SONIC THE HEDGEHOG: SUPER SONIC Z
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR: THE THING ABOUT COSMO, PART III

The Serpentine Society…a hidden society of assassins who introduce members with shady pasts, and erase those, as those who are part of the Society, cease to exist, they are forever part of the Society. They remain hidden, only coming out to take out the target they are assigned to. Their headquarters was just as hidden as they were. Not because of their remote location in the forest, not because there is an invisibility veil, but because no one ever leaves alive.

Several lower assassins, ordinary footsoldiers, who have no gimmick unlike the ones our heroes faced, were patrolling outside the headquarters. They all had various weapons from firearms to blade weapons. One was looking around right outside the headquarters, as something from the shadows grabbed him from behind and knocked him out.

Two others in another part were walking around, as one was grabbed form above and pulled up, the other looking around where his friend might be, only to get grabbed as well. They'd be found later, gagged, bound and knocked out inside a tree.

The figure leaped out of the tree and rushed up to the castle, ignoring the veil because she knows where the HQ is anyway. The archers and snipers on top of the roof had searchlights to see if anyone could sneak past them. However, the intruder was nimble and using speed and agility, it stayed clear of the light, before climbing up the roof and pick them off one by one.

Specs, Lightmare, Bio-Hazard, Grimer and Mr. Fry were waiting on the inside. They were in the presence of a large Mobian snake wearing a red robe. One of his eyes was blind and milky white, it's other eye yellow and slit-like. He had long black hair though was balding on top and a monocle, and held a cane in the tip if it's tail. This was Lord Sidewinder, the leader of the Serpentine Society.

"Cosmo hasn't reported back. She's taking too long, and we can't get a signal on her communicator. She also scrambled the channels so we can't track her down through it. Either they have caught on to her, or she got cold feet." Sidewinder said.

"Never liked her anyways. She was so sweet and cutesy and I hate it! I prefer more of Lightmare's type…if only she would be more talkative, I don't even know if she's interested in me. Next time you adopt a daughter with more talk in her?" Specs ranted, Lightmare smacking the back of his head. "Ouch! Okay, clearly not interested."

"Sir, what if Cissnei has spilled our secrets? What if someone finds us here?" Grimer asked.

"If they do, I have an army of assassins waiting and they won't spare them." Sidewinder stated.

"What about Cissnei?" Specs asked.

Before Sidewinder could answer, a grunt walked in through the door as he said: "My lord, someone has disabled our outer patrols and our rooftop guards. He's somewhere in the headquarters, but we were up until now unable to capture him or her, like it knows how we work."

"I guess I answered my own question. You want us to make the playing along we did earlier into the real thing?" Specs asked.

"No, let her come to me. I'll deal with her personally. There is much that I have to discuss with her before I'll make her pay for her betrayal. You just wait outside in case any of those Freedom Fighters might have followed her, they can't leave with our secrets." Sidewinder ordered. The five bowed as they went outside. Sidewinder sighed and growled at the same time. "You really did it this time, Cissnei."

The Freedom Fighters rushed through the jungle. They never went to this part of the forest because of the predators. They immediately ran into a Basilisk (samm velociraptor-like predator, poisonous fangs, nasty hypnotic gaze) but Tails repelled him with a device that created a high pitch tone that hurt the Basilisk's ears as it ran off.

Muttski, being a dog, also was affected but at least he had brought earplugs just in case. He followed his nose while Tails held a tracker device. "Muttski and Freedom Fighters are getting close. Muttski can smell it." He stated. The Muttski raised his hand, gesturing the others to halt.

"What's up Mutt…" Sonic asked, but Muttski made a 'shhhhhhh' sound with his mouth. Muttski had closed his eyes and listened. The others followed their examples. Then in a flash each of the heroes turned around and launched a punch or a kick, making several assassins who had camouflaged themselves visible and knocking them out. "Muttski's right, we are close."

"My tracker device could have told me that too. But now we have to be careful, we are in the lair of the beast right now." Tails stated.

The heroes then heard clapping as the turned towards the source of the sound: Specs was happily clapping, his four comrades not joining in and just staring. "Well done, not many have the skill to detect our forces. But this is where the road ends. Last time we were playing an act, but this time we hold back."

