Silver & Blaze: Our Story

Deconstruction
Shadow: The Progress

November
Disgusting. It was the only way I could describe what I saw last week between Blaze and Mighty. That dance and…that patronizing kiss. I should've slammed him in the throat and gutted him afterwards but…patience. What I need right now is more time and information, not a release for my frustrations. For the time being, I made my base of operations an old newspaper factory no longer in use on the south side of town. Unfortunately, electricity no longer ran through the building forcing my base set up to take a little longer than expected. An external power source was required to run the laptop where all of my experiment data was stored. Espio took care of that errand after some heavy handed convincing and, after that, everything was set up nicely in the administrative area on the factory's left side. I had cooped myself up in one of the empty offices for the past week tweaking a new formula for the Chaos Liquid. The longest I've spent working ever since I began this tedious process months ago after the semi-successful experiment on the echidna woman. The burning passion I had for this potential source of ultimate power has waned. After traveling hundreds of miles to find remote areas safe from G.U.N.'s radar and dealing with one failed formula after the next, it was hard to hide my desperation at this point. Being around Blaze seems to quell the feeling but her leap forward in her relationship with that boy has sent me into overdrive.

I ran the current iteration of the Chaos Liquid formula through the computer simulation…and received a 93% chance of success! The highest so far! I closed the laptop and collapsed onto the desk with relief. Despite my excitement over this outcome, I knew that this was only the beginning of the last leg of this journey. I still had to micromanage my plans with Blaze and keep tabs on both Silver and that little G.U.N. unit that just moved in. …And right on cue I heard the distant sound of the heavy door closing at the entrance to the administrative area. Espio must've returned with his periodic intelligence report. I met the chameleon out in the hallway and he seemed surprised at the sudden spring in my step.

"I trust you brought back information worth my time?" I said.

"Uh yes," he said handing over his spy camera and recorder.

"Good." I turned and went back into the small office with Espio close behind. "I'll be making another trip out of town soon. You know what to do."

"Right. Hold down the fort. And if things go awry?"

"They won't," I said glaring at him from behind the opened laptop.

Again, he's bringing in unnecessary doubt as if he's sure my plans are to fail just because I "assume" too much. What he'll probably never accept is that I don't assume what others will do…I know what they'll do. And I know the pawns in my plan very, very well. But, just to reaffirm my power over him, I decided to give Espio another run down of how this situation will play out.

"G.U.N. is too cautious to make any brash movements after my hostage attempt so they'll stay put so long as you stay out of their sight…literally. There's not much Silver can do at this point. He may be able to levitate objects into the air but sustained flight is still out of his reach. And as for Blaze…she'll allow the relationship to progress at her own pace. A pace that I'm very familiar with. Things will be the same when I return with the successful Chaos Liquid formula."

"So you've figured it out this time?" Espio said with his arms crossed.

"Yes…and you better drop the sarcasm before I put both of us into a compromising situation."

Espio had no comebacks after that. I proceeded to transfer the image files off the camera as well as the audio from the recording device. While the progress bar was still active for the audio transfer, I pulled up the images to see what Espio had captured. Images of Blaze interacting with her usual social circle at school, the so-called "undercover" G.U.N. agents around town, Rouge lingering about in the village area…and Silver sustaining flight through levitation. Damn.

"There's also images of the base of operations for the G.U.N. unit," the chameleon informed me.

"I see…" I said having reached them in the slideshow.

A quaint little house just a few blocks away from the remains of the echidna home. Obviously not a coincidence. When I scrolled back to the image of Silver in midair I took notice of the date.

"This was taken a few weeks ago," I said turning the laptop towards Espio. "This couldn't have been the only instance."

"You're right," said the chameleon. "I've actually spotted him going across town at night a few times. I've had trouble tailing him at first because Rouge was doing the same but eventually I managed to figure out where he was going."

I raised an eyebrow and gestured for him to continue.

