Hi guys! Yes, i left you with some questions but now we can start this new story! Remember, read the story "The Gladiators" to understand this one because this is the sequel :) Ok let's start!
Chap 1- The new Mars
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The lady tan mouse made her usual round of routine among the Sand Runner's fences. Her dark brown eyes watched the big birds whose number was increasing little by little and some couples were yet breeding.
The property for the Sand Runners was located at about one hundred meters from the Big Lake, the old Big Hole. The Sand Runners crazed free in groups and in turns.
The lady mouse tied the long hair in a high ponytail, she fixed the long fringe at the left side of the face and got ready to pick up the broken eggshells when a suspect noise attracted her attention. Her ears heard the rustling of the leaves. The ranch was surrounded by a big number of trees and bushes, maybe it was an animal or a thief of eggs. The girl put off the shoe and was ready to kick away the intruder. With all the courage she had she went into the vegetation following the rustling that continued to go away little by little.
The lady mouse tried to pay attention and shifted only when the rustling started again, someone then was walking with caution, maybe he noticed to be followed.
To a certain point the lady mouse stopped look around, she knelt hiding well among the leaves and walked at four legs following the noise that started again to shift. But this time it was getting closer and closer and the girl stood up suddenly waving the shoes and yelling "GO AWAY DAMN THIEF!"
On the contrary the other screamed scared, he fell backward receiving the shoe on the muzzle. The lady tan mouse jumped on him jerking him by the orange shirt determined to punch him but before she could attack him, he blocked her hands, looked at her dazed and got away form her moving on the back "Oh.. s-s-sorry!" he exclaimed, he was a mouse with grey fur and brown hair with an orange line, Rimfire was going to have a heartbreak, his uncle would kill him if he had moved a finger on a girl. He tried to smile obtaining only a grimace of embarrassment.
The lady tan mouse eyed him with suspicion "What are you going here?" she asked sharp "You wanted to steal the egg, eh? I don't tolerate the thieves!" then her brown eyes delayed on the guy's belt to which was hung a case with a gun. The girl went back raising slowly the hands to the head "Please, don't fire."
Rimfire took a look on the weapon and smiled "Of course not!" he answered composing himself "I'm a Freedom Fighters, I would never do it!" then he held out an hand to her "My name's Rimfire."
The lady mouse looked at him still mistrustful and squeezed his hand carefully "I'm Stella."
The grey mouse nodded the head "Well, Stella, I'm lost. I was led to Sierra but the map of my bike went in tilt and... I found myself in the vegetation." he explained.
Stella placed the hands on her hips "Sierra is just there and... what?"she asked noticing that Rimfire pointed something at her back and then the girl felt a warm air blowing on her hair, an hoarse breath with nasty smell.
Rimfire gripped her hand and started to run "Let's run away!"
Stella resisted but the strength of the grey mouse was higher and dragged her "I can't leave unattended the Sand Runners!" she exclaimed, then she watched at her back and saw a big reptile with four long legs, the brown coriaceous skin and the lizard face with sharpened teeth that protruded out of the mouth. It was big like an horse.
"There!" Rimfire exclaimed pointing a big tree "Hold on." he said jumping when the girl hanged on his neck dandling along his back.
They got safe just in time that the big lizard crashed against the tree making him tremble and looked upwards moving like a crazy "What must we do?" Stella asked in the panic "The.. The Sand Runners... my cousin will kill me if something would happen to them!"
Rimfire whistled and after some seconds the noise of a racer bike made tremble the reptile that went back a little "Go, bike!" the grey mouse exclaimed and the AI obeyed firing a warning shoot. First the reptile hissed and then ran directed to the ranch.
"On ho!" the lady tan mouse was terrified "The..."
"Give me the hand." Rimfire said resolute.
Stella obeyed and in a few seconds the grey mouse jumped down the tree carrying her in the arms, they landed on the bike that left at full speed to reach the lizard.
"What the hell is that thing?" asked Rimfire, he had never seen a similar animal maybe because during the war they had avoided the was hiding in the underground.
"It's a Crocorock." the tan mouse explained "They eat eggs and the little Sand Runners."
"Then we must hurry!" Rimfire said and the bike sped up and reached the martian predator that changed route running away in the vegetation. Instead the two mice headed to the ranch where, luckily, it was everything ok. The reptile hadn't attacked the big birds probably because he knew he couldn't escape from it.
Stella seemed tranquillized after she had made the round among the fences and seeing that all the Sand Runners were ok, then she headed to the hut where she was used to laze undisturbed and made something to eat "Then, you told me that you were going to Sierra, why?" she asked, she let the guest sitting at her side under the veranda.
