Author's Notes: Yeah, I decided to do another fic. This one is yet another mystery fic, and will delve into the plots of my fan-characters. From my previous fics, I have greatly updated the detail. However, there are some areas where I did not. Mainly, though, it was because it's annoying to write out long-drawn areas to add in extra details to the room. Note the final scene in particular for this. However, there are quite a few highly-detailed areas elsewhere in this chapter.
Disclaimer: Whoops, almost forgot to do this in the originally version. Charmy, Espio, Vector, Jet, Wave, Storm, the Babylon Airship, and the Mystic Ruins are all copyright to SEGA/Sonic Team, all rights reserved. Ultima the Hedgehog is owned by me, as well as the wounded echidna in the first chapter (don't worry, his name will be revealed later). The basic plotline of this fic is also mine.
Flaming Fury
Chapter 1: Mysterious EncountersThe sun peeked through the treetops. The light, reflecting strangely in the dense forest, blazed with a shear, brilliant sensation! It was early in the morning of a new summer day, deep within the Mystic Ruins. Surprisingly, a small figure raced through the formerly calm forest. It was a large bee.
He was less that three and a half feet tall, and weighed around thirty pounds. He had two winds, spreading out to form a wingspan that almost equaled one foot, and a stinger that was nearly five inches long! He also had short, striped, black and white fur that covered his entire body. On his head was a small, brown helmet (probably used to not hurt his head if he ever crashed). The bee's name was Charmy.
Charmy dashes through the forest like a speeding bullet, swaying this way and that to dodge trees that blocked his path ahead. He giggled slightly just from the speed he was going add. Noticing a rock formation up ahead, he quickly swung right and narrowly missed slamming his head into the hard stone. He quickly glanced back as he passed. 'Few, that was close!' He thought. He only looked back a split-second before turning back ahead, just to notice a red figure right in front of him.
"Woah, woah, woah!" he cried, trying to stop in the air. Unfortunately, the environment in the air has a lot less friction that on the ground, and he slammed right into the figure, knocking him down. Charmy rolled off and onto the ground. He rubbed his head and looked back toward the red creature lying on the ground. "He… hey, are you okay?" He asked.
He flew back into the air, and then back to the figure. He looked down at the creature, cautiously. The bee eyed it carefully, checking every little detail. The red creature looked kind of like a hedgehog, but its quills were strange, like Knuckles'. It had six quills, three of which were at the top of its head. The first one Charmy noticed was on the way right side of his head, which lay at a peculiar angle around the way right side, visible from the front. As usual, one sat right on top of his head, and came down far. Charmy noticed that it actually was visible way down between his legs.
The third one was on the way left side and a little lower than the right one, but it was slightly to the right of his head. Charmy estimated it to be almost directly beneath his left ear, but just lower than both of the previous quills. The fourth one was in between the right two, but was a few inches above the bottom of his head. The final two were below the left one, but spread out enough to be on either side of it. The first of the two was a little higher than the final one, but lower than the fourth one. This one was positioned to the right of the final one and to the third one. The final one was right at the bottom of the creature's head, and lay toward the left side. It was clearly an echidna of some sort.
The echidna appeared to be only fourteen years old, but it was about three feet and five inches tall (estimated to be about 102 to 104 centimeters tall, if you use metric). Charmy noticed that he wasn't wounded from the crash, but was clearly injured before. He had mild burn marks along his legs and upper torso. Clearly, he was wounded before, and was just barely able to stand.
The bee landed back down on the ground and carefully approached him. "Hey, what happened? I can help you." The echidna didn't move. Charmy walked up next to him and got a closer look. The echidna's eyes were closed. This scared the bee for a second, until he sighed of relief when noticing that its chest was heaving in and out slightly. 'He must've fallen unconscious!' Charmy thought to himself.
He stepped around to the side of the red echidna, but felt a metal object beneath his foot. Charmy quickly stepped back and gasped. A sword lay on the ground. The light from above reflected off of the shining blade. The hilt was brown, and a strange symbol was etched into the wood. He grabbed the hilt of the blade and lifted it up a little. The young bee set the blade down into his left palm, and let the hilt lay in his right. He just stared at its beauty. He moved his palm across the bottom of the blade and toward the point. When doing this, though, he felt a warm liquid on his had.
Charmy took his hand away from the blade and noticed a red liquid cover it. "Oh my god!" He screamed, throwing the sword back into the grass. Charmy wiped the liquid off of his hand, but there was no cut in his glove. 'That could only mean one thing…' He thought.
