Transmissions Ch. 2:
So it Begins
By, The Mouse of Anon
Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic, Knuckles, Espio, Tails, Bunnie, or Mighty. They are owned by the almighty Sega corporation, DiC, Archie Comics, etc. and whoever else got in on the gig. Joy. As for Manic and Sonia, the way I choose to present them is copyright to me, but they belong to the *fine* people who came up with Sonic Underground. (It has its' good points! Honest!) Anybody else that appears in this fic is mine, so if you use them without asking me, you will pay the ultimate price! BWAHAHAHA!!!!!! Getting attacked by my mogwai with a glandular problem named Frank! (A.K.A. my muse apparently)
Author's Note: Well, here we go! Sorry I took so long to update this fic, but if you read the note ahead of this you already know why it took so long. Anyway, thank you (whoever it was that reviewed) for your comment. I enjoy C&C, so review! Please? Don't make me beg!
Sonic: …I thought you were already doing that….
Fira: …Shut up hedgehog. I can easily subject you to the worst humiliation ever.
Sonic: Oh right, like I'm gonna believe that.
Fira: Hey, I can make the damn mogwai chase after you if I want to! .
Sonic: This is ignoring the fact that, oh yeah, I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT A MOGWAI IS!
Fira: ….;;; 'Scuse me folks. *gags and ties up Sonic, then throws him in a closet* ^-^; Anyway, enjoy the fic!
There came a loud tearing sound in the air right next to an old withered tree as a hot pink and red hedgehog tapped her foot impatiently. The second my brother gets back I SWEAR that I'm gonna shred his ears!, she thought to herself as she narrowed her eyes. Damned idjit! What the hell did he think he was doing bringing all of them here?! Fine sitch you've gotten us both into now Sallic Mescromani Memtrakae Hedgehog! If Mom were alive she'd have your head on a silver platter! Tia knew full and well that her twin brother knew every thought that went through her head, just as she knew his. That was what she was counting on. As the rip completed with Manic and the six from the past walking out she hissed out, "Terma… dongede." "SHA!," the green hedgehog snapped. She glared at him pointedly, her ruby red eyes flashing. ::You're going to have to come up with a good explanation al eshka,:: the proud female hedgehog stated to her brother telepathically. The green hedgehog let out a frustrated sigh as the six from the past kept on blinking and looking in between the two. "Sant sek," Manic muttered.
"Um….," Sonic began. "Allow me to introduce you all to my twin sister, Tia," the golden-eyed hedgehog smirked as his normal mood reinstated itself. "Y-you're?," Espio stammered while looking at the female hedgehog as she ran a hand through her red and hot pink bangs and quills. "Yup. I'm Tia all right. Wouldn't think it on first glance, huh?," she grinned. She wore a black leather vest similar to Manic's, but it didn't have as many chains. And then there was the torque. Anybody with any chaos-sensing ability what so ever could tell that this thing RADIATED it. If anything, she looked less the royalty type than Manic did. There was something about her that made it painfully obvious that you did NOT want to piss her off! Espio shook his head. She turned and said, "C'mon, Fox Haven's this way." "Fox Haven?," Mighty queried. Manic nodded as he walked after his sister, "Yeah, we all moved deeper into the forest after Knothole was over-run. That and the Floating Island…" "The Floating Island?! I didn't hear clearly on your first transmission, what happened to it?," Knuckles asked, worry obvious.
Tia answered in place of her brother. "It was crashed into the ground by Robotnik. If anyone survived the fall, it'd be a miracle." "The chaos emeralds?," the echidna asked, more worry compounding his voice. "Safe, for the time being," was Manic's reply. Tails cocked his head in curiosity, the green hedgehog glanced at him with a raised eyebrow. "Hmm?" The two-tailed fox shrugged before answering, "Oh nothing, it just kinda seems weird that you two answer for each other." Both hedgehogs chuckled slightly. "We can do something that's really freaky actually," Tia stated. "Oh?," Bunnie asked. "Simple really-" "-we know what the other-" "-is always thinking. We're-" "-in each other's minds-" "-constantly. Works wonders when-" "-it comes to disturbing others," Tia finished with a grin as the others stared at them with dropped jaws. Manic snickered as he and his sister high-fived and continued on their way with the rest following them. "….That… is freaky," Sonic muttered. "We heard that!," the twins laughed back simultaneously. The blue hedgehog shook his head in disbelief. No doubt about it, this situation was weird.
