I don't think I did this at all in the other chapters, but I'll like to thank all the people who read the fic so far. I made a lot of changes from the original plot based on some of the reviews, and decided to give the rest of the Chaotix a big part in this as well. I didn't know how to write for the characters at first. Since I never got my hands on a Knuckles Comic, I didn't get the whole grip on the Chaotix and could only rely on reviews and the back stories for the Sonic Comics to go by.
I started writing this chapter as soon I as I posted the last chapter
------------------------------------------Heart to No Heart: All or Nothin'
Dimitri aimed the gun at the intruders and pulled back on the trigger, causing the bullets to fly from the gun and towards them.
Vector heard the first shot, which was just shy of grazing across his stomach. He tried to stop himself, but found himself stumbling forward.
Charmy went down and grabbed him by the broken headset that he refused to take from around his neck to pull him backwards out of the constant line of fire by the head Legionnaire. The Bee pulled him backwards, but Vector didn't regain his balance and they both fell behind a sturdy desk on the other side of the room.
Instead of moving in for the kill, Dimitri held his ground and continued to fire rounds into the solid desk.
"Oh Aurora, we're about to die..." What was Vector thinking when he went in there without a gun? He had his back against the desk and was now holding his head.
Charmy looked at him with hopeful eyes before catching a glimpse of Julie-Su, and more importantly what was in the pocket on the front of her vest. He could just barely see the familiar blue plastic of an unusual weapon. "Vector! I need you to cover for me!"
"Cover? How am I supposed to do that?" He looked at the wall that was in front of him. Just his luck, there was nothing along there but some books with records of Echindaopolis and Angel Island. "Three walls with lethal weapons along them and we get stuck by the reading section..."
"Just go it!" Charmy was about to charge for that object in Julie-Su's pocket... but he needed to make sure he wasn't gunned down before getting back to him.
Vector just got the heaviest book that he could find on the ground and then got in position. When the gunfire stopped shortly due to an empty clip, he and Charmy moved into action. He jumped up from where he was hiding and threw the book at the Echidna's head as hard as he could. Charmy charged towards Julie-Su and tried to untangle the small box and headphones from Julie-Su's vest.
Dimitri was too busy trying to find a clip to even see the book sailing towards his head. He felt it though, slamming into his right temple, causing his eyes to shoot right open. He didn't say a word though; he was disoriented and stumbled back into the wall of ammunition behind him.
As soon as Charmy got the headset free from her pockets, he hovered up and checked her bindings. "How do we get these off?"
"I don't know!" She suddenly shouted before her voice quieted down. " You have to get back to Echindaopolis right away though, the whole city's in danger of being taken over by the Legion!"
"No way! We stopped the Legion in its tracks!" Vector was finally getting into books, taking them and chucking them at Dimitri to keep him back against the wall under that wall of ammunition that fell onto him.
The male Echidna coughed hoarse, and then chuckled. "You fool... you have done nothing but make a completely idiot of yourself. By now, Echindaopolis is on its knees, and just waiting to be slaughter. "
The heaviness of the situation fell upon the three Chaotix in the room now. Charmy was the first to react though. "Espio, Mighty... Remington..."
"They're all either dead or Robotized by now, just like you'll be in a few minutes... "
Julie-Su felt horrible. A few days ago she had the chance to stop this right here and then when she seen Lien-Da in the cemetery. It would've took one shot to end this nightmare before anyone got hurt... and she couldn't because she was weak and softened by emotions she just gained again when she met up with... with...
Charmy flew over towards Vector and gave him what he was digging around for, the walkman! Just seeing that made Vector brighten up, and he quickly took it and fitted it back onto his belt. "Charmy mah man, this is just like my old one! Oh Aurora, I thought ah'd never see thing again!"
"You can thank Julie-Su for that..." Charmy said with his tone softening.
Vector looked down at his walkman again, before looking over towards her. He didn't say a word, just walked over to her and moved his hands to the bindings along her wrists and pulled as hard as he could. It took him a moment, and he had to put one foot onto the metal binding she was against, but he got her out of there. He worked on until only the ankle bindings remained.
When he got her out of there, she moved onto her feet and smiled faintly. "Alright then. Did you all find..."
Charmy nodded. "The Guardians, Mighty, and Espio are on their way back towards Echindaopolis..." Carmi's tone softened slightly as he said with a sullen voice. "Espio got shot and is hurt pretty bad..."
"Oh..." Now she felt guilty, that she wasn't able to do her job and someone got hurt because of it. It was certainly better than seeing Charmy and Vector get blasted away right in front of her face like she thought would happen. "Alright then, lets get the hell out of here..."