Re-approaching the blade, Charmy quickly grabbed the handle and flipped over the sword, then backed away. The edge of the blade was covered in fresh blood, still warm. He backed away from the echidna, now noticing black shoes laying in the grass at the echidna's feet, that clearly weren't colored that way naturally. 'What is this? Who is he? What is he doing here? What happened to him?' Questions flooded Charmy's mind, but he was unable to answer any of them. He knew that there was only one thing left to do. The bee flew off at high speeds, glancing back at the wounded figure once more before disappearing into the density of the forest.
XXXXX
Sitting in the sofa, the large, green figure nodded his head. He had a pair of headphones on, with his eyes closed. His right hand he held up against his ear, and he sat there in that pose. In room in back, grunts, punches, and slices could be heard. Then, the noise in back stopped, and a purple chameleon walked out holding a small hand towel. "Vector, don't you ever actually work when we're not on a case? You just sit around listening to that racket all day, and don't spare any time for training."
Despite all that talking, Vector didn't get out of the pose. He just kept on nodding his head to the music. The chameleon sighed. "Vector, what are you listening to?"
Again, he didn't stop.
The chameleon just rolled his eyes. He quickly ripped a short katana out of its sheath, reached over, and sliced it upward through the cord to Vector's headphones. The crocodile quickly opened his eyes. "Hey, did the power go out or something?"
The chameleon leaned against the wall and waited. He crossed his arms, and watched Vector's reactions.
Vector growled. "Espio, did you cut the cord again! Now I'll need to buy ANOTHER pair of headphones!"
Espio chuckled slightly. "Or you can just stop listening to music all-together."
Vector was about to speak up again, but the door slammed open. Charmy came flying in, yelling out. "Espio! Vector! Come on, someone needs help, now!"
Espio and Vector both looked up at the same time, surprised. "What's going on!" They both asked in unison.
XXXXX
A nurse walked up and glanced at the trio sitting in the waiting room. She was human, female, and about one and a half times Espio's height, though only a little taller than Vector. "You guys are lucky you got him in on time. He was wounded pretty badly, and we found two bullets in him, with another bullet hole visible in his foot. Also, severe burns covered his body. He is alive, though, and you have that young bee to thank."
Vector nodded. "Something just doesn't add up, though. There was a blade at the scene, and the tip was covered in blood, too, but he had no cuts on him. So, if he wasn't wounded by it, then obviously he must've used it against his attacker. Also, the burns don't make any sense at all."
The nurse nodded. "GUN is investigating the scene now, but nothing can be made of it. Right now, let's just be glad that he's alive."
"That's another thing," Espio added, "who is 'he.' His description matches that of an echidna, but there's only one echidna left alive on Earth, and he's not even on Earth at this moment in time."
The nurse shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I don't know any more than you do. I only came here to report the news to the ones who brought him here, and that's all I did. I need to get back to work, now." With that said, the nurse walked away.
Vector rubbed his index finger against his forehead, curiously. "Boys, I think we have a mystery on our hands."
XXXXX
The green bird yawned loudly. He sat back in his chair with his eyes closed. The creature had a green feathered tail, of which three large feathers could be seen. He had large feathers in the back of his head that hung down, much like the quills of Sonic. He had a beak for a face, fitted with a weird grin. Two nostrils were on either side of his mouth at the end of his beak. The bird snored softly as he slept.
Suddenly, the door to his room slammed open, causing a picture frame on the wall to land on his head. "Ahh!" He yelled, jumping up.
A big guy lumbered it. It was a gray-feathered bird, with a large white tuff of fur on its chest. "Hey boss, someone's here to see you!" He proclaimed.
The green bird growled. "Storm, what have I told you about barging in like that?"
Storm backed away. "S… sorry boss, but it was important!"
"Gah, no matter how important it may be, it's more important that you don't slam the door to one's room open without notice, first. You should at least knock! What if you did it to Wave and she was changing? What would happen then?"
Storm put his hands up and backed up even further. "S… sorry, boss! I won't do it again!" He saluted and then paused.
The boss finally gave up. "Alright then, so what is this big emergency, anyway? If it's anything like what happened with Doctor Eggman, your share of the cash will be docked on our next mission."
Storm shuddered at the thought and quickly ran off. Soon, he came back, and a silver hedgehog walked in after him. Storm quickly walked out and slammed the door behind him, shaking the whole cabin. "Gah!" The leader yelled again.
He shook his head and looked up at the new arrival. "Well then, are you just another guy who heard of my skills, and wanted to try and use me to get something out of it?"