Bunnie noticed that Tia concentrated for a second, and suddenly moments later howls started echoing out from the forest. Manic perked up his ears then stated, "You don't waste any time, do you Tia?" The pink and red hedgehog snorted, "Damn straight." Knuckles glanced around and asked bluntly, "What the heck is howling?" "Why do you ask?," Tia queried in response. "Because it doesn't sound like any howling I've ever heard!," the red echidna retorted. Manic smirked, "That'd be some of the others." That earned him a look. That's when a howl split the air that started deep, then went into a loud crescendo before suddenly cutting off, causing the six others to jump while Manic and Tia tried desperately to keep straight faces. When finally Tia schooled her features into some measure of being calm she tilted back her head and let out her own howl (startling the six from the past yet again). The howls were silent for a moment in response before one started as though right in the middle of a crescendo and stopped abruptly. Manic snickered slightly and muttered, "Sha, I think you're going to get snarled at when we get there." Manic's twin snorted and replied, her ruby red eyes glinting with humor, "Shenra can try it all she wants to. She's not going to get anywhere. You know it, I know it."
"What the hell are you two talking about?," Espio queried. Manic snickered and replied, "Let's just say it pertains to the slight discussion that Tia just had with a cousin of ours." "That howling was a discussion? You've gotta be kidding me," Mighty muttered. "Yeah, it was a discussion. A quite entertaining one at that." Espio looked at Tia and grumbled, "Now I can understand how you two are related." Tia chuckled and replied, "What can I say? Being strange runs in the family." Finally they stopped walking when they reached a cliff-side. "And here's the trick of the trade," Manic murmured before stepping through the stone face of said cliff. The Freedom Fighters and Chaotix both stared at the stone in disbelief. Tia shook her head, "It's a force-hologram. Guaranteed to keep Fox Haven hidden except to those who need to be there. Now c'mon, just whatever you do, don't panic." The female hedgehog extended her hand toward them, "Well? Are you going to trust me or not?" Tails was the first to grip her hand, and soon there was a chain of mobians walking through the seemingly solid rock.
On the other side was a valley. Perfect and untouched by any of the pollution that had affected the forest outside. As they all let go Manic greeted, "Welcome to Fox Haven Valley." Tails looked around at the miles of untouched land and stated, "Oh wow… This place is HUGE." Tia nodded, "This is one of the few safe hiding places now. From up above it's incredibly hard to find." "Mainly for the fact that we had some magic users help us hide it," the green-furred mobian put in. His ruby-eyed twin shook her head and said, "Anyway, on to the village." It took them next to no time to reach there from where they were, and once there the six from the past were met with the sight of the most mismatched group they had ever met. Lounging on a mostly cleared away fallen tree was a crossbreed, for surely that was what he was, with robotic hands, feet, and the tips of his ears. For the most part he looked like a long tailed coyote, but his ears were too long and his feet just a smidgen too big for that to be entirely possible.
Farther off a black chameleon and a dark purple porcupine were arguing loudly over something that was impossible to decipher. There were also twin fox/birds circling overhead that all too easily reminded a person of a phoenix with their plumage. In a tree sat two black and red hedgehogs and a cat the like of which the six of them had never seen before. Sonic gawked at it in sheer amazement. From what he could see almost all of the inhabitants were crossbreeds of one sort or another. It astounded him that there could be such a mix with what seemed so little conflict. "Well then, shall we give you the tour and let you see how some of us have been affected?," Tia asked, dispelling their shock with those words. All agreed. Manic and Tia led them through the village, telling them about themselves, their village, some of the things Robotnik had done… The list went on but they decided to finally be blunt and reached their meeting hall. Which wasn't really much of a meeting hall to be honest. It was pretty much a carefully constructed roof that was supported by occasional pillars of the same material (think the white-ish entryway thingy at the beginning of Sonic SatAM when going into Knothole). Yet much to the freedom fighters' and chaotix's surprise it was riddled with secret drawers, hidden maps, hidden computers, a hidden fridge (due to one of their friends' strange sense of humor), and numerous hidden cots and ladders.