From under the pile of weapons and books, Dimitri squirmed a bit, but couldn't get up. "You... can't leave me here..."
"Don't worry Great-Grandfather. We're going to be back with the constable to deal with you..."
Dimitri snarled with his eyes silted as he watched those three leave the watoom. Julie-Su was the last to go, looking back towards the small jar that was on the table. She headed over and pawed around the jar, picking it up and walking out of the room with it. She would have to find something to do with this, she can't keep that soul trapped in there forever.
As his source of power left the room, he found himself getting gradually weaker and groaned softly before he completely blacked out.
This wasn't over... the Legion would not be beaten this way.
----------------
"Arrrgh!" Locke suddenly stumbled forward and fell down. He never felt that much pain in his life! It was all originating from his paws now and aching through his entire body.
He slowly rolled over onto his back to see Lara-Le's worried face hovering right over him. She grabbed his injured paws and caused him to rear back and howl in sudden pain. "Locke! Locke, what's wrong?"
Locke slowly moved his hands over his knuckles along his right hand and winced again. " My hands are burning... like they're melting..."
That sent Lara into a panic, she quickly moved her finger across his knuckles and then to the rim of his glove. "Let me see..."
"N-NO! Don't touch them!"
It was too late; she already moved her paw over his knuckles when he suddenly screamed in pain again. This time something would actually happen to his paw. Along the knuckles, the two bumps that formed on either hand would start to grow at an alarming rate. They spouted up, tearing though his red fur and flesh and causing a bit of blood to splatter on both of them! Locke held both of his paws to his chest and hissed to himself in pain.
Lara-Le was the first of the two to recognize what those were... Claws, they were caws along his knuckles like. "You... you grew claws..."
Indeed, but they weren't exactly like his son's slightly dulled claws. They were twice as long and surpassed his finger length easily. The tips were sharpened like a knife and had a flat end that was parallel to his knuckles. It was hard to see what exactly they were made out of, with the blood that was surrounding his paw now.
Locke looked at the claws, flexing his hand. The pain had slowly passed, like built up energy that was suddenly released all at once. He slowly made his way to his feet, running his left finger across one of the sharp claws with a look of confusion. "I-I don't understand... how?"
"Knuckles hot his power though the Master Emerald... maybe that had something to do with it..."
Locke was about to protest that he hadn't even see the Master Emerald since Knuckles' funeral, but remembered a time that he had to use its power not to long ago. When they were outside of the base and he had to defend the Guardianship... he filled himself with Chaos energy and it must've mutated him in this way!
"I-It doesn't matter now Lara..." He started towards the junction in the hallway, looking back towards her. "All that matters now is finding those kids and getting out of this place!"
As soon as he stepped into the conjunction and turned around to face her, he was slammed into from the side and fell down onto his ass.
Looking up he seen the panicked face of a familiar pink Echidna. "Julie-Su! You're alright!" He said before grunting and rubbing his lower back with one paw.
"Echindaopolis! We have to get back to Echindaopolis right now..." She was panting, and didn't even know it yet. She got back onto her feet and looked at Lara-Le before looking back at him. "Dimitri is planning to attack Knothole, on Mobious Prime and-"
"Just calm down!" Locke grabbed her shoulders and looked back at her. "We're going to take care of everything, don't worry. "
She fell silent for a moment before looking down at the ground with her eyes watering up a bit. "I'm so sorry... I should've stopped them by now... and now the whole island's going to pay..."
"There was no way you could've known, dear." Lara-Le said from behind Locke, still trying to get some patches of gray out her yellow shirt. "You can't go around blaming yourself for everything that the Legion does... What's important now is that we get to Echindaopolis and put a stop to this!"
Locke thought about that for a second, and then looked back to Julie-Su with a light smirk coming across his muzzle. "That probably won't be necessary. We might be able to stop the problem from its source... If we find the Master Emerald."
-----------------
Remington had to worry about saving himself in this crowd, and then worry about what to do with the Echidnas. When Knuckles and the Chaotix weren't around, he was pretty much in charge of the whole city. It was sometimes more then he could handle, like it was right now.
He was forced back by the crowd into a small section on the ground where the team players are supposed to go back into the locker room. Remington knew that was a dead end, but the crowd thought it was a way out.
Before he would be forced though the door, he jumped and grabbed onto a metal pole over his head and pulled himself up far enough so he was over the passing crowd. He dropped his megaphone into the mob and held on with both hands so he could pull himself up to sit on the pole.
