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SG-7
Chapter Nine: The Flames. The Mind. And New Allies.
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A/N: Hey everyone it's Hokuto again. I hope that everyone enjoyed the last chapter. I know that some of you are begging for more action, so I plan to give it to you. Here is the next part of the story, please enjoy to your heart's content and as always please leave us a review at the end.
ShifterBlack here. The only credit I take for this chapter is that I did the spelling and grammar checks, as well as sprucing some things up so they make sense. Nothing against Hokuto, he just got carried away in some parts and forgot to add punctuation. Makes it look like a jumbled mess. Other than that, it's all his work.
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Planet P9K-736
"Okay so what are we after here again?" Jack asked as SG-1 and SG-7 worked their way through the planet's thick forest undergrowth.
Kerra and Melissa sighed as they looked at the Human turned Mobian officer.
"We are here for two reasons. One is a Chaos Emerald." Melissa explained.
"The other is what I believe to be a Sol Emerald." Kerra finished as she used one of her blades to slice through the thick foliage in their path.
Two days ago, when a connection was established with one of the worlds that Jack had input into the dialing computer, which came from when he had a database of the Ancients "downloaded" into his brain, they sent a MALP to investigate. They found the energy signature of a Chaos Emerald. After this a drone was launched to do a survey. The drone was able to find the general area of where the emerald was located, but it also picked up an unknown energy signature, similar to that of the Chaos Emeralds, but distinctly different.
Kerra, after receiving updated Intel from Zonic, told General Hammond of the existence of the Sol Emeralds and of the alternate reality they existed in, most commonly referred to as the Sol Zone. She explained how the properties of the Sol Emeralds were the same, but different in the fact that they didn't have a connection with the Chaos Force, but the Sol Force.
SG-1 and SG-7 were then deployed to seek out the source of both energies and bring them back to the SGC.
The thing that Kerra left out was that, like the Chaos Emeralds, the Sol Emeralds have a controller as well, As well as a guardian with just as hot a temper as the guardian of the Master Emerald. Kerra just hoped she would be able to calm down the princess before everyone got crispy crittered.
So, with the Spartan walking point, the two teams made their way towards the first of the two signals.
"Can't we pick up the speed? I hate going this slow!" Sonic complained a couple of miles later.
Both Kerra and Melissa glared over their shoulders at the blue blur.
"If you want to take the lead," Kerra said.
"Then be our guest." Melissa finished as both kitsunes stepped aside and made a 'after you' gesture towards the uncleared path in front of them.
"Alright I will. Time for the old Triple S!" Sonic said as he crouched down and began to power up his Super Sonic Spin.
With a rush of wind the hedgehog shot forward through the underbrush.
The next sound that was heard seconds later was a loud thump, followed by cursing.
Shaking their heads, the two teams made their way through the path that Sonic had made, going about two hundred yards before coming across the stuck form of the hero. He glared at the twin vixens. "You knew this was here, didn't you?" he accused.
The two only grinned.
"That was why we didn't let you take point. You won't use firearms, and not everyone can keep up with your speed." Kerra said.
"Plus we figured that you would probably get yourself hurt." Daniel said as he pulled a first aid kit out of his pack while the hero glared at the group, stuck in the wall hanging upside down.
Kerra turned to Melissa, "Should we get him down, since he seems to be totally stuck?"
"Yeah. Though we really should leave him there to think about things." Melissa responded.
"Wouldn't his head explode?...On second thought…that might be a good thing." Sven said as he scratched his chin, as if visualizing the scene.
"He might be annoying, but he is an asset to the team." Krystal responded, smacking the other blue hedgehog in the group on the back of the head.
Zane snickered slightly as he walked up to the speed demon and grabbed his leg. "Alright Sonic, have you out of there in a second." He said before giving his wings a powerful flap, moving him back a couple of feet, peeling his fellow Major off the wall.
After removing the blue hero from the wall, Zane unceremoniously dropped him into a heap on the ground.
"Was that really necessary?" Sonic asked as he sat upright and threw a poisonous glare at the fox/bat hybrid.
"Probably not, but I thoroughly enjoyed it." Zane replied, smirking.
After tending to the bumps and bruises, the two teams continued on.
Kerra was still walking point, slashing through the dense undergrowth, when her enhanced hearing picked up something over the steady rhythm of her blade slicing through the air and the foliage.
Stopping and holding her right hand up in a closed fist, she signaled for the group to halt. She then motioned for them to get down and stay quiet before motioning Jack forward.
When Jack was beside her, she explained through hand motions that there were Jaffa up ahead.
'How many?' Jack mouthed.
'Platoon, maybe company.' Kerra whispered back.
Jack nodded and motioned for her to handle the situation quietly.
Kerra nodded in response and drew her other blade before moving forward silently.
The members of SG-1 and SG-7 had heard the stories that Kerra had told about her prowess in combat and in the art of stealth, but they hadn't really believed her.
