I opened my eyes and noticed the morning sun had risen bringing yet another
'interesting' day. Outside the window I could hear the sounds of birds
chirping and the trees swaying, along with some other sound that seemed
unfamiliar. I stretched a bit and got out of bed and took a look outside of
the window and saw the source of the strange sound. On the ground in a
small central area a small transport was hovering near the palace gates and
surrounded by soldiers. The sun's light was reflecting off the slick red
metal frame of the sizeable aircraft nearly blinding me a forcing me to
move to a different angle. As I looked on I noticed that it resembled a
transport craft I saw inside of the prison base when Tik'al and I had made
our escape, this one was possibly salvaged and made operational somehow.
"I guess it's time to take to the skies." I looked around the room and noticed that Tik'al was gone already. I looked the bed over noticing it had been made and was nice and neat. I walked over to the door and it opened suddenly, Tik'al was standing there in the doorway and seemed to be annoyed about something.
"Do you realize what time it is?" she said pulling me out of the room and leading me down the hall
"Morning?" I said trying to keep up with her unusually brisk pace
"Yes it's morning, everyone's waiting for us outside and you've been wasting time sleeping."
"What? Wasting time sleeping? I was up most of the night because you were scared of monsters or something in the dark."
"I was not, and it's your own fault for saying something about seeing something in the first place, if you hadn't I wouldn't have been concerned about it."
"So it's my fault now? Maybe next time I'll just ignore you and stay asleep."
"You do that." She said as we stepped outside into the sun
"Could you let go of my arm now? This feels a little undignified with you leading me around by the hand."
"Well I wouldn't have to if you were awake on time." She said as she let go of my arm and continued walking
"You know you're awfully...what's the word I'm looking for?"
"What word?" she said giving me one of those stern looks, which reminded me of how Sally was looking at me last night
"You're being rather royal today."
"I won't even ask what that means." She said as she waked into the area where the aircraft, and Sally and some other familiar faces were waiting. That hedgehog, Sonic, and his little fox friend were also standing there next to the aircraft; it seemed that they were to take us up to Angel Island.
"We're ready to go now princess Sally." Tik'al said with a slight bow
"Good, the ship will leave for the island immediately." Sally said
I began to follow Tik'al onto the ship when Sally had stepped in front of me, which I of course knew was just the start of a series of questions I don't need to answer.
"Before you go Phoenix, I have something I need to ask you about" She said
"What about?"
"We've received some rather strange readings lately that seem to suggest a chaos emerald in your possession, you wouldn't happen to have you would you?"
"Hmm, that wouldn't happen to be a gem about this big, glows a lot and filled with infinite energy would it?"
"So you do have one then?" narrowing her eyes
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"I think you do." She said stepping forward as the soldiers around the aircraft drew their weapons on me, the riffles cocking all around me.
"I think I'll just be going in the plane now." I said trying to push past her, only to be pushed back again
"Don't make me have to resort to violence, it's too early for that sort of thing." She said glaring at me
"Hmph, even if I did have one of those do you honestly think you'd have force enough to take it? With all that power I wouldn't fear you, your threats, or anything for that matter."
"Hmm, as much sense as that makes I still don't believe you, not for a minute."
"Well, that sounds like a problem you'll have to work out some other time." I said, slightly irritated that this was not going to be over without just coming out and telling them where the thing was, not that I myself understood what was going on when it seemed to merge with me when I found it
"I think we'll work it out right now." I turned and saw that it belonged to Sonic
"Oh great, you're going to give me a piece of your mind."
"Yeah, and you're going to hand over that emerald."
"Alright fine!" I shouted, causing some of the less than bold guards to flinch a bit, "You want to know where the thing is? Well it's right here." I said gesturing towards my chest
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sonic said
"I'm not entirely sure myself; when I found the emerald it...merged with my body and I haven't seen the thing since then."