He looked out onto the field from where he was and seen the Legion ship lowering down onto the field. He just prayed that it was the ship that the Chaotix were calling from and not a ship for reinforcements by the Legion.
Suddenly, the speakers on the ship lowered down. Several black boxes appearing right on the underside of the ship facing the crowd. Remington blinked once in confusion before catching onto what was happening.
The Speakers would let out a sound that was similar to the sound a familiar blue hedgehog would make when he's running on flat ground. The sound would cause the crowd to look up at the speakers the first time around and then scatter to get out of the way the second. It wasn't a constant sound, just a booming one that was made every three seconds like...
Mighty was punching a piece of solid metal with his good fist while his bloodied one held the thick sheet in front of a microphone. The sound was amplified though their speaker system to sound booming to the crowd below.
The female Echidna looked over the side of the control panel and smiled a bit when she seen both Legionaries and regular Echidnas running for cover from the horrible sound that Mighty was making. "It's working!" She exclaimed over the noise
Mighty's ears twitched, and he looked over towards her. "What?" He shouted.
"I SAID ITS WORKING!" She screamed again, panting after words.
Mighty smirked and stopped as the ship lowered down onto the field. The armadillo looked towards the door and put his fists together as he walked over there. "I'll get on door duty..."
"Mighty wait..." Thunderhawk stopped him at the door, and then took his injured hand into the two of his own. He concentrated for a moment, his eyes closing as he put his energy into the injury that went though the palm of his hand.
Gradually, the wound would heal itself at ten times the rate that it'll take normally. The blood was still there on his glove, but his hand was completely healed in a couple of seconds.
Mighty looked at his hand, flexing it in front of the Echidna before mouthing out. "Thanks, but what about my friend?"
Thunderhawk nodded a bit. "We're helping him too... but the healing works best on non life-threatening injuries like the one on your hand. "
That put Mighty in a bad mood, but he was in no position to complain right now. He was about to get into the fight of his life out there...
And he didn't have his friends to back him up this time.
Remington had his eyes glued on the ship, but had to divide his attention when his radio suddenly went of. He grabbed it and put it up to his muzzle. "Speak to me, and it better be good news."
"Get down here and cover Mighty, he needs all the help he can get out there!" A female voice yelled over the radio.
Remington was more then happy to offer some help, but he couldn't do this alone. A more pressing question came over him first. "Wait a second, who the hell are you?"
"Just a bad girl gone good... for now..."
Remington sighed and turned the radio off. Then a rush of inspiration would go though his head, and he would turn to face what was left of the cowering normal citizens of Echindaopolis who were crowded in this small space with him.
"People...Its about time we help our Guardians out. "
--------------
"Are you sure you left her here?"
They small group of Mobians were making their way back to the Robotization chambers. They were going back to get Lien-Da. Julie-Su was completely sure that she would know where the master Emerald was.
"Positive, Positive!" Charmy said to Julie-Su as he flew alongside her. Locke, Lara, and Vector were behind them, since they were slightly slower then they were. "I stung her and left her there!"
Julie-Su's eyes widened slightly. "You didn't kill her, did you Charmy? Its hard to say, but she's worth more to us now alive then she does dead!"
Charmy shook his head. "Nuh uh. My stinger doesn't carry enough poison to kill any mobian that's bigger then me. She'll just have a terrible headache when she wakes up."
"That's a relief..." Julie-Su sighed.
Charmy chuckled. "You say that like you actually care about her!"
Near the back, Lara-Le looked over to Vector and tilted her head a bit. "What's wrong? You haven't said a word since we caught up with you all..."
Vector looked back at her, now wearing his headphones over his 'ears'. He was either too absorbed in himself to care about his actions now or thinking. "Thinkin' ma, Knuxman is dead... but we seen him back there."
"It was just a shell-erm... I mean his body. His body was back there, but his soul was somewhere else. "Locke corrected him, but he didn't expect a normal mobian to know much about that anyway.
"You knew it the whole time, didn't you? That the dude wasn't yer kid, right?"
Locke shook his head to that. "It was hard to figure it out, but I knew something was wrong from the get-go. There isn't a mobian alive today that can perfectly imitate another mobian."
"We'll that's co-"
"SHIT!"
The three suddenly stopped so they wouldn't bump into Julie-Su, who was stopped in front of the door leading to the Robotization room.
