"The Best Laid Plans"
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: Where to begin this time? For anyone who knows me or has asked
where this story has been, you already know what's going on. For those who
don't, let me make this short and sweet. Francis went into the hospital for a
hip surgery called core decompression. Basically it involves drilling a hole
into the bone and scooping out a piece of the core to promote blood vessel
growth and to relieve the pressure building up inside the bone. He came
through the surgery all right, but because his other hip had the same problem
he had to go into physical rehab. That's where they found he has blood clots
in his legs. He's now home and on blood thinners, but still recovering. And
now they have to make plans to do the same surgery on the other hip. That one
is scheduled for January 23, 2007. With a lot of luck, this one will go
smoother with less of a recovery time. Anyone wanting to send him their best
can reach him at AstralFrankie@aol.com Even though he doesn't read it very
often, I'll make personally sure any and all well-wishes get to him.
And if that weren't bad enough, I've been having problems of my
own. In the space of a month and a half, I've received three death threats at
work that the police have ruled credible. As you might guess, I'm still here
so this wacko hasn't actually done anything. But it is a scary thing, as you
might guess. Priorities have been shuffled around, but I'm getting back into
my routine. If anything does happen to me, I'll make sure word gets out. But
for now, keep a protective thought out for me.
I've also just had some terrible news. My mom has been having
some weakness in her left arm. Now she's had some broken bones in that arm in
the past, and they never healed right. So some weakness has been a part of
her life for a while. But in the past couple weeks, it's gotten worse. The
doctors say she's had a mild stroke. If she doesn't get her blood pressure
and stress under control...she's a prime candidate for a major one. Add that
on top of the other stuff, and is it any wonder this took so long to get out?
Now another difficulty has been added. In the process of
revising this story, our beta reader has announced his inability to continue
working with us. Matt was very instrumental in helping us think not only
about what we're writing, but how we're writing it. So now we'll need to find
a new beta reader. Any takers? Oh, and if you apply, be prepared to prove
your knowledge of our stories. ProforcePF@aol.com if you're interested.
One of the few positives over this time has come from a fan of
ours who goes by the name Kat. See, Kat is the first fan to actually ask to
use the Gem of Enchanted Dreams in a story! We are both very excited about
this and hope to see the Gem branch out into even more fandoms. We'll keep
you posted on the status of this new development.
On much happier news(and believe me, I can really use it after
the six months or so that I've had), the DVDs are finally coming out! That's
right! On the message board I go to: FUS which is at satamsonic.com, our
previous admin Sonique/Quexinos has official word that a full 4-DVD boxset
with both seasons and a ton of extras. After so many years of waiting and
hoping, our prayers are being answered! March 27, 2007! Mark that date on
your calendars people! Take care everyone and till next time, Happy Reading!
Cast of Characters(in order of appearance)
Rouge
The Unholy One***
Tanin###
Krella###
Metal Sonic
Miles "M3" Prower III***
Amy Rose
Nadine "Lily" Osaya###
Darrin D'Coolette***
Kelly Min Hedgehog**##
Nadia Osaya***
Bunnie D'Coolette
Desirée D'Coolette***
DJ Osaya###
Antoine D'Coolette
Donovan Osaya###
King Sonic Hedgehog
Angela Shi-rat***
Queen Sally Alicia Hedgehog
Princess Alicia Rose Hedgehog***
Prince Juice Hedgehog***
Antoine D'Coolette
Charisma###
Charlotte Oster###
Hugo###
Maxwell Kavenoff###
Destín###
Knuckles Echidna
James Echidna***
Nicholas###
Sarah Prower***
Princess Sondra Acorn-Prower***
Edgar "The Owl"###
Lissette Lexford***
Julie-Su Echidna
Tanis Shi-rat***
Rosie Shi-rat
#44
The castle of the Unholy One was as quiet and drab as ever, but there
was a lot more color inside than usual. Unlike Charisma who had to cover her
bright clothing when she returned home, Rouge never covered herself up. It
was one of her conditions of employment; she felt that a body like hers should
never be concealed. And though it rankled the Unholy One to no end, he would
allow it so long as she continued to do her job.
And it was that job that she was waiting to perform right now. She was
currently in the throne room leaning against the wall, her arms crossed under
her ample chest as she waited to give her report concerning her target.
"These two sure love to talk," she thought, glaring at the Fallen Ones who
were ahead of her in line, so to speak.
The Unholy One himself sat listening to the two before him, trying to
comprehend exactly what he was being told. "Enough," he ordered harshly,
cutting them off. "Get to the point and quickly. I care not for the
mechanics behind it."
The two Fallen Ones bowed their heads in shame. "Forgive us Father,"
Tanin said humbly. "It has taken us so long to figure things out that we were
a little too enthusiastic in our explanations."
Krella took a deep breath to calm herself as she collected her thoughts.
"While we can't use the Lightning Rod to directly recharge the Emerald, we can
use its powers to direct lightning from the Forbidden Zone, which has magical
properties itself, into the Emerald. Because it was this lightning that
created the Power Stone, it should be used the same way, but it can only be
done from the direct center of the Zone."
The Unholy One nodded as he thought this over. "So then Tanin will use
the Rod to--"
"Unfortuantely, no," Tanin interjected quickly. Before the Unholy One
could rebuke him, Tanin forged ahead. "The magic I practice, like all magics
that come from either our Master or our enemy, fights against the magic of the
mages that inhabits the Rod. It will be Krella who uses the Rod to recharge
the Lightning Emerald."
"I see," the Unholy One said. "And are you comfortable with doing this
Krella?"
"Not at all Father," Krella answered honestly. "This is not what I'm
here for, nor is it anything I know how to do. But there's no one else who
can. Once I've learned the chant, I should be fine. It's just going to be
more involved than the one I tried to use to recharge the Emerald directly.
What I am concerned about is that we have to bring the Emerald with us in
order for this to work."
"We have been over this Krella," Tanin assured calmly. "You had the
same reservations about recharging the Water Emerald. Nothing happened with
that and nothing will happen here."
"We were distracting them then," Krella groused. "But fine, whatever.
I'll see to memorizing the chant and when I have it correct, we will go. Not
a moment before."
"Very well," Father said. "Go and prepare. Keep me informed as to your
progress. Now leave me, I must hear the report of Rouge." Tanin and Krella
could hear the distaste in his voice, a distaste they both shared, but as of
now she was necessary to their cause.
Meanwhile, Metal Sonic paced around as he waited for Rouge to return.
He was far enough away from the castle that no one could see him, but he could
see the castle clearly, but that wasn't what was concerning him at the moment.
He was not the most patient of robots. Being programmed after Snively's views
of a teenage Sonic didn't lend itself to patience. And though the intelligence
Snively had created him with had allowed his programming to evolve, patience
was just not something he could get a handle on. Being out here, alone, unable
to do anything but wait grated on his wires/nerves.
Venting a harsh sigh, he sank down against a boulder and started tapping
his foot against the ground. Truthfully, he wanted to be here, it was more
then he'd been doing for months now. It was especially helpful that neither
Tanin nor the Unholy One could detect him with their magic, making it perfect
for him to keep tabs on their activity. Without that fact, he wouldn't have
been able to figure out that the Fallen Ones were up to something so that
Rouge could go in. But she should have been out by now, and the delay was
starting to worry him.
"Hey there Big Boy," a voice called from on top of the boulder.
Metal Sonic jumped to his feet and spun around, his metal claws
unsheathed. When he saw that it was just Rouge, lying on her side like she
was in bed or something, he snorted in disgust. "Must you act like that?" he
demanded, glaring at her as she slid off the boulder to land lightly next to
him.
"I would tell you to relax," Rouge said with a shrug of her shoulders
that did interesting things to her upper body that Metal probably would have
appreciated if he'd been flesh and blood, "but this is a serious situation."
"Are they on to us?" he asked, looking around as if he expected the
Fallen Ones to jump them.
"Oh please," Rouge smirked. "They bought the story we made up hook,
line, and sinker. 'Yes the kid is at the palace now, but her two protectors
keep trying to escape. While everyone's attention is distracted by this, I
can just swoop in and grab the kid. You'll have her within a month.'"
"What's so serious about that?"
"That's not the serious part," Rouge said, her lips twisting into a
frown. "They've found a way to recharge the Lightning Emerald. I need to get
back and warn everyone as quickly as possible."
"I'm faster than you," Metal pointed out reasonably. "Just tell me what
to say and I'll warn them."
Rouge sighed and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Ordinarily I
might consider that, but what they're planning is pretty complicated. I'm
afraid that if I just tell you, something will get lost along the way. If I'm
there, they can question me if I accidentally leave something out. I just
wonder if I'll be able to fly there in time."
"Easily solved," Metal said, picking Rouge up in his arms and revving up
his legs.
"Hey!" Rouge yelped as Metal took off, just under the speed that would
have left behind a sonic boom. "What do you think you're doing?" Metal just
shifted one robotic eye to look at her before focusing on the path ahead.
Rouge sincerely hoped no one saw her being carried like this; it was mildly
embarrassing at the least. But like it or not, this was the fastest way to
the palace. And maybe, just maybe, she'd be able to spend some time with her
friend before they had to go back.
While they made their way to the palace, an interesting situation was
about to present itself at their destination. M3 and Amy Rose were spending a
quiet afternoon inside the Prower residence trying to put together a jigsaw
puzzle. They were doing fairly well, and it was a pleasant way to spend the
time. They didn't even really need to speak, content to just spend time with
each other.
"Hey Amy," M3 said, going through some of the pieces near his side of
the table, "are there any light blue pieces by you? I want to finish the
sky."
"Hmm?" Amy asked, blinking a couple times before looking at him. "Oh,
sorry Miles, I wasn't paying attention. What did you want?"
M3 looked up at Amy, worry creasing his brow just slightly. "Is
something wrong?" he asked quietly.
"No, nothing's wrong," she said quickly. "I just wish they would get on
with it already."
"Who would get on with what?" M3 asked, confused.
"Darrin and Lily. I want to know when they're going to prank me."
M3 shuddered slightly when she said that, looking around quickly to make
sure those two weren't anywhere around. For reasons he didn't completely
understand, those two were on a mission to prank the entire palace. "You want
to get pranked?" he whispered, shocked.
Amy nodded emphatically, making her red barrette fall forward and cover
her eyes. "I keep looking for them to do it," she complained, pushing the
clip back into place. "I hope they are going to prank me at least."
"Well I hope not," M3 said. "I want them and their pranks to stay far
away from me, especially after what they did to my sister. It was not pretty
listening to her rant and rave about shaving cream being placed in her hand
while she slept and then her nose tickled until she splattered it all over
her face."
Amy slouched a bit in her chair, then slid off it and to her feet. "I
gotta go," she said.
"Go?" M3 asked, looking sad. "But we're not done yet."
"No Miles, I mean I have to _go_," she explained, pointing to the
bathroom.
M3 blushed so hard that for a second Amy actually thought his fur turned
red. "Oh, OK," he murmured. "I'll just try to finish up the sky then."
Amy nodded and hurried off to the bathroom. She did her business as
quickly as she could, not wanting to leave M3 waiting long. But while she was
washing her hands, she heard M3 yelp and rushed back outside. When she saw M3
though, she couldn't help but giggle.
M3 was flat on the floor, covered from head to toe in green goo. "They
slimed me," he whined, his lip quivering as he tried to keep his composure.
"Aww man!" Amy exclaimed, stamping her foot. "That's not fair. I want
to get pranked!"
M3 slowly got back up to his feet, dripping slime all over the floor.
"Well, if you want some...." he began, walking toward her with his arms open
wide.
Amy scrunched up her nose and shook her head. "It's not the same," she
sighed, sitting down in her chair, completely missing the point.
While M3 trudged to the bathroom to try and clean himself off, his two
assailants were sneaking off to their base of operations. "That went a lot
easier than I thought it would," Nadine admitted, closing the door behind them
as they entered their secret room.
"M3 was on guard, except when he was with Amy," Darrin agreed, sitting
down in a chair. "I still don't know why we couldn't get them both at the
same time."
Nadine leveled a tired look at her friend. "I want to get Amy last,"
she explained for what must have been the fifth time. "We can get her after
we get everyone else."
Darrin rolled his eyes and got up, walking to a blackboard that covered
one wall of the room. When this all began, the name of every resident of the
palace had been on it. Now, the only names left were M3, Amy Rose, and
Nicholas. Darrin picked up the eraser and removed M3's name, leaving only two
behind.
He couldn't help but smile as he thought of what had brought them to
this point. Between the celebrations of Christmas and the New Year, there was
still a general party going on for the return of Nadine Osaya, even though she
still preferred to be called Lily. And as part of that party, Darrin welcomed
her home the only way he could: with a prank.
It hadn't been anything bad, just some itching powder in her glove, but
it got the point across. Darrin couldn't help laughing when he saw her rip
the glove off and run to the nearest bathroom to wash her hand. But he wasn't
laughing the next morning when he tried to brush his teeth only to find the
toothpaste tube filled with shaving cream.
From that point, the pranks only got worse, and it made the entire
palace nervous. Many had forgotten about the way these two had pranked each
other and eventually everyone else. But those memories were coming back in
full force as the level and frequency of pranks escalated.
The breaking point finally came three days after the New Year. Nadine
had been especially careful. She'd managed to avoid the last three prank
attempts by Darrin. But she knew another try was inevitable. And absolutely
nothing would be off limits.
When she'd taken her shower that morning, she'd tested her soap and
shampoo on her fingertip to make sure it wouldn't dye her fur some weird color
like had apparently happened to Alicia the night she'd sent the princess after
the Gem. Only when nothing happened did she take her shower.
Everything had seemed normal, even when she'd left the shower to dry
off. But when she had walked into the living room, towelling her hair dry,
her mother had frozen in disbelief. "What?" Nadine had asked, wondering what
was wrong. But when she'd noticed her mother was staring at her hair, her
eyes narrowed. "Oh no," she muttered, taking hold of a loose strand and
bringing it down in front of her eyes.
It was yellow. Nadine had immediately run back to the bathroom and
pulled the towel off her hair. The whole of her hair, but none of her fur was
blonde. Bright, shiny, almost neon blonde; she was more blonde then Desirée!
"How did...?" she sputtered. "But I...!" With a growl, she'd stormed toward
the door.
When Nadia had seen the look on her daughter's face, she'd immediately
rushed to stop her. "No," she warned. "Don't do it!"
But Nadine had ignored her mother and had kicked open the front door.
"You want it Darrin!" she'd screamed, startling everyone, "you got it!" Then
she had uttered the two words not heard in the palace in five or six years.
"Prank War!"
"So glad to hear that," Darrin had said from where he'd attached himself
to the ceiling. When Nadine had looked up, she'd been met with a bucketful of
ice water right to her face.
If anyone had thought the pranks were bad before, they thought what came
after was pure madness. For the next week, Darrin and Nadine had pranked each
other almost non-stop, sometimes five times in a day. And to make matters
worse, many innocent animals were caught in the crossfire.
It all had come to a head just three days ago. Each one had chosen that
date for the coup de grace. But unknown to the other, they were both planning
the exact same prank. Once the pranks had been set up, they realized what had
happened and couldn't help but laugh. As one, they had triggered each other's
trap. They were both doused with sticky dough, cherry icing, and sprinkles,
turning into living cupcakes.
"Hello?" Nadine yelled, waving her hand in front of his face to try and
bring him back to the present. When that had no effect, she started knocking
on his head. "Anyone in there?"
"Hey!" Darrin cried, stepping back and away from her as he was pulled
from his thoughts.
Nadine smirked. "Good, I don't have to flick you now."
Darrin put his hands over his nose protectively. "That's all right," he
said. "I'm OK now."
Nadine cocked her head to the side as she studied Darrin. "What were
you thinking about anyway?"
Darrin smiled softly as he lowered his hands. "I was just thinking
about how this all got started."
Nadine's lips twisted slightly to the side. "Stage one, stage two, or
stage three?" she asked.
"Everything," Darrin answered, "but I was getting to the start of stage
three when you so rudely bothered me."
Nadine shrugged. "Yeah well, I think it's creepy when someone spaces
out like that. Now getting back to our checklist," she continued, pointing at
the board, "only two left. I can think of so many things that we can do to
Amy, but only after we deal with Nicholas. Besides, I just couldn't bear to
prank her while she was wearing those boots."
Darrin smiled slightly. Nadine had used that excuse more than once to
save Amy from a prank, but not always the same article of clothing. Once the
excitement over her return had settled slightly, Nadine had opened up the
closet that held all the Christmas presents they had bought for each other all
those years she had not been with them. Of course, Nadine had had nothing to
share with them, but the fact that she was home at all was more than enough of
a present for them.
They'd all had a good laugh over some of the presents; some of the
clothes they had gotten for Nadine wouldn't even remotely fit her now. So any
clothes that she couldn't wear had gone to Amy, who didn't know what to do
with them. After all, most of the clothes were vests and pants which were not
Amy's normal choice for clothing.
"If only that's all we had to worry about with the other one," Darrin
grumped. "He has avoided us every step of the way no matter what we've
tried."
"I told you it wouldn't be easy to get Nicholas. But no, you were all
'He can't be that hard to get. We haven't failed yet.'"
"Well we haven't," Darrin pointed out. "No one we've ever tried to
prank, except him, have ever avoided us. We even got the king and queen."
"And I still think it's foul how we got them," Nadine mumbled, her
cheeks just slightly pink at the memory. "I mean, if I was gotten like that,
I'd be looking for blood."
"Well, we wanted a big way to start stage three, right?" he asked.
"Can you think of any bigger way than tarring and feathering the king and
queen at the same time?"
"But in their bed?" Lily screamed. "And while they're intimate?"
Darrin fought long and hard to keep a straight face, eventually doing
just that but only barely. "It definitely got the message across, didn't it?"
"Yeah," she agreed reluctantly, "but I'd still want blood nonetheless."
"Be that as it may," Darrin said through a yawn, "we need to go over our
plans for Nicholas. And remember the rules, we can't use the same prank
twice."
Nadine huffed, blowing some of her bangs out of her face. "OK, let's
recap. My mom had her hand put in warm water while she slept, and my dad got
nailed with a spring loaded dresser drawer when he went to get my mom a change
of clothes to replace what was ruined by the bladder control issues caused by
that water."
"Well, my dad got caught 'redhanded' groping my mom's backside after we
treated the hilt of his sword with that powder. But then, he left a red
handprint on anything he touched for five minutes, my mom's backside was just
the most obvious target. And speaking of my mom, her fur is still pink after
we sprayed her with a little phenolphthalein-laced water and then a vinegar
solution. I always said basic chemistry would come in handy with the pranks."
"Speaking of pink," Nadine said with her own mischievous smile, "Alicia
still hasn't found any of her pink jogging suits, has she? Oh but I'm sure
she found that dress she loves so much after we found where she hid it," she
added sarcastically.
"Well at least her closet was clean and orderly. Not like what we did
to Juice's closet. How long did it take them to dig him out of that mess we
planted that dropped on top of him? Five minutes? Ten?"
"Something like that," Nadine agreed. "Even though that's not what we
originally intended for him. The Shi-rats 'slipped' that one up."