"And you expect us to believe that?" She said, obviously not convinced
I merely shook my head in frustration, "Either you can believe that or we can fight about it." I said flexing my right arm and unsheathing my claws, just in case it was necessary
"You don't really plan on starting something here do you? You'll be killed before you have the chance to even make a move." She motioned to the guns the guards were carrying
"Trust me, I could have your throat in my hands before you come close to killing me." I said leaning forward slightly
"And what good would that do you?"
"I have a feeling you'll make a good shield to stop any bullets that happen to fly my way."
"Oh really? I think I can take you on myself if I had to."
"Bold words from someone so small." I said pushing past her one last time and stopping in the doorway of the plane, "If you still want the emerald the next time you see me, then you can take it from me however you please...if you even can." I said walking inside the ship
As I stepped into the aircraft, Tik'al was standing there waiting for me. From the looks of things I could tell she was somewhat annoyed.
"Something the matter?" I asked
"I heard you out there!" she said waving a finger at me, "You can't go around threatening to kill people, especially my friends!"
"Calm down, I wasn't really going to do kill anyone." I said as the engines roared to life and the craft began to lift higher off of the ground.
"Well I don't remember you saying that out there."
"I didn't need to, they were the ones pointing the guns and threatening to 'use force' to get the stupid emerald inside of me."
She merely sighed and shook her head, then walked over to me and pulled my head down to level with hers.
"Promise me you won't try and kill anyone, alright?"
I wanted to say no, but with her standing that close to me, staring me right in the eyes like that I couldn't help but just nod my head.
"And another thing, when we get back I want you to apologize."
"That's pushing it."
"Phoenix!"
"I'll think about it." I said pulling away from her before I caved in and changed my mind again.
"I'll just assume that's a yes."
The ship began to change direction and increase in pitch as our speed picked up.
"We should sit down now." I said picking her up by the waist and walking her over to one of the seats
"Put me down!" she said squirming
"As you bodyguard I insist you take your seat for your own safety." I said putting her down in a chair
"So now you want to be professional? After that mess you almost made back on the ground?"
"Well I'm not really a bodyguard am I?" I said sitting down in another seat
"That's right, you're an escaped prisoner."
"So are you."
"I'm royalty, a princess if you remember."
"Oh yes your highness." I said mocking a salute as she laughed
"So how are we going to kill time until we get to the island?"
"Why don't you tell me more about the place? As far as I know this is the first time I've even been off the ground."
She began regaling me with the history of the island and explaining her life as the princess of the island. As she talked my little internal computer was documenting all of the relevant information that was discussed, especially once she got to a certain subject.
"...is the master emerald that keeps the island floating in the air."
"The what?" I said intrigued
"The master emerald, it's power keeps it us safe in the sky as long as it's on the island."
"Interesting, well from what little I do know about the island, the entire thing would drop from the sky if the master emerald were taken from the shrine, correct?"
"Yeah, it's happened once or twice in the past." Looking down at the ground
"Hmm, really? Must've been awful dropping down like that from such a height."
"Of course."
"Hmm."
"What?"
"Nothing, I'm just bored." I said tapping my finger on the arm of the seat
"So you're saying I'm boring you or something?"
"...Maybe." I said looking to the side and noticing she was looking down at her feet, "I was just joking you know, I'm just now getting accustomed to the faster paced lifestyle that I've experienced lately."
"Well it's not an excuse to be rude to me; you do owe me for getting you out of that prison by the way." She said leaning her hand to her cheek and turning to look out the window
"Oh really? Well from what I remember I was the one that did most of the work, carrying you around and dealing with robotic guards." I said laughing lightly
"Your memory must be slipping, if I hadn't picked the lock on those chains you were bound in you'd be getting cut open by now."
"That's funny, I was just thinking how you'd be getting turned into a mindless drone of a robot if I hadn't decided to take you with me."
"I would've figured a way out of there sooner or later."
"How's that? Use your overpowering strength to force your way out? Or maybe just use your female charm to get the good doctor to let you go."
"Well I don't know about the 'overpowering strength, but the female charm works rather well, it got you to help me didn't it?"
