Author's note: Written in support of the Kelviniana forum Cursed Mistletoe challenge.
Review for the win. Use Amy's hammer to motivate yourself if need be.
POWER SNUGGLE
Sonic smashed into Eggman's control room without breaking a sweat.
"Party's over, Eggman!"
The hero heard keyboard clatter in response. Whatever the doctor was up to, his plan went bad long before he could pull out the big guns. Retreating into Final Egg with a familiar hostage was a double order of the embarrassing beat downs Sonic normally had in store.
Amy stared at him helplessly, stuck inside an energy bubble. Sonic would whisk her up into his arms and they'd go shopping together. At least, that was her plan before being kidnapped yet again.
A swift jump towards the girl's prison was to free her from whatever dumb force field the doctor made up. He buzzsawed into the yellow light, prepared for an outward push, but felt nothing of the sort. The energy let him right in, and only when he was to exit did Sonic experience the burn.
The light bounced him head-first into the hard floor. Sonic considered drilling down before noticing it was a full bubble.
"Sonic, wait!" Tails exclaimed from a distance. "Don't touch that!"
Sonic's yellow buddy couldn't keep up today. The base had surprisingly little robots, which enhanced True Blue's lair penetration speed. What didn't surprise the fox, however, was the fact something different awaited them in the end. His radar had a Chaos Emerald wavelength pinged to Eggman's command post.
It was a fake gem put up as a decoy. Tails had no doubt about it. Had Sonic not rushed headfirst into trouble, the situation could have been avoided. Now, both hedgehogs were stuck inside a bubble generated by the power source within. It allowed anyone to enter, but getting out was nigh impossible till the jewel ran out of power. Stuck in a cramped space, Sonic couldn't drain it effectively without hitting Amy.
The girl had no qualms about strangling the blue hero in a crazy snuggle. She was too happy to see him to realise someone else would have to do the heavy lifting.
Tails walked into the room careful not to spring any traps. The fact someone behind an executive chair at the opposite wall kept typing made him alert. Still, he needed to hurry because Sonic's face was about to turn blue from oxygen deprivation.
He ran up to the chair lit by multiple security monitors and a master screen at front. With a turn of the backrest, he was ready to capture the villain.
"Ah hah!"
Rather than a scientist's hostile emotive, he encountered a battered Egg Pawn. Tails ejected it into the ceiling and pushed Eggman's chair away to work on the console. The seat looked cosy, but the little prodigy knew better. Fishy, fishy, fishy…all of it.
A few clicks and a hum later, Tails managed to disable the force field. Sonic needed extra rescuing because of Amy, who credited the blue hero for all the chivalry. Tails invited them to take a look at the main screen. It had something both interesting and concerning.
Tails found an email draft that wasn't closed properly. It gave him access to the correspondence.
"While the Legend of the Legendary Mistletoe is clearly earmarked, the Academy encourages aspirants to present credible findings with regards to the cultural practices of ancient civilisations. I am certain the manuscript archives will be made accessible upon your arrival at the Admissions Office in line with Prof. Pickle's recommendation."
Sonic huffed. "Cut to the chase, Tails."
"This email was sent from a resident of Spagonia University. It's part of a series about some legend, an artefact. They're tracing a very powerful anomaly which only appears during the cold season. Ancient texts that Professor Pickle studied hint that past civilisations knew how to use its power to…bring loved ones together, even from…beyond. That's how the rulers appeared to survive for hundreds of years."
The fox scared himself the most upon reading through the conversation. Sonic only yawned while Amy ran away without bidding goodbye.
"Sounds like geeky mumbo jumbo," the hedgehog muttered before noticing Amy escape through the hole he made upon entry. "Amy! You'll get lost!" he yelled. On second thought, he was intending to ask her to do so earlier. Still, it left Sonic scratching his head. "Where did she run off to?"
"There's more. This last email is a response to Professor Pickle's invitation and it's signed by Nik Botvoroi."