"Yeah, but I'll take a three-for-one anyday. And it was pretty funny
to see Tanis sliding along that waxed floor."
"Not as funny as seeing DJ hopping around on that pogo-springed chair."
"That was a good one," Darrin allowed. "I didn't think you'd be quite
so harsh on your own brother, but after what you did to Charleen I should've
known better."
"Hey, the static cling wore off," Nadine said defensively. "And it's
not like you didn't like what you saw when that dress was clinging to her. It
even smoothed her fur down for a really good look."
Darrin sighed and shook his head. "Even if that's so, I didn't exactly
want every other guy in the palace to see it."
"They're just jealous of what you got," Nadine said playfully.
"Be that as it may, how would you like it if every girl in the palace
suddenly got a real good look at Nicholas and started swooning over him. You
can't tell me it wouldn't tick you off to have them checking out your
boyfriend."
Nadine's eyes hardened slightly and she turned her face away from
Darrin. "You know he's not my boyfriend," she said. "We've been over this,
and no matter what I may or may not feel, our first duty is to protect Amy.
And as he is so fond of reminding me, 'Emotion is the greatest hindrance
toward judgement and duty.' Besides, the walls may have ears and eyes, even
in our hiding place."
"Nadine--" Darrin began, but stopped when he didn't know what to say.
Nadine sighed but didn't turn back to face Darrin. As much as she
couldn't admit it, she did have feelings for Nicholas, feelings that she knew
would never be returned. And now, there was a new variable in the equation.
About a week ago, right in the middle of stage two of the Prank War, Kelly Min
had cornered her and confronted her about those feelings. And like it had
just happened with Darrin, Nadine had given a canned answer that hid the truth
of the matter.
But that was where the similarities had ended. Kelly Min had stared
right into her eyes and had spoken her next words in a clear and firm voice.
"Look, I don't know all the details, so I won't bother with them. What I do
know is this. Even though you may have feelings for him and he may have
feelings for you, you haven't made a claim on him yet. Now you have a choice:
either you make your claim or I do."
Nadine had been furious, but she knew she couldn't do anything. But if
Kelly Min thought she was going to give up without a fight, she was dead
wrong. There had to be some way to do this without upsetting or possibly
driving away Nicholas. Unfortunately, she just couldn't figure out how.
Darrin, giving up on convincing Nadine of her folly for the moment,
started to plan out another prank on Nicholas but was cut off as his
communicator started beeping. "Darrin here," he said after he pulled it from
his pocket.
"Darrin," Bunnie said, "Rouge is back, and she's got urgent news. I
need you to get a hold of your sister and get both of you to the throne room.
Now! And yes, I swear by my blood and sword that this is not a ruse."
Darrin's eyes widened a bit but then he nodded. "All right, I'll
contact her and make sure she's there," he said. "Darrin out."
"So I guess our planning is on hold for now?" Nadine asked.
Darrin nodded and pulled out a different communicator from his pocket.
"I just hope I'm not...disturbing them."
Mere moments before Darrin activated his communicator, his sister
Desirée and her boyfriend DJ were relaxing at the edge of the Power Ring Pool
in Knothole, laying on the grassy bank while their legs dangled in the water.
DJ had his head resting on her chest, using her rather ample bosom as a nice
pillow. Desirée just smiled, lightly running her fingers through DJ's hair.
They'd both had a rather intense morning workout "exploring" her mother's old
hut and were still recovering their energy.
She let her mind drift back to the morning after she gave DJ her
virginity and accepted his in return. Well, not really the morning as it
wasn't until the afternoon that they woke up, and then only because someone
had been insistently knocking on the door. Completely forgetting that she
wasn't in her own room, she'd grabbed a sheet from the floor and wrapped it
around her body before storming to the door and throwing it open. "Can't you
see we're trying to sleep here?" she'd demanded in Nadine's face. Barely
registering the shock that had taken over Nadine's expression, Desirée
slammed shut the door and walked back to the bed, shedding the sheet she was
wearing before climbing back in next to DJ.
As much as she'd wanted to, she couldn't fall back to sleep. Giving up
the attempt, she had contented herself with watching DJ as he slept, letting
her eyes roam over his face and body as if to ingrain every single detail deep
into her mind. She'd slowly reached out with her fingers to commit the feel
of his face as well but another knock sounded at the door.
Desirée had growled in frustration, but silenced herself quickly as DJ
rolled over in his sleep. This time, she'd crept rather than stormed to the
door, but had opened it just as angrily. "What?" she'd yelled, making Nadia
take one or two steps back.
"Now look here..." Nadia had begun before Desirée cut her off angrily.
"No you look! This is my time with DJ. You want to chew us out? Fine,
but you get to do that later. For now, leave us alone!"
Desirée had hoped that would be the end of it, but that hope would prove
in vain. It had taken nearly fifteen minutes, but a third knocking came at
the door, this one clearly with a metal fist. DJ was a light sleeper, but
then he'd never worn himself out like he had that night. But even that level
of exhaustion wasn't enough to keep him asleep with that racket. "Wha...?"
he had whispered, his voice still raw from the years of disuse.
Desirée had run to the door, not even bothering with the blanket this
time, opening it to stare into the very pissed off face of Bunnie D'Coolette.
But as bad as Bunnie's expression had been, Desirée's was that much worse.
Without even leaving her mother a moment to speak, Desirée had launched into
a profanity-laced tirade that left her mother stunned. Even now, she couldn't
remember everything she'd said, only that she'd ended it with, "We'll be out
when we're good and ready, not before!"
Desirée had slammed the door shut, slumping down against it crying.
"Why won't they just leave us alone?" she'd whispered brokenly. She had
looked up when she felt a hand on her shoulder, watching as DJ had sat down
next to her. He'd held up one finger, then pointed between the two of them,
and shrugged. "I know it was our first time," she'd said, once again reading
DJ perfectly. "I just hoped that they would've had the decency to not
intrude on our time together.
"Still," she'd continued, "we might as well go face the music. I don't
think either one of us wants our fathers to come knocking." From how DJ shook
his head, it was clear that he'd agreed. They'd gotten dressed as quickly as
they could, shared another long and deep kiss, and then Desirée and DJ left
the bedroom hand-in-hand, ready for whatever awaited them.
It hadn't surprised her to see both sets of parents seated on a couch
waiting for them. "Before anybody asks," Desirée had said to get their
attention, "yes we were both virgins last night. No, we are not virgins now.
And if you're wondering exactly what brought this about, I'll let DJ tell you
exactly what he told me last night. DJ, if you please?"
DJ had rubbed his throat, looked her right in her eyes, and said in as
clear a voice as he could, "I love you Desirée." Immediately, Desirée had
started rubbing DJ's throat, knowing how much that had hurt.
Antoine and Bunnie had sat completely stunned, jaws dropping wide open.
Nadia had sat there, her hand over her mouth, choking back tears of joy.
Donovan had been the only one capable of speech, and what he'd said summed
things up very nicely, "I knew there would be a good reason, but I never
imagined it would be this good."
Any doubts about the relationship between DJ and Desirée had been erased
completely by DJ speaking four words. But of course that didn't end it, and
they both should've known that it wouldn't. After all, they themselves hadn't
stopped after that night, despite Bunnie's best attempts at the contrary.
She'd worked her daughter to the point of exhaustion every chance she'd had,
trying to make sure she didn't have any energy left for bedroom activities.
This, in turn, had made Desirée very rebellious and not willing to answer her
mother's calls.
The dangers inherent in this situation were obvious; what if Desirée
was really needed for Chosen One duties but didn't answer because of all of
her mother's false alarms? Eventually, thanks to a little help from her
brother, a compromise had been reached. Provided neither DJ nor Desirée
slacked off on any of their training or other duties, they would be left alone
for the most part. And if Desirée was needed in an emergency, Darrin would be
the only one who could contact her. Desirée knew she owed her brother big
time for this, and she would surely repay it if Darrin ever took the same step
with Charleen.
Desirée was gently pulled from her thoughts by DJ shifting against her
to get more comfortable. She was beginning to entertain thoughts of trying to
convince DJ to go "explore" a different hut, but then her communicator went
off. She was ready to ignore it, but then it started beeping in the emergency
pattern that only Darrin knew. She sat up quickly just after DJ did, pulling
the communicator from her belt. "Desirée here, what's up Darrin?" she asked.
"Good thing you picked up," Darrin said. "Mom wants us in the throne
room right now. Rouge is back, and she has important news for us."
Desirée sighed and let her head fall back. "Why always when I'm
thinking about a round two?" she grumbled. To her brother, she said, "I'll
be there as soon as I'm able. See you there."
She turned to say something to DJ, but was stopped by his lips meeting
hers. The look he gave her when he leaned away said it all: Go on and do what
you have to, I'll be here later.
Desirée smiled and rested her cheek on top of DJ's head. "What did I do
to deserve such a wonderful boyfriend?" she whispered, tilting his face up
and kissing him quickly three times in succession. "I'll be back as soon as I
can, but if I'm gone past sunset get yourself back to the palace." She waited
until DJ agreed with her and, after a few more kisses, she tore herself away
to run back to the palace.
It took a little time to get everyone together, but soon enough everyone
who was needed was gathered in the throne room. "All right, the floor is
yours," Sonic said from where he and Sally stood near their thrones. "What
have you got for us?"
"Something really big," Rouge said, her manner actually all business for
once. "I overheard the Fallen Ones planning on recharging the Lightning
Emerald. They're going to use the Rod they have to force the lightning in the
Forbidden Zone into the Emerald as early as tonight."
"Wait a minute," Angela jumped in and Rouge turned to look at the robe-
clad mouse. "Tanin shouldn't be able to use the Rod. His magic, like mine,
is anathema to the magic of mages. They just can't mix."
"Which is why that vixen Krella will be the one to use it," Rouge said.
"That's why they haven't gone yet; she's not entirely comfortable with the
chant she has to use yet, nor bringing the Emerald with her."
Sally tapped her fingers on her chin, absorbing this information, when
she noticed her daughter doing the same. "What's on your mind Alicia?" she
asked.
"Hmm?" Alicia looked up at her mother in surprise, not expecting to
have been talked to.
Sally smiled lightly. "You look like there's something on your mind.
Care to let us know what you're thinking about?"
Alicia tilted her head like she was going over a couple last things
before nodding sharply. "I think we should handle things differently this
time," she said. "Instead of trying to stop them from recharging the Emerald,
why not let them do it?"
"Out of the question," Sonic said immediately.
"Now wait a second Dad," Alicia said, holding up her hands, "let me
finish. Rouge, do they expect us to show up?"
"Not at all," Rouge answered, "but Krella isn't convinced. She's going
to be prepared just in case you do pop up."
Alicia nodded again. "So if we do show up there while they're charging
it, we'll get into a massive fight where the outcome is uncertain. But if we
wait till they're done, right when their guard is lowered, we can swoop in and
snatch the Emerald before they even know what's going on."
"I don't like it," Sonic said, to which Sally nodded. "Too many risks,
too many things can go wrong. You can't take a chance like that on something
this big."
A gentle murmuring broke out among everyone as they discussed the pros
and cons of Alicia's plan. "I think it's a good idea Dad," Juice said,
silencing the murmuring. "I trust Alicia and if she thinks we can do it, I
think we can too. Besides, they did the same thing to us when we went after
the Amulet of Four Winds. They'll never expect us to return the favor."
"Reminds me of some of the plans you came up with back in the day,"
Antoine told Sonic with a smirk. "Brash, not smart, and completely impossible
to pull off. And yet somehow you did, even with all that against you."
Sonic rolled his eyes, but couldn't dispute the facts. "Are you all for
this?" he asked the Chosen Ones. Responding with actions rather than words,
each one walked to stand behind Alicia to show their support. "All right," he
said, throwing his hands up. "If you guys are committed to this, I'm not
going to stop you. Even if I do think it's the worst idea I've ever heard."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence Dad," Alicia muttered. "Rouge, I
have a few questions about what you overheard. Think you're up to answering
them?"
"Sure, why not," Rouge answered. "Just try not to keep me too long, I
would like to grab a quick nap today."
Alicia nodded and then grabbed Darrin by the front of his jacket. "And
I expect you to return at least one of my jogging suits to me," she hissed.
"There's no way I'm going on a mission dressed like this," she added, pointing
at the blue gown she was still wearing.
"Well, you could wear your wrestling gear," Darrin suggested. But when
he saw the look of anger that ran across her face, he quickly relented.
It was much later that afternoon when Charisma came by in her guise as
Charleen. She and Darrin had a date that night, so she was coming by to
cancel it. It was imperative that she not tip him off in any way to the real
plans; this had been repeatedly pounded into her head by Krella. Charisma had
simply responded that she didn't tell Krella how to do her job, Krella should
not tell her how to do her own.
She passed by the palace guards with just a smile, a familiar sight to
them by now. "I'll call Darrin to let him know you're here," one of them said
as they waved at her.
Charisma's smiled widened slightly. "Thank you," she said, waving back.
For some reason, that put a slight spring in her step as she walked through
the hallways. She'd only gotten about halfway to Darrin's room when Darrin
came around a corner at top speed, nearly running into her. "Whoa!" she
exclaimed, stumbling back.
Darrin's reactions were quick enough to grab her before she fell.
"Sorry about that," he said. "I'm glad I caught you, literally I guess. I
hate to do this, but I have to cancel our date tonight."
If anything, that surprised her more than Darrin's sudden appearance.
"You do? But I thought--"
"I'm really sorry," Darrin said. "Chosen Ones business. We got a lead
on the actions of the Fallen Ones and we have to get to the Forbidden Zone.
Now."
The shock that Charisma felt at Darrin's revelations was kept from her
face only by her years of practice. "Now?" she asked, hoping she sounded
confused. "But even if you knew they were planning something, how do you know
that they're doing it now?"
Darrin just smirked as he set her on her feet. "Let's just say that the
Fallen Ones have a bat in their belfry." He chuckled a bit at the confused
look on her face. "I really have to go. I'll see you tomorrow?"
"I'll come by to make sure it's not cancelled," she said with a long-
suffering smirk, "and to hear how things went." A quick kiss later, that
wasn't really that quick, Charisma walked out of the palace and toward her
"home."
While she walked, she tried to decipher Darrin's words. "A bat in our
belfry?" she wondered. "What did he--!" Her eyes shot open when it all
clicked into place. "Oh no!" She forced herself to walk slowly until she was
out of sight of the palace. The second she couldn't see it, she broke out in
a sprint and didn't stop until she reached her "home."
Her "aunt" Charlotte was waiting for her. "What's the hurry?" she
snapped when she opened the door to Charisma's frantic knocking.
"I have to stop the mission," Charisma called, pushing past Charlotte
and rushing to the black door. "We've been found out!"
"You forgot your cloak!" Charlotte yelled, but the door had already
slammed behind Charisma. "This isn't going to be good," she muttered,
plopping down in a chair and picking up a book.
As she emerged into the castle, Krella was waiting for her. "It's about
time you got here," she said. "What took you so long? We're ready to go!"
"I was just at the palace," Charisma said. "Never mind that, we have
to--"
"Where is your cloak?" Krella asked, eyeing Charisma's pink dress with
distaste. "If Father sees you like that, you know what he'll do."
"Right now, I'm not worried about that. We have to--"
"It's your funeral," Krella said, cutting Charisma off again which just
infuriated the cat. "Just get your costume on so we can go."
"We can't!" Charisma exclaimed. "I'm trying to tell you--"
"What is going on here?" the Unholy One thundered, appearing out of
nowhere. "You should have left already. What is the hold up?"
"She's the hold up," Krella sneered.
"I'm trying to tell Krella that--" Her words were cut off as she was
surrounded in a black flame that burned away her dress, leaving only the black
catsuit she had been wearing underneath.
"Whatever it is, it can wait," the Unholy One said in a tone that left
no room for discussion. "You are to leave now and I will hear no other talk
on this matter. Do you understand?"
Charisma sighed and bowed her head. "Yes Father," she said. She walked
away in front of Krella and she could feel the vixen smirking at her back.
"Whatever happens," she said loud enough for Krella to hear, "it is not my
fault."
The moon had only just risen when everything was finally in place. The
Lightning Emerald had been placed on a small stone pedestal directly in the
center of the Forbidden Zone where the lightning often struck, more than once
a second at times. Krella theorized it was because of all the large magnetic
stones in the area. It was only through Tanin's efforts that the lightning
had not yet fried any of them.
"OK, stand back everyone," Krella ordered, looking at the Rod she held
in her hands with no small amount of trepidation. "Tanin, as soon as I start
to chant, drop your barrier. With any luck, I won't get fried."
"Whenever you're ready," Tanin said, watching as the shield he had
around them all was repeatedly struck by lightning.
Krella closed her eyes, mentally calling up a picture of the parchment
she and Tanin had written the chant on. It had required a lot of research and
was in a language that to her knowledge hadn't been spoken on Mobius for more
centuries than she could count. She knew she could do this, she and Tanin had
practiced it on a lightning storm that had passed over the castle but had no
magical energy in it and she only got shocked once. Still, here one shock
would do a lot more than numb her hand.
Tanin watched Krella worriedly as she stood with her eyes closed for
longer than a moment. There was a chance that she would back out of this,
even if that meant disobeying Father. He opened his mouth to say something
encouraging when her eyes unexpectedly snapped open, making his concentration
falter. A lone lightning bolt broke through his barrier but struck the ground
far enough away that it did no damage. But he couldn't help but admire how it
illuminated her profile as she held the Rod up. If he didn't know better, he
would swear that she was an ancient mage reborn.
As the first word of the chant left her lips, Tanin dropped the barrier.
The lightning continued to strike unabated, but he couldn't help but notice
that the lightning now had a tendency to strike near her. In fact, a bright
yellow glow was forming at the ground around her feet, matching the glow
coming from the Rod itself.
Krella kept her eyes focused solely on the Rod as the chant neared
completion. This was the crucial part, the part where she had to make the
lightning bend to her will. If this went wrong, the lightning would seek out
the nearest available target, which was her, and fry it to a crisp. But if
she let herself worry about that, she would surely mess up. Crying out the
last word, she thrust her arm forward, pointing the Rod directly at the
Emerald.
In response to her command, the lightning that had been gathering around
her streaked to the Emerald, striking it with a massive thunderclap. Everyone
was knocked to the ground stunned by the blast. Krella was surprisingly the
first back to her feet, unsteady as she was. She stumbled around for a second
until she got her balance, almost dropping the Rod. But what she saw when her
vision cleared did make her drop it.
The Lightning Emerald was glowing with a steady yellow light, looking
just as the other Emeralds she'd recharged. "It worked!" she cried in the
eerie calm left by the absence of lightning. "It really worked!"
"For which we are very thankful!" Alicia said as she stepped out from
behind an outcropping of stone. "Chosen Ones attack!"
"What the...?" Krella gasped, looking around in surprise. Seemingly
from out of nowhere, Desirée, Darrin, and Angela appeared. Desirée targeted
Hugo immediately, taking him down with a somersaulting axe kick to the top of
the head. Darrin was on Maxwell before he even could draw his sword, slashing
furiously at his arms. Angela engaged Tanin in a battle of magics, their
powers flying everywhere. And Alicia herself had picked Charisma up and flew
the feline headfirst into a lodestone at top speed.