The pink Echidna walked forward slowly, but could already tell that Lein-Da wasn't there. She looked around the whole room and yelled out. "She's gone! "
Charmy seemed a bit shaken by this, and flew down low to the ground. After some close inspection, something caught his eye and he picked it up. A thick black stinger with a little blood on the sharpened tip. "H-how did she pull the stinger out? She should've been in too much pain..."
------------
Dimitri was just coming around, and grunted softly to himself when he heard the sounds of soft heels against the metal ground.
He looked up to see his Great-Granddaughter standing there with one hand over the right side of her neck while the other laid almost limp at her side.
"So you're alive..." Dimitri said.
Lien-Da walked over to the pile of books and weapons and started to push them off of him a little at a time. "I can say the same for you."
Dimitri pushed up onto her weakened arms so he was sitting on his knees looking up at his second in command. "I want you to make the call this time."
"Call? What call?" Lien-Da seemed confused.
Dimitri cleared his throat as he slowly pushed himself to his feet. His body was weak from the soul that he was feeding on, now gone with the Chaotix somewhere in this building. "Do we push forward and try and take the city, or fall back and rebuild what we've lost. Child, I'm growing weak again... this time I might not live to see a stronger body."
Something in that cold heart of hers fluttered at the thought that Dimitri would die on her. It was impossible in her mind! He was immortal, indestructible! The girl couldn't accept the fact that he was old and should've been gone a long time ago. He was already putting her in command more, like he was unable to make these choices himself. I-It was him to came up with this plan in the first place... why did he suddenly shift the responsibility over to her?
She choked back at first, but then proceeded forward. "We'll pull back and repair your body... afterward we'll go and kill those creatures who got in our way first."
Dimitri fell silent for a moment, before speaking up. "Is that really what you want to do?" He moved his covered paw out and patted her slowly on the head. "Lien-Da, you always were there for me... You and your brother, training and working all the time to become the best in our Legion at such a young age. Whether I live or not, I will not be running the Legion forever. "
"B-But you're our leader..."
"Wrong, I'm your Great-Grandfather and over four-hundred years old!" He countered, but his touch never falling from her face. "I have lived far beyond my expectations, and lived to see my dream."
Lien-Da's eyes softened slightly, and she jumped in surprise as he suddenly leaned forward as if he was going to faint. He recovered on his own, and she said. "Your dream? What was your dream?"
"Child, it has never changed. Not one day in my life, and never will. My dream isn't to be immortal or to build a giant empire on Technology. I wanted to see the Echidnas return to their native home in Downunda from their everlasting loop in the skies over Mobious.
I have lived to see that... and my soul will rest in peace as long as the island remains at its place of origin as if is now." Dimitri let out a hoarse cough before he would give her a weak smile to match his feelings now. "Promise me, you will do everything in your power to make sure this island stays on the ground."
Lien-Da never seen it that way, over the years she must've forgotten all about Dimitri's original intentions for the floating Island. Not at all what she expected, but she would continue to please her mentor nonetheless. "I swear."
"Good... now hurry child, the Chaotix are still somewhere in the building... seeking the Master Emerald."
Shock passed her face again. "H-How do you know without your equipment?"
Dimitri slowly rubbed the barbed Knuckles of his paws together before looking back to her. "When I took this body, I took everything along with it. I can see more then you'll ever pick up with your sensors now."
Lien-Da would bent down and pick a few weapons out the pile before looking back to him. "Come with me, come fight with me!"
"No Lien-Da... Even in a young body I feel the effects of age..." He walked over to a corner of the War Room and sat down in the corner. He looked up at her now. "This was something that I didn't expect before... I should've seen this beforehand."
Lien-Da frowned slightly before nodding her head to him. She wouldn't ask him about it anymore, she'd just have to do this on her own. "Alright... stay here..."
She turned her head and headed towards the broken down door.
Dimitri looked at her, up until he could see her head disappear from his sights and sighed heavily himself. He leaned back against the wall with his eyes to the sky.
"She said that as if I had a choice..."
I'm so glad I didn't save this chapter on my computer. Turns out my computer crashed on Friday and I lost every fic I wrote except for Rolla the Crap and the last Three Chapters of Heart to No Heart.
If the person who wanted to do the Scratch One Chicken fic is reading this, I'm sorry to say that I don't have the files you need anymore :(.
Anyway, there's only two more chapters to the story left from here. I hope you all enjoyed it up to this part, anyone who's still reading out there.
One more thing, I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed my fics... weather it be this fic of something else that I wrote in the past. Red Fox is someone I can name off the bat, and Vincent Valentine who reviewed a few times. Juliana just reviewed a while ago. Dr. Sipp, who's fanfics are good too. I know I forgot a lot of people, but I'll thank them all when I write the last chapter n.n.
