Diamonds Survive AU

Playback: Mimic's Choice

WARNING: Some gore

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DIAMOND CUTTERS BASE, CLOVE SEA

Mimic twiddles his thumbs behind his back and sighs.

It's time to propose the mission. The mission that will get everyone killed.

Is he really going to do this? Of course he is. He promised the Doctor. If he chickens out on this, there's nothing he can shapeshift into to hide from the Eggman Empire's forces. He'll be fried takoyaki! They don't mean anything to him. He works for the strongest side, and they just aren't that side anymore. At least that's what he keeps telling himself. No, he's not just telling himself that! He believes it! He has to believe it!

Taking a deep breath, Mimic steps into the room where the others are waiting. Smithy is on the couch, Slinger is gazing into the room from the other doorway, and Whisper and Claire are merely standing there, holding hands.

"Mimic," Slinger mutters, somewhat impatiently. The octopus did say he had something big. "Que pasa."

"I've got us a gig!," Mimic exclaims as he raises the paper in his hand before flattening it down on the coffee table. "A little power-station among the trees by Sapphire Shore. It's wide open, and taking it down will be a total blackout for his forces along the coastline! Eggman's been steamrolling the world with the hedgehogs MIA. We can't pass this up!"

The rest of the crew talks amongst themselves for a few moments, each second making Mimic more fidgety. Maybe they'll decide not to do it. Maybe Mimic can just pretend he never proposed it, and they can continue their lives like they are, a big, happy, Eggman-fighting -

No. He cannot dare himself to use that word. Unless they say they won't -

Smithy interrupts Mimic's train of thought. "Let's go for it."

Mimic spontaneously thinks "yes" and "no."

As he heads back for his room, Mimic overhears the cute couple chatting. Claire is telling Whisper to hang back, like she always does. That was part of the plan that Mimic kind of overlooked. He'll coax her in somehow. There has to be a way. Or maybe he should stop thinking, and get her in the moment somehow. Mimic doesn't like relying on instinct, but sometimes it's all you have.

The bait has been taken. There is no turning back now.

-

EGGMAN POWER STATION - SAPPHIRE SHORE

Mimic takes in a deep breath. The air inside the station smells like metal and smoke. The octopus realizes that he's started to miss the sensations of a raid already. He knows that this is the last one he'll ever do.

"It's way too quiet," Smithy observes, once again disrupting Mimic's train of thought. "Claire? Where is the security?"

The lack of Badniks was meant to lull the Cutters into a false sense of it, but they're smart. They do the opposite.

"I'm..." Claire is struggling, and Mimic knows why. The group's special abilities and wild cards have to be rendered useless. "... having trouble seeing anything. Eggman must be projecting alpha-waves."

"Whisper?," Smithy continues looking for the inevitable twist by contacting the scout. "Anyone inbound?"

"All quiet out here," Whisper affirms from outside the station, perched on a hillside.

"I don't like this," Slinger worries, in Mimic's direction. "Eggman's ready for us this time."

Mimic's mind races. He's being addressed. Naturally, the step he has to take for things to go correctly is to affirm Slinger that everything will be okay. But of course, things aren't going to be okay. Everyone is going to die. Mimic knows that Slinger looks up to him. Of the three kids, the ocelot would be the most likely to accidentally call him "Dad." If he doesn't respond, he'll be suspicious. Say something!