"You don't fool us. We were all there and fought you, you had the chance to just straight out killed us, Cosmo was a failsafe in case you couldn't defeat us yourselves, which is the case." Sonic said.

"Okay, you got us there…but we're not alone this time!" Specs said as several more assassins came moving out of the shadows. All armed to the teeth, it was an entire army to be exact. "And she calls herself Cosmo now? How cute!"

"Muttski, take this, we hold them off, you find Cosmo." Tails said as he handed the device to Muttski. Muttski thanked Tails.

The heroes and the assassins charged at one another, and punches and kicks were thrown around, while in the ruckus, Muttski slipped out of the action, his mind set on saving Cosmo. "Hold on, I'm coming!" he thought.

Sidewinder's serpentine form lay coiled up in the fancy chair of his lair as he watched the fire in the fireplace dance and he drank a glass of wine, holding the wine in his tail. He then sensed something as he said: "You come crawling back to me Cissnei?"

"I call myself Cosmo now. You already know why I'm here right?" Cosmo asked.

"You want to step out…no one steps out the Serpentine Society alive. Unless they can defeat me in combat and survive. But you know that I'm the leader of this organization of a reason. I'm the number one assassin in the world." Sidewinder reminded her.

"I'm not afraid. I don't want this. You may have raised me after my parents died, you may have trained me. But what you never did was treating me like an equal like the Freedom Fighters did. And on their behalf I'll fight you. And I'll defeat you." Cosmo said as she struck a battle stance.

"Before we must fight, there's one thing you should know. I took you in and raised you because I saw potential in you, and I don't want it to go to waste. So I need to fuel your fighting spirit before the fight. And since your mind is already set on betraying me, you hating me a bit more won't matter. I killed your family, I was the assassin that was hired by the Raiju to kill!" Sidewinder explained.

"I knew. I always knew. I always thought there was something off about your behavior around me. But tell me, why did you took me in and raised me while you mercilessly decimated my parents and sister?" Cosmo replied.

"You were just a baby. Innocent, not knowing what went on in the world around you. Killing you wouldn't accomplish anything. Your parents and sister, that was just business, doing my job. But killing a baby, that's even below me." Sidewinder explained.

"It doesn't change the fact you're nothing more than an ordinary murderer. And I'll make you pay for what you've done and for what you nearly made me do!" Cosmo said as she was fired up from the fight.

"Then let's fight and color these walls red with the blood that will be shed tonight!" Sidewinder said as he grabbed his cane with his tail and shook it, tossing off a part of the cane, revealing a sword in it. The two roared as they charged at each other.

Grimer spouted two mechanical arms from his back and tried to lash at them with Tails, who just avoided every move carefully. While he was avoiding Grimer's attacks, he studied the arms carefully. "Lemme see, the design is strong, but simplictic. If I do this…" Tails avoided a swipe from the mechanical arms and pried a bolt loose as it passed, making them fall apart. "This happens!" However, Grimer was far from done as he pushed a button on his gauntlet, then aimed it at Tails and it fired a laser. Tails flew up to avoid.

Tails flew through the treetops as he dodged the laser blasts. Grimer got annoyed and removed his left (cybernetic) hand, and a buzzsaw popped out and he activated boosters in his jet as he flew up and tried to slice Tails into pieces. Tails got a few close shaves, then he managed to catch the saw in his namesakes, and it started to spark. Then Tails used an x-shaped cut to shatter it and used his tails to smack Grimer, sending him flying into the ground.

Specs fired his goggle beam at Amy, who dodged by jumping to the side. "Hey sweetcheeks, not mad because I touched your merchandise while I was blinded? Oh well, too bad I have to fry that lovingly gorgeous body of yours." He said as he kept firing shots after shots. As Amy did a dodge jump, she pulled out three arrows, aimed and fired as she flipped upside down.

Specs fried two of the three arrows with his eye beams, but the third one grazed his cheek. "Argh! That does it, I thought I could keep you as a pet, but now I have to kill you!" he growled.

"I belong to one that is Lily!" Amy said.

"Wait, you are with a girl?" Specs said as he suddenly started nosebleeding and drooling. This distraction allowed Amy to fire and arrow right into Specs' cybernetic eyes as he was too busy having pervy thoughts to dodge or fire. "Argh, my eyes, not again!"