Expect the new one out in about three days. Yup, no more waiting forever for chapters from me.
I started writing this chapter as soon I as I posted the last chapter
------------------------------------------Heart to No Heart: All or Nothin'
Dimitri aimed the gun at the intruders and pulled back on the trigger, causing the bullets to fly from the gun and towards them.
Vector heard the first shot, which was just shy of grazing across his stomach. He tried to stop himself, but found himself stumbling forward.
Charmy went down and grabbed him by the broken headset that he refused to take from around his neck to pull him backwards out of the constant line of fire by the head Legionnaire. The Bee pulled him backwards, but Vector didn't regain his balance and they both fell behind a sturdy desk on the other side of the room.
Instead of moving in for the kill, Dimitri held his ground and continued to fire rounds into the solid desk.
"Oh Aurora, we're about to die..." What was Vector thinking when he went in there without a gun? He had his back against the desk and was now holding his head.
Charmy looked at him with hopeful eyes before catching a glimpse of Julie-Su, and more importantly what was in the pocket on the front of her vest. He could just barely see the familiar blue plastic of an unusual weapon. "Vector! I need you to cover for me!"
"Cover? How am I supposed to do that?" He looked at the wall that was in front of him. Just his luck, there was nothing along there but some books with records of Echindaopolis and Angel Island. "Three walls with lethal weapons along them and we get stuck by the reading section..."
"Just go it!" Charmy was about to charge for that object in Julie-Su's pocket... but he needed to make sure he wasn't gunned down before getting back to him.
Vector just got the heaviest book that he could find on the ground and then got in position. When the gunfire stopped shortly due to an empty clip, he and Charmy moved into action. He jumped up from where he was hiding and threw the book at the Echidna's head as hard as he could. Charmy charged towards Julie-Su and tried to untangle the small box and headphones from Julie-Su's vest.
Dimitri was too busy trying to find a clip to even see the book sailing towards his head. He felt it though, slamming into his right temple, causing his eyes to shoot right open. He didn't say a word though; he was disoriented and stumbled back into the wall of ammunition behind him.
As soon as Charmy got the headset free from her pockets, he hovered up and checked her bindings. "How do we get these off?"
"I don't know!" She suddenly shouted before her voice quieted down. " You have to get back to Echindaopolis right away though, the whole city's in danger of being taken over by the Legion!"
"No way! We stopped the Legion in its tracks!" Vector was finally getting into books, taking them and chucking them at Dimitri to keep him back against the wall under that wall of ammunition that fell onto him.
The male Echidna coughed hoarse, and then chuckled. "You fool... you have done nothing but make a completely idiot of yourself. By now, Echindaopolis is on its knees, and just waiting to be slaughter. "
The heaviness of the situation fell upon the three Chaotix in the room now. Charmy was the first to react though. "Espio, Mighty... Remington..."
"They're all either dead or Robotized by now, just like you'll be in a few minutes... "
Julie-Su felt horrible. A few days ago she had the chance to stop this right here and then when she seen Lien-Da in the cemetery. It would've took one shot to end this nightmare before anyone got hurt... and she couldn't because she was weak and softened by emotions she just gained again when she met up with... with...
Charmy flew over towards Vector and gave him what he was digging around for, the walkman! Just seeing that made Vector brighten up, and he quickly took it and fitted it back onto his belt. "Charmy mah man, this is just like my old one! Oh Aurora, I thought ah'd never see thing again!"
"You can thank Julie-Su for that..." Charmy said with his tone softening.
Vector looked down at his walkman again, before looking over towards her. He didn't say a word, just walked over to her and moved his hands to the bindings along her wrists and pulled as hard as he could. It took him a moment, and he had to put one foot onto the metal binding she was against, but he got her out of there. He worked on until only the ankle bindings remained.
When he got her out of there, she moved onto her feet and smiled faintly. "Alright then. Did you all find..."
Charmy nodded. "The Guardians, Mighty, and Espio are on their way back towards Echindaopolis..." Carmi's tone softened slightly as he said with a sullen voice. "Espio got shot and is hurt pretty bad..."
"Oh..." Now she felt guilty, that she wasn't able to do her job and someone got hurt because of it. It was certainly better than seeing Charmy and Vector get blasted away right in front of her face like she thought would happen. "Alright then, lets get the hell out of here..."
From under the pile of weapons and books, Dimitri squirmed a bit, but couldn't get up. "You... can't leave me here..."
