"Training Trouble"
Authors: Robert Brown and Francis Tolbert
Disclaimer: This story uses characters created and copyrighted by Sega of
America, Inc. and Archie Comics (except where noted, in which case
they were created and copyrighted by us or by another and we have
permission to use them). The authors hereby give permission for
this story to be downloaded and/or printed at 1 copy per user as
long as (1) no changes to the story are made without our express
written(not e-mailed) permission and (2) no attempt is made to
profit from this story. If either or both rules are violated, it
will be considered a violation of copyright law.
Author's Note: Well, Francis pretty much summed everything up in the last
Author's Note, which I'm still amazed that he actually wanted to write. But
he was right about one thing: no more empty promises from us. This is a labor
of love for us both, and it's one we enjoy to no end. As we've often said, we
will write until we have nothing left to write about or until we have no one
left to write for. Thank you all for standing with us for so long; we are
here only because you still want us to be. Till next time, Happy Reading!
Cast of Characters (in order of appearance)
Princess Alicia Rose Hedgehog***
Queen Sally Alicia Hedgehog
King Sonic Hedgehog
Prince Juice Hedgehog***
Angela Shi-rat***
James Echidna***
Rosie Shi-rat***
Julie-Su Echidna
Tanis Shi-rat***
Nadia Osaya***
DJ Osaya###
Desirée D'Coolette***
Bunnie D'Coolette
Sarah Prower***
Miles Prower III***
Princess Sondra Acorn-Prower
Darrin D'Coolette***
Antoine D'Coolette
Charleen Oster###
Maxwell Kavenoff###
#34
Princess Alicia Rose of the house of Hedgehog, second in line to the
throne of Mobius, was at a loss for words as she stood in the center of
Knothole Village. "You expect me to do what?" she repeated for the third
time in the past minute.
Her mother, Queen Sally Alicia of the house of Hedgehog, current ruler
of Mobius, sighed and shook her head. "I want you to take these weights, one
in each hand, one on each ankle, and one around your waist, and fly up as high
as you can for as long as you can," she explained once more.
Alicia looked down at the five weights, each one at least twenty pounds,
and backed up a step. "I can't do that," she protested. "I just got used to
sixty pounds, and now you want to move me up to over a hundred? It's not
possible."
Sally smirked and casually looped all five weights around one of her
ankles. With seemingly no effort, she floated up until the weights were all
higher than her daughter's head. "I can lift almost three times this weight,"
Sally said, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "And by the time I'm
done with you, you will too."
Alicia nearly growled at her mother as she floated back down, but her
upbringing prevented such an unladylike display. She thought back to the
first training session she'd had one month ago with her mother, the day right
after they'd returned with the Magma Stone. Alicia had known something was up
when one of the palace maids had woken her up early. "The Queen requests your
presence at Knothole this morning," the young porcupine had said. "You are to
be there as soon as you finish your breakfast."
Alicia had acknowledged the maid with a nod of her head and had quickly
gotten out of bed. She had hurried through her morning routine and her meal,
not wanting to keep her mother waiting. She noticed the other Chosen Ones
were similarly rushing, presumably to their own training. Fortunately, Angela
had taken the time to heal them of their injuries, otherwise no one would have
been up to any training at all. Even then, it had taken her flying at full
speed to get there in time.
Sally had been waiting for her in the center of Knothole, just as she
had earlier this day. "You were born with your power so you take it for
granted," she had said, floating up until she was eye level with her daughter.
"You should be able to do more than I can, but we never took the time to train
your strength. That changes today.
"From what you said last night," she had continued, grabbing hold of
Alicia's hand and pulling her to the ground, "you were barely able to fly out
of there holding only Darrin. I've had to fly with a lot more than that, and
one day you will too. Knuckles made us all see this is more important than
the fight we led against Robotnik, and I'm going to make sure you're ready for
it. I give you the choice right now to leave. You can go home and we can
forget all about this. But if you're going to fight the Fallen Ones, then you
do whatever I say."
Alicia had thought about things seriously for a moment. "Mother, I am a
princess," she had answered quietly. "I have a duty to this planet and all
the animals on it. I'll do whatever it takes to protect us, even if it costs
me my life."
Sally had hugged her then, a tear falling from each of their eyes.
