A/N: Been a while hasn't it? The trials of many a trade soon catch up, but I am back with renewed vigor. Let's get this tale underway, as we pick up and reveal just where this may go next. As this new chapter brings with it the new members that they gather; the Lords of Order will not stand down and in fact know the targets better than Tikal herself does. What will this mean? Stay tuned!
(End A/N)
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Chapter VI: Vigilant Soul of Chaos
The game plan was still not entirely clear, but Tikal was adamant about their gathering their style of 'knights of chaos', though the original scroll had not put it that far, she was pretty sure that it was akin to that. They would have those who fought wielding chaos or had strong enough wills to challenge the Lords of Order, at least they would have what they needed to defeat them. But how she would keep all of their forces concentrated would take leadership; as determined as she was to see that Mobius would remain free to make their own decisions, the fact remained that managed to elude her. For a moment the tribal priestess considered her standing and what she would do, it seemed almost infintesimal to her by chances. Shaking her head gently, she realized that she could not afford to lose herself to despair.
"Lady Tikal, are you alright?" the word coming from her mostly silent-sentry who stood guard on the hillside, as it was the echidna princess's wish. Though reluctant for the purpose of safety, the Hidghog heeded her wish and held his powers high, he promised himself that he would never fail her. This was not a space that he trusted, even if it wasn't too far from Tail's house.
The conversation gave way to Tikal's emotion, her inability to trust in whether she may have been capable of it.
"I'm fine, Sesumi, thank you. It's just..."
"What is it? Is there something that I can help you wish?"
"Well...I..I don't know..."
"Lady Tikal, have no fear when you speak with me."
"It's not that at all, Sesumi." she said as she finally turned to face him, within her eyes something was hidden there. A presence that was unclear even to the discerning Hidghog.
Tikal walked to him for what seemed like a great distance, over that hill while the fading light of the setting sun generated a subtle haloing effect on her dreads, it made her hair accentuate a kind of cuteness effect. It was enough that it took the bodyguard aback and left him staring at her softly; with a gentle flush in his cheeks. He was not yet aware that she had crossed the distance and was now glancing at him curiously.
Breaking the initial stare by shaking his head, the look in his eye changed as he became serious once again. She had an astounding effect on him and he knew it; it was a liberal weakness...he seemed to like that fact. Still he cast his own thoughts aside while she appeared comforted by his choice of actions. There was not much to wait, once she stepped to his side and looked him in the eyes, she straightened up, took a deep breath and came out with it.
"I don't know if I can do it, my heart is in it, but I don't know..I-I feel shaky inside. My will feels in tatters and I don't know if I can handle it and so I need help. Support is what I need..." she admitted it, as if speaking with him made things clearer somehow. It was enough that she was blushing and looking away after, was she asking him indirectly for his support?
"I am your pillar if you need me, the guardian does whatever is required." his words came softly, they were not as the stone that they had been when they first met. He was okay with that fact, even though it weakened his stance with the others. One such person would be Knuckles, that would be one to tell and who would know. He wanted to believe it might be an issue, they could not afford to infighting amongst themselves.
A hand on his shoulder shattered the concentration he'd had, his eyes directed themselves to the hopeful and near-anxious gaze that she held. She trusted his words and took his hands in her own, dissuading him from the comfort zone he created as a guardian. She was breaking all of his rules, the once professional warrior and sole survivor of Coron had been reduced to this? He was not sure what this meant for him, only that now new rules would have to be made.
"Then realize its okay to feel, Sesumi." her words were directed at what she saw straight through: his guise. With a gentle stroke of his cheek, she brought her guardian's eye to level off with her own and held his face steady while she saw the turning gears as he tried to think.
All of his mental facilities churned to a stop once he was trying to conceive what he was experiencing. Something soft had met his lips, how like a satin cloth that met with warm honey melon with the faintest hint of a lemon-nectarine blend. That was the wonderful twist to the sensation he felt, his eyes opened wide, carefully absorbing the visual experience that was the cute blushing look on her face, as he found her breathtaking. It was the way that his mind found nothing else that mattered; only glowing hue that surrounded the soft orange of her face, decorated by the soft pink blush. The soft lines of her cheeks, the pretty curve of her hair as it fell against his golden fur. It was as if living in a portrait and was something that consumed him, it left him helpless before her presence.
