Chapter 21. I might throw in another girl in Manic's life to add some romantic conflict.
"Alright, the planet tracker is set. The first planet we're going to is Direbay." Said Tails.
"Anything special about this planet we should know about?" Asked Sonia.
"Not really. It's just like Mobius. A planet full of anthros." At this point, they were far away from Mobius. It was a pretty dull ride. Manic was busy trying to untangle Chao from his hair. He was so wound up about the whole situation. He didn't know if Blaze was hurt or not. She could even be dead for all he knew. Chao flew over to Cream when Manic got him free of his hair trap.
He stood up and walked over to where Tails was sitting, "When do you think we'll get there?"
"Roughly four days. That all depends if we don't run into trouble on the way."
"Damn. Well I'll be in my room. If you need me just have someone come and get me." Then he walked off. He got to his room and jumped onto his bed. Then he just laid there. He stared at the ceiling for four hours straight before he was called for dinner. The best thing about sitting around a table with a bunch of his friends was that he could talk about things he couldn't talk about with his family (Minus Sonic and Sonia).
Manic walked out toward the cockpit, "Are we gonna have dinner or what?"
Tails jumped down from his seat, "Already set up. Let's get to the dining room." Tails led the whole group to the dining room. The all took their seats. Sonic sat at the end of the table. Next to him were Sonia, Amy and Manic. Tails sat at the other end, and to his left were Knuckles and Cream. Now this wasn't like a Thanksgiving dinner or anything, but it was still nice. There were just a bunch of different snacks and drinks. There were potato chips, cookies, crackers and little mini sandwiches. There was liters of Mountain Dew, Pepsi, Coke, and RC.
Manic smiled, "This is dinner?"
"Well, I didn't have a turkey breast on hand Manic. I had to use the left overs from Amy's party. Try not to eat all the food though. None of us know if we can get food from the planets we're going to." Explained Tails.
Knuckles grabbed a mini sandwich, "Hey Tails, is there a way that we can get to the planet faster? Like hyperspeed or something?"
"There is a tank full of nitrous oxide. But I want to use for emergencies only. But if you can think of a way to get us to move faster, tell me." Said Tails as he took a plate and a handful of potato chips.
"How about we don't risk blowing the ship up in any way." Said Amy.
"The thrusters are at full power, right Tails?" Asked Cream.
"Um, let me go check." Tails got up and headed out of the room.
Sonic changed the subject, "I really hope Blaze is okay."
"She should be. She can handle herself." Said Sonia.
"I swear, if Eggman or Shadow hurt her. I'll kill them." Threatened Manic.
"But Manic, then we'll have no challenge." Complained Knuckles sarcastically.
"Fine. Then I'll just kill Shadow. Or just beat the hell out of him until he's critically wounded."
Tails came back to the table, "Alright, the thrusters are now at full power. It will only take us about a day now. We may get there at 3:00pm tomorrow."
"Hey Manic, how exactly did you meet Blaze?" Asked Sonic.
"Well it was after I visited you in the hospital. I was pissed off and walking aimlessly through the woods. She came out of nowhere and started asking me to tell her what was wrong. So I told her. That's how I met her."
Amy smirked, "That's very poetic. Come on, there's got to be more than that!"
"Actually, that's about it. I saw her once for like two seconds before I left Knothole." Manic poured himself a glass of RC. All of a sudden his head started to pound. He threw his hand up and grabbed his forehead. He accidentally spilled his drink and knocked his chair over when he bolted out of it.
Tails threw a couple napkins on the spill, "Manic! Are you okay?"
He clenched his teeth and growled, "Y-yeah, I'm fine. I'll be b-back." Manic ran to his room. He fell to his knees and released a mild scream. Manic thought it was an intense migraine, but this felt different. He felt an empty, tingling feeling in his head. Right before Manic thought he was about to reach his breaking point, the pain suddenly stopped. Manic slowly took his hand off his head. Then he heard Ashura.
Guess who's back.
Oh no.
Don't worry, I'm not here to take over this vessel. I'm just doing what I was created to do.
And what is that?
Watch over you. I guess you could call me your guardian angel.
If that's truly all you're here for, than I have no problem with it.
Good. Goodbye for now.
