@themightyhumanbroom - Here are the additions you commissioned. I also added a bit in the beginning to make it have a smoother start.
The acrid tang of smoke and melted steel stung inside of Lanolin’s nose. Restoration HQ was gone, reduced to a coagulated heap of rubble under the weight of the airship. She could hardly tell where the ship ended and the ruins of HQ began; it was about as jumbled as her own thoughts, even as she shook her head to make the issues inside settle in order.
“Where is Clutch now?” Commander Rose’s voice sounded distant, but Clutch’s name sounded through the figurative water in Lanolin’s ears loud and clear.
“Dunno. Eggman took him off somewhere. For all we know, he’s . . .” Sonic made a creaking sound in the back of his throat, and from the corner of her eye Lanolin saw him draw a finger across his neck. “But I can look into it. See if there are any leads.”
“You?” Lanolin felt more than heard herself say the word as she pushed herself to her feet and turned to face him. Commander Rose glanced between them, one hand still on Director Jewel’s shoulder, as Sonic stiffened and crossed his arms.
“Yeah. Me. Got a problem?”
“Yes. Several.” A ferocious shaking like an electric current ran through Lanolin’s system as the colors around her burst into sharper focus. She could still hear herself speaking, though it was difficult against the pounding in her ears. Her chest tightened, her breaths coming shallower as she pointed a finger at his chest. “Starting with—you were the Phantom Rider. You disrupted the races and put people in danger. And you worked with Dr Eggman.”
“I worked with Clutch,” Director Jewel said quietly, and Tangle wrapped her tail around Director Jewel’s small frame. “I—”
“That’s different,” Lanolin said. “You didn’t know what type of person he was. Sonic knows who Eggman was, and he still made the deal.”
“It was the only way to draw enough attention away from Clean Sweep’s operations so Tails and Amy could sneak in and find out what was going on,” Sonic said flatly. “I did what I—”
“You worked with Eggman,” Lanolin repeated, and she took a step forward. Commander Rose and Tails stepped closer to Sonic. “How are we supposed to trust anything you say?”
“We can trust him because he’s Sonic,” Tangle snapped. “Besides, you let Mimic be on our team, so who are you to talk?”
Lanolin closed her eyes. “I’m not proud that I fell for his disguise. But unless you kept something else from me other than Sonic’s identity, I’m not aware of you having any proof of who Duo really was, either.”
“Look,” Sonic interrupted, as Tangle winced. “I get it. You don’t approve of what I did. You’re not the first to feel that way, and you probably won’t be the last. But we can sit here and argue about it all day, or we can get a move on with something actually productive.”
“Sonic’s right,” Commander Rose said. “Lanolin, Sonic didn’t want to work with Eggman, but it seemed like the only choice available to us at the time.”
“What about reaching out to your allies in the Restoration? Speaking with Belle, or Director Jewel, or me?”
“You?” Sonic scoffed. “Like you wanted to hear it. You yelled at us to get off the track!”
“Did you want to be run over by extreme gears going hundreds of miles per hour?”
“That’s not the—”
“Point? You’re right. It isn’t.” Adrenaline was coursing through Lanolin so strongly now that her voice shook with it. “The point is, not only did you choose to work with Dr Eggman this time, but you let him go. You had a chance to stop him leaving on the airship, didn’t you? You could have, and you didn’t.”
“Sounds like a lot of speculation from someone who wasn’t even there.”
“It’s what you always do. You wait for him to attack, fight him just enough so that he leaves, and then you run off to the next adventure, leaving everyone else to pick up the pieces and wait for the next attack.” Lanolin balled her fingers into fists. “You never strike first, and you never strike for good. You could stop him and others like him for good and you never do, and all of us are the ones who have to deal with the consequences!”
“Fuck yeah!”
Lanolin’s head snapped up as Surge’s voice rang out across the crowd. High above them, Surge and Kit lounged on their extreme gears, Surge leaning over the side of her bike, her acid green quills hanging around her face.
“Preach it, Puffs!” Surge added, her hands cupped around her muzzle to amplify her voice. “It’s about time someone got it!”
“Oh boy,” Commander Rose muttered, as Sonic shot a stormy glare into the sky. “I’m sure this will end well.”