Sonic didn't see anything threatening in the prodigy's words. "We shouldn't be reading this. Eggman must have hacked the guy's mailbox."
"Nik Botvoroi is an anagram of Ivo Robotnik! This is Eggman's correspondence. He's out to see Pickle!"
"Eggman!" Sonic exclaimed.
The loudness, or something Amy did, must have triggered the alarm. Warning lights blazed near the ceiling, covering the room in deep shades of red. Everything on the screens disappeared to be replaced with Eggman's grinning insignia and a thirty-second countdown in the eyes.
"It's going to self-destruct!"
Sonic had a counter: he homing-attacked the console flat, an action that silenced the alarm. "That felt good! See? Nothing's going to self-destruct on my watch."
A second later, the ground started shaking underneath their feet. He may have disabled the warning system, but it would have been unwise to trust Eggman's bases not to explode.
"We better run," Tails pointed out. The console may have had more useful information he didn't have the time to analyse. Perhaps, in the next base.
"And find Amy before she gets kidnapped again."
Blue green eyes watched them leave from above. Sonic and Tails were usually the best bet on finding enough accidental treasure to pay off any burden GUN would offer her. The missions had great pay themselves, but it was the loot Rouge went out of her way to locate. No point in getting up without a small fortune dangling in the distance.
The bat swooped down silently to approach the wrecked console. Her well-trained eyes scanned the scrap for salvageable value. Even though she would have preferred to use the thing intact, Sonic's rash disposition was no match for a treasure hunter's instincts. GUN provided her enough support tech to interface with any Eggman brand hardware they were aware of.
"Bringing loved ones together," she hummed while looking for a cable to plug into.
Whatever it was, it had to be important, valuable, and calling for her possession. The moment she found a socket, she let the current unveil its secrets to her. Rouge could only digest bits and pieces at the rate it was downloading, but the findings curved the corners of her lips higher with every byte.
"Looks like Eggman's gotten his hands on something fun again."
There was no way she'd tickle all of the data out due to the self-destruction sequence, but she could manipulate the countdown to lose speed. Anything extra would either sell at a bonus or give her more insight.
While she was leeching off Eggman's data bank, the bat couldn't shake the feeling she was being watched. Sure, there must have been some operational security cameras, but they didn't have long shadows or make clanking noises.
Only when a pair of cold hands swiped to grab her did she flinch for real. They never reached the target as another lurker dismantled them and sent the rest to explode in the corner. Tails hadn't destroyed the pawn, but Shadow had no qualms about finishing the job.
Having killer muscle certainly had its perks. Rouge was sure not to remind him of that.
"Can't keep your eyes off me, hmm? A lady and her privacy so rudely interrupted by a Shadow."
The dark hedgehog huffed. He didn't care for any side quests. Eggman was mass-producing fake Chaos Emeralds and it was his job to stop him. Rouge's connections came in handy, provided her frivolous attention span didn't relapse.
He picked up a piece of shattered emerald to inspect it. "You said you knew where the fakes are manufactured."
"I could use an echidna as a body guard. We'd be having the same conversation right now."
Shadow fell silent. The ground never stopped shaking, an inconvenience he tried to ignore. Rouge's rummaging in a pile of worthless scrap was the real pain. The fast-running text on her PDA had more lyrical hogwash than actual use. Eggman may have gotten a random penchant for magical parasitic plants, but it neither benefited Shadow's own agenda nor revealed the doctor's plan.
Whether it was a matter of intuition or Shadow's predictability, Rouge sighed to attract his attention. "Location, location, location… We can get to the plant right now, but that wouldn't answer why he's going through all the trouble. He's not using them in power plants, robots or weapons. The one you've found here isn't even a decoy. To get to the bottom of this, we must be once step ahead."
"That means…"
Rouge flashed a grin at the hedgehog. "We're tailing Sonic."
"He will eat my dust."
They were gone in a blink.
