Chapter 11:    The Battle for the Elements!

Bluehawk glanced between HT-4 and the now glowing hedgehog Minimaniac…the uncertain Kawaii Kitsune standing next to him, doing the same thing…the chimera upon the glider…the raging bullet and spellcasting between chimeras and SoaH citizens below…suddenly Bluehawk expelled a howl and a rage of energy…a transparent blue wave…and suddenly the chimeras were dropping their electronic weapons, victims of an EMP. Bluehawk smiled with determined pride, his violet fur swaying slightly…Then HT-4 was off like a bullet with a white trail, zipping around, lashing his huge, now forked tongue at everything in sight, tripping them up, giving them severe cuts and bloodstains. He was over-there, no, there, the yellow Minimaniac hovered up next to Hawk. "We have to destroy him somehow!" Hawk yelled. "At least drain his power!" Then it was upon them with a shrill roar as a missile from Phantom's glider whizzed past it. Then everything was going slowly for Hawk, he could see what was going on…the creature was darting about over the other side of the crater…daylight shining through his flames even in their thickest…he was pure energy. Bluehawk was off like the bullets he so often fired…swooping straight through that bright light, it gave a shriek of anger, lashed its head around…Hawk was above it…Hawk Dash! Hawk used his favourite warp move, going straight through the evil beast with a blast of lightning as a new by product-excellent. Again, the flames of HT-4 let out a strong blast of flames…Bluehawk felt the pain through his fur, his ribs…maybe it knew that fire was his weakness…Minimaniac slash-chopped to his aid with a trail of yellow lights…tiny, tiny…HT-4 lashed a single claw and sent them both flying backward…the sound and force of an explosion ensued from the creature as Bluehawk closed his eyes, reeling from the impact, guarding the mass of cuts on his arm. He was not invincible…Minimaniac instantly bounced back with a flurry of chops, punches and kicks before dodging back at another fire blast. Hawk appeared from behind, channeling energy into his fists and unleashing a volley of electrical punches to hack a steel door to pieces. Rock shards came loose from the massive creature's back…but it wasn't enough. "Regroup!" Bluehawk called. "It's got a rock exoskeleton…I think electricity is its current weakness!" Minimaniac nodded…

"LOOKOUT!" Suddenly both of them were forced to bail as a streak of roaring white flame tore between them. Bluehawk wasn't so concerned…Hawk Dash and the huge creature was jolted upward…it started screaming even more high-pitch…as if trying to break glass…(Bluehawk heard a bottle break somewhere) and Phantom looked up in horror…although he had expected this. Shrieks were coming from multiple sources up there…and suddenly the sky was littered with the white flames of smaller HT-4s. It shrieked in triumph. "I'll take out the minies! You two take the big guy!" Bluehawk heard Phantom call. It was time to finish this long drawn-out battle as soon as possible…Bluehawk dodged aside as a shrieking flame dove past him as he flew upwards…and another, and then another…Hawk Dash! Hawk was through the other side, like an electric bolt-travelling through the body and out the other side with a burst of painful energy. And it felt good doing it. Minimaniac attacked from the other side-below-with a flurry of swatting karate chops. The same moves were working well time and time again…then-"Mini! MOVE!" Suddenly a shrieking duplicate lunged at Mini with its mouth open…a loose fist caught its jaw and sent it dropping to the ground dead. HT-4 suddenly lashed out its wide jaws, catching Minimaniac in the middle…the head vibrated before it could swallow…then HT-4 gave in and allowed exit. Minimaniac shot out covered in slime. Bluehawk Hawk Dashed through another duplicate before HT-4 turned upon him, its second rival. Another fire-blast and Hawk realized he was losing power…his arms were going blue again…another missile exploded on the creature and it glanced around, spotting the glider. Yes, this was its favourite prey. Phantom knew what was coming-HT-4's glowing flames were suddenly filling his field of vision…then he was out of its range and it gnashed from above, realizing his absence and dove. Then he was on the glider again, diving with another missile. Gotta love that teleport… Suddenly Hawk was zapping through again with a bang of the breakage of the sound barrier. The battle was faring well. But the stakes were too high to risk. Minimaniac gave a congratulating wink-Hawk had broken the sound barrier just now after all. No time for pride now. HT-4 lashed its flaming tongue out again…he was getting colour back into his body, the flames were thinning and darkening, now colour coding themselves to his body parts. Bullets fired up at the huge flaming creature from below…non electrical weapons, and the SoaHers had obviously taken good care of the chimeras. HT-4's flame began to dissapear, and now dark flapping creatures could be seen darting all over…HT-4 made a desperate dive for the light of the combining beams…Bluehawk again surged straight through it, reaching the light before it could…but he wasn't absorbing any more power…HT-4 flashed inside it, emerged triumphant in that its flame was back…its cruel face gazed into Hawk's….Minimaniac's determined presence leapt up, giving the creature a spin-kick to the tail…another, another-like a dog with a floppy toy, its tail was beating side to side…it turned its attention…bad move, Hawk Dash! Bluehawk, the last remaining of the Pesnah foxes, surged straight through, again, Hawk Dash! Again! Hawk Dash! The alien creature roared painfully, earsplittingly…the people on the ground cringed horribly, Bluehawk realized he must have some resistance…Minimaniac darted around the hovering creature throwing in the occasional attack where he could…Bluehawk was there, no-Minimaniac was-Bluehawk! Got yo-HT-4 started whipping its tail around at deadly speed, hitting Minimaniac out of the air…the emerald out of his hand…NO! Phantom cut in with the glider, catching him and taking him down manually…Bluehawk dashed for the emerald and lowered himself to the ground…it was rising…rising…thud on the landing. "Give it to Mini." Bluehawk handed the emerald to Phantom…there was a piercing shriek…the magnificent, glowing red flaming wings of HT-4 spread out as he made the dive upon his rivals…Hawk Dash! Bluehawk shot straight through its jaw…the flames were fading again…and so was Hawk's power…he flailed in the air for a second, and was dropping like a rock again…this was going to be painful, the ground rushing to meet him, and nothing he could do about it…suddenly the ground turned, now he was hurtling in a different direction…toward the elemental light of the crater again…Bluehawk craned his neck to see what was hooked onto his shirt…not HT-4 or a duplicate…it was an echidna! The Angel Island guardian! "Say thanks, kid!" a low voice suggested, hurling him into the engulfing light. But letting HT-4 to the ground was perhaps not such a good idea…a shockwave of rock hurled itself into the air like giant ripples from a pond…like a huge splash. Bluehawk emerged again, dodging a flame blast from below.