Krella tore at her hair in frustration. Five seconds ago everything was
going well, but now it was all shot to the Abyss. "Destín!" she yelled,
knowing that the ferret was the only one not occupied as Alicia had come to
engage her in combat. "Grab the Emerald!"
Destín forced herself up to her feet and turned to face the pedestal
only to find that it was empty. "What Emerald?" she asked, blinking in
confusion.
"This Emerald?" Juice asked as he ran past Krella, spinning her around
with a cry. "Get us out of here Angela!"
Angela had been going power for power with Tanin, but he turned his
attention from her for only one second when Krella cried out, but it was
enough to blind him with a flash of light to his eyes. She quickly chanted
the familiar teleportation spell and five white whirlwinds sprang into
existence around the Chosen Ones.
"No!" Krella yelled, diving to grab Juice but coming up with nothing
but dust. "They're gone," she whispered, watching the dust slip between her
fingers. "And they have the Emerald."
Charisma, who'd been able to brace herself against the blow somewhat,
walked over to Krella and kneeled down beside her. "Well," she said in a
falsely cheerful voice while patting Krella on the back, "good luck with
Father. You're going to need it." The only sound that followed was Krella's
whimpering.
At the Palace, a guard on patrol was surprised to see a set of
whirlwinds appear inside an empty room. He made to draw his weapon until he
noticed that the whirlwinds were white. Once he realized what was happening,
he ran off to alert the palace of the return of the Chosen Ones. "Did we get
it?" Alicia asked as the winds dissipated. "Did we get it?"
"Right here Sis," Juice said, holding up the Emerald in his hands. "It
worked like a charm."
"I can't believe it," Desirée whispered, transfixed by the sight of the
Emerald. "Does this mean what I think it does?"
"It's over," Alicia said. "Even if they somehow find a way to recharge
the Fire Emerald without the artifacts, they can't bring Chaos back without
this Emerald."
Darrin took the Emerald from Juice and held it carefully. "We need to
find a safe place for this," he said. "We can't keep it here; too much risk
keeping it with the Fire artifacts."
"I can take care of that," Knuckles said, startling them as he appeared
with no warning. "The Emerald belongs on the Floating Island anyway, with me.
Inside the Emerald chamber, no one can get it."
The Chosen Ones huddled together, discussing the pros and cons of the
situation. It could've gone on longer than it did, but Alicia posed a single
simple question to the others. "Does anyone have any better idea?" When no
one could come up with anything, Alicia took the Emerald from Darrin and held
it out to Knuckles. "It's all up to you now," she said.
Knuckles accepted the Emerald reverently. "My family has guarded these
Emerald for generations," he said as he disappeared. "We won't fail you." He
transported himself directly into the Emerald chamber and placed the Lightning
Emerald in its proper place, smiling softly to himself as he felt its power
return to the Floating Island.
"I think this is a bad idea Dad," James said from the doorway. "You're
messing with the flow of destiny and that never ends good."
"Prophecies are only here to serve as guidelines James," Knuckles said,
not even turning around to look at his son. "Our actions dictate the future;
the future should not dictate our actions."
James scowled at the back of his father's head. "I'll be sure to remind
you of that the next time I want to tell the Chosen Ones the entire prophecy
and you tell me not to," he spat, turning on his heel and walking away
stiffly, fighting to keep from lashing out at his father.
Inside the throne room of the Unholy One, a more deadly fight was taking
place. "Father please!" Krella cried in as loud a voice as she could manage.
But because the Unholy One was currently holding her off the floor by her
throat, she could manage no louder than a whisper.
"You may have recharged the Emerald," the Unholy One growled, his eyes
glowing an angry blood red as he stared at the vixen in his grip, "but you
then allowed that Emerald to fall into our enemies' hands! Give me one good
reason why I should not kill you here and now!"
Krella opened her mouth to try and talk, but she could barely get enough
air to stay alive. Her consciousness was slowly fading when her salvation
came in the unlikeliest form. "Because it's as much your fault as it is hers
Father," Charisma said, stepping forward.
The Unholy One dropped Krella to the floor, who coughed and hacked as
the pressure on her throat was released. "You had better explain yourself
before you suffer the same fate as her," he snarled, turning his crimson gaze
on Charisma.
But surprisingly, even to herself, Charisma refused to cower under that
gaze. "Do you remember just before we left I tried to tell you both something
but neither one of you would listen? I was going to tell you that we had to
abort the mission because we've been found out."
"How could we have been found out?" the Unholy One demanded. "Did you
let something slip to that--"
"I did no such thing," Charisma yelled. "I know my job far better than
that, which you above all animals should know. Rouge has turned double agent
on us. She's the one who tipped them off. And if you'd let me speak before
we left, we wouldn't have lost the Emerald and Rouge could've been discounted
as a threat! You send me into the palace to do a job, and then when it counts
you don't let me do it!"
The Unholy One was slightly taken aback by Charisma's actions. "You are
correct Charisma," he said slowly, as if speaking each word caused him pain.
"You are there to do a job and I was wrong not to let you do it." A smirk
crossed Charisma's face, but it was quickly wiped off when dark energy
gathered around his hands. Before she could dodge, a wave of dark magic
slammed into her body, forcing her not only against the wall, but through it
as well.
"I warned you about showing me such disrespect again," he said in a too
calm voice, but one loud enough that she could hear it even buried under the
heavy stones as she was. "I will not warn you again. A third transgression
will cost you your life.
"The rest of you dig her out," he said as he walked from the room.
"Heal her as you must, then tell her that she is to discover the location of
the Lightning Emerald and report it back to me. She is not to return here
until she does, and there will be no further excuses."
"Yes Father," the other five Fallen Ones chorused. Once he left the
room, they set about digging Charisma out of the rubble. With Hugo's and
Maxwell's strength, she was soon free, but so injured that Tanin had to spend
quite some time healing her.
Krella looked at Charisma with a curious gaze. She was trying to figure
out just why Charisma had saved her when she saw the feline's eyes open.
"Paid in full," Charisma whispered before falling unconscious again. Krella
just let her head hang as she recalled the time she herself had saved Charisma
from Father's wrath.
The next morning found Bunnie pacing around her dojo as she waited for
the female Chosen Ones to appear for their training, her fur finally back to
normal from her son's prank. Word of the defeat the Chosen Ones had handed
the Fallen Ones had spread quickly through the palace last night, and Bunnie
definitely felt her spirits buoyed by the news. Ordinarily, she would have
dragged those three into her dojo by now, but she felt they did deserve some
consideration for their victory. It still didn't exempt them from their
training completely though.
She checked the clock again. They were now fifteen minutes late, and
she had the feeling that they had no intention of showing up at all. "Let me
change their minds on that score," she muttered, throwing open the door and
stomping down the hall.
The girls weren't hard to find; they were all gathered in Alicia's
bedroom talking about various things that they never seemed to have time for
with all the training and battles going on. But now that they believed it to
be over, they could relax and be ordinary teenage girls again. "So," Alicia
said, rubbing her hands together, "what should we do with our day?"
"I'll tell you what you'll be doing," Bunnie said, storming into the
room and startling the girls, "you'll be walking yourselves down to the dojo
and changing into you gis so I can put you all through the ringer."
"Give it a rest Mom!" Desirée said, rolling her eyes. "It's over! We
won! Now let us enjoy our victory."
"It's over you say? Funny, I don't remember locking up the Fallen Ones.
I haven't heard that the Unholy One is vanquished. All you did was get one
victory over them. A big victory, yes, but not big enough that you can expect
to sit around on your asses all day while they make plans to get rid of you
and reclaim the Lightning Emerald. So get up now!"
"With all due respect Bunnie," Angela said calmly, "did you never take a
day to rest after a successful raid on Robotnik?"
"That was different," Bunnie said, crossing her arms. "First of all,
Robotnik never found Knothole so we could afford to take a break now and
again. The Fallen Ones know exactly where you are--"
"But not where we're keeping everything," Desirée said, cutting her
mother off. "If they knew that, we wouldn't have the Fire artifacts still.
And the Emerald's not even here."
Bunnie's face scrunched up like she had just tasted something nasty,
but her daughter was right. "I'll give you that," she said slowly. "But I'm
not done yet. Second of all...wait, what's that noise?"
They all turned to look at the door just in time to see Nadine running
by. "I wonder where she's going in such a rush," Angela thought out loud.
"If I didn't know better," Desirée added in, "I'd swear she was doing
her training."
"Well I do know better," Bunnie said, walking to the door and watching
Nadine as she turned a corner out of sight. "And apparently, so does
Nicholas."
As if he knew he was being talked about, Nicholas looked around. But he
was standing in an otherwise empty hallway, waiting for Lily to complete her
training. The corner of his lips twisted just ever so slightly down when he
thought that. Since he'd been at the palace, he had to put up with everyone
except for Amy calling her Nadine. Even though he knew that was her real
name, he'd known her only as Lily and that was the only name he would call
her. To make matters worse, all but one of them kept insisting that he call
her by her name.
But that one animal was all he cared about. For about two weeks since
the king and queen handed down their decision on his fate, he'd spent much of
his free time renewing his friendship with Kelly Min just as he knew that Lily
was doing so with Darrin. He could not believe that he'd forgotten about his
first real friend, but it was all coming back to him now.
Much of the time had been spent catching up on what had happened since
they'd been separated. Just being around her was starting to bring back some
of the old Nicholas that he thought had died with his parents. He didn't know
how to feel about that exactly, especially because of what he'd been taught by
Victoria. So he had been partly relieved and partly saddened to have her
return to her dig site.
"I had planned on staying longer," she'd told him while she was packing,
a bit more hurriedly and haphazardly than one would expect from her, "but I've
been away far too long as it is. I think we're getting ready to make a major
find, and I want to be there when we do."
It had been a solid enough answer; Kelly had spoken about this more than
once in their talks. But from her actions, he'd known that she wasn't telling
the whole story. "What else?" he'd simply asked.
Kelly Min had paused just long enough in her packing for Nicholas to
notice her flinch. She'd never been a good liar when they were younger, and
it appeared she hadn't gotten any better with age. "OK, I'm terrified of the
Code Red that's just been announced," she'd finally admitted. "This is my
chance to escape, and I'm going to take it. I feel horrible about leaving you
here, but you can't come with me."
It was as he'd expected. With that first prank that Darrin and Lily had
pulled on the king and queen, the whole palace seemed to go into an uproar,
announcing a Code Red to everyone within its walls. Personally, he'd seen
their first and subsequent attempts to prank him as another training exercise
designed to keep him on guard against traps and ambushes. And even then, it
hadn't helped Kelly to leave early; they'd coated her suitcase in paint the
same color as the insides. In her first letter to him, she'd confirmed that
they'd gotten her anyway and that she had to spend a full week in the clothes
she'd been wearing until she could wash everything in that suitcase.
He was pulled from his thoughts by a soft, feminine gasp that probably
would've went unheard by everyone but him. He turned his head slightly and
saw a young female hedgehog staring at him with a mixture of embarrassment and
fear. As he watched, she backed down the hallway she had come from and used
her twin tails to fly off in a different direction.
The frown on his face became more pronounced for just a second before he
restored his mask of impassiveness. The young girl, Sarah Prower was her
name, would always act like that when she saw him ever since what had become
known as "The Incident." As much as he tried to deny it, Nicholas knew that
it was entirely his fault.
The day after the New Year, he'd shadowwalked into Lily's room to wake
her up for her training only to find her already awake and preparing. Without
making any acknowledgement of that fact, he'd told her to meet him outside the
front gates of the palace and shadowwalked back to his own room.
That was, unfortunately, a limitation on the shadowwalk ability that
Victoria had tried to teach him. He could shadowwalk to anywhere he wanted so
long as there was a shadow large enough to accomodate both his entrance and
his exit. But before he could shadowwalk anywhere else he had to return to
the point of origin. He knew that it would've been something he could've
conquered if Victoria had been able to finish his training, but that simply
was not the case and he did not have the ability to finish it on his own.
After he'd recovered the power he'd exerted, he'd shadowwalked into
Amy's room to awaken her. He'd taken little notice of the fact that she was
not alone in the room; he'd known that she was rooming with Sarah. But he
should have because as soon as Sarah had become aware of his presence, she'd
started screaming her head off. Nicholas had looked at her, wondering what
her problem was, until he'd noticed that the nightgown she'd been wearing, and
was then trying to cover up, would barely even be considered decent by Rouge's
standards.
While this fact had had absolutely no impact on him, it was obvious that
the same had not been true for Sarah. While still screaming, she'd thrust her
hands toward him and let fly a shower of crystal shards. Nicholas had quickly
dodged them and grabbed Amy, but then he had to dodge another volley. By the
time he'd been able to disappear back into the shadows, he'd dodged a total of
five of her attacks, all of which had disturbingly been aimed right at his
groin.
It was later that day that Sondra had sought him out. He'd been fully
expecting to be chewed out for his actions and so was prepared for it. What
Sondra had said, however, had actually made his composure crack for just an
instant. "Thank you."
"Thank you?" he'd repeated, not at all sure he'd heard correctly.
"Yes," Sondra had confirmed with a wry smile, "thank you. Your little
intrusion this morning convinced my daughter that she was dressing far too
adult and provocatively more than anything I could have done myself. But
from now on when you want to collect Amy please appear outside their bedroom
and knock a few times to let them know you're coming. That's all I ask."
"I suppose that's not too much to ask," Nicholas had said once he'd
regained his mental footing. And he'd kept to his word, knocking before
entering the bedroom that Amy and Sarah shared. He'd noticed that Sarah's
wardrobe had undergone a massive change since that night; thin nightgowns were
replaced by flannel pajamas and even her usual daily outfit tended to be
covered by a long button-down shirt or overlarge t-shirt.
The clomping of heavy boots brought his attention back to where it had
first been focused. A huffing and puffing Nadine skidded to a stop right in
front of him, bending over so that her hands rested on her knees. "A better
time than this morning," Nicholas observed calmly, checking the stopwatch in
his pocket, "but still not up to your usual standards."
"You know," Nadine said as she regained her breath, "maybe I could do
this better if I hadn't had my bed dumped on me this morning."
Any other animal would've smirked at this point, but Nicholas just
stared calmly at her. "If you had gotten up when I told you to, I wouldn't
have had to do that," he said matter-of-factly.
Nadine scowled in rememberance. She had thought about sleeping in that
morning; even though she wasn't a Chosen One, she had shared in their belief
that the war was over. So it was that when Nicholas had come to wake her up,
she'd ignored him. Three times in fact she'd ignored him, even telling him at
one point that it was all over, until he'd walked over and flipped the entire
bed over on her.
She'd gotten out from under the bed in nearly no time, only to come
face-to-face with a very angry Nicholas. He hadn't really looked different
from how he normally did, but she'd been with him long enough to see the
subtle signs. "It is not over," he'd said in a very hard voice. "You have
been taught better than this. Your actions this morning do nothing but shame
yourself and the memory of Victoria. Now get ready for training or do you
want her death to be in vain?" Completely cowed, Nadine had simply showered
and dressed for the day.
"If you're done thinking Lily," Nicholas said, bringing Nadine back to
the present, "I suggest you take care of whatever it is you need to. Your
training continues tonight. Be ready for it."
"All right, all right," Nadine grumbled while walking off. "I'll be
here." She walked off in a huff, mentally planning at least ten new things
she and Darrin could try on Nicholas. She was seriously considering plan
number eight, although she wasn't sure where they could procure enough hair
remover on such short notice, when her younger brother nearly ran into her.
"Oh," she said, quickly sidestepping around him, "sorry DJ. I wasn't watching
where I was going."
DJ smiled at his sister and shook his head. "My fault," he said softly.
Nadine couldn't keep the smile from her lips when she heard DJ talk. It
was something she didn't think she'd ever get tired of hearing, and something
she'd give anything to be sure he could keep doing. "So, going to meet that
girlfriend of yours?" she asked with a knowing smile.
But to her surprise, DJ shook his head. "Friend," was the only word he
spoke before he walked away, heading toward the roof. He'd looked everywhere
else, so that was where she had to be; he tended to find her there when she
needed to think or wanted to be alone. But he never was one for leaving
someone alone when they shouldn't be.
He got there fairly quickly, knowing the route by heart from the times
he had gone up there himself to be alone with his thoughts. And just as he
expected, she was sitting on the edge of the roof with her legs dangling off
the side and her hands behind her to support her weight. Her wings were
folded back out of the way but still fluttered slightly with the breeze. DJ
couldn't help but smile when her ears twitched as she became aware of him and
she turned to look at him. "Hello there DJ," Rouge said with a gentle smile.
"Hi Rouge," he whispered in return, but it was still loud enough for her
to hear.
Rouge continued to smile as DJ walked across the roof and sat down next
to her. "So, come to keep me company?" she asked in a sensual voice with a
knowing glint in her eye. "Although I think we'd both be more comfortable
keeping company in a bed."
DJ couldn't help but smile as he looked at her. Their friendship had
not started in a way that anyone would consider normal. Like every other guy
on Mobius, Rouge had tried to come on to DJ the moment she met him. DJ had
later learned that she had experienced every kind of reaction to her advances
except the one he gave: a quiet smile and an offer of friendship. To say
Rouge had been surprised is an understatement. She really hadn't known what
to make of DJ, so she had stuck with what she knew. But within a few days,
he'd managed to convince her that he was sincere and this unusual friendship
was born.
In their first real talk, one that had been completely free of innuendo
and double entendres, Rouge had admitted to DJ that she couldn't remember ever
having a friend. This was something completely new to her, and she still
wasn't entirely used to it. That's why whenever she greeted him like she just
had, he paid it no attention. It was just a safety measure for her, something
she was comfortable with. But it was pretty easy to tell from the playful
lilt in her voice that she wasn't serious.
"I'm waiting DJ," Rouge said with a pretty pout. "If you don't give me
an answer soon, I'm just going to take it as a yes."
DJ just shook his head with a smile. "Over prank?" he asked with a
smirk of his own.
Rouge's pout turned decidedly less pretty at DJ's question. "Don't
remind me," she grumbled, gnashing her teeth together just slightly. "I still
have to get them back for that somehow." She'd left the palace well before
stage three of the Prank War started, so she'd had no idea about it when she
returned for her first progress report. The morning after she'd gotten back,
she was going to talk to DJ like she'd promised to every time she returned and
went about preparing herself like she normally did.
On her way to meet DJ that day, she'd gotten more looks than usual. But
where she was expecting appreciative looks from the guys and annoyed looks
from the ladies, everyone was looking at her in shock. She'd really not
thought anything of it until she saw DJ staring at her the same way. "What?"
she asked, worried now. "What's wrong?" Instead of answering with words, DJ
had led her to a mirror and indicated that she should look in it.
Black. All of her makeup had turned black. Once her shock wore off,
she'd grabbed a cloth that DJ offered and scrubbed it from her face. Even
with it gone, the skin underneath had also turned black. She'd flown back to
her room, using her hands to cover her face. Once she'd gotten there, she'd
thrown her tainted makeup in the garbage and opened up a completely new set
to cover up her blackened skin. It had worked, at least for a little while.