It took a bit of convincing and acting lessons to prepare Shadow for what was out to come. The picture of Nik Botvoroi revealed a bearded fellow adorning a pair of square glasses above a long-neck sweater. They didn't know how ahead or behind Eggman was, but Rouge bet her money on improvisation. Shadow landed with the shortest straw, alone in a large hall next to a bunch of old bookshelves in Spagonia University.
The bat positioned herself in a much better spot outside near one of the building's skylights. Shadow's fake glasses gave her a good understanding of the situation on the ground. She popped a gumball in her mouth, grinning at how well she played the hedgehog.
"Do you like tea, Shadow?"
He grumbled, alert for any guards. Shadow was infiltrating a school dressed like a loser in hope of finding an old man. "Bad time for personality tests. Is the coast clear?"
"He's in the library staff office."
Shadow found the right door without any difficulty. In a moment, he'd have to forget who he was. He didn't like the sound of that. "For the record, roleplaying is a stupid idea."
"He's as blind as a…red mole, so don't worry. Remember your lines."
The moment he pulled the handle to enter, a grey-haired man with eyebrows big enough to fix his receding hairline exuberantly greeted him. "Mr Botvoroi! You're back, and you've lost weight! These cucumber sandwiches are absolute magic if I do say so myself. Come, take a seat. The blizzard will gladly wait five minutes for a man and his lapsang souchong."
A small table with two chairs stood in front of him. The sandwiches he referred to were long gone, but the teacups had plenty of steaming liquid. Shadow hesitated, forcing Rouge to intervene. She whispered for him to take a seat and honour the man's subtle request.
There was one problem: the tea smelled like smoked bacon. Surely, his cup wasn't poisoned? A concealed whiff revealed the same scent coming from the professor's portion. Rouge owed him an hour of private time with Eggman for the sacrifice.
"Think nice thoughts: fluffy slippers, rainbows," she whispered into her walkie-talkie. The mantra wasn't helping, so she aimed higher. "Guns, power…big guns, err, Maria."
The last part broke him. Shadow stared at the scientist in front of him wide-eyed and took a sip. It brought his pupils back to normal size before he blinked.
"Quite delicious, professor."
"Indeed. The plantation owner was most kind to offer it to my party during the previous expedition. Nothing like a brew grown by charitable folk. I hear Angel Island used to have plenty of those. It has been my dream to visit the echidna temples. They have so far eluded detailed scientific efforts, but I have great confidence in you, Mr Botvoroi. The minute I saw you, I realised the unparalleled tenacity. Perhaps, comparable only with…no, definitely unparalleled. Pardon my segue."
Rouge found the hedgehog going idle for some reason. The last thing she wanted was Shadow reliving a flashback instead of listening or asking questions. She became so frustrated she started blowing bubbles.
"Come on, Shadow! Quit sucking on that tea cup and squeeze him for info. Eggman can't have my mistletoe!"
"You said it, girl!" a female voice from below replied.
"Huh?"
The bat turned around, the move popping her bubble violently enough to block her view. By the time she got it off, the pipsqueak who spied on her got away. A crowd of people started forming outside to check out the bat yelling on the roof.
Shadow exited the room fifteen minutes later. He's never nodded so many times to a senile man's blabber. It was interesting in a way. While he had no proper means of breaking away from the conversation prematurely, listening to trivia amused him. Who knew trivia would be fun for the brain?
He couldn't shake Pickle off, who insisted on guiding him out of the archives with more chatter in the background. Lulled by the monologue, Shadow was unprepared for an unfortunate surprise at the university's main entrance.
Pickle's eyebrows perked up at the sight. "Tails, Sonic! Your timing is impeccable. Please, meet my associate, Mr Botvoroi."
The two blinked at each other. Sonic grinned and approached the costumed hedgehog for a handshake. "Hi, you, Mr Botvoroi," he said mockingly and pressed the dark hedgehog closer for a whisper. "The hell you're up to, Shads?"
"Go drown in a puddle, Blue."
