It has submerged! The long-thought dead fanfic writer has risen from her grave!
Oh my gosh, guys, I'm so sorry this took so long. Now that school's over, and summer has begun, of COURSE I get bronchitus and have the A/C knocked out of power when it's over 90 degrees. UGGH. :P
But this chapter is extra long, which I hope makes up for my LATE lateness. Plus, in addition to the chapters I will be writing every Friday, I will also try and write 5 extra chapters on other days of the week, due to extra summer free-time. So be sure to check every day to see when the surprise chapters come out!
Also, this chapter is spilt into two parts; the next part will be out next week Friday, because the extreme awesomeness is so massive that it has to cover two chapters. Now, get ready for some beastly sound effects, fights, and grand surprises involving teenagers fighting demonic and evil creatures and robots!
...
Wow, that did sound an awful lot like Sailor Moon... Anyways, enjoy my first milestone chapter!
Chapter 25
Why Not To Use a Fake Chaos Emerald (1/2)
Azalea's P.O.V.
The first thing I heard when the demons and robots attacked was Pansy scream, "Aly, get down!"
A demon on the fronts raked its claws against Pan's cheek, drawing blood on sight. Aly screamed and things tumbled hopelessly outta control from there.
We had just arrived at the scene and were already charging into battle, weapons ready. We had already recovered from the sprint we took to arrive at the shrine, and I was glad we took a little rest time before we dove in. Robots and demons approached us in a rage, as we began to take down the army. Weapons tore into skin, and my natural impulse overtook me. Ever since I had arrived on this planet, I noticed how with each fight, I became stronger and more confident. To me, that made sense, considering all the hell I'd been through in such a short two weeks.
As I looked around, I noticed all the shouting and screaming of enemies and teammates. Splattered blood and oil, red and black (in the case of the demons, though, their blood was black), destroyed the throne room's tranquility. I noticed something as I delivered a roundhouse kick to a nearby demon's stomach. Sonic had managed to take Pan out of the fight in a blur and onto one of the roof's supporting beams. She looked to be in pretty bad shape, once I saw the tears in Aly's eyes and the clenched teeth on Pan's face as she disappeared above us. Ten seconds ticked by, and Sonic dropped back to the floor, emrald eyes wide and red blush coating his muzzle. This drew my attention away from the battle momentarily, but in these fight-to-the-death cases, you can never turn your back on a fight.
You can never know what mistakes you'll make if you make a wrong decision in battle.
"Move!" Monkey Khan yelled and I snapped awake. He was sending a lightning bolt from his staff to a demon about to leap onto my back. It paused in mid-air, like it was frozen, before dropping like a stone onto the floor.
So much for developing better reflexes and attention in battle, I thought bitterly to myself. I was surprised that Ivy didn't respond inside my mind. Then I remembered that she couldn't, unless she wanted her mind invaded by the Empress, like Snowlily's fate.
"Thanks!" I cried at him, stabbing the demon in the heart and letting it die in front of my eyes. It disappeared into ashes.
"Watch yourself, Ms. Azalea! I can't go protecting you while trying to save our friend!"
He blasted a bolt in the direction of Robotnik, but the blast was deflected by a flick of the hooded lady's hand. A rumble coursed inside the room, and I saw cracks form on the wall. Uh-oh.
But before I could even think of making another move, something happened. The Empress pulled a fat, metal jar from the folds of the cloak, which seemed impossibly big to fit in her coverings. She undid the bindings that protected the… thing, inside it, and opened the top. An impossibly bright light shone in the room, and the fights halted. Demons hissed from the brilliant light, and we all shielded our eyes. Robotnik and the hooded lady didn't seem at all fazed, though. The battle screeched to a halt.
Once I could see again, my eyes fluttered open to see the amazing jewel now floating in the lady's shriveled, white hand. The gem was a sparkling, grass-green, in the shape of a small diamond. An intense energy wave rippled off the object, and I winced in its presence. I could feel the sound and movement in the room drop when the jewel was presented. The energy didn't feel like an Aura Stone's had, but it still felt incredibly powerful. So then, what was it?