It was a moment of purity that danced close with a lavish blend, something that stole the breath from her very lungs. Tikal could hardly believe what she'd just done! Yet here she stood with her left palm pressed to his cheek and the other hand gently around his shoulder. Time slowed down to a dramatic crawl and for all it was worth, the Echidna princess embraced it. She stumbled to the side, only to find that Sesumi's hands were around her waist and holding her steady. When had he done that?
It was somewhere between three and five minutes when her guardian drew back from his daze, long enough to take a breath while her eyes remained closed. Her breath was warm against the side of his cheek and neck, this was where the priestess instinctively laid her face.
There was nothing but a sharp silence between them, something that had sparked with no need of words. Sesumi was still in a daze, though he knew he was holding Tikal close and rocking her ever so slightly, here with her face against his shoulder, his mind focused on one aspect of it only: It felt right. Above all else the Hidghog held no complaints about his duty and just why this was supposed to be wrong?
"I-I'm..sorry Sesumi..." the tribal princess felt it was her need to apologize for her actions.
"No...I mean..its okay, Lady Tikal." his response came with a little hesitation, but seemed to be what he conveyed.
The two shared a single glance, but no words followed suit, even though they had come out here to speak, their gazes spoke of the desperately important fact that needed to be shared: Tikal now had her pillar and she knew it.
The two shared a moment while under the careful observation of another, who adjusted his visor and with an almost sad expression on his face drew it down. While he faded into thin air, the thought on his mind reflected his heart: regret. A peace they could not keep, something that he could not allow as it was his turn to assail them. He would do so unyielding to their own wishes, it was all for the sake of order.
His compatriot Sir Yulic and himself had failed once, even if just to gain an understanding of why. It was hard not to consider that defeating the guardian would not take great skill or at least a clever approach. Kidnapping would not work, given they both spent so much time together, he would stoop no further into that association he decided.
A straight out attack with the plan to spend more time physical would be the direction he chose. If their powers grew stronger, it was only a matter of time before he felt that he could overpower him.
'Drawing the battle out...how odd a strategy' though it seemed Sir Yuin paid that no mind, there was nothing normal about the opponent. He was an alien to this world, with powers that rivaled their own from what he could tell. The skirmishes were very brief, it was a testament to the skill that this 'Sesumi' wielded, it was very formidable.
The time to attack was not present, he knew how close they were to other warriors; those who would bring more trouble to him. This attempt was to be refined, a practiced blow in a deceive blow for the forces of order. It was why Sir Yuin had come this far, so that he could tilt the balance and so that none of the other knights needed to get involved in this. The faster it ended ten the better that it would be for the world of Mobius; the cycle of Order would return.
-back in Tails' Workshop-
While awaiting the return of Tikal and Sesumi from their walk, the twin tailed fox was busy making the final adjustments to his newest device. While it was still experimental he did feel it had a chance, it would detect anomalies that were unique in their trace signals. The way that both Sonic and Sesumi spoke of their attackers using a strange source of power, Tails had gone straight to work on making a small detection device that could pick up sources of power related to chaos. It would also trace mystical fields of energy, at least until the yellow furred genius could get the finite fluctuations of power nailed, it was the best that he could do. He could not help but wonder where all of this was going, still even with the amount of adventures he'd attended this event seemed bigger. This was supposed to be some kind of balancing battle over the future of the Chaos Force and it was still hard to believe that Tikal was at the center of it all. She was going to bring them leadership and resolve this the way it had to end; in some kind of peace.
"Hey, Earth to Tails, you gonna get the door?" the voice of his best friend lazily called to him from the couch, idly flipping through some channels as the blue blur was bored. Who was coming to his little bro's house so late in the day? He hadn't put a name to the face at the door and hadn't recognized who it was with the glaring light behind him.
