Well, PART THREE shall be the adventure to the continent of Yafutoma-- the place with a lot of water, highflying ships, and the Tenkou Ninja clan. Well, since Enquire is married to the Emperor's sister (I assume the old king's dead now), the team shouldn't have too many problems, right? Well, I'm assuring you… the first three chapters may end up changing your mind.
CHAPTER NINE: A PARTY DOES SOUND GOOD RIGHT NOW….
The Delphinus was making great time to Crescent Isle since GUN opened the way to North Ocean. Blade and Vyse, however, were both quite silent.
"Okay. I can't take it anymore boys," Aika angrily stated before pinching both Blade's and Vyse's ears. Fina quickly grabbed the helm as Vyse and Blade were dragged off to the kitchen.
"Aika, what's up?" Vyse asked when he got the chance to rub his sore ear.
"You two haven't even spoken a word to us since yesterday!" Aika was clearly ticked off, because Blade had spent the start of the return trip yesterday on the deck, and today Blade was looking at that piece of paper that the king gave him. Vyse was trying to think about who was the Black Eight's leader all day and the day before.
"Well, I assume Vyse has been doing what I've been… thinking," Blade answered, before Aika snatched the note that could lead him to his friend. Vyse just nodded at this comment before reading the paper himself.
"So, this is what Isapa was talking about?" Vyse asked, with a Blade nod as answer. "Well, I don't get what it means by 'scarred into the desert', but it does mean near the Temple of Pyrynn."
Blade knew that he'd better start there if he was going to get any progress on Zenth's trail, but he wasn't about to pull a desperate Houdini yet. They'd pass it soon enough, and Blade's real quest for Zenth will begin. For now… he'll stay with his friends until they bail over to either the Lands of Ice or Yafutoma. Either way,he'll probablygo throughhell until he finds Zenth.
When the team docked at Crescent Isle, Glider wasn't happy to hear an "Oh, Glider! I missed you so much!" from none other the Clara, the crazy Blue Rogue woman captain of the Primrose that's always following him.
Blade had to laugh as Clara rushed up to Glider, and grabbed the poor guy by his arm, and started nuzzling him. "Laugh while you can, Blade," Glider warned. "When I get Clara off of me, you're the first on my 'pistol-whip list'." This shut Blade right up.
Clara then let go of Glider, and then turned to the mouse. "Oh… so your Blade? Well, you have a bit of a surprise up in the meeting room. And you might need this."
Clara then handed Blade a first-aid kit. Blade was about to ask why, and then got his answer with a painful pistol-whip on the head by Glider. "This is the second time I got hurt in the head area today…." Blade answered semi-dazed before recovering his balance, and headed off to the meeting room.
What did Clara mean I had a surprise in the meeting room? Blade had been asking himself that in his mind for the past three minutes before opening the door.
"Blade! Long time no see!" This came from his friend Dixie, who rushed up and hugged him. Now he knew what Clara meant: Dixie actually came to Arcadia! How, he didn't care about, but it was at least good to see someone who doesn't hate him for all of his stunts.
When Blade was finally let go, he then asked, "Dixie, how did you find me here?"
Dixie then explained how she got here, and then it was Blade's turn. "So, a summary of your story would be that you spent a year trying to collect the Chaos Emeralds to cover much more ground with Chaos Control, but you sent yourself and those other animals to Arcadia where you've teamed up with three famous Blue Rogues?" she asked him, and the young mouse nodded in embarrassment. Dixie had to giggle, as only Blade would put his life on the line and pull off an insane stunt like that.
Some giggling came from outside the door, and Dixie took out two Chakrams. "Dixie, I really don't want to be blamed for the fact that you killed Aika and Fina."
"Aww," Aika whined as she and Fina came in the room. "How did you know it was us?"
"Mice have this funny thing of hearing things from a mile away," Blade proudly answered. "Oh yeah… Aika, Fina, this is my friend, Dixie."