Manic heard a soft knocking on his door, "Mr. Manic? Are you there? Are you okay?"
"Cream? Yeah, I'm fine." Manic stood up and opened the door.
Cream smiled, "Okay, Sonia wanted me to check on you."
"Alright. Come on, let's get back to the dining room."
"Okay."
After dinner was over, Manic headed back to his room and went to bed. He was stuffed with soda and junk food, so it was a little hard for him to go to sleep. He heard the sound of his friends going to their rooms outside his door. A couple of them knocked and said goodnight. He responded with the same word. When he finally did get to sleep, he had the most normal dream that someone could have. He was running around town naked, and people were laughing at him.
He woke up the next morning at around 11:00. He had major crust in his eyes, and he was groggy. He guessed that everyone else was already up, so he got out of bed and flicked the remaining crust out of his eyes. He was right. Tails, Sonic, and Knuckles were playing Phase 10 in the cockpit. With no table, they were all sitting cross-legged on the floor.
Manic walked up, "Where are the girls at?"
Knuckles didn't take his eyes off of his cards, "They're somewhere on the upper level, I think."
Out of the corner of Manic's eye, he saw a blinking light coming from the pilot seat. He jumped up there and looked at the panel in front of the seat. It said "Incoming Planet".
"Uh, Tails? I think we're coming up on that planet."
"What? We're not supposed to get there until 3:00."
"Well look for yourself."
Tails laid his cards face down and ran toward his seat. He confirmed that the planet was Direbay, and switched the settings from autopilot to manual. The girls came running into the cockpit.
Sonic stood up and stretched his legs, "Hey girls, we're almost to Direbay, so we're gonna get ready to land."
"I thought we were gonna get there a 3:00?" Said Amy, unsure.
"Well Tails overshot his estimate." Said Manic.
"Hey, there's a difference between overshooting your estimate, and putting your trust in machinery." Defended Tails. "Now, if it's right this time, we should get there in about five minutes.
The planet got bigger and bigger as they flew closer. Eventually, they started to enter the atmosphere. The Blue Typhoon was so well designed that it didn't come out with so much as a scratch by the time they landed. Tails parked the ship on a large grassy plain, that was just outside of a city. The gang followed Tails to the open hatch. They headed outside one by one. It felt and looked like Mobius. It had grass, cities, clouds, a blue sky, and the sun looked the same size. After a long walk, they made it to the city.
"Now guys, remember why we're here. We are just gonna ask around about Eggman and where his base is located." Said Tails.
The gang made it to the city, and instantly started asking around. The girls and boys split into separate groups. Manic broke off from his group to go and find out information on his own. While he was walking around, he found a company that sells real estate. He walked and a little bell rang. The office smelled like pine. It just looked like a normal office.
Manic walked up to the lady at the front desk, "Excuse me, do you know of any big egg-shaped humans around here?" Manic felt guilty thinking she was hot.
She responded, "No, I don't recall. I remember one of the other employees talking about a human in a red jumpsuit."
"Do you know where I can find the person?"
"I can take you to her. Follow me." She got up, and Manic followed her up the stairs that were at the other side of the room. Manic thought to himself, Nice ass. They walked down the hallway to another office. On the wall next to the door was a plate with the name Ms. Star Hedgehog.
"Star? This man wants to know about that guy you saw in the red jumpsuit." Said the receptionist.
The girl looked up from her work. Now Manic thought this girl was absolutely gorgeous. She had white fur and white shoulder length hair that draped over the quills in the back of her head. She also had light blue eyes. She wore a red sweater and skin tight blue jeans. Her shoes were a mix between high heels and boots, kind of like Amy's, only her's were yellow and black. On top of that, she had nice breasts.
She spoke, "He does? Oh, well sit down and we'll talk." Manic took a seat in the nice chair that sat in front of her desk. He tried hard not to let his hormones get the best of him. After all, he was in love with Blaze. She was why he was here. The receptionist left and Manic and Star were alone to talk.
She looked him up and down, "So what do you want to know about the man."
"First I want to know why he was here."
"Well I was taking over as receptionist because the other one was out of town, and he walked in. He wanted to know if there were big spots of land that he could build on. I said that we sold houses and that that's not what we do. He said that he would get help somewhere else. That's it."
