Hard knock life

Starring: Fiona the Fox & Nic' the Weasel.

Written by Jason Gregory

Disclaimer: This story is copyright (c) 2004 by the author. All characters are my sole creation and cannot be used by anyone, with the exception of Fiona the Fox, Nic' the Weasel, Sonic the Hedgehog, Dr. Robotnik and Mighty the Armadillo (and any other character who has been in the Archie Sonic comic) who are property of Sega Enterprises and Archie Comics.

Authors note: This story takes place sometime before the Xorda storyline. Fiona is aged 15, Nic' is aged 19(and is the sister of Nack the Weasel). For Fiona Fox history, check out Sonic #28-29, Knuckles #26-28 and recent issues of Sonic(#125, #131-134, #138). For Nic' the Weasel check out Sonic #91, #93-94. This story is about the REAL Fiona, not her robot copy. I'll touch on that issue later on. I'd appreciate your reviews, be they positive or not since this is the first time I've put my stories up on a public forum. I hope you enjoy it...

-Chapter One-

Caught in a routine assignment!

The setting is the Heliopolis, a great desert to the east of Mobius.The temperature here climbs higher then any location on the planet. The Great Pyramids have stood like sentries, guarding their hidden treasures from anybody crazy enough to try and rob them. The treasures that lie within are priceless, long forgotten jewels guarded by the most deadly of traps. Not even the natives would dare to pillage the sacred Pyramids of its bounty, for fear of falling into one of the many pitfalls that lie within. Long has this realm of Mobius been under the watchful eye of Anubis, King of the entire empire of Heliopolis. His world renowned basenji guard-dogs have successfully kept even Dr. Robotnik's armada at bay by utilizing the desert to their advantage. They have set traps all throughout the desert, so many in fact that even the locales would be at risk if they tried to leave the desert by foot. It's because they feel like they've been trapped in their own kingdom, that many believe they spared themselves one evil dictator (Dr. Robotnik) for another (Anubis). People fear him, just like the rest of Mobius fears Robotnik. Hardly anyone would want to mess with him, or his elite guardsmen. He had been corrupted by his own power, and became the one thing he fended off all those years ago.

Yet on this day, somebody has managed to sneak into the sacred resting place of Osiris, on the outskirts of Casalia city. The siren sounded, piercing the silence of the night, alerting Anubis's desert troops, dressed in full combat gear. They carried spears, swords, wooden shields and arrows. They ran from their post which was in-between the city and the Necropolis and blended into the sand like chameleons, waiting for the intruders to emerge from the hall at the entrance. Flames were put out so that they would not be seen. They heard screams of pain from inside, there was a fight going on. The sound of swords clashing echoed out into the night. They wondered what could be so fierce as to take on the might of Anubis's soldiers. They waited; one cowardly dog was shaking, others looking forward to a good brawl.

But nothing happened. There was once again silence. The burning flames of the hallway entrance flickered casting shadows on the sand outside, and then suddenly, it went pitch black.

"What do we do now General Brutus sir?" asked a subordinate. He rised above all his friends and allies becoming a commander of his own squad, and Brutus's right hand man. Yet General Brutus still treated him like a rookie.

"Put a pipe in it Cyle" grunted the gruff looking hound. "We'll wait forty days and forty nights if we have to, nobody steals from King Anubis and lives to tell the tale. There was this one time, I fished out a rat called Aladdi"-,

"We have him! We have the intruder!" he was interrupted. The voice came from inside the pyramid, it was of native dialect, but Brutus remained suspicious, it's what kept him alive all these years.

"Could be a trap" he said. "Cyle, front and centre!"

"Y-yes Sir!?"

"Take your team with you and scope out the situation. If it's not a trap yell out the password: Ganymede, got it?"

"Ganymede... sir?"

"It was the name of my mother? Do you have a problem with that commader Cyle?"

"No sir, Ganymede is a good name sir!"

"Then get moving you mangy mutt, NOW!"

Cyle signaled to his men, and they followed cautiously behind him into the pyramid carrying their torches. There were all sorts of hieroglyphs on the wall; the ancients had carved their prophecies on them, signaling the end of an era, and a new beginning afterwards. Cyle just hoped it wasn't the end for him. Within the main chamber there were large pillars all intricately designed, and pathways leading to different corridors within the recesses of this maze. One could get lost in here if they didn't keep track of where they'd came from. There were a lot of soldiers' bodies on the ground. Cyle noticed that they weren't dead, just unconscious. He leant over to look at one of the soldiers he recognized. He looked at the fallen dogs arm and noticed there was a small dart embedded in it. "Shields up men, it's a trap!"