"You've made me proud this day," she had said, her voice faltering slightly.
"Now then, let's get to work."
And for the past month, Sally had been an exacting taskmaster, often
training her daughter to the brink of exhaustion before letting her return to
the palace. "We don't know when they're going to attack," she kept saying.
"We have to take advantage of the time afforded us."
And now here Alicia was, grumbling to herself as she fastened the final
weight around her waist. She closed her eyes, summonning up her powers from
wherever they lay deep inside her. Slowly, ever so slowly, she felt her feet
leave the ground and rise a few inches. But she couldn't hold it for long as
the weights dragged her back down.
"Good start," Sally said, steadying her daughter as she wobbled for a
second. "Again though, and this time keep your eyes open."
Alicia pushed her bangs out of her face and forced a smile for her
mother. As she tried again to float skyward, a blue blur and a brown blur
streaked by them, somehow strangely silent.
The reason for the silence was simple: the blurs were moving at a
subsonic pace. "Oh come on Juice," the blue blur teased, running circles
around the other one. "Don't tell me your old man is this much faster than
you."
Juice, unlike his sister, had no problems growling at his parent. Then
again, he couldn't really say anything else while holding the Angela shaped
dummy in his hands. It had been made to look just like her, and weighed the
same too. And to make matters worse, another one that was like Desirée had
been attached to his waist and dragged along behind him.
Juice tried to go faster, but in his haste he didn't watch where he was
going and tripped over an exposed tree root. "Look out!" he yelled, bringing
his arms up to absorb the impact of hitting the ground.
Sonic ran over to him and helped his son up. "Are you all right?" he
asked, checking him over for injuries.
"I've had it!" Juice yelled, pulling away from his dad. "That's it, no
more! I can't handle it, I'm through!"
"You're through?" Sonic asked, grabbing Juice's head and forcing him to
look at where the dummy of Angela lay, broken and shattered. "What if this
had been real? What if you were trying to escape and had Angela in your hands
when you tripped? Do you want her to end up like that because you couldn't
handle it?"
Juice dropped to his knees, a cry wrenched from his lips that sounded
like it had been torn from his soul. He punched the ground in frustration and
fear. "I can't do this," he said between punches. "I just can't do this."
Sonic grabbed his fist and held it firmly. "There's no one else Juice,"
he said firmly. "Giving up is the same as helping the Fallen Ones, and you
know it. If this planet means anything to you, if Angela means to you what
your mother means to me, there's nothing you won't do to protect them."
Juice slowly looked up at his father, a fire burning in his eyes; the
same fire that still burned in Sonic's eyes after all this time. "What do I
have to do?"
"Get up," Sonic said, pulling him to his feet. "We'll work on your
strength later. For now, there's another skill you have to master."
Juice couldn't help the shiver that ran through him as Sonic pulled a
power ring out of his backpack. His brown quills nearly stood up on end as
he remembered his first experience with them. He had been a kid of about
five, playing hide and seek with his friends, when he stumbled across it in
his father's backpack. Not knowing any better, he'd grabbed hold of the shiny
object to get a closer look at it.
Reacting to Sonic's DNA in him, the very DNA that gave him his super
speed, the power ring had activated, surrounding Juice in its golden light.
At first, Juice had been in awe of its beauty. But then he started running at
top speed, completely out of control, bouncing off the floor and walls like a
pinball and screaming in terror the whole time.
There was no telling when he would've stopped if it hadn't been for
Sonic snatching him out of mid-air and cradling him to his chest. But since
that day, Juice had had an unconquerable fear of using a power ring. Because
they were still at peace, no one had taken the time to cure him of it. Now
though, it was a mistake that needed to be quickly rectified.
Juice could feel the instinct to run away kicking in as Sonic held it
out toward him. But another image flashed before his eyes, an image of Angela
lying broken and bloodied, just like the dummy that bore her likeness. His
fear for her life conquered the unconquerable and he reached out and grabbed
hold of the ring, letting its power fill him for the first time in twelve
years.
In the nearby Great Forest, Angela was chanting a spell under her
breath, feeling the power of fire course through her veins. The power she was
calling on was foreign to her, an attack spell when she was used to using only
defense and evil-purging spells. It was the one part of her training she
didn't like; she didn't want to learn how to hurt others. But her counterpart
Tanin had no such problems. And if she wanted to keep her friends safe, she
had to master this magic.