Lirash watched upon the battle from a distance, through the window of his ship. "Joezer, we need an agent. Don't make it too obvious, you know what happens when you tap in too heavily on one strong against you."

"Yes sir." Came the crackling reply.

The Sama clone was knocked directly into the air by a third booming shockwave of rock and thudded to the ground right on its head. Sama narrowly escaped the attack as it missed his position, it was in a sort of pattern. He had won his battle. Purple and yellow streaks darted about through the air around the white flames, the occasional purple spark flying around. Then HT-4 seemed to decide that he'd had it with these measly contestants who were so pesky…smaller versions, about the size of his original form, started emerging from behind him in a swarm…a swarm of HT-4s. They all looked around, then at a cry from their master attacked those who were threatening him. Phantom darted away on his glider…this was way too dangerous…this way he could see the whole fray. White flames flapped about, gnashing at the two super-speed super forms darting around them…then suddenly there were five yellow streaks, even Bluehawk was slightly surprised. But not too much-he knew the nature of what to expect…lightning flashed about everywhere, but none of the duplicates seemed phased. Then Phantom saw the huge, hulking real deal, glaring and shrieking at him as it tore through the air toward him, filled with rage. PH-1's time has come! It decided. It was time to destroy this rival once and for all. Phantom stood there, as if transfixed…HT-4 was upon him…then HT-4 was knocked backward by a blast of heat and force. Phantom raised an eyebrow as the huge flame in front of him cried out indignantly. The last missile…another rocking through the air of heat. And Phantom was off. HT-4 turned around…he wasn't heading back to the battle of the duplicates…but then he wasn't heading anywhere else either…where was he? Then he looked down to a shout. "Hey!" Phantom waved. Best way to enrage the creature further.

Lirash suddenly stared at the new light sources coming from the crater…the beams were at different angles…could HT-4 have unearthed the…? Suddenly there was a rumble throughout the ship…as if a massive weight had been placed upon it…the whole control room was bopping up and down…then it stopped. "What the HELL was-" suddenly it was happening again, only more intense…Lirash ran out of the room…something was definitely attacking them…but what was it now? "He's back sir!" Lirash suddenly received a crackling message. "He's back with us!" Lirash scowled. Damn. He thought. Argh…stupid command chain…I was this close to my biggest victory!

