Hello, everyone!
Wow, I can hardly believe we're almost to Chapter 10. Thanks for your continued support, you all made this possible. 3 There will be some mild language close to the end of this chapter, so just a little bit of caution.
Here we go!
Chapter 9
Plans to Reach Number 3
Pansy's P.O.V.
I couldn't believe it. We had already found our third ally.
After finding out the news, we had quickly finished up the tour (and by quickly, I mean Sonic speed-explained everything else as we walked out the city gates) and headed back to Freedom HQ to tell the others the surprising news.
When we arrived back at base, we walked into the nice and happy living room, where Amy was stirring a mug of something. She didn't notice us walk in or greet her, she was so concentrated on her drink. Exasperated, I walked up to her from behind and tapped on her shoulder.
"Yo, Amy!"
"What?!" she exclaimed, jumping when I caught her attention. She exhaled in relief and said, "Oh, sorry. I was just making myself some hot chocolate. When did you guys come in?"
I resisted the urge to face-palm myself as I sighed and felt an anime-style sweat-drop appear on my head. "Never mind."
"The others are upstairs looking in on the surveillance tapes if you need them," she informed us, taking some marshmallows from a nearby bag and plopping them into her drink.
Who drinks hot chocolate in the summer? I thought to myself, shrugging. "Actually, we're gonna need everyone for an important announcement."
"OK, I'll be up in a minute," she told us, and we went through a nearby door and up a flight of stone steps into a metal room, filled with lab equipment, a huge screen, and a ladder in the center of the room. We found Bunnie and Antoine sitting on a couple of swivel chairs, talking to the screen monitor and observing various videos.
"Oh, hey ya'll!" Bunnie greeted us, waving her hand forward invitingly. "C'mon in!"
"Hi guys," Sally smiled. "Anything to report?"
"Non, princess. There iz nothing to be reported," Antoine answered in his broken English.
"It's just 'to report', 'Twan," Sonic corrected him. "But we have some interesting news."
The couple shifted their attention toward us, as we took turns explaining how we had found the third member of our group and her friends.
"Ah ya sure? Was anybody else nearby?"
"No, she was definitely the girl," Azalea answered, pulling off her tiara. "Remember how the tiara can sense demigoddesses nearby? Well, this thing was heating like crazy, so we knew that it definitely was her."
"Do you have information about her, other than what she lookz like?"
"Well, we do know that the girl has insanely high IQ levels, so maybe she could be the brains of our group."
"Anythin' else?"
We shook our heads.
"Hey, I have an idea!"
Amy had walked into the room and had a look of a solution on her face.
"Well, this girl goes to New Mobotropolis High, right?" We nodded. "So, maybe we could camouflage one of you guys and have her kind of befriend her and find out more info on her."
We all looked at each other, thinking our own thoughts. I honestly thought that the idea was genius, but that we had a teensy problem:
Which one of us was going to blend in?
"I'll do it," Azalea volunteered, smiling nervously. We all looked at her, a little shocked. She frowned and continued, "I think I should go because a) I've experienced school before and b) I'm probably the only person here who's had at least a day of certified education. I'm correct, right?" The others nodded, including me. "Plus, I was a fairly good student back home, so that hopefully means I won't struggle in the work they give us. And I'll be sure to go to the library to study up on work that I might've missed."
The others nodded in agreement, since her plan did sound solid to me. Maybe she was more than just the curious kid I knew now.
Sally smiled. "Ok, that settles that." She turned to the monitor screen and asked, "Nicole, could you get a new side structure to work, please?"
"Absolutely."
"Nicole's in your computer as well?"
Sally nodded. "Like I said, Nicole runs through everything that we have around here. And I gather you guys will want a place, right? So Nicole's building a small side house for you two, and the future members of your group."
"Sweet. Is there anything we can do to-"
"Done!"
Nicole's head was smiling at us from the screen, after only 10 seconds of departure.
Azalea gawked. "Wait a tic. You finished building the ENTIRE thing in under 30 seconds?"
Nicole nodded convincingly. "Yes, go see for yourself."
The two of us climbed up the room's ladder onto the roof of the headquarters, and stared down in amazement at the new-looking hut that sat proudly beside the HQ. The hut's walls were painted a bright brown, with a yellow roof, much like the designs of the houses we had seen in the city. We walked up to the walls and looked around the building. We noticed, in addition that the house was camouflaged so its exterior was made of near-indestructible nanites, that the house was covered on its outer edges by piles of dirt. In two of those piles, we saw a small patch of blue azaleas and purple pansies growing side by side. But what was more impressive what was inside.