Until they saw her seemingly disappeared as if she was never there.
About a hundred meters from where the teams had stopped there was indeed a platoon sized force of Jaffa that were searching rather diligently for something.
They would never live to find it.
Kerra moved into action, a blur of green, gold, and silver as she slashed her way through the enemy. Within seconds little was left besides hunks of armor, an intact bone here and there, and blood. Lots and lots of blood.
Keying her radio, Kerra called the other teams forward.
"What the hell happened here?" Sam asked.
"Oh you know, a little gratuitous violence." Kerra replied as she pulled out a rag and began to clean the blood off her blades before sheathing them.
"So what were they doing?" Daniel asked as he surveyed the devastation.
"Looking for something. Pretty sure it was a Chaos Emerald. I didn't ask too many questions." Kerra responded as she finished cleaning her blades.
"What makes you say that Colonel Prower?" Teal'c asked.
"This is the site the drone showed us." Melissa answered.
"It definitely is." Krystal said, though slightly muffled.
Turning to see what the white hedgehog was doing they see her with her upper body burrowing through rubble to her waist, before she pulled herself free, holding the white Chaos Emerald in her hand.
"How did you know that it was there?" Sven asked his teammate.
"I dunno. I just felt it and knew it was there. It was like the emerald was calling to me." Krystal explained with a shrug.
Kerra was about to ask the major what she meant by that when a massive explosion rocked the valley they were in.
"What was that?" Sonic asked as he helped the others that had failed to hold onto their footing.
"Sounded like someone just got nuked. And I can guess who was behind this particular nuke, follow me." Kerra said as she drew her handguns and began to move forward at, for her, a slow jog.
Clearing yet another stand of trees, the group came upon a smoking crater lined by smoldering trees and bodies.
In the epicenter of the blast there stood a feline Mobian, wrapped in flames and holding a square cut gem in her hand.
A white hedgehog, bathed in a greenish light, floated down next to the group.
"Please you have to help me get her calmed down. She could kill us all." The newcomer pleaded with the teams.
"Don't tell me, she got 'royally' pissed and went on a warpath when they tried to take the Sol Emerald?" Kerra asked using her hands to put quotes around royally.
"Yeah. Wait how do you know about the Sol Emeralds?" The telekinetic hedgehog asked.
"I'll explain later. Right now I have to calm down a pissed off princess." Kerra said as she shoved her guns back into their holsters and warped to the bottom of the crater.
At the top of the crater the white hedgehog turned to the group, "Is she insane, or is she just that good?"
"A little of column A and a little of column B in my opinion. By the way name's Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog. And you are?" Sonic asked as he extended his right hand.
Taking his hand, the other male replied, "Silver the Hedgehog. And the flaming kitty down there is Princess Blaze."
"Yeah we've met her." Melissa replied.
"Really? But when did that happ-" Silver started to ask, but was interrupted by a small explosion and Zane and Krystal's play by play.
"That last fire ball had to singe some of Kerra's fur." Zane said in a stereotypical sports announcer voice.
"Indeed it had to, but Kerra is keeping 'Burning Blaze' on her toes with a mix of speed and Chaos attacks." Krystal replied in the same tone.
Jack smacked both of them in the back of the head with a low growl.
Indeed Kerra was keeping Blaze on her toes, but she was on the defensive, looking for an opening.
'Shit, she's in a blind rage and that emerald is just fueling her power. I need to get it away form her without hurting her.' Kerra thought as she warped into the sky.
As she fell, she began to power up. Not with Chaos energy, but with her own rage. Unlike Sonic, and now Blaze, Kerra was able to control her anger, instead of the other way around. It amplified her strength and speed but left her very drained afterward. Her fur began to change from its usual golden hue to black and her sapphire irises swallowed her pupils, creating drowning pools of blue.
Hitting the ground, Kerra swiftly moved, taking the advantage of surprise that she had gained by her entrance. She threw punch after punch and kick after kick, focusing on the arm that held the Sol Emerald.
After a few strikes, Blaze lost feeling in her arm and dropped the gem, and was forced on the defense for the first time in the fight.
Soon Kerra had dealt out enough punishment that the cloak of flames that surrounded the feline began to die down, allowing Kerra and opening.
She dropped back and charged forward, delivering a solid punch to Blaze's stomach, causing her to blackout momentarily as the oxygen was forcibly expelled from her lungs.
As the princess slumped in her arms, Kerra calmed and her appearance reverted to normal. She then dropped to her knees still holding the dazed feline.
Kerra laid the feline on the ground and collapsed next to her, fishing into a pocket on her vest for her cigarettes and her lighter. Pulling one out, she placed it between her lips and flicked open her lighter and spun the striker wheel. Nothing happened. She tried a few more times with the same result.
"Goddamnit. I knew I should have refilled this thing before we left." Kerra complained as she let her head fall to the ground.