Swing after swing, fireball after fireball…the mini flame creatures weren't even reacting…Shiro the grey fox let his arm hang loose. What now? Was it worth allowing the great strategist into him now, or would he try to figure out this one himself? Suddenly his eyes widened…he didn't even know why. He went to open his mouth and cry out, but it didn't work…he was not in control. His arm swung, firing a fireball out of his sword, then another from his other palm…but these weren't aimed upward. Then suddenly he couldn't remember. He couldn't remember anything…DIE, SCIENTIST CLIENTS! The hand was outstretched, the wind emitting from it…the whirling wind…

Phantom looked back at a deafening roar of wind…a whirlwind tearing through the SoaH ranks…sending some flying…most were getting out of the way…and an SoaH citizen, a grey fox, was controlling it, eyes closed. Joezer. Joezer was controlling him, rewriting his mind…Phantom glanced in anger at the chimera ship which was closing in..then suddenly lost his balance at the shockwave of electricity from behind…HT-4 roared fiercely at him, keeping its distance…the last flame duplicate dropped to the ground, wings flapping hopelessly…then HT-4 saw the orbs…Bluehawk saw the orbs…Phantom saw the orbs…Sama saw the orbs…and before chicken shnitzel could be said they were all frantically racing toward Sama, who was picking them all up one by one off the ground of the crater…Bluehawk whizzed by as a blur…Phantom swerved by, having difficulty with his balance…HT-4 swiped at Sama's hands…Bluehawk looked into his hand…he had plucked his favourite orb here…Pesnah! Each of them had one of them…Phantom was glowing a brilliant green…Sama was glowing flaming orange…HT-4's flames were turning a cyan blue…regroup! Minimaniac's illusions surrounded HT-4 like flies…

"Guys!" Hawk cried. "Get ready to combine attacks!" But HT-4 was flying off…to Angel Island! "QUICK!" Minimaniac drew himself down to Bluehawk, Sama and Phantom as they outstretched their hands, each unleashing his own power…even better, Sama actually knew how to use his. Rock shards leapt out of the ground, being sure to be perfectly pointed…electrical charge consumed them and the flame beam to be their river…HT-4 started shrieking wildly as it soared toward its goal.

"Let's get up there now!" Bluehawk cried, his strange purple form slowly wearing off…

The grass was extremely soft and squelchy, perhaps that was partly mud, and the fact that it was still early morning. But the party of three knew their target-knew their enemy's target. Soon they would be entering Wild Canyon, which was near the shrine which was their fear's goal. The shrine of the Master Emerald. It was deathly quiet…HT-4 had probably passed over and scared everything into hiding. The path was squashed in by extremely steep red slopes on either side, but the trio went on walking, knowing that on the other side of the uplift of rock in front of them was the Dry Lagoon, and in the middle somewhere was the emerald shrine. Then suddenly the path dropped out into a gorge. Off to the right was a joining of the two sides, off to the left was a huge pillar of rock and a hole in the ground…suddenly there was a loud crash from down in the hole…light…endless light…and a streak of cyan blue shot up into the sky, a red shape pursuing it…Bluehawk extended his palm, feeling the Pesnah's energy flowing through him like that of the chaos emerald…Sama and Phantom were following suit…and their energies pointed to in between them,  all pointing at each other slightly…magnetized by their wills. Their separate beams fired out as they rose, drawing closer and closer together and toward the menace of HT-4…it was reacting only by fleeing, not yet at full power…but it had the huge green gem in its claws, looking like a normal green emerald would in comparison to Hawk…The energy beams of the three bounty hunters connected with HT-4's tail like grappling hooks, lifting them through the air and back to the crater…why were those fireballs flying around?

The SoaHers were still fleeing…Shiro cried in rage, a rage that had no source to be cut off from…shooting a fireball at a black hedgehog who was approaching him…no affect. Suddenly Muto the demon hedgehog outstretched his palm…and Shiro was suddenly too weak to stand. He threw a dark object at the chimera ship which was moving away…it wobbled through the air, then exploded upon impact. Suddenly the blue flames of the huge creature that had flown off before whirled into view…the light was gone, but not its immense power…but it was heading for the spot anyway, three glowing teenagers attached by elemental grapple beams…then suddenly the huge mass of blue flame erupted in a flash of blue light…the flames were now rock hard ice…HT-4 glanced at its claws, relishing the change. Bluehawk indicated to his friends with a nod…tensed his muscles, and sent himself straight through the beam…