Rimfire bit the cake "I don't see my uncle for a few months because the work had sent us in different places when the recovery plan had started. When I came back home, my grandmoma said to me that he has left." he answered "he's here to visit his girl, someone called Sharon, the scientist."
Stella rested the elbow on the table and the chin on the hand "Sharon is a cousin of mine. It's her that is organizing all this for the Sand Runners." she said while the grey mouse was going to choke with the bit "Then is Modo your uncle?"
Rimfire nodded patting the chest and hoping that the cough would pass away, when he could finally speak he took a deep breath "I'd like to spend some time with him but... how do you know him?"
The lady tan mouse shrugged and looked at him with a strange expression "As I can imagine it happened for you, my cousin told me a lot of your uncle." she chuckled and peered him better "Then you're a Freedom Fighter, eh? Tell me how you joined them."
"Sharon..." Modo murmured looking at the white haired lady. It was her, he hadn't doubts. She was the only one who had eyes with a different color and the earring with the blue stone at the left ear. The gray mouse hadn't the courage to do a step ahead. He feared to ask her from where that baby would come, he didn't want bad news. And yet he felt touched looking at her and noticed that what he felt for her didn't changed.
At certain point Sharon turned to them and noticed her brother and the gray mouse, she smiled radiant and walked towards them.
Modo was ready to hold her in his arms but the lady mouse flung herself to her brother leaving in his arms the baby "Take him." she said "And tell him that he mustn't play with the dummy, he risked to lose it a lot of times!"
The baby pulled out the tongue, Ronald made a falsely shocked expression "Eh! Don't do it to your aunt! Bad baby!" he exclaimed laughing. The baby waved the arms smiling, the dummy in the right hand.
The grey mouse had a stroke. Aunt? But then that baby didn't belong to Sharon. Modo breathed deeply to recover from the shock and tried to seem as natural as possible "Who's this little thing?" he asked to Ronald.
"Oh right... let me introduce my first-born, Rocky!" the brown furred Gladiator answered "He's a pest!" he commented putting the baby on the shoulder.
"With a father like this..." Sharon said bursting into laughter whilst her brother looked at her badly wrinkling the nose and then she ran to hug the grey mouse "How are you Cyber mouse? Why are you here?" she asked.
Modo was still upset but he hugged her back "Everything goes very well." him answered "And then as I've promised I ran soon to you."
Ronald sighed vague "I reach my wife, is better." in the truth he wanted to go away and leave alone the two mice that hadn't seen for over an year.
Sharon grabbed the shirt of the brother "Remember that this evening we must go to Solana's. She invited us for dinner."
The twin smiled slyly "Did she invite us or our father?" he asked arching the eyebrows.
The lady dark mouse chuckled "Remember only that we have the dinner." she answered shaking the head puzzled when the brother went away.
"Solana?" Modo asked.
"Yes, an our neighbor. She's a vet and she takes care of our Sand Runners that we have at the ranch. Me suspect that she had a crush for our father." Sharon giggled "Every time he's around, we see her fix her hair and the clothes. But don't speak about it..." she took his flesh hand "I wanna show you somethings! Are you here with Lil?"
"Obviously." Modo answered leading the lady mouse trough the crowd "Were do we go?"
"To the Big Hole, Now the Big Lake." Sharon answered.
The trip didn't last so long and Modo was in trouble to recognize the place because the vegetation covered his view and made the place totally different from what it was in the past "I admit that I don't recognize this place." but something came in his mind also if he wasn't able to remember.
"Not too far from here you had the camp that had been attacked by the Sand Raiders, do you remember?" Sharon asked "Here, this is the place where the clan used the slam effect making collapse the ground."
Modo remembered well, the first time in which he met the Ruby of the future. But now, at the place of the desert, a green meadow stood out and a big number of houses stippled it with their brown color. The gray mouse took and hand on the forehead to look better "Are they Sand Runners?" he asked noticing the giant birds that walked trough the meadows and the fences.
"Yes. We have started the program yet. I found a lot of support and volunteers." the white haired mouse answered "Let's go, follow the way, straight ahead and we're arrived at the hut."
The grey mouse obeyed and followed the way that divided the meadow in two parts with his red color typical of Mars. Modo looked around, yes, that was the home that was before the war. That he knew when he was a baby and then thinking about it he remembered a thing "You know, I thought that Rocky was..."
"My son?" Sharon interrupted bursting into laughter, she tightened the arms around his torso still chuckling "Why did a similar thing come in your mind? If it happened I would call you and then all the clan could know it before myself."
"To be honest your brother told me that you changed radically when Rocky was born, then I thought..."
"Well... we can say that I didn't go to the lab because Leila had her 5th son and Daisy had problems with her first. Leila was busy with the new born and then I decided to help Ronny's wife." Sharon explained.