"Did he have goggles on his head? Was he tall but fat?"
"Yes, and yes."
"Then I think I know who you're talking about. His name is Dr. Eggman, or Robonick. He's a horrible man who wants nothing more than to rule the world that I'm from."
"You're not from here? Where are you from?"
"Mobius."
"And you're tracking this Eggman guy because..."
"He kidnapped my girlfriend."
"Oh, I'm sorry. If there's anything I can do to help, just tell me."
"Well, there is one thing. Did he give you any kind of hint on where he was going?"
She opened one of her cabinets and pulled out a little sheet of paper. She handed it to Manic. On the paper were the words Firecove, Skullbire, and Direbay. Direbay was previously circled, but had an X over it. The next planet that was circled was Skullbire.
"I guess that's where he's going next." Said Manic.
"Maybe."
Manic put the paper in his fanny pack, "Alright, thanks for your help. I need to get going, my friends are probably wondering where I am."
"Okay, bye."
Manic walked down the stairs and exited the building. The gang was waiting outside with disappointed looks on their faces.
Sonia spoke up, "Where the hell were you?"
"In there." Manic pointed at the building behind him.
"We were looking everywhere for you. Don't ever run off like that again." Said Amy.
"I can't count the number of times I've been told that. But I'm glad a ran off because I got this." Manic pulled out the piece of paper and handed it to Sonic.
He observed it for a second before he spoke, "So you think he's in Skullbire?"
"Yes. My guess is that he not only is making us chase him, but I think that he's trying to find a planet that isn't inhabited with a lot of life so he can build his empire. It's just a guess."
"That's a pretty good hypothesis. He's always trying to do that. Well, should we get a move on?" Asked Tails.
"Yeah, we should go." Responded Knuckles.
ONE HOUR LATER
"Even if we have our thrusters at full power, it will take us about four days to get to Skullbire." Explained Tails.
"Well if we get lucky, the thing's wrong and it won't take as long." Said Cream, trying to raise the hopes of her friends.
"I don't want to sound like an ass, but there's also a chance that it could take us longer to get there-" Manic was cut off by a rummaging sound coming from another room. "Did you guys hear that?"
"Hear what?" Asked Sonic.
"Uh, nothing. Must be hearing things." That didn't stop Manic from investigating where the sound came from. He the noise continued, like somebody fell into some scrap metal. It got louder as Manic got closer. He made it to a storage room and put his ear up to the door. The noise happened again, and Manic swung open the door, metal scraps fell out. On top of them was Star.
"Star? What the hell are you doing here!" Manic exclaimed.
"Well... I wanted to help." She said helplessly.
"You can't be here. You're gonna get hurt."
"Oh, come on. You have like a nine year old rabbit with you. Besides, I'm not useless."
"That's a good point. How did you get here anyway?"
"I told you I'm not useless. I hopped in when the hatch almost closed. See I used to belong to a gang that pulled off huge heists. I had to learn the hard way how to sneak. I had to learn about light levels, the enemy's eye sight, and environmental sound. I also needed to carry almost no equipment, so that the weight wouldn't make my footsteps louder. I'm also an assassin. I can be almost invisible when I want to."
"Well where's your equipment? Do you even have a change of clothes?"
"In the bag." She pulled out a brown duffel bag. "So what do you do?"
"Well, I'm a thief. But I've tried to stop. But once you're a kleptomaniac, it's hard to stop. So I guess you and me were trained the same way."
"I guess so. So can I stay?" She gave Manic I cute look that Manic couldn't say no to.
"Look, if it were up to me, I'd say yes. But I'm gonna have to introduce you to Tails and have him decide. He'll most likely say yes."
"Sweet."
"Come with me." She grabbed her bags and followed Manic. Manic walked into the cockpit with Star, and he received unpleasant looks from his friends.
"Uh, Manic? Who's that?" Asked Sonia.
"This is Star." Star gave a little wave.
"Why is she here?" Amy asked this time.
Manic noticed that none of the guys were asking questions. They were probably drooling over Star's physique. "She snuck on here when we got on. But before this gets out of hand, I want Tails to talk to her first."
Sonic got offended, "Why him?"
"Because he's the commander of this vessel, and he's the one that can allow her to be here."