Amy rushed up to him and whacked him hard with her bow and knocked him down on the ground. "You creep! That's for touching my boobs!" she then kicks his unconscious form in the nuts, making him jerk awake briefly before he fainted again. "And that's for having these dirty thoughts!"

Lightmare's gauntlet's glowed as she produced two light whips as she lashed with one of them, Fiona dodging by cart wheeling to the side. Lightmare lashed with the second whip, but horizontally this time, Fiona leaning back to avoid before jerking back up. Lightmare then delivered two horizontal lashes with the whip, one high and one low, Fiona jumping up, right in between the whiplashes and lands back on her feet.

Lightmare charged up her light blast and tossed it at Fiona, who performed a somersault over it and attempted to jump kick Lightmare. But she dodged, but due to Fiona being so close now she couldn't properly aimed her light weapons, but she was also well versed in hand to hand combat so she took on Fiona more directly. She tried to punch Fiona, but Fiona ducked under it and uppercuts her, but Lightmare knees her stomach and then slams Fiona's head in a tree.

Fiona got up and delivered a backwards kick to Lightmare's gut and then a spinning kick against the back of her head. Lightmare staggered, raised her hands as they glowed once again, but the glow died down as she went limp and fainted. "Silence is golden my dear." Fiona stated.

Mr. Fry conjured fire in his hands as he tossed fireballs at Rotor, who barely managed to dodge the barrage of fireballs. Rotor pulled out several extinguishing bombs and tossed them at him, but they were fried when Mr. Fry used his fire breath on them. Rotor pulled out another bomb as Mr. Fry breathed more fire, but this time the bomb split in two, the fire going in between the two parts and both parts exploded with an extinguishing foam. Briefly Mr. Fry's skin was not fiery anymore, but the extinguishing bombs didn't keep his flames out for long.

Rotor had to lie down flat on his belly to dodge the stream of fire Mr. Fry fired from his mouth. Rotor pulled out more extinguishing bombs that could split, tossing them all at ones, becoming double the amount. Mr. Fry launched streams of fire from his mouth and hands, decimating nearly all bomb halves but one which hit him between the eyes and dazed him.

Rotor used the opportunity to grab a small pill-shaped object and toss it at Mr. Fry, once it touched his skin, it covers him into some sort of plastic substance that crawls over his entire body and freezes him. "Polymer nanofibers. Can resist up to 5000 degrees of heat. You stay put!" Rotor said.

Bio-Hazard fired a huge geyser of radioactive acid form his mouth, Sonic running to avoid, as the trees behind him all dissolved as it hit the trees instead. "That's so gross. You should eat healthier, if your spit can do that!" Sonic taunted. Bio-Hazard wasn't fazed as he shot out his tentacles, which Sonic also dodged but he saw how the tentacles pierced the trees behind him as spears. "Whoa, I was almost Sonic kebap…" he noted.

Bio-Hazard inhaled deeply to spit more acid, as Sonic saw a tree trunk, dug under it and cut the roots to pull it out, tossed it in the air and kicked it as it came down, right in Bio-Hazard's mouth as it wanted to spit some more, jamming it shut. Though the built-up acid was about to eat through the stomp, it distracted Bio-Hazard enough for Sonic to him in on his head three times, the third one knocking him out. "No piece of sushi is beating me anytime soon!"

Two assassins bring down their blade weapons at Sally, who blocked with her tonfa and spins them around, knocking their weapons away and hitting them on their heads with them. Another assassin launches a jump kick, which Sally dodge by moving aside before hitting the back of its head, knocking him out. A group of assassins surrounded her before she combines her tonfa in a bo staff and uses a circular staff sweep to knock them all away.

Bunnie blocked some blade weapons with her metal arms, breaking them in the progress as she punches several assassins over the horizon with her strength. Some assassins come in with blasters and fire, but Bunnie flies up with her jet boosters and then morphs her hands into cannons, firing at will as it knocks the assassins of their feet.

Antoine has brought out two swords, and was parrying the blades of two assassins at once. Another one tries sneaking up, but Antoine disarmed one of the assassins and caught its sword's hilt between his teeth, and now began parrying three assassin's blades with his own three. Then he disarmed the three with a well timed strike and then cut with each of the three swords, cutting loose their belts and exposed their undies. They covered themselves in embarrassment as they ran off, struggling over their loose pants in the progress.