A flash of gold off to the side caught her eyes, disrupting her
concentration. No sooner had her spell been broken than another one, drawing
from the elements of water and wind to form a blast of frigid air, struck her
in her chest and knocked her to the ground. "Ouch," she murmured, rubbing the
nearly frozen area of her robes to try and warm them.
"Oh I'm sorry," a purple echidna said, letting his hands drop to his
sides, "I thought you'd be ready for that one. Looks like you aren't ready
for me to bring the strength of my attacks up yet."
"I guess not, James," Angela said, glaring at him beneath her eyelashes.
"You can never let your guard down," Rosie said from where she watched
them spar. "When you fight for real, your opponent will take advantage of
every weakness that presents itself. Lose your focus, lose the fight, lose
your life. They won't hesitate to kill you if you give them the chance."
"I can defend myself from anything he throws at me," Angela protested,
climbing back to her feet.
"All defenses eventually break down," another echidna said, stepping out
from behind a tree. "The best thing you can do is defend till you get an
opening to attack, but you have to have the ability to make an attack."
"So you were paying attention to what Father was teaching you," James
said with a half-smirk.
Julie-Su let out a chuckle as she shook out her banded hair. "If you
tell him that, I'll deny it."
James rolled his eyes a little, but the smirk never left his face. As
soon as he turned back toward Angela, he had to dodge out of the way of the
fireball she'd just thrown at him. "What was that for?" he demanded, patting
out some singed quills.
"'Never let your guard down,'" she mimicked in her mother's voice.
James actually laughed out loud at that remark. "You're learning."
"I just wish this was a lesson we never had to teach," Tanis said,
appearing in his trademark swirl of wind.
"Actually dragged yourself away from those scrolls dear?" Rosie asked,
a smile playing on her lips.
Tanis sighed and rubbed his eyes. For the past three weeks he had been
trying to decode the scroll found in Tanak' Acorn's tomb as well as the one
found in his ancestor Iridal's. And so far, neither one was making much
sense. He could tell it was the same code, but had yet to find the key for
either. But what disturbed him most was that there was no reason for Tanak'
to have known this secret code. No reason he wanted to consider anyway. "I
thought that taking a short break might help me think more clearly," he
admitted.
Rosie nodded and kissed her husband on the lips lightly. "Glad you're
finally taking a break. I do hope you'll actually come to bed at a decent
time tonight."
"I'll try," Tanis promised, placing his arms around Rosie and settling
back against a tree to watch his daughter train.
Back at the palace, Nadia was hard at work on the computer. Being the
resident computer expert, especially since she had once been a computer, she
was the natural choice to coordinate the search for the remaining artifacts.
"Wind, Water, Lightning, Shadow, and Life," she muttered, her fingers flying
over the keys. "There have to be at least two artifacts for each of these
Emeralds. But with all these legends, how can I tell which ones are suitable?
For that matter, how can I tell which ones are real and which are just
legends? There has to be some better way."
She sent what few documents she had found to the printer and waited for
them to print out. While she was standing there, a series of approaching
sonic booms followed by a loud thud against her door caught her attention.
She ran to the door and opened it, surprised to see a dazed Juice sprawled on
the floor with a power ring fading from his hand. "Are you all right?" she
asked, helping him to his feet.
"Yeah, I guess," he said, shaking the cobwebs out. "I still don't know
how Dad does it so easily."
"Lots of practice," Nadia said, looking back at the printer and saw that
it had finished. "Good thing you're here though. I've got some promising
leads you might want to look at."
Juice took the papers from Nadia and glanced them over. "Oh, we've
already looked into these," he said, handing them back. "DJ gave us these
last week."
"DJ?" Nadia asked, her eyes narrowing slightly.
"Yeah. He's been helping us from the start. How do you think we knew
about the Magma Stone before you did?"
"Oh really? Seems like I have to have a talk with my son."
That's when Juice realized he'd just slipped up. "Well, I'm sure you
have things to do so I'll be leaving now bye!" he said quickly, revving up
his legs and taking off quickly.
Nadia didn't even care that Juice had left. "Computer, where is my
son?" she asked, pulling on her own trenchcoat.