"How do you figure that?" I said looking her in the eyes
"Well you wouldn't have just left me there if you could have gotten out of those chains, would you?"
"Well..." I started
"You wouldn't have left me and all the other prisoners there to be enslaved to that 'mindless robotic drone life', would you?"
"I suppose, my conscience probably wouldn't have let me leave without doing so." I said, although I knew it to be somewhat of a life as I remembered how I only let the other prisoners out so they'd distract the guards throughout the building to give us a chance to get out.
'I wonder what happened to them?' I thought remembering how they took off in a panicked mob
Just then the door the pilot's cabin opened the one of them stepped out and gave a small salute.
"Princes Tik'al please excuse my interruption, but we just received an urgent report from Knothole." The pilot said, somewhat stressed
"What has happened?"
"One of our field operatives has reported finding a band of refugees from one of Dr. Robotonick's prisons, Princess Sally has requested for us to try to retrieve them since many of them are Freedom Fighters, if it's not too much trouble for you your highness."
"Don't be silly, of course it's not a problem, I insist we pick them up."
"At once your highness." Said the guard as he slipped back into the room
"I wonder..."
"What?" Tik'al said
"If those refugees that they are talking about were the ones that I let out of the prison cells?"
"Well if they are I'm sure they'll be happy to see you, after setting them free and everything."
"I guess."
I felt the ship take a sharp turn to the right and angle downward, as I looked out a nearby window, I could see the forest coming into view as we descended from the clouds over a small clearing and began to land. The smaller trees and plants swayed as the backwash from the vertical lift jets on the bottom of the craft leveled us out and we touched down. The doors to the pilot cabin opened again and both of them stepped out into the room.
"Princess we shall go and retrieve the refugees while you wait inside the ship." One of the soldiers arming himself with a large rifle and a small sidearm
"Actually, I'd rather go out there and see to that personally."
"But princess, it could be dangerous out there, I insist that you..."
"Your objection is noted but I'll be fine." She said standing and walking over to me, "Besides, I have my bodyguard to watch out for me."
"I guess that means it's time for me to get to work then, huh?" I said looking up at her
"Who else?"
"Alright, I'm coming." I got up and followed her outside through the steel door of the dropship
"So where is this group of escapees anyway?" I said as she started walking and I followed
"You tell me, you're the one with the high tech sensors and such."
"So is that supposed to mean I can just find them easily or something?"
"You have a better chance of it than I do, I'm just here as a familiar face to reassure the huddled masses."
"Well once again I'm stuck doing the legwork I guess." I said as my internal computer began scanning the surrounding area for any large life signs
"You would've done it anyway so I don't see what the problem is."
"I suppose."
'There's that conscience nagging away in the back of my mind again with it's 'do the right thing' feeling again.
Lifeforms detected appox. 50 meters ahead the computer monotoned out.
"I found them." I said pointing strait ahead through some dense undergrowth
"Told you that you could find them."
"Well it's not like you could've done it yourself."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You...well, don't have any of those all too important survival skills."
"And you do?"
"Yes." I said as we pushed our way through the tree and low hanging brush
"If I remember right, you were captured just like I was; where were you survival skills then?"
"I was merely overcome by unusual circumstances, it won't happen again."
"Sure you were."
"Now that I think about it, how did you get captured anyway?" I said stopping
"Hey look there's the group we're looking for." She said pushing aside the last bit of brush blocking the 'path' we were taking
'Changing the subject I see.' I thought shaking my head as I continued walking
In the clearing was a group of ragged looking prisoners, the very same ones that were in the prison we had escaped from. With them were a few armed soldiers that had probably seen better days from the look of their injuries, possibly from fighting with would be pursuers. I began to notice that most of the prisoners had their eyes trained on me, hopefully not with some violent intentions of some sort.
"It's..." one of them began to speak
"Him! The one who freed us from the prison!"
"Yes, he saved us!"
They began gathering around me cheering and such making a big commotion, needless to say I wasn't expecting, nor deserving of such admiration.
