COOPERATION PLEASE
"Alright you two. You have one minute to shut that thing down, or the missiles will be fired," Sally said over the walkie-talkie. "I hear ya. Me and Antoine are in position," Grim said. This mission involved the shutting down of twelve nuclear missiles. Standard. Grim and Antoine managed to make it into the silo, so it was up to them. All they had to do was destroy the main terminal…which was across the room…on the other side of a one hundred-foot drop. And since neither of them could fly…yeah. Not that Grim couldn't fire a fireball, but there were four targets. One was the main terminal, the others would detonate the missiles. And fate decided to put the terminals inches from each other. "Alright Antoine, what target do I need to hit." "Zat vun." "Uhhh…What?" "Zat vun!" "I don't speak German or French or whatever you speak!" "Heit zee bloo terminal!" "The what? Blue? They're all blue! What are you saying?" "Guys! You have ten seconds before home base is destroyed!" "Antoine!" "Shootz eet now!" "Please hit the right one!" Grim said to himself as he fired a fireball. Boom! The room began to shake as an alarm began to go off. "Crap," Grim said as the room faded away and training sequence ended. F.C. got up from his lotus position and shook his head. "Here I am, a mage in training, using his powers to cast images so you can fail simple training courses!" he muttered as he walked away. "Why didn't you tell me which one to hit?!?!" "I deed!" Grim walked off to get a drink, muttering under his breath, "'grumble' Stupid Frenchie… 'Grumble'" Antoine did the same.
Sally sighed. "Well…what do we need?" she asked aloud to no one in particular. Freezie, being a wise ass, replied, "Let's see…English lessons for Antoine and anger management for Grim. Does that cover everything?" "You forgot wise ass remarks," she replied back, glaring at him. "Right. Help Sally stop using wise ass remarks. Got it," he said, writing everything down on a pad. He then noticed Sally glaring and slowly crept away. "Alright. Who's next?" Mighty and Knuckles stepped up. "Okay, you need to make it through the obstacle course. I can't bear to watch home base blown up again," Sally sighed. "Well, they got things ready, so do you wanna…HEY," Mighty yelled as Knuckles ran onto the course without him.
Not far into the course, two large logs came swinging down from vines. Everyone tensed up when they saw a black trench coat get struck by one, but dropped their jaws in disbelief when they saw the echidna out of harm's way. When the second log came, he threw a powerful punch that cracked it straight down the middle, causing it to splinter out along the sides. He continued to run, until the ground crumbled beneath his feet. He quickly pulled a split, his feet securing him to the walls of the pit, and rolled himself back onto the ground. "That was classy," DJ stated. "Yeah. He's doing great," Sally said, "Nicole is reading minimal signs of fatigue." "Hmph," Sonic snorted. They were amazed as he flipped through the complex part of the course using acrobatic maneuvers. When he almost reached the end, a cable fired at him. 'Gotta think fast!' he said to himself as the cable fastened around him. Sonic chuckled. "Guess he's not so great after all." His jaw dropped when the cables suddenly loosened and he sliced them to shreds. "Perfect. Even Sonic didn't go through it so well!" Sally said as the others went over to the echidna, all except Sonic. "Show off."
"Dude! I thought the cable had you!" Ray said. "Yeah! How'd you do that?" Tails asked. Knuckles tilted his hat up and wiped some sweat from his brow. "I flexed my muscles. That way when I relaxed them, there's be some slack for me to cut through." "Man! That was so awesome! I never would have thought of that!" Tails exclaimed. Suddenly, Mighty came over huffing and puffing. "Not…'gasp'…bad…'pant, pant'…"
The whole week had been like this. Nobody seemed to mind, though. They were learning how to work together really well. Everyone was getting along pretty well. Except for Knuckles and Julie-Su. Knuckles hated her, and she disliked him for that reason alone. They occasionally exchanged glares, and that was it. As a matter of fact, Knuckles never spoke to anyone if he didn't have to.
Finally, the morning came where they would begin operations. Sally woke up to hear panting not far from her cabin. She looked outside to see Knuckles doing push ups. 'How long has he been up?' she wondered. He put on her usual blue vest and boots and walked out to him. "Hey Knuckles." "…Hey. 'Pant'…" "It's been a long time. We haven't talked in years." He finished his push-ups and wiped sweat off of his forehead. "Yeah. I know." "So why don't we catch up?" "I…I dunno…" "You know…I used to have a crush on you," she said with a giggle. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel the same way," he said as he put his hat back on, "but…I've changed, Sal. I'm not the same guy anymore." She wasn't sure how to respond. All that came out was, "So what are you saying?" "Nothing. It's good to see you again, though," he said as he turned and left.
