CHAPTER 20

JOURNEY THROUGH THE SYHERIN DESERT

Later, the Chaotix were traveling in the middle of the Syherin Desert. The whole team was kind of worn out because of the extreme heat.

Charmy was on top of Vector's head looking tired. "Boss, I'm so hot", he moaned.

The crocodile wanted to grab the bee by his throat and strangle him like no tomorrow, but he didn't have the energy it seemed. "Oh really? Well this whole walking thing to the ice base sure wasn't my fault, Charms!"

The bee looked down at the frustrated crocodile, "Aw come on, boss. It wasn't my fault that I couldn't get to the X-jet at the time."

"Yeah? Maybe it was because you kept playing those damn video games all day and every day!"

Charmy formed a small smile, "Yeah and?"

Vector sighed and decided to give up on the conversation.

Tonya saw the way Ker was walking and noticed the he was taking the heat pretty well. "Ker, don't you feel hot at all? Especially wearing that huge cloak?"

The demon turned to her with a smile, "Not really. I've been in Hell so many times, I'm sorta used to the heat. Besides, Hell is way hotter than this."

The cat's mouth hung open in amazement, "Wow Ker, you just continue to amaze me." The cat's ears flopped down because of her exhaustion. "At least you have no problem in the heat. I feel like I could pass out any minute."

"And what the hell makes you so special, cat girl!" Rouge shouted in annoyance.

Tonya formed a small smile because she forgot that the others had felt the same way and she was no different. She then looked over to Espio and Appex looking over to each other and then quickly looking away. She sighed softly and had wished the two could get along better. 'Why do men act like that?' She thought to herself.

Rouge sighed, "How could this get any worse?"

Suddenly the group was stopped when they saw weird black holes appearing in the sand. Then they were all sent into panic when deformed brown creatures jumped out of them.

Vector looked over to Rouge, acting like the creatures coming out of the sand was her fault. "Guess what, Rouge? It got worse!"

"Almas!" Ker shouted as he got ready for battle. 'This is weird. Those creatures came out of nowhere and I couldn't sense anything at all. What is going on?'

As the Almas prepared to attack them, Charmy looked over to Appex and threw one of his daggers at him. "Appex, use this to chop off their heads!"

The porcupine caught the blade and made a small nod, "Got it." When he saw an Almas come at him, his fur quickly stood from his body and struck towards the creature, knocking it down into the sand. He then positioned the dagger at its neck and without hesitation cut its head clear off its body. He saw the demon's blood all over his hands, but he didn't care as he was prepared to kill the next Almas that confronted him, until a strange white light came out of nowhere and blasted the Almas into pieces. He looked and turned to Ker smiling at him.

"I have your back, Appex."

The porcupine was speechless because of the demon's sudden help. At first, he didn't really trust Ker because he didn't believe that he was a changed demon, but now he was convinced otherwise. He did nothing but form a small smile towards him.

Espio watched in amazement as Tonya sliced her way through the Almas with ease with her fan blades. All he could see was the Almas' blood scattering everywhere and all he could hear was her blades coming in contact with the creatures' necks. It made him pretty nervous that the girl he was in love with was as just as strong as him and was capable of taking care of herself.

With her fans dripping with blood, she faced the staring chameleon with a smirk. "What's wrong, Espio? Do I scare you?"

The chameleon blushed at the comment in embarrassment, "What? Of course not!"

The cat giggled a bit, "Okay Es, whatever you say."

Rouge used her iron boots to kick an Almas on top of its head and slammed its whole body down into the ground. She looked over to Charmy, "Charmy, your dagger!"

Charmy then tossed his dagger towards Rouge, watched as she caught it, and watched her cut off the demon's head, killing the last of the Almas.

The bat walked back over to Charmy and gave him back the bloody dagger. "Well that seems to be the last of them."

"For now", Vector had added.

Because of the heat and her exhaustion from fighting the Almas, Tonya fell to her knees. "God I am so tired."

Before Espio or Appex could offer to help her off the ground, Ker had approached her and held her tired body in his arms.

The demon gave the cat a worried look, "Will you be okay, Tonya?"

"Of course I'll be okay, Ker. You don't have to do to this", she said while panting a bit.

"But I want to make sure you're all right so I'll carry you for the rest of the way."

"Oh Ker, you're so sweet."

With his mouth hung open in confusion, Espio watched Ker walk over to the rest of the group with Tonya in his arms. "What! Oh if this isn't the biggest load of bull I've experienced in my whole fucking..."

With a smirk full of amusement on his face, Appex walked past Espio and towards the group.

"Hey! What are you smiling about, pretty boy! I saw you! You were going for her too!"

Meanwhile in Dark's ice base, Dark confronted Shadow in his room and saw the hedgehog staring at the snow heavily falling from the dark gray sky. "Shadow, it's time."

The hedgehog turned his head and sighed, knowing that Dark meant it was time for them to finally begin their training. "Fine." He slowly looked away from the window and followed Dark out of the room.

Later, the sky was a dull dark gray color and the powerful wind was blowing the snowflakes with incredible force as the Chaotix team stared at the huge building in front of them.

"Here we are", Espio said.

Rouge gritted her teeth, "Yeah...Dark's ice base."

A/N: Well, they made it. Inside Dark's ice base is the guy they're looking for. Let's see what happens next! R&R please!