(I do not own Sonic X, etc.)
S.O.N.I.C GO!
S.O.N.I.C GO!
GO, GO, GO, GO: LET'S GO!
The Black Arms Saga
Episode 23: Revenge of the Weasel
There was nothing particularly special about this solar system, apart from an unusual number of planets orbiting a single sun. But since most of them were uninhabitable they did not draw much interest. What was unique however were the two planets third and fourth away from their sun. The fourth planet had obviously recently been terra-formed, residual energy readings were high and clearly a good deal of advanced technology had been used in the process.
The third planet was of very special interest. It was teaming with life and had a flourishing civilisation on it's surface. Scans showed it's technology level was reaching the point when they could start practical space travel. But apart from this, sensor readings showed an extremely powerful dimension flux surrounding the planet. A few tests needed to be run but from all current data available, this was apparently a 'fused' world.
It was a very special occurrence, especially in this sector of the galaxy which was considered relatively stable. Dimensions rarely collided with one another, yet alone merged into one. Not only that, but both of these two planets had a Chaos energy signature, the atmosphere of both worlds was rank with it. Clearly these two planets were worthy of further investigation. This seemed all too good to be true. This solar system had everything they had been searching for these long eons, finally they could stop running.
However, their source had already informed them of the violent tendencies and attitudes of the civilisation below on the third planet and given it's current technology level, that could make them a threat, and threats could not be tolerated. Their need for the survival of their sect would not permit that.
-
There weren't a lot of vehicles on the highway as the convoy consisting off a truck, several cops of motorbikes and a few Beetle robots acting as an escort; started their journey.
As the prisoner was awaiting trail, officials decided to transfer him to holding facility with a higher security level. The mobian had already proven very cunning and picking even the most advanced of locks was child's play. He was dangerous, having killed more than once and was more than capable of doing it again if he ever got his hands on another weapon.
"You look pretty happy for some guy looking at a life sentence." One of the guards inside the truck commented to the weasel, who sat between the two Laser Hunter robots, his hands cuffed and two rifles pointed at his head. The weasel had bright purple fur and sharp eyes; a thin smile was spread over his face, one large tooth descending over his lips.
Apart from a pair of gloves and boots he wore nothing. Most mobians preferred to go without clothes anyway. They had fur or scales to conceal their unmentionables.
"I hear they serve good bread and water in the new place." The weasel replied, but the guard could detect something else in his tone and in the way he smiled sadistically at her. She couldn't see what he had to be happy about. He'd been found guilty to at least one count of murder and various other crimes which includes theft, assault, damage of public property and numerous parking offences. His total estimated time was calculated as at least thirty years, if not longer. "Besides, you never know, I might get out earlier for good behaviour?" He added, his sickening smirk widening. She doubted he had ever been capable of good behaviour, even as a child.
He was like a kid who liked to pull the wings of insects and then dried to drown them in puddles. "I might even avoid prison entirely."
"Doubt it, not with your record. There's not a lawyer on this planet who can help you now." The weasel chuckled in response.
"What makes you think I even intend to set foot inside a courtroom?"
Suddenly, a loud booming sound rang out and suddenly the truck swerved to the side, before ploughing through several cars and into the side of a tree. The police offers on motor bikes had to swerve out of the way as laser rifle shots rang out of nowhere, carving huge pot holes in the road.
"This is squad Alpha, we're under attack!" Someone cried, before the chaos began. The last few remaining members of the sharp shooters gang ambushed the convoy and with the element of surprise in their favour, they quickly had all the protection for the truck neutralised.
That is until the back of the vehicle was forced violently outwards and the two Laser Hunters arrived on the scenes. These advanced military robots scanned the area through the smoke and locked onto several targets, raising their arms and firing several blasts from the weapons on their arms.
A sharpshooter went down, a laser blast hitting him directly in the chest, sending him cascading to the floor. Someone raised a rocket launcher on their shoulder and fired. The shot lacked in accuracy, passing right overhead
"Take this metal bastards!" Someone yelled and a small round object came hurtling through the air to land at their feet. Looking down, one of them saw it was a grenade, without the pin. Before it could move, the weapon exploded in a fire storm, the shockwave throwing both robots down off the road and into a ditch.