Just then darts were fired at them from both sides of the chamber. He noticed a figure run between the columns, its bushy red tail following behind. Most of the soldiers were shielded from the poisonous darts while a few were hit with them, toppling over onto the floor.

"Come out and face us coward!" yelled Cyle. "There's no way your escaping here alive. Surrender and you can die honorably in the pits of Rangnar, desist and you will meet death at the ends of my blade!"

The attacks stopped, the guards looked around for the intruder. Then, as if the enemy read their minds, a figure emerged from behind a column, dressed in a black cloak, face shrouded and with a bag full of treasures, stolen from this very tomb. The stranger dropped the bag and lifted his arms. Cyle and the soldiers raised their weapons at him.

"You will remove your mask so I may stare upon the one foolish enough to take on King Anubis's elite basenji." The intruder did as instructed. Everybody stared in shock, seeing not the face of a man, rather that of....

"A girl!?!? A stupid little girl?"

"You know, with that attitude," the fox replied, "I bet you don't have a girlfriend do you?" She joked.

"Who... who are you? How did you take out the guards?" asked Cyle.

"The guards, well they're not the brightest bunch I've come across. As for me, the names Fiona Fox, but you can just call me the stupid little girl you almost caught."

"How dare you", he snarled, "There's no way you'll escape here alive. There are dozens of soldiers waiting outside. What do you plan to do, catch their spears out of the air with your hands?"

"You really are dense", she replied. "Do you really think I came alone?" She smiled at him, then reached into her pocket and put on a pair of black glasses. "Say cheese!"

A smoke bomb went off in the middle of the room, blinding everyone, except Fiona who ran past the guards towards the entrance. The smoke didn't stay up for long and when it started to clear he saw Fiona running off in the distance.

"She's heading out! Quickly, if she runs outside we can surround her!" The guards picked up their weapons and ran towards the entrance; suddenly a piece of rope sprung up between two columns and tripped everybody up. One end of the rope had been tied around one of the columns, at the other somebody had pulled it up. Cyle Stood up and drew his sword but was too late. The other intruder had driven a sword straight through his stomach. The intruder took off its mask to reveal a violet, female weasel.

"Nic' the Weasel, treasure hunter extraordinaire. Unlike my companion, I'm not a stupid little girl." She slit his throat with a knife, finished off the others and turned towards the exit.

"Where's the challenge in killing amatuers?"

................................................................

Outside Fiona was faced with the guards all around. They were lying low in the sand, Brutus' men could see quite well in the dark. They thought she couldn't see them, they were wrong. She switched on the night-vision of her high tech glasses. The dogs homed in closer to her, seeking out their prey. She was just pretending she couldn't see them, looking about as if there was nothing in front of her. She leant back on her tail, and used it as a spring, launching herself up like a catapult. She landed right in the in the middle of their formation, surprising them. She pulled out a power ring and chanted in her mind "give me the strength; release your power unto me".

The ring shone brightly, as if it was creating sunlight. Everybody stood around in awe, thinking it was some kind of omen. For a long time, the Sun has been a sign of creation in this realm of Mobius. Ancient Heliopolans believed that the sun was their god and it would eventually return to kill them all one day. Of course, it was just superstitious myth nowadays. But seeing Fiona create a ring of light seemed like bad luck to them. It was General Brutus, who shouted out to his guards,

"Quit your bellyaching and get her, you good for nothing kittens!"

She used the energy of the power ring, and started to spin around creating a vortex, her tails whipping up a small sandstorm. The sand got in their faces, making them choke on it. Pretty soon the entire area was now a huge cloud of dust. Fiona stopped spinning around, and tried to regain her balance.

"Phew... those power rings, really make my day" she said, feeling rather dizzy and sick. A soldier tried to take advantage of her vertigo, by swiping his sword towards Fiona; she purposely fell to the ground before it could happen, and lifted her legs up and kicked him straight in the groin. He toppled over to the ground.

Thanks to the cover of the sandstorm Nic' easily snuck up behind the guards and took them out before they knew what hit them. Setting up five poison tipped arrows on her bow, she shot them into the air, impacting and knocking out several guards. The fight was uneven, and yet the two girls were winning. Nic' knew that Fiona could more than handle herself in a fight, but together they were unstoppable. They'd challenged the odds many times before, so a couple dozen soldiers was easy. At least that's how it usually goes, but for once Fiona had not seen him coming. General Brutus was a great sprinter, though you wouldn't think it by looking at his large muscular body. He charged up from behind and grabbed Fiona by the neck, lifting her off the ground. He was almost twice as tall as she was. She tried desperately to free herself, she could no longer breath.