"Don't worry Great-Grandfather. We're going to be back with the constable to deal with you..."
Dimitri snarled with his eyes silted as he watched those three leave the watoom. Julie-Su was the last to go, looking back towards the small jar that was on the table. She headed over and pawed around the jar, picking it up and walking out of the room with it. She would have to find something to do with this, she can't keep that soul trapped in there forever.
As his source of power left the room, he found himself getting gradually weaker and groaned softly before he completely blacked out.
This wasn't over... the Legion would not be beaten this way.
----------------
"Arrrgh!" Locke suddenly stumbled forward and fell down. He never felt that much pain in his life! It was all originating from his paws now and aching through his entire body.
He slowly rolled over onto his back to see Lara-Le's worried face hovering right over him. She grabbed his injured paws and caused him to rear back and howl in sudden pain. "Locke! Locke, what's wrong?"
Locke slowly moved his hands over his knuckles along his right hand and winced again. " My hands are burning... like they're melting..."
That sent Lara into a panic, she quickly moved her finger across his knuckles and then to the rim of his glove. "Let me see..."
"N-NO! Don't touch them!"
It was too late; she already moved her paw over his knuckles when he suddenly screamed in pain again. This time something would actually happen to his paw. Along the knuckles, the two bumps that formed on either hand would start to grow at an alarming rate. They spouted up, tearing though his red fur and flesh and causing a bit of blood to splatter on both of them! Locke held both of his paws to his chest and hissed to himself in pain.
Lara-Le was the first of the two to recognize what those were... Claws, they were caws along his knuckles like. "You... you grew claws..."
Indeed, but they weren't exactly like his son's slightly dulled claws. They were twice as long and surpassed his finger length easily. The tips were sharpened like a knife and had a flat end that was parallel to his knuckles. It was hard to see what exactly they were made out of, with the blood that was surrounding his paw now.
Locke looked at the claws, flexing his hand. The pain had slowly passed, like built up energy that was suddenly released all at once. He slowly made his way to his feet, running his left finger across one of the sharp claws with a look of confusion. "I-I don't understand... how?"
"Knuckles hot his power though the Master Emerald... maybe that had something to do with it..."
Locke was about to protest that he hadn't even see the Master Emerald since Knuckles' funeral, but remembered a time that he had to use its power not to long ago. When they were outside of the base and he had to defend the Guardianship... he filled himself with Chaos energy and it must've mutated him in this way!
"I-It doesn't matter now Lara..." He started towards the junction in the hallway, looking back towards her. "All that matters now is finding those kids and getting out of this place!"
As soon as he stepped into the conjunction and turned around to face her, he was slammed into from the side and fell down onto his ass.
Looking up he seen the panicked face of a familiar pink Echidna. "Julie-Su! You're alright!" He said before grunting and rubbing his lower back with one paw.
"Echindaopolis! We have to get back to Echindaopolis right now..." She was panting, and didn't even know it yet. She got back onto her feet and looked at Lara-Le before looking back at him. "Dimitri is planning to attack Knothole, on Mobious Prime and-"
"Just calm down!" Locke grabbed her shoulders and looked back at her. "We're going to take care of everything, don't worry. "
She fell silent for a moment before looking down at the ground with her eyes watering up a bit. "I'm so sorry... I should've stopped them by now... and now the whole island's going to pay..."
"There was no way you could've known, dear." Lara-Le said from behind Locke, still trying to get some patches of gray out her yellow shirt. "You can't go around blaming yourself for everything that the Legion does... What's important now is that we get to Echindaopolis and put a stop to this!"
Locke thought about that for a second, and then looked back to Julie-Su with a light smirk coming across his muzzle. "That probably won't be necessary. We might be able to stop the problem from its source... If we find the Master Emerald."
-----------------
Remington had to worry about saving himself in this crowd, and then worry about what to do with the Echidnas. When Knuckles and the Chaotix weren't around, he was pretty much in charge of the whole city. It was sometimes more then he could handle, like it was right now.
He was forced back by the crowd into a small section on the ground where the team players are supposed to go back into the locker room. Remington knew that was a dead end, but the crowd thought it was a way out.
Before he would be forced though the door, he jumped and grabbed onto a metal pole over his head and pulled himself up far enough so he was over the passing crowd. He dropped his megaphone into the mob and held on with both hands so he could pull himself up to sit on the pole.
He looked out onto the field from where he was and seen the Legion ship lowering down onto the field. He just prayed that it was the ship that the Chaotix were calling from and not a ship for reinforcements by the Legion.