But then to Rouge's horror, the makeup had begun to turn black as well.
It hadn't taken long for her and DJ, who had followed her, to figure out
that whatever dye that was used in the tampered makeup would seep into
anything she used to cover up the affected areas, even her hands if she wasn't
careful. Fortunately, the dye had worn away by the time DJ had managed to
explain what was going on. But that still hadn't stopped Rouge from swearing
revenge on Darrin and Nadine. The only thing that had prevented her from
trying to exact her revenge right then and there was that DJ had remarked how
nice she looked without makeup which had brought a very rare blush to her
cheeks.
Rouge shook her head as the memory of that day faded. Thinking about it
annoyed her as much today as it had back then. She turned to look back out
over the edge of the palace, a thoughtful look settling on her features. DJ's
smile faded as he realized that the situation was perhaps more serious than he
thought. "Thinking?" he whispered.
Rouge nodded distractedly. "This was way too easy," she said softly.
DJ couldn't help but notice that when she talked like this her voice was an
octave or so higher than normal and took on an air of innocence. "I mean yes,
you wouldn't have known about it if I hadn't told you, but it still doesn't
add up. I think the Chosen Ones are taking this far too lightly. From what
I've seen of the Unholy One, he's not likely to give up without a fight. So
I'm worried about him, and about what everyone else will do." DJ just nodded,
scooting over a bit to offer his silent understanding and comfort.
A number of floors underneath them, Darrin sat side-by-side on a couch
with Charisma planning a "make-up" date for the one they could not have the
night before. "I swear to you Charleen," Darrin said, taking a flower from
behind his back and holding it out to her, "nothing will keep me from going
out with you tonight."
It took Charisma a moment to notice that Darrin had stopped talking and
her gaze turned to meet his. "Hmm?" she asked, tilting her head slightly to
look at him. "Did you say something Darrin?"
Darrin sighed and tucked the flower into her hair, the purple blossom
nicely complimenting her blonde hair. "What's going on?" he asked, reaching
for her hands and taking them in his own. "You seem so distracted today; is
everything all right?"
"Oh yeah, everything's fine," Charisma said with a smile, though it was
obvious that she was at least slightly forcing it. "I'm just...keeping an eye
out so I don't get pranked again."
Darrin chuckled softly, drawing an affronted mewl from his girlfriend.
"Charleen, I already told you that Nadine won't prank you again. It's against
the rules of our Prank War. Once we carry out a successful prank on someone,
we can't prank them again. At least, not until the War is over. But don't
worry, it's not over until we can prank Nicholas, and I don't know how we're
going to do that any time soon."
"Spending a lot of time with your friend, aren't you?" Charisma said a
little sullenly, turning her face just slightly away from him as she added a
slight emphasis on the word "friend." She opened her mouth to say something
else, but found her lips covered firmly with his. She gasped into his mouth,
which only let his tongue enter and explore her mouth, sending shockwaves of
sensations through her for a few long moments. "What was I saying?" she
asked dazedly as they parted for breath.
Darrin gently rested his forehead against hers, tenderly kissing her
nose. "As much as I'm flattered by your jealousy, there's absolutely no
reason for it. I'm yours Charleen, one hundred percent. You're so deep in my
heart that there's no room for anyone else."
Charisma sighed happily, turning around so she could lean back against
his side. "You always know the right thing to say," she murmured, gently
stroking his arm as he settled it around her stomach. "But you do seem to be
in an unusually good mood. Did things go well on your mission last night?"
"You could say that," Darrin said with a mysterious smile until he
realized that Charisma couldn't exactly see him from how she was situated.
"We didn't even try to stop them though, we just took the Emerald from them
after they charged it."
"You have an Emerald?" she asked excitedly, turning back toward him.
"Does that mean--?"
Darrin nodded, cupping her cheek lightly in his hand. "It's over," he
whispered. "It's all over. Without that Emerald, they have nothing."
"I can hardly believe it. It's almost too good to be true."
"I know. But at the very least, you can bet that there'll be no more
interrupted dates."
"I'll believe that when I see it," she said with a twist of her lips.
"And speaking of that, I don't suppose I can see the Emerald, can I?"
Darrin sighed and shook his head. "I wish I could, but the Emerald's
not even here anymore. We felt it was too dangerous to keep the Emerald in
the same place where we're keeping the Fire artifacts, so we handed it over to
Knuckles. He brought it back to the Emerald Chamber in the Floating Island as
far as I know. That's where it belongs after all."
"Makes sense to me," Charisma said, sliding one finger down his cheek.
"For now though, I'll get ready for our date tonight, if it actually happens.
And to help you make sure that it actually happens, here's a little motivation
for you." And just as he had done to her before, she leaned in and kissed him
deeply and possessively, her tongue tangling with his until he was weak in the
knees. She slowly pulled back from the kiss, letting her tongue tease his
lips as they parted.
"I'll pick you up at seven," he said, watching her as she stood up.
"I'll be waiting," she said, blowing Darrin a kiss as she walked out of
the room. She walked out of the palace and down into the city proper at a
slow, leisurely pace. Though the information she had was important, she was
in absolutely no rush to get back.
While she strode calmly through the streets of Mobotropolis, things were
far less calm in the palace's throne room. "I have to admit I'm disappointed
to hear this," Sally said. "I thought they knew better than this."
"You're not the only one," Bunnie nearly growled as she paced in front
of the thrones. "I know I taught them better than this, especially the girls.
Yet when I tried to talk to them about it, all they wanted to do was argue
with me. Even Angela!"
"Would it really hurt to let them enjoy their day?" Sonic asked. "This
is the biggest victory they've won to date. I think we at least owe that to
them since we've been working them so hard. Even we took breaks after a
really crucial raid against ol' Buttnik. Why can't they?"
Bunnie couldn't help but laugh a little, causing everyone to look at
her. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh, but that was the exact same thing
Alicia said to me. You and your daughter are more alike than either of you
might realize."
"Be that as it may," Sally said, smirking at the look of pride that had
come upon Sonic's face, "that doesn't help us figure out what to do with our
dear children."
"I still say let them have the day off," Sonic said quickly. "But just
today. And we get the pleasure of waking them up extra early tomorrow to put
them through their paces."
"That sounds like a good plan Sonic," Sally said as the rest of the
Freedom Fighters nodded their assent. "All right then, we know what we're
doing. I'm off to find my daughter; the rest of you had better find the
others and appraise them of the situation." Sally flew out the room with
Sonic and the others close on her heels. Ever since the assassination
attempt, they made sure that Sally was never alone. Usually it would be
guards flanking her every movement, and she hated it. But it was a necessity
of the times, and she submitted to it, though less than gracefully.
While the Freedom Fighters looked for the Chosen Ones, Charisma strolled
calmly into the house that was supposed to be her home. "Well well well,"
Charlotte said as she saw her "niece" walk calmly toward the door that led to
the Dark Castle, "you seem to be in no hurry. Nothing important to report?"
"On the contrary," Charisma said, flipping her hair over her shoulder in
a show of nonchalance, "I have exactly what he needs to know." Leaving an
openmouthed Charlotte staring after her, she closed the door behind her with a
smirk on her face.
Charisma grabbed her cloak from the nearby hook out of habit and put it
on, making sure her bright dress was covered. She walked toward the throne
room with that same slow gait, pausing outside the doors to double and triple
check that no sign of her sapphire dress was showing. She rapped her knuckles
against the doors loud enough to make sure she was heard. "Father!" she
yelled in as loud a voice as she could, "I am back with my report. Would you
like to hear it now?"
"Enter," the Unholy One called. He watched quietly as the doors opened
and Charisma stepped inside. He smirked to himself at her new personality,
much more subdued than she had shown in the past. "What news do you have for
me?"
Charisma kept her eyes on the floor as she stopped in front of the
throne. "The Chosen Ones no longer have the Lightning Emerald," she said in a
quiet and meek voice. "They have given it to the Guardian who has it safely
tucked away within the Emerald Chamber on the Floating Island."
A displeased growl emerged from the mouth of the Unholy One. "This is
the worst possible news I could have expected," he said finally. "You have
done well to find out this information, but I believe it is now time to take
matters into my own hands. Leave me now and make sure I am not disturbed."
"As you wish Father," Charisma said, backing out of the room and closing
the door behind her. She walked calmly back to her room, completely ignoring
Krella as she tried to get information from her. "Father says he will handle
it and not to bother him," was all she would say until she got to her room and
closed the door in Krella's face.
Charisma took off her cloak and placed it on her bed before walking to
her closet to pick a dress for her date that night. As she sorted through her
dresses, she also tried to sort through her feelings. A lot had changed in
her life and her mind since she was slammed through the wall by her Father.
Gone were the admiration and respect she'd had for him since before she even
knew what the words were. In their place were feelings she never thought she
could ever connect with him: fear and loathing. If she could, she would take
Darrin and run far away with him. But there was nowhere they could run,
nowhere they could hide. And besides, Darrin would never run away from his
duties, even for her. All she could do was make the best of it all and pray.
Charisma's hand strayed to the locket that she wore between her breasts.
She'd never taken it off since Darrin had given it to her for Christmas; not
to sleep, not to shower, not to eat, never. Wearing it somehow helped her
find strength she didn't even know she had when she needed it the most. Now,
more than ever before, she needed that strength.
While Charisma's thoughts ran away with her, Alicia was preparing to do
some running of her own. Bunnie's lecture had actually taken root in her
mind, and she was more then ready to get back to her training. Besides, she
still didn't have full control of her speed; she was still just as likely to
stop because she ran into something than because she meant to.
As she turned a corner, she saw Juice lounging against a wall, looking
like he didn't have a care in the world. "Hey bro, what's going on?" she
asked as she approached. "Don't you have your Royal Lessons about now?"
Juice lazily opened his eyes to look at her and then closed them again.
"Give me a break Alicia," he said, stretching. "A day off means a day off,
even to those things."
"I know they gave us the day off, but that shouldn't apply to your
duties as the Crown Prince," she chided him. "The battles with the Fallen
Ones may be done with, but you still have a responsibility to the planet.
That should come before anything else."
Juice rolled his eyes and pushed away from the wall. "Stop nagging me
would you?" he complained, walking away from her. "I'm getting sick of you
telling me what I should and should not do. You always think you know better
than me!"
"Well maybe that's because I do!" Alicia yelled, stalking after him.
"Do you even have any idea what you're duties are? Juice, in less than a year
you will be king. King! Do you have any idea what that means?"
"Of course I know what it means," Juice snarled, stopping in his tracks
and turning to confront her. "How could I not? There's not a day that goes
by that either you, Dad, or Mom doesn't drill that into my head. You most of
all!"
"Someone has to!" Alicia almost screamed back, not paying any attention
to the crowd that was gathering around them. "Believe me, if I was the first
in line, no one would ever have to remind me."
"Oh, so you think you can do a better job of this?"
"Yeah, actually I do," Alicia agreed, her tail standing straight out in
her agitation.
Juice frowned and lowered his voice a notch. "So what? You think I
don't deserve to be the Crown Prince?"
Alicia gnashed her teeth together. "The way you're acting right now, no
I don't."
"So let me see if I get this straight. You think you can do a better
job than me, and you think I shouldn't be the Crown Prince. So what you're
really telling me is that you want to be the Crown Princess. Is that right?"
"Yes Juice, that's exactly what I'm telling you!"
Every trace of anger left Juice's face and his demeanor suddenly became
cold and professional. "Fine Alicia, we'll have it your way. I accept your
Challenge of Succession."
Alicia felt like a bucket of ice water had just been dumped on her head.
"What are you talking about?" she whispered in a small voice. "I didn't--"
"But you did," Juice said, cutting her off. "You said it yourself: I
don't deserve to be the Crown Prince because I'm incompetent, you could do a
better job than me, and you desire to take my place in the line of succession.
Under the law, that's all you need to do to proclaim a Challenge of Succession
as the second in line. And once it's accepted, it cannot be retracted."
Alicia took a faltering step toward Juice with the intent of reasoning
with him, but he just turned on his heel and walked away. "Juice!" she
yelled, falling to her knees. But either her brother didn't hear her or
didn't care to stop because he just kept walking away.
Everyone who witnessed this was shocked silent, including those who had
been watching in the security room. Donovan was among them, even though he
was technically off for the day. Since the New Year, when they weren't trying
to keep their son and his girlfriend under control, they had been working
feverishly to upgrade the security system. Part of that upggrade included
linking the entire system to Computer so that it could constantly monitor
everything.
Of course, that meant that Computer also needed an upgrade. Nadia and
DJ worked on that end for the most part with Donovan coordinating the project
from the security room. When this project got done, Donovan had promised his
family that he'd take a full week off work, just to show them that he wasn't
slipping back into his workaholic ways.
But now he was glad he'd been in the room to witness things; it was the
only way to keep things from spiralling out of control. Already he saw some
of the security guards picking up their communicators to spread the word.
"Put those down!" he barked at them, making them all drop their communicators
in surprise. "No one, and I mean no one is to divulge any of this information
to anyone outside this room. If I find out you even told your reflection, you
will be looking for a new job in the morning. Do I make myself clear?"
A host of murmured "Yes, sir," answered his command. Donovan stood up
out of his chair suddenly, making a few of his personnel stumble away from
him. "Inform the king and queen I am on my way to see them," he said, walking
over to a console and ejecting a tape from it. "Do not tell them anything
else."
Donovan walked quickly to the throne room, brushing by animals who
weren't quick enough to get out his way. But that was few and far between as
most denizens of the palace knew that, as Duval had called him, one of the
greatest bastards on the face of Mobius had returned. Gone was the pristine
white lab coat he'd worn for the past five or six years. Now he wore a dark
black trenchcoat that had its sleeves ripped off. His old boots were dusted
off and refurbished to make sure they worked as well as or better than they
had twenty years ago. Also gone was the eyepatch; his shades had returned to
his face after a lengthy absence. Black gloves were also back on his hands,
though not the same ones he used to wear; they were too worn to be saved.
When he reached the throne room, he just strolled inside, not even
waiting for either guard to open the doors. "I assume you knew I was coming?"
he stated more than asked as he stopped in front of them.
"One of your security guards called to let us know," Sally confirmed,
"but she refused to tell us what was going on. I believe she said that you
had directed her not to say anything even to us."
"That is correct Silly," Donovan said, unconsciously gripping the tape
he held just a bit tighter. "We have a problem, and it's a big one."
"Cut the dramatics Donovan," Sonic snapped. "Just tell us what's going
on and we'll deal with it."
Donovan turned to look at the king, his expression cool though Sonic
could tell he was being glared at. "As much as I want you to Quills, I don't
think you can handle this. On this tape is your son claiming that your
daughter has called for a Challenge of Succession, and his acceptance of it."
"What?" Sonic and Sally both screamed, jumping out of their thrones.
The fact that Donovan didn't even so much as flinch at their outbursts
only further cemented that fact that the old Donovan was back. "Feel free to
look over the tape," he said, handing it to Sally, "and make sure to have
Antony look it over with you. I am not as well-versed in royal protocol as
he is, but Juice definitely seemed to think this was airtight."
Sally stared at the tape in her hands, an angry frown crossing her lips
before she hid her emotions behind a mask of royal control. "I can assure you
I will watch every second of this encounter," she said in a strong voice. "If
I find anything amiss, I will declare this Challenge null and void. If it is
as valid as you think it is, then I have a son to hurt."
"Don't hurt him too much," Donovan said as he took his leave. "After
all, if the Challenge is valid, we're not allowed to affect the outcome of it
in any way. That much I do know."
Sonic sank down in his throne the moment Donovan closed the doors. "How
did it get to this Sal?" he asked quietly, his head sinking into his hands.
"Or more importantly, why did it come to this?"
"I don't know Sonic," Sally said, squeezing his shoulder gently, "but we
are going to find out."
Much to Sally's displeasure and dismay, the videotape only proved that
the Challenge was completely airtight. Juice had led the conversation
perfectly; Alicia had fallen right into his trap. It was obvious to Sally
that Juice had laid a trap for his sister, but what she couldn't figure out
was why. Did he really hate his sister that much that he would goad her into
a fight to the death? That was the only way such a Challenge could end; she
was going to have to watch one of her children die.
With a heavy heart, a subdued Sally put the word out that afternoon.
Playing the part tradition forced her to play, she ordered that both of her
children be confined to their quarters, accessible only to who they would
choose to second them the following day. She then appointed Antoine to be the
one to officiate over the actual battle, a job that he took reluctantly at
best. Immediately after that pronouncement, she retired to her chambers where
she and Sonic spent the rest of the day in each other's arms.
The announcement spread through the palace within minutes. So fast in
fact that it reached some animals' ears before Juice and Alicia were properly
sequestered. Nadine shot out of a hallway, coming up on Juice suddenly and
shoving him up against the wall before either he or his honor guard could
react. "I just want to know," she said, holding him in place with her robotic
hand, "have you lost your mind? Did you get bounced around so much that you
lost what little sense you had?"
"It's none of your business Nadine," Juice said, brushing some dust off
his sleeve and signaling for the guards to stand back.
"None of my business?" she yelled before forcing herself to calm down.
"I just found out that two of my friends are going to be fighting tomorrow and
only one of them gets to walk away! Not to mention your stupid stunt forced
us to cancel the Prank War!"
Juice glared at Nadine, grabbing her hand and trying unsuccuessfully to
move it. "This is between me and Alicia. No one else matters right now.
Especially not you and your Prank War."
"I know brothers and sisters have their arguments, but is it really
worth it to maybe kill each other over? And besides, have you thought about
the consequences? What if, Almighty forbid, the Fallen Ones get their hands
on the Lightning Emerald? What you're doing now will mean one less Chosen One
to fight them! Are you really willing to risk the safety of Mobius over
this?"
"In this case, yes."
Nadine sighed and closed her eyes behind her shades. "I see I'm not
going to talk any sense into you." Then her eyes opened and Juice could see
a red glow coming from behind her shades as the pressure of her hand on his
chest intensified. "So it looks like I'm going to have to beat some sense
back into you--!"
Nadine's exclamation of anger turned into one of surprise as she
suddenly found herself on the ground. She didn't know how she got there, all
she knew was that Nicholas was standing over her with a very upset look on his
face. "I see I need to remind you of your evening training," Nicholas said in
a cold voice. "The clock is ticking Lily; if your time is worse than it was
this morning, I will not hold back."
Lily yelped in fear and scrambled to her feet, hauling tail down the
hallway and out of sight. "I'm not done with you yet Juice!" she yelled over
her shoulder as she disappeared around a corner.
Nicholas didn't take his attention from Lily until she had disappeared
from sight. He slowly turned to look at Juice and half-smirked, half-scowled
in his direction. "You really should hire better guards," he said before
walking off to wait for Lily.
Juice watched him go, rubbing his chest. "Those two are very scary," he
said before allowing himself to be escorted back to his room. Before he even
got two steps though, he froze. There, waiting for him at the end of the
hallway, was Rouge. He knew it was her by her clothes and her body, and he
quickly did a U-turn.