Tails jumped down from his seat, "Alright, I'm gonna ask you a series of questions so I can feel more comfortable about letting you stay here. I don't have a lying detector test, so I'm going to have to take your word for it. First question. Why are you here?"
Star answered, "I want to help Manic find his girlfriend."
"Do you have any specialties? You know, like CQC or demolition?"
"Espionage, assassination, thieving."
"Really? Cool. Last question, are you working for someone who is our enemy?"
"No."
"Alright, that's all."
"So can I stay?"
"Sure, why not?"
"Cool!"
"Alright, let me show you to your room." Said Knuckles.
Manic stopped him, "No way horndog, I'll do it. Come on Star."
Manic and Star traveled down the hall, and Manic found an empty room for her. All the rooms were exactly the same, so it's not like she was getting the short end of the deal. She sat on her bed, and Manic left her to get settled in. She reached into her bag and pulled out a pair of high tech binoculars, a sneak suit, a couple EMP grenades, four throwing knives and a katana sword. She laid them on her bed and checked them all off her mental check list. She put them all back in her bag, except her suit, which she replaced with her current clothes. Her sneak suit kind of looked like the one from Fallout 3, but this one had a complete bulletproof plating that could block any hand gun bullets and laser gun rays. She hung her clothes in the closet and left. She didn't really want to leave her room because she wasn't comfortable around anyone except Manic. She walked around the corner and accidentally bumped into Cream.
She fell over, "Ow."
Star went to help her up, "I'm sorry, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay. Hey, you're that girl that Mr. Manic was talking about. What was your name again?"
"Star the Hedgehog. You're Cream right?"
"Yes. Do you want to come with to the dining room? Me and my friends are going to talk about boys."
Star was surprised that Cream was talking about boys with other girls. But she accepted the offer and Cream led her to the dining room.
Sonia and Amy were already there. They both looked at Star with distraught looks on their faces. She and Cream sat down next to each other.
Sonia frowned, "What's she doing here?"
Cream widened her eyes, "I wanted her to come."
"Listen, I know you don't like me, but could I ask why?" Asked Star.
"We just don't like new girls taking all the attention." Explained Amy.
"Well I'm sorry about that. I'm not trying to take any attention."
"Do you like Manic or something? Is that why you're here?"
"What? N-no! Look, can we just stop this?" Star got up and left the room. Manic was walking down the hallway at the same time.
He noticed the look on her face, "Are you okay? What happened?"
"It's just that Sonia and Amy are being bitches to me. They said that it was because they don't like new girls taking all the attention."
"It's probably also because they're just jealous of you."
"Why would they be jealous?"
Manic didn't mean this to hit on her, "Maybe because you're prettier than them?"
Star blushed, "I am?"
"Well, I think you are. But that's probably because I'm into lighter colored fur."
"Does your girlfriend have light fur?"
"It's kind of a lavenderish blue."
Tails came running out of nowhere, "Manic! We're coming up on Skullbire!"
"What? Already?"
"Yeah! I really need to fix that planet tracker."
Manic and Star headed to the cockpit while Tails told Amy, Sonia, and Cream the news. The planet looked a lot different than Direbay and Mobius. It had a sickly green color, and it looked like it was mostly land. There wasn't a lot of water. But the good thing is, it looked heavily populated. So Eggman probably wouldn't think about building an empire here. They got close enough to the planet to see that there were cites, lakes, buildings, pastures, and complete open fields. Tails came back and took control of the ship. He headed toward an open plain, but he landed close enough to a town to where they didn't have to walk that far to get there.
When they got off, Sonic spoke, "So Tails, are we just gonna search that town for answers?"
"Pretty much. But remember, even if someone knows something and they won't tell you, don't use lethal force. I forgot to tell you guys that last time."
Knuckles raised his hands up in defense, "Like I was supposed to know that guy was a police chief."
"Anyway, let's just get this done." Said Tails.
The group walked into town and split up like last time. And also like the time before, Manic broke off from the group with Star. They found a bar that looked like it's been there for years. It was so old that it had two swinging doors like the ones from a saloon from the old west. They walked in nonchalantly and walked up to one of the two bartenders.
"Hey, do you know of any big tall, egg-shaped humans walking around town?"
"Who wants to know?" The bartender took a good look at Manic, "No way. Manic? Is that you?"