"A Chaos Emerald?!" Tails exclaimed, pointing a shaky finger at the gem. I instantly remembered them discussing the gems with me earlier, and how it was incredibly important they collected all seven of them before they fell into the wrong hands.
Erm, it seemed to be too late for that.
"It is a beautiful gem, isn't it, young Miles Prower?" she hissed at Tails. He froze up when she mentioned his true name, with a facial expression of terror.
"Tails, sweetheart, I know everything about you, not just your name," she continued, like she had just read his mind. His limbs stiffened like a stone statue. "In fact, I know everything about all of you. I know how difficult your childhood was, and how you can communicate with others using telepathy. I know how you, Sally, were taken away from your family and everything you love when you were young and how you fell for a few certain someones standing in this room right now." I noticed how not only Sonic stiffened his body, but how Monkey Khan did as well. My jaw, mentally, dropped onto the floor. "And Ms. Pansy, you cannot hide up in the ceiling forever, even if you are temporarily disabled." One of the vines on her throne shot upward to the columns, causing Pansy to yelp and squirm as the vine tightened around her stomach.
"I won't be forgetting any of this for a long time, Mr. Wisp," she snarled, gesturing at Snow. The vine tightened around Pan, and Snowlily grinned like a psychopath at him. She slapped one of her whips at the hostage, and Pan growled menacingly. Instead of cowering in fear (Probably like I would've had in that scenario… Oh, wait.), a powerful rage was painted onto her face.
"You better let me go, or they'll be hell to pay," she snapped.
"Oh, please. You couldn't even beat one of my measly minions, and had to have someone else save you in order to live. I remember these events, hideous mammal; my memory is as good as an elephant's."
Pan smirked against the pain. "Then it's no wonder you would probably look as fat and hideous as one."
"No, I am not hideous. I am-" She paused, then cackled. "No, I won't say anything. Why spoil the surprise?"
In the blink of an eye, Pan was thrown high up the room and into the stone dragon statue. She fell into the right front claw of the beast, coughing and spluttering. My companions clenched their fists and stared, terrified and angry at our two opponents. My jaw bound tightly, and, blindly, I shoved my trident to Snowlily. The rabbit froze, noticing the weapon under her neck a bit too late.
"Do anything more to any of us, and your servant goes bye-bye."
Gasps pierced the room. "Are you completely insane?!" Wisp roared. "Don't you dare even think of-"
"Hold on, Wisp," Monkey Khan interrupted, grabbing his friend by the shoulder. "I think I see what she's doing."
Wisp's face contorted with barely-contained rage, but he remained silent.
I cleared my throat. "I suggest you hand the Chaos Emerald over to me right now-" I dug the trident deeper into Snow's throat, seeing the small indent grow bigger. "Or, I kill her and release the dragon god that inhibits her. And I think you know what happens if I do decide it's her time to leave this world. You see, the dragon gods can only inhabit chosen ones, or ones that are pure of heart. He could possess anyone in this room who isn't an evil being, which are any of us Freedom Fighters. Meaning, when the god takes over, we can take you and your whole army down in a minute, flat."
Hisses and mechanical whirring grew in volume, but the hooded lady put her hand up to silence them. I felt hundreds of pairs of eyeballs focused on me. She rose, murmuring with poison in her voice, "Just who do you think you're messing with, girl? I would never give the Chaos Emerald to you. Besides, you wouldn't have enough courage to do it." I felt her deathly-cold eyes focused on my eyes, and goose bumps covered the skin under my fur. Now's the chance.
"You're right; maybe I wouldn't. But maybe someone else would." I stared up at Pan; a smirk crept onto my lips. "NOW!"
The villains paused, asking in unison, "What are you-?"
The stone hand of the dragon statue snapped off, and Pan somersaulted down the dragon's back, did a mid-air back flip and rolled off the fall to the floor. She crawled onto her knees and watched with glee as the claw slammed onto the head of the lady.
"GAH!" she screeched, tumbling forward, the emerald flying from her hands. Almost in slow-motion, it tumbled through the air. Demons and robots snapped out of their senses all too late. My body soared up and I caught the gem in the palm of my hand. Nervous adrenaline coursed through my veins as I tumbled backward into a crowd of enemies. My hands grasped the emerald so tightly; I felt my knuckles turn white through my glove. A swift wind lifted me into the air, and I grinned down at Aly, who had created a wind current to lift me out of trouble.
