Geoffrey St. John had went through a tough battle along with his wife Hershey, the Freedom Fighters and the Chaotix. Former Royal Secret Service member Wombat Stu came along too, who had came from Downunda to visit Geoffrey and Hershey before the mission. They all had saved a bunch of hostages from Dr. Eggman, who had captured them to try to force United Federation to join him, but Dr. Eggman had failed. Wombat Stu was captured along with the hostages, but he had helped the others escape too. One of the hostages was a 10 year old Mobian brown fox named Tucker Evans, an orphan boy who had been friends with Geoffrey and Hershey for a long time. He was placed with a foster family before the destruction of Knothole and hadn’t seen the St. Johns for a while, but sometime after the construction of New Mobotropolis, he and his foster family moved there where Tucker to see Geoffrey and Hershey again. However, Geoffrey and Hershey learned that Tucker’s foster family had an abusive husband, and Tucker was taken out of the family as the other kids were taken into custody by the wife. Tucker then went back to an orphanage, but Geoffrey and Hershey’s love for Tucker soon made them possibly consider adopting him as their own son.

After the hostages were free, Tucker ran towards Geoffrey shouting his name, but so did a Egg SWAT. The Egg SWAT fired it’s gun at Geoffrey, but it missed him. Geoffrey fired at it with an explosive crossbow arrow, destroying the Egg SWAT immediately. Geoffrey then saw the others fighting off the remaining Egg SWATs to protect the hostages who had escaped the trap Eggman had set, and he saw Wombat Stu in the distance too. Wombat Stu then noticed something terribly wrong and ran towards Geoffrey’s direction. “Geoffrey…” Stu said as he pointing behind Geoffrey’s direction, and Geoffrey looked back, and saw Tucker. The gunshot that missed Geoffrey hit Tucker in the belly, and the gunshot was bleeding. “Tucker…” Geoffrey said quietly in a horrified voice. Tucker fell over to the ground. “TUCKER!!!!” Geoffrey shouted his name as he ran towards him. Hershey saw what happened, and became horrified too. “Oh no no no no no please no!!” Hershey said as she ran to where Tucker and Geoffrey were. Wombat Stu was too horrified to go over to where Geoffrey was.

Geoffrey started to comfort Tucker as he was hurt. “Geoffrey… my belly hurts really bad…” Tucker said in a weak voice. “I know bud, but please try to stay strong. I’m going to try to get some help”. Then Hershey got to the scene. “Tucker! Oh no, what happened?!” Hershey shouted. “Tucker was shot… he’s hurt really bad” Geoffrey said in a sad voice. “I don’t know if he’s going to make it”. “Geoffrey… Hershey… I’m scared…” said Tucker. Hershey replied with “I know sweetie, just try to stay strong. I know you’re a very brave little boy”. Tucker started to cough some blood, and this scared Geoffrey and Hershey. “Buddy, listen to me.” Geoffrey said. “You know I always love you no matter what, and you’re one of the nicest kids who I ever met. You’re the best little bud I even had. And I always told myself that I would feel like a horrible person if something terrible happened to you.” Tucker then asked “Would you stop loving me if I wasn’t around anymore?” Geoffrey replied with “Of course not. I would always have you in my heart, and so would Hershey. I’ve never had such a good little friend like you, and you know… *sigh*” Geoffrey began to tear up along with Hershey as he spoke. “I don’t know where I would be without you”. Geoffrey sniffed as he told him that. Hershey then said “And Tucker, I also love you too *sniff*, and I always will…” Hershey sobbed a bit and then said “You’re such a sweet little angel who gave me and my sweetheart Geoffrey… *sniff, sob* such good memories, and you always said the nicest things about me and Geoff…” Tucker then said “You guys are my best friends, and I never thought I see you cry Geoffrey since you’re a grown up man.” as he began to tear up too. Geoffrey, in a very sad voice, replied with “Of course grown up men like me can get really sad too *sniff* when the ones we love might go away forever… *sniff* It’s also OK for anyone to cry, no matter what age or gender”. Hershey then said “And we’re sad because we might lose you, and we don’t want that at all… *sniff* But we’ll try to stay strong and be confident that you might make it.” Tucker then said “OK guys, I understand, but if I have to go, can you please sing me a song Hershey?” “Of course, sweetie.” Hershey said. With her voice, she sang a soothing song to Tucker. As she sang, she struggled to not sniff or sob as she sang. Her voice soothed Tucker despite how much she struggled. “That was beautiful as always, Hershey” said Tucker as he smiled. Geoffrey and Hershey smiled for a bit too as Hershey said “You’re always so sweet”. Geoffrey then remembered something he wanted to tell Tucker. “Tucker, I need to tell you something important before it’s too late”. Tucker had gotten much weaker and said “What’s… *cough cough* what’s that?”. Geoffrey then said “ Well, you see, me and Hershey had put a lot of thought into this, and maybe there’s a possibility we could-“.

Just before Geoffrey finished his sentence, Tucker then started to cough much more. Eventually he stopped, and let out a few gasps of air, and then stopped finally. He however laid in Geoffrey’s arms motionless, with his eyes open and inanimate. This horrified Geoffrey and Hershey more. “Tucker?!” Geoffrey said in an extremely sad voice as he shook Tucker a bit. “T… Tucker?....” he said again. After a few more shakes, he and Hershey came to the horrible realization what had happened. Then, it felt as if their hearts ripped in half, and they both started to cry. Tucker had died in Geoffrey’s arms, and Geoffrey and Hershey sobbed over their devastating loss as tears landed on Tucker’s dead body. Geoffrey had never sobbed so hard in a long time ever since he thought Hershey had died before he started to work for Ixis Naugus some time ago. And now, Hershey was there with him mourning with him. Geoffrey then closed Tucker’s dead eyes with his hands as he and Hershey continued to cry while they both stayed close to each other to give comfort. “Goodbye buddy… we’ll miss you…” Geoffrey said as he sobbed. Hershey then said “I’m so sorry Geoffrey. I wish I was there to try to save him” as she cried. Geoffrey then said “It’s not your fault. It’s all Dr. Eggman’s fault this happened…” as he continued to cry too. They both continued to mourn their loss, as Wombat Stu watched from a distance with guilt and grief, as he felt he got Tucker killed by accident, since he remembered going after him as he escaped on his own and wasn’t able to save him from getting in danger.

Eventually, the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix finished off the Egg SWATs, and then noticed what tragedy had happened as they went over to the scene. Sonic was horrified and sad with what happened and said “What… what happened?!” Hershey then said “Tucker took a shot to the belly as he tried to get to Geoffrey to be safe. He suffered horrible pain and now…… he’s gone.” Sonic felt really bad for the two, and Sally, Bunnie and Amy Rose also shed a tear or two as they saw the true tragedy of what happened. Sonic said to Geoffrey “I… I wish I could have helped… I feel like a fool for not noticing how Tucker escaped on his own somehow”. Geoffrey said to Sonic “Don’t blame yourself. *sob* You were held off by a lot of Eggman’s forces, and you had to fight them off the protect the other hostages. So please don’t blame yourself…” Sonic didn’t feel like crying with them, but he sure was sad along with the rest of the group. The mission had a bittersweet outcome, where Eggman’s plan’s were foiled once again along with almost all of the hostages being saved, but one hostage who was really close to two of the heroes was lost, bringing them both to heartbreak, and their allies to sadness.



A collaboration done with http://nitroactivestudios.deviantart.com/gallery/ who wrote this story.
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All characters belong to Sega/Archie Comics with the exception of Tucker, who belongs to http://nitroactivestudios.deviantart.com/gallery/