"Guys, I'd love to be the one to say this," said Anth, "but we've got a problem."
I turned. "Ya think?"
"Sonic's not gonna leave Blaze until she's ok. And I recall it taking a while to recover from a black eye, twisted ankle, and then there's that concussion..."
"I get the picture, Anth."
"oh, and her cheek is kinda swollen..."
"Anth,"
"And I have to shut up!"
"Exactly!"
"But ya know, it's not going to be easy to fool ol' Vig."
"Don't count on it," said Lando, "I've seen the impossible, I've DONE the impossible. And this ain't different then the liberation of Kessel."
The Professor, Arthur von Dyke, entered the bridge at that abrupt moment, and said, "Lando, however did you get here in the first place?"
"Long time, no see, Professor."
I was not taken by surprise. I typed this damn thing.
"You see," started Lando, "Were there is kinda nutsy when it comes to his characters. His humor is powerful in real life. And adding me made more laughs, so why not?"
Spock added, "and I'm here as well. You're appearance is the only one with an...explained reason. As for a few of us, there doesn't have to be."
"Sooooo..." said Anth, "in real life--past that one 'fourth wall'--Were is an idiot kinda like me?"
"That would be logical."
"Man. What a stereotypical bastard!"
"That's it," I said.
A few minutes later...
A very convincing looking Sonic showed up on the bridge.
"Sooo...what's the hub bub, uh, Were?" said "Sonic".
"Very fine, considering the situation," I said, "oh, and Anth, you're dead eye when it comes to acting like Sonic."
"Hardy har har," said Anth, disguised as the blue boy, "but there's still a problem with this, ya know..."
"That's illogical," said Spock, "there is a 99.99999 chance that this will work. The only .00001 chance that this won't work, and that would be because of you. Now, what is it?"
Anth spoke up. "We need to ask Sonic before we go on with this, otherwise, SEGA'll sue us."
Another awkward response from the ever awkward Anth.
"Numbskull," I said, "we are millions of miles away from Japan. There is no way they'd know about it."
Feeling a need to look into space, I did just that. When I opened the shudders that would hide a window, I stared in a blank stare, closed the shudders, and pulled down the shades over it, then walked back to where I stood before. "Where's that phone? I must page Sonic. In the mean time, Spock, you get those Japanese lawyers off my window."
Sonic always had to wait for something to happen. Only this time, he's more then willing to wait for Blaze to wake up from a sedative induced sleep. The Professor said that she would heal faster if she was asleep.
And yet, he was still worried. Had she taken too much? Was she not in a coma? What then? What the hell was he waiting for?
May as well ask why birds fly.
He stared at Blaze's sleeping form. Why did she have to just charge right into the coliseum, alone at that? Boneheaded move.
No matter the reason, it happened, and happened with great prejudice. Just then, the monitor in the room rang. Figuring this might be a good distraction, Sonic answered. Or was, at least.
'Which one was the talk button again?' he thought, 'hmmmm...'
Flashback!
"Heya Sonic guy, what's shakin'?" asked Anth.
"Hey Anth, you're a techno geek. How does this thing work?"
"Remember, it's the RED button. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go draw pictures of Rouge's underwear all over corridor 12."
END OF FLASHBACK
"Heh, Rouge was real angry with him," reminisced Sonic, "she kicked his head off then used it for vollyball practice."
When he was done, Sonic pushed the reddest button there was, and it worked. An image of my upper torso and head appeared. "Sonic," I said, "how is she doing?"
He looked back. "Doing fine, I guess."
"Wonderful. We don't have much time, but we need your permission to use your image."
Sonic was questionable. "Whaaaaa?" he said with a dumbstruck expression.
"Uhhh...put in simpler terms, Vig's taken Cream hostage, we need to trade you to get her back, but we can't do that, so we made Anth put on a costume and he looks exactly like you, but SEGA isn't going to let it go that easily. There's a ton of lawyers on the windows at the bridge, and I imagine that they won't go away until you let them know it's ok to use your image."
"Ok. Hey, Dad, let him dress up as me, alright?"
Hirokazu (SEGA executive dude) was barely visible in the background of the video-com. He waved, then disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"That did it," I said, "now, just hang tight and we can take care of the rest." The video-com turned off.
Sonic sighed and closed his eyes. Picking at his right ear, he noticed a sound get through and he turned and opened his eyes. Blaze was awake, and had her yellow colored eyes half closed. Probably wondering what had happened.
"Soooooniiiiiic..." she said, then yawned again, "what time is it?"
Heck, he didn't know. The blue hedgehog shrugged. The cat sighed, then just laid her head down.
Then a very good question popped in his mind. "Hey, Blaze," Sonic said, "before you go back to sleep, can I ask you something?"
"Hm?" Sonic was all of a sudden sitting on the same bed Blaze was lying in. "I don't know how to say this, but," he began, "have you ever had any boyfriends...well, before me?"
Good question.
"Huh?" Blaze was taken aback by this. She blushed and thought a little, then came with an answer indeed.
"Well, not really, but...I did have a crush on this one guy..."