"You shouldn't be too hard on the boy," the computer said in a calming
tone.
"I know he's your friend, but he's my son. Tell me where he is."
"I'm sure he was just trying--"
"Tell me!" Nadia ordered, cutting the computer off.
"Et tu, Nadia?" the computer asked, sounding sad. Ever since Donovan
had stopped using the computer over Nadine's disappearance, he spoke to it
very curtly, if at all. Both Nadia and DJ continued to use it, however, but
this was the first time Nadia had ever used that tone with it.
Nadia took a breath and forced herself to calm down. "I'm not angry at
you," she spoke slowly. "But I am a protective mother who does not want her
child to put himself in any danger. Can you understand that?"
"Understandable," the computer said, but it didn't sound sad anymore.
"He's not in any danger, unless you consider the Great Library dangerous."
"Is he alone?"
"No," the computer replied after a moment. "He is with the daughter of
the guard."
"Daughter of the guard? Oh, you mean Desirée. Well then, that's...."
Nadia's maternal senses kicked into overdrive, perceiving a different threat
to her son. "Teleport me there now, if you please."
"I don't think they'll be doing anything in the line that you're
thinking of, but I'll teleport you there anyway. Teleporting now."
Nadia closed her eyes to brace against the nausea she knew was coming.
As used as she was to it, it barely affected her for more than a few seconds.
Her eyes opened and she started looking around for the line of thread that she
knew would lead her straight to their positions. It didn't take her long to
spot it and she followed it at a brisk pace.
At the other end of that thread, DJ and Desirée were hard at work,
trying to find some more information that could give them a chance against the
Fallen Ones. Working together, they had isolated several legends and tales
that were worthy of being checked out. Desirée had insisted that she really
wasn't cut out for this kind of work, but it just took one look from DJ to get
her to change her mind. "I thought I was only supposed to do that to you,"
she had kidded him earlier.
DJ tapped her on the arm lightly to get her attention, showing her yet
another artifact he'd found. "Hmm, I don't know," she said after reading it.
"This one is so well hidden that we might never find it. Still, put it in the
pile and we'll bring it back with us."
DJ nodded and turned to put the book with the others, but instead looked
right into the face of his mother. "Well hello there," she said sweetly.
The book dropped from DJ's hand as he stood perfectly still in surprise.
Desirée jumped back as the book hit the floor. "What the hoo-ha is the matter
you?" Desirée asked, her accent in full force from her surprise. "You tryin'
to give me a heart attack or something?"
DJ simply pointed at his mother in answer. Desirée looked where he was
pointing and took a step back. "Oh, Aunt Nadia. I...didn't expect you here."
"Apparently not," Nadia said. "What I want to know is what the two of
you are doing here, and just why I was never informed of this."
"Well, Aunt Nadia, it's like this. We, the Chosen Ones, had agreed to
try and keep you adults out of this as much as we could. And I couldn't think
of anyone better than DJ at computer searching. But he brought me here
because you were using the computer. And since he helped us before, he wanted
to keep helping us to keep everyone safe."
Nadia took a moment to let all that sink in, using her tail to tickle
DJ's nose to make sure he wasn't stuck permanently pointing at her. A loud
sneeze from him assured her that he wasn't. "I guess I can't really fault you
for that," she said reluctantly. "But as an overprotective mother, I have the
right to know where my son is, what he's doing, and who he's doing it with.
Do we have an understanding?"
DJ and Desirée both blushed, catching the double meaning of his mother's
words. "Umm, OK," Desirée said. "I think I can remember that."
"Good," she said, grabbing both of them by an ear. "Now you're both
coming back to the palace with me. DJ because I'm going to start teaching him
all my computer tricks. And you Desirée because afterwards we're going to
have a little girl talk."
Desirée winced, but held her tongue so that she wouldn't make the
situation, or the pain in her ear, worse. "Teleport us back computer," Nadia
said as they reached the doorway. A few seconds later they were all standing
in the Osaya's main room.
"I'll leave you two alone now, I know you have a lot to teach him,"
Desirée said, inching toward the door. "When you're done with him, you'll
know how to find me. Have fun DJ!" She blew him a quick kiss and ran out the
door.