Suddenly, the speakers on the ship lowered down. Several black boxes appearing right on the underside of the ship facing the crowd. Remington blinked once in confusion before catching onto what was happening.
The Speakers would let out a sound that was similar to the sound a familiar blue hedgehog would make when he's running on flat ground. The sound would cause the crowd to look up at the speakers the first time around and then scatter to get out of the way the second. It wasn't a constant sound, just a booming one that was made every three seconds like...
Mighty was punching a piece of solid metal with his good fist while his bloodied one held the thick sheet in front of a microphone. The sound was amplified though their speaker system to sound booming to the crowd below.
The female Echidna looked over the side of the control panel and smiled a bit when she seen both Legionaries and regular Echidnas running for cover from the horrible sound that Mighty was making. "It's working!" She exclaimed over the noise
Mighty's ears twitched, and he looked over towards her. "What?" He shouted.
"I SAID ITS WORKING!" She screamed again, panting after words.
Mighty smirked and stopped as the ship lowered down onto the field. The armadillo looked towards the door and put his fists together as he walked over there. "I'll get on door duty..."
"Mighty wait..." Thunderhawk stopped him at the door, and then took his injured hand into the two of his own. He concentrated for a moment, his eyes closing as he put his energy into the injury that went though the palm of his hand.
Gradually, the wound would heal itself at ten times the rate that it'll take normally. The blood was still there on his glove, but his hand was completely healed in a couple of seconds.
Mighty looked at his hand, flexing it in front of the Echidna before mouthing out. "Thanks, but what about my friend?"
Thunderhawk nodded a bit. "We're helping him too... but the healing works best on non life-threatening injuries like the one on your hand. "
That put Mighty in a bad mood, but he was in no position to complain right now. He was about to get into the fight of his life out there...
And he didn't have his friends to back him up this time.
Remington had his eyes glued on the ship, but had to divide his attention when his radio suddenly went of. He grabbed it and put it up to his muzzle. "Speak to me, and it better be good news."
"Get down here and cover Mighty, he needs all the help he can get out there!" A female voice yelled over the radio.
Remington was more then happy to offer some help, but he couldn't do this alone. A more pressing question came over him first. "Wait a second, who the hell are you?"
"Just a bad girl gone good... for now..."
Remington sighed and turned the radio off. Then a rush of inspiration would go though his head, and he would turn to face what was left of the cowering normal citizens of Echindaopolis who were crowded in this small space with him.
"People...Its about time we help our Guardians out. "
--------------
"Are you sure you left her here?"
They small group of Mobians were making their way back to the Robotization chambers. They were going back to get Lien-Da. Julie-Su was completely sure that she would know where the master Emerald was.
"Positive, Positive!" Charmy said to Julie-Su as he flew alongside her. Locke, Lara, and Vector were behind them, since they were slightly slower then they were. "I stung her and left her there!"
Julie-Su's eyes widened slightly. "You didn't kill her, did you Charmy? Its hard to say, but she's worth more to us now alive then she does dead!"
Charmy shook his head. "Nuh uh. My stinger doesn't carry enough poison to kill any mobian that's bigger then me. She'll just have a terrible headache when she wakes up."
"That's a relief..." Julie-Su sighed.
Charmy chuckled. "You say that like you actually care about her!"
Near the back, Lara-Le looked over to Vector and tilted her head a bit. "What's wrong? You haven't said a word since we caught up with you all..."
Vector looked back at her, now wearing his headphones over his 'ears'. He was either too absorbed in himself to care about his actions now or thinking. "Thinkin' ma, Knuxman is dead... but we seen him back there."
"It was just a shell-erm... I mean his body. His body was back there, but his soul was somewhere else. "Locke corrected him, but he didn't expect a normal mobian to know much about that anyway.
"You knew it the whole time, didn't you? That the dude wasn't yer kid, right?"
Locke shook his head to that. "It was hard to figure it out, but I knew something was wrong from the get-go. There isn't a mobian alive today that can perfectly imitate another mobian."
"We'll that's co-"
"SHIT!"
The three suddenly stopped so they wouldn't bump into Julie-Su, who was stopped in front of the door leading to the Robotization room.
The pink Echidna walked forward slowly, but could already tell that Lein-Da wasn't there. She looked around the whole room and yelled out. "She's gone! "
Charmy seemed a bit shaken by this, and flew down low to the ground. After some close inspection, something caught his eye and he picked it up. A thick black stinger with a little blood on the sharpened tip. "H-how did she pull the stinger out? She should've been in too much pain..."