Dulcy roared as she created fireballs in her hand and tossed them at the assassins, who ran around like crazy to dodge. She then created a huge gust of wind, which became a tornado which sucked in the assassins and scattered them all over the forest, and they ended up in trees, hanging over the branches unconsciously.

Lily rushed by on her hoverboard and knocked over some assassins in the progress. Some with blasters came as Lily tossed her darts, clogging their blasters and blowing them up. As Lily rushed by on her hover board, she performed a break-dance like kick in the progress, knocking them all over.

Sidewinder lunged at Cosmo, who jumped up in the chandelier to dodge and kicks it loose, Sidewinder barely coiling out of the way, as Cosmo moves in for a jumping kick, which Sidewinder coiled out of the way from as he lashed with the sword in his tail, which Cosmo caught in between her foot and hand as she grabs Sidewinder's throat with a free hand and slammed him into a wall. Sidewinder recovered and wrapped around Cosmo, who was cut off from air…but not her teeth as she bit down on Sidewinder, who yelled out in pain and let go as Cosmo kicked him in the face, before Sidewinder struck back with his tail.

Cosmo was sent flying, but she turned in the air and kicked off the wall and trusted forward with her both hands in fists, launching a double punch. Sidewinder swiped the sword, which Cosmo dodged by leaning back, but it was a distraction as Sidewinder bit down on Cosmo's arm and tossed her around the room. Cosmo grasped her arm in pain but fought it and continued her fight with Sidewinder.

However, her vision got blurry due to the bite and as she rushed at Sidewinder she lost the sensation in her feet as she collapsed on all fours. Sidewinder gloomed over her as he said: "I'm a snake as you can tell, so when I bite, it's nasty. While the bite can kill you slowly and painfully, I'll grant you a quick demise now!" Sidewinder said as he rose up, the cane sword in his tail.

"Falcon Punch!" a voice shouted as Muttski, dressed as Captain Falcon rushed in, charged up energy in his fists and punched Sidewinder in the jaw, knocking his fangs out and sending him flying.

Muttski grabbed one of the fangs, squeezed some venom out of it in a vial with a blue liquid and shook it a bit before handing it Cosmo. "It's an all-purpose antidote. Tails always has us carry these around when we're in the jungle, since it's full of poisonous creatures." Muttski explained.

Cosmo took the vial and drank it up and found some feeling return to her limbs. "You followed me…you shouldn't have done that, this is assassin territory. And how did you find it anyways?" Cosmo replied. Muttski reached behind her ear and pulled out the tracker. "You put it there? But why?"

"Muttski had a weird feeling when Cosmo spent time with Muttski, like Cosmo was enjoying the past few days to its fullest extent, and would leave afterwards. Muttski didn't want you to leave, but also didn't want to keep Cosmo prisoner. So being able to follow Cosmo was a good thing." Muttski explained.

"I told you not to do it! I'm not the girl you thought I was. I lied to you and I was waiting to end you, and yet you still trust me? Why?" Cosmo asked.

"Because Muttski trusts the Cosmo Muttski knew. And Muttski made a promise to protect Cosmo, and Muttski always keeps his promises." Muttski said as he stroked her cheek, Cosmo putting her hand on the hand stroking her cheek.

"So that's what it was all about…a boy!" Sidewinder said as he recovered from the blow Muttski gave him. "It's always the power of love is it? How pathetic to fall for something as meaningless as that."

"Meaningless? It never was meaningless. Love made me realize which void there was in my life. It reminded me what life truly is about. It has learned me who are the ones I should really have trusted all along…" Cosmo said angrily. She got up, as she grabbed Muttski's hand. "Remember what you said, when I couldn't find the strength to do things myself…"

"Muttski will be Cosmo's strength. Now let's make a purse out of snake-guy!" Muttski stated. Both lovers rushed at the assassin Lord.

Sidewinder lunged at them, they broke apart, as Sidewinder's attention was on Cosmo, who tried punching him, but he slithered back to avoid, as Muttski landed with his foot on his face, before planting his heel in his jaw. Sidewinder tries to swat Muttski with his tail as Cosmo jumped up, and launched a flying kick, knocking him back. Sidewinder coiled around the room spastically, before lunging at the two with his remaining fangs, only for them to dodge and Sidewinder to bite the ground.