Once the shake and complimentary back patting fell apart, Pickle brought them together again. "Mr Botvoroi is going on a fairly dangerous expedition to the island that floats in the sky. Truly, a masterpiece of nature. He could use a pair of experienced hands to help with the stone carvings as well as more protection from ferocious beasts. I know this comes on very short notice, but the weather forecast is running circles around our prospects."
"Angel Island, hmm…"
"Your knowledge of the ancients is astounding, Tails. Mr Botvoroi has been working with our physics department to trace a powerful anomaly. It is by mere chance I encountered their efforts after a small explosion on the campus. The archives pushed aside any shade of doubt about the artefact's location, but a strong blizzard is coming and I fear approaching the snowy mountains will become impossible if we delay the expedition."
Sonic walked up to the professor for a playful nudge. "Delay? Leave that to the Super Sonic Hog, professor."
"Excellent! Mr Botvoroi is sure to succeed now that you two are keeping an eye on him."
Mr Botvoroi faked an agreeable smile in response. His idea of success involved a tombstone for the hedgehog and a stern word with the vapid protégé. While the professor stood nearby, however, he couldn't put the plan into action.
The fact Pickle hurried him off made things a bit easier. As soon as the trio left the campus, Shadow warped away without saying a word. Sonic had to swallow his own snide one-liners that he was dying to throw at the rival.
If what the old man told him was true, and he had no reason to doubt a scientist who shared Gerald's lust for knowledge, Ice Cap's biggest mountain contained more than a sunlit cave. Shadow didn't care about stone inscriptions or an extinct culture, but he did care about power, as did Eggman. The villain went out of his way to gather information without making himself known, which further assured Shadow about the magnitudes involved.
A factory he would destroy the moment the mystery was solved had produced hundreds of bogus Chaos Emeralds. Their abuse and destructive collapse created numerous disruptions on radars across the globe. GUN insisted on levelling the sites before finding out they were too close to civilian installations. What they, Rouge included, didn't know was that the scientists unwittingly furthered Eggman's plan.
Keeping the information to himself allowed Shadow to gain a generous lead on everyone. With luck, Chaos Control put him ahead of the doctor, too. The prospects left him breathless, as did the altitude in the frosty mountains. He didn't know the area well enough for a straight dash to the goal, but tenacity would be his guide.
"Maria…"
The blue hedgehog was equally breathless when he reached the mountains. Unlike Shadow, the honest citizen didn't have a definitely stolen Chaos Emerald to cheat with, so he ran all the way to shore with Tails providing a lift for the final leg of the trip.
Professor Pickle wasn't kidding about the weather. Snowflakes floated messily in the wind, bunching up into frozen clots that made it difficult to look ahead. According to Tails, the storm was only beginning. Fresh snow made the surface unpredictable, and sensitive. Sonic shuddered at the thought of another avalanche happening on his watch.
This time, he was climbing up. No snowboard would help him should the ice decide to take a hike. No conveniently placed rockets, either; only chilling wind making him fuzz up instinctively. Despite the whiteout, he knew he was heading in the right direction.
A twitching red blob came into view among the whites. It couldn't have appeared there long ago, judging by how violent the movements were. Sonic and Tails slid down into a capped ravine that separated them from the target mountain. A serious storm was rolling down from midway to the peak. Breaks would have been counter-productive, but the blob needed their help.
Knuckles thought otherwise and interpreted their tugging as an attack. The echidna had his head stuck in the snow so badly, he couldn't get it out. With dusk approaching, the continuous drop in temperature was stiffening his prison. The circumstances of his burdens only made him rage more.
"Not going extinct today, buddy," Sonic huffed. Knuckles' blind punches hurt more than the focused ones.
The hedgehog used a tornado attack to drill his rogue friend out of the snow. He had to exert more than the usual amount of effort because of counter gusts, but it wasn't long till the punchy mittens shook his hand for the help.
One question bothered the travellers.