"You, put down your weapons and surrender." Brutus cautioned to Nic'. She hesitated, feeling a bit annoyed at Fiona for getting caught. She didn't like this part of the fight, as alliances were tested, but in the end she complied, dropping her bow and arrows, and raised her arms into the air.

"Guards, tie her up. We'll show these kids what happens to those who steal from Anubis. I'll especially enjoy torturing you little fox girl."
"Umm, sir!" said a soldier. Brutus paid no attention to him.

"It's been awhile since I've tortured somebody, because nobody is stupid enough to do what you two did."
"General Brutus sir, you may want to look over here, sir", the General still paid no attention to him.

"That was very foolish thing you tried to accomplish, did you really think you were going to win this?"

Her throat hurt and she could barely utter a single syllable, but she forcefully managed to speak, "L-look beh-ind y-you"

"Hah" he belched, "if I fell for that one every time someone said it, then I'd be street trash just like you. Who is it that you remind me... ah that's it, you remind me of that rat Aladdi"-

"Sir!!!" the soldier once again interrupted, this time more aggressively. "We're being attacked sir!"

Brutus turned around to see his army retreating from something that was fast approaching. It made a large impact to the ground as it ran, and looked big from where Brutus was standing, so he didn't doubt he knew what it was, a dragon. Land Dragon to be precise; it had smallish legs but could still run fast; and like most dragons, could breath fire from its mouth. It was rare to see a dragon out in these parts, so close to the city.

It charged through the guards, trampling over some. Many ran out of its way, others weren't so fortunate and got trampled on by it. Three soldiers ran away half on fire from its flames. It made it's way through the desert, sweeping any who tried to stop it, and walked up to Brutus and shoved its face right in front of him.

"Get your ugly, smelly, fat, good-for-nothing mug out of my face Dragon or I'll show you who you're dealing with." The dragon did not move.

"Okay boys, kill him!" Nothing happened, Brutus turned around to see all his guards running back to the city. He was obviously scared, Fiona could feel him shaking, yet he kept up the charade.

"Good for nothing worms! Looks like I'll have to deal with this myself." The Dragon got mad at this and smoke started flaring out of his nostrils.

"You-put-girl-down-now!" the Dragon said, obviously only a juvenile. Brutus released his grip around Fiona's throat, dropping her to the ground. He looked scared; he got down on his knees and started to beg for his life,

"P-p-p-p-please, I-I have kids..." the dragon blew enough fire just to set the fur on top of his head on fire, and he went running off into the night screaming. Nic' walked up and patted the Dragon on his head. "Good boy Trevor." He smiled and then licked her. "Yuck, enough of that, get a dragoness for cripes sake. Fi', you alright?"

"Yeah" she coughed, trying to catch her breath. "Do you know this dragon Nic'?"

"Oh Trevor, I saved his life awhile ago, he owed me a dept. Something about Dragons and purity, I dunno why really."Nic' helped Fiona onto her feet.

"Oh, thank you Trevor, just don't lick me okay?"

"Okey-Dokey" he replied in a cheery mood.

"Take us back to my ship; it's on the outskirts of the desert north of here."

They hopped on his back, with their treasures in tow and he took off at lightning fast speed. It was a bumpy ride, and his back was rather uncomfortable to sit on, but it got them through the desert fast enough.

"Oh yeah baby, we got a great haul tonight. Dinners on me!"

"Yippee!" shouted Trevor.

"Except for you Trevor" Nic' answered, stingy as ever.

"Trevor-saved-day, Trevor-wants-food!" Nic' ignored him.

"I have to say, neat trick you pulled with the power ring..."

"Well I'd been meaning to try that." Said Fiona.

"...Too bad it didn't help, you got captured. I don't want that happening anymore, you got that!?" Nic' said sternly, in her authority figure voice.

"You didn't have to surrender; I could've taken care of myself. You should stop worrying about me, it doesn't suit you" the fox said sarcastically.

"Hah, as if I care about anyone. I just didn't wanna to lose the jewels you'd stolen; otherwise I would've turned tail and ran."

"Whatever" Fiona thought to herself, knowing that Nic' never let onto her feelings, even though they were often obvious to spot.

"Hey Nic', I hope you didn't kill the guards when I left you in the pyramid back there."

"Awww come off it Fi', you know that's not my game anymore. They're alive and safe, we're rich (by we, I mean me!), and everybody's happy."

"Except-Trevor. Trevor-wants-dinner!"

..............................................................

Meanwhile, back at Osiris's resting place which the two girls had just left, a lone soldier wakes up from a dream. He looks around to see his friends and colleagues, his superior, Cyle, all on the floor. There is blood everywhere, splattered on the walls, and the hieroglyphs. They are all dead.

Continue on to Chapter Two...