"Looks like you're a hero today."
"Yeah, looks like it." Tik'al laughed
'Not that it should be that way.' I thought with all the prisoners still surrounding me
(School has been a killer lately and I've had trouble getting around to writing, but I'll get back to it more often now that I've gotten some free time coming. More chapters on the way so keep reviewing.)
"I guess it's time to take to the skies." I looked around the room and noticed that Tik'al was gone already. I looked the bed over noticing it had been made and was nice and neat. I walked over to the door and it opened suddenly, Tik'al was standing there in the doorway and seemed to be annoyed about something.
"Do you realize what time it is?" she said pulling me out of the room and leading me down the hall
"Morning?" I said trying to keep up with her unusually brisk pace
"Yes it's morning, everyone's waiting for us outside and you've been wasting time sleeping."
"What? Wasting time sleeping? I was up most of the night because you were scared of monsters or something in the dark."
"I was not, and it's your own fault for saying something about seeing something in the first place, if you hadn't I wouldn't have been concerned about it."
"So it's my fault now? Maybe next time I'll just ignore you and stay asleep."
"You do that." She said as we stepped outside into the sun
"Could you let go of my arm now? This feels a little undignified with you leading me around by the hand."
"Well I wouldn't have to if you were awake on time." She said as she let go of my arm and continued walking
"You know you're awfully...what's the word I'm looking for?"
"What word?" she said giving me one of those stern looks, which reminded me of how Sally was looking at me last night
"You're being rather royal today."
"I won't even ask what that means." She said as she waked into the area where the aircraft, and Sally and some other familiar faces were waiting. That hedgehog, Sonic, and his little fox friend were also standing there next to the aircraft; it seemed that they were to take us up to Angel Island.
"We're ready to go now princess Sally." Tik'al said with a slight bow
"Good, the ship will leave for the island immediately." Sally said
I began to follow Tik'al onto the ship when Sally had stepped in front of me, which I of course knew was just the start of a series of questions I don't need to answer.
"Before you go Phoenix, I have something I need to ask you about" She said
"What about?"
"We've received some rather strange readings lately that seem to suggest a chaos emerald in your possession, you wouldn't happen to have you would you?"
"Hmm, that wouldn't happen to be a gem about this big, glows a lot and filled with infinite energy would it?"
"So you do have one then?" narrowing her eyes
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
"I think you do." She said stepping forward as the soldiers around the aircraft drew their weapons on me, the riffles cocking all around me.
"I think I'll just be going in the plane now." I said trying to push past her, only to be pushed back again
"Don't make me have to resort to violence, it's too early for that sort of thing." She said glaring at me
"Hmph, even if I did have one of those do you honestly think you'd have force enough to take it? With all that power I wouldn't fear you, your threats, or anything for that matter."
"Hmm, as much sense as that makes I still don't believe you, not for a minute."
"Well, that sounds like a problem you'll have to work out some other time." I said, slightly irritated that this was not going to be over without just coming out and telling them where the thing was, not that I myself understood what was going on when it seemed to merge with me when I found it
"I think we'll work it out right now." I turned and saw that it belonged to Sonic
"Oh great, you're going to give me a piece of your mind."
"Yeah, and you're going to hand over that emerald."
"Alright fine!" I shouted, causing some of the less than bold guards to flinch a bit, "You want to know where the thing is? Well it's right here." I said gesturing towards my chest
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sonic said
"I'm not entirely sure myself; when I found the emerald it...merged with my body and I haven't seen the thing since then."
"And you expect us to believe that?" She said, obviously not convinced
I merely shook my head in frustration, "Either you can believe that or we can fight about it." I said flexing my right arm and unsheathing my claws, just in case it was necessary
"You don't really plan on starting something here do you? You'll be killed before you have the chance to even make a move." She motioned to the guns the guards were carrying
"Trust me, I could have your throat in my hands before you come close to killing me." I said leaning forward slightly
"And what good would that do you?"
