Hey guys, Hookem here with an entirely new story! This chapter may surprise you, but trust me, it gets better at the end!
Cold…
It was ever so cold inside the air vent. Not that the inhabitant, or inhabitants, cared, for their clothing and fur kept them warm.
Anxiousness…
Yes, the anxiety! Oh how engulfing! Sadly, only one of the two felt it, for one did not feel emotion. But it was there, for sure.
Waiting…
How long had they been waiting? Five hours? Seven? They had lost track. Not that they cared, for sometimes patience was the key to a successful kill.
A pair of narrowed, serious brown eyes locked gazes with an identical set. Both knew the mission, both knew their part. It was how they worked. It was almost like they were brothers. In fact, they were brothers, in both blood and mind. Even more, TWIN brothers.
They each had a name, but for mission purposes, they chose to use their codenames: Vanquish the cat and Tyranny the cat. They were born, raised, and trained to become the ultimate weapons. They were the ultimate weapons.
The one called Tyranny was the one that felt the anxiousness. Sweat glistened in his burnt orange fur, and he felt tight and itchy inside his black combat fatigues and tactical vest. Normally they didn't carry gear with them, as they had perfected the art of disarming enemies and/or using the environment as a weapon. But this was a big assignment, and they had to make sure that they had the necessary tools for the job. He lowered his night vision goggles to get a detailed view of the space around them. Once again, he was given a close up view of his prone brother, Vanquish.
Vanquish, while exactly like his brother in skill and appearance, was exactly opposite in nature. While Tyranny tended to be brash and violent, Vanquish was quite different. Actually, Vanquish didn't feel at all. Literally. Where does his emotion go, you might ask?
'Damn it all, when's that blue fuck going to stop stuffing his corn hole and get in bed?' Mitch, an exact clone of Vanquish, snarled irritably as he laid down next to Vanquish. That's where it goes, to Mitch. Mitch isn't exactly real per-say. He doesn't exist, but is only a figment of Vanquish's imagination. Only Vanquish can see him. Only Vanquish can hear him. Only Vanquish can control him.
"Shut up." Vanquish ordered quietly, and venomously, in a monotone voice, as if he were bored. Mitch opened his mouth to say something, but stopped himself. Vanquish continued starring ahead with his perfectly emotionless stare.
Tyranny heard the small mutter, and cocked an eyebrow. "What? I didn't say anything!" he hissed.
"…" Vanquish didn't respond. Tyranny rolled his eyes.
"Damn you and your insanity…" he mumbled. Vanquish heard alright, but didn't respond. Normally he would, but he would do it violently. Naturally, being in an air vent when they were trying to avoid detection, he couldn't.
'FUCK YOU, YOU INSIGNIFICANT PIECE OF SHIT! IF WE WEREN'T IN AN AIRVENT I WOULD FUCKING MAUL YOU!' Mitch shouted angrily at Tyranny. Tyranny, of course, didn't respond, as he couldn't see or hear Mitch. He simply sighed and starred down through the grille, where a bright light shone through, partially illuminating the space.
Vanquish lowered his goggles as well. "Let's review the plan." He said. That was another difference between the two. Vanquish was a perfectionist, and as his name suggests, vanquished his enemies with precise and decisive technique, like a sniper rifle, for example.
Tyranny, as his name suggests, was Tyrannical, and preferred simply outmatching the strength of his opponents to subdue them, like a bomb.
They were the perfect blend, and that's why they succeeded.
Back to the present, Tyranny groaned.
"We've already been through this a hundred times!"
"Then let's make it a hundred and one. As father said-"
"As father said: The plan is the law. Yeah, I know." Tyranny said, cutting him off.
"Alright, so here goes," Vanquish said, ignoring Tyranny's protests. "Step one…"
(…)
"Wait for lights out…"
"Night, guys!" Sonic called cheerfully to his Freedom Fighter comrades as he walked into his room. His friends gave him their farewells before they themselves retired for the night. Sonic kicked off his shoes and hopped into bed. Next, he reached up and flicked off his lamp. Last, he put his hands behind his head and sighed, falling asleep in minutes.
(…)
"Step two: Silence the hedgehog, permanently…"
Both Vanquish and Tyranny's ears perked to the sounds of light snoring. The two shared a nod; they were ready.
