I OWN NOBODY BUT THE PLOT AND THE OCs. THEY BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE CREATORS, THANK YOU.

Important Note: This chapter will be relatively short, but the next set of chapters will be longer due to the plot thickening and the climax deepening, but not all of them. Thank you.

Chapter 7: The Next Move

Once more we gather inside a motel room and surround a map, this time with four more "x"s on it, and ramble amongst ourselves of what we were going to do next, with the Destructix, once more, sitting at the head like royalty, but you could see it in their eyes that they were recovering for the hardships from last night. Antoine and I were recovering from a lack of sleep, making it hard to concentrate, but I was able to nab a spot for us close to the map, but we would have to put up with Shadow and Nack.

I don't have anything against the two, it's just the way they carry themselves they seem like dangerous men. According to Antoine, they were a couple of badasses who carried their gun on their sleeve and shot all those who looked at them the wrong way. They had to keep a tough demeanor because one was a bounty hunter, and the other worked for the CIA, explaining their standoffish stances and hardened faces, and neither were joys to be around.

Antoine also said that Nack was a traitor to the Freedom Fighters and everyone around them, even the villains, and that his head was wanted on a stake by all, until Sonic changed him, but still, tensions are high when he's in the room.

Shadow was not on any good terms with Antoine, given that his ex-girlfriend, Shadow himself, and Espio took advantage of him (He spoke no English at the time and was so in love with Sonia he could not see anything like that happening), and since he works for the government, being knocked over by the wind easily would not help him with his job, plus he was holding this big grudge for a murdered girl named Maria. I don't like what he did to Antoine, but I can see why one would be so aggressive when their best friend was wrongly killed trying to save you.

I moved Antoine closer to Nack, and he grabs my wrist, his grip hardening like molten iron against my fur, persperation swapping between us, his eyes darting from the map to Shadow, who is just standing there with his arms cross, awaiting the verdict. I look at him and tell him that I'm here and he'll be alright.

I hadn't realized what had changed days ago in France when Shadow was marching around the boat threatening people to now. Antoine had seemed so cool around Shadow, like he was at a loss of who Shadow was and why he was like that, and now he's cowering like Shadow has a gun in his hand and he's ready to pull the trigger. I'll relay this back out to him afterwards because I know that he's only going to listen halfway to what everybody else has to say, but he's going to be more worried about Shadow.

Everyone settles down when Lightning raps on the nightstand, sparking all of our flares of attention. Flying clears his throat and starts, "My brothers and I have spoken with each other, and we have decided to consult all of you as to what we do next."

"Give up." Skylar coughed with a snicker. The three Destructix, and all those who heard, including me, glare him down. Nack pushes him foward and goes, "Here, tell us how your master plan will work, and how we will manage with Silver on the loose. And if we encounter Silver, what will we do then?" Skylar looks at us all and gets cold feet. "Oh...uh..." he sputters out. "Thought so." the father tells his speechless son as he pulls the boy back into place.

"Any more ideas?" Flying asked. "We need to take down Rock immediately." Jet suggested. "Correct," Lightning agreed. "He's the biggest ringleader they have. Without him, they're lost." "But there is always another who will take his place." Predator added. "Who," Sonic challenged. "Silver himself?"

"No," Predator answered. "He's the leader, Rock is second in command. Even if we do take him out, behind him is another just waiting to take his place, and behind that one is another one that will take his place, and so on and so forth." "Zo, ve'll be taken down trois people?" Antoine asked. "Four people." Predator corrected. "Uh, why four?" Bean asked.

"Because," Argon answered. "The farther down the line you go, the less skilled the next commander will be. Kind of like in the military where the sergeant is above the soldiers, but the commander is above him, and there is someone above him, and above him, and it just keeps going and going." "And eef ve remov-ed zem, zey vill 'ave to be relying on zomebody 'oo 'az abzoloutely no idea vhat ze 'ell zey are doing!" Antoine bounds out.

