TES Episode 10: When Shadows Attack

by John the Enforcer

Our heroes are called upon to a diplomatic mission on AdonnaLyn's homeworld of Chandral...only to find that not all is as it seems...

THE ENFORCER SAGA Episode 10: When Shadows Attack By John "the Echidna" Fadeley

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is a phrase that most common folk believe when they see people come to power. The temptation of lording over people, even at their expense, is often too great for these "leaders", whether they be a mayor of a small town or even a senator in the Galactic Republic. The saddest thing is, this very corruption spreads to worlds just barely in the Republic's grasp...

The date: March 31st, 3238, 5:54 AM Adonna-Lyn, the daughter of the Supreme Ruler of Chandral and wife to the former bounty hunter John "The Enforcer", ran quickly for what seemed like hours. And yet, the black, stone walls that surrounded her stretched out for miles ahead of her.
She didn't know why, but she felt compelled to run and run, not even stopping for a breather.
Suddenly, a part of the wall came out and tried to grab at her with a huge hand. She did a high leap over it, a cannonball roll, and landed on her bare feet, her silken, dark-blue, Chandralite garb flowing forward from the inertia.
She continued her running, rounded a corner...and wound up in FICC, her new home and John's base of operations. She heard John calling to her...a call for help!
She ran...and tripped over something. She looked at what tripped her up...and gasped! It was Neela, her squirrel lady-in-waiting...and she looked like something speared her through her heart! She was dying.
"No...Neela..." Adonna-Lyn said holding her foster sister's face and weeping a bit...before angrily asking, "Who did this to you"
Neela tried to say something through her blood-stained mouth...but then fell. Dead.
John's calls only quickened her pace...and brought her to face more horrors. John's friends, the group of Mobian outcasts known as "The Chaotix", were against the walls of the base dead or dying. They were hit particularly hard. Even Heavy and Bomb, the two Mechanix drones, were found in pieces as if they were ripped apart by a wild animal!
"Adon..." she heard someone weakly call to her. She turned and saw Neon Dragon, John's Detrossian friend and bodyguard, slumped on the floor. She was a bloody mess, her wings torn and slashed apart, a big gaping hole where her belly was.
"Neon...who is doing this? WHO!" Adonna-Lyn asked.
Neon blinked a couple of times, then said, "It...was him..." She, too, was now dead.
John called to her again, but this time, it was much weaker. From the sounds of it, he was in the process of being killed!
She ran to the source of his calls, and was immediately hit with the smell of death. She recoiled and coughed...and saw John, her beloved blue-skinned husband, being held aloft in the air by his neck by what appeared to be a great darkness. It had no true physical form, it was simply a darkness! John looked over to Adonna-Lyn and stretched his hand out to her...a sickening snap of bones, and John fell limp...and dead.
"NO!" Adonna-Lyn cried as John was tossed aside like a rag doll. The darkness then turned on her.
"You two think you're SO tough...you've no idea of what lies ahead of you. Let me give you a sample of what you haven't prepared yourselves for." the dark mass hissed as it inched towards her, extending a pitch black hand.
Before Adonna-Lyn had a chance to react or defend herself, she felt something invisible grip her throat and lift her into the air. She choked and cried out in pain.
Then she fell down to the ground. Everything around her began to shatter like a mirror struck with a hard object. She was now surrounded by a great light.
"Adon." a familiar voice called to her. She looked, and saw her father, King Aaron, standing there.
"Daddy?" she asked.
"You must go to Garminsaka. There is a dark terror there that is threatening its people...and there is the horrid stink of corruption present." King Aaron instructed, "Maintain the appearance of a diplomatic mission, but be on your guard"
"Of course, father. I'll prepare to leave immediately." she replied.
"Adon...I've been watching your relationship with my son-in-law...and I must say, I'm doing so with some trepidation." Aaron stated grimly, "Even as your husband, this John the Enforcer isn't living up to what would be my expectations of a suitable husband...even almost killing my only child"
"That was an accident, daddy." Adonna-Lyn stated, "The late Jirrard used me as a shield when John unleased a powerful attack"
"Still, it does not fill me with great confidence in your husband, seeing as he continues to have you placed in grave danger." King Aaron stated, "I'll be keeping my eyes on him..."