"Sonic!" I yelled, chucking the emerald with all my might in his direction. He hopped up into the air, and caught it like a quarterback would to a football. The monsters snapped out of shock mode, and began to start fighting again, angrier than before at the fall of the demon lady.
"No!" Robotnik roared. Sonic winked as he fell back down and dashed through the awe-struck enemies to Snowlily.
"Chaos Unification!" he yelled, pressing the emerald close to her heart. Her body lurched, as green Chaos energy rushed into her body like a reverse vacuum and black Aura energy flooded away into the open air. A sharp gasp rushed into her lungs, and she panted loudly. "What-?"
"NO!" Robotnik boomed. He yanked a large laser gun from his flying headquarters, and began charging energy to fire.
A sudden slash of silver rushed against the cannon in the blink of an eye, shattering it to pieces. "Egad!" Robotnik screamed, his anger vanishing and turning into fear. Wisp appeared on the opposite side of the room to where he was before. Two long samurai swords were tightly grasped within his hands, and his amber eyes glowed with hatred.
"Don't touch her, unless you want to find your limbs on opposite corners of the room, you sadistic, sick, hell-bent-"
"Wisp, cool it," I soothed him. "Besides, you have other matters to attend to." I tilted my head in Snowlily's and Sonic's direction, and he nodded wordlessly. He sped over to them, and embraced Snowlily tightly. A soft smile crept onto my face as I chopped the head off of a small robot. The rabbit was startled as Wisp explained the events that had just occurred, and Sonic rushed out of sight. In another few short seconds and a burst of green light, Pansy came rushing back into battle beside the speedy hero, and nodded her thanks to him.
"Whoo boy, it is really good to be back!" she whooped triumphantly, diving into a crowd of robots, which were quickly mowed down by a few waves of flying stone shards from the broken dragon hand Pan summoned. "That Chaos Emerald really did the trick!"
"Hey," Sally greeted the two of us, karate-chopping a demon in the head. "Just wondering, how did you guys get the jump on the creepy lady?"
"It was very simple. We had to communicate with each other earlier using Ivy's telekinesis and create a back-up plan in case a scenario like this ever occurred," I explained bluntly, nailing a demon in the jaw.
"But, isn't she telekinetic as well?"
"Not if we got private, secretive training from Ivy as to how to lock our minds so no one can invade."
Sally raised an eyebrow. "How did she know Pan was hiding?"
"The lady probably isn't blind as a bat," Pan shrugged.
"I heard that!" Aly cried over the noise.
Pan smirked. "Anyways, we need to get out of here." Her face became more serious. "If we stay here any longer, all the crashing and fighting might make this place come crashing down on us."
We looked around the building. Pan was right. The crack I had seen earlier was beginning to spread onto the high ceiling, and a small piece of rubble hit me directly in the eye. I swore softly, and we glanced around for options of escape. Then, it hit us all at the same time.
"Oh, Soonic!" Pan seemed to squirm a little when we called his name. Sally didn't seem to notice, but I was looking at the red blush forming on her cheeks.
The blue hero zoomed over to us, and tilted his head in confusion. "Wassup, guys? Didja need something?"
We all gestured to the green Chaos Emerald in his hand. Sally briefly explained the situation to him. He gave a lop-sided frown.
"What's wrong, Sonic?" Sally asked, holding Sonic's empty hand. Pan's eyes glittered dangerously. She looked like she was going to punch someone. I looked up at her face, and she turned away, suddenly bashful.
"See, I can do Chaos Control only if I have two or more Emeralds. Right now, I only have one."
"I can accomplish this task."
Wisp's husky voice made us all jump. He sheathed his swords, and placed his hands on his hips. "I have the ability to. I've done it before."
"Really?" Sonic asked.
"Yes."
"Huh. Ya know, you really remind me of another ebony-"
"Can we please just get out of here before we get brain trauma from the stone that will soon be on top of our heads?" I exclaimed.
