Characters © Respected Owners
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Ch. 24: Goodbye, Hello
Wave was dead. Gone forever, leaving a mass of bloody flesh and feathers behind. My prison's air seemed to constrain, leaving me breathless. I stared at my hands, knowing that it was my other self that killed her. Similar situation, since it was like I murdered her. I wondered how Jet and Storm would take her death, and I could feel their looks of agony and rage already beating down on my mind.
As Rodrigo continued to snicker about his descendant's death, he turned to glance back at me with a disgusting smirk plastered on his beak. Tapping my orb prison, the crow began to taunt me, but I wasn't listening to his glorified rant. I was too ashamed of myself, turning emo like Shadow when he was just released from the Space Colony Ark. Vannoza wasn't teasing me with hankering, evil sneers; she appeared more miserable like the old version of her back on Babylon. It was as though she regretted watching Wave die.
"Hey, brat, are you listening to me?!" Rodrigo snapped, slowly breaking me out of my self-piteous daze. "Feh! At least, watch your friends die. Van, where's Anti Charmy now?"
"He's bursting up the stairs, love, to where Jet and Storm should find an interesting end to the stairs," Vannoza mysteriously cooed as Rodrigo nuzzled her neck affectionately with her beak.
"Get a room," I muttered just loudly enough so that I alone could hear it.
The monitor that showed the others mourning Wave's corpse swapped to Jet and Storm slumped onto the stairs in exhaustion. Rodrigo cursed, stating they were back together as friends, adding that Tagio failed. I presumed this meant that Tagio was dead, and the birds were back on as brotherly comrades. Jet had his head slumped onto his knees as monotonous curses escaped his harsh beak. Storm was panting heavily, being the one who had to carry him and I for the most part. The duo avians glanced at each other before sighing in discontent.
"Hey, Storm?" Jet muttered, still breathing rather heavily.
"W-what, Boss?" Storm stammered.
"If you were a girl, I'd date you."
There was a moment of completely awkward silence. Storm slowly turned to face Jet, realizing the jade hawk was clearly delusional. Jet's head began to swagger back and forth, exposing the extent of his tired and half-insane nature before clinging childishly to Storm's arm. The albatross just stared wide-eyed in absolute disbelief as Jet began to sniffle like he lost something precious. He began shivering, sucking in shakier breathes than before.
"B-boss?!" Storm cried frantically as Jet's whimpering became suddenly audible. "W-what's wrong?!"
"S-something's wrong," Jet whispered, eyes widening in panic. "Something's just not right with everyone else, and Wave...I'm feeling so…so cold inside." He looked up at Storm, eyes still panic-struck. "Can't you feel anything, Storm?"
Storm hesitated, looking at the stairs they sat on. His eyes flickered in realization before looking down at all of the stairs they climbed to reach the point where they sat. Something was wrong, just like Jet had predicted. They should've at least had some sort of communication from the others, and Wave should've followed them, like always. The Babylon Rogues always stuck together, and she had all sorts of radios or doo-dads that could've sent them a message somehow.
"You think something…bad happened to Wave?" Storm asked, summarizing Jet's fears with a nod of the hawk's head. "And what did you mean by that if you were a girl, you'd date me?"
"…When did I say that?" Jet questioned stupidly.
"Um, like, a minute ago." Storm blinked in surprise, wondering how bad Jet's condition was.
"…I said that? Must've been delirious, but I might've of. You know, if I were a girl."
Storm slapped himself in the forehead. Jet nervously chuckled, a smiling creeping onto his face. They got back up with Storm threatening to kick Jet over the edge of stairs he asked him to carry him again. Backing off, Jet smirked before glancing over his shoulder and placing a hand in front of his right-hand-man to stop him. Instead of questioning his leader, Storm obediently stood in place, waiting for any instructions. Jet yanked out his fans and slashed them downwards, creating a gust of wind to warn off any intruders. It was a defensive move that I had seen Jet do several times whenever we were on heists, and it worked.
Anti Me barreled backwards down the stairs, changing back into his normal size. He rubbed the back of his skull, glaring harshly at the shocked birds. The sudden appearance of my dark self seemed to inflate anger in Jet as his eyes narrowed Storm hiccupped back his surprise as Jet's grasp on his fans tightened. Brushing back his blond bangs, Anti Me yanked his green dagger out of his opened jacket, getting into a defensive stance.