"He…he's aware of Blaze's relationship with the armadillo. On Sunday of last weekend, he spent a few hours in a tree watching Blaze and Mighty talk. I suspect he may have feelings for her."

That was the day after her birthday…and that sickening display of affection. I had already locked myself up in this office at that point. I took another look through the photos and then pulled up the file of that boy leading the G.U.N. unit. It was something retrieved while I was out of town some months ago testing another prototype of the Chaos Liquid. Despite having memorized the entire file from start to finish, I still glanced over it for brainstorming purposes. …Got it. The perfect plan.

"A slight change of plans Espio," I said after tossing the camera and recording device back to him. "Things will move forward as we've discussed but will be executed a little differently."

"How so?" he said.

"Instead of setting myself up as the bait that draws out the tension between Mighty and Blaze, I'll let Silver take care of that. It might be far more effective if his passion for Blaze is as persistent as his stalking."

Espio crossed his arms and looked away in uncertainty. Surely, he'll see that this removes him slightly from the attention of undercover agents. The original plan required that he drew their attention and led them to Mighty and myself.

"So Silver will be the one that brings G.U.N. to you," he said catching on quickly.

"Exactly," I answered.

"But you'll still have to be captured by them."

"It's the only way to draw their attention away from here once everything has been set up. The inevitable break down between Mighty and Blaze can't happen if G.U.N. snatches her and Silver away. Then she'll just long for the armadillo more."

Throughout the conversation, I came to realize that having Silver in the mix could be extremely beneficial. If he also gets into a fight with Blaze then that's two emotional ties broken leaving her even more emotionally vulnerable when I return. I packed away the laptop in the backpack just underneath the desk and nodded to Espio to take care of things as usual. But then I stopped realizing I had forgotten one more thing. I opened up the top draw of the desk and tossed a set of keys to my servant. His general stoic looked turned to one of concern and the hasty sounds of his footsteps followed me out of the office.

"You'll keep up your end of the deal, right?" he said with an air of desperation.

"Of course," I waved a hand at him nonchalantly. "The kid's only here to make sure you do your part of the job. Don't worry, after we executed the plan and I'm captured just follow the orders on the laptop and he's as free as a bird."

"Really?"

"Yes, really." I stopped and immediately turned to face Espio. "Take him wherever you want but don't get too relaxed. I'll be expecting you afterwards for the finale."

As it stands now, it'll be some time before I can break out of Prison Island. The military will most likely anticipate a mid-transport escape (something I've done before) and probably fortify their security this time. So I'll have to put in a little more effort and escape from the island itself; a task so great that even the word "daunting" isn't enough to describe it. And the exact method of escape is even less certain as that part of plan falls solely onto Espio's shoulders with minimal input from me. I just hope his morals don't get the better of him as he'll probably end up committing a few unforgivable sins to pull it off. Before I left, I decided to stop and watch Espio enter into the only office with a brand new set of locks. He frantically went through all four locks, threw the door open, and rushed in to kneel before his unfortunate friend. A small bee child, wearing a brown helmet with his antennae sticking out from underneath and a matching vest, laid unconscious on the floor with a clear, blue, dome over him. He wasn't dead, just in a coma-like state. The stasis bubble, powered by a metal box attached to one end near the boy's head, was a nifty piece of G.U.N. tech that I've seen used in action to apprehend dangerous criminals. Keeps the suspect down yet alive for up to several months. I "borrowed" one on my previous visit to a G.U.N. base since it seemed like it could come in handy at some point.

"I'm sorry Charmy," the chameleon said as he pressed his hands against the dome. "I'll get you back to your family soon."

"Keep up your end of the plan and you'll get the code to free him," I said.

And that was about all the sentiment I could take and I left. It wasn't my idea from the get go to kidnap the boy but Espio left me with no other choice when he tried to stand up to me during the summer. He's a valuable asset to me and I had to keep him under my thumb somehow. He'd be the only one suffering right now if that kid wasn't around at the time of our argument.