"I'll find her later," Nadia said, guiding DJ to a chair and making him
sit down. "Now then, let's see just how good you really are."
"What's about to go on here?" the computer asked.
"If DJ is determined to help them, I'm going to make sure he knows
everything I know."
"Fair enough," the computer said with a sigh. "Just don't be too
surprised."
Desirée ran toward her family's rooms, dodging and weaving around
animals too slow to get out of her way. "Almost there," she thought, making a
sharp turn down a hallway. "Just a little bit further and I'll be--" Her
thought was cut off and she got knocked into a wall by a flying roundhouse to
the face. "Ow," she thought, blinking to clear the stars that dotted her
vision. They cleared just in time for her to see a fist aimed directly at her
head. "Yow!" she yelled, dropping to the floor and just missing the impact
that left a crack in the wall behind her.
"You're getting slow Desirée," Bunnie said, dropping into a side stance
and waiting for her daughter to get to her feet. "If I'd been the enemy, you
wouldn't be conscious right now, at the very least. You'd think you'd know
better after a month of this."
Desirée kipped up to her feet, landing in a back stance. "It takes more
than that Mom," she said, wiping away a slight trickle of blood from where
she'd bitten her lip. She launched a sharp savate kick at her mother that was
easily dodged, but managed to catch a glancing blow with the follow-up ax
kick.
"Better," Bunnie said with a smile, rubbing her shoulder. "Now see if
you can handle this!" she yelled, lunging forward with a reverse punch-side
kick combination. Desirée blocked the first and ducked the second, trying to
sweep her mother's leg out. Bunnie hopped above the sweep and tried to come
down on her daughter's extended leg knee first, but Desirée quickly rolled
backward to her feet.
The fight continued for a time, both of them using the hallways, and the
animals that walked them, to the best advantage possible. At one point Bunnie
caught Desirée with a charging spear, driving her through a door and rolling
through the tackle to land on her feet.
"Hey!" Sarah said, grabbing a piece of crystal that had fallen from the
table where she sat before it could hit the floor.
"Oh, sorry Sarah," Bunnie said, pulling Desirée to her feet and holding
her steady as she wobbled. "We didn't break anything, did we?"
"No, it's ok," Sarah answered, though her two tails were lashing the air
angrily. "You just startled me."
"We'll continue this elsewhere," Bunnie said, pulling her dazed daughter
out with her and closing the door behind them.
The young hedgehog waited until they were gone before relaxing. If they
hadn't been otherwise occupied, they might have seen her doing something she
wasn't supposed to be doing. But if they had seen, they gave no indication of
it.
Sarah regarded the crystal in her hand as she set it back on the table.
It was still rough hewn, but you could tell that when she was finished it
would look like a dragon in full flight. All around her were crystal cutting
and shaping tools, but they were all as clean and sharp as when they had been
bought. That was because she had never used them.
She placed a finger on the crystal and closed her eyes. When she opened
them, they shone with all the colors of the rainbow. Slowly she moved her
finger across the crystal shape, changing it into the form she wanted with
nothing more than her touch and her will.
"Hey, Sis!" M3 called, running into the room.
"What's up big bro?" Sarah asked, her eyes shifting back to normal
before her brother could notice the difference.
"I talked Dad into giving us some more flying lessons. You up for it?"
Sarah looked back at the crystal she was shaping. It was possibly the
greatest joy in her life to create the works of crystal art she was capable
of. That is, next to flying. But where the flying was hard to learn, this
was second nature to her. She could just hear one of the adults reminding
her, "Nothing worthwhile is ever easy."
"All right, give me a few minutes to get ready," she said, a smile
breaking out on her face.
"Great! Dad says he might take us for a dip in the Hot Springs if we're
good, so don't goof up today."
"Me? You're the one who always lands on me."
"Could you two keep it down?" Sondra called from the bedroom she shared
with Tails. "I'm working on something."
"Probably another 'famous' statue," M3 whispered to his sister.
Sarah nodded with a giggle, knowing that her mother was where she got
her abilities from. But no one knew she had them, not even her mother. She
was afraid if anyone found out about them, they'd try to take them away from
her. At least, that's what her friend told her.