"Charmy, what the hell are you doing?!" Jet demanded coldly.
"Hah! He thinks your darkness is actually you!" Rodrigo chortled viciously.
"Hah! Storm, I told you he was evil!" Jet victoriously jeered, stabbing a dramatic finger at his cohort.
"Charmy, why are you-?" Storm, however, wasn't able to complete his question when Anti Me simply began to giggle.
"You think I'm him? You think I'm my weak, puny, pathetic, light counterpart?" Anti Me scoffed. Cracking his neck, a wider, devious smirk entranced the mirror of insanity to his face. "It's amusing, you idiots, for you two to fight and let him get captured by Lord Rodrigo and Lady Vannoza."
"Charmy got captured?" Jet gasped. "So, he's not a traitor?"
"Told ya," Storm growled.
"The idiot refused to assist my master, and he was knocked unconscious by Vannoza. The deal was to get revenge on you, Jet, but he shook his head. Once the shake was done, Lady Vannoza slapped her hand onto the back of his neck, effectively sending him to the realm on unconsciousness. I was created in an orb made from the malice, envy, and whatever sins from Charmy's heart bloomed. I am Anti Charmy, a new and improved weapon for Lord Rodrigo's cause."
"That's kinda like what Tagio did to Sonic and Knuckles," Storm recalled nervously. "When he made them throw your Control Box around and nearly kill us!"
Jet pulled out the Control Box, having retrieved it from Tagio. Clenching it tightly, he glowered back to Anti Me, snapping, "But you're not really him. You'll never be him. You're nothing, but a clone ain't ya?"
"Once Charmy is dead, the only one left will be me," Anti Charmy grunted idly. "After all, it's not like you cared about Charmy, Jet."
"What?! Yes I did!" Jet defended.
"Then why did you accuse Charmy of betraying you just because his soul was reincarnated from Rodrigo's?!" Anti Charmy bellowed. When Jet didn't answer, he couldn't have, he sneered and continued. "You accepted Wave when you learned she was Rodrigo's descendant, but you can't have Charmy be Rodrigo's reincarnation. It's sad, really, because you're so selfish-!"
"Selfish," Jet repeated emotionlessly. "I'm…selfish? That's the word you used?"
"B-boss?" Storm stuttered. "Are you okay?"
"You think that decision was easy for me? Just giving up on him? Well, it wasn't!" Jet shrieked, making almost everybody except Anti Charmy flinch. "He was, is, a member of Babylon Rogues. I was too hard on him. I'll arrogantly admit that I was wrong. You make a good point, Anti Charmy, but let me ask you something: Once you fulfilled your purpose of whatever Rodrigo told you to do, what're you gonna do if, by chance, Charmy dies? What happens to you?"
Anti Me hesitated, staring at the kunai in his hand. His fingers began to twitching as he looked from Jet to Storm and back to his knife. Gulping audibly, my darkness' eyes began to glaze over like he was absorbed in his own little fantasy world. Slowly, he fluttered upwards with his kunai being twirled by his forefinger. Like always, Jet was impatient for a response, shouting at him to stop buying time.
"If Charmy dies, I die," Anti Me bluntly replied. "The world doesn't stop spinning for one life. I will die for Lord Rodrigo's cause and be happy about it."
"What if I kill you now?" Jet demanded coldly, disgusted by his answer.
"If you kill me, or if Storm kills me, Charmy and I shall die at the same time. It doesn't matter to me, though, as long as I am better than my light counterpart," Anti Me responded greedily. "Though, I think this bit of information should invoke some…wrath."
"What now?" Storm growled, balling his bone-crushing hands into fists.
Anti Me raised three fingers with Rodrigo's ugly smirk plastered on his face. "There are three blood members of the Babylon Rogues: Jet, Wave and Storm. Let's say my pointer finger is Jet, my middle finger Storm, and my ring finger is Wave. Now, what would happen if my ring finger suddenly dropped?" Anti Charmy lowered his ringer finger, leaving his pointer and middle finger still up. "Can you figure that out?"
Jet blinked in confusion and so did Storm. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying, in layman's terms, that Wave was fun to stab and kill."