"5th son? But.." Modo was astonished "When will they decide to stop?" he asked chuckling "And what do you mean that the clan could notice it before you?"
"I have no idea, Vice's decision... turn into this way and we're almost arrived." Sharon said.
The two arrived at the little house where Stella and Rimfire were speaking about the Freedom Fighters and their deeds, so before that the lady mouse could answer to the second question, Modo called his nephew.
"Uncle Modo!" the brown haired mouse exclaimed "I was going to go to Sierra." after exchanged a strong handshake and a hug, his look went on Sharon "Oh, I got it." he murmured.
His uncle smiled "Hem... You know yet why I'm here." he said "She's Sharon. You met her brothers Vice and Ronald when we escaped from the castle of the fat ball."
"Oh, then you're the sister of that two mice?" Rimfire exclaimed "Hi, I'm Rimfire."
The two shook the hands "Your uncle told me a lot about you and about how much you were stubborn when you were younger." Sharon said and then eyed her cousin "Oh, Stella, you're here yet."
The lady tan mouse greeted with the hand and reached the group "Hi." she greeted again gazing curious the bionic arm "This is cool!" she exclaimed with the eye wide "I'm Stella." she introduced herself.
"Modo, it's a pleasure ma'am." the grey mouse answered squeezing her hand. The grip of the young tan mouse surprised him, it was strong but not as a Gladiator's one, those brown eyes and her face showed a strong and an outgoing personality. Something told him that she was naughty and very direct in doing the things.
The four mice grouped under the veranda and Stella told about the Crocorock, soon Sharon's nose paled "Then we start to work immediately for the security system."
Stella soon raised the arms "Oh oh oh! I have an idea! Let's dig a channel that starts form the lake and that surrounds all the area, the Crocorocks are afraid by the water and they don't know swim."
The scientist nodded "I'll speak with the other." she watched the Sand Runners that walked across the meadow, Choppy was at ease and he had found a mate, now he was surrounded by four chicks that followed him step by step "Then you have saved my cousin? I thank you."
Rimfire blushed "I didn't do anything, only my duty and..."
"His fault if the Crocorock pursued us!" suddenly Stella exclaimed "Thief of eggs!" and then she punched him on the shoulder.
"Hei! But it's false!" Rimfire answered "I was lost! And.. ouch! Don't beat me! Uncle help!" he asked for mercy.
But Modo and Sharon laughed amused and the tan mouse continued to punch him "Thief!"
And so the peace was back on Mars, the planet was florid how the mice had hoped and the life turned to flow quietly. Only the Big Ocean was still poor of water but soon or later the solution would be found for it too. Sharon stood up, she wanted to show other things to the grey mouse and then they left the two young mice. The poor Rimfire wasn't so happy for the decision and his uncle reassured him that he would be right back.
"It seems to be in those earthling ranch." Modo commented looking around "Were you inspired by them?"
Sharon nodded "I like how they are built but now we must solve the problem of the Crocorock. After years my clan succeeded to pull them away but I like the idea of my cousin."
"Is Stella a devil? Isn't her?" the grey mouse asked.
Sharon chuckled "She took a lot from Ron. It's hard take her still, for this reason I asked her to give me a hand here."
Modo watched the surface of the lake, the water was crystalline there were yet some fish that touched the surface "What did you mean when you said that your clan could know it before you?" he asked.
The black lady mouse goggled the eyes "Are you still thinking about that?" she exclaimed surprised, then she smiled a bit embarrassed, there was a scientific explanation then. She chose carefully the words, she knew Modo wasn't stupid and she knew that was better let him know it "You know that for every reaction our body produces a quantity of hormones. Then, the males adult Gladiators can feel them. Vice told me that according to the smell he knows when Leila can or can't."
Modo found it absurd "Then why do they have so much children?" he asked astonished.
Sharon smiled "Because they want it. Vice waits some time to let Leila be ready again. I mean... if it happened to me I would be kicked out of the clan before that I could know why." she chuckled nervously, this thing made her unease now that she thought it.
There was a little silence and the grey mouse started "And for the test? When do you think I can do it?" he asked "Then, removed the tooth, the pain away."
Sharon sighed "I don't know, you must speak with my father if this evening you stay here."
"And the dinner?" he asked again "I don't want seem inopportune."
"Solana loves to have guests and knowing how much my father eats, she would cook for a full army." the white haired mouse chuckled "You'll be welcome, you and Rimfire."
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Yeee first chapter finished :3 I hope you enjoyed it. See you soon! For see Stella just go on my profile and click on the related link :) There's the scene of the little fight between Stella and Rimfire too xxD