After that, Storm mobilized everyone she could to chase after and search for this wolf that had humiliated her. In the end, they returned empty-handed, and because many were sent out looking, many of the prisoners managed to escape and flee, starting to spread the word of the invasion.
Storm kept everything on the schedule that Eggman had given her, but all extra resources and spare forces she had were spent looking for that wolf. She had a description, but no name. She also, as much as she hated to, started to install security cameras to monitor sites. If a video was cut, then she knew something was wrong, and she would send her forces straight there. Her troops also had learned to avoid her when it concerned the wolf. That blasted wolf tended to mock at times, which could very much infuriate Storm even on a good day.
Most of Storm's egg clan had never seen her like this before. No opponent had ever made her react like this, not even the hedgehog and the freedom fighters got this kind of response even when they defeated them badly. What was worse is the wolf seemed to have some sort of power that made things like walls and barriers useless for keeping him out. And it seems to all be done in a blink of an eye, so even them keeping an eye on him if possible was almost useless if they can't figure out his power.
Storm frowns heavily as she walks back into her base. She had just come back from a meeting with all the egg bosses and Eggman. They had been introduced to the newest egg boss, the one that had caused the doctor to initiate this invasion and had even beaten that hedgehog that had been foiling them for so long. To say she disliked this Infinite was an understatement. She was not the only one. Many of the other egg bosses already didn't like Infinite because of their attitude towards them. But learning about Infinite's powers made her wonder if the Wolf had similar skills. She knew that chains were of no use as the wolf had gotten out of a full-body pair and stole from that safe before she had even gotten to the cell he had been put into. She does recall that the wolf had a gem embedded in his clothes on his right arm and left shoulder…could that be the source?
Storm pondered as she got to the new dojo that had been constructed. A very quaint stone building that can handle some explosions before collapsing, but they would be all over the enemy before they had a chance to get a second one off. The inside is lined with a straw mat floor, so they do not have to bother rolling in training mats. Orange pillars lined the edges that hold up the planned design of the ceiling, one where they can also train on the wood of the rafters. It felt like her old childhood home in this case.
When she entered, she noticed no one was there to greet her, which struck her as odd. Storm starts to look around, thinking they are training or using their skills to hide. But as she looks in the usual spots of where they could be, there was no sign of them, so now the most obvious thing to do is, "Hello?" she calls and receives an echo in return.
Venturing further inside, Storm found many of her forces lying on the ground. Instantly, she was on guard as she went to check on them, finding they were asleep. Most likely, they were drugged. Storm took out a gasmask she had on her and put it on before heading in further. Soon she came upon one of the lastest egg pawn models that had been delivered to her forces, standing by and awaiting her orders in standby mode as it should be. "You report what has happened here," Storm orders aggressively only for it to give no reply. She walked over and hit it with her foot, and the badnik just fell over. Storm starts to check around the machine and finds some damage that could be small enough that a dagger-like weapon must have made it and made sure the badnik was dead.
Storm frowns while slowly taking out her sword sitting on her waist before whirling around and throwing it. A yelp reaches her ears as the blade embeds itself into a pillar, and the wolf, the dreaded wolf, is standing there. His neck so close, almost a few inches, beside the sharp edge of the sword.
"Oh, come on!" Kuro yells before blinking out of there. Storm looks around quickly, trying to find him and spots his tail going around a corner.
"Got you!" Storm calls when she rounds the corner and throws a kunai. Kuro blinks to the side and dodges that one as it stabs the hallway pillar where his head was.
Storm keeps a close eye on him as he looks around the pillar lined hallway, with his only cover being the lined pillars of wood and some stone stands with weapons and armor. When she sees his eyes dart around, Storm grabs a smoke bomb and throws it at his feet. An explosion of smoke sparks from the tiny ball and makes him cough the thick clouds away from his lungs.
"Can't teleport to what you can't see," Storm yells as she charges in, a dagger at her side, and ready to stab in her hand.
"Oh, aren't you clever," Storm hears from behind her.
Storm swings around and stabs her dagger onto the wooden pillar to just miss Kuro's head. Her eyes scan the smoke for abnormal movement while yanking out the blade with a creak from the wood. 'So, not sight. What is guiding his power?' Storm thinks as she tries to both figure out where he is and how he is using his powers.
Kuro smiles softly while standing above her in the ceiling. His form is partially hidden behind a decorative piece of the wood brace, so she does not see him. He then grins as he sees Storm waving her dagger around, almost as if she is trying to feel around for him. 'Ok, how far should it be to get onto the roof, or should I blink to outside the wall?' Kuro considers while trying to decide which is better.
Storm keeps waving her dagger around before her eyes glow a little brighter than before. A screen comes up in her view that has a camera viewpoint of her current location and Kuro in the pillar brace. 'Maybe there is some merit to these cameras, but above…so don't need to be just somewhere he can walk to,' Storm thinks, making a note of that.