Sidewinder pried himself loose as Muttski approached him, only for Sidewinder to wrap himself around him, only for Cosmo to jump on his head and keep him in a chokehold with her legs, making Sidewinder let go of Muttski. Muttski moved back and changed into a baseball uniform. He grabbed out a bat and a baseball, tossed up the baseball and swatted it with a bat. Cosmo jumped off Sidewinder's back as the baseball at high speed hit Sidewinder in between the eyes, knocking him back.

Then Cosmo jumped up, curled her hand and feet into fists, trusted down and pummeled Sidewinder with her four limbs rapidly. Sidewinder was left battered and bruised at the end of this as he started shaking. Muttski moved closer to him, blew on him, and he fell down defeated.

The two looked at the unconscious assassin lord for a while, before they turned towards one another and fly in each other's arms. Muttski spoke to her, in his real voice: "You're not going to run away again are you, Cosmo?"

"No way I will. I want to stay with you. My real name's actually Cissnei, Cosmo was a lie too…" Cosmo stated.

"Nah, I think Cosmo represents what you wanted to be, and what you have become. Cissnei is the old life you have left behind. That and Cosmo sounds cuter." Muttski assured her.

"Then let me be known as Cosmo from now on. And I'm yours now. Because without you, I can't feel strong." She said. She then kissed Muttski passionately on the lips, who soon returned the kiss.

The heroes, who had defeated all the assassins, came in at the same moment, and they 'awww'-ed at the sight, causing the two to be startled, break up, and blush.

Later on, the authorities had arrived to dismantle the assassin society and arrest the major part. "I can't believe it, a world-wide assassin society that has managed to keep itself of the radar for so long. But now their existence is known, they no longer have the shadows to support them." Sally stated.

"I'm glad you're willing to let me back on your team. Even if…" Cosmo thanked.

"You've proven yourself by helping us expose these assassins. And I should have trusted Muttski's judgment. He's a people person you know. It's just we worked hard to maintain the peace after Eggman's demise that I got a bit overprotective…so I'm sorry I doubted you Cosmo. I'm sure you made Muttski really happy." Tails said.

"It's okay. I'm walking a new path from now on, a better one, and I'm walking it with the one I love." Cosmo said as she hooked her arm into Muttski's.

"Muttski truly is blessed." He said as he pecked Cosmo's cheek. "So, is Cosmo coming with Muttski? Muttski's brothers would love to meet you."

"You think they'll like me?" Cosmo asked.

"Sure they will. And afterwards we still got that season finale of the Alice in Wonderland anime to watch, it was the only episode we didn't get to watch before you left." Muttski said.

"I'd love that." Cosmo said as the lovebirds walked off to the sunset.

"They truly deserve each other." Sonic said.

"They sure do. Now, why don't we all go home and spend time with our own soulmates?" Sally suggested.

Somewhere else, at two different spots, two baddies were now preparing their master plans. Orbot, Cubot and Elise reported to their master, the Dark Being. "The stations are set up around the globe. We're ready to launch a simultaneous attack soon."

"Excellent. Oh, I'm tingling all over…anyway, now that any trace of Eggman is gone, it's time to start anew and like a phoenix rise from the ashes and build a more glorious empire then before."

Somewhere else, a rebuilt Shellcracker and Dragonfly reported to their new master the Hooded one. Behind the Hooded one was a single eyeball-like machine on a mechanical arm that spouted from the ceiling.

"We are ready to follow your lead master. We'll make the world burn." Shellcracker said in his dual voices.

"You better will. Luckily the discovery of my arctic base hasn't had too much consequences and the operations still can continue as planned. V.I.O.L.E.T.?" the Hooded one said as he turned to the eyeball computer.

"Yes sweetie?" it asked in a feminine voice.

"Activate the sleeper agents. It's time to move out the shadows and into the light, where I'll shine!" the Hooded one ordered.

"As you wish, honey! Wakey-wakey sleepy heads…" Violet said.

And with that both villains set their plans into motions…and the heroes would need to fight harder than they ever would once they see what the bad guys have in store.

TO BE CONTINUED