Adonna-Lyn awoke on that thought. She shook her head. John the Echidna, even with his considerable short-comings was, in her eyes, a better husband than any of the suitors that had come and gone from her original palace home.
"John, I just had a..." she began to say...until she saw that John wasn't there on the bed, "Bad dream"
She got out of bed, showered, got dressed, and headed out of the Master Bedroom into the hallways of FICC.
Neon was the first person she came across. "Hello, Neon. Have you seen John?" the echidna princess asked.
"He went into the Central Command room." Neon replied, "You should have seen him. His face was pale with fright"
Adonna-Lyn thought about Neon's answer, and then said, "Thank you...and Neon, it's good to have you back"
Espio, who was re-adjusting several wires overhead, said, "Yeah. For a moment, there really wasn't someone to put Vector in his place"
"Ha ha. Very funny, Espy." Vector said dryly as he clamped his jaws down on a Dewback steak and ripped a huge chunk of meat out.
Adonna-Lyn made her way to the Central Command room and found John sitting in the main chair.
He was watching several screens intently. Screens that were displaying the remnants of the Order of Darkness, the Chandralite terrorist group. Surveying their crystalized imprisonment as they were placed within a heavily secured chamber in "the Devil's Gulag.
John was watching the screens carefully. Even though the crystals holding Blue Fang, Lady Screech, Magmus, Rieko, Sleet and Dingo were indestructible, it was best not to take any chances that these crystals might break.
The minute he heard Adonna-Lyn stumble upon a loose deck-plate, he whipped around quickly. "Oh, Adon...it's only you." John said with a breath of relief.
"John, what's the matter?" she asked.
John turned around to the screens and said, "Look at them, Adon. Although their numbers are fewer than the rest of the forces of Good on this planet, these six individuals prove that they are the deadliest thing to hit this planet since Robotnik came to power. I almost lost you because of them. I...I just want to make sure that they stay where they are"
Adonna-Lyn shook her head and went up to her blue-skinned husband, putting her hands on his shoulders. "Dearest John, you need to relax. They're obviously not going anywhere for a very long time. And I think I've just the thing to cure this nervous prostration you have." she suggested.
John looked up at her and asked, "What would that be"
"A diplomatic mission to a region of Chandral. Do you feel up to it?" she asked.
John thought about it for moment, then said, "If we're going, I'm going to need all the particulars and get a couple of our friends briefed. If something goes wrong, I just want to have a couple of my most trusted bodyguards in on it"
FICC War room, 8:27 AM...

"Garminsaka is a region of Chandral to the east of the Arachna Mountain Range. Its main exports to the rest of my world are food and materials necessary for the production of Chandral's clothing. Due to its location, the citizens of this region have made a very dangerous living of stealing Arachna webbing in order to mix it with melted Ditanium, thus making the clothes that are not only a fashion statement, but they also function as a comfortable form of armor." Adonna-Lyn stated to John and his followers while showing a holographic display.
"Are the natives friendly?" Heavy asked.
"Well, that might be the tricky part. You see, Garminsaka's citizens are friendly just as long as your coins shine. Since their trade acts as a stable part of their economy and a cherished way of life, they tend to get very...unhinged if something gets in the way of that." Adonna-Lyn grimly mentioned, "Garminsaka also commands the largest army on Chandral, next to that under my father's command. As I'm sure you can all imagine, the last thing we need is a civil war tearing my world apart." Vector, while turning his headset down (a first, Neon noted with a chuckle), and asked, "So, what's the sitch that's giving these guys such a bad itch"
"Well, that's what my father wants us to find out." the echidna princess said.
John interceded, "I'm going to need my best in on this whole thing. Vector, Neon, Neela, Mighty, you'll be accompanying us in this endeavor"
Neon offered, "If it's alright with you, John, I'm going to bring in Chrome Fingers Snake. We're going to need someone with dead-on accurate aim, just in case things go sour"
"Hopefully, it won't come to that, Neon...but go ahead. I'm sure Chrome Fingers would appreciate a little money coming his way." John said with a slight laugh.
Heavy piped up, "Of course, I shall be coming along in case of any mechanical problems"
"Well, if we're all in agreement, then we shall set off for Adonna-Lyn's homeworld. Espio, you're in charge, with Charmy acting as 2nd-in-command." John said.
"Sweeeeeeeet." Espio commented with a grin.

Night Zone Casino, 8:56...