Breathe was lodged out of their throats. Jet's left arm began to tremble, and his fans almost slipped out of his hands. His eyes bulged to their farthest extent while his jaw began to do the same as his left arm. Shaking his head, audible, negative moans were heard consisting of him denying Wave's death. Storm's placed his hand to his beak, appearing sick like he was about to throw up. Tears propped at the corner of his eyes, threatening to break free at the slightest twitch or hiccup. This is what they were feeling as they sat on the stairs, something deep down within them told them that Wave hadn't survived.
"I bet you hate me now," Anti Me snickered, trying not to burst out into laughter. "I'd bet my left wing you'd want to slaughter me, hack me into pieces right? Well…" Anti Me dashed forward with his kunai poised to strike. "…you should've moved faster!"
As Anti Me was about to strike Jet in the forehead, Jet's hand snatched it, dropping his fan in the process. Anti Me froze, completely in shock as Jet's grip tightened. Blood dripped down the fresh wound, leaning onto the kunai and trickling down to Anti Me's fingers. Jet slowly looked up with eyes that belonged to a murderer. He wasn't Jet anymore, but a man whose lover was slain. It was like he had stayed up drinking night after night when his eyes grew almost bloodshot.
"Die," Jet hissed, swinging his left fan onto Anti Me's chest.
Anti Me yelped in pain, recoiling backwards. I suddenly felt a stab of pain in my chest, wondering what was going on. Jet, however, was on a rampage. A roar surged through him, seizing control of Jet's actions. Storm, finally snapping out of his misery, cried out to the hawk, but he was considerably unreasonable at this point, not desiring to play "Whodunit" and pick out who the real culprit was. Holding the kunai tightly, Jet lunged at the dark bee, swinging it completely unorganized. Anti Me easily dodged his strikes, aiming a well-placed sting on his right shoulder. Groaning at the forming red mark, Jet threw the emerald kunai back to Storm, stating for him to stay put as he snatched his other fallen fan. The albatross attempted to reason with him again, but words wouldn't move the Babylon prince.
Weakly, Anti Me barely avoided the oncoming strikes from Jet's fans. The torrents of wind that Jet created pushed the dark bee to the ground, and he tumbled down the stairs. Jet was immediately on him, hands wrapped around Anti Me's throat. As the air was cut off from Anti Me's throat, I felt as though Jet's hands were crushing me throat. Gagging I found myself edged against the orb prison, attempting to breathe, but I realized something: Whatever happened to Anti Me occurred to myself.
"The orb that contains you holds another special power from my brilliance," Rodrigo informed, coming towards me as Vannoza watched the monitor. "I infused this with a special poison. Remember Cantarella? I made it special with my son's aura and the electricity. It placed some inside you and Anti Charmy, giving you the same effects. Whenever he is hurt, you are. Better to kill two birds with one stone, am I right?"
"B-bas…bast…" I attempted to curse him out, but everything began to dim. The lights began to fade to grey, and my eyelids grew heavy. As everything began to die away, Storm's voice cut through.
"B-boss, s-stop! You'll kill him!" Storm cried, trying to pry the hawk off. "You don't want to be a killer like him, do you!?"
"Release me, Storm! He deserves to die!" Jet screamed, trying to grasp Anti Me's throat, but he scrambled away. Glaring back at Storm, he tried to elbow him away, shouting, "He killed Wave! You knew I loved her, and this…demon kills her! He took her away from me! I want his blood to splatter the stairs, and-!"
"You sound like Rodrigo!" Storm roared.
Jet froze, easing up in Storm's arms. Staring back at the grey seabird with large, frightened yet confused eyes, he murmured like a lost child, "What do you mean?"
"You sound like Rodrigo. You want to kill someone in cold blood," Storm stated, letting Jet go. "That sounds like something he would do. Boss, Wave wouldn't want you acting like this. She wouldn't want you to go insane and kill everybody."
Anti Me cursed foully, gathering their attention. Holding his throat with both hands, he gasped in air. "You almost strangled me to death! Murderer!"
"Look at whose talking now," Jet sneered, grasping his fans. "It's two against one, brat, you don't stand a chance. I won't kill you, but I'll just make your life a living hell." Turning to Storm, he gave him a "heh" look, saying, "You happy now?"
"Yup," Storm cheerfully replied. "And you! You're gonna pay for what you did to Wave!"