"Alright! We've worked hard, and now it's time to see what we can really do!" Sally announced. "Our mission is to take out an Legion ammunition factory. This way, we can cut down the amount of supplies they have. However, due to it's tight security system, we need to shut off the power by shutting down the generators in the nearby power plant," Sally explained. "Why not ask our EX-Legionnaire to turn off the security system?" Knuckles said. Julie-Su stood up and pointed one of her blasters at him, looking extremely ticked off. Knuckles shot her a menacing grin as he extended his hand and curled back his fingers three times as to say 'Bring it on'. "Go ahead. Give me a reason to take you out," he said. "Both of you calm down!" Sally shouted. The two echidnas growled and looked away from each other and back at Sally. "Thank you. Now, in order to sneak into the power plant, we need a small group to create a distraction. Any volunteers?" "I do!" Grim shouted, "I can see it now! A huge explosion that can be seen for miles! Fire spewing from the earth! It will be glorious! HA, HA, HA…uhhh." All eyes were staring at him as Cap shook his head in embarrassment. "Sorry," he muttered as he sat down. "Actually, that would be very effective…so I guess we could go with that, but-" "I won't let you down, princess!" Grim shouted, happy as a little schoolboy. "Alright, here are the other teams…"
The Dark Legion had recently acquired some swamplands where they could place an ammunition factory. If there was going to be a resistance, it would be crushed. A power plant, positioned five miles down river was used to power the facility. Outside, two Legionnaires discuss their thoughts about the evening. "Sure is cold." "Yeah, Jordan." "So how come we're stuck with patrol duty?" "I dunno, Xander. I guess we just have bad luck." "Yeah. Nothing exciting ever happens-" BOOM! A fiery explosion erupted into the sky, flames blazing. "What the Hell?!?!" "Man, we'd better run and find out what that was!"
Not far from there, Grim stood amidst his creation, laughing maniacally. "YES! I am the Lord of the Flame! Dance for me! Dance! HA, HA, HA, HA!" He was interrupted when his walkie-talkie began to relay Sally's message. "Get outta there before someone sees you, idiot!" "Uhhh…sorry." With this said, Grim ran off into the forest beside the swamp, awaiting commands.
Vipes and Espio used their ninja skills to sneak past the remaining guards and knock them out in order to let the others into the power plant. This team was Sonic, Sally, Tails, Espio, Vector, Rotor, Vipes, and Swiper. "Alright Tails, there's the main computer. Do your stuff," Sally said as she patted him on the back. He nodded and started typing away, breaking through firewalls and security systems. "Alright, I'm in. Shut down all power to the ammo factory…now!" The sound of turbines slowing down to a stop could be heard. "Good job, bud," Sonic said as he gave Tails a high-five." "Let's get out of here," Sally said as they all began to rush out. "I wonder how Morph and F.C. are doing distracting the guards?" Vector wondered.
"OH MY GOD!!!" a Legionnaire screamed as he fired his blaster at a tree, which swatted him away. The tree appeared to have a face on it, and was shouting, "The Ents are going to WAR! RUN!" Legionnaires were running away and trying to blast the stupid walking, talking tree. 'Nice job, Morph,' F.C. said telepathically. 'Thank you for the shield thingie you put over me, otherwise I'd be Swiss cheese. Back to acting!' "BEWARE!" 'Good thing we're getting this on tape. DJ'll love to see this.'
Cap, Mighty, Ray, Bunnie, Antoine, Cap, Knuckles, Freezie, Julie-Su, and DJ waited patiently until the lights went off around the factory. "Alright. Now how do we sneak past all the guards?" Ray asked. Bunnie noticed Knuckles taking off his hat. All he had on now was his belt, his gloves and his shoes. "What're ya doin', suga?" Bunnie asked as she watched him jump down into the mud of the swamp. They watched as he rubbed mud on himself until he was mostly covered. "Oh I see. Camouflage. Well just so you know, I'm not walking next to you on the way back," Freezie said. "Shut up and wait there. I'll be right back." As he left, Julie-Su growled and said, "No way am I waiting for that loser!" as she left, slowly creeping through the shrubs. The others sat there and pondered what to do. "Uh…what do we do?" "Let's stay here. Julie-Su can take care of herself," Mighty said. They did wait for a minute or so, until they saw Knuckles waving for them to come on. They quickly ran over and entered the complex. "Where's Julie-Su?" Cap asked Knuckles. "How should I know? Wasn't she with you?" "She was, but she went off to get inside." "Knuckles growled as he wiped some more mud off of himself. "Fine. Let's go on without her."