Juice had a very good reason for avoiding Rouge, one that dated back to
just after his family had passed judgement on everyone. Before she'd left on
her spying mission, she'd cornered him with another offer for a "day, night,
and morning he'd never forget." Juice had been very confused by this; hadn't
she just said that to try and make him let her out of the cells? But now, it
turned out she'd been perfectly serious with that first offer, and it was
apparently a standing offer. Juice had blushed so badly he looked like one of
his sister's jogging suits and sped away from her before she'd gotten any
other ideas.
As the news had spread through the palace, so did it spread across the
planet. By the time the sun set, many of the major cities knew about the
Challenge and most animals had drawn their own conclusions. It took a little
while for the news to reach the smaller towns and villages, but there wasn't a
living soul who didn't know about the Challenge by the time the midnight hour
rolled around.
A small village on the road that led from Mobotropolis to Urbantropolis
was one of the last to receive information about this. A freak storm, most
likely caused by the loosed Breath of Mobius, had all but devastated it. If
they hadn't had advance warning, the loss of life would have been absolute.
But just moments before the storm struck, a badger wearing a graduation gown
that bore three black stripes on its left arm appeared to warn them of the
danger.
At first, the villagers were skeptical; it was a clear day with perfect
weather. But when the wind began to pick up with no clouds in the sky,
concern spread. When the first tree branch broke, everyone ran for their
underground shelters. And it was a good thing they did; almost everything
above ground had been levelled. But because of the badger's warning, no life
was lost.
The badger was currently busy helping to rig up a command center to
establish communication with the palace. Self-sufficient though it was, the
village really had no choice but to ask for aid to rebuild. It was slow going
because not many villagers had the knowhow to help, but at least they were
able to move around the equipment at his direction.
Finally, after about three hours, he managed to get the communications
array back online. But before they could put out the call for help, they
received the automatic repeating message detailing the Challenge. All work in
the village stopped as the weight of the news settled in on them.
In the quiet and confusion, the badger slipped away unnoticed. "So it
has finally come to this," he whispered, walking down the path that led to
Mobotropolis. "I suppose I knew it would, which is why I have prepared all
this time. I wish it hadn't, but I know what must be done."
At that moment, James sat just outside the Emerald Chamber on the
Floating Island, his back against the only door leading inside. Despite what
his father thought, he knew that the Emerald wasn't completely safe even up
here. Though the very nature of the Chamber prevented any evil from
teleporting inside, it wasn't impenetrable. That was proven the night the
used Emeralds were taken. And that was why he was here, even though he would
rather be somewhere else.
Unknown to everyone else, James had a girlfriend, and had had one for
about two weeks now. He'd even went to see her that afternoon only to be told
that he needed to leave. "You know you have to be there," she'd said. "It's
your duty and you need to be there. Your father won't see things your way;
it's up to you to make sure the Emerald's safe."
James had just nodded and held her close. "Hopefully it'll be nothing,"
he'd whispered. "If I'm wrong, then I'll be back to see you soon. Take care
Lissette."
"You too," Lissette had whispered back, kissing his cheek softly. She'd
smiled and waved as he teleported himself back to the Floating Island.
James smiled when he thought about that. If anyone had told him even
two months ago that he would have Lissette as his girlfriend, he would have
laughed and probably blasted that animal into another dimension. But here he
was, with it actually the truth, and he couldn't be happier.
It had all started around New Year's Eve. It had taken James that long
to work up the nerve to thank Lissette for her Christmas present, and to find
a present for her. When he'd teleported to the palace, a few guards had told
him that she'd locked herself in her room and hadn't come out yet. She hadn't
even responded to his continued knocking. So just to make sure she was all
right, or so he had insisted to himself, he teleported inside her room.
As soon as he'd appeared, he had to dodge a heavy metal toolbox that had
been thrown at his head. "What is the matter with you?" he'd started to yell
until he'd seen her tearstreaked face.
"Get out!" Lissette had yelled, looking for something else to throw at
him.
James had hurried over and grabbed her hands, trying to keep her from
hurting him as well as hurting herself. The stream of curses that had flowed
from her lips had shocked him, for all of three seconds. Then he'd started to
give it back, just as heated as she was. Their voices had steadily raised in
volume until they were screaming in each other's faces.
To this day, he still didn't know what possessed him to take the action
that he did. All he could remember was wanting her to shut up, no matter how
he had to make her do it. And since he hadn't really been thinking clearly,
his only option seemed to be what he did. And it had shut her up; after all,
it wasn't really possible for Lissette to keep talking with his lips firmly
atop hers.
They'd kissed for about a minute before Lissette had ripped herself out
of his arms. "You bastard," she'd said in a dark voice. "How dare you do
that?" James had tried to come up with some excuse but was quickly stopped by
a jab to the gut. Lissette had grabbed James by his quills and forced him to
look at her. "How dare you do that," she'd repeated while glaring in his
eyes, "especially when I wanted to be the one who did it."
James had had no time for surprise before Lissette's lips had come
crashing down on his. They'd feverishly made out for a number of minutes, as
if they couldn't get enough of each other. It would have been so easy to keep
going, to not stop until both of their virginities were nothing more than
fading memories. But they'd broken apart by some unspoken agreement and had
just stood there, looking at each other.
In that moment, he'd known that neither of them were ready to take that
step. If anything, it would've only been a one time thing and would've done
irreparable harm to their friendship. Instead, they'd sat down and started to
talk, really talk and not just hurl insults back and forth. They hadn't known
what was going on or even where it had come from, but both were ready and
willing to figure it out.
A surge of dark magic pulled James from his thoughts just in time to get
a shield up. The blast that struck the shield nearly destroyed it and
would've punched a hole right through James if it had connected. Before James
could even comprehend the situation, another bolt of magic broke through the
shield and threw James through the door and into the Chamber.
"You should've known better than to think you could challenge me," the
Unholy One sneered as he stood over James' battered body. "And now you will
pay for your insolence with your life."
"He will not be paying anything," Knuckles said, appearing in the
doorway with Julie-Su right behind him. "If anyone dies here tonight it will
be you."
"Ahh, the Guardian," the Unholy One said with an evil glee in his voice.
"How long I've waited to meet you. Now I can finally put an end to the line
who imprisoned my master so long ago!"
"If you think you can," Knuckles said, white light glowing around his
fists, "then you're welcome to try."
As the fight between Knuckles and the Unholy One began, Julie-Su darted
forward and pulled James out of harm's way. She kept one eye on the fight as
she healed her son, just to make sure no stray magic came their way. The
fight was intense; spells were being thrown and countered so fast that she
could not identify them all.
As the fight dragged on, Julie-Su was becoming more and more agitated.
Neither one showed any signs of backing down, but the scales should've been
tipped in their favor already. "Where are they?" she muttered, looking
around the Chamber as if the shadows within held the answers she was looking
for. "The Shi-rats should have been here by now."
"They're not coming," James said, stifling a groan as he forced himself
to a sitting position. "Dad never sent out a call."
"What?" she nearly screamed, her voice echoing off the Chamber's walls.
"This is my home," Knuckles said, dodging a bolt of dark lightning that
singed his gloves. "It's my responsibility, my job, my fight. I can do this
without anyone's help!"
"Your stubbornness is going to get us killed!" Julie-Su screamed.
Coincidentally, a powerful burst of black flame overcame the shower of white
beams of light that were coming from Knuckles' hands at the exact same time.
The impact sent Knuckles flying through the air to land next to his family in
a semi-conscious state.
Julie-Su rolled her eyes as she got to her feet. "James, you try and
contact the Shi-rat," she said, gathering what power she had into her hands.
"I'll keep him busy as long as I possibly can."
Though she couldn't see his face, she knew by the shape of his red eyes
that the Unholy One was smirking at her. "You? Keep me busy? Don't be a
fool. Your power is so pathetically weak that I don't know how you even
became a Holy One to begin with. You are nothing to me."
"Nothing, huh?" she asked, undoing the ties to her robe and letting it
fall to the floor. Unlike her husband and son, she did not have the title of
"Guardian" so was still made to wear the robes of a Holy One. Visible now was
a green and black bodysuit that was tight enough to allow her full mobility
yet not tight enough to restrict her breathing. It was cinched at the waist
by a gold belt that hung diagonally across her hips. On her feet were a
rather large pair of green boots, and gloves similar to her husband's, except
that they actually had fingers, adorned her hands. "Well then, let's see
what this 'nothing' can do."
The Unholy One almost laughed at the pathetically slow spheres of magic
that left Julie-Su's hand and headed in his general direction. He avoided
them easily, not even really paying them attention; he was too busy figuring
out how much time he could possibly spend toying with this female before her
not quite so pathetic husband awoke. But that careless distraction prevented
him from seeing the fist that came flying at his face, knocking him backward
and into one of those spheres that he had discounted.
Gritting his teeth against the double pain, the Unholy One refused to
let himself fall. "What kind of nonsense was that?" he demanded.
Julie-Su smirked as she danced back and forth on the balls on her feet.
"My powers may be 'pathetically weak' as you said, but that just means I was
forced to learn rather creative ways to use them. After all, I was quite the
fighter before I married Knuckles."
James caught himself gaping as his mom continued to fight. "Wow," he
whispered as he watched her bury a magically enhanced fist into the Unholy
One's stomach, knocking him halfway across the Chamber. "Go Mom." Then, as
he remembered what he was supposed to be doing, he closed his eyes and let his
senses expand, seeking out who he had to contact.
Fortunately for him, all of his targets were together in one place.
Unfortunately, none of them were in a receptive state of mind at the moment.
Tanis was staring down at Angela, his normally passive face twisted in rage.
"How could you be so reckless?" he asked in a tightly controlled voice.
"You can't tell me you did not know the consequences that could come from
this."
"But they won't!" Angela insisted, tears streaking down her cheeks.
"We wouldn't be doing this if we were not absolutely sure of everything."
Tanis just frowned and turned his back on his daughter. After hearing
of the challenge, he tracked his daughter down and ordered her return to
Sanctuary. It was only instinct that told him that she was involved, but his
instincts turned out to be correct. Only moments before he had coaxed a full
confession from her, both of the intended plan and her role in it. "Just that
you would take such a risk disappoints me," he said, clasping his hands inside
the sleeves of his robe in an attempt to keep from lashing out. "I know I
raised you better than this, but the die is cast. As a Holy One, I am not
allowed to interfere in this matter. But as a father, I can more than give
you a piece of my mind."
"It will have to wait," Rosie said, walking out of one of the room
behind the altar. "We being summoned by James, and it's an emergency."
Tanis and Angela looked at her in confusion; neither one of them had
felt a summons. But as Tanis calmed down, he did become aware of it and was
immediately filled with regret. "We must hurry," he said in his normal voice.
"Time is of the essence."
"But I don't hear anything," Angela protested, pressing her hand against
the side of her head. "All I feel in my head is a lot of buzzing, like a
swarm of angry bees."
Tanis and Rosie looked at each other and nodded. "The Almighty deems
that you cannot come," Tanis said. "That does not exempt you from your
punishment though. For your part in what must happen, you are to remain in
your room until you must leave. Regardless of the outcome I will do no more
to you; living with a failure will be more than punishment enough for you."
"Yes Father," Angela whispered, her just dried tears flowing again as
she walked softly to her room.
"You do not have to be so rough with her," Rosie rebuked as they
gathered the power to teleport to the Floating Island, far more than they
needed to teleport somewhere on the planet's surface. "Especially when it's
your fault to begin with."
Tanis closed his eyes as Rosie's words struck true. "What's done is
done," he said as they called their whirlwinds up. "We'll discuss what we do
about it when we return."
It was good that they'd hurried because when the wind dissipated they
found the Unholy One standing over all of the Echidnas. He definitely looked
worse for wear like he'd been in a fight that he hadn't expected, but the
Echidnas looked worse. Julie-Su was barely conscious, a large gash on her
forehead that had been burned closed, and the others were in nearly as bad
shape. "Balthos!" Tanis thundered, his voice reverberating around the
Chamber.
The Unholy One flinched and looked up at the sound of the name, taking
his attention from the Echidnas. "Ahh, Tanis," he hissed angrily, his scarred
and misshapen hands contorting into something resembling claws. "I should've
known you would pop up. Your family is always sticking its nose where it
doesn't belong."
"Give it up Balthos," Tanis said, stepping more completely into the
Chamber as Rosie moved to cover the door.
"I no longer answer to that name!" the Unholy One roared. "Balthos was
a simpering fool who contributed nothing to this planet with his delusions of
being the top Holy One. Only I remain now, the Left Hand of Chaos, and I
will be the instrument of His return!"
"You're even more delusional now," Rosie spat, her fingertips crackling
with blue lightning. "There's only one way out of here and you cannot beat
both me and my husband."
The Unholy One's eyes flared in anger before the light within flickered
out. "Only partially true Shi-rat," he said in a menacing voice as he slowly
backed away from her. "I cannot beat the both of you. I'm not even sure I
can beat even one of you as I am now."
His eyes swiveled to where the Echidna family lay and his eyes seemed to
be twinkling at them. "Next time you put wards up," he said, a teasing tone
to his voice, "remember to place them on the inside as well as the outside."
"No!" Tanis cried, unleashing a spell at him as Rosie did likewise.
But it was too late, before the spells reached him, the Unholy One grabbed the
Lightning Emerald from its pedestal and teleported away, leaving nothing
behind but a fading wisp of darkness.
Rosie pounded her fist into her palm. "We let him get away," she said,
wanting nothing more than to let loose with a few good curses to vent her
frustration. But as a Holy One, that simply was not done.
Tanis didn't answer Rosie's remark, instead going over to the Echidnas
and starting to heal them. Rosie took the hint and dropped down next to
Tanis, using her powers to supplement his. "Knuckles," Julie-Su whispered,
struggling to sit up even as Rosie healed her.
"He's fine," Rosie assured her, trying to get her to lay back down.
"You need to relax and let me heal you."
Julie-Su brushed Rosie's hands away but couldn't really do anything to
stop her. "Knuckles!" she called.
"I'm all right," Knuckles answered as Tanis finished healing him.
"You sure you're all right?" Julie-Su asked, forcing herself to stand
on her wobbly legs.
Knuckles couldn't help but smile gently at the concern he heard in his
wife's voice. "I'm sure," he said, watching as Tanis began to heal James.
"That's good," Julie-Su said, her voice noticably colder. Knuckles
whipped his head around to look at her but all he saw was a gloved fist just
before it connected with his jaw and sent him flying across the room. "You
idiot!" she screeched, pouncing on him before he could get up and landing a
one-two combination to his stomach. "Do you know what your arrogance has just
cost us? If the Fallen Ones win and we all die when Chaos is reborn, I swear
to the Almighty I'll kill you myself!"
The Shi-rats could only watch as Julie-Su put a pounding on her husband.
"Where on Mobius did she learn to fight like that?" Tanis wondered aloud,
wincing as Julie-Su buried a glowing knee into Knuckles' groin.
"Mom comes from a long line of army brats, as she calls her family,"
James explains. "She didn't have that deep of a well of magical powers when
Dad made her a Holy One, so she developed her own style that combined the
fighting techniques of her family with the Holy One powers that Dad taught
her."
"Impressively effective," Rosie mused. "I wonder, do you think she'd be
willing to teach Angela those techniques?"
Julie-Su looked up from her pummelling and smiled. "Oh, I'd be happy
to," she said, snagging the back of Knuckles' neck without even looking as he
tried to slink off. "I've always wondered what could be done with my style
with as much of a reserve as Angela has."
"We'll talk about it later," Tanis said, readying himself to heal
Knuckles again. "Seems like we have a lot of things that we need to discuss
later."
Knuckles spit out some blood that had pooled in his mouth as Tanis
started to heal the bruises that his loving wife had caused. "One thing that
can't wait till later is what happened here tonight. We must tell the Chosen
Ones immediately."
"We...cannot," Tanis said reluctantly. "It's out of our hands at the
moment," he said before Knuckles could object. "The princess has called for a
Challenge of Succession, however inadvertently. The prince has accepted it
and will not allow her to back down. If we tell them this, it will cause them
to abandon the Challenge. While normally I would agree to this, as Holy Ones
we are forbidden from interfering in political affairs."
"Well I'm not a Holy One yet," James said, standing up. "If you won't
tell them, I will!"
"You will not!" Julie-Su ordered. "I don't know the whole story, but I
have the feeling Tanis does. We will hear what he has to say, then you can
determine what you're going to do."
The next morning, before the sun had even risen, Alicia was awakened by
three sharp raps on her door. "Rise Princess," Desirée said through the door.
"It's time to prepare for your Challenge."
Alicia's eyes fluttered open at the sound reluctantly, as if she were
sorry to leave the world of dreams behind. Her eyes, normally fathomless
black pools, had faded to a steel grey and had become as shallow as a puddle.
She moved listlessly from her bed and toward the door, distractedly pulling on
a robe to cover the thin shift she had gone to sleep in. "Come on in Des,"
she whispered as she opened the door. "Thanks for agreeing to be my second."
Desirée stepped inside and immediately gave her friend a one-armed hug.
Alicia nearly broke down, again, as Desirée's arm tightened around her. "It's
gonna be all right Alicia-gal," Desirée said, slipping into her mother's
method of speaking for comfort's sake.
"You don't know that," Alicia protested. "I might have to kill my
brother today."
"Don't even start talking like that," Desirée said, looking Alicia in
the eyes and flinching at what she saw. "I don't know what's going on here,
but I know there's more going on than we know."
"I wish I could believe you," Alicia admitted quietly. "But I have a
part to play, so I'd better get out there and play it."
Desirée nodded and placed the bundle of clothes she was carrying in her
free arm on Alicia's bed. "Go wash yourself," she directedly gently, placing
a small vial of oil in Alicia's hand. "Use this when your done to anoint your
fur; it's supposed to bring you good luck today."
Alicia sighed and walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind her
out of habit alone. She went through the motions of washing herself as if she
were mechanical and unfeeling, like those robots her parents had fought
against it so long ago. "Do you regret it now Mom?" she whispered as she
dried herself off with a towel. "Do you regret winning knowing what your
children have done?"
After she was dry, she rubbed a light coating of the oil that Desirée
had given her into the fur covering her body. The scents of jasmine and
sandalwood hit her nose, calming her nerves slightly. It wasn't much, but it
did allow her to think clearly. And for that, she was grateful.
Alicia strode out of the bathroom with a little more confidence in her
step. Desirée had taken the time to lay out the clothing she had brought with
her and Alicia took a moment to look at them. The outfit was fairly simple,
but would serve its purpose well. A white, button down, long-sleeved shirt
with decorative ruffles around the cuffs and neckline was complemented by a
pair of light blue pants that looked to be loose enough to move around freely
in. Her own boots would complete the look. "If it weren't for what they
represent," she whispered as she fingered the material, "I wouldn't mind
wearing something like this more often."
Desirée smiled sadly and placed her hand on her friend's shoulder.
"Come on," she urged softly, "we really can't be late for this, and there's
still a long walk ahead of us."
"The longest walk of my life," Alicia murmured as she slipped the shirt
on, trying hard to keep the tears from her eyes.