We nodded. Sonic tossed Wisp the Emerald, and we began rounding up the other members. I ran ahead, Sonic retrieved Tails, Pan got Aly, Wisp guided Snowlily and Sally pushed Monkey Khan to the center. Robotnik stared at us in confusion, very confused as he ordered robots to tend to the injured empress. "What the-?!"
Wisp grinned, holding the Chaos Emerald into the air. We linked hands (Pan and Sonic were blushing harshly now, since they had to hold hands), and Wisp yelled, "CHAOS-"
"What?! NO!" Robotnik yelled. (I swear, it felt like he was screaming his lungs out for the fiftieth time today.)
"-CONTROL!"
With a loud FWASH!, we were gone in a brilliant spark of light.
After the teleportation (which felt like we were being squished through a tube of toothpaste), we hit the firm ground hard. Our hand links broke, and we caught our breath. We were at… um…
"Hey! Look! It's my log cabin!"
Tails's voice echoed in the jungle-y terrain. What on Earth was he talking about?
Tails wound up his tails and flew up a steep hill to a well built cabin with a porch and a shed beside it. We followed him skeptically on the dirt path as he examined the building. The hill was tall enough so you could see a beach a short distance away, but with trees and plants in every other direction. Ivy walked over to a plant, closed her eyes, and felt a petal of a red flower with a yellow stem sticking out from the petals' center. She looked over at us, and said, "This is a hibiscus. A tropical plant."
"What? Tails, where are we and how do you know this cabin?" Sonic questioned his bro, staring at the wooden structure.
"Well, after you were thought to be killed, Sonic, I traveled here a lot to get my mind off the… incident."
Before I decided whether or not to ask anything about the subject of Sonic's "death", there was a mechanical whir behind us. A machine of colossal proportions stood directly behind us, sticking a laser cannon in our faces. My eyes glared closer and I saw a short man with six black hairs on his almost-bald head and an outfit similar to Robotnik's, except for the green instead of the red. He looked like Robotnik in some ways, with the relationships in baldness and huge noses.
"Snively!" Tails cried. "What are you doing here?"
I vaguely remembered the F.F.'s explanation on a short bratty henchman who was nephew to Dr. Robotnik and who always liked to make attempts to gain power for himself. He was, supposedly, a mini version of the doctor.
The tall mech, composed of painted red and yellow arms and legs, tilted closer to our faces, and the clear window opened. His crooked face smirked down at us. "It's a good thing you stupid Freedom Fighters fell for the trap. I've wanted to meet this new Freedom Fighter group I've been hearing so much about lately from Uncle Eggy." He looked at our crowd and counted off Pansy, Ivy, Alyssum, Snowlily, Wisp, and I. "Mmm, I see. You must be the new group."
"We're part of it," I replied bitterly. He leaned into my face so close I could see his nose hairs (All I have to say: Ick!).
"You must be the leader then. Ms. Azalea, I think. An extraterrestrial. I must say, you must have learned quite a bit while on Mobius, hmm?"
"Back off, cowardice maggot," Snowlily insulted him, saying the first thing I heard her say without the effects of mind-control. A bit intimidating, in my opinion. "I suggest you and your armies retreat before chaos ensues." True to her words, I noticed an army of more and more smaller mechs with shaded front windows and similar design to Snively's lead mech began building up behind him.
"I think it already has, filthy animal," he snapped back. Monkey Khan and Wisp drew their weapons.
"Don't you dare say a word to her," Wisp snarled menacingly. His fur suddenly began to dim into an even darker shade of black than it already was, and his pupils were disappearing. The Chaos Emerald grew darker with his fur change, and both object and master began to swim with a dangerously dark aura. The mechs began to step back, and Snively watched him nervously, losing his cool.
"Calm down, Wisp," Monkey Khan advised him. "Keep a level head."
The rabbit grimaced, but nodded. The aura disappeared, and Snively cackled, regaining control of himself and pressing his mech up to its full height. "This is what you call a team?!" Squawks echoed from the tall weapons alongside Snively's laughing madness.
"Why are birds in those mechs?" I asked the others through tight lips, bringing out my trident.