"Nice to meet you both!" Dixie smiled while saying this, and then continued, "You two are exactly how Blade described you. My name's Dixie."
Fina and Aika also smiled, and the three girls shook hands. "Blade," Fina quickly stated, "Vyse has decided to throw a party tonight… to let the other Blue Rogues know what's going on these days."
Blade grinned. He then said before leaving to his quarters, "It's about time something like this happened. A party does sound good right now…. See you in an hour!"
Dixie had to smile. And Maine finally woke up from his nap, and smiled as well.
For the next hour, Blade had spent it fixing his ruffled fur, putting on some proper clothes-- like that black tuxedo that his mom gave him, those classy black dress pants, and his shoes were bright black dance shoes that still had the air shoes function-- and brushing his teeth. His sword was of course put away-- he didn't really need the Moon Soul tonight did he?
When he exited his room, Vyse said, "Not too shabby, Blade." Vyse of course had gotten himself ready too: with the blue tuxedo his father gave him, black dress pants, actually tidy brown hair, and the pirates boots were still the same. He still had the glass eye patch for being recognized, and his twin cutlasses- preferably his Sky Fang.
"Nice outfit," Blade complemented. The mouse then asked, "Any reason why you brought your cutlasses?"
Vyse then answered, "Well, you know that in case of a Black Pirate attack-- or something stupid like that-- happens, I'll want to be prepared."
Blade then nodded, knowing where his gun is, and loaded it with a few Purple Moon bullets as Vyse turned away.
"Loading your gun in case of emergency, Blade?" Aika asked as she stepped out. She looked quite lovely in a pink dress that went down to mid shins, emerald green earrings, her hair in a long ponytail instead of a pigtail, and blue heels.
Fina then stepped out of her room. She was wearing what seemed to be her traditional Silvite dress, only with gold hoop earrings, a blue veil, and bright silver gloves. "Well, with everything happening, he and Vyse do have a point. Which is why I brought Cupil with me… in case of Team Chaotix."
"Aww, don't worry, Fina. I have my boomerang as well. We'd need to be prepared right now," Aika laughed, and almost all of the island's main inhabitants were at least armed.
Blade then went searching for Dixie. When he saw her, she was talking to Amy Rose- a pink hedgehog that's in love with Sonic, and is just as crazy as Clara- and Cream the Rabbit- a little, yellow rabbit girl and Amy's best friend. For tonight, Amy was wearing a pink gown and light pink heels, while Cream was wearing an orange dress. Dixie however was wearing an emerald green traditional Seeddrain dress: the green at the top with the white petal like skirt.
"Well, what do you know?" Amy asked as Blade approached. "There are no hard feelings with you sending us here. But I'm still wondering where Sonic is."
Blade thought about his logic, and then answered, "I assume he's hating Yafutoma."
"What do you mean by that?" Cream asked.
"Well, Tails ended up in Valua, Knuckles was in Maramba, so it's obvious that he's there. It's his color, but it may not be that."
Amy had her Piko-Piko Hammer out, and questioned, "What do you mean there?"
Dixie calmed her down, "I think it's not really like that. He did fall into Nasrad, and he's yellow."
Blade sighed of relive that Dixie saved his butt, and then Vyse interrupted the small chat. "Now there are two reasons why I had you all gather here tonight. One is for a night of celebration that we may not have with each other for a very long time. Two is the obvious one… I need to talk about the Air Pirate War that's going on. I have a list of Blue Rogue Captains that I need to have a small talk with near the end of this evening."
Aika quickly interrupted, "For now… we're going to party!"
During the part that night, Knuckles had gotten half drunk on Louqa, Blade proved to Glider that he's a good shot in a shooting game, Dixie entertained the crowds by performing her Chakram wind dance, and Tails was on lookout duty. Which didn't prove to be as entertaining as he thought, because before he got bored and tried the shooting game, he only saw a few birds, a balloon, and some of the Yafutoman birds getting out because of Cheese-- Cream's Chao that's sky blue-- and Maine's curiosity.