"About time boys." The weasel stated, looking coy as the Sharpshooters arrived at the truck itself. One of them raised his laser rifle and fired a single shot, breaking the hand cuffs that held the weasel's hand bound. "I was beginning to think you weren't going to bother."
"Not a chance boss." Another told him. "Oh, and this is yours I believe." He added, handing the weasel a canvas brown hat. The mobian smiled sadistically, taking it and putting it on his head, reassuming the persona of Fang the Sniper.
"Oh this is so much better." Fang muttered as one of his boys handed him a gun. "I can't tell you how much I missed one of these." Stepping out of the truck and now officially free, Fang the Sniper quickly jumped into the Sharpshooters' getaway vehicle, a military style jeep painted black. "I'm impressed boys, you thought of anything."
"Thought you be impressed boss." One of them laughed roughly. By now the intense blare of police back up on it's way was beginning to ebb on the horizon.
"Sadly though…." Fang began, turning and without hesitation, shooting the sharp shooter in the drivers seat and kicking his body out of the way. "I've not need for any of you anymore."
"Boss, what are you doing?" Another demanded as Fang turned the keys in the ignition.
"What's it look like simpleton?" The weasel replied, his sadistic seer wide over his lips, the edge of the single tooth that gave him his name glinting in the early morning light. "I'm going solo!" With that, he drove off, leaving the loyal members of his own gang at the mercy of the police that came roaring onto the scene from the other direction.
Fang has no loyalties, that was something they were supposed to know already. He appreciated them ending his prison life before it started but still, for what he had in mine he didn't need them. Besides, it was their clear ignorance that got him in that situation in the first place.
Right now, all Fang had on his mind was the one thing he had promised himself he would do once he was out of the cop's grasp. There was single bullet in this gun of his with a certain chameleon's name on it.
-
Business had been slow for a while in Chaotix's line of work. Hardly a single case had come in over the last few months, as if most criminals were scared to so much as snatch a purse. Vector put it down to their rep as hardened crime fighters getting around, Espio however; being far more realistic, knew it was because of that new stance on crime G.U.N was adopting. That, accompanied by its new Flying ship fleet, made it very intimating to those in the Criminal underworld.
Chaotix considered it a good day when they saw at least two of the ships flying overhead. They had the shape of Air craft carriers, yet had been adapted into flying versions with thrusters on their underside instead of propellers. That was an impressive display of authority so no one in their right mind was going to step out of line which that thing flying above.
"Well, there's a silver lining to all this." Vector remarked, placing the last of the documents on the 'finished' pile on his desk.
"And what's that?" Espio asked, staring out at the G.U.N ship flying above New York, hovering there at silently as a cloud. They were several of those things scattered around the country over Major metropolitan areas in an effort to raise the already very low public opinion of G.U.N; the chameleon mused silently.
"All this down time gave me an opportunity to get all this out of the way." Vector replied, standing up from his work at the giant pile of documents that was at least as tall as he was. Espio rolled his eyes. "Hey, it's not as if we have to get a case each day to pay the rent anymore." The crocodile added, reminding the chameleon of their luck in coming third in the Emerald Grand Prix and earning the prize money. That cash had paid off all their debts and had upgrading their agency. Now instead of some single room apartment in the downtown of Station square, they could afford a penthouse in New York were the big business was.
"There was a break in at the Twelve cents bank at the north side of town." Rei the flying squirrel announced, flipping over the news paper in his hands to reveal the title page. The words 'Bank Busted' were printed across the top in big black letters.
"Nah, not big enough." Vector commented, rubbing the end of his snout in thought. After they had finally brought down Fang the Sniper and got him sent down for the murder of their old friend, Mighty the Armadillo Vector had been anticipating another case to sink his teeth into, something really adventurous to really get his blood going. He seemed one step away from signing them all up for the army just for the thrill of it.
"I hear rumours of an illegal arms shipment being brought in from abroad." Beck, their own human member added as he sat in front of a fan. Right now, New York was in the middle of a heat wave and the nation grid was being taxed as people were overusing thousands of cooling devices.