"Knuckles! What are you doing here? Please come in!" the two-tailed fox was excited to see the guardian echidna at the door, he ushered him in and stepped back from the door frame.
"Good to see you Tails and thanks." he offered a light nod of respect to the younger fox, noticing the azure hero in his relaxed position on the couch, he offered him a wave. "Nice to see you Sonic, its been a while."
While this was true the surprisingly civil nature from his usual bull-headed compatriot did throw him off a little bit. Sonic wondered if something bad had happened to Angel Island.
"Good to see you too, Knuckles. Is anything wrong? Did something happen to the Master Emerald?" the hedgehog's feet moved from the top of the small coffee table in front of the TV as he sat up. Fearing for the worst if he'd come to seek help.
Raising a hand to the question, the Red guardian promptly shook his head, still showing a calmness that was uniquely present. He seemed to be very determined about his presence here. "I've come to help you guys and protect the Chaos Soul, Tikal. I've got the Master Emerald present so I'll be doing a double duty."
Tails blinked lightly, when did Knuckles find out? He hadn't time to contact him just yet, since he wanted to be sure that everyone else was aware, he hadn't wished to worry the M.E. Guardian with this extra matter until tomorrow.
"Well we appreciate the help, Knuckles. It's great to know we can count on you." the mechanical genius answered him and attempted to get past it for the moment, the fact that Knuckles brought the great emerald with him meant that this was even more serious than they'd thought.
After a few minutes of questions being asked, Tails and Sonic were both made privy to a cliff-notes version of the mysterious voice sharing with Knuckles that his help was needed and that an even greater source must be protected. Sonic of course had his own two thoughts about it, those being that Knuckles needed persuading and 'protecting' was synonymous with 'help' for him. It was enough to make him chuckle within, either way with Big Red helping them out they were bound to win this.
Once Knuckles had gotten settled on the makeshift bed in the hangar end of his workshop, Tails returned to his device. He'd told the guardian that Tikal had gone out with her bodyguard named 'Sesumi', it was of course nothing he wanted to check too much into. He imagined Knuckles would want to either claim the duties or assist her even further. His friend was so simple at times and other moments it seemed he was unreadable like one of those sphinx in legends.
"Alright! finally got this thing tuned, now I need to make sure that I have this working correctly." Miles shifted the device on and looked to the radar screen, it had a digital readout and at present read nothing.
Frowning lightly at there being no reading yet, he just imagined that it needed a few minutes, sometimes his devices did require a little time to boot up. It wasn't until a sudden blip appeared on his screen, with a measurement that just kept rising...what kind of field was this? These numbers while not really calculable were close to a chaos emerald's reading.
"What's this..?" he tilted his head a moment, before it finally clicked.
The reading was there, it was a strange source that giving off high energy readings, something that was in the distance, he knew full well that whatever was happening had to be happening close by. The distance was only about 20 kilometers from here.
"Knuckles, Sonic! Let's get going, Someone's in trouble!" the hasty words were treated real.
"About time, I was getting bored little bro!" Sonic shot up from his seat and raced outside, stopping once he cleared the door and the steps.
"Yeah let's get rollin', lead the way Tails." Knuckles had followed the yellow vulpine out the doorway.
Tails had pressed a button on the inside of the house while he took to the air, flipping his tails around rapidly as he boosted his jump from the staircase into the air; following the direction of the energy reading. Hopefully they wouldn't be too late arriving, he knew what it was like for them to arrive too late.
-With Tikal and Sesumi-
As an array of lights illuminated the hill beamed in sunset, the almost serene scene was sent into disarray as orange luminous blasts filled the air. The remnants of missed bolts of the Order Force hitting the ground where the swift moving Sesumi had been moments before. While the Hidghog was nowhere near as fast as someone like Sonic, he was light on his feet and prepared for dodging the impressively aimed shots. His golden fur glowing with the effort he put into use of evading another large bolt released from the Order Lord's lance.
