3.
"Cosmo… Cosmo… No… Don't go… ARGH!! VOID!!! STOP!!!"
He was sweating profusely and talking in the sleep.
Clearly a nightmare.
She was worried sick, just like any good mother would be. She put a hand on his little chest in the desperate attempt to keep him down… He was also very agitated.
Who is this Void, anyway? She asked within herself.
Sally Acorn put her free hand on the Kitsune's head and her eyes widen… His head was burning with fever.
She took the wet towel on Tails's forehead and darted to the kitchen. She didn't have current water or a sewer system, for that matter… Luckily she had bottles full of the Great Lake's fine water… After wetting the towel, she came back to the Kit's room and put it back on his forehead.
This seemed to work and the two-tailed wonder calmed down a little. The chipmunk lady sighed in relief.
Than she heard a knocking sound.
"I wonder who would that be?" She asked the overused line to herself… Deja-vù?
She went for her wood house door and opened it… And she saw him.
A silver-white Mobian hedgehog with curious pointed head quills.
They stared at each other for a few seconds before the squirrel decided to break the ice.
"Ehrrr… Good morning. Can I help you?" She politely said.
The stranger put on a mischievous grin.
"Where… Is… SHE!!?"
The forest.
"Ok! Here's the Chaosdamned plan!" Yelled the pissed off-able leader. "We split up!"
"NOT AGAIN!!!" The others replied in chorus.
"Remember what happened the last time?" Blaze added.
Of course, he remembered… How could he ever forget that day.
Tails miraculously won a fight against Shadow and than he was abducted by the black hedgehog himself… Than Knuckles ordered his team to split up in order to cover more territory for the rescue research…
On that fatal day, each and everyone of them has been put against their deepest fears and weaknesses…
A warrior's strength was horribly tested.
A silent killer's ominous past relived in front of his eyes.
A fragile girl faced her insecurities.
A young brilliant kit almost lost his sanity.
And a fiery lady… Just burnt things up.
They ALL do remembered it quite well… But there weren't other options and Knuckles knew it. They had to split up or the chances of finding the blue object of their quest would have been really slim.
"Just… Fucking do it!" He quietly replied. "And if you find him, do NOT engage battle and contact the rest of us immediately… You all know how to use the emergency call system, don't you?"
They nodded.
"Fan-freakin-tastic! NOW LET'S GO!" With that said, or better, screamed, they darted away in different directions.
The hut.
"I won't ask it again... Where... Is... THE BAKENEKO!!!?" Screamed the irate hedgehog.
"S-she's… I-in the… F-forest… Somewhere. Please… I d-don' t know anything." Her weak reply.
She really didn't know… He had ensured that she would tell the truth… With his own methods.
His face was the picture of frustration.
No matter… I'm so damn close! I won't let her to escape! You're MINE, Demon of Flames, MINE!!! He sadistically thought before rushing out of the hut…
Leaving a mercilessly beaten squirrel lady on her house's floor.
"B-Blaze…" Her bloody mouth muttered.
Being the oldest member on this section of the Militia (in terms of fighting experience), Knuckles was accustomed in dealing with awkward situations during scouting missions… The sight he was beholding right now, however, made him feel rather uncomfortable… Not to mention, deadly sick.
It's been a while since his lat meeting with this guy and, as he sorely remembered, it hasn't been very amusing. Not at all.
He could still feel it… The sensation of skin and bones crushing on his huge fist… And all the blood reversed on it.
There he was, in front of him… Rotten flesh... Body partially eaten by the local feral animals…
The decaying rests of Fang the Sniper.
The echidna could recognize it because of the canvas hat he used to wear… And some of the purple fur… Between the shreds of organs and the maggots.
The smell was unbearable… A thing he recognized all too well…
The awful smell…
The burnt huts…
The dead bodies…
A lonely echidna child surrounded by Death…
Knuckles dismissed his grim memory and returned to the grim present. He decided, against his own will, to give a better look at the "has been" fearless mercenary.
There was a particular item that attracted the echidna's attention… It was one of the Sniper's handguns.
It disturbed him a lot, the thought that there actually were Mobians who ended up using human weapons… It feels so wrong in Knuckles's head.
Forcing himself to go through his repulsion, he picked up the pistol in his big hand…
Something was written on it's reed…
To his utter shock, He recognized it as… The ancient Echidna language!
It was a single word but full of meanings.
"Wrath…"
Something clicked inside the red warrior's brain. He'd heard of something like this before… A mysterious group of Mobian rejects who followed the human warfare way… And the leader's name… Was Kalit.
Kalit… A familiar name… All too familiar.
Knuckles's cerulean eyes were literally flaming with glee while a suspicious grin made it's way out of his lips…
He gave one last look at the symbol on the gun's reed and maliciously smirked.
"Kalit... Eh eh eh eh eh... I've finally found you!" And than, he started laughing like possessed.