"That's something for the Fed's." Espio replied. "Besides, after that last time we got in a case with them, I doubt they'd be too willing to share." Vector shuddered, remembering that whole fiasco. Trying to bust a whole of smugglers some time ago, Chaotix had ended up tripping over the F.B.I's own sting operation. It took a lot of talking on Vector's end to stop the men in black from sending them all to jail. That was something they'd all like to forget.
"Hey Vector, there's someone here to see you." Charmee announced, flying through the door into Vector's office. The crocodile leapt to his feet, rubbing his hands in relish.
"Great, a case at last!" He declared with a wide, tooth filled grin.
"Oh no, it's not a client." Charmee added quickly. The crocodile suddenly looked very disappointed and slumped back into his chair, looking furlong.
"Well who is it then?" He asked, looking disinterested. Charmee gained a very large smirk in response.
"Well, she had long ears, brown eyes…" Before the bee could continue, Vector seemed to get his bounce back in an instant, shooting to his feet and making for the door.
"It's Vanilla isn't it?" Espio asked with levelled eyes at they watched Vector bundle himself out the door, almost tripping over his feet. The bee nodded enthusiastically, before bursting into childish laughter. The chameleon groaned.
Vector still hadn't abandoned this infatuation with her, if anything he seemed even more head over heals whenever someone who much as mentioned her name. In fact, when they'd been at the park the other day on their day off, Charmee had asked him what flavour ice-cream he wanted and suddenly the crocodile looked absolutely smitten, staring off into space.
"Ah, Miss Vanilla, welcome to the Chaotix detective agency headquarters." They could hear his voice through the wall. Quickly they all rushed to the door to see what was going on.
Not only was Vanilla there, but so was Cream and her robot friend; Emerl, who despite the blistering heat was still disguising himself in his trench coat and hat. Vanilla herself was wearing a summer dress with a straw hat; two holes for her ears had been made in the top. Cream was wearing her usual attire, but her mother had brought her a straw hat of her own. Cheese the Chao was hitting in Vanilla's hat, playing with the straw.
Vanilla's dress was, to Espio's distaste and Vector's delight, quite flattering; revealing that despite being a full time mother she had quite an attractive figure. "And what brings you here?"
"We're hiring." Vanilla replied with a bright smile.
"Hiring?" Vector repeated, looking a bit confused.
"Well, I don't know where else to turn with this, so I was hoping you could help us with a little problem." The she-rabbit explained. Espio instantly changed his opinion of Vanilla, the word 'hiring' meant she was offering money and that made her alright in his opinion.
"The skills of the agency are at your disposal." Vector announced, smacking his chest with a fist. "Whatever the task, whatever the job…"
"Whatever the pay, Whatever the perks." Charmee giggled. The crocodile shot them all a side glance over his shoulder.
"We need to take this to Sonic." Cream announced, holding up the dark blue Chaos Emerald they had found in central park, before being ambushed by Fang the Sniper and the Sharpshooters gang. "Only problem is he's on Mar's right now."
"Mars?" All of Chaotix repeated. A lot of rumours had been going around about Mars, especially since it's transformation by an unknown force. Apparently, Sonic had gone up there to see what was going on first hand.
"We were hoping that you could help us get up there." Vanilla explained. Espio tried to signal to Vector not to land them in any tricky situations, but once again with his mouth acting faster than his brain, the crocodile simply announced;
"No problem!" Espio slapped his forehead. In less than three words Vector had landed them in another fine predicament, one he doubted they would be able to wiggle out of easily. "You wanna to go into outer space, you got it!"
"Excuse me Vector, can I have a word with you in private?" Espio asked, already pushing their leader back towards the office. "We'll be right back." He added with a faked grin, before shoving Vector inside. "What is wrong with you?" The chameleon demanded, shutting the door behind him.
"What? This sounds like just the thing we've been looking for!" Vector declared, crossing his arms behind his back. Espio raised a none-existant eyebrow. "We want adventure, and what could be more adventurous than a crusade into space? Think about it, cruising the asteroid belt and the ring around the planet, before heading to the planet Mars to fight evil robots and deliver something of vital strategic importance." Clearly Vector had gone clinically insane.