"I'm trying to hack into one of their brains now," Ivy muttered back, pressing her hands to her temples and closing her eyes. Suddenly, one of the mechs to the right began jerking madly, as if it were out of control. No one was noticing though, because they were all still laughing at us and gloating at "how pathetic the new team was" and "how taking control of Mobius wasn't going to be much harder with us on guard". Ivy reopened her eyes and the mech returned to normal. "OK, so these little helpers are part of another army called the Battle Bird Armada. They teamed up with Robotnik and are planning to use the small, un-evolved Mobian animals and evolved Mobian residents as slaves as resources to power a new type of robot prototype. It's another sceme to try and take over Mobius. And we're on Cocoa Island, a place far, far west from New Mobotropolis, not even on the same continent, in the middle of the ocean. They sent us here with the fake Chaos Emerald, so basically, this was all a trap."
"Whoa, you got all that just from one of those little guys?" Sally gaped.
Ivy shook her head. "I also, mentally, hacked into one of their computer files, which were downloaded onto each of these machines. That helped a lot. Because, basically, these little bird henchmen aren't really well informed of the plans the leaders of the Battle Bird Armada and the Empire have."
Monkey Khan gawked. "She hacked into a computer with her mind?"
"Why are you so surprised? You have metallic innards and float around on a mini storm cloud shooting lightning bolts," I replied. He shrugged.
"So, are we just gonna stand around here, or kick some bird butt?" Sonic grinned cockily. I rolled my eyes, but nodded in agreement with the others. "Well then, let's do it to-!"
WHAM!
We all jumped in surprise at a sudden slamming sound, and gazed at a figure shadowed in mid-leap by the sun. One of the mechs came toppling down, proceeding to hit another huge suit, and then another, and another…
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
Ten, squawk-filled seconds later, five mechs were lying on top of each other like dominos, with broken windows and forcefully removed limbs scattering the ground. The still-active mechs moved in circles, searching for the source of their downed comrades. We were no longer their prime focus, and vice versa.
"What is going on?" Wisp growled, placing his hands on his twin samurai sword hilts.
"W-Who's there?" Snively whimpered fearfully. He jumped at a sudden lightning bolt that ripped through the air. Clouds billowed in the sky, replacing the clear, humid tropical weather. The clouds looked condensed with water to me, but there wasn't a drop of rain that had fallen.
DWOO! BA-ZAP!
A column of flame burst from a nearby tree, and the flaming glory fell onto a nearby mech, causing an intimidating explosion, and was followed by a ray of orange light flash-frying another metallic beast. Three figures flew above us, another flash of lightning streaking behind them. The light lit barely for a second, but in the next, they were gone.
Pansy frowned, pulling out her bo-staff. "What the-?"
A loud crashing sound billowed in our ears as the three strange figures appeared behind us, creating cracks in the places they slammed into. We stared at them in confusion and astonishment. All of them had something in common: similar ages (14-15 or so), similar dresses with weapons, each seemed to represent a certain color and theme, and a necklace with an elemental amulet hung around their neck.
The lead girl was a yellow koala, with ankle-length, blonde hair and a thick bang covering her left eye. She wore a cheerleader-style dress, with a slender top, ribbons that held up the dress tied around her neck and a layered skirt with white hems. Ice-white gladiator sandals were tied around her fuzzy, clawed feet, and a lightning-shaped amulet hung around her neck. Her white, fingerless gloves tightened around twin daggers with lightning-shaped handles, and her spark-yellow eyes glittered cheerfully.
The hedgehog girl to her left themed the color red, which was probably why red-hot fire was dancing on her right hand's fingertips. Her dress was very identical to Amy's, I remembered, except the dress's shade of red was much richer and deeper than the original, it was completely sleeveless, and the white hems were a super-light yellow. Lighter-shaded flame etched up the umbrella-shaped bottom up to the abdominal region of the dress, and devil-red sneakers with flame patterns covered her feet. Her quills were a much gentler shade of red, and were held up in pigtails with ribbons. Although she looked cute in the red-hot look, it was more of the platinum, thinly-bladed sword she was gripping in her other, non-flaming hand that seemed to have a more intimidating effect.