"Not bad!" was all that Yuin had responded while thrusting the lance into the earth and sending three tracking shockwaves through the ground towards the bodyguard. He kept him at a distance and remained on the move, after yanking his polearm from the ground, now holding it horizontally in front of him as he feigned retreat.
Sesumi took to the air with another leap, trying to close the ground between them, as he wished not to reveal any of his skills to them just yet. He was simply empowering himself with the raw source from the large choker, gripping it tighter as he moved in a zig-zag pattern and broke his way forward, gathering the power of Coron in his right hand; he would have to proceed down this path.
'A little closer and this might...'
His thoughts were cut short as Yuin disappeared from, knowing that he could not trust anything, he shut his eyes and waited for that tingling feeling...he made a leap of faith and did the first thing his body felt to do 'Duck!' the maneuver had him narrowly ducking a blade that ripped over his scalp, he could feel the lance's heat. Without opening his eyes, he thrust his knuckles forward and found them striking the armor of his enemy.
Gritting his teeth in surprise at the surge of energy that ripped through his lower hip, Yuin teleported away from the nimble guardian and knelt for a moment. What was that?! Something that put so much force into a simple punch? Yuin made sure he was a significant amount of distance away from him by now.
"There's more where that came from." these were the only words that the Hidghog had spoken, he was already on the move again.
The ground between the two seemed to shrink at the sudden agility gain granted to the bodyguard of the Chaos Soul. The Order Lord was not expecting his gain in strength to be so significant and to be truthful, he was completely unprepared to face him at such levels of strength. But would he flee again? No...he would not be dishonored by fleeing back to the safety of the Order Fortress, this would be his battle to win this time! He did not care about the suddenness of some mere mortal's strength. Yuin's lance suddenly split at the head of the lance, transforming somewhat as he felt pressured by this foe. The first Order Lord to tap into the most sacred of energy forms, as the orange light beamed around him seemed to grow in intensity, the expression on his face showed his strain and of course, a small smirk. It was enough to stop Sesumi where he stood, from the sheer force of the small pillar of light that now surged around Sir Yuin.
"That...is a good look, Bodyguard. You've pushed me further than I wanted to go, I can't believe that a mere mortal is worth this." the enhanced state of combat, the enhancing powers of his initial increase seemed to be somewhat substantial, an unnamed form of boosted power. He planned to pay Sesumi back for all of the humiliation he'd suffered.
For but a single moment of passing time there was a eerie silence as Yuin soundlessly stepped towards Sesumi. The first blow came with a raging fire that burned within the bodyguard's stomach, the powerful knight had given him only the slightest gesture and he noticed the amount of pain that he felt. Throwing the alien bodyguard into the air, the knight darted to the air at great speeds, stopping only when he appeared above Sesumi's rising body. While his body arched around for a twisting kick to the side of his body, his foot his nothing but air.
Down below Sonic landed with Sesumi resting against his shoulder. "Hey protector, you alright?" he was calling him what he knew him to be, since he hadn't gotten his name just yet.
"Many thanks, Sonic. I fear I have bitten off more than I can chew, as you mobians say." a light joke rising from his lips as he twisted his neck and popped a kinking joint before he stood up tall.
It had been a while since he was hit so hard, it caught him off guard and made him realize just how serious he would have to take this battle. That was just fine with him, now that he noticed they had a bit more help on their side, it was a matter of taking Yuin down quickly. Something inside told him that and already, his mind had began to consider the motions by which this was possible.
"Ah...the famous hedgehog, the guardian of the master control, and you the genius fox. We know of you all." the knight said very vaguely, leaving the three of them to focus on him. Still he was not intimidated by the numbers, he had entered his empowered phase and he did not see them defeating him. Perhaps this arrogance would prove to be his downfall, he hadn't considered that at all.
Knuckles was the first to step up, he had been aching for some battle and this fellow looked to be a tough customer. It was clear to say that he could sense the powerful aura radiating off of the knight's physical form. He wasn't that far off from the guardian echidna who challenged him despite the great force he sensed. It would be enough to say that he intended to put a stop to him: power and all.