After she had dressed, Desirée escorted her toward the dueling area: a
large, open air atrium that was bordered by walls pocked with many alcoves
that animals could use to watch these fights when such were common. The
alcoves were connected by an intricate series of tunnels and staircases that
spectators could use to try and find a better view if they needed one. But it
had not seen the use it had been designed for in many generations so it had
fallen to use as a garden. But now the field had been cleared and prepared to
serve once again.
As they walked through the palace halls, they passed by the Osaya
residence and Desirée couldn't help but stop a moment. She knew that DJ was
in there; he'd absolutely refused to be any part of this. Even though she was
here to support Alicia, she herself could use the support of her love. But
she could not and would not force him to come.
"Is everything OK?" Alicia asked, noticing the wistful look in the
doe's eyes.
"Yeah," Desirée said, even though she couldn't even convince herself of
it. "I just wish...no, never mind. You've got enough to worry about today."
On the other side of that door, DJ gazed at it as if he could see
through it, somehow sensing that Desirée was in the hallway. With a soundless
sigh, he turned back toward Computer and leaned back in his chair. Like with
everyone else, he hadn't had much luck sleeping. Instead of trying to find
some rest like most everyone else had, he'd spent his time working on some of
the software needed to upgrade Computer. He was getting close, but he needed
his mother's help to make the final touches. So all he was really doing was
revising and streamlining the code that already existed, making Computer that
much faster.
"Pardon me DJ," Computer said, "but my new sensors are picking up an
unauthorized intruder in the dueling arena. I can't provide a visual or even
audio, but I am sure that it is there and male. What should we do?"
"Mom!" DJ said as loudly as he could in his communicator, but there was
no answer. Belatedly, he remembered that the communicators had been taken
offline because they were being integrated with Computer. Realizing that it
would take too much time to get hold of his mother, he hurried from the rooms
and toward the dueling area.
Computer thought that DJ was telling it to contact his mother, so that's
what it did. While the main communication system was down, it did have some
communication with the security room. "Nadia, Computer here," it said. "I
have an anomaly on my sensors."
"I'm aware of it Computer," Nadia said, wiping her mouth with the back
of her hand. She'd had a bad taste in her mouth for the past day or so, but
that might be because she'd been throwing up. She'd gone to see Dr. Gray
about it yesterday and he'd taken some tests, but the results wouldn't be in
until sometime today. "To be honest," she continued, "I thought it was a
glitch we had to work out."
"DJ is on his way to check it out," Computer said. "Just in case it is
not a glitch, which I don't believe it to be, perhaps you should send someone
to accompany him."
Nadia nodded, then had to sit down as even that motion had made her
nauseous. "I wish Donovan didn't have to be at this duel," she muttered.
"Send some guards to where my son is and make sure he's safe," she ordered,
rubbing her closed eyes.
"As you wish," one of the guardswomen said. "We have also finished
establishing communications with the hospital wing and Dr. Gray is on the line
with some urgent news for you."
"Patch him through," Nadia said. "Maybe he can fix whatever's wrong
with me easier than I can fix this system."
While all this was getting sorted out, all the principal parties had
arrived at the dueling area. Sonic and Sally, both dressed in their regal
finest, sat off to the side in a box seat reserved for them. Tails and Sondra
were dressed similarly and sat behind them as part of the royal family.
Bunnie, dressed in a perfectly pressed guard uniform, stood just to the side
of them in the position of an honor guard. Donovan stood on their other side
in his new/old outfit as the other honor guard that tradition demanded. All
of them wore such neutral expressions that it almost appeared that they were
wearing realistic masks.
In benches placed in the walls' lowest alcoves were other animals who
had a vested interest in the outcome of this duel. Darrin and Charisma sat
closest to the action, his hand gripping hers feverishly. Though they had
gone out on the date that they agreed to, it had been obvious to her that he
was completely distracted. Before she could leave in a huff though, he'd
broken down and told her the whole story.
Her surprise and confusion had been sincere and that had become the
topic of conversation. He'd been so distraught over the whole thing that he'd
spent most of the night crying on her shoulder and the rest sleeping on it.
Once he'd woken up, he'd been sufficiently embarrassed and had tried to
apologize, but she'd just silenced him with a kiss on his lips and had told
him that it was her pleasure.
Near them sat Nicholas and Nadine. Nadine was a nervous wreck, very
jumpy at the slightest noise. Even though she'd been woken up even before
Alicia and Juice had by Nicholas for her morning training, she had more than
enough energy to burn. But Nicholas was perfectly calm and collected, as if
he were about to watch paint dry. Every so often, Nadine would turn to glare
at Nicholas as if she couldn't believe how calm he was being. But her glares
never drew so much as a blink from him so it was just more wasted energy.
The only other animal that was here to watch this was Rouge; the younger
children, even if they wanted to attend like Sarah had, were under the care of
Lissette. Lissette really didn't want to be a part of this and had jumped at
the opportunity to have something else to do. Of course, she didn't realize
that most of her time would be spent making sure Sarah didn't get out of the
room, but with Metal Sonic's help it was still less stressful than watching
the duel.
As the sun rose, lighting the very top of the western wall, the dueling
parties entered the atrium. Alicia entered from the south door, her steps
slow and faltering. Desirée followed along exactly two steps behind her,
three scabbarded swords held horizontally across her arms. Juice entered from
the opposite door, his steps confident and sure. He was attired in a similar
fashion to Alicia, only his pants were black instead of blue. Angela was
behind him like Desirée was for Alicia, the same swords held in her arms.
Antoine stood ramrod straight in the center of the field, watching as
Juice and Alicia reached the stands he had placed at the corners of the field.
He watched as impassionately as possible as they both tried out the swords,
each a different weight and balance, until they each found a sword they hoped
would serve them well. As they approached him, he was slightly surprised to
see that Juice had picked the heaviest sword of the three.
He stepped back slightly as Juice and Alicia approached, letting them
face each other as they stood at their starting lines. "You both know what is
happening here," he said. "Princess Alicia Rose, the second in line to the
throne of Mobius, has invoked her right to Challenge Crown Prince Juice for
his position as the first in line to the throne. This will be decided by a
sword duel to the death. That is the only way this Challenge may end. And
where are you going Desirée?"
Everyone jumped at the unexpected question from Antoine, most of all his
daughter who was trying to slip away unnoticed. She had noticed DJ walking
past one of the alcoves like he was looking for something and she wanted to
know what it was. "Umm, I'm not needed anymore, am I?" she asked.
Antoine sighed harshly. This was bothering him enough as it was and
Desirée's actions were just making it worse. "You must stay in case you are
called upon to fight in Alicia's place," he said slowly but not calmly.
Desirée rolled her eyes angrily. "Alicia, are you going to ask me to
fight for you?" When Alicia shook her head, Desirée smirked at her father and
ran off, ducking into an alcove to go chase after DJ.
Antoine slapped his hand to his face, then brought it down to his side
angrily. "If there are no further interruptions, I will continue. Both of
you, face each other and raise your swords on my command. If either of you
have anything to say, now would be the time to say it."
"Please Juice!" Alicia begged, tears rolling down her cheeks. "Stop
this now before it's too late!" Juice closed his eyes so that he didn't have
to look at Alicia, but shook his head in answer to her plea. "Juice please!"
she screamed.
"It's too late for that Alicia," Juice said coldly. "There can only be
one outcome to this."
Antoine bowed his head at Juice's answer. "That's it then," he said
raising his hand. "All right, swords up!" Alicia raised her sword slowly
until it was above her head, her hand trembling. But Juice remained
motionless. "Juice, I said 'swords up,'" Antoine repeated, a note of warning
in his voice. But Juice still did nothing, only standing there with his sword
pointing toward the ground. "Swords up!" Antoine yelled sharply. "I will
not tell you again!"
Juice did bring his sword up, but not as Alicia had. Alicia was holding
her sword vertically over her head; Juice had his sword horizontally across
his chest. Antoine was about to correct him when something unexpected
happened. Juice grabbed the blade with his free hand and brought the sword
sharply down across his knee, snapping it in two.
Everyone watching had suddenly gone as still as stone. They all watched
as Juice stabbed the blade of the sword into the ground and stomped on it
until it had sunk in completely. Then he dropped to one knee and held out the
hilt to Alicia with his head bowed. Juice felt everyone's eyes on him as he
knelt there and forced himself not to react. Out of the corner of his eye, he
could see that Antoine was furious at him, but Nicholas was just sitting there
unmoved. Everyone else was in various state of shock and surprise.
Antoine placed his hand on the hilt of his own sword that rested at his
side, gripping it so hard he felt like he could crush it beneath his fingers
if he were a little stronger. "The Crown Prince has forfeited the Challenge,"
he forced himself to say. "Alicia Rose is now the Crown Princess of Mobius."
"Forfeit?" Alicia whispered, but in the perfect silence everyone could
hear her. "W...What do you mean?"
Antoine fixed Alicia with a cool gaze but she could see the anger deep
in his eyes. "I had forgotten all about this," he admitted. "It has never
been done before so it is only vaguely referenced in the rules. By his
actions here this morning, he has admitted that he is unfit to ascend to the
throne of Mobius. He not only finds your Challenge has merit, he agrees and
supports it. But in so doing, he has placed his life and future in your
hands to decide as you will. It is up to you to accept his surrender by
accepting the hilt of his broken sword or to deny it and kill him as he kneels
there."
Alicia quietly accepted the hilt, then staggered backward as Angela ran
forward and glomped on Juice's back, muttering over and over that they'd done
it. Juice hushed her softly, taking her in his arms and kissing her gently.
That was the moment that Alicia felt her mind's eye snap into focus so clear
it nearly hurt. "You set me up!" she thundered, making everyone look at her.
"All those arguements, all those fights, all these years! You were baiting me
from day one! How could you Juice?"
Juice looked quietly at his enraged sister, calmly taking in how her
entire body was tensed, how every single strand of fur on her tail was
standing straight out, making it look like a bottlebrush. "For love, Alicia,"
he whispered calmly. "For love."
"You knew!" Nadine yelled, startling everyone as she started to whack
Nicholas with the palm of her open hand. Her open robotic hand. Nicholas
took her blows as best he could, but he eventually had to take hold of her
wrist and restrain her when she showed no sign of stopping.
While Nadine tried to free herself from Nicholas' grasp, the shadow of
an animal stood far above them. Edgar's entire body was trembling from relief
as he leaned against the wall of the alcove he currently occupied. A dart was
clasped between the fingers of his outstretched and shaking hand. He'd
already been in the motion of launching the dart when Juice had broken his
sword. He'd managed to keep his grip on that dart easily though, a fact that
had surprised him. But then, he'd known even when he'd begun to throw it that
he couldn't bring himself to follow through; it would hurt Alicia far too much
and he could never betray her like that, even if it meant that he would've
betrayed the ideals of the Society.
"'And have you forgotten what you yourself must do if it becomes
necessary?'" Duval's voice rang through his mind. At the time, Edgar had
thought that Duval had been referencing the possibility that his own plans may
be thwarted. But now, after witnessing this, he wasn't so sure.
"Did you know even then Kameleon?" he whispered, placing the dart back
into its case and then replacing the case in a concealed pocket of his
graduation-like gown. "Did you know even then what the prince was planning?
Even from beyond the grave your wisdom guides the Owl."
A scuffling sound behind him caught his attention and he turned around
to see what it was. As soon as he did, he had to move aside to avoid a grey
blur streaking toward him. It was only after it had passed him that he
realized it was the young Osaya, and that he was now plummeting to the hard
floor some thirty feet below. Without even thinking about it, he snagged hold
of DJ's tail to try and pull him back up. But his lack of physical strength
showed up again and he found himself being pulled over the edge with DJ
instead.
"DJ!" Desirée screamed, frozen in fear. She had caught up to him while
he was standing there, looking at the badger that was somehow familiar to her.
But before she could ask what he was doing, DJ'd charged blindly ahead at the
badger, trying to knock him over the edge. Desirée's heart had stopped when
DJ had missed, and the look on his face when he'd realized he was falling had
stolen the breath from her lungs.
Her body moved at the direction of her heart instead of her mind, diving
for the edge and grabbing blindly for DJ. Her hand closed around something
and she held fast as a weight more than she expected nearly pulled her arm out
of her socket. Her other hand found purchase in the alcove's wall; the only
thing stopping her from going over herself.
She fought her way to her knees and looked over the edge. That's when
she saw that she wasn't holding DJ, she was holding the badger who was holding
onto DJ. "Don't you dare let him go!" she told the badger through gritted
teeth as she used most of the muscles in her body to slowly pull them back to
safety. "If you drop him, I drop you!"
"Not a problem as long as he doesn't move!" Edgar yelled back, having
to hold onto DJ's tail with both hands to keep him from slipping. It seemed
to take forever, but it was actually less than a minute before Desirée got
them both back safely into the alcove. But as soon as they were safe, a
scream ripped its way out of her mouth, her arms cradled possessively across
her chest as she fell to the stone floor.
DJ crawled over to her to see if she was OK even as he himself was
recovering from his near fall. Edgar watched them with an almost detached
interest as he tried to calm his own breathing. Letting his hands hang down,
he flicked his wrists just slightly. A dart fell into each hand from a pocket
hidden within his sleeves, tipped with a powerful sleeping concoction.
"Edgar!" Alicia yelled, having finally found her voice after watching
his brush with death.
Edgar turned his head at Alicia's cry just for a second, but that was
one second too many. With that slight distraction, the guards that had been
sent after DJ by Nadia arrived and quickly subdued him, knocking the darts
from his hands and securing his arms behind his back.
"What's going on?" Sonic asked as Sally tried to keep everyone calm.
"Antoine, Bunnie, get everyone down here now!" Sonic taking control like the
king he was helped restore order down on the dueling floor, everyone quieting
down as he continued to issue orders.
Alicia watched, motionless, as Edgar was escorted down to the ground by
no less than four guards. "Edgar?" she asked, taking a small step toward him
as he was brought to the edge of the dueling area. "What are you doing here?
How did you get here?"
Before Edgar could say anything, DJ, who was helping an obviously
wounded Desirée, started gesturing angrily between the badger and the alcove
that they had come from. "OK, I get that," Alicia said. "I want to know why
he was up there."
"Yeah DJ," Desirée said in a raspy voice, her chest injury making it
hard for her to breathe and talk correctly. "So what if he was watching it?
That's no reason to try and push him down."
DJ's eyes grew hard and icy, a look that had never been seen on his face
before. It was such a shock to Desirée that she actually backed up a step
from him in fear. In slow and deliberate movements, he drew his thumb across
his own throat, pointed at a very surprised Sally, and said one word in as
clear and strong a voice as he could. "Voice."
Desirée's eyes bugged out as she put together the clues. "This guy is
the one we heard talking to that guy who was trying to kill your parents? The
same guy who was in on the plot to kill Sally?"
"Is this true Edgar?" Alicia asked, her voice cracking with unshed
tears as she prayed that it wasn't. "Tell me the truth, please."
Edgar looked at Alicia, pain written on his face and in his eyes. "My
name is Edgar," he told her as if they were the only two animals in the area.
"But I am also known as 'The Owl,' the last surviving member of the Society of
Four."
All was quiet for a split second before the sound of a sword being drawn
from its scabbard could be heard. "So nice to make your acquaintance!"
Donovan roared, his eye nearly glowing red in his rage as he charged at Edgar,
intending to separate his head from his neck as his shades flew from his face.
Alicia ran in front of Edgar and blocked his strike with her own sword,
her arms quaking from the impact. "Donovan stop!" she ordered when he spun
around for another strike at Edgar, one she just barely turned aside.
"Why are you defending him?" Donovan demanded. "He's part of the group
that took my daughter from me and tried to kill your mother!"
"He also saved my life!" Alicia screamed, keeping herself between Edgar
and Donovan as best she could. "Twice he saved me when I would've been dead!
I owe him the chance to explain himself at the very least!"
"And he owes me his life for what he's done to my family!"
Alicia locked her sword against Donovan and flew upward, forcing both
her sword and Donovan's up and out of their grasps. When Donovan tried to
launch himself at Edgar and throttle him with his own hands, Alicia landed
behind Donovan and cinched in a full nelson, locking her hands in a butterfly
grip to make sure she could keep Donovan under control. "I call Royal
Privilege!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.
Donovan's struggles ceased at Alicia's words. "What did you say?" he
asked in a low, ominous voice.
Alicia let Donovan go seeing that he had stopped fighting her and spun
him around to face her. "I call Royal Privilege," she said again, quieter but
just as forcefully. "You know what that means. As long as he is here and
under my protection, no one can harm him or act against him. But also, any
evil he does will cause the punishment to be visited on my head. It is my
right not just as a princess, but now as the Crown Princess."
Donovan's fists were clenched so tightly that his entire body trembled
with his rage. "I hope you know what you're doing," he growled, stalking
over to where his sword lay and sheathing it with a snap. Stopping only to
glare at Edgar in such a way that promised him loads of pain if he should so
much as step even a toe out of line, Donovan stormed from the area, slamming
the door shut behind him.
Alicia felt like doing the exact same thing, but she knew she still had
a role to play. "Bunnie, Antoine, please escort Juice to one of the guest
rooms and keep him there under twenty-four hour guard until I decide what to
do with him. No one can visit him, and yes this means you Angela."
"Hey now," Angela protested, but she was stopped by the fury that could
be seen flashing in Alicia's blue eyes.
"And station one guard inside the room to make sure Juice doesn't escape
and Angela doesn't teleport in," Alicia added. "Edgar," she continued in a
mildly calmer voice, "will you please go to one of the palace's holding cells
until I can figure out what has to come next?"
Edgar bowed his head, all he could since he was still being restrained
by the guards. "As you wish, my future queen," he said in a low voice.
"Take him away," Alicia whispered, turning her back so she didn't have
to see him leave. "And make sure he is treated well. Anyone I find who does
anything to him will be answering to me. DJ, you get Desirée to the hospital
wing and make sure she gets looked at. For the rest of you, I'm going to my
bedroom," she said in a suddenly weary voice. "No one bother me unless they
can pull rank on me."
Donovan stormed down the hallway, glaring sharply at anyone that was
unfortunate to cross his path. A few off-duty security personnel cringed
visibly, offering up a prayer of thanks to the Almighty that they were in
fact off-duty so they wouldn't have to deal with him until tomorrow, when he
would hopefully be calmer. But with the mood Donovan was in, they knew it
would take something huge to break his anger.
Halfway to the security room, Nadia almost ran into him. "Oh Donovan,"
she said, stepping back in surprise. "I'm glad I found you. You wouldn't
believe--"
"Nadia," Donovan said firmly, cutting her off, "if this is not a matter
of dire emergency, then please leave it for later. I have work I have to get
done."
"Donovan Osaya," Nadia said in a stern tone. "Don't you dare try to
close up from me again. I just got you back and I'll be damned if you do it
again."
"Don't I have a right to be angry?" Donovan exploded. "When I think of
what this guy did to our family, and that Alicia still called Royal Privilege
for him, it's not something I can take lightly."
Nadia let the anger melt off her face and let it be replaced with a look
of confusion. "What guy?" she asked.
"You didn't see what happened? What were you doing?"
"Oh, that," Nadia said, blushing a bit and looking away. "Actually I
was on the phone with Dr. Gray. He has the test results back and he knows why
I've been feeling off lately."