"Who?"
"Ummmm...his name is Silver."
"Silver? Oooohhh, that guy! I've met him before!"
"Hm?"
"Yeah. A while back, he said he got this distress call that involved Cream somehow. Then before you know it, me, him, Knuckles, Shadow, AND Metal got into this big fight. In the end, though, we beat Eggman's scheme."
"Wha- Oh yeah, that's right. Silver wanted me to go home, but he wanted to stay in your world..."
"What was he like?"
This was a toughy. Blaze hadn't seen Silver in a long while, but luckily, she still knew him quite well. "Well, back home, you know how I can control fire, right?"
"Uh huh," Sonic nodded.
"But I'm the only one in my world who can control fire."
"Say what!?!"
"You heard me. Anyway, when I was a little girl, I was teased because I couldn't use telekinesis like everyone else. Everyone, except one."
"Silver?"
"Right," said Blaze. She was tired before, but now she's...sad? "He didn't care if I wasn't a telekinetic. He liked me just the same..."
Flashback! Again!
I'm guessing this is...5 years ago.
"Hey Blaze, what are you doing over there?" asked a young Silver. A 9-year old Blaze was tucking herself into a ball against a wall. She wasn't very happy, obviously. And seeing her friend like this, neither did Silver. "What's wrong?" he kneeled next to her.
He reached out to her, but the young cat only looked the other way. "Just go away, Silver. You shouldn't be with me," said Blaze.
"Oh yeah? Why not?"
"Because, everyone will pick on you for being with me."
"What's that got to do with it?"
"I can't lift things with my mind. I can only light them on fire." Blaze snapped her fingers and a small torch of flame appeared on the tip of her thumb. She snapped again, and the flame disappeared.
"Woah!"
Blaze covered her face.
"That...that was..."
"Just...don't laugh..."
"that...WAS AWESOME!!!"
Blaze looked up. What did he say? "What!?" wondered the cat. The silver hedgehog was amazed to a great length. "All you did was snap your fingers and you made fire! You didn't need wood, gas, nothin'! Hey, could you burn my homework? I didn't do very well on it..."
"..."
"Hey, I don't really care! Go ahead if you want to!"
"Ok...I'll do it."
"Yay!"
A group of bullies of a few animal types came outta nowhere. "Look guys," said one, "dummy Silver's found a girlfriend! And it's the girl who's so dumb, she can't even lift things with her mind!"
Blaze closed her eyes and wished that this was all just a dream. But sadly, it wasn't. The bullies advanced, but Silver stood up. "Hey, you leave her alone! She didn't do anything to you!" he yelled.
"Lay off, porcupine!"
"I'm not a porcupine! I'm a hedgehog! There's a difference!"
"Who cares? Let's get 'em!"
A few very grueling minutes later...
The bullies were gone. Fried by Blaze's insane flames. But Silver...
"Ugggghhhhh..."
Wasn't so lucky. He was getting flogged, and would've been seriously hurt if Blaze hadn't scared the kids off. Silver still got lightly toasted as a result, though.
"Uh, heh heh, I'll be f-fine. Though it's gonna be really hard to explain to Mom..." assured Silver. He smiled. Blaze did as well.
For the following years, Silver protected Blaze from humiliation whenever he could. The two shared a bond of friendship that was held together by Silver's refusal to segregate himself from Blaze, someone from the same world as he, and Blaze's attraction to his amazing kindness.
END OF FLASHBACK
"So, now you know. He always thought of me as a sister. I already have a sister and no brothers, but, Silver's always been like a brother to me. I...always thought it was a little more then that," concluded Blaze.
Sonic was facing the other way, rubbing his chin and trying to remember something. Lo and behold, he did. "Ooohhhh..." realized Sonic, "so THAT'S what I forgot."
"Huh?"
"Well, Silver's on Earth, right? Well, uhhh...I guess we...coulda brought him along if we remembered."
Silver walked the strangely quiet streets of Central City. Not head or tail of Eggman or his cohorts. What was going on, anyway? He hadn't seen Sonic, Tails, or, what was that girl's name again? Cosmic or something? It didn't matter. He never saw THEM in a while, either. It's like they just disappeared.
"Where IS everyone?" Silver asked, knowing no one was listening.
Blaze sighed again. "Huffff...I thought so..." She laid her head down on the pillow again. Sonic fell asleep with his head on the bed as well. "Night, Blaze," he mumbled before his famous sleeping habit got the better of him.
Back at the bridge of the Dragoon...
"Sir," said Spock, "we're receiving Vig's signal. We must trade right now."
I stood. "Affirmative, Spock. Let's give them 'Sonic', alright. Anth," I spoke into the comm, "come in, Anth."
"Read ya loud and clear," Anth said in his "Sonic" voice, "I'm opening the docking bay as we speak."
"Be careful; we have no idea if Vig'll keep his end of the bargain."
"You don't have to worry; he may be somewhat sinister, but he's always kept his word. At least, as far as I know about him...I'd say 88 chance this'll go through without a double cross."