"Alright pal, let' see what you got." the mighty echidna stepped up to meet his opponents, with a heavy red aura burned around his body, as Knuckles began to fill with the battle vigor that he knew was coming, a strong enough excitement that only his discipline held together. The very strength of the fire that often drove him into countless conflicts against a full cast of opponents.
He was not about to let his friends down here right now, this time they would put this guy down together. He was very sure that it'd be a combined effort and for now he was going to test the mettle of this Lord of Order. Without another moment of thought, he pressed forward into his attack with great haste.
While Sir Yuin met the powerful aura-empowered knuckles with the side of his lance, feeling the sparks ignite as the pass was completed. Turning without hesitation, the Lord's polearm was yanked down in a mighty swing towards the side of the turning guardian. Knuckles blocked the attack with the backside of both clenched fists. Meeting the tremendous force with his unparalleled might and managing to hold it steady. For that moment the two were in a clear deadlock, that was until Yuin felt a powerful blow hit him in his upper back, something that forced him into a tumble forward.
As Yuin recovered from whatever hit him, he had only a few seconds to narrowly block a coron-charged set of knuckles from the quickly recovered Sesumi, who put him on a fast defense. The momentary set back was again met by the talented knight, he blocked several trade blows with his spear and batted the energy charged fists from his epicenter, holding the lance with a double-handed grip to increase its maneuverability. Once again the two met in a violent flash of energy, at the close range it was enough to send them apart from one another.
"You've improved, though it seems we're interrupted this time." he said with a small smile, though he noticed as Knuckles and Sonic joined in the attack.
Stepping from them, despite the empowered state he decided it best to retreat, without another moment to wait he bowed his shoulder and teleported from the battle site. A hasty retreat while he considered the kind of darkness that would come from this, he was not willing to let it pass without any kind of uses. He was a quick study in what was effective and when next they would meet, he would pummel them with his empowered state after he'd realized its effectiveness against them.
After he retreated, Sesumi was free to breathe a sigh of relief upon coming to the brief end of the battle. The fact that things remained so difficult was only a sign of things to come, he knew full well that he'd need to be better prepared. His mental focus was off for a single instant and it cost him the edge he'd briefly had in battle at the start. Underestimating one's foe was not to be done: it was one of the Coronian laws of combat ingrained in his mind.
"Thank you for the quick rescue, Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails. Though if I'd watched my step a little more carefully it would not have been necessary." He sighed at the fact that he was momentarily inept at battle.
"Hey man, no problem. But don't think like that, we all have our bad days." the Blue blur patted his shoulder reassuringly. He didn't need to get down on himself for this very reason, it was a surprise and in battles they were prone to happen.
"We're dealing with a tough customers, don't blame yourself fella." Knuckles gave him a slight nod to the skill he'd seen before turning back to look at Tails.
For a moment the technical genius was busy typing away on his small radar device and its keyboard. There was a moment that followed it was a series of beeps before he looked up with a look of question across his face.
"Guys, someone's coming, he's got a big source of chaos energy." he wasn't sure who it was by the reading, but he couldn't exactly place just what it was. Nor just how it was moving and the pace that it picked upon.
As Tikal emerged from hiding she was quick to move to Sesumi's side, standing behind him reflexively. He had requested that she take refuge behind him for safety sake and it was too something she enjoyed. Being close to someone that she cared about. There was no better reason to do so if it allowed her to view whoever was approaching them now. The power was chaos, something she could feel in the air with no assistance. Would this person be coming to ally with them? It was her greatest hope at the moment, to have them avoid trouble and to gain another ally.
As the figure emerged from the bushes in a blur, landing in the darkness of the sun that finally set, the figure rose slowly and looked at the group calmly...someone had arrived.
(End Chapter)
Leaving it on such a quiet note, I cannot help but wonder if it can be considered a cliff hanger or not ^^, well I had fun writing this chapter! And worry not I have found a groove writing and I intend to turn this into a really steady flow of pages. It will definitely update more than it has been in past!
Till the next update, see ya!