'Oh shit, here we come motherfuckers!' Mitch cackled excitedly at Vanquish's side. Tyranny crawled forward on his stomach until he was above the grille. He reached onto his vest and pulled out a screw driver. Within seconds he had popped out the screws holding the grille in place and pulled it up. Tyranny soundlessly laid it beside him and used an expert technique to somersault down and out of the vent. Before he could fall to the floor, he grabbed the edge of the shaft and lowered himself silently down. He landed it a crouch and surveyed his surroundings. The night vision image, though slightly grainy, showed that the room was clear. Tyranny looked up to the shaft and gave Vanquish a thumbs up; all clear.
Vanquish nodded and performed the same maneuver to exit the shaft. He landed soundlessly at his brother's side and drew a knife, a matte black combat model with a seven inch blade, from his belt. He had a gun, sure, but they couldn't risk a mistake. Not when they were smack dab in the middle of the enemy's camp, Knothole. When you used a gun, there was a chance of missing your target, or creating noise. Not with a knife though. With a knife, no matter what you hit your target, perfectly soundlessly.
Vanquish motioned towards the bed, and the two assassins crept silently towards their prey like tigers in the grass. There they stood, directly beside the unsuspecting hedgehog. Vanquish looked down at him, devoid of any feeling. It's what they were bred to do: Kill. Destroy. Hurt.
Vanquish nodded and they began step two. Tyranny roughly put his hand over Sonic's mouth, preventing any noise from escaping. As soon as he did, Sonic's eyes snapped open in panic. They suddenly went wide at the sight of the masked killers, then slowly closed, and never reopened.
Vanquish pulled the knife from his now dead target's throat, and then wiped the blade clean on the sheets. Before leaving, Tyranny pulled the covers over the body, so if anyone came in, they wouldn't raise the alarm unless they got a close look.
'Pfft, little bastard didn't even put up a fight!' Mitch spat, glaring at Sonic's body. Vanquish shrugged off the comment and followed Tyranny to the door. They silently pushed it open and sneaked into the underground halls of Knothole.
(…)
"Step three: You head to the main server room and copy the contents of the hard drive…"
Antoine sighed, bored, as he stood guard at the door leading into the server room. As usual, he was to spend countless hours just staring at the drab, earth walls of the lone hall, waiting for his shift to end.
What was that? Antoine jerked in surprise to the sudden, light noise. His eyes furiously scanned the hall, but found nothing. He felt a small bead of sweat form on his temple, but shook it away. It was nothing! There couldn't be anyone here at this hour! Perhaps it was simply someone trying to play a trick on him? Yes, that was it!
"Ha! Ha! Very funny!" he called sarcastically. "But zhe joke is over!"
"So is your life." A man's voice whispered in his ear tauntingly. The sudden voice caused Antoine to jump about a mile into the air. Before he could tell off the unseen man for scarring him, he felt a sharp pain in his upper back. Suddenly, his world started to spin, and his vision began to go black. Every breath he took burned like hell, and he felt his shirt becoming wet. Curious, he slowly reached a hand up to the spot. When he brought it in front of him, he, for some reason, remained calm, despite the fact that it was covered in his own blood. He'd been stabbed.
He grew weaker by the second as his life drained from him. His knees buckled, and he collapsed to the floor, unable to call out for help, unable to fight back against his faceless assailant. His vision grew darker still, until finally, it went completely black…
Tyranny smiled cheerfully at his clean kill. He grabbed Antoine's dead body by the armpits and dragged him back into the server room, where he dumped him in a dark corner. He stood up straight and searched the room for a terminal. When he found it, he fished a flash drive from a pouch on his vest and inserted it into the USB port, then began the timely process of hacking into the server, and transferring all of the files from the hard drive to the memory stick…
(…)
"Step four: While you do that, I will search for and eliminate key figures…"
Vanquish watched Tyranny disappear around the corner. He waited a few moments before deciding to go the opposite way. He sneaked down the hall, as unnoticed as a wraith, ready to hide or kill at any waking moment.
He heard voices up ahead, female voices, if he wasn't mistaken. He followed the voices until he found himself at the top of a closed spiraling stair case that descended into darkness. He could hear the two women conversing at the bottom. Once again he lowered his night vision goggles and walked through the archway, taking each step at a snail's pace until he reached the bottom. When he did, he was given a view of a small kitchen/living area. Thankfully, he was safely concealed in the shadows inside the archway. At the sink were two women, as predicted. A rabbit and a squirrel. The rabbit was strange to say the least. Her legs and left arm were robotic! Other than that, she was normal. Vanquish recognized her as Bunnie Rabbot- D'Coolette, an important member of the Freedom Fighters. She would have to go.
The second was easily recognizable. Sally Acorn, leader of the Freedom Fighters. No matter what, she had to be eliminated. Without her or Sonic, the whole group would fall apart. This they knew from the weeks of recon they'd performed in preparation.