No one saw or knew of her friend, because it was all in her head. She
could hear it speaking to her, and knew she wasn't crazy or anything because
it had shown her how to create her crystals. She trusted her friend completely
with everything, so when it had asked her to keep it a secret, she readily
agreed. She hoped her statues would be as famous as her mother's one day, but
for now she could only work on small crystals, not the full size ones Sondra
used.
"Hey, Mobius to Sarah, wake up!" M3 said, waving his hand in front of
his sister's face. "Come on, Dad has to meet with Sir Charles later for more
of that...aeriorecombination stuff."
Sarah smiled and shrugged her thoughts off for now. "I think you mean
'aeroreconnaissance'," she said in a smart-aleck voice.
M3 grabbed his sister in a headlock and gave her a playful noogie.
"Come on," he said, walking out while still hanging onto his sister.
"Hey, let go!" Sarah said, trying to squirm out of his grip, but she
couldn't. "This is embarassing," she thought, her cheeks reddening as she
thought of everyone watching her get dragged like this.
Somewhere on the outskirts of Mobotropolis, Darrin sat on the roof of a
building and watched the street below. He was on the lookout for anything out
of the ordinary. Or more specifically, he was on the lookout for his father.
His training over the past month had been simple: his father would tell him
where to be and how long he had to prepare. When that time ran out, Antoine
would try to sneak past his son and into whatever building he was watching.
If Darrin caught him, that was the end of the training for the day. If he did
not, then Antoine would engage him in a furious swordfight, even though Darrin
was never allowed to bring his sword with him. If Darrin escaped the building
without injury, Antoine called an end to it. But if Darrin shed even one drop
of blood, then Antoine would give him a new location to get to, and a shorter
amount of time to get there.
So far, Darrin had only missed his father three times in the month that
has passed. And of those three, Antoine was only able to wound him once, an
intentionally shallow cut on Darrin's left hand. The training that day had
gone on well through the night, and Darrin wanted to make sure he never had to
go through that again.
Just then, movement in a nearby tree caught his attention. "I have you
this time Dad," he thought, waiting for Antoine to appear. But what emerged
looked nothing like his father. It was a female cat, her fur such a pure
white it fairly shone in the late afternoon sun. She was wearing a simple
green sleeveless dress that ended just below her knee. And it was good that
it did because she was running, running like she feared for her life. Though
that could be because chasing her was a rather large rat swinging a flaming
runesword.
"Kavenoff!" Darrin realized, swinging his legs over the side of the
roof. Without a moment's hesitation, he threw himself down over fifteen feet
and landed on Maxwell, knocking him to the ground.
Maxwell lay stunned for a few seconds as Darrin tried to pull the
runesword from his grasp. Before he could, Maxwell pushed up forcefully,
throwing Darrin off and to the side. "If you want my sword so badly," he said
in his horrible, pained voice, "you will have to kill me for it."
"And by killing you become you?" Darrin retorted. "Don't take me for a
fool."
"You are a fool for interrupting my misery in the first place!" the
Kavenoff screamed, lunging forward with an overhand slash. Darrin dodged
nimbly to the side but tripped on a piece of broken pavement and ended up face
first on the street. "You tried to play the hero by saving the damsel,"
Maxwell said, stalking forward. "But now, who will save you?"
Darrin brought up his arms as Maxwell brought the sword down in the vain
hope of defending himself. When the sword never struck home, he opened his
eyes a crack and saw another sword had stopped it. "Will I do?" Antoine
asked, using his sword to push Maxwell back.
"More players to my game are always welcome," Maxwell said, his eyes
beginning to glow to match his sword.
"I think it is time I change the rules," Antoine said, reaching into his
pocket with his free hand and pulling out a golden amulet. "Recognize this?"
The Kavenoff growled and took a step back. He thought about attacking
despite this turn of events, but a black whirlwind engulfed him. "My misery
will soon be yours!" he vowed as he disappeared from sight.
"How did you...?" Darrin asked as his father helped him to his feet.
"This is a sealing charm," Antoine explained. "When we faced this evil
the first time, we were able to weaken his powers by looping this around his
neck. Now answer me something. Why did you try to take on the Kavenoff by
yourself?"
"He was chasing someone," Darrin said, looking around. When he saw a
ball of white fur huddled in the doorway of a nearby building, he hurried over
and knelt down beside it. "Are you all right," he asked softly.