Kuro raises an eyebrow when she stops moving and freezes. He then turns his gaze to the closed windows and wonders if he tries his luck at opening them to know where the heck he is going. Though, when he looks back at Storm, Kuro becomes surprised to see her eyes glowing brighter than before. When Kuro fears she might do something else drastic, he blinks behind her and then gets a kick in the head that sends him crashing into the wall. "Ow…how did…"
"Maybe you should look around more," he hears and gets a dagger to his neck while Storm presses him against the wall. "You are not getting away from me now," Storm declares while keeping the blade pressed against his skin. Her other hand grips at his arm, pushing up against his back to the point of painfully breaking it.
Kuro groans in pain, trying to fight back against her strength. He then realizes he has one chance and closes his eyes. Storm starts to drag her dagger along his neck before feeling her whole body lurch in all directions at the same time. Her mind swirls at the sudden and quick sensation that made her sick to her stomach. It wasn't until she tumbles to the ground on something soft did she groan and start to pick herself up.
"How about taking me to dinner first before that cutie?" Storm hears and looks up to see she landed on Kuro. And he is smirking at her like he knew her plan.
Storm took a good look at him and noticed something. Kuro's body seemed far more tired with his fur all ruffled and his chest heaving for air than when they started this chase, and then he was no longer there. "Sorry to steal and run, but it is my profession as a thief!" Kuro calls from a bit away.
Storm gets to her feet before rushing to where she heard Kuro's voice. As they run into the forest, Storm spies his running form as he weaves through the trees. But this is her element. She knows this area well, and he has no hope of getting away. Though, as she jumps at him, he disappears and reappears a few feet away ahead of her. Storm doesn't stop her stride and keeps jumping away. She even smiles as she is enjoying this chase. It has been so long since she had a decent challenge like this, and Kuro is holding up to her level. Another jump at him made him disappear before appearing right behind her. As Storm turns around, she sees Kuro already running in the opposite direction.
Kuro pants as he tries to run through the foliage cover. He hopes that it will give him enough of a break that he can find something hidden and teleport into it. But then his ears perk up as he hears rushing water and makes a beeline for it. His ears then swivel around and hear the branches and leaves shake, telling him that Storm is close behind him. He smirks when he sees the opening in the trees and comes upon a river leading to a waterfall. Storm jumps out behind him and chases after him at full sprint. Kuro laughs when he approaches the edge of the misty waterfall and jumps over it. Storm's eyes widen in shock and rush to the side, sliding to a stop to peer over it. Her ears turn to listen for any sort of massive splash, but nothing came.
"Time for a bath Kitten," Kuro calls, kicking her off the edge from behind, having blinked there.
Storm angrily turns as she is thrown off, and she sees him blink away, but this time only a few feet before starting to run inland. She frowns heavily and throws a hook attached to a top towards the rock wall beside the waterfall. Storm's body jerks at the sudden stop as the hook latch onto a crevice and swing her toward the wall. Storm plants her feet on the wall, waiting just to catch her breath and think about what just happened to her.
Out of this total failure, she figured out some essential steps that she needs to do. One would be to limit his vision, so he can't figure out where to go. Another is to make sure someone has a hold on him to track him easier or send him off-balanced when he reappears. And third is she will always need a team just for Kuro that is trained to handle his movements and anticipate his reappearance.
When she got back, she found the arsenal had been raided. All of their wisps had been released and were most likely long gone now. A good number of rings were stolen as well, and then she finds many of their plans, and schematics were also missing. Storm knew what he was going to do next and started to form a plan to catch the wolf, who she now thought of as her prey. After getting her forces awake, she had them do a thorough search of the entire dojo to find anything else and take the disabled badniks to the engineers so they could do something useful. When they reported to her, they brought some sort of device that had been found at all the vents of the dojo. He had released sleeping gas into the dojo, taking everyone down before he entered. Once again proving to her, he favored stealth and deception as the only attack he had ever done was kicking her off the cliff.
Kuro sighs as he takes a seat on a fallen log. "That nearly went pear-shaped there. Now let's see what we have to offer," he says hopefully as he wants a warm bed and some hot food for the night. "Gold, power rings, mobiums, weapons, and oh…robot kits."
"These power rings will help when I move on to the next target. For now, the biggest take," Kuro says, pulling out several schematics. "Now the question is where to hit next. I also have to watch out. It was careless of me to not notice her cybernetic eyes before now," Kuro berates himself.
"Master, I am sorry to disturb your meditation, but you told us to inform you when the preparations are complete," a ninja informs Storm.
Storm sighs and slowly opens her eyes to look at the ninja bowing in front of her. "And is it?"
"Yes, we have done everything to your specifications," the ninja says.
Storm starts to stand and brush her clothes down. "Good. Now we wait."
"Yes, Master. As you have instructed, only Egg pawns are guarding the facility so he can't use the same trick again," the ninja informs.
Storm nods and walks over to the window to see the solution to her problem. A building has been built with robots guarding the entrance and windows. Almost no sign of organic life in the least so he can not put them to sleep like last time. While inside is a slightly different matter. Electric fences are lined inside the walls that will be activated once someone steps inside. Then the windows and doors will be locked down while covers will be placed over them to prevent sight. And finally, a canister of the sleeping gas will be pumped into the room just like he did to them. All of these precautions should finally take him down.