While dancing with Dixie, Blade asked, "Hey, Dixie… I was kind of wondering if you could help me convince Captain Vyse to take us to Yafutoma."
"Why," Dixie asked, "would you want that?"
Blade then answered, "The sooner we get Sonic on our side, the sooner Amy lets up on me, and the faster we can get the last four emeralds. Then, once I've repaid my accident to Sonic, he'll let me find Zenth without any hard feelings!"
Dixie giggled a little at her friend's plan to get Zenth back home.
Fina and Aika were watching Blade and Dixie dance. "Don't you think they make a cute couple?" Fina asked Aika.
"Yeah…" Aika answered, "and I can't believe that Blade really wants to help with the Black Pirate problem and find his friend. Zenth must be really lucky with this nut!" Blade heard that, but thought nothing of it.
Vyse came over and asked, "Would either of you two like to dance?"
Aika smiled at Fina, and said, "You can have the first one, Fina. I'll take lookout's nest." When she looked up, Tails wasn't there. "Clearly fox boy got bored, and decided to play that shooting game…." Sighing, Aika continued, "Where do we get these engineers?"
Meanwhile under dock, the Blue Rogue on watch was knocked out. Over him stood a certain green crocodile. "Well, I'm in the base. But other than some guards, no one's here."
"Well then," Espio said as he came out of the shadows, looks like everyone's on topside. All we have to do is create a diversion, and take that Silvite."
Charmy then asked as he finished searching the underground, "Is this where I come in?"
"Exactly!" Vector answered, and then continued, "All you have to do is cause as much havoc as possible, and while everyone's focused on you, I'll take care of that Vyse guy, and Espio shall take the Silvite girl!"
"No fair… you two get to fight a lot…." Charmy protested, but Espio shut him up.
"We're doing this one by the book; none of us can kill one person, okay?" Espio warned.
"Got it!" Vector exclaimed in a whisper.
"Got it…." Charmy sighed; it was obvious that he was still upset that he really doesn't get much action. The three then spilt up, not at all aware of the second set of party crashers listening into this.
"The detectives must be clearly working for Eggman… recommended action?" A red robot asked to one of his teammates.
"Simple… make sure Eggman doesn't get what he wants, and we do first." This came from a woman's voice; a bat-girl named Rouge. Despite the fact that she's a government agent, Rouge the Bat is a thief. And she has made several attempts to steal the Master Emerald, the Chaos Emeralds, and other gems for that matter when she's off duty. She wears a heart shaped top that barley covers her upper body that's purple, black pants, and with go-go boots with pink hearts where the toes are.
Beside her was Omega- one of Eggman's robots that betrayed him and vowed to destroy Eggman and take over. He was red, had claw-like robot hands, and a gladiator style going at his lower body. To the other side was the infamous Shadow the Hedgehog- the black hedgehog with red stripes that saved the world twice with Sonic, but is still his rival.
Shadow held up a Chaos Emerald- the yellow one- and stated, "Three of them are here… this should be a piece of cake. Stay here in case I need backup… which I doubt."
Shadow then set off into the island's village to claim the emeralds himself.
Kingdom Rider92's Notes: Well, by now you can expect with Shadow going after the Chaos Emeralds, Knuckles drunk, Chaotix trying to kidnap Fina, and several Blue Rogues plus the Valuan Empire all on Crescent Isle equals one thing… all hell and a bottle of whoop-ass is about to break loose. So, will Vector and Espio catch Fina? Will Shadow need back up? Will the emeralds and Moon Crystals still be on Crescent Isle? Is Blade's theory right?
Jack Sparrow's Notes: You'll have to find out next time on Skies of Arcadia II: Air Pirate War. That's the story's real name, savvies. Captain Jack Sparrow and Kingdom Rider92 out!