The cat lifted her head slightly, staring at Darrin with frightened
green eyes. "Wh-who are you?" she asked in a quivering voice. "Where is
that thing?"
"I'm Darrin," he answered soothingly. "The Kavenoff, that thing that
was chasing you, is gone now. We drove it off."
Without any warning, the girl launched herself at Darrin and wrapped
her arms around his neck, crying into his shoulder. Darrin managed not to
fall to his back somehow and gathered the girl in his arms as he stood up.
"We should bring her back with us," he said, looking at Antoine. "If he comes
back, she could still be in danger."
Antoine nodded and sheathed his sword. "Let us be going then," he said,
making way for Darrin to walk in front of him. Something about this whole
thing bothered him slightly, but he couldn't put his finger on it. And until
he knew what it was, he would keep his peace.
Unknown to any of them, someone had been watching the training as he had
all the others. "It seems the Chosen Ones' preparations are progressing quite
well," he said to himself. "I just hope they realize their opponents are
making preparations of their own."
When they arrived at the palace, Darrin and Antoine immediately took the
girl to see Sonic. "What happened to her?" Sonic asked, noticing how the
feline still trembled.
"The Kavenoff was after her," Darrin said, hugging her a little closer
to his chest.
Sonic put a hand on her shoulder, causing her to flinch away slightly.
"It's OK, you're with friends," he said calmly. The girl turned to him and
her eyes widened in recognition. "That's right, I'm Sonic Hedgehog," he said,
answering her before she could ask. "What's your name?"
"Charleen," the girl whispered, nodding her head in a show of respect to
the king. "Charleen Oster."
"Do you know why the Kavenoff was chasing you?"
"M-my parents and I just moved here from Urbantropolis. We had to move
in with my sick aunt to take care of her. But when we were approaching the
city, he just appeared and started attacking, yelling about spreading his
misery everywhere. I ran as fast as I could, but Mom and Dad...." her voice
choked off with tears and she couldn't continue.
"Sounds just like that coward," Sonic spat. "Do you know if he attacked
anyone else?" Charleen shook her head, trying to wipe away her tears with one
hand. "That's all right. Antoine, send some guards down there and check for
any others who were attacked. If you can, lead them yourself."
"As you wish, my king," Antoine said, snapping off a salute.
"Charleen, I'd like you to stay here the night," Sonic offered. "This
is the safest place for you until we know he won't attack again."
"But what about my aunt?" she asked, the worry in her eyes growing.
"See if you can find her aunt when you're down there," Sonic said to
Antoine. "If you find her, bring her back here."
"Of course," Antoine said. "By your leave then," he added, turning on
his heel and walking out.
"Darrin, please take our guest to one of the spare rooms and make sure
she gets settled in. Also talk to your mother about assigning a guard for her
overnight."
"With all respect, My Liege," Darrin said, looking down at the cat in
his arms, "I would like to have the guard duty for her tonight."
Sonic rubbed his chin, thinking about it for a moment. "It's fine with
me," he said after he was done. "But do me a favor and clear it with your mom
first. I might be the king, but I'm not going to cross an angry mother."
Darrin chuckled a little and even Charleen managed a smile at that. He
bowed as well as he could and walked out, still carrying Charleen in his arms.
Sonic watched them go with mixed emotions. "I hope I'm doing the right
thing," he thought.
Darrin took Charleen to a room that was near the area that he and his
family lived in. "You'll be all right here," he said, laying her down on the
bed. "Try to get some sleep for now while I find my mother."
Charleen nodded, though she let go of his neck reluctantly. "Will you
be back soon?" she asked in a small voice.
"As soon as I can," he assured her with a smile. Charleen nodded with a
yawn, her eyes closing a little. Darrin watched until she had fully settled
down to sleep and then tiptoed out, careful not to wake her.
The rest of the afternoon passed quickly for Darrin. Contacting his
mother hadn't been hard. Convincing her, on the other hand, was very hard.
It was only when she'd heard the girl's story that she reluctantly agreed.
But she wanted to talk with Charleen first thing in the morning.