Vanquish pressed himself against the wall in the shadow, his uniform blending in seamlessly, and listened in on the conversation:
"Thanks for helping me with the dishes, Bunnie." said Sally.
"You're welcome, princess. Let me tell you, when you told me that Sonic could eat nine chili dogs in less than five second, I didn't believe you." Bunnie replied with a laugh. This was followed by laughter from Sally.
"I didn't either when I first met him…" she mumbled. Silence.
"So how are things between you?"
"Oh, they're going fine. Just last Friday we snuck a visit out to Station Square for a little dinner." Sally replied. There was a gasp from Bunnie.
"Sally, you know that traveling long distance is dangerous for us!"
"Relax, Bunnie. We were never in any danger."
"If you say so- Hey, you can leave now if you want, I'll handle the rest." Bunnie said.
"Thanks, Bunnie. Night."
"Night." Bunnie replied. Vanquish could hear muffled footsteps slowly walking towards his position. His grip on the knife tightened considerably, and he sat perfectly still, ready for anything.
Suddenly, Sally Acorn walked directly past him, completely unaware of the danger just a mere foot away in the dark. Vanquish waited for her to become completely concealed by shadow before quickly and precisely lunging. He place a hand over her mouth, silencing her, then quickly swiped his blade across her throat in a slitting motion. Blood began to pour out of the incision, and she fell limp in his arms. He laid her down on the stairs, out of sight, and turned to face the secondary objective.
'Heh, watch your step, princess…' Mitch chuckled with an evil smirk, kneeling next to Sally's body. Vanquish glared at him and returned his attention to Bunnie.
Bunnie had her back to him, facing the sink, completely oblivious to the carnage. Vanquish grinned in satisfaction, but immediately shook his head, banishing away the emotion before it could take control. Emotion lead to thought. Thought lead to hesitation. Hesitation lead to failure. And failure lead to death, or worse, capture. Even with his equipment and skills, he could not take on the whole Freedom Fighter army, and he knew that.
POP!
Vanquish stiffened at the noise. He'd been so caught up in stalking his prey that he hadn't watched where he was going, and had stepped on a plastic soda bottle.
'See what happens when you let your emotions free?' Mitch asked knowingly, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. 'Oh shit, the bunny chick heard it! Get ready for a fight!'
"HEY, WHO'RE YOU?" Bunnie shouted at him, turning around. "AND WHERE'S SALLY?" she asked. That's when she saw the knife, with crimson blood dripping slowly off the point. She gasped in surprise. For a few moments, she looked like she was about to curl up into a ball and weep. But suddenly, she jumped up, a fearsome snarl ablaze on her face. "YOU SON OF A BITCH!" she roared and used her powerful legs to launch herself at Vanquish.
'HO SHIT!' Mitch yelled and dove out of the way. Vanquish had no such time to dodge. Bunnie brought up both of her powerful robot legs and kicked him in the chest. All the air was knocked out of him and his knife flew away as he flew back at great speed and slammed into the dirt wall, creating a loud THUD and causing sediments to shake loose from the ceiling.
Vanquish was stunned. His whole body hurt like hell, he couldn't see, and there was an enraged cyborg trying to kill him. He had to get up, he had to keep fighting. He fell off the wall and collapsed face first on the floor below. He heard Bunnie in front of him, raising her leg to stomp him flat. He rolled out of the way in the nick of time. Bunnie's foot, instead of crushing his skull like an egg, went through the floor. Vanquish's vision became clearer, and he could see that Bunnie had gotten her foot stuck. He felt a lump in his throat and coughed up a little blood. His ribs had to be broken from such an impact. Off to the right, he could see Mitch jumping with joy.
'HOLY SHIT MAN! YOU'RE ALIVE! NOW GO KICK HER ASS!' Mitch rooted. He sat on the couch like the bleachers at a sporting event. Vanquish got his emotions in check, and then crawled back up to his feet. He charged at Bunnie, eyes emotionless and focused. At seeing him coming, Bunny growled and brought back her left hand in a fist, ready to send a wallop in his direction. Vanquish was ready. When he was within arms' reach, Bunnie lashed out. He grabbed her wrist with his left, and then quickly spear chopped her Adam's apple with his right. Bunnie inhaled sharply and gagged. Vanquish let her go and she collapsed to the floor. He reached down onto the floor for his fallen knife. He brought it up over his head, ready to bring it down and finish the job. Suddenly, He felt Bunnie's hand grip his ankle. He didn't even have time to look down as he was flung across the room and into the couch, knocking backwards and sending him tumbling across the floor. He rolled over on to his back and was met with a furious Bunnie, holding his own knife.