The orange kitty off to the koala's left looked much more… um… maturely developed, then the others. Her off-the-shoulder-sleeved dress went down to the middle of her thighs, and glowed a luminous orange color. Her sleek cat fur glittered in the sun, which made sense, since an amulet in the shape of a sun hung around her neck. Thigh-length gray boots protected her feet and part of her legs and fingerless-and-tan-gloved hands held up a gray shield in the shape of a boomerang. She flashed a smile, showing off her clean white fangs. Her body would have made quite a few guys I know begin drooling on the spot.
So, in one word: Whoa. We had just found the three remaining demigoddesses by just falling for Robotnik's plan. Unless, of course, they were really robotic doppelgangers, which would suck. But I looked on the positive side of things, and was thinking that they were the real deals.
"What the-? You!" Snively roared angrily, an anger vein as clear as day burning on his forehead. "What are you three doing here?! I thought you were caged back at the base!"
"Well, you funny, needle-nosed man, you just can't keep a good girl down," the red hedgehog smirked. She whipped out her sword and leapt high into the air. "Eat sword, coward!" Just as she was beginning to fall, though, her feet suddenly ignited, and flames began blasting from the soles of her sneakers. She began to rocket back into the air. The hedgehog was flying.
"What in the name of Mobius just happened?" Aly whispered, eyes so wide that they seemed cartoon-y.
"I'm not quite sure, Alyssum," Snowlily responded, her voice soft and level. She turned back to the remaining two slowly, and we all copied.
"'Ello," the yellow koala smiled cheerfully, like we were having a tea party instead of fighting an army of killer robots. "How are you doing?"
"Oh, very well," Monkey Khan responded sarcastically, her cheeks heating up. "We've only just traveled halfway across Mobius through Chaos Control, using an apparently fake Chaos Emerald, discovered the existence of this tropical island that'll soon be taken over by mad doctors, and are wondering if we could get an explanation as to what the heck is-goin'-on!"
"Dang, boy, hold yo' horses," the orange cat responded, checking her nails. "We haven't even done introduced ourselves yet."
"Are you KIDDING me? We just got here, and then you show up, and-"
Sally placed a hand on the angry primate's shoulders. "Khan? Calm down. Breathe."
He momentarily paused his rant, inhaled, and exhaled deeply. He seemed to have calmed down. "Anyways, we just arrive in this place out of the blue, and you just act all calm and relaxed, like you were expecting this?"
"Hun, before I met the other girls, ah was a spy. That means I can sneak inta places, extract info, and get mah tail out without gettin' caught. So, learnin' 'bout this whole plan they had goin'? Piece o' cake. All we had ta do was plan what ta do 'bout yourah ahrival and how to stop the bad guys. Then we execute, and boom! Done."
The yellow koala interrupted with a loud throat clearing. "Yes, her spy skills were very useful in this situation. So, anyway, introductions. I'm Marigold the Koala, the Demigoddess of Electricity and Optimism. This here is Orange Blossom the Cat, Demigoddess of Light and Health. And that-" She pointed to the flying hedgehog, who's body was now flaming as she took down opponents and was cheering loudly while doing so. "-is Poppy the Hedgehog, Demigoddess of Fire and War."
"I'M QUEEN OF THE WORLD, SUCKAS!" she whooped, barreling down ten mechs in one blast through the center of their suits with her flaming body.
"She's very… eccentric, about battles," Marigold commented.
"No kiddin'," I mumbled.
"Whoa, heads up, bros!" Poppy whirled, stopping a surprise missile attack from Snively's mech by simply extending the flames from her body a bit more to make a fire shield. We all ran outta sight, into a huge space away from the ruins that was surrounded by trees. We made brief intros to the new girls about ourselves, as I took a gander out of our temporary hiding spot. I could see Snively's nervous expression and trembling hands through the leaves of a fat bush and the shaded glass window as he spoke inaudibly through a com link attached to the control board. The henchman was probably calling for back-up instead of wanting to face us himself. Coward. I directed their attention to him briefly.
Once Poppy slightly extinguished herself to the point where we could see her face (Do not ask me how she managed to not set fire to the bushes she rushed through, because I still don't know, even at this point in time that the story is being told from.), she tipped her head in his direction. "Whaddya say? Do I go for it? Or do I wait for the fun to start?"