"I have a feeling you'll make a good shield to stop any bullets that happen to fly my way."
"Oh really? I think I can take you on myself if I had to."
"Bold words from someone so small." I said pushing past her one last time and stopping in the doorway of the plane, "If you still want the emerald the next time you see me, then you can take it from me however you please...if you even can." I said walking inside the ship
As I stepped into the aircraft, Tik'al was standing there waiting for me. From the looks of things I could tell she was somewhat annoyed.
"Something the matter?" I asked
"I heard you out there!" she said waving a finger at me, "You can't go around threatening to kill people, especially my friends!"
"Calm down, I wasn't really going to do kill anyone." I said as the engines roared to life and the craft began to lift higher off of the ground.
"Well I don't remember you saying that out there."
"I didn't need to, they were the ones pointing the guns and threatening to 'use force' to get the stupid emerald inside of me."
She merely sighed and shook her head, then walked over to me and pulled my head down to level with hers.
"Promise me you won't try and kill anyone, alright?"
I wanted to say no, but with her standing that close to me, staring me right in the eyes like that I couldn't help but just nod my head.
"And another thing, when we get back I want you to apologize."
"That's pushing it."
"Phoenix!"
"I'll think about it." I said pulling away from her before I caved in and changed my mind again.
"I'll just assume that's a yes."
The ship began to change direction and increase in pitch as our speed picked up.
"We should sit down now." I said picking her up by the waist and walking her over to one of the seats
"Put me down!" she said squirming
"As you bodyguard I insist you take your seat for your own safety." I said putting her down in a chair
"So now you want to be professional? After that mess you almost made back on the ground?"
"Well I'm not really a bodyguard am I?" I said sitting down in another seat
"That's right, you're an escaped prisoner."
"So are you."
"I'm royalty, a princess if you remember."
"Oh yes your highness." I said mocking a salute as she laughed
"So how are we going to kill time until we get to the island?"
"Why don't you tell me more about the place? As far as I know this is the first time I've even been off the ground."
She began regaling me with the history of the island and explaining her life as the princess of the island. As she talked my little internal computer was documenting all of the relevant information that was discussed, especially once she got to a certain subject.
"...is the master emerald that keeps the island floating in the air."
"The what?" I said intrigued
"The master emerald, it's power keeps it us safe in the sky as long as it's on the island."
"Interesting, well from what little I do know about the island, the entire thing would drop from the sky if the master emerald were taken from the shrine, correct?"
"Yeah, it's happened once or twice in the past." Looking down at the ground
"Hmm, really? Must've been awful dropping down like that from such a height."
"Of course."
"Hmm."
"What?"
"Nothing, I'm just bored." I said tapping my finger on the arm of the seat
"So you're saying I'm boring you or something?"
"...Maybe." I said looking to the side and noticing she was looking down at her feet, "I was just joking you know, I'm just now getting accustomed to the faster paced lifestyle that I've experienced lately."
"Well it's not an excuse to be rude to me; you do owe me for getting you out of that prison by the way." She said leaning her hand to her cheek and turning to look out the window
"Oh really? Well from what I remember I was the one that did most of the work, carrying you around and dealing with robotic guards." I said laughing lightly
"Your memory must be slipping, if I hadn't picked the lock on those chains you were bound in you'd be getting cut open by now."
"That's funny, I was just thinking how you'd be getting turned into a mindless drone of a robot if I hadn't decided to take you with me."
"I would've figured a way out of there sooner or later."
"How's that? Use your overpowering strength to force your way out? Or maybe just use your female charm to get the good doctor to let you go."
"Well I don't know about the 'overpowering strength, but the female charm works rather well, it got you to help me didn't it?"
"How do you figure that?" I said looking her in the eyes
"Well you wouldn't have just left me there if you could have gotten out of those chains, would you?"
"Well..." I started
"You wouldn't have left me and all the other prisoners there to be enslaved to that 'mindless robotic drone life', would you?"