"See you in hell, you bastard- AH!" Bunnie was cut off mid-sentence. She remained stoic for a few more moments before falling dead to the ground with a pool of blood forming around her. He looked up and saw the smirking face of his brother. Tyranny clutched his own blood soaked knife in his hand. With his other, he reached down to help Vanquish up.
"…And if you finish your part early, rendezvous with me to help me with mine…"
"I see you got your ass kicked!"
"Yes, I did." Vanquish said. "On with the mission."
'GRAAAGH! SEE WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENS WHEN YOU FEEL EMOTION? YOU ALMOST FUCKED UP THIS WHOLE MISSION, YOU DUMB ASS!' Mitch roared, walking beside him. Vanquish and Tyranny briskly walked out of the kitchen and back up the stairs. There were two more targets of interest: Rotor the walrus and Miles "Tails" Prower. Both had to be eliminated due to their mechanical skills, which could be used to create weapons for the Freedom Fighter cause.
They each split up; Vanquish went for Tails, while Tyranny went for Rotor. Vanquish crept down the hall, pushing the pain in his chest to the back of his mind. Pain could wait, but the mission couldn't.
He read the names on the doors until he came upon the one that was labeled "Tails". He raised his knife, lowered his goggles, and then slowly entered.
The room was pitch black, and the sounds of breathing could be hear. Vanquish navigated through the dark until he stood above the lump under the covers. Right before he was about to bring his knife down, the lump rolled over in its sleep. Not even a hardened killer like Vanquish could be prepared for what met him.
'Oh fuck, it's a kid man!' Mitch whispered in disbelief at Vanquish's side.
"…" Vanquish remained silent. Surely there was a mistake? Surely Miles "Tails" Prower couldn't be this young adolescent fox before him? He pressed a hand to his earpiece.
"Vanquish, what is it?" his father's voice asked irritably.
"Father, I've infiltrated Miles Prower's room. The only person I see is a young fox, about eight or nine at most. Please confirm." Vanquish whispered, still starring at the fox. The seconds slowly dragged past, and Vanquish felt something he hadn't felt in a long time: anxiousness.
'Shit, man, please don't let this boy be Prower. I can feel your anxiousness. You don't want to kill him, do you?' Mitch asked, walking in circles around Vanquish. Vanquish shook his head, banishing his emotions once more. Mitch fell silent.
"It's just a training mission…" Vanquish said, more to himself than Mitch (which, in hindsight, is to himself). Finally, his father's voice came back over the comms.
"Target confirmed. Proceed as planned." He said. Vanquish nodded and studied the point of his knife. Then, like a lightning bolt, he struck. Miles "Tails" Prower died painlessly, and without a sound.
'Holy shit, you are one cold motherfucker , do you know that?' Mitch asked in shock as they left the room to meet up with Tyranny. Vanquish ignored him. He and Tyranny met by one of the many exits of the underground portion of Knothole. They climbed up the ladder and out of the hatch, and into the above ground portion, filled with bridges that spanned the trees, and different buildings in the tree tops. They quietly climbed upwards into the tree branches, and started jumping from one to the next, getting out of Knothole…
… And out of the blast radius…
"Step five: destroy all evidence and head to the extraction point…"
KABOOM! Vanquish and Tyranny didn't look back as bright orange light filled the night. They could feel the heat of the explosion from hundreds of feet away. When they reached the extraction point, they pressed a button on their belts.
Suddenly, everything around them started turning transparent. The hologram was deactivating, going from a life like model of Knothole, to the massive simulation room at their father's castle- AKA, what used to be the Castle Acorn.
"Good job, boys," said a man's voice that they instantly recognized. A door near them opened, and their father came strolling towards them, the most cheerful smile on his face. He was not their biological father, that they had known for a long time. For one, he was a human. A very fat human, with eerie, black eyes and red pupils. Where his ears should have been were two metal plugs, and he had a massive orange mustache. His right arm had been robotized as well.
Their very own parents had died when they could remember them, but they didn't care, for this one man easily filled that hole. He'd taught them all that they know, and raised them to be the best that they could be, so that they may one day collect their revenge upon the people that killed their family: the Freedom Fighters.
That man, was Dr. Ivo Robotnik.
"Any further orders, father?" Tyranny asked, standing at attention next to his brother.
"No, Tyranny, that's all for today. Get some rest tonight, boys, because tomorrow, you will embark on the most important mission of your lives." Robotnik said to his greatest creations before turning and leaving…
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