We all gave her either crazy looks or blank stares. "Uh…"
"We should wait, see if we can find any more data on his plans of world domination, Pop," Marigold spoke firmly. Poppy looked slightly depressed, but fell to the ground and extinguished herself. I noted to myself never to put anything flammable, like alcohol or matches, within her reach. Ever.
"So, explanations? You want them, you got them. What do ya need to-?"
"I just got in touch with the other Freedom Fighters. They're going to try to get here ASAP!" Ivy interrupted excitedly. We grinned and nodded approval at her, while the three newbies stared at her blankly.
"What is she talkin' 'bout?" Orange Blossom asked, curious as to know about what Ivy meant by other Freedom Fighters.
"Ivy's a telepath, so she can communicate with others. But, how were you able to get in touch with them from this long of a distance?" I explained/questioned.
"Well, since Wendell, Maroon, and I know each other so well, I created strong mental ties so we can access each other from any location globally. That way, we can talk to each other in case we need support or back-up, or if we just want to chat about private manners."
"Huh. I never knew that," I shrugged. "Anyways, I don't think I'm the only one wanting to know what happened with Robotnik's little 'trap' he put us into so we could travel to this island."
"Well, the jerk was tryin' ta lure you here to show some sorta big 'surprise' for one o' ya'll," Orange Blossom explained.
Pause.
"What is it?" Tails asked.
"Ah dunno. The file he was holdin' the info in on a computah hard drive was too heavily prutected, so I had ta skedaddle before I got anything more."
Pan widened her eyes, looking up at a shadow that had suddenly cast over us. "Uh, guys?"
We stared up at the darkened sky. A huge battleship was floating majestically above our heads. Suddenly, a high-pitched screech blasted inside my ears, and I slammed my eyes shut and clutched my furry ears. I opened one eye and saw the other girls reacting similarly. They seemed in agony, scratching at their ears and pinching their eyes together so tightly that they seemed like they had just stared directly at the sun for ten solid seconds. The other Freedom Fighters seemed unaffected by the horrible pain, and were staring at all of us like we were insane.
"Snowlily! What's wrong?" Wisp pushed, shaking her shoulder a bit. Snow pointed up at the ship.
"There are Shade Demons on that ship. They seem… different, and more powerful than the ones we've previously fought in battle," she groaned. Then, all at once, the resonating sound stopped.
"Huh. Weird," I moaned, recovering. I rubbed my head and watched as the others prepared themselves for battle. I copied.
Then-
"AAAAH!"
Pansy screamed a yell so out-of-the-blue and terrifying that goosebumps crawled onto my skin and shivers traveled up and down my spine. Her hands were once again pressed up against her temples, and she began writhing on the ground in torture, as if someone was shooting millions of volts into her body. Her once-confident face shriveled in hurt, and transformed into a completely new facial expression…
Rage.
Her presence filled me with fear all of a sudden, and a bruise-colored aura radiated around her body. The once-cheerful, purple eyes became molded into the whiteness of her eyes, and her dress became torn and shredded to pieces. Her baseball cap tore apart as wild streams of hair broke free of the cap, levitating around her darkened body. She giggled childishly.
"Um, Pan-?" Sonic attempted to make contact with the demigoddess, but she shook her head.
"This isn't talktime, sweetie: this is playtime." She took a step in his direction. He took a cautious step back.
"Um, is she usually like this?" Marigold gulped. I gave a slight shake of my head. Snowlily tightened her fists around two white ribbon-whips, and bared her teeth.
"She's been possessed."
Monkey Khan raised an eyebrow. "By what, exactly?"
"Not what. Who. It's the Dark Aurora Empress. The real one."
Alyssum's jaw dropped. "Whaddya mean, the real one? Didn't we crush her to pieces with a stone statue back at the dragon god shrine?"
"We crushed her robot duplicate at the shrine. She wouldn't just go out on a limb with nothing to expect and end up dying just like that. I didn't say anything until now, because the limited mind-control abilities she used from the cyborg's body kept me from relaying any info until now, since the mental connection has just been broken. And Ivy, since she has telepathic abilities, couldn't do or say anything without being at risk of possession or exposure."