His father had found Charleen's aunt, but was pretty much chased out of
her house. "Sick or not, I can take care of myself," she insisted, swinging a
frying pan around. "Let him come, I'll teach him not to pick on old ladies
like me." After a couple more tries, and nearly getting knocked in the head
by that frying pan, Antoine had decided to leave well enough alone and hurried
back to the palace.
When Darrin had heard all the reports, he relieved the guard and took up
his position in front of Charleen's door. All was quiet for a couple hours,
but then a horrible screaming sounded inside. Darrin threw open the door and
ran inside, sword drawn and at the ready.
Charleen was sitting upright in bed, her eyes open and filled with
terror. Darrin dropped his sword and hurried to her side, pulling her into a
hug. Charleen resisted at first, still throwing off the effects of her
nightmare. But once she calmed a little, she leaned into his embrace
gratefully. "It was so real," she whispered. "I thought he was coming after
me."
"No one will hurt you while I'm here," he said, smoothing back her honey
colored hair. He held and rocked her until she calmed down and started
drifting back to sleep. He started to pull away but her arms tightened around
him. "Charleen?"
"Don't go," she whimpered. "Please, stay with me."
"But I...." he began, traces of his father's accent in his voice.
"Please Darrin," she asked, looking up at him with a pleading gaze.
The longer Darrin looked into her eyes, the more he felt his resolve
weakening. "All right," he said, sitting on the bed next to her. "But only
for a little while."
Charleen nodded and settled down again, pillowing her head on his chest.
Darrin wrapped his arm around her and held her close to him. She squirmed a
little, trying to get comfortable in his embrace. But with all the moving
around, her blanket fell down a little bit, revealing that she had taken off
her dress and was now nude, at least above the waist.
Darrin glanced down and immediately looked away. He could feel his
cheeks heating up as he willed his eyes not to drift back to her uncovered
breasts. Picking up the edge of the blanket with a shaking hand, he brought
it back up to her neck and let out a sigh of relief.
His relief was very short-lived, however, when she suddenly turned into
his side, pinning his hand against her covered chest. Blushing even more,
Darrin tried to remove his hand without touching her more than absolutely
necessary. But even those small movements were starting to bring her out of
the slumber she had fallen into. Darrin took in a deep breath and let it out
very slowly, knowing he was stuck in that position until he could leave and
praying he could keep himself under control. That control was tested almost
instantly as she began to purr in his arms.
The night actually passed in seemingly an instant with Darrin not even
aware he had fallen asleep. Both he and Charleen were rudely awakened by an
exclamation of surprise that came from the now open door. "What the hoo-ha
hell is goin' on here?" Bunnie demanded, stalking over to the bed and pulling
Darrin roughly out of it.
"Mom?" Darrin asked, wincing from the very strong grip she had on his
arm. He came quickly awake as he realized where he was. "This isn't what
it looks like," he said, fearing what his mom must be thinking.
"Oh I know EXACTLY what it looks like," Bunnie said, glaring between her
son and the girl he had spent the night in bed with. "What else could it be
when I find you under the covers with a girl whose clothes are all the way on
the other side of the room?"
"Under the covers?" Darrin asked slowly, the blush rising to his cheeks
all over again. "But I was on top of them when I fell asleep!"
"It's my fault," Charleen said timidly. "I had a nightmare, and didn't
want to be left alone. I asked him to stay with me and he must have fallen
asleep. Nothing else happened, honestly!"
"Nothing?" Bunnie asked, arching an eyebrow.
"I swear by my sword, nothing happened!" Darrin insisted.
Bunnie nodded and let him go. "All right, I believe you," she said,
though her anger was still evident. "But from now on, if she stays here any
more, you will not be the one to watch over her, or you will not do it alone.
Are we understood?"
"Yes Mom," Darrin said, letting his head hang slightly.
"Good. Now go take a shower and eat. Your father is waiting for you."
"Yes Mom."
"Oh, and tell your sister I'll be a little late today. I'm gonna have
a little talk with your 'friend' here."
Darrin looked worried and noticed Charleen had an even more worried look
on her face. "Mrow?" she squealed, her eyes darting around fearfully.
"Sorry," he mouthed at her before being pushed out of the room by his
mother and the door slammed in his face. "This is not good."
"Now then, sugah," Bunnie said, turning around and looking at the
frightened feline. "You and me are gonna have a nice long talk." (
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