Rodrigo, knowing that Anti Me had little hope in the situation, pressed a button on the monitor. "Anti Charmy, that's enough. Wave's dead, so that's a plus for us. Get back here immediately."
"Understood, Lord Rodrigo," Anti Me replied, nodding curtly.
"Where's his voice coming from?" Storm questioned.
"There are installations of amplifiers hidden throughout his castle. With a press of a certain button, he can communicate to me or anyone he wishes too," Anti Me explained. "And now, I bid you adieu!"
"Get back here, you murderer! Damn coward!" Jet screamed.
WHAP!
Anti Me went sailing up the stairs, over and Jet and Storm's hand and landed against the stairs. I winced, holding my stomach in pain from his impact. Kiba the Panda rested her baseball bat with rusty nails over her shoulder with Raine floating next to her eagerly. Jet pointed a surprised finger at them, blinking in confusion. Storm, however, didn't appear happy to see and neither did she. Both refused to gaze at each other, greeting their latter companions.
"What are you two doing here? Thanks for the save, by the way," Jet asked cautiously, trying to find some common ground where Storm and Kiba wouldn't fight.
Sensing Kiba's anger, Raine decided to answer promptly. "Kiba received word from the Wolf Twins that you guys and the Chaotix left to fight Rodrigo. She recruited me to help."
"Why would she help?" Storm growled, crossing his arms. "All she did was run away like a tramp around the bases."
"Watch it, bird, before I hit a homerun with your pea-sized brain," Kiba threatened, holding her bat with both hands.
"Wolf Twins?" Rodrigo recited nervously, glancing back over his shoulder. "What the hell?!"
Psyko suddenly crept up behind my prison, using his knives to slash the top open. Yanking me out, he hitched me over his shoulder, flipped Rodrigo and Vannoza off before shouting at Somatic to "run like hell". Somatic nodded, waiting for his older twin to get in front of him. I was too flabbergasted at their arrival to even do anything, but a sudden ball of gravity smashed us to the ground before we even got out.
Rodrigo stomped towards us, snatching my wrist as he used his Dark Ark to come the wolves down. Noticing my Light Ark on my wrist, he blinked in surprise, staring at his same wrist. Instead of the Light Ark that Sirin had supposedly stolen for him, Vector actually deceived the sparrow by creating a look-a-like Ark in case something like that happened. Rodrigo snatched my wrist, attempting to pry my Ark off, but I chomped my teeth onto his fingers. Yelping like a new-born Chao, Rodrigo slapped me back down on the ground, clearly pissed.
"You pompous wolves should've stayed in Dream World!" Vannoza huffed, raising her arm as a ball of dark gravity came to her hand.
"Oh, you're Vannoza? Don't know why he would do this for you," Somatic grunted as he and Psyko tried to get up.
"What do you mean?" She asked curiously.
"Mother, Father, I heard some strange noises," Cesare stated, appearing in the room. He glowered down to Psyko and Somatic. He pulled out his longsword, snatching Psyko by his ear. "Oh, just some annoying mutts? I shall deal with them."
"You won't," Rodrigo commanded. "I want to use them for my experiments to see how they can kill in dreams. Bring them to my quarters. While you're there, take care of these rodents." He jabbed an aggravated finger at the monitor showing Storm and Kiba not even glancing at each other with Raine and Jet trying to have a conversation. "I don't give a damn about the butterfly or panda, so just kill Jet and Storm. Especially Jet because I want the last prince of the Solar Tribe to be done with once and for all."
Cesare nodded curtly, dragging the weakened wolves away. However, I noticed smirks hidden on their faces like they were plotting something devious and insane. Once the door murmured shut, I found myself alone with the murderous avian couple of Babylon.
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"Okay, this is enough!" Raine snapped as Kiba and Storm glanced over to her. "It's ridiculous how you two can just mope and glare at empty walls instead of talking things over!"
"For once, I can agree with a kid," Jet added, crossing his arms. "Wave and I got back together after Rodrigo controlled me. Why can't you two?"
Neither one spoke, arms crossed haughtily over their chests. Jet and Raine exchanged annoyed looks before Jet sighed. Approaching Kiba, he placed a somewhat friendly hand on her shoulder. While she was about to subjugate him, Jet kicked off right off the edge of the stairs. Eyes widening in panic as her footing failed her, she tried to grab something when Storm snatched her hand and dragged her back up. As she stumbled to his chest, both were still glaring forsakenly at each other.