Pan smiled mischievously. "Hmm, you are a clever girl, aren't you? It's too bad you are of your mother's blood, Ivy; we could've used you. But for now, let's get to the fun part of my day, shall we?"
"Exactly, what do you mean by that?" Poppy frowned, pointing her sword at possessed Pan.
"Killing you freaks," she hissed.
Poppy's eyes glittered with sorrow. "Aww. If you had said destroying robots or killing demons, I totally would've agreed and joined you."
I stared at her. Jeez, this girl needed to be on some sort of medication, or get some therapy for her violence.
Pan raised her hand eerily, and the earth under our feet began to rumble. She gave a creepy, Tails Doll-worthy smile. "Now, who wants to have some fun-?"
Her voice suddenly cut off, and she was frozen. Then, the possession suddenly seemed to lift, a sliver of dark energy leaving Pan's heart and rising into the air. She crumpled onto the ground, back to normal. Of course, minus the shredded dress and loose hair.
"Pansy!" Sonic exclaimed, and lifted her limp body into his arms. She opened her eyes slowly, looking up at Sonic. "What the hell just happened?"
"I agree with that question," Sonic smiled back down at her. She smirked, then tilted her head so she could catch a glimpse of the floating fortress above our heads.
"I-I heard the possessor say something about a plan of attack," Pan groaned, allowing Sonic to help her stand properly on her feet. "H-He said something about enchanted, stronger Shade Demons and stuff about swords. So, I'm concluding that we should expect demons holding swords to reign from the sky."
"That doesn't sound good," Tails gulped, watching the shadow in fear of a surprise attack.
"You know what, Tails? That doesn't sound or look good."
All of us looked above our heads, following Pan's words, at the several, tiny figures beginning to fall from the bottom of the ship. As they descended downward, though, they were growing bigger. Like, three-stories-tall big. Hisses and roars battered against our eardrums.
"Holy, flaming mother of gods," Poppy whistled. "Pan was right. Look!" I squinted my eyes and my heart fell into my knees when I saw what Poppy meant. Each one of them was brandishing a sword probably as tall as the six and seven foot kids that went to my old middle school on Earth.
"Ohmygosh!" Aly squeaked. My fists balled tighter around my trident.
"Everyone, prepare yourselves. We are about to enter a war zone of blood-lusting demons, led a pair of mad, mad dictators." Sally's words rang in my head, and we nodded. "I'll take the Freedom Fighters. Azalea, you got the girls?" I nodded solemnly. "Alright. Tell your team what to do, and get prepared."
I gazed at my new friends, all of them wearing different reactions: fear, excitement, and power. Each of us were so different, yet so alike. It was hard to believe that if we were to survive this encounter, we were all to become friends.
"OK, girls. Although I've only known some of you for a few weeks, a few days, or a couple minutes, I would just like to thank you. I thank you because you've thrown yourselves willingly into the cause of fighting for freedom and justice, and saving others who needed to be saved. Being friendly, courageous, and full of life, showing all these factors to the people of this planet when they most need you is something I envy. Because, like Snively said, I am an extraterrestrial. On my world, I thought things were moderately peaceful compared to the war here on Mobius. I've learned so much, even with my short, two-week arrival. Now-" I twirled my trident around my fingers, and smiled. "-who's ready to kick some demon butt like a boss?"
A chorus of cheers and a "Hmph" from Snowlily followed. I could feel a new power surging inside of my heart, like an azalea about to blossom. At that moment, I concluded it was the forming of a demigoddess friendship.
"What's your plan?" Sally asked us, the other F.F. following her gaze. We all shared a smile.
"To work as a team, following a leader," Pan answered confidently, the once-evil smirk replaced with devilish jubilance.
"That's what I want to hear," she grinned back. I held my hand up, and she high-fived it.
"Let's do it to it!" Sonic roared. We followed in his cry, and made final preparations and chats. I nodded to all of them. They nodded back. I quickly saw Pan disappear, then reappear in under 20 seconds. She was blushing violently. Hmm…
"KRAAAH!"
Nearby, one of the many hunking demons thoomed into a palm tree beside us. Another slammed into a mango tree, and roared so loudly that the ripe fruit shuddered off the tree.
Holy crap, this was gonna be epic.