Chapter 10: The Invention

"Get your gloves off." Rita said, getting off her backpack and opening it, looking for something. The hedgehog raised an eyebrow. "Not exactly beating around the bush are you? If you wanted to sleep with me you could've just said-" Rita grabbed his shirt by the collar, fire in her eyes. "Stop thinking with your groin, you're lucky the old man and Estelle trust you. Now, get your gloves off." She let go of his shirt and went back to her backpack.

Joe chuckled to himself before sliding them off. "Give them to me." He complied and handed his black gloves to the mage. Rita put them in her backpack and started ruffling around inside it. "So, what're you doing?" The hedgehog asked her. "You'll see."

A few minutes later, she took his gloves out of his backpack, and they have a few upgrades. Rita's face beamed with pride. His gloves had a round jewel in the palm, with some metal connectors inside his gloves, with another jewel inside the glove. "Alright, put these on." Joe didn't look too impressed. "You basically added two marbles in them, how'll that help?" Rita's eye twitched a little.

" Put these on, and come with me, you'll see." Joe shook his head in annoyance and put his new gloves on. The jewels on the inside of his gloves felt a little weird on his hands at first, but if this helps him control his powers, anything will do. "So what now?"

"Like I said, come with me." Rita walked towards the inn door with the hedgehog following, and they went outside the city. "Okay, we're gonna test this out. There's a few monsters here, so just use some of your aer attacks against them, ending with your strongest one." Joe looked at her with a bit of concern. "You sure? What if I break these?" Rita smirked and winked. "Oh, these are tougher than you think. Just try them out."

Joe nodded his head and looked at the monsters. Nothing special, looked like bugs more than anything. I know Rita's good, but I don't think the gloves will withstand everything I've got. Think I'll have to take this a bit easy... He thought to himself as he held his hand out and shot out some energy blasts at the monsters, before dashing up to the last one and uppercutting it into the air. He gathered his energy into one of his hands, gathering it into a white and grey ball.

"Maximum..." He then shot his hand out and sent out the white energy beam heading right for the monster. "Flash!" The attack easily consumed the monster and obliterated it in an instant. The beam slowly disappeared, and Joe dropped his arm. This time though, he didn't have to catch his breath. Infact, he almost felt no different at all.

The yellow hedgehog looked at his gloves and noticed the jewel had a faint glow coming from it. Rita had a triumphant smile on her face. "They work even better than I imagined!" Joe looked at her perplexed. "What do you mean?" The mage took a victorious pose and began to explain. "The jewel in the machine is an aer conductor. Your aer goes through the wires in your glove that connects to the jewel, and it will amplify your aer attacks. It will also reduce your energy consumption by 70%. But don't push yourself, while it does dramatically decrease the consumption, big attacks like that one too many times will overexert yourself, and you'll be knocked out again probably."

Joe smirked to himself and looked at his new gloves. More control over my moves. Now I really can't wait for the coliseum. He thought to himself before Rita turned back for the city. "Come on, let's get back. I'll need to analyse the aer consumption of the jewel some more, and see if I can work on improving the results some more." They both headed back to the city, where they went straight for the inn, where everyone was inside, including Nan.

They all looked at Rita for the result of her invention. She gave a thumbs up, which pleased everyone, even Nan as the others updated her on the situation. "So, any news on those rumors?" Joe asked the old man, which suddenly brought a little frown to Raven's face. "Here's the strange thing, they've simply stopped. No one has seen anything related to Leviathan's Claw for weeks now. It's like they've all just disappeared."

Rita thought to herself. "You think they could've just hid somewhere?"

Raven shook his head. "Nah, one of our scouts would have found something. No one is THAT good at hiding. It seems that this was all just a false alarm."

Nexus stroked his goatee, since he knew the events of this world before him and Joe arrived, so he knew Leviathan's Claw wouldn't just disappear like nothing, they knew how to get around. Or maybe... it was true.

"So, that means we can head for the coliseum right?" Joe spoke up, not wanting to beat around the bush. Yuri shrugged with a laugh. "I guess so, since this went nowhere."

"Well we should at least stay here for the night, we did say we would anyway." Karol chipped in. "We can afford to pay for the extra guests." Everyone nodded before Judith went to pay for everyone. Shortly after she returned, with a cheeky grin on her face. "They said they don't have enough beds for us all, so we could either sleep on the floor, or two can sleep in a few beds."

A variety of expressions came upon everyone's faces.

Yuri and Nexus just shrugged.

Estelle, Karol and Nan all blushed like mad.

Rita had a look of horror.

Raven and Joe both cheered, obviously hoping they'd end up with Judith.

Repede's expression didn't change, he would be on the floor anyway.

That night, Yuri and Estelle slept in the same bed, which the princess had to admit, she was really hoping for. A loving smile crept onto her lips as she silently watched the ex-knight sleep. She closed her eyes shortly after. Nan and Karol were sleeping facing away from eachother, trying to avoid it being awkward. But it wasn't working that well, especially with how Nan felt.

Rita slept on her own, much to her joy. Judith was sleeping in the same bed as Nexus, that cheeky grin still on her face as she slept. Nexus didn't seem to know why she chose his bed, but just took it for what it was worth.

As for the last two...

"That Judith is cold, just ice cold."

"This wasn't my first choice either."

Those two were also in the same bed, and it couldn't have been more uncomfortable.

"I'm so gonna take this out in the coliseum." The hedgehog stated before trying to get to sleep.

"Cold. Just cold." Said Raven before he did the same.