"There is one more thing I need to report, master," the ninja says.
Storm gains a frown upon her face. "Yes…?" she hisses.
"One of our ninjas who was on this has gone missing," the ninja informs.
Storm growls before hissing like a wild animal. "Stupid wolf!"
As Storm yells that, the alarms start going off, and the trap begins to be sprung.
Storm immediately rushes down and lands before the building as the robots all rush around in and out of the building. 'Where is he?' Storm thinks, starting to check all the cameras until stopping on one. '…you have to be kidding.' Storm calmly walks into the building, passing by all the panicking robots and electrical fence before finishing in the middle of the room. She then looks past all the collected treasure and chests lying around empty to see that the camera has a picture mounted on the lens. "He is humiliating us…" she hisses with her claws unsheathing in deadly annoyance. "…he learned after the dojo," Storm then mutters to herself before smirking. "Finally. A worthy opponent."
"Units four through nine are not responding. All units converge on the north side," a voice says over the communicator.
Storm blinks and slowly looks out the window as almost everyone rushes for that location. "Wait…" she then sighs and hangs her head. "Okay. I have to teach them to recognize new voices better," she mutters while feeling someone standing behind her. "And how to not talk under capture. Isn't that right, wolf?"
Storm turns around to see a very surprised Kuro staring at her. He was not expecting her at all in here. "How…?"
"Big fat gamble. I guess I can say I guessed correctly that you would humiliate us when it came down to it?" Storm questions while crossing her arms.
"Sorry. I only aimed to humiliate you when I stole your hat off your head. The rest, well, we all need to make a living, and I am also in it for the challenge…so…see ya," Kuro says before disappearing again.
Storm whistles a sharp tone, one that was enough to send birds flying. Kuro stops for a moment as he hears it and perks his ears up. Then rumbling came under his feet and shook the ground before he started to run. And as he did, some egg pawns came bursting through the trees and chased after him. Missiles and energy blasts were launched in his direction, but he blinks from side to side to not let it lock onto him as good as they can be.
"What is with her? There is the pursuit, but this is ridiculous!" Kuro yells, starting to run and dodge as best he could, trying only to use blink when he needed it. Thankfully, the few rings he absorbed in preparation for this were helping him out a bit.
Storm suddenly appears and slides in front of him, throwing many chains and balls into the air haphazardly. Kuro yells out and shuts his eyes as the bombs explode, and the spiked chains become locked. Storm, though, just turns her head as he blinks through it and keeps running off. The robots are barreling by her and through her chains like they were nothing. Another shrill whistle comes from her, and more shadows and figures fly by her.
"If you want a fight, then fine!" Kuro yells, throwing daggers towards the group as he kept running.
The daggers embed themselves into the trees and robots before they explode the trees into fragments, and the robots hit by them sparked ice blue, and they and any hit by the sparks immediately shut down. As they fell from the momentum, it started swaying forwards out of control, damaging them from knocking off entire parts. Storm's eyes widened and cursed herself. She should have known that if she cornered him that he would do more than just run.
Her troops all dodged or held back as the daggers exploded and took their branch placement to run on. So they let him get some distance away before rushing after him, this time using the robot corpses as leverage. A few quick ones got ahead of him and threw nets and shurikens. With Kuro spotting them, he quickly blinked through the net and maneuvers his body around the shurikens as best he can, trying to save up his energy for dealing attacks. Though, one was able to get in front of him and tries to swipe only for Kuro to dodge and firmly plant his knee into the guy's stomach. The hard knee made the guy cough out before falling to the ground in groaning pain.
'So fast, and that was one of my elite's too. Unacceptable, they must be slacking in their training again,' Storm thinks as all her ninja shiver in the sense of dread.
Kuro grabs another and notices it's a girl and grins. He then hooks his arms around her before planting her against a tree. "Sorry sexy," he apologizes and plants a dagger near her head and gives a quick kiss. "Good luck!" he calls, running off.
"If any of you let him get away, then you will wish Eggman was punishing you and not me!" Storm yells, scaring all of them and making them redouble their efforts in catching him.
'Great. It seems she is determined. I wish I had brought some of my poison daggers for this now, but no. You thought you would be in and out and only have to deal with robots,' Kuro chastises himself as they were starting to throw bombs and anything they could while the egg pawns started shooting again. Kuro knew he couldn't keep this up as he had to blink several more times to avoid the stuff.
Storm then reappears in front of him and goes for a kick. Kuro dodges and slips past her before he felt some chains wrap around him, keeping him in place. Storm grits her teeth as she yanks on the metal before it loosens as Kuro blinks out of them and hits the ground in a stumble. Storm quickly notices and flings the chain toward him. Kuro blinks again and barely misses the chain slap as it hits the forest ground. Kuro tries to run a few steps before everyone in front of him notices his eyes become a blank void, and he falls over on the ground face first and slides from the momentum before hitting a tree hard, stopping him.
Storm slowly rolls her chain around her arm as everyone steps closer to Kuro, but keeps an eye on him for anything. She then hums and lightly kicks his side to no sort of reaction at all. "Keep him asleep. And tie him up in a room with no windows. We can't let him see anything."