Distorted Reflections: Pt 1
"Help. Somebody help me." The voice called out from some distant corner of the battlefield as Sonic looked amidst the wreckage. He tried to pinpoint where exactly it was coming from. The blue blur finally spotted a shaky red arm with a white glove reaching out from under the broken shell of a penguinator badnik. "Someone, please." The voice pleaded, desperately. "I'm trapped beneath this robot."
"Tails, she's over here." Sonic called out to the fox. "I think she might be wounded." Sonic and Tails hadn't seen anybody else when they ambushed that crew of badniks trying to make a sneak attack on the outskirts of Starlight City. But the plaintive cries that had started just as the battle ended showed that there had obviously been an unintended victim of Eggman's attack.
"There you go, miss. No harm done." Sonic told her as he and Tails lifted the scrap metal off of the unknown female mobian. "Don't worry, the fight's over and nobody is going to hurt you." The red female fox in a yellow jumpsuit sat up and looked around before suddenly jumping forward and embracing both Sonic and Tails in a hug.
"Oh thank you, thank you so much." The vixen exclaimed gratefully. "I don't know what I would have done if you two hadn't come along."
"Easy, easy, miss." Tails reassured her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You're going to be alright. Now, what's your name and what were you doing out here?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. Allow me to introduce myself." The female fox jumped to her feet, brushing her clothes off. "My name is Fiona and I heard the sounds of a battle out here. I got curious."
"Well, you should really be more careful miss." Sonic gently scolded her. "It's dangerous when Eggman's badniks are around."
"I know I'll try to be more careful from now on." She jumped forward giving both the hedgehog and the male fox a peck on the cheek. "Lucky for me, two big strong heroes came along and rescue me."
"Uh… It's the least we could do miss." Sonic replied, stuttering.
"Say maybe we should take you some place safe." Tails said.
"Oh wait, aren't you two the famous Sonic and Tails?" She asked, squeeing. "Oh my gosh, I so totally watch you guys on the news all the time. I soooooo love stories of your awesome adventures."
"Well then, why don't you come back with us to the Sky Patrol?" Sonic asked, his ego swelling up from her fangirling. "I'm sure you'd be safe there."
"Hey great idea." Fiona exclaimed, putting an arm around each one of the guy's elbows. "I'd just love it if you two would give me a personal tour of your base." But as the three walked away, Fiona looked back over her shoulder and gave a wink to a green scarred figure watching the scene from the other side of the battlefield. The spiky porcupine in shades simply nodded at her, pleased that everything was going according to plan.
"Hey Amy, we're back." Sonic called out as the three boarded the Sky Patrol. Amy Rose was in the vessel's lounge doing a tarot reading as the two boys came in with their newest friend. Amy drew the card of death just as Fiona came through the door. She looked up to greet her fiancé and this stranger newcomer.
"Oh, hey there, Sonic." Amy stood up and gave the blue blur a kiss. "Good to see you and Tails back so early. And who's this friend you brought back with you?"
"Hi, my name's Fiona and Sonic and Tails here saved my life." The vixen stated, shaking hands with Amy Rose. "So, this is the Sky Patrol, huh? Wow, I never imagined it would be so big." Amy felt a shiver go up her spine as she touched the vixen's hand, but the pink hedgehog simply ignored it as Sonic and Tails began to show Fiona around.
"Yeah, this place is kinda huge. But I need a lot of running space to stay in shape." Sonic told her, running in place. "And Tails needs a lot of room to fly and do his sciencey stuff."
"It's called repair and inventions, Sonic." Tails rolled his eyes. "I know you mean well but I wish you'd take my work a little more seriously." Seeing a hint of tension between the two heroes, Fiona decided to use it to her advantage.
"So, one of you flies and the other runs. That's so cool." The vixen smiled, scratching the bottom of her nose with her index finger. "So, which one of you is faster: land or air?"
"Oh, I'm way faster than Tails here when I'm running." Sonic stated.
"Excuse me?" Tails asked, raising an eyebrow. "I've been keeping up with you all these years when you've been running at top speed. I think I could easily outfly you while I'm in the air and you're on the ground."
"Oh really. Is that a challenge?" Sonic asked, getting ready to take off in a sprint. "I bet I can make it all the way to Starlight Lake and back faster than you can fly one way."
"Go ahead and try Sonic." Tails replied, spinning his two tails and taking to the air. "I'll leave you in the dust before we even reach the halfway point." The two took off racing out the ship's hatchway leaving an amused Fiona watching them go with a smile.
"Wow, I can't believe how easy that was." Fiona chuckled aloud.
"How easy what was?" Amy asked, raising her own eyebrow. "It almost sounds like you wanted those two to start competing."