"But who are these other people that fall behind Rock in their little pecking order?" Nack asked. Nobody answered him, with Lightning slamming his hands over Flying and Predator's mouth, shushing them, his face looking like Nack had sent him a petty insult than given an idea. Nack had to have his words repeated through the mouth of Sonic before it would even take with Lightning.

Lightning makes it very clear that he's he still sour at Nack. When Nack suggests something, he doesn't even take it into consideration unless someone else more favorable in his eyes repeats it. Even then, he still takes Nack's words with a grain of salt, no matter how intelligible, or wise it may seem. Poor Nack, I wonder why he did what he did to get on Lightning's bad side.

At least he's not Eggman, whose words are not taken for shit everytime he opens up his mouth. He's a trickster just waiting to betray again, so we have no reason to trust him, no matter what Sonic, or Jet, or his own mother says.

"I have an idea who, and I know three men in the room who are not gonna like the next words I say." Shadow includes. "Just say thier names already." Sonic barks, emotion trickling out of his mouth. You can see the tears forming at the bottoms of his eyes, but he closes them and jerks his head away, a few tears escaping and falling to the floor. Shadow stared on at him, his face dropping a little. Not enough to say that he's engulfed in sadness, but enough to say that that you can tell that there is remorse in his eyes.

"So, how are we going to pull this off?" I ask. "Well," Vector starts, looking me dead in the eye like I'm a criminal. "Father and son cannot be together when we do this in case one of them decide to become a martyr for Silver." "But what if there is no other option?" Sonic asked, dying inside. "To kill them or to fight them?" Vector asked. "Both." Sonic answered quietly.

"Then you'll have to be brave enough to pull the trigger." Vector sighed, blinking as he said those words. "Woah, woah, woah," Nack shouted into the crowd, turning our heads to him. "You're askin' a bunch of fathers to kill their own child. Goddess knows that we've worked hard to get them, and it's easier said than done with what you're saying Vector. We just can't pull the trigger on our own children, it's impossible."

Flying slams his hands on the table and gnashes, "What do you know about loss? All you ever do is take." "I know more than what you think." Nack answerd back solemnly. "Really," Flying berratted. "Before my other four children were born, I had another after Fredrick. He was kidnapped and locked in a freezer for months on end. He was stabbed, shot, then died slowly of dehydration and hypothermia, so what do you know about loss."

Nack looked at him with dull eyes, recalling a horrid memory, and sighed, "Before Skylar was born, there were seven others before him, all stillborns. Every baby died either in the womb, or made it out into the world to die minutes later in my arms. My wife's body was too weak to have children, and then she became pregnant again. I remember thinking, 'No! Not again! This can't happen again!' And 8 months later, Skylar was born premature. They didn't expect him to live long because he had the build of a 6 month premature baby, but he's here... with complications in his leg muscles."

"What a heartwrenching tale," Vector says hatefully. "But nobody cares!" Before anybody could react, Nack had pulled out his gun and shot Vector in the mouth."Vector!" Several people shout, others just stood there gasping, and Antoine, Charmy, me, and the three other members of the Destructix never move, with the Destructix having eyes like fire. Flying moves towards Nack, hugging him and whispering, "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." Nack returns with an, "I didn't know about your son. I'm sorry too." Both men were crying, as well as Sonic, and Antoine was sniffling beside me.

It was tomorrow before the meeting had resumed, with Vector being wheelchaired in there with his mouth tied shut to let the bullet hole heal. We had lost him several times last night, and if not for the grace of Lightning, he would have been dead, but at least he'll keep his mouth shut. Nack and Skylar were late, with both looking lifeless as they shuffled into the room.

Nack shot an evil look at Vector, pulling out his gun as a warning, and keeping in his hands on it at all times and he lingered over in a dark corner of the room. I try not to look at his bloodshot, tired eyes, nor at his son as he treads close to his father's feet. Vector had a look crossed with being accomplished and angry, as if he was happy that he put down Nack's son, but mad because he reacted.

We finish where we left off with a hasty, "Handicap or mortally wound them and bring them back to their fathers for a nice little talk, but I want to see Rock's corpse immediately." Flying was in no mood to play games.