"I suppose, my conscience probably wouldn't have let me leave without doing so." I said, although I knew it to be somewhat of a life as I remembered how I only let the other prisoners out so they'd distract the guards throughout the building to give us a chance to get out.
'I wonder what happened to them?' I thought remembering how they took off in a panicked mob
Just then the door the pilot's cabin opened the one of them stepped out and gave a small salute.
"Princes Tik'al please excuse my interruption, but we just received an urgent report from Knothole." The pilot said, somewhat stressed
"What has happened?"
"One of our field operatives has reported finding a band of refugees from one of Dr. Robotonick's prisons, Princess Sally has requested for us to try to retrieve them since many of them are Freedom Fighters, if it's not too much trouble for you your highness."
"Don't be silly, of course it's not a problem, I insist we pick them up."
"At once your highness." Said the guard as he slipped back into the room
"I wonder..."
"What?" Tik'al said
"If those refugees that they are talking about were the ones that I let out of the prison cells?"
"Well if they are I'm sure they'll be happy to see you, after setting them free and everything."
"I guess."
I felt the ship take a sharp turn to the right and angle downward, as I looked out a nearby window, I could see the forest coming into view as we descended from the clouds over a small clearing and began to land. The smaller trees and plants swayed as the backwash from the vertical lift jets on the bottom of the craft leveled us out and we touched down. The doors to the pilot cabin opened again and both of them stepped out into the room.
"Princess we shall go and retrieve the refugees while you wait inside the ship." One of the soldiers arming himself with a large rifle and a small sidearm
"Actually, I'd rather go out there and see to that personally."
"But princess, it could be dangerous out there, I insist that you..."
"Your objection is noted but I'll be fine." She said standing and walking over to me, "Besides, I have my bodyguard to watch out for me."
"I guess that means it's time for me to get to work then, huh?" I said looking up at her
"Who else?"
"Alright, I'm coming." I got up and followed her outside through the steel door of the dropship
"So where is this group of escapees anyway?" I said as she started walking and I followed
"You tell me, you're the one with the high tech sensors and such."
"So is that supposed to mean I can just find them easily or something?"
"You have a better chance of it than I do, I'm just here as a familiar face to reassure the huddled masses."
"Well once again I'm stuck doing the legwork I guess." I said as my internal computer began scanning the surrounding area for any large life signs
"You would've done it anyway so I don't see what the problem is."
"I suppose."
'There's that conscience nagging away in the back of my mind again with it's 'do the right thing' feeling again.
Lifeforms detected appox. 50 meters ahead the computer monotoned out.
"I found them." I said pointing strait ahead through some dense undergrowth
"Told you that you could find them."
"Well it's not like you could've done it yourself."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You...well, don't have any of those all too important survival skills."
"And you do?"
"Yes." I said as we pushed our way through the tree and low hanging brush
"If I remember right, you were captured just like I was; where were you survival skills then?"
"I was merely overcome by unusual circumstances, it won't happen again."
"Sure you were."
"Now that I think about it, how did you get captured anyway?" I said stopping
"Hey look there's the group we're looking for." She said pushing aside the last bit of brush blocking the 'path' we were taking
'Changing the subject I see.' I thought shaking my head as I continued walking
In the clearing was a group of ragged looking prisoners, the very same ones that were in the prison we had escaped from. With them were a few armed soldiers that had probably seen better days from the look of their injuries, possibly from fighting with would be pursuers. I began to notice that most of the prisoners had their eyes trained on me, hopefully not with some violent intentions of some sort.
"It's..." one of them began to speak
"Him! The one who freed us from the prison!"
"Yes, he saved us!"
They began gathering around me cheering and such making a big commotion, needless to say I wasn't expecting, nor deserving of such admiration.
"Looks like you're a hero today."
"Yeah, looks like it." Tik'al laughed
'Not that it should be that way.' I thought with all the prisoners still surrounding me
(School has been a killer lately and I've had trouble getting around to writing, but I'll get back to it more often now that I've gotten some free time coming. More chapters on the way so keep reviewing.)