"This place is… WOW," Tails stammered, trying not to drool over the thought of so much technology hidden in the walls. "Ah know what ya mean hun," Bunnie murmured in agreement. "How the heck did you guys ever get this thing together without it falling apart?," Knuckles asked in amazement as he walked around in the "hall" occasionally glancing up at the ceiling. "Trial and error," a yellow echidna replied as he walked in. Knux looked at the green-eyed echidna and stared. The other monotreme not only had the guardian's crest, he had knuckles that eerily echoed Knux's own. "W-who?," the purple-eyed echidna stuttered in surprise. "Name's Maximum Overdrive, but everyone calls me Max for short. And before you ask, yes, I'm related to you, no, I'm not your kid." ::Be careful about what you say Max,:: Tia sent to the yellow echidna telepathically. ::I am,:: Max replied, knowing she'd "hear" his reply. ::Could have fooled me. Besides, I thought I told you to stay the hell away from here so long as your father was here so that we could avoid losing you permanently.:: The yellow echidna shot her a lightly irritated look that most of the others missed before responding, ::Yes, mother.::
"So how are you related to me?," Knuckles asked bemusedly. "I guess you could say I'm your nephew of sorts." Espio and Mighty gaped at Knuckles. "You never told us you had siblings!" "I don't-," the red echidna began. "-But he does have cousins," Max supplied. "You don't mean…," Knuckles trailed off. "Callisto?," Max shrugged, "I can't say. Not without risking my not ever existing anyway." ::Think he's walking the thin line huh?,:: Manic sent to his sister. ::You know how he is about his dad. I think he's walking more than the thin line, I think he's about to go beyond it if he doesn't watch what he says,:: the ruby-eyed hedgehog sent back. ::I don't know, I overheard your convo with him and the feeling I got is that he has a pretty good idea as to what he's doing.:: ::Whatever, you're the empath, not me. All I do is read what people are thinking.:: ::The reason you have such a hard time reading people, I think is that you let the words get in the way of the images and emotions,:: Manic growled mentally. ::Can we argue about this later al eshka?:: ::Eja, fair enough.:: "What do you mean about risking your not ever existing?," Sonic asked in curiosity.
"I mean that if you know who my parents are, then you end up telling my parents, and as a result they never get together, then poof! No more me, I wouldn't exist." "Well that makes sense if ya ask me. Guess that explains there always bein' a temporal code an' whatnot," Bunnie stated. "Yup, pretty much," Manic agreed. Espio shook his head as he started to shift towards a blue-gray, "This is just too damned weird. It's gotta be some messed up dream." "MAX! GET YOUR HIDE BACK OVER HERE!," someone bellowed out. Rolling his eyes the yellow echidna grumbled, "Duty calls, adios," and wandered off in the direction of the voice. Knuckles glanced after him and asked the twins, "What had him off on so big a hurry?" "He agreed to help out with some construction and he's been trying to ditch it the past couple of days. Needless to say, the others who are working on it are less than thrilled with him," Tia stated. "Small wonder," Mighty muttered under his breath. "Hey Manic, Tia, mind if I ask something?," Tails queried. "Shoot," the green hedgehog responded. "…What happened when Knothole got over-run? I mean, did we… Did anybody get out?"
Manic sighed and said to his sister in the language the others didn't understand, "Huntress, would you tell them? I really don't want to go through that again." Tia nodded and responded in the same language, "Yes Shattered Spirit, I'll tell them." "Thank you." The hot pink and red hedgehog looked at the six before her and said, "I warn you, it wasn't pretty. If I tell you most of it, I'm not going to pretty it up. I'm going to be honest. So if at any time you want me to stop talking about it, tell me so." "Alright," Knuckles stated, "let's hear it." As the six of them looked at her Tia began telling them, hoping that she was doing the right thing. Strengthening her resolve with the thought that it just might help them avoid what had happened, she launched full force into her telling.