"Whoa!" we both exclaimed as we walked into the house. The house was much larger than we expected. Like, WAY bigger. The six-foot high walls had sprouted into 10-feet high walls, with 13 separate doors and in the vast living room, a few cream-white couches, lamps, air vents, and a big monitor, which held Nicole's cheerful face on it, looking at us.
"Nicole, this is amazing!" Azalea exclaimed. Nicole giggled.
"Thank you for the compliment. I did try to give you as much room as possible." She pointed to the doors closest to us, and said, "Each of those doors provides you your own sleeping quarters, with a bed, a pot of your favorite flowers, and a decorative theme that matches your personality."
She gestured to the other rooms. "One room is a planning/battle strategy room, two are restrooms, one's an extra guest room, and the last one is a training room, where you can practice using your powers and maybe some weapons."
"Nic, this is awesome; thanks so much!" I thanked her, admiring the room.
"You're welcome."
"Hey, Nicole?"
"Yes?"
"Can you tell the others that I'm turning in for the day?"
Azalea looked at me like I was ridiculous. "But it's only 5 o'clock!"
"Trust me, with everything that just happened, and the fact that I've been on the run since I was eight, I'm gonna need some time to crash."
"Fine," Azalea said. "But I'm going back to see if there's anything else that I need to know about the area."
"Alright," I yawned. "Bye."
"Bye."
Once Azalea left, Nicole directed me to my room (the second, left-most door), and I headed inside.
"See you tomorrow, Nicole."
"Good night, Pansy. Sleep well."
Definitely, I thought to myself, looking around my room. It was something to look at, a big improvement from the alleyways and junkyards I had slept in. I walked over to the bed and brushed my hand against the soft purple blanket that lay on top of the mattress. The rest of the room, other than the most appealing thing to me, the bed, fit me well. The walls were made of brown mortar walls, and the floor made of fuzzy, tan carpet. Two more wooden doors and a huge, curtained window lined the walls, and a lamp was placed beside the wooden book stand. A potted plant of pansies sat in the corner of the room, and a mirror hung right above one of the doors. When I opened the mirrored door, I found myself in a partially-filled walk-in closet, with similar designs to the bigger room, and lots of my favorite styles of clothing.
"I could get used to this," I muttered to myself and closed the closet door. I strode up to the bed and kicked off my sneakers, then flopped onto the bed and fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.
Heavy clunking sounds slammed against the pavement as I ran into the corridor. Blocked by a huge steel wall. I backed toward the wall as the SWAT-bots marched toward me, Robotnik behind them in a giant mechanical machine.
"Nowhere to run, is there, Miss Pansy?" he snickered, grinning maliciously. He clicked a button and a machine gun opened up from one of the sides of his grey armor, and aimed it at me.
"Damn..." I swore under my breath, feeling the sweat on my palms thicken.
"Pansy!"
All of us whipped our heads upward to see a faceless figure leap down from one of the surrounding buildings.
"Bobby, get outta here! Before they kill you, too!"
"Sorry, Pan, that isn't how I roll."
BLAM! The figure crumpled to the floor.
"BOBBY!"
I ran over to his body, which was partially Roboticized, and limp as a dead fish. Blood coated my hands as I held him in my arms.
"You demon! What have you done?!" I screamed at him, tears flooding down my face. My ears folded back against my head and shivers shook throughout my spine. "Why?!"
The scene disappeared in swirl of white light and changed into a black throne-room. An unknown, cloaked figure sat on a black throne, and stared at a picture she held in her hands. The picture showed eight women, two of which I recognized as our moms, but the others were mysterious.
"Just wait, fools. You will pay for everything you have done." Her voice was sickly and twisted, melting with a snake's hissing. She removed a long, thick, black-bladed dagger from her cloak, placed the picture on her throne right-arm rest, and stabbed into the picture. "You will pay for your sins and I'll personally send you, your filthy, mixed-blood children, and their friends straight to hell."
The image faded away and there was nothing but blackness.
Oooh, mysterious! Looks like Pansy's in some deep trouble, but what do these dreams mean? Let's hope everything will be alright for the twosome and Freedom Fighters. But for now, this is soniccore27 signing off. May the force be with you!