"Amy," Knuckles blurted out between snowy coughs.
"What?"
"She's trying to break into the Limestone Cave! I wanted to reason with her and got hammered," he explained. Before the two could break into snickers, Knuckles gave them a serious look. "The tunnel is iced up. If she uses her hammer, she'll bury herself alive."
Sonic grabbed onto his head in frustration. "Ack, what's gotten into her!"
"You, apparently. The girl's been yapping about you two being together…forever."
The words gave Sonic a chill stronger than the ice cold wind's lashes. Sonic finally realised what she was in such a hurry about: the mistletoe. Amy wanted to use its magic on Sonic to turn him into a permanent man-husband.
"We must stop her!" he exclaimed, getting little support from the two at first. "She'll hurt herself!"
Knuckles looked away. "Would serve her right for trespassing like an idiot… You guys go." His gaze extended further down from the whitewashed mountain range. "I have a duty to fulfil."
The moody parting made the climb to where Sonic expected the tunnel to start a laborious experience. Tails couldn't fly in that weather while the slick mass of wintry stone and fresh snow hid any clutch points. The last thing he wanted was an avalanche, so the slow method had to work.
At least, the thick sheet in the ravine reduced the entrance's level. The sight was both reassuring and worrisome: Amy had already broken past the icy coating and worked her way through the snow further inside.
Sonic pointed at the find. "Wow, look at that!"
His friend didn't manage to shut his loud mouth in fear of a burial because Sonic got the message surprisingly quickly. The howling wind had already started bringing fresh snow into the hole.
"I have a bad feeling about this, Tails."
Once inside the mountain, Sonic marvelled at how large the cave really was. During his previous journey, he spent silly seconds dashing through it. The chasm extended for an incredible distance vertically. The ice on the topmost walls looked thick, but clear enough to let the sun illuminate the space.
Tails glanced upwards. "There she is."
Amongst the yellow rays, a pink spot caught their attention. She was on an ice platform loosely attached to the outer walls. The platform hanged over a perilous depth.
"Amy, get down from there!" he hollered up.
"Come and get me, dearest!"
Sonic shuddered. "She didn't just dare me, did she?"
The little genius nodded grimly. Sonic never backed up on a dare, so Amy's netted herself a forceful one. The hedgehog flexed his fingers before letting the quills graze into the almost flat surface for a spindash to the goal post. The material crackled and crumbled upon contact with the buzzsaw, but enough of it remained to allow him to reach the top. Sonic's white gloves felt the top eagerly, ready to give him a final boost to face the girl.
She decided to make it easier for Sonic by pulling him out and immediately pinning the hedgehog to the ground. Amy grinned at him, breathing excitedly. Despite the cold and the impossible feat of beating him to the goal, she was full of determination to have it her way to the very end.
"Gotcha, my darling Sonic. This time, there's no way out."
Sonic lowered his jaw to protest, only to find it connect with her lips, parted readily. The hero crashed his eyes wide open and squirmed while Amy's tongue slipped into his mouth. She was sorry for sharing such a sweetly intoxicating moment with Sonic in dire circumstances, but the hedgehog of her dreams would learn to appreciate it. The brief moment of feeling his warmth envelop her tongue made her arms quiver.
It was his chance. There was no question about it even when he saw the angelic face dive through seven rings of ecstasy from a single kiss. Sonic rolled off, frightened.
"Wa-a-ah!" he whined, unwilling to put the tongue back inside. "I've been violated!"
Tails managed to fly to the top too late to save Sonic from the mauling, but he thought he had something to prevent another mishap, a stone tablet that gleamed picturesque hieroglyphics thanks to the sunlight's intensity. One of the bigger glyphs looked like a pair brought together by a kiss. The girl's plan may have been spot-on from the start.
"The inscription says-"
Amy interrupted him by lunging at Sonic with a vengeance. "We must try harder!"