The hedgehog grinned. "Actually, I had a mission for you guys. You are Jet, am I correct?"
"Yeah, that's me." Jet said, nodding.
"Good." He pulled a small card out of his pocket, and handed it to Jet. "My name is Ultima. I am in the need of assistance, and heard about you guys after the Ex-World Grand Prix incident. I didn't think much of it at first, but recently I came across someone, who I would like you to track down."
Jet looked up curiously. "Wait, so you want to hire us? How much are you offering?"
Ultima tapped on the wall behind him. Then, Storm barged in again and handed over a briefcase. The hedgehog opened the case up, pulled an object out, and closed it again. "I have a proposal for you. Get me the one I want, and I'll give you the contents of this briefcase." He held up a large diamond, about the size of a Chaos Emerald. "This case is filled with these, all the same size." He nodded to Storm and tossed him the diamond. "Here, your prize."
Storm laughed gleefully, and ran out of the room. A figure walked in after he left, though. Jet looked up again. "This is all fine and dandy, but where did you get your hands on such a prize?" He asked.
The figure that entered nodded. She was another bird, this time purple. "Yeah, how do we know that you're not just another crook?"
"Look who's talking." Ultima commented, dryly. "Well, Wave, I suppose I'll just have to tell you." Suddenly, he swung a hand gun out of a slot in his belt. He quickly pointing it at a board on a stand in the corner and fired. The bullet smashed straight into the dark green line at the top in the center, right at the line where it met up with the yellow layer just below it. The bullet stuck into the outside of the board, and stayed there.
Wave had quickly grabbed onto the frame of the doorway she was standing in, clearly afraid that the ship was about to lose altitude from the pressure of the air up in the stratosphere. She opened her eyes cautiously and gave off a sigh of relief. Then she looked at Ultima, angrily. "You crazy fool! Do you no what you would've done if that bullet had went through the wall? You could've killed us all!" Jet just stared up from his chair, a surprised look had clearly gripped his face.
Wave finally cooled down, then glanced at where Ultima had shot. "Oh my god!" She screamed. She quickly ran over to the board, examining every inch of it. She ripped the bullet out of the side and tossed it into a trashcan. "At least it only a minor repair, but…" She looked back up at the figure.
Ultima just stared at her. "I'm sorry, but I'm just a lowly mercenary. Meddling in the affairs with others isn't my problem, unless it pays well. Unfortunately, my current mission calls for drastic measures. Obviously you'll need to get that repaired before you start, but one with your skills shouldn't have a problem fixing it, right?"
Jet nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Wave. This is a chance to get some well-deserved cash! A few minor setbacks won't trouble us." Finally getting out of his chair, the hawk got up and walked over to the hedgehog. "Alright then, mister. You got yourself a deal!" He held out his hand, and Ultima shook it.
"Please, Jet, just call me Ultima."
Jet nodded. He went back and leaned against the table in the middle of the room. Wave had already disappeared, probably to go and fix the board after that bullet had slammed into it, though it failed to go completely through because of the hard material that these newer forms of Extreme Gear were made out of. "So, now that that's settled, who's our target?"
Ultima grinned evilly. "I've found out that a young bee has been messing with my target. I was wounded so I retreated, then I learned that he had found him. Deciding it best to not go back right away, I came to you guys." He slipped a picture out of his pocket and handed it to Jet. "There, these are your targets."
Jet studied the picture. There were three figures—a young bee, a green crocodile, and a purple chameleon. Along the bottom of the picture read 'The Chaotix Detective Agency.'
"I fear that they will meddle with my plans." Ultima continued. "I want them dead… as soon as possible."
End of Chapter Notes: The hedgehog and the echidna are both my fan-characters, yes, but they don't get much of a plot. Only enough to advance the storyline, and to slowly reveal information about them. The main characters, though, are actually Chaotix. The Babylon Rogues also have a huge part. Don't worry, other characters will appear in future chapters. I plan on having other favorites appear in the future, but I won't reveal who they are... just yet.
Also, I'm not updating this fic again until Ultimate Chaos is finished. I plan on doing that within the next week or two. Three chapters are left in that, then I'll worry about other things. You don't have to worry about me neglecting other fics to work on this, I got that covered. After Ultimate Chaos is done, I'll continue on this, but also on Unsolved Mysteries. After both of them are done, I'll just work on this, though I may continue either All of Me or Vengeance is Mine. Note that I plan on wiping out all my original ideas for the fic (Vengeance is Mine) and continuing it AFTER Sonic Adventure 2, to co-insist more with the current summary.