"And just where do you plan to get something that can get us up there?" The chameleon asked with levelled eyes. Vector suddenly looked thoughtful; then he turned to stare out the window towards the floating G.U.N ship over the city. Espio followed his gaze and then read his thoughts by the sadistic expression on his face. "Oh no…no…no!"
"It's perfect!" Vector announced, rubbing his hands together with glee. "The Government said themselves those ships can go into space, and they've got plenty of them; I'm sure they won't miss one."
"If we get caught, they'll lock the whole lot of us up and throw away the key!" Espio hissed.
"We're not going to steal it, just…borrow. We'll give it back when we're done." Vector argued. "Besides, these are just the blood rushing risks I was hoping for." When Vector was like this, there was no reasoning with him. Once in this mode, he was a bulldozer demolishing everything and everyone in his way.
"Oh, give me strength." The chameleon sighed up towards the ceiling.
"Come on Esp, don't tell me you don't relish the idea of an adventure?" The crocodile asked, staring off at that ship with a deep gleam in his eyes.
"Adventure yes. Getting arrested for theft of government property, no." Vector simply chuckled and placed a large hand on the chameleon's shoulder.
"I thought you wanted to keep Cream on Earth." Rei began while Epsio and Vector were having their 'discussion' in the other room. "Why the sudden change of mind?" Vanilla smiled.
"We aren't going to be there that long." She explained. "Just drop off a Chaos Emerald and go, and besides, having Chaotix as escorts makes us as safe as if we were with Sonic himself."
Beck and Charmee cast each other nervous glances.
"Well, I've discussed it with my legal adviser…" Vector announced, stepping out of the office with a peeved off Espio in tow. "Chaotix is at your disposal Miss Vanilla, we'll have you and your daughter up in space before you know it."
"We will?" Rei asked, looking towards Espio in particular.
"We will." Espio repeated, looking utterly defeated. Vanilla giggled, holding a hand to her mouth quickly to soften the noise.
"I knew we could count of you Vector."
"Chao Chao." Cheese added from the top of her hat.
"Glad to be of service." The crocodile replied, despite his green scales appearing red as he blushed.
"This is what happened to the Beatles isn't it?. A girl makes eyes at one of the group and the whole thing fall apart?" Beck asked Chamree, who giggled under his breath.
"I'm assuming you have a plan." Espio began as Chaotix made preparations for…loan of a G.U.N space ship. Vector was still sorting through details for the trip, like stockpiling supplies and other essentials. All he lacked now was the means to actually get into space. Most of Chaotix was having reservation about Vector's mental state when he made the decision. True all of them was thirsting for adventure, but propelling themselves beyond the stratosphere isn't quite what they had had in mind. But Vector had not lead them, drastically, wrong before so they went along with his plan. Besides, Vanilla was paying them a good deal of cash for the simple escort there and back and with a big pad of the green stuff at the end of the day to show for it, they could ignore their leader's infatuation with her. "Your not just going to up to the G.U.N registry office and ask if you can please borrow one of their new military vessels."
"I don't have to get it myself." Vector replied confidentially. Beck, Charmee and Rei were busy stacking their supplies in the basement. There they would stay until Vector got their supposed space craft. Vanilla, her daughter and their robot were on standby with their own things. All they were waiting for was Vector's word so they could meet up. "I know a couple of people who can get one for us." Espio's eyes widened in disbelief.
"Vector…" He breathed in utter surprise. "You didn't pay someone to steal one did you?" Vector gained a near sadistic grin. "Oh you did!"
"Not steal." The crocodile persisted. "Just borrow."
"Vector, you still paid someone to take a piece of Government equipment without asking." Espio told him sternly. "If they ever find out what you're doing, you are up and the creek without a paddle."
"Don't worry, I already thought of that." Vector replied, leaning back in his chair, putting his hands behind his head and grinning inanely. "The account name was a dummy one so when the G.U.N agents come looking for the guy who had their space ship nicked, they'll be looking for some guy whose doesn't even exist." Espio groaned and banged his head several times on the desk.