As they ran down the corridors, they were surprised how quiet it was. "Vhere are zee guards?" Antoine asked. "I handled them," Knuckles shot as they continued to run. Wondering what he meant, they stopped at their destination, the storage room. There was enough ammo to take them out in no time at all. A perfect powder keg. "Alright. Who's got the charges?" Cap asked. "Me," DJ answered. "Good. Set 'em," Ray replied. "Uh…I would…if I knew how to." All eyes widened as Knuckles began screaming at DJ. "You mean we came all this way and you can't set the freakin' charges?!?!" DJ slunk back and said, "Well hey, Julie-Su was supposed to set them." Knuckles growled and muttered, "Never trust a Legionnaire." DJ quickly took the charges apart and began to rewire them. "Okay. I got it. But we'll only have five minutes to get out instead of ten." "No prob," Freezie said. The timer started and they began to hurry out. "What about Julie-Su?" Mighty asked. "Good riddens to bad rubbish," Knuckles spat as he ran along side Mighty. They turned a corner and bumped right into Julie-Su, who was short of breath. "Where the Hell were you?" Knuckles shouted. "Finding a way inside!" "I said to wait!" As the echidnas began quarreling, Cap noticed the Legionnaires running towards them. "Uh…Let's RUN!!!" he shouted as he and Mighty tore the ground up, creating a shield. As they ran, a blast door began to fall! They ran as fast as they could, but Knuckles got trapped on the other side! "Open it up!" Cap shouted to Rotor, who began re-wiring the touch pad. DJ, using one of his visor-modes, was staring at the blast door. "He's still alive in there! Move!" Finally, the door opened and they got ready to attack. When it did open, though, they froze. Pieces were everywhere. A cybernetic arm here, a leg there. Bodies all over the room. And standing in the center was Knuckles, with his gloves off, revealing two sinister spurs on each hand. "Dude…" Mighty muttered as Knuckles shouted, "Let's go!"
Sally and the others were waiting nervously for the others to arrive at the meeting point. "Where are they? They should have been here by now," Sally said, growing worried. Suddenly, the others came bursting out of the woods, huffing and puffing. "What happened?" Tails asked. "Long…story," was Mighty's reply. Suddenly, there was a huge explosion off behind them. Everyone took cover as Grim stood there, twinkly-eyed, "Wooooooooooow." All glanced over at him with a raised brow. When the rumbling from the explosion had stopped, Sally asked, "Where's Knuckles?" The others jumped and looked around. "I though he was coming behind us! Oh no!" Ray shouted. Suddenly, there was a clicking sound, and they turned to see two Legionnaires pointing their rifles at them.
"Whaddaya know, Xander? We get patrol duty and capture the whole resistance group. Pretty nice." "Yeah." The others stared at the two Legionnaires. Sonic was getting ready to make his move, when one of the Legionnaires dropped his rifle and fell to the ground, dead. "Xander?" the other asked, before someone grabbed his head and snapped his neck. The others watched in horror as these events unfolded, and were even more horrified at the fact that their ally, Knuckles, had been the killer. He spat on the ground next to him as he panted heavily. He could tell by the look in Sally's eyes they had a long talk ahead of them.
Knothole (a.k.a. Home Base)
"How could you do that?!?!" Sally yelled. Everyone sat around the room, watching as Sally screamed at Knuckles. "I don't understand how you could do something so…brutal!" "They're nothing but monsters! They'd do the same to you in an instant! If you wanna beat them, you gotta play rough!" "You are out of control!!!" "What about her," Knuckles said as he pointed to Julie-Su, "She was the only one who knew how to set the charges, and she just 'happens' to leave without them! She's a spy!" "Piss off!" Julie-Su shouted. "I'll take you out as easily as I took out your friends!" Sally stood in between them and shouted, "Enough you two!" Knuckles growled as he grabbed his hat and belt. "Where are you going?" Sally demanded. "Wherever I want!" "I don't understand, Knuckles! What do you have against Julie-Su? Against the Legionnaires?" Knuckles spun around and shouted, "They're a bunch of murdering monsters! I hate all of them!!! Every single one!!!" With that said, he left as the others stood in silence. Sally sighed and sat down. "I knew him before this…when he was a little kid. He was…the kindest, sweetest guy I had ever know. What happened to him?" she said as a tear rolled down her eye.
Out in the woods, Knuckles slowly waded into the nearby river to wash the rest of the mud off. As he did so, he growled as he thought of Sally, talking to him like that. Him! The one that saved their lives! He was furious. He got out and dried himself off, muttering things about the others being ignorant and stupid. And that hedgehog. He thought of himself as God's gift to Mobius. All week he had been mocking Knuckles behind his back. Coward. No matter. He slipped his shoes and gloves back on and began to walk back to Knothole, throwing on his trench coat, placing his hat on his head and strapping his belt on. On the way back, he heard something and spun around. "Who's there?" No answer. Sweat dripped from his forehead. 'No. Not again!' "Knuckles! Help!" "Guardian!" He put his hands over his ears trying to drown it out, to no avail. "Please! Stop it!" he begged, falling to his knees, his hands over his head. People shouting, a woman screaming above everyone else, a baby crying, a sinister laugh that chilled him to the bone. Tears started streaming from his eyes. "Please…make it stop…" he said weakly, his voice cracking. Slowly, the voices faded out, and he was alone again. Alone.
Author's Note: So whaddaya think? Tell me your likes and dislikes. I will find the likes to be complementary and the dislikes…well, I'll see what I can do to make things suite you (without completely warping my whole story). Next we'll be seeing more madness, more stupidity, and more action. Perhaps we'll also get to find out more about the creepy voices in Knux's head. Midterms coming up, so expect a little…delay. Until then, L8r!