"Uh… I didn't mean anything." Fiona replied, sheepishly. Her eyes darting around nervously. "Hey, it sounds like somebody's coming up the landing hatchway from the outside." Amy turned to look at the entrance and saw a familiar green hedgehog come walking up the runway.
"Sonic, yo bro. You hear?" the green hedgehog looked around until he saw the pink female. "Amy, what's up? I didn't expect to see you here. Where's my bro?"
"Oh hi, Manic." Amy sighed, shaking her head. "Sonic's out showing off again. Seems like a fangirl got to his ego for the millionth time."
"Really? Bummer. I wanted to take him and Sonia to this neat little café I found in Starlight's artsy district." He held up two restaurant giftcards. "Hey, why don't I take you instead. I mean, since you're not doing anything."
"I don't know. Maybe I should wait here for, Sonic…" Amy looked down the ramp and thought about Sonic racing for the attention of the cute fox girl. "You know what I'll take you up on that dinner date. Might as well spend some time with my future brother-in-law." She looked away with a smile. "And if Sonic just so happens to get a little jealous, well that's his problem."
"Alright," Manic replied, fistpumping the air. "I'll tell you what. Why don't you head down to my caddy I have waiting outside the ship. I'll be down in a minute to drive us to the café. I've got something I need to pick up from my bro's room first."
"Okay. Don't be long." Amy smiled walking down the ramp.
Manic and Fiona, then, turned towards each other and both began to chuckle.
"Can you all believe they fell for it?" Fiona laughed, shaking her head at the hero's naïve stupidity. "They all bought the whole helpless victim on the battlefield cliché. I can't believe they trusted me so easily."
"That's the way heroes are babe; brainless, innocent, and trusting to a fault." The green porcupine took off his sunglasses and slipped them into his buttoned vest. "They bought the act just as easily as they are buying my Manic impersonation."
"I gotta say. You're thrilling than the real Manic, Scourge." Fiona replied, putting an arm around him. "You're way more dangerous in your adventures and a hell-of-a-lot more exciting in bed."
"Thanks, doll. You are the best thing to happen to me since I left Mobidoon." He grinned a razor toothed smile. "Now, do you think you can have all those explosives planted on the Sky Patrol before blue boy and the fox with the birth defect get back?"
"Sure, that was the whole deal we worked out with Doctor Egghead after all." Fiona rubbed her hands together greedily. "Oh wow, I can't believe. He's going to pay us one billion mobiums to kill Team Sonic."
"Eh. It's not really a bad deal, babe." Scourge laughed. "And besides, once blue boy is gone, I can milk this Prince Manic thing for every penny it's worth and then we can retire in style." Just then, a familiar raccoon came skipping up the ramp and just happened to notice Scourge and Fiona standing there.
"Oh g'day, Manic. Amy said I'd find ya in here." Marine greeted him. "She's waitin' for ya in the car below and…" She paused. "Krickey, what happened to your chest? You should get that looked at."
"What?" Scourge looked down and saw his scars exposed. "Oh sh-. Fiona, take her down."
"What?" Marine asked. Fiona jumped at the raccoon girl giving her a swift kick and knocking her off her feet. "What was that for?" Marine wailed as the vixen lunged at her on the ground. The raccoon kicked Fiona off of her and hit the vixen with a dash attack sending her flying back into the wall. "Blimey, you're not Manic at all. He's taller." Marine ran for the hatchway. "I gotta tell Sonic that his brother's a bloomin' imposter."
"Oh no, you don't." Scourge snarled. Then, something strange happened. Scourge seemed to move from one side of the room to the other in nearly an instant, faster than Sonic's running but slower than Shadow's teleporting. He was blocking the exit as he started Marine down. "Ah ah ah, no blowing my cover now." Scourge waved a finger in her face.
"But that's bloody impossible." Marine squeaked. "How did you get in front of me?"
"It's called velocity alteration, babe." Scourge laughed. "That blue bum gave me this ability when he struck me when I had the power stone. I can steal speed from everything around me. I'm not going faster, everything else is going slower."
Before Marine could say anything, Fiona struck her from behind knocking her out.
"Spunky little thing, isn't she." Fiona growled. "What do you want me to do with her?"
"Tie her up and throw her in the closet. She'll go up with the rest of these heroes." Scourge shook his head. "It's really a shame we're gonna kill a kid in this whole mess. Don't you think that's a tragedy, Fiona?"
"Oh sure, it's at least worth another few thousand mobiums in our contract." Fiona smiled as she drug the unconscious raccoon into the closet. "A little more money should ease my conscience." Both of them burst out laughing at that before Scourge marched down the ramp way to join Amy Rose.