"Affirmative. Data, what's the status of Vig's...vessel? Give me a scan on it. I want to know how he managed to make a space ship of that size in such a short amount of time."
The yellow-tunic wearing android, Data, replied without turning from his post, "Aye, sir. Initiating scan. We shall have it done in just a few moments."
"Excellent. Proceed."
Data punched in buttons at an inhuman pace. He really meant just a few moments!
Momir Vig stood at the docking bay of his own greenish-bluish spaceship prototype. As a Drake-class carrier (Dragoon has more then just fighters, you know) flew in, so did Vig's own ambitions of dominating Ravnica. Two virusoids flanked the guild master. Virusoids, now those are complicated creatures. Not entirely alive, these organic beings can barely think. Well, all they can do is follow orders. The only "thought" they EVER have is saying the word "virusoid" in their heads. Both beings were much taller then Vig, for some reason or another, and both wielded shock staves. Staves that shock you if you get too close. 'Nuff said.
The carrier landed, and the hatch opened. Sure enough, sample #55 (Sonic) walked out of it with his hands up. On cue from Vig, two other Combine scientists discreetly came with the real live rabbit, whom he dubbed "#54", or Cream, as everyone (except Vig) called her.
"I'm here," said Sonic, "now let her go."
"On the count of three, #55," said Vig coldly, "or 'Sonic' as they all call you. The two of you will start walking. Cream will go inside that ship, and you will come to me."
"That's fine by me. But if you hurt her, so help me I'll-"
"You have my word, #55."
"Alright then. On the count of three..."
Though she was held back, Cream was not gagged, so she yelled out, "no, Mr. Sonic, you can't go with them! Please don't!" tears forming in her eyes as she said this, "they'll hurt you!"
"Two..." continued Vig.
"Three!" said Sonic. On that last count, Sonic ran faster then Vig could have ever expected and knocked him and the virusoids back on their backs. Sonic was then right in front of Cream and the scientists, who got frightened and ran off.
"Mr. Sonic!" said Cream, "you did it!"
Sonic smiled. "Yeah, I knew. But ya know, I couldn't just let them take me in your stead. What's the point of being alive if your life was traded for someone else's? None at all."
"Oh, Mr. Sonic..."
"Yeah?" he said. Unbeknownst to them both, a virusoid raised it's shock staff. Quicker then he could react (virusoids are uncannily quick when they have to), the virusoid impaled Sonic with the shock staff.
"Mr. Sonic!!!"
No one double crosses Momir Vig. He had instructed his virusoids to attack if something went wrong. And it did. What a waste of a perfect specimen. At least he could get both, now that the deal was off. Sonic's arms slumped back, and he slid a little down the staff.
But something was wrong. There was no blood. Sonic DID have blood, right? This was not in his calculations.
"Hmph," said "Sonic", in a voice that was vastly different then it was before, "you're going to have to do better then that, Momir Vig!"
This wasn't Sonic at all! He was double-double crossed! The imposter threw off his gloves and slashed the virusoid's face, pulled on the shock staff, and wretched himself from its grip.
And got back at the virusoid in a very creative way. He dispatched it by stabbing the creature with the shock staff...
...while he was still stuck on the weapon.
The imposter wriggled free of the shock staff, and the wound from the impalement almost instantly regenerated. A zombie! Of course! That really weird kid. But, he said he wasn't actually a kid. Which is believable, as Vig has had to work with/on the undead for a long time, and he knew that zombies don't exactly "age".
Before long, his other virusoid was beaten by the imposter, who managed to lift the virusoid and threw it across the room. But, Momir Vig would not give up! He knew magic, so use it! He fired a green bolt of mana at him, but still the imposter was quick enough to dodge and grab Cream.
"See ya later, Elf," said the very annoying voice of the imposter. He vanished in a puff of smoke.
"Grrrrrr! Dammit!!" cursed Vig, "get this ship into battle mode, immediately! We're going to test this ship on those dirty mammals!"
Getting in was easy. Getting out...was still quite easy. The pursuit fighters--pursuit balloons would be more like it--had ineffective guns, deflected by the carrier's shields, then blasted by the turrets, operated by Anth.
In no time, the carrier landed in the Dragoon. The Blue Typhoon landed cover fire at Vig's ship, then went into hyperspace. Then the Dragoon followed.
Vig's plan...was foiled.
Inside the Dragoon...
"Cream!!" said the rabbit's mother in a loving embrace, "you're unharmed!"
"Mother!!" said Cream, happily.
I turned in my seat towards Anth, the hero of this chapter pretty much.
"Well done, Anth. Perhaps you are more useful then they all think."
Anth was trying his hardest to get his Sonic costume off. "Yeah yeah," he said, "now hand me a friggin' pair of scissors."
Spock finished his diagnostics and reported. "Sir," Spock spoke, "we'll reach Earth in a few days. We can resupply and bring in the recruits when we get there."
"Excellent, Mr. Spock," I said, "maintain course. Our destination is Earth. I can't wait until we get those new recruits!"
END OF EPISODE 4