The sudden outburst sent the fox flying. Below, an increasingly blurry ring of blue and pink screamed at him: "Save me, Tails! I'm running in circles! Do something! Anything!"
Tails squinted to make out which part of the loop would contain Sonic, but it all stopped in a flash of light before he could intervene. Amy skidded headfirst on the platform and Blue Blur stopped dead in his tracks.
Chaos Control brought Shadow to the right place at the wrong time. With Sonic rammed into him, the dark hedgehog didn't know what was going on. Sonic did: Shadow was going to help him grab the accursed mistletoe…and destroy it!
He had to act quickly while Amy wallowed on the ice, so the hedgehog grabbed Shadow to thank him for the abrupt save with a peck that soon became as intrusive as Amy's own. Rather than push him away, the Ultimate Life Form pressed against Sonic, delighting himself in cool moisture that was hanging down from the rival's tongue since the run in with Amy. Both were shooting many birds with one stone, which made Amy seethe with jealousy. Tails helped her up, thinking he could buy them enough time to summon the mistletoe while the girl relied on him for balance.
"Maria…" Shadow sighed when he broke away from Sonic and looked up, hopeful.
Nothing magical happened. Nothing at all.
Tails let go of Amy to re-read the tablet. "The inscription says-"
"The inscription is fake," the Master Emerald guardian interrupted from below. "Eggman's deluded all of you to stall for time."
He wasn't alone. Rouge climbed up to the top from the other side. She seemed troubled.
"And he's just gotten the fourth Chaos Emerald."
"Damn!" Shadow grunted.
Sonic spearheaded the party on the way out. The things he would do to Eggman…he couldn't count them, but there were enough to make his fat butt regret the evil ruse.
His dark rival was less categorical in his plans. The experience made Shadow sad, yet enlightened. Greed had blinded him for a spell, so he hesitated approaching Rouge.
"Need a lift to the emerald factory?"
She barely even glanced at him. "No, thanks. I'm old enough to drive myself home."
Knuckles saw everyone else depart, giving him some privacy with Rouge. "Thanks for…coming," he mumbled out. The fourth emerald was her idea, and it effectively pushed everyone out of the sacred place. Knuckles wanted to help her off the platform, but she asked him to wait by the entrance.
"In a sec. This no fly weather tired me out."
"Just don't trespass, okay?" he said before leaving the cave.
Alone at last, Rouge pulled out a translator to scan the ancient writing. "The inscription says the Legendary Mistletoe answers to a kiss as pure and selfless as the snow that beckons the gods' arrival. Only those wishing happiness unto others will witness the people's dreams come true. In a time of need, the needy will freeze the eternal heart into stone."
Her intent would pass the test. Rouge closed her eyes and pulled out the jewel she had just collected from Shadow as compensation. The sensation of holding it in her palm required a moment to reach a peace of mind.
"I've missed you, love," she whispered at the gem as she brought it to her lips.
The brilliant light that flooded the compound made her grin uncontrollably. She wanted to dance and laugh, but great treasure demanded even greater respect.
When three golden leaves with red berries adorning the middle manifested in front of her, the bat managed but a humble "Jackpot, baby!"
Now that she practically held a wish granter the limits of which were as sketchy as the legend, Rouge saw the ground give up on her feet. She's handled magnificent loot professionally many times, so the adverse reaction concerned her. The bat sat down to recuperate, but the rumbling intensified.
A loud guffaw shattered her illusions. The mechanical whirr and crushing echo made the bat cover her sensitive ears.
"Mole systems, full power!"
The grinning logo of a man everyone assumed busy on a quest for Chaos Emeralds emerged from the mountain's wall. The Egg-O-Matic cleaned the snow and debris from the pilot's view to welcome the notorious doctor to a personal victory. He grinned fiendishly at the bat's surprise and opened the craft's windshield, a grubby hand extended forward.
"Now that you've unlocked the grail to everyone's affections for me, you can help good old Nik Botvoroi complete his research…for the glory of the Eggman Empire!"