"Is everything OK?" Donovan asked quickly, his emotions shifting gears
so fast that it even made his own head spin. "Is it serious? It's not
anything fatal, right?"
"Donovan!" Nadia said sharply, cutting off Donovan's worrying. But she
just had to giggle at the scared look Donovan had on his face, the look he
only got when he feared for the safety of his family. In a much softer tone,
she said, "I'm all right Donovan. There's nothing wrong with me. Or should I
say there's nothing wrong with us."
"Us?" Donovan was confused, pure and simple. What Nadia said wasn't
making any sense to him whatsoever. What did make sense, however, was when
Nadia reached out and took Donovan's hand, placing it on her stomach.
Donovan's mind easily reached back in time to the only other two times she had
placed his hand on her stomach. "You mean you're--"
Nadia nodded excitedly. "I'm pregnant Donovan," she said, confirming
his thoughts. "I know the timing sucks, and I know that a lot is going on
right now, but...."
Donovan just stood there, half tuning out his wife's nervous rambling.
A baby. Donovan was going to be a father again. He looked at Nadia with the
same look of awe and wonder he'd had when she'd told him about her first two
pregnancies. And, like then, he just took her in his arms and pressed his
lips gently to hers, kissing her with all his heart.
They kissed for a long moment when nothing else seemed to matter, ending
it only when they were forced to breathe. "I couldn't be happier that we're
going to be parents again," he whispered, looking in her eyes warmly. "But I
thought you were taking the root every day?"
Nadia was already blushing from Donovan's kiss, but his question made
her whole face turn pink. "Well, it kinda slipped my mind the night we got
Nadine back," she admitted.
"Then that makes it mean all that much more," Donovan said with a
heartfelt smile. "I can't wait to let everyone know."
"About that," Nadia said, her mood dampening somewhat. "I'm not sure
this is the best time to tell everyone. First I want to hear everything that
happened in the duel. And don't you think we should tell Nadine and DJ about
their new sibling first?"
"Very well," Donovan said after thinking about it. "Let's go someplace
we can talk this over. And believe me, there's quite a bit to talk over."
Hours later, Alicia was pacing around her room, still quite agitated.
She had tried everything she could to calm down, and nothing was working.
Meditation exercises from Bunnie, deep breathing, soul searching...all of it
did nothing for her temper. And without calming down, she knew she couldn't
make a rational decision. And this was particularly evidenced by the fact
that she had stripped off her dueling uniform and burned it in a trash can
before dressing in her normal jogging suit.
Alicia sighed angrily and threw herself down on her bed. "I can't do
this alone," she realized. "And I'm not going to fall into the trap of 'Oh I
have to do this by myself.' Again. The mark of a good leader is knowing
when to ask for advice, that much I've learned. But who can I ask?"
Alicia spent the next hour making a list of all the animals she could
think of who would provide her with good advice. The following hour was spent
crossing names off who could not be unbiased. Every name she removed would
either feel bad for Juice, react spitefully toward him, or recommend that she
do absolutely nothing. When she was done, only one name remained. She stared
at the name for a while, then she chuckled. "Somehow, I'm not surprised," she
muttered, pulling open the door and leaving her room.
She strode down the hall with a purpose, not even acknowledging anyone
she walked past. She had to stop once or twice to make sure she was going the
right way; this wasn't an area of the palace she visited frequently. But she
made her way to her destination without too much trouble. Stopping in front
of a non-descript door, she raised her fist and knocked on the door.
"Are you done with your training already?" A voice asked from inside.
"Nicholas, may I come in?" she called through the door, trying to make
her voice carry as clearly as possible.
"Come in then," was Nicholas' answer.
Alicia opened the door and started when she saw what Nicholas was doing.
He was exercising on the floor. More specifically, he was doing push-ups on
his fingertips. Alicia just had to stand there a minute and admire him as he
worked. She shook her head to clear it before she was caught staring and sat
down on the bed. "How?" she asked calmly. "How did you know what Juice was
up to?"
Nicholas paused in mid-push-up and turned his head to look at her. "I
didn't," he admitted, pushing himself up and back to sit on his heels. "Well,
not exactly anyway. But because I wasn't emotionally involved in this
situation, I was able to pick up on things no one else could.
"First of all, Angela was not freaking out about this. If this were
completely as things seemed, she would have been worried to death about the
possibility of her love dying. Also, Juice was being very calm about it all.
Not the calm of anger, but the calm of knowing a plan was near to fruition. I
was trained to know that emotion is the greatest hindrance toward judgement
and duty. But I was also trained to recognize these emotions in others and
plan my strategies accordingly."
Alicia waited until Nicholas was done before smacking her hand against
her head and fell back against the mattress. "And this is why I came to you,"
she said, rubbing her hand over her eyes tiredly.
"And why exactly is that?"
Alicia sighed and sat up. "I have to decide Juice's fate, and I can't
do it. Well, it's not that I can't," she amended quickly. "It's that I can't
make a completely impartial decision. I mean, he is my brother, but the way
he played me like a fiddle demands that he gets punished for it. But he is
still a Chosen One and we need him in case the Fallen Ones somehow get the
Lightning Emerald back. I can't find the happy medium that gets the point
across without crippling us. And to be honest Nicholas, you're the only one
who can help me decide without being biased in any way."
Nicholas regarded Alicia quietly, thinking about her words. "All
right," he said eventually, "I'll help you. But if you want my help, I do
have one condition."
Alicia cocked her head to the side at Nicholas' words, her eyebrow
arching slowly. "Let's hear this condition first before I make any promises,"
she said.
While Nicholas and Alicia held their discussions, Edgar sat in his cell
quietly, thinking long and hard. He still found it hard to believe that
Duval somehow knew what Juice was planning. There was no other way to explain
it; the entire Society had known that Juice was goading Alicia into making a
Challenge. That was why Edgar had been ready to interfere in the Challenge in
such a drastic way. If only he'd figured out Duval's thinking beforehand, he
might still have a chance with Alicia.
Edgar sighed and pulled a small box-like object from his pocket and
opened up a panel on it. He pulled out a pair of glasses from the same pocket
and slipped them on his face, using the glasses' magnifications to peer inside
the object. What he saw made him shake his head. "I don't have the tools I
need to make all the modifications," he muttered, "but at least I can prepare
it for the final part."
He lost track of time while working on his project, but he was at it for
at least an hour. So deep in thought in fact that he didn't notice the sharp
knocking that sounded on the main door. The guards did though, and when they
opened it they all snapped to attention. "Princess!" the head guard on duty,
a nervous looking white hare, said, surprise evident in his voice. "What are
you doing here?"
"At ease, at ease," Alicia said, unnerved by their rigidness. "I'm just
here to talk to Edgar."
"He's right in there," the guard said, pointing at a closed but unlocked
cell.
Alicia nodded and smiled in thanks. "I'd like to speak to him alone if
you don't mind," she said.
The head guard looked at the others, but then he remembered that he was
the ranking officer because they were all looking at him. "I'm not sure this
is a good idea," he said, his eyes darting around and looking everywhere but
at Alicia.
Alicia's expressioned hardened at the guard's refusal and she drew
herself up to her full height. "Are you questioning my orders?" she asked in
an imperious voice.
"No!" the guard yelped, backing off quickly.
"Well then, clear out!" she ordered. The area cleared out in seconds,
leaving Alicia and Edgar alone. She looked around at the suddenly nearly
empty room and couldn't help but smile. "I could get used to this," she
mused.
She turned to see Edgar still working on whatever he was working on,
somehow unaware of her presence. He didn't even notice when she opened the
door and stood next to him, looking over his shoulder. She could hear him
muttering something under his breath, and she couldn't help but giggle. When
he didn't even react to that, Alicia timidly reached out and placed her hand
on his shoulder.
Edgar turned his head around slowly, then did a double take when he saw
Alicia. He quickly shoved what was in his hands back into his pocket and
turned his body to face her. He opened his mouth a couple times to say
something, but he knew that there was nothing he could say so he just let his
head hang in shame, removing his glasses from his face.
"Edgar?" Alicia asked softly, sitting down beside him.
"Yes, Your Highness?" Edgar asked in a defeated voice.
Alicia closed her eyes for a second. "Not 'my queen?'" she asked
herself, feeling a little sad at his address of her. When she collected her
thoughts, she opened her eyes and looked at him. "Can we talk?" she asked
aloud.
"About?"
"About you. About who you are, why you're here, what you were doing. I
want to understand what's going on Edgar, and I fear you're the only one with
the answers I seek."
Edgar took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "What is it you wish
to know, Your Highness?"
Alicia felt a piece of her heart grow cold at that address again, but
she fought to not let her discomfort be shown. "First, you have to promise me
something. Whatever I ask you, I want the most complete answer you can give.
Not just a truthful one; I don't want you to leave anything out. Can you do
that for me?"
Edgar was silent a moment before answering, "I will do the best that I
am allowed."
Alicia took a few moments to decide on her first question. It would
probably be the most important one she asked today because it could either
open up other questions or make him completely pull away from her. "Edgar,
tell me about the Society of Four. Everything you know or can reveal. Who
they were, what were your goals, and why my family was attacked."
"We, of the Society of Four, were Mobians who lived through, and were
changed by, the 'Metallic Plague.'"
"The Metallic Plague? You mean Robotnik?"
"Yes," Edgar said, still with his head down.
"Wait a minute," Alicia interjected. "You look no more than three or
four years older than me. How old were you when you were roboticized?"
"I was a child of three when me and my mother were put under that
curse."
Alicia gasped in horror. "By the Almighty," she breathed.
"Because of the curse we lived through, because of circumstances either
before or during Robotnik's reign, we of the Society were gathered by the
first of us for our unique abilities to make sure those dark days were never
repeated. By whatever means were available to us. Lyoness, expert fighter.
Kameleon, infiltrator and tactician. Spyder, mechanical genius and inventor.
And the Owl, photographic memory useful for storing facts."
"But why you? Why recruit a young child that had just been cured of his
roboticization and would be with his family again?"
"I have no family."
"I thought you said you were roboticized with your mother. When Dad
defeated Robotnik, all roboticized Mobians were returned to normal."
"Maybe I'd better explain why we all decided to form the Society of
Four," Edgar said, his voice cracking slightly. "Let me begin with the first
of us, the Lyoness. She came from a long line of martial artists. But a
falling out in the family caused her to seek her own path. Her path led her
to someone who used to be a master fighter, even better than her. He taught
her to let go of her hatred and embrace the teachings of the Almighty, like he
had done."
"A Holy One then?" she whispered as if loathe to interrupt his story.
"Yes," Edgar confirmed. "They were engaged in months and she began her
training. They would've married if not for the coup. When she heard about
it, she went out, determined to make sure her family was still OK. And
because she wasn't officially a Holy One, she went without her robes."
"Let me guess. She was found, captured, and roboticized. All because
she didn't complete her training so the covenant did not protect her."
"That is correct. After her curse was lifted, she went back to find
her love only to find an empty building with a gravesite next to it. She
tried to make sense of it all, for a time. The only reason she didn't take
her own life is because she knew if she did she would never rejoin her beloved
in the next life."
"How horrible," Alicia said, not bothering to wipe at the tears that
were trickling down her cheeks.
"During her travels, she met some that were just as affected as her, if
not more so. The Kameleon, who you knew as Duval, was from a 'line of
warriors,' as he called it. Every generation of his family was part of some
great battle, but he was denied his chance. First in the Great War when it
ended before he completed his training, and then in the coup d'etat when he
was among the first roboticized. When he was released from his curse, he
found himself a soldier without a war to fight.
"The time of peace left a soul devoted to battle ill at ease, so he
travelled around the planet, picking fights with anyone he could. One day, he
ran into the Lyoness and picked a fight with her. He was soundly defeated.
Instead of giving him an honorable death in battle like he wanted, she gave
him a purpose: to try to keep war in the minds of those in charge so that they
never forget or become complacent.
"The Spyder was gifted with the ability to perceive conflicts before
they arose. Unfortunately, he was seen as nothing more than a raving lunatic,
even after his predictions had come to pass. He foresaw both the Great War
and the betrayal of the Minister of War. After Robotnik came into power, he
found Spyder, roboticized him, and picked his brain daily to see if anything
else would be foreseen. All the constant mind probing drove him to a madness
that not even your father powered by the Chaos Emeralds could cure him from.
"After his curse was lifted, he lived his life as a hermit, keeping
himself away from anything that might make his madness worse. But from the
haze of madness came a clarity of mind in another area: invention. He
discovered within himself the latent talent to create almost any mechanical
object he could think of. And he put it to good use: laying booby traps all
around his lair and even fusing mechanical arms to his body which gave him his
new name.
"The Lyoness literally stumbled upon him one day, just barely avoiding
some of his more deadly traps. When she finally came face-to-face with Spyder
and he decided to personally handle her, she wasn't in a good mood. The fight
was quick, but painful. After she found out why he did all this, she
convinced him to subtly take care of what he called the 'corrupt and
incompetent.' But after the Lyoness' death, he decided to take a more direct
approach.
"And lastly, there is myself, the Owl. I am descended from a long line
of scholars and record keepers, those charged with the care and protection of
the Great Library."
"Your family built it?" Alicia couldn't help but interject. "I was
wondering about that for years."
Edgar shook his head slowly. "We didn't build it, we just organized and
restored all the books there, except for the ones in the mage section. Those
books are protected by powerful spells that do not allow anyone who does not
have mage blood within them to even pass through the doorway."
"Must be in one of the as yet unexplored sections," Alicia thought
aloud. "Sorry for interrupting you. Please, continue."
Edgar took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Anyway, my family was
captured shortly after the coup, though my father was...."
Alicia scooted a little closer to Edgar and wrapped her arm around his
shoulders to offer comfort. Edgar allowed himself to sink into her embrace
for a few seconds, but remembered himself and tried to pull away. Alicia only
tightened her grip on him and rested her head on his, not letting him pull
away from her.
Edgar's cheeks pinked slightly in embarrassment, but he forced himself
to continue. "After my curse was over, I found myself alone. I had to fend
for myself, getting food and clothing when I needed it however I could. I
begged, I looked in dumpsters, and on really bad days I would go for
unattended bags or change on counters. I knew the streets of Urbantropolis
so well that I could disappear before anyone knew something was missing or
lose them if they gave chase.
"One day, I thought I'd lost someone who chased me after I stole one of
her groceries. When I turned around, she picked me up. I thought she was
going to hurt me, but after she saw the state I was in, she took pity on me
and brought me to where she was staying in order to get some hot food into my
system.
"She'd rented a small apartment, not more than a bedroom and a kitchen.
But it was more than I'd been in in a long time, so I stood still for a moment
to take it all in. She saw my look and smiled, ushering me into the kitchen
and sitting me down at a table. Unfortunately, her cooking skills never
really progressed that far; she was still cooking directly out of a cookbook.
She forgot some of the ingredients in the soup she was making and asked me to
get the book from her main room. I just asked her, 'Which one? The red one
on the shelf, the blue one on the floor under the couch, the yellow one on the
table, or the black one sticking out of one of the couch cushions?' She did a
double take, stopped what she was doing, and asked 'What?'
"After I repeated myself, she ran to her main room and looked around.
She asked, 'How did I do that?' I told her that I just look at things and
remember where they are." Edgar stopped and had to collect himself while
Alicia squeezed his shoulders slightly. "To make a long story short, she
tested my memory until she smelled smoke from the soup burning. She had to
throw the whole thing out, for which I apologized, but she said it was more
than worth it.
"I travelled with her for a bit so that she could continue to test my
abilities. Eventually, she took me to see Spyder to see what I could learn
from him. My inventing abilities are slim, but my photographic memory allows
me to fix anything broken and improve upon the original. After that, Kameleon
tried to teach me how to fight, but my only aptitude was with thrown weapons,
specifically the dart. In turn, I helped him with his computer skills so that
he could obtain a security job within the palace."
Alicia stayed silent, allowing her mind to digest everything she had
heard. "There is one thing that bothers me," she said slowly. "I understand
that something happened to your father, but what about your mother? If she
was roboticized with you, she should have been restored with you as well."
Edgar sat there quietly for a moment and Alicia could feel his body
shaking slightly. "Before the takeover," he began, his voice cracking with
emotion, "Robotnik killed two Mobian squirrels who were trying to expose him.
But he missed their son, and knowing that he might become a problem, he
created two replicants of his parents with bombs inside."
"Donovan," Alicia realized, her free hand covering her mouth.
The shaking that ran through Edgar's body increased until Alicia was
worried for his safety. "That gave Robotnik the idea to put bombs in real
roboticized Mobians. But when he put it into one, it wound up exploding.
Right...right in front of her three-year-old son," he finished just before
completely breaking down.
Alicia drew Edgar into her arms, holding him tightly against her as she
cried with him. Edgar threw his arms around her, hugging into her as his sobs
wracked his body. She continued to hold him until he began to quiet down.
"I'm so sorry you had to live through that," she whispered in his ear. "How
did you stay sane?"
"I don't know," he sobbed. Alicia ran her fingers through the fur of
his cheeks soothingly. Edgar looked up at her, his eyes bright with as yet
unshed tears. "Thank you Alicia," he whispered.
"After everything you've done for me," she whispered back, cupping his
cheek in her hand, "how could I not?"
Edgar pulled away from her suddenly, looking at a corner of his cell.
"You wouldn't feel that way if you knew what I was here to do today," he
muttered.
Alicia closed one hand into a fist and pressed it against her heart.
"What were you here to do today?"
"I was in the Great Library one day about four years ago when Kameleon
called the Society together for an emergency meeting. It seemed that your
brother had developed feelings for someone that he should not have, and was
unwilling to give them up. This concerned us all because history has shown
that when a leader wants someone he cannot be with, he gets sloppy and can
cause war to break out to overthrow him. Our mission was to prevent war from
breaking out again; we could not allow this to continue.
"Things seemed to be well in hand, so we did not act right away. But
plans were made just in case he followed through on what we thought an
impossible plan. It would fall to whoever was in position to stop it, by
whatever means were needed."
Alicia felt her body go cold as fear settled in her gut. "You don't
mean...you can't be saying that--"
"I was here to kill your brother," Edgar confirmed in a dead voice,
reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small case. He opened the case and
took out a brown feathered dart, showing it to Alicia. "Instantly fatal,
completely painless. He wouldn't have felt a thing."
"But why?" Alicia asked, her lips trembling. "Why kill him?"
"No one could interfere once the Challenge had begun, so it was my duty
to kill him before the duel began. We had no idea that Juice had found a
loophole that allowed him to pass the throne to you, and we couldn't take the
chance that the one best suited for rule would die this day."
Alicia closed her eyes, bowing her head forward so that her face was
hidden behind the hair. "Why didn't you do it then?" she asked in a voice
as void of emotion as his. "You had plenty of opportunity to do so before DJ
found you. Why didn't you strike?"
"That's what I was supposed to do. As a member of the Society of Four,
especially the last one, my duty was supposed to come before everything else.
But instead of following my honor, I ended up following my heart."
Alicia's head snapped up, her hair whipping back behind her as she
opened her eyes to stare at him. "Your heart?" she asked, an emotion
entering her voice that was akin to hope.