Suddenly a hand appeared in front of her face with a finger extended. A small flame erupted from the finger tip.
Kerra shrugged and lit her cancer stick. "Thanks."
"Not a problem. The least I could do for pulling me out of that." Blaze replied as she let her arm drop to the ground.
"Least I could do princess." the kitsune replied. "Now, as soon as we can both stand on our own, we need to get out of here and back to Earth."
"What's Earth?" the feline princess asked.
"Another planet, it's where our base of operations is." Kerra explained as her ears twitched.
A Jaffa that had some how survived Blaze's initial attack was stumbling down the wall of the crater. Kerra drew an M-320 grenade launcher and sighted on a point just below the soldier, stumbling from exhaustion while at it.
As she fired however, she heard someone shout "CHAOS SPEAR!"
The spear of energy and the 40 mm Hell H.O.U.N.D grenade hit at the same time, resulting in a double explosion that tore the man apart.
Kerra turn to look over her other shoulder to see who had thrown the attack, half expecting Shadow to be there. Instead she saw everyone looking at Krystal with surprise, and the hedgehog in question covering her mouth with embarrassment and her eyes wide.
'Hmm. It appears that Krystal has a few secrets. I won't push though. She might be this zone's ULF, and if that's the case, then we need her on our side.' Kerra thought as she stood up and holstered her launcher.
"Um, Kerra?" Sonic asked as he reached the bottom of the crator and helped her and Blaze to their feet.
"Yeah Sugar?" she asked.
"Where in the nine hells did you get that grenade launcher?"
She grinned. "I'll give you three guesses, and the first two don't count"
Everyone's gagged at the thought that entered their minds.
Later that day, back on Earth
Kerra was walking along side Jack, Sam, and Daniel as they went into a little bar near Cheyenne Mountain called Bloody Knuckles. Kerra had heard the team talking about it but hadn't had the desire to go.
However, after going into her dark form, she really needed something strong to drink.
"So you say this guy makes some pretty stiff drinks?" Kerra asked the black wolf next to her.
"Yeah he does. Course Daniel here has always been a light weight, so he never lasts too long." Jack replied with a laugh.
"True, by the way you should get your ring on." Kerra said with a chuckle as she noticed her friend wasn't wearing his ring.
"It's okay, this place is only frequented by SGC personnel for some reason." Sam replied.
"Okay, so that means we can just disregard protocol? What if someone that isn't cleared comes in?" Kerra asked with a raised eyebrow.
"They can't. This place is still technically inside the perimeter of the base." Daniel said fielding the question.
"If you say so." Kerra said as they stepped inside the bar.
Walking up to the bar, Jack hopped up on a stool and wave the bartender over. "Hey Owen! Can we get some service over here?"
The bartender, Owen, walked over with a chuckle and looked Jack in the eyes. "You know Jack, it's a damn good thing that I like you so much, otherwise this bar might live up to it's name."
Everyone ordered their drinks, and engaged in conversation. Kerra however was slightly distracted.
For one, she was paranoid that someone that shouldn't be there would walk in and they would have to make them 'disappear.'
The other reason she was distracted was Owen. He looked vaguely familiar, but Kerra was having trouble figuring out why.
Owen was a black male, about five foot six, a white goatee, and red dreadlocks that were graying. He also had a couple of unique qualities.
One, his eyes were a brilliant violet.
The second thing was something that Kerra missed until she was getting a refill on her rum and cola. He had two spikes of bone that protruded from the back of each of his hands, mostly hidden by the black fingerless gloves he wore.
"That's a unique trait there Owen. So where was it that you said you were from?" Kerra asked.
"Someplace that I can't ever go back to." Owen replied with disappointment lacing his voice.
Kerra shook her head and pulled a spare ring out of her pocket, setting it on the bar. "You might want to take that. It'll keep you from over exerting yourself while maintaining human form."
"What are you talking about Kerra?" Sam asked. "He's human, he just has a few unique qualities."
"Wow, I figured that you would be able to see through his cover easily. This guy is from the Knuckles clan. Though I would have to see your chest to see if I'm right as to who you really are." Kerra said as she extended a claw out quickly sliced the top three button's form Owen's shirt.
Beneath was a mark that no one besides Kerra expected. It was a white crescent moon shaped mark that looked to be like a necklace on him.
"So this is where you've been hanging out while the galaxy is in danger and your son could use someone with more experience to help him out." Kerra said locking gazes with Owen.
"You know him?" Jack asked as he watched the sparks fly between the two.
"Personally? No. But I do know his Prime version fairly well. So you gonna level with me Owen?" Kerra asked, with a slight pause before continuing
"Or, should I call you Locke?"
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Okay everybody. I apologize for the lateness, but I have been really busy as of late. I hope that this chapter is up to your expectations. As always, please read and review so we can improve in anyway we can.
Hokuto out.