------------
Dimitri was just coming around, and grunted softly to himself when he heard the sounds of soft heels against the metal ground.
He looked up to see his Great-Granddaughter standing there with one hand over the right side of her neck while the other laid almost limp at her side.
"So you're alive..." Dimitri said.
Lien-Da walked over to the pile of books and weapons and started to push them off of him a little at a time. "I can say the same for you."
Dimitri pushed up onto her weakened arms so he was sitting on his knees looking up at his second in command. "I want you to make the call this time."
"Call? What call?" Lien-Da seemed confused.
Dimitri cleared his throat as he slowly pushed himself to his feet. His body was weak from the soul that he was feeding on, now gone with the Chaotix somewhere in this building. "Do we push forward and try and take the city, or fall back and rebuild what we've lost. Child, I'm growing weak again... this time I might not live to see a stronger body."
Something in that cold heart of hers fluttered at the thought that Dimitri would die on her. It was impossible in her mind! He was immortal, indestructible! The girl couldn't accept the fact that he was old and should've been gone a long time ago. He was already putting her in command more, like he was unable to make these choices himself. I-It was him to came up with this plan in the first place... why did he suddenly shift the responsibility over to her?
She choked back at first, but then proceeded forward. "We'll pull back and repair your body... afterward we'll go and kill those creatures who got in our way first."
Dimitri fell silent for a moment, before speaking up. "Is that really what you want to do?" He moved his covered paw out and patted her slowly on the head. "Lien-Da, you always were there for me... You and your brother, training and working all the time to become the best in our Legion at such a young age. Whether I live or not, I will not be running the Legion forever. "
"B-But you're our leader..."
"Wrong, I'm your Great-Grandfather and over four-hundred years old!" He countered, but his touch never falling from her face. "I have lived far beyond my expectations, and lived to see my dream."
Lien-Da's eyes softened slightly, and she jumped in surprise as he suddenly leaned forward as if he was going to faint. He recovered on his own, and she said. "Your dream? What was your dream?"
"Child, it has never changed. Not one day in my life, and never will. My dream isn't to be immortal or to build a giant empire on Technology. I wanted to see the Echidnas return to their native home in Downunda from their everlasting loop in the skies over Mobious.
I have lived to see that... and my soul will rest in peace as long as the island remains at its place of origin as if is now." Dimitri let out a hoarse cough before he would give her a weak smile to match his feelings now. "Promise me, you will do everything in your power to make sure this island stays on the ground."
Lien-Da never seen it that way, over the years she must've forgotten all about Dimitri's original intentions for the floating Island. Not at all what she expected, but she would continue to please her mentor nonetheless. "I swear."
"Good... now hurry child, the Chaotix are still somewhere in the building... seeking the Master Emerald."
Shock passed her face again. "H-How do you know without your equipment?"
Dimitri slowly rubbed the barbed Knuckles of his paws together before looking back to her. "When I took this body, I took everything along with it. I can see more then you'll ever pick up with your sensors now."
Lien-Da would bent down and pick a few weapons out the pile before looking back to him. "Come with me, come fight with me!"
"No Lien-Da... Even in a young body I feel the effects of age..." He walked over to a corner of the War Room and sat down in the corner. He looked up at her now. "This was something that I didn't expect before... I should've seen this beforehand."
Lien-Da frowned slightly before nodding her head to him. She wouldn't ask him about it anymore, she'd just have to do this on her own. "Alright... stay here..."
She turned her head and headed towards the broken down door.
Dimitri looked at her, up until he could see her head disappear from his sights and sighed heavily himself. He leaned back against the wall with his eyes to the sky.
"She said that as if I had a choice..."
I'm so glad I didn't save this chapter on my computer. Turns out my computer crashed on Friday and I lost every fic I wrote except for Rolla the Crap and the last Three Chapters of Heart to No Heart.
If the person who wanted to do the Scratch One Chicken fic is reading this, I'm sorry to say that I don't have the files you need anymore :(.
Anyway, there's only two more chapters to the story left from here. I hope you all enjoyed it up to this part, anyone who's still reading out there.
One more thing, I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed my fics... weather it be this fic of something else that I wrote in the past. Red Fox is someone I can name off the bat, and Vincent Valentine who reviewed a few times. Juliana just reviewed a while ago. Dr. Sipp, who's fanfics are good too. I know I forgot a lot of people, but I'll thank them all when I write the last chapter n.n.
Expect the new one out in about three days. Yup, no more waiting forever for chapters from me.