no answer. No-one came to get him. So Charmy did the only sensible thing for a six year old to do in such a situation. He cried harder.
------
The whole thing started as a report of kidnappings in the area. It was two little girls playing together not too far from the docks, supervised by one of their mothers. The mother said someone had grabbed her from behind and held a funny smelling rag over her mouth and nose, and as she struggled and fell unconscious, another man grabbed the children. All she knew for sure was that it was a man with blue fur.
Team Chaotix hadn't been officially tasked with this particular case, it had been taken straight to the police. Still, with this happening so close to their detective office, keeping their eyes open for a clue that could help find these two girls couldn't hurt.
Things became a bit more personal when the same man with the blue fur grabbed Charmy as well.
Having witnessed the kidnapping and having been assaulted by the kidnapper's buddies, Vector and Espio had a much more solid lead to follow, and promised to rescue not just Charmy, but the two missing girls as well. Having been injured in the attack, when they narrowed down their search to the most likely place, they brought some back up in the form of some good friends used to playing the role of hero.
At this point, Charmy had been missing a little over a day, and the two girls for two and a half. The search party/investigation team arrived at a strange complex. The kidnapped girls were found locked in a room, unharmed but obviously frightened and greatly distressed. They revealed to their rescuers that the boy who had been with them had helped them try to escape, but the man with the blue fur had caught him again and had threatened to hurt him if the girls didn't do as told. They didn't see him after they were locked back in the room, but they were pretty sure he struggled and one said she saw him try and bite the man.
At around the same time, Sonic, who had accompanied the Chaotix on this particular venture, claimed to have found the kidnapper and two cohorts and to have apprehended them. The three refused to tell him where Charmy was, and further pressing from Vector and Espio only got the kidnapper to say he found the child incredibly annoying. One of the other two insisted their boss had taken the child downstairs, and that they weren't privy to the exact whereabouts. The second had cursed out his friend for spilling.
Tails and Amy took it upon themselves to escort the two girls home, and Sonic assured them he would be right back as soon as he'd deposited the criminals in a secure place. With that, Vector and Espio ventured into the lower levels to find Charmy.
The first clue they found was a telltale patch of blood on an old rickety staircase that creaked every time they so much as looked at it. The blood was dry to the touch, and led into a renovated basement level that now seemed to serve as a recreational room of some sort. Under a locked trap door beneath a lumpy carpet was a narrow corridor with more blood, a patch on the floor and a swathe on the wall made by a little hand. This blood wasn't completely dry, and so must have been less than an hour old. As unnerving as this trail was, they were on the right track. It seemed this area was used purely for storage of old and broken objects, possibly adjacent to a boiler room, and there were plenty of small, tight spaces to hide. They made sure to keep an eye out for him as they searched.
And there, tucked into a tight space in a cluttered corner, was Charmy. He was shivering violently and whimpering. Vector bolted to his side, kneeling close and trying to reach into that tight space. "Charmy, hey, Charmy, can you hear me?"
"Vec...Vector?" The bee shifted until Vector could see his eye, red from crying so hard.
"Yeah, kid, I'm here. Are you hurt?"
"Hhhh..." The sound was more of a breathy, shuddering moan than a proper reply. Vector shifted back, holding both arms out.
"Come here, Charmy, let me see."
"...It hurts..."
"I know. Come here, let me see."
With some hesitation, he managed to coax the child out of his hiding place, and felt his heart drop as he saw the damage. Charmy's left hand was clearly broken. It was swollen, and three of the fingers were at an unnatural angle. He had blood drying on his face and his left antenna wasn't visible. Vector gently tilted the boy's head, trying to get a better look. There was a crack across the helmet as well. A slight dent. There must have been one hell of an impact against the poor kid's head. This was not something Vector knew how to deal with, this was...this was bad. A look back at his company told him Espio wasn't sure how to manage this sort of damage either. He took a steadying breath and placed his hands on Charmy's cheeks, trying to get him to look him in the eye.
"Okay, Charmy, I...I'm going to take off your helmet to get a better look at your head, okay? I'll try and do it without hurting you, but it might hurt just a teeny, tiny bit, okay?"
"No! No, don't make it hurt! I don't want it to hurt any more! I want the hurt to stop!" He started to squirm and Vector pulled him in, getting a proper grip on him to prevent him scrabbling away.
"It will stop, I promise, but first I need to see why it hurts, okay?"
"I want to go home!"
"We're going home. We'll head home as soon as I'm done checking you over, okay?"
"I'm here too." Espio assured him, moving in closer, hiding his clenched fists from the child's view, not wanting to concern him. "We've apprehended the one who did this to you. You're safe now, and rest assured you did well. The other children are safe as well."
That seemed to calm him a little. He was still crying, still shaking, but he wasn't trying to escape or pull away. In fact, he rested his head against Vector's chest, seeking warmth and comfort. He held onto the larger figure, gripping tight as if scared his friends, his family, might disappear if he let them. Vector took this as his opportunity to remove the helmet, wincing when this caused Charmy to cry out again. He passed the helmet behind him, for Espio to hold, and took a close look at the damage. Around the area the helmet had cracked was a nasty-looking swelling, and a bloodied stump was all that remained of his antenna. The mere thought of someone doing this, of causing so much pain and damage to one of his boys, of leaving the kid to suffer...it made his blood boil. It made him angrier than he'd ever remembered feeling before, and it also scared him. He hadn't been there when Charmy had needed him, and this was the result. This would change the kid's entire life, his entire future, an injury this bad.
"Vector. We need to take him to a doctor."
"I know." He growled back. "How fast do you think you can get him to one?"
"On foot by myself to Seaside City? Two hours. One-forty-five if lucky."
"Not good enough. Get Sonic."
"Roger."
He disappeared back up the trap door, and Sonic soon took his place, promising to get Charmy to a hospital safe and sound. Tails would return in his plane to pick Vector and Espio up and take them to the same hospital, as it would be faster than having them make their own way back on injured feet. When the doctor overseeing Charmy's treatment spoke to Vector, she made a few things clear. The damage to his head likely would have killed him had he not been wearing a helmet at the time, the missing antenna would almost certainly result in permanent hearing loss on the affected side, there was a possibility the broken bones in his hand and fingers could require surgical intervention to heal properly and they were, of course, going to keep him in until they were absolutely sure he was good to go. The exact damage to his brain and what effects it would have in the long term was still uncertain, and he would have to be monitored in regards to that as well. Overall, far from the best outcome, but still not the worst. He wasn't in danger of dying, at least, but if only, he kept thinking...if only he could have stopped this, made it so Charmy never got hurt at all.
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