Amy Rose was not in a good mood… The shouting hammer in her hands and the fuming ears were a clear enough clue for that.
She had all the reasons in the world for not being solar… The last time she ran alone in the forest, she almost ended up raped by a certain black and red hedgehog in a that dark wood… Not to mention what happened at the Great lake a little month after…
Grrr… If that no good would be rapist dares to show his face again… His brother was nice, though…
As if on cue, a certain grey and dull green hedgehog appeared in front of the, let's say, surprised pink hedgehog.
Her instinctual reaction was to swing her hammer on his head while screaming "FOR SPARTA" but at the last second she realized her mistake.
"Ehe! Is that the way you greet old friends?" Said the un-mistakable deep and polite voice of Mephiles the Dark.
"Oh! It's you, Mephiles! I'm sorry, I thought it was the other one… You know…" She declared with a hint of shame.
The dull one stared at her with his unique snake eyes. She felt a little uncomfortable with that.
"What… What's wrong?" She shyly asked.
Mephiles smirked.
"You know… I didn't quite realize how beautiful your eyes are, the last time we met." He replied with a charming tone.
She blushed and started to play with her fingers… She was acting like a timid schoolgirl at her first date with the boy of her dreams. He noticed it and continued.
"You know? Shadow is a lucky guy."
At that remark she seemed to getting a little irate.
"SHADOW!!!? THERE'S NOTHING BETWEEN ME AND HIM!!! HE ONLY TRIED TO RAPE ME… TWICE!!!" She yelled at him.
Mephiles's smirk only became larger.
"Really? That's good because… I happen to be interested in you as well."
"What… Are you saying?" Suddenly, her head felt lighter… And her heart skipped some beat.
"To put it simply… I like you… A lot."
She almost fainted.
Oh my Chaos… Oh my Chaos… Oh my Chaos… He loves me! What do I do, now!?
He approached her… They almost were nose to nose…
Nononononononononono… Wait! I'm not ready… I'm not ready yet…
"Just relax, Amy… And trust me…"
She closed her eyes in waiting… And received a violent punch in the stomach!
"… NOT!" He concluded.
She fell unconscious in his arms.
"Sleep well my rose…" He said before teleporting himself away with a Chaos Control.
Espio was a silent killer, trained in the art of stealth attacks and mimetic… Therefore, when the object of his quest easily noticed his presence, he was deeply hurt in his honor…
He's been lucky, amazingly lucky actually, to just find him, asleep (or just pretending to be) on a random rock… In the middle of an open tulip field…
Sonic the Hedgehog, also known as Metal Sonic, was there.
"Yeah, I know you're there… My enhanced robotic hearing whatever can detect anything in the range of a mile…" He non-chalantly muttered.
The chameleon was about to call the others for back up but he decided otherwise for two simple reasons…
1) They wouldn't come to his aid in time, in case of attack.
2) He wouldn't nor he couldn't talk… That's pretty inconvenient!
"You can come out, buddy, I won't hurt ya." The hedgehog's voice was back at his usual carefree tone… Certainly an improvement from his original emotionless one.
The violet ninja followed the suggestion and came out from the shadows he was hiding himself in. The fake skinned hedgehog turned to his direction and immediately recognized him.
"Well… If it isn't ma old pal, Silent Bob!" Obnoxious, as always.
Espio had to resist the urge of using him as a practice target for his shurikens. Sonic approached him and now they were eye to eye… Or better, eye to chameleonic horn… It would have been painful if Sonic's eye wouldn't have been made of solid anti-bullet glass.
The two of them stared each other for a few awkward moments before the metalhog started.
"I know whatcha thinking, man! I see ya noticed my skinless arm…" He said while showing the aforementioned robotic, clawed arm to his ehrrrr… "Interlocutor". "… Why didn't I tell ya about it, ya may ask? Well, I was scared okay? Yeah, I may have a robotizied body but I can still feel emotions… Or at least, I think." He added with a saddened look on his face.
Espio just stood there in silence with his arms crossed and a blank expression on his face… It was difficult to say who was the robot and who wasn't.
"Yes, yes, I know! I shouldn't have left ya guys, in that way… But you should have seen Tails's expression when he found out… I-I couldn't stand it, it was too much!"
Espio didn't even shrug.
"You think I overreacted!? YOU WASN'T EVEN THERE, PAL!"
……
"Ok… Sorry if I yelled… You know what? You're right! I should probably come back and redeem myself, somehow… At least in that kid's eyes… He sees me like a super mondo cool hero, you know?"
……
"Why are you rolling your eyes? Whatever… Thanks, Espy-san! You've been a great one to talk! Now, I know what I have to do! LET'S JUICE!!!" And before the chameleon could protest, the reborn mondo cool hedgehog grabbed his arm and darted away in the forest…
Blaze the Cat was having a panic attack.
No… No… Not him… No… he was dead… How could that be… He's here… He came for me… HE'S HERE!!!
Vengeance was upon her.