"Vector, I swear if it wasn't for your dumb luck, you'd have had us all shot by now. You really think that'll keep the 'Big Brother surveillance' guys off your back?"
"Oh they'll have more urgent things to worry about then one missing ship if I smell the way the wind's blowing." Espio, now with a headache looking up with a raised eyebrow in question. "Despite the Eggman Empire attacks, a good lot of people aren't happy with G.U.N. They say they're using the threat as an excuse to remove civil liberties."
"What?" Espio asked.
"There's a lot of dissents among the people out there. If G.U.N ain't too careful, the next security measure it passes will have everyone in outright rebellion." Espio looked little nonplussed.
"Aren't you being a little melodramatic?" Vector shook his head.
"Not really, after those Elite and Foundation guys were exposed, the publics been on the lookout for shadow masters behind the scenes. Conspiracy theories seemed to be all the range nowadays." Espio sighed and rolled his eyes towards the ceiling.
"Don't tell me you go in for all that?" Vector pushed a book labelled 'Hundred greatest conspiracy theories' out of sight while Espio wasn't looking. "Man, I've got no reason to trust the government either, but that's taking it a little too far."
"Tell that to the guys who sprayed anti-government graffiti over every street wall for a mile."
It was about mid night when Vector's contact arrived at the agency headquarters, a mobian gecko who remained as much in the shadows as he could when they met. He was a representative of a highly secretive group Vector had contacted, hoping that they could procure him one of the G.U.N fleet's space craft. The organisation was so secret, not even the criminal underworld was aware of it's name. Vector had only managed to contact them through Swift, who had contacts in almost every secretive societies across the nation.
"It was a big order." The gecko began. "I hope you've got the green for it." "Vector simply opened a silver briefcase. This groups services were anything but cheep, but thankfully the fee would not make them bankrupt either.
"You have the ship?"
"We have it, ready for use as well. It's a small one, but it's the best we could get. G.U.N isn't in a sharing mood. All it needs are supplies and a crew."
"I'll take care of that end." Vector replied, folding his arms before passing the briefcase to Espio. The case contained only half of the fee, the first half they got in advance. Only when the space ship was in their hands would they hand over the rest. Espio was insisted on coming along to supervise Vector, who was a very loose cannon as it was. "So, where is it?"
The gecko lead them around to the harbour. Under the cover of darkness, no one noticed the ship in the water, snuck in between two large fraters. It was clearly one of the G.U.N fleet, with it's aircraft crier like design and 'G' symbol on each side, barley hidden under a large canvas sheet.
"Here as agreed." The gecko announced. "It's in perfect condition. As for flying the thing, you're on your own with that."
"That is a good point Vector." Espio argued once their other lizard friend had sulked away, as if afraid of his own shadow, vanishing into the night. "Do you know to fly a space ship?" Vector hesitated, finally hitting a brick wall with this plan.
The gecko crept away into the depths of the city. His employers had had to bend over backwards to get that ship away from a G.U.N base and they were not exactly happy with the client either. Chaotix had been seriously cutting into their business opportunities with their crusade on crime.
This, they saw, was the perfect way to get rid of the agency.
"About time you showed up." A voice from the dark of an alley stated. Looking up, the lizard saw the short figure of a mobian leaning against the wall between a pair of trashcans. "Did they take the ship?"
"Yeah they took it, and engines are rigged with the device that'll short-circuit them." the lizard reached into his pocket and withdrew a small remote control. Nimbly he tossed it through the air towards the mobian, who caught it in his left hand. "That'll shut the ship down for about ten minutes. You could just shut them down as they try to leave the planet, let them fall to their deaths."
"Oh, now that would spoil all my fun." He replied, tucking the device into his belt. "It's a cliché statement, but it's true; revenge is a dish best served cold." Fang the Sniper grinned, spinning a gun around his finger before sliding it down into the holster at his side.
-
Flip card 1:
Name: Fang the Sniper
Description: Mercenary and thug for hire, recently 'liberated' from the custody of the police.