"Yes, my heart," he said, his voice breaking from the emotion in it.
"The Lyoness, Kameleon, and Spyder. I dishonored my duty toward them, toward
everything they died for. Why? Because I knew how much it would hurt you if
I carried through."
Alicia reached out and took the dart from Edgar, putting it back into
its case and placing it out of reach. "Why would my feelings be more
important than your duty to the Society? Tell me Edgar," she ordered,
grabbing his chin and forcing him to look at her.
Edgar sighed heavily. "As much I knew it shouldn't have happened, as
much as I tried to deny it, as much as I tried to ignore it, I have feelings
for you Alicia."
"What kind of feelings?" Alicia demanded. "And don't you lie to me."
"Have I lied to you ever?"
"Stop stalling!" she almost yelled. "Tell me now!"
"I love you Alicia," Edgar yelled, almost startling Alicia enough to
make her let go of him. "I can't believe I said that out loud."
The hand that held Edgar's chin trembled slightly before falling to the
cot in between them. It was what she'd wanted to hear, what she'd hoped to
hear, but now that she had she could hardly believe it. "Are you sure?" she
whispered. "How...why?"
"I don't know how it happened," Edgar admitted. "I heard so much about
you, and even with just that I knew you'd be the perfect queen. But then I
met you. Even under the circumstances, you were the most beautiful animal
I've ever seen. I couldn't get you out of my mind. You blowing that kiss at
me after your meeting with the Gem didn't help matters. And when you kissed
me...."
Alicia's cheeks pinkened and she quickly found a piece of fuzz on her
jogging suit very interesting. She didn't know what to say, or what she
should say. "Umm, I...yeah," she mumbled.
"But after everything that happened today," Edgar continued, "I know it
can never be. You're the future queen of Mobius and I just tried to
assassinate your brother."
"But you didn't," Alicia said softly. "You didn't go through with it.
No matter how much you thought it was the right thing to do, you couldn't do
it."
"Yes, but I'm also part of the group that tried to assassinate your
mother."
"Did you take part in that? I don't remember you being here that day."
"I was the one communicating with Duval that day, trying to warn him to
get out."
Alicia cocked her head to the side, regarding Edgar with a calculating
look. "You know, I always wondered how that icon on Computer started flashing
for no reason. You wouldn't have had anything to do with that, would you?"
"Why would I have anything to do with that? Besides, as a member of the
Society of Four, I could not interfere with the Kameleon's plans."
"But that's not interfering, now is it?" Alicia asked, her eyes
glinting as she finally was able to put all the pieces together. "You weren't
allowed to interfere, so all you did was open the way for everyone else to
interfere. And besides, if you really hadn't had anything to do with it, you
would've told me so instead of answering my question with a question." Edgar
could only sigh, not offering any contradiction to Alicia's words. "So in
reality, you tried to stop it, not to kill my mother."
Edgar could only sit there, letting his silence confirm Alicia's
suspicions. "So what now?" he asked.
"You're free to go," Alicia said kindly. "No matter what intentions you
may have had, your actions are what you are judged by. And everything that
you've done has been in defense of this kingdom, and of me. So you may go and
you will remain under my protection." At this point she removed her signet
ring and placed it in his palm.
"I can't accept this," he protested, trying to give it back.
Alicia closed his hand over the ring. "This proves you're under my
protection and will get you into anywhere you want and out of any situation
you find youself in. Take it Edgar, with my thanks...and my affection."
Edgar looked at her in surprise, his mouth falling open. Alicia had to
giggle at the way he looked and couldn't help but give him a quick kiss on his
lips. "You know," she said with a smile, "the last princess to give her ring
in protection to another was my mother's cousin. Maybe history will repeat
itself?"
That comment made Egar blush furiously. "Well, I'd better be going," he
said quickly. "Oh and keep an eye on your mother for me," he said just before
teleporting out.
Alicia stared at the spot he'd been sitting at before slamming her hands
down on the cot. "Why does he always have to be mysterious?" she yelled,
along with a few other, less savory words. She got up and stalked out of the
room with a huff, slamming both the cell door and the main door behind her in
turn.
Alicia spent the rest of the day in her room, going over the wordings of
her decision no less than ten times. She went to bed early, knowing she would
need her rest in order to actually go through with this. Sleep eluded her for
some time as she just could not shut her brain off. Finally though, she
closed her eyes to make one more attempt and when she opened them the sun had
risen.
She blinked a couple times in the morning light, confused by the sudden
change. Groaning, she rolled out of bed and headed toward her shower. As she
let the hot water wash away the haze that the night had left in her mind, she
once again went over the decision she was about to hand down. She was
confident that what she was doing was the right thing. But maybe there was a
way to word it better, make sure there were no loopholes. Even as distracted
as she was, she made sure to check all her bathing supplies to make sure that
either Darrin or Lily hadn't tampered with them.
She emerged from her bathroom in a pink and fluffy bathrobe, drying her
hair with a warm towel. She reached for the note cards she'd made up last
night to go over them just one more time, but found them covered by something
odd. A small box-like object sat atop them, one that looked very similar to
Nicole. It was a little smaller, a little more streamlined, but the
resemblance was impossible to ignore.
Alicia picked up the computer, because that's what it obviously was, and
examined it. A small note was taped to the bottom of it and she ripped it off
to look at it. "'I'm sorry that this is so late,'" she read, trying to figure
out the handwriting and coming up blank. "'I meant for this to be a Christmas
present, but I couldn't get it done by then. If I'd had more time, I would
have wrapped it properly. There's a readme file that explains exactly what
she can do and how to activate her programming. I wish you good luck today,
even if you don't need it. Love, Edgar.'" A warm smile touched Alicia's
lips. "Thank you Edgar," she whispered, wondering if he could hear her.
She flipped open the computer and turned the computer on. It took only
a couple of seconds for it to boot up, and the only thing on the screen was
a readme.txt file, just as the note had indicated. When she opened it up,
she couldn't believe what she saw. If the specifications shown were correct,
this new computer would be three times as fast as Nicole, hold ten times as
much data, and have a few hidden tricks that she'd have to look for to
discover. There were even instructions on how to transfer Nicole's memory
over to the new computer. She knew what she wanted to do, but she owed it to
Nicole to leave the decision up to her. "Nicole?" she asked quietly,
opening her up.
"Good morning, Alicia," Nicole said in her normal, calm voice. "What
may I assist you with today?"
"Actually Nicole," Alicia said, setting her down on a table and sitting
down, "I was wondering if I could discuss something with you."
"Certainly Alicia. What is it you wish to discuss?" Nicole asked.
Alicia found herself smiling. "I've received a new computer as a
present, but it was delivered to me with only the most basic of programming.
The only file on it is a set of instructions on how to transfer your program
into the new computer. It has more capabilities than your current hardware,
but I leave the decision to you."
Nicole hummed softly as she considered Alicia's request. "Before I make
my decision, who provided the new computer?"
"Edgar did."
"And who is Edgar?"
"He is the one who saved my life in the Healing Chalice chamber."
"Do you trust him?"
"With my life," Alicia said with no hesitation.
Nicole processed the request for a few more minutes in silence. "If you
trust him, then I shall trust him. What do you need me to do?"
"I'll take care of it," Alicia said, pulling the jack out of Nicole and
hooking it up to the new computer. Following the instructions, she keyed in a
few commands on Nicole to begin the transfer. A gauge came up on both screens
to chart the progress. From prior experience, she was ready to just sit there
for at least an hour. But the entire transfer took less than a minute and
the original shut down. "Nicole?" Alicia asked, leaning forward worriedly.
"I am here Alicia," Nicole's voice came from the new computer. "The
transfer is complete. Running a systems diagnostic now."
Alicia nodded and walked to her closet to get dressed. She had no
choice but to wear a dress today; as the crown princess she had to dress the
part. It wasn't so much that she disliked dresses, but she only had one that
was deemed fit for royal duties. And that was the one she'd had to wear
during that whole Prank War: the blue monstrosity.
"Diagnostic complete Alicia," Nicole said as Alicia struggled her way
into that dress. "I have a listing of everything I can do now that I couldn't
before. And believe me, there is a lot I can do now."
Alicia popped her head out of the dress' neckline and looked at Nicole
in surprise. Nicole sounded the same as she always did, but the cadence of
her voice was more conversational and natural, not the stilted off-beat rhythm
that Alicia was used to. If that was any indication of what the new Nicole
could do, Alicia was going to be very impressed. "I'll look at it after I get
back," she said, forcing her arm through one of the puffy sleeves. "Nicole,
make a note for me. Get more dresses made!"
About an hour later, Juice was pacing in the room that he'd been given.
It was a normal guest room, but it seemed awfully bare to Juice. But then,
considering the room that he'd had as the crown prince, most anything would be
at least a few steps down. But that wasn't what was bothering him; he
wouldn't have cared if the room was completely bare! He just wanted to hurry
up and get this over with.
A knock on his door made him look up from his pacing. "Juice," Bunnie
called through the door, "let's go. It's time."
Juice walked over to the door and stepped outside. Both Bunnie and
Antoine were there to escort him and as Juice walked between them, he suddenly
felt like a prisoner. A few regrets crossed his mind, but he firmly pushed
them away. He chose his path, he would now follow it through to the end,
whatever end that might be.
Inside the throne room, Alicia sat on a solitary throne, waiting for her
brother's arrival. Sonic and Sally stood on either side of her throne,
needing to play the part of king and queen but wanting nothing more than to
be with their son. But instead, they had to watch and Bunnie and Antoine
marched him forward like some kind of criminal until he stood before his
sister.
Antoine stepped forward until he stood between Juice and Alicia and took
a scroll from his pocket. He broke the wax seal and unrolled it slowly,
turning to face Alicia. "Yesterday, a Challenge of Succession was enacted,"
he said slowly, enunciating each word clearly. "The Crown Prince, Juice,
broke his sword over his knee before the duel began, abdicating both the
Challenge and the throne to his younger sister, Alicia. As such, Alicia is
now Crown Princess. Juice has placed his life squarely in her hands, and it
is hers to do with as she pleases. Have you so decided?"
Alicia let her gaze sweep the room before she answered. She noticed
that Desirée was dressed only in a sports bra and a pair of shorts. Bandages
peeked out from under her top, wrapping all around her chest and midriff. She
was sitting on DJ's lap, leaning against him for both moral and physical
support. She probably would need to be healed by Angela, if she would be up
to this after what Alicia was about to do.
Everyone else who had been present at yesterday's Challenge was also
there now, and they all quieted down when Alicia stood. "Juice Alexander
Hedgehog," she said forcefully, calling her brother by his full name, "you
have left your fate in my hands, and your fate has been decided. This
decision has four parts to it, and I have put in as much care into each part
as I possibly could.
"My first decision is this: you are stripped of all titles, rank, and
privileges that you had as Crown Prince. Furthermore, you are disowned from
this family and forbidden to identify yourself as a member of the House of
Hedgehog from this moment on."
"Alicia how could you!" Sally thundered, spinning her daughter around
to face her. "He is your brother, you can't turn your back on your own flesh
and blood! I demand you recant this at once!"
Alicia fixed Sally with a harsh glare, her blue eyes as unyielding as
steel. "He turned his back on me first, Mother," she said calmly yet firmly.
"He left his life in my hands and my hands alone. If I fold to you now on my
first official decision as crown princess, I will never be trusted to make my
own decisions. No one will take me seriously. Now stand down and let me
continue."
Sally tried to outglare her daughter, but Alicia stood firm in her
convictions and Sally was forced to look away. She looked at Juice sadly,
trying to convey her love for her son with her eyes, and Juice smiled back to
let her know that the feelings were returned.
Alicia smoothed out her dress and turned back to face Juice. "Bunnie,
Antoine, remove Juice's royal jacket and his signet ring."
Bunnie and Antoine moved to do as they were bid, but their reluctance
showed in their slow movements. Juice stood there in his sneakers and gloves,
reminding more than one animal there of his father in his heyday, even down to
the smirk on his face. "If that's all you got Alicia, I was worried for
nothing," he said cockily.
"This is only the beginning Juice," Alicia promised. "My second
decision is to evict you from the palace. This is no longer your home, nor
will it ever be so again. You may visit your friends here or for Chosen Ones
business, but you will be occupying the same guest room that you did last
night. And you will occupy it alone. If anyone is in your room, and yes this
means you Angela, with you after sunset without the appropriate chaperone, you
will never spend another night in the palace and instead have to sleep in
Knothole, where a guard will be posted inside and outside your hut at all
times."
A cry of disbelief rose from the crowd, but Alicia couldn't make out who
it came from. The only thing she could focus on were the daggers Angela was
trying to throw with her gaze. If looks could kill, Angela would've committed
murder ten times over. The snippets of conversation she could overhear from
the crowd usually contained the words "cruel and unusual punishment" in some
form or fashion.
"My third decision," Alicia said, "is as follows. When all our business
with the Fallen Ones is over, you will find permanent residence at Sanctuary,"
and here Alicia's face began to soften, "where you will begin training as a
Holy One under Tanis and Rosie so that you may marry Angela when you are both
ready for it."
A sort of shocked silence fell on the room, but this was tinged with
happiness and hope. Everyone there, with the exception of Alicia and
Nicholas, were figuratively kicking themselves over their mistrust of Alicia.
They all started talking animatedly about this and Angela ran forward and
glomped on Juice's back, thanking the Almighty profusely for guiding and
protecting them through this ordeal. She was soon joined by Sonic and Sally
grabbing them both in a group hug, though Sally was berating Juice through her
tears for putting them through this.
Alicia watched with a half-smile as everyone celebrated what she could
now hear them calling a wise and just decision. Her facade of strength was
still in place, hiding the tears she herself wanted to shed. This was the
only way to truly give Juice what he wanted, no matter how hard it was for her
to do. As Nicholas so correctly pointed out in their talk, if he remained a
member of the Royal Family in any form, he would not be allowed to be with
Angela. Yes, he may be all the way at the bottom of the line of succession,
but he'd still be part of it. If some calamity happened to eliminate the rest
of the line, he'd be pressed back into being king.
She'd ranted and raved at a calm Nicholas for even suggesting it, but in
the end she knew he was right. The covenant of the Tanak' Shi-rat was forged
on the premise that Holy Ones and the Royal Family had to remain separate; not
even her or her parents could change that. Even though doing it like this
would probably make her a bitch in some animals' eyes, it was what had to be
done. As the future queen, there would be many times she would be called upon
to make hard and unpopular decisions. But what was best, no matter how hard
or unpopular, would always be what she had to do. And this was the start of
it.
She slowly counted to ten in her mind, then let her own smile widen.
She'd given Juice exactly what he wanted, now it was time to fulfill Nicholas'
condition of helping her. "Everyone!" she said, lifting her face a bit to
have her voice carry above all the others. "In case you've all forgotten, I
did say there were four parts to my decision. I'm not done yet."
All the animals gathered slowly quieted down, but all who were smiling
retained their smiles. "In one week's time, you will take part in a wrestling
match, an 'I Quit' match to be precise. It's only fair after all as you quit
on this challenge."
"I had my reasons for doing that," Juice said boastfully. "No one will
get me to quit in a wrestling match, count on that. I just wonder who my
opponent is going to be."
"That's good to hear," Alicia said, her smile turning into something
more devious degree by degree. "You want to know your opponent, it's him,"
she added, raising one finger to point at a certain skunk waiting by the
doors.
Juice turned to look and Alicia could swear that his entire body paled
by at least three shades when he saw that she was pointing at Nicholas.
Nicholas merely nodded at Alicia, acknowledging that she had kept her word,
and looked at Juice with a lazy type of half-smile. "Umm," Juice said,
licking his suddenly dry lips, "I don't suppose I could quit now, could I?"
Alicia shook her head slowly, her formerly kind smile now an almost
maniacal grin. "Sorry Juice, not going to happen. Especially because I will
be the referee for this fight. I just hope I remember to take my earplugs
out from the swimming I'll be doing that morning. Everyone is dismissed; this
audience is now over."
"I hope you'll be ready Juice," Nicholas said before anyone could move,
"because I know I will be,"
"Whatever everyone had better be ready for," Tanis said as he stepped
out of the whirlwind that had appeared out of nowhere, "is battle. The Unholy
One himself has penetrated the Emerald Chamber and made off with the Lightning
Emerald."
Loud shouting broke out in the room as everyone fought to be heard.
"How did this happen?" Alicia yelled. "Tanis, I want you in the War Room and
give me all the information you have. Chosen Ones, get yourselves ready
because we all go back to training tomorrow and we're going to kick the
difficulty up a few notches. And no Juice that doesn't mean you get out of
your match," she said, seeing the hopeful look on Juice's face get dashed.
"The rest of you, go do whatever you have to do for today. You'll know
everything once I know everything."
Sonic looked around the room as everyone started to file out. "Sal,
wait here for me," he said as he saw a pair of squirrels duck out the doorway.
"I got something I need to take care of. Donovan! Hold up!"
Donovan stopped and turned back at Sonic's call, watching as he walked
up to him. "Is there something I can do for you Quills?" he asked, taking
Nadia's hand in his lightly.
"Actually, I need to ask you a favor," Sonic said, reaching into his
own jacket. "Does this look familiar?"
Donovan stared at what Sonic pulled out of his jacket a moment before
recognition lit up in his eye. "I think something can be arranged," he said,
taking hold of the pair of beat up, yet still servicable, yellow sneakers that
Sonic was holding out to him.
As everyone made their way toward where they needed to be, Nicholas
homed in on the Prower residence. It was a little later than he wanted to
begin Amy's training for the day, but that wasn't going to stop him. He
knocked on the front door, as he had promised he would, and waited for it to
open.
A tired looking Lissette opened the door and started in surprise. "Oh,
Nicholas," she said, rubbing her eyes, "I thought the Prowers would be coming
home. I've been having the hardest time getting Amy out of bed; she just
won't listen to me. She said something about not getting up until you came
and got her up."
"Well I'm here now," Nicholas said, walking inside as Lissette stepped
aside. "Is Sarah in the room?"
Lissette shook her head. "She's in the main room playing with her
brother."
Nicholas nodded and strode to the bedroom that Amy shared with Sarah.
He opened the door without knocking since he knew that she was alone in there.
"Amy it's late, wake up," he said calmly. When she didn't respond, he raised
his voice to a yell. "Amy! I said get up!" All Amy did was turn over on her
side, facing away from him. "All right," Nicholas said, walking into the room
and over to the bed, "now I'm going to get you up."
He pulled the blankets off of Amy and off the bed with every intention
of pulling her from the bed as well. But before he could reach for her, she
sat up and slammed a creme pie flush into his face. "I got you!" she crowed,
jumping out of bed and dancing around laughing. "Darrin and Lily couldn't get
you, but I got you! You always said to take whatever opportunity presented
itself and I got you!"
Nicholas pulled the pie tin from his face slowly and wiped the creme off
his face. He looked at the still dancing Amy and sighed, turning and stalking
from the room. If Amy could surprise him like that, then he needed a lot more
training. Still, he couldn't help but feel some pride at Amy's actions. It
showed that the training she was receiving was actually sinking in, and that
was something he could now build upon. (
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