Manic was a little taken back, "Um, yeah?"
"You don't remember me do you?"
Manic looked at this guy hard. He was a burly armadillo that looked like he's kicked more than a few asses in his life. He had a tattoo on his right arm that looked like a circle with three swords stabbed though it. It was the tattoo you got when you became a master thief. Manic was supposed get one the day after Farrel died.
"You're a thief?"
"Yeah. Come on, it's me. Setrid. I knew your mentor, Farrel."
"Wait a minute, are you the guy that carried out the barrel of diamonds that we stole?"
"Yup, that was me."
"Hey, how you doing?"
"Well, pretty good I guess."
"What the hell are you doing on Skullbire?"
"There's good business here. Anyway, is this your girlfriend?" He pointed at Star.
She retorted, "No. I'm helping him find his girlfriend."
"That's why I'm here. That bastard Eggman kidnapped her."
"Robotnick? So he's still causing shit on Mobius?"
"More than ever. So do you know if he's been here?"
Setrid started cleaning a shot glass, "All I know is that there's a base that was constructed yesterday. It's about two miles east of here. Maybe you should go check it out."
"Sounds good. See you later Setrid." Manic tried to walk off but a drunk anthro pushed him.
"Whatcha got bitch!"
Manic rolled his eyes and turned to Star, "We don't have time for this." He tried to walk off again, but the dog continued to belittle him and push him.
"Come fight me you faggot." Then he punched Manic in the face.
"Manic! Are you okay?" Star asked, concerned.
He cracked his jaw, "I've had women slap me harder than that." Then he turned to the assailant. "Look, you wanna fight so bad? Then let's fight."
Now this guy looked tough. He was as tall as Manic, but he was really powerful. Manic threw a punch at him with his gauntlet, which sent him tumbling over a table. He proceeded to pick up the table and throw it at Manic. He used his powers to grab it in mid-air and throw it back. While the dog was on the ground, Manic got down and finished him off by punching him hard in the face.
At this point people were screaming and running out of the bar, except for Setrid and Star, who were happy that the man was knocked out.
"Alright, come on Star. See ya Setrid." Said Manic, catching his breath.
"Bye Manic." Setrid cleaned off the shot glass and put it away.
Star was surprised at Manic, "Wow, that was cool."
"What, that? That was nothing."
"Whatever you say, tough guy." Manic and Star found the rest of the group, and Manic told them about the base. Sonia gave him crap about leaving the group again the whole way there. Manic could see the top of what looked like an Eggman base on the horizon. As they got closer, he noticed that it looked exactly like the one on Mobius. And it must have been built in record time.
They got to the front door, hatch type thing, and got ready to storm in. When they opened the hatch door, it looked completely abandoned, just like the one in Mobius. Except for one thing, they could hear Eggman talking from his office. The gang quietly walked up to his office door, and this is what they heard.
"How long are we going to keep this up? Sonic and his gang are going to find us eventually." Said Shadow.
"I don't care. My last hope is Firecove. Thankfully, it's hardly populated. Perfect for my empire." Eggman responded.
"You'll never be able to get away with this. Manic and Sonic will stop you." Said Blaze.
That was it for Manic. He kicked in the door to find that no one was there. The only thing that was there was a tape recorder on the desk. Manic picked it up and realized that it was on a loop. Out of anger he broke it against the wall. Then, Eggman's ugly face popped up on the computer screen.
"Hello Manic. Looks like you've tracked me this far. I want you to know that my empire is coming along nicely."
"Eggman! Where are you?" Screamed Manic.
"Calm down. I'm on Firecove. And don't worry, your girlfriend is perfectly fine."
"I swear to God, if you hurt her in any way, I'll kill you!"
"I'd be telling that to Shadow. But I think it's time for me to go. Have fun getting here."
"Fuck you!" Manic growled and threw the monitor on the ground, breaking it.
"Manic, calm down!" Yelled Star.
"Don't worry Manic, we'll get Blaze back." Said Tails.
Manic took a deep breath and let it out slowly, "We need to go to Firecove."
I know that it took me a while to upload this chapter, but I kinda took a break from writing. I have a pretty full August, so I probably won't upload Chapter 22 until sometime September or late August. REVIEW!