"Oh, man, I thought that 'girl-falls-into-boy's-arms' trick would do it," Jet whined, lowering his head defeat.
"Genius, Jet, real smart of you," Raine sarcastically muttered, narrowing her eyes at him.
"Shouldn't you go find your boyfriend or something?" Jet scowled.
"That's right! We have to find Charmy!" Raine cried, bolting on ahead with Jet reluctantly following.
"Are you guys just going to glare and grumble at each other all day?!" Jet called from the stairs. "Hurry up!"
Surprisingly, Kiba and Storm walked side-by-side with neither in front of back. Their eyes went everywhere else, but never in his or her partner's general direction. Storm twiddled with his necklace for a while, trying to find some way to distance himself from her. However, he noticed that her eyes deflated very slightly and felt the urge to ask her a question.
"This is about that stupid fight we had a week before Jet and Wave's wedding, isn't it?" Storm asked quietly.
"No duh," Kiba grumbled. "You said some pretty awful things, Storm."
"So did you," Storm retorted hotly. Taking control, he calmed down and rubbed one of his temples. "I'm just wondering something. Why did you ask about my motives in the Babylon Rogues and you? You know I can't leave Jet and Wave."
"I just learned about how Princess Sally Acorn and Sonic broke up. He chose work over her." Kiba didn't finish when Storm gave her the "WTF" face.
"Are you serious?! That's what this is all about?!" Storm cried. "Just because Sonic chose duty over desire years ago doesn't mean I'm the same!"
"That's not what you said! You said that I was a total idiot to believe I came second," Kiba snapped irritably.
"Then why are you angry?! Just because I called you an idiot?! I'm called an idiot every couple of minutes!" Storm shrieked.
She combed her fingers through her hair, clearly agitated at being put on the spot. "What you said afterwards is what set me off. You said that I wasn't good enough to be in the Babylon Rogues."
"What?! I-I never said that!"
"Don't lie! I had a recorder placed on the table when we were fighting!" Kiba victoriously cheered, pulling out the recorder. She pressed a small button, which revealed their entire fight. However, she fast forwarded it a couple times to when they were simply talking. Unfortunately, Kiba's statement about Storm accusing her of not being good enough to be in the Babylon Rogues was somewhat true, but his meaning was off.
"I just think that you're going to get in trouble if you're with us," the recorded voice of Storm said.
"So, you think I'm not good enough?!" Recorded Kiba's voice accused.
Storm stopped the recorder, forcefully snatching it right out of her hands just as they were getting into a heated argument. Pressing the red circle stop button, he glowered back at her. Kiba crossed her arms, waiting for an explanation. Jet and Raine stopped, glancing back at the bickering broken up couple, waiting for Storm to speak.
Storm pinched his brow, looking at his shoes that suddenly seemed so interesting. Returning her gaze with equal aggravation, Storm closed his eyes and exhaled deeply. Clearing his throat like he was stalling, which he was, he replied, "What I meant was that I was concerned for your safety. That's it."
"…What?" Kiba bluntly questioned. "Are…are you saying I took this the wrong way?"
"Sounds like it," Storm smirked. "It's okay, we're all stupid sometimes."
"But I said you were the stupidest, most annoying, forgetful, idiotic, stammer-machine in the entire world," Kiba muttered. "…Are you taking me back?"
"Yeah, don't worry! I said you were the huffiest, most aggravating, pole-dancing stripper, so we're even!" Storm cheered with a thumbs-up.
Kiba hugged him tightly, burying her face into his chest feathers. Storm gladly took her back, knowing that it was just a miscommunication. Similar to that time when Amy mistook Sonic's word of "date" by him saving her from one of Eggman's robots. Of course, people's minds are warped in the concept of love, taking everything and every word from what their lover says seriously, but really, they were fighting over a stupid sentence? Wow, even Sonic's not that idiotic.
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I can't think of a catchy saying. Oh, well, I forget to do one of these last time, so, here we go! What will Charmy do now that he's alone with Rodrigo and Vannoza? Can Jet, Storm, Kiba, and Raine get to him in time? Where did Cesare, Psyko and Somatic go to? Find out next time in Rogue's Bee