"But Snake, do you have to leave!" Mike, a Mobian rat in a slightly weird suit asked his slithering boss, "I mean, who will run the casino"
"You will. It'sssssssss ssssssssso sssssssssimple, I'd even let a Gammorean run the joint, that isssssss, if it weren't for their racsssssse'ssssssss reputassssssstion for exssssssssstreme violencsssssssssse." Chrome Fingers Snake said, flicking his forked tongue out with every "S" sound.
"But Snaaaaaaake..." Mike whined, "All I know how to do is handle the casino's accounts, whether it be honestly won money or not"
"WILL YOU KEEP YOUR MOUTH SSSSSSSSSHUT!" Snake hissed, seeing as they were RIGHT OUT IN PUBLIC, "Look, it will probabley be for jusssssst a couple of daysssssss. I mean, how long can a sssssssimple diplomatic missssssion lassssst"
"Have you ever been to a meeting of the Republic Senate? It took more than a year to settle things between the Gran and the Dugs about the settlement of Malastare." Mike said, "Besides, being seen with the bounty hunter 'The Enforcer'? Do you know what kind of PR problems we could gain from this"
"The Enforcssssser oncsssssse paid me a great deal for my sssssservicssssesssss a while ago. Even if we losssssse a bit of public relationsssssss, we'll gain a conssssssiderable amount of mobiumsssssss from the whole thing. You know how much Republic creditsssssss are worth here on Mobiusssss...and consssssssidering the amount of creditssssss the Enforcsssssser hassssss..." Snake said, flicking his tongue out greedily at the thought of it.
"Mr. Chrome Fingers...a vessal has arrived outside. Black, shaped like an arrowhead." one of the fairly attractive female casino attendants informed him.
"Ah, that musssssst be him." Snake said, "Mike, you'll be fine. Jussssssst run the cassssssino asssss I would"
With that, the cybernetically-armed (hyuk hyuk) diamond back snake slithered to the door. He could almost smell those credits in his metallic mits.
Garminsaka Capital Palace, 9:10 AM...

She stood in the midst of the room, a pair of sai-daggers in her hands and at the ready. Her orangish-gold eyes surveyed the room carefully.
She was a dark-green-skinned echidna (Maybe in her late 20's) with orange-red hair (part of which was made into a ponytail that hung down to the small of her back), and nine green dreadlocks. She wore a kimono-like outfit that was mostly black except for orange and red flame-like markings where ever parts of her body came out (i.e., her hands, feet, etc), and she wore a pair of sandles on her feet what had a ring around her ankles and a strap that extended down and wrapped around the "index" toes. She also had a silken blue sash around her slim waist. All in all, any male would be foolish not to be attracted to her.
She tightened her grip on the sai...just as a dummy emerged out of the floor behind her. She whipped around in a blur and rapidly sliced it to bits!
More dummys began to emerge from the floor, and she went on the attack, kicking, head-butting, slicing, dicing, and generally making a mess out of the dummies.
But before her exercise was finished, she tossed one of the sai at a specific dummy...one made up to look like the daughter of the Supreme Ruler...ADONNA-LYN!
"A little higher, your Highness, and you would have skewered her right through her brain." a female voice said at the door. The female echidna looked and saw Kazuna, one of the Order of Darkness' top assasins standing at the door. Kazuna was a dark-red kitsune, perhaps amongst the last of her kind. She was wearing dark, ninja-like clothes. The only things that were exposed of her was her six tails and her cold dark-blue eyes.
"Well, this IS only practice. I will look forward to when I can do this for real." the echidna said, "Do you have your murderous friends on the one path leading to do the dispatch port"
"They are maintaining their regular attacks on the traders." Kazuna reported, "As you requested, I had them disguised as members of the Supreme Royal Guard. This will bring the royal brat right into your hands"
Tanikai, Kazuna's Tanuki apprentice, added, "And with that message sent out, it will make the threat of a possible war even more believible"
Kazuna's ears perked up a bit. "They have just left Mobius." Kazuna said, "They'll be on their way here"
"Well, then, we shall prepare the proper greeting for them, shan't we?" Kirana-Fel said...just as she tossed the other sai...and it struck right between the eyes of the one dummy! She then telekinetically brought both sai-daggers into her hands.

En-route to Chandral, 9:27 AM...

"Are you certain she won't go any faster?" John asked Heavy.
"That last Ion cannon blast the ShadowHunter took during our battle with the Dark Legion did some considerable harm to the hyperdrive. It will take some time before I can make some effective repairs. So for now, we're stuck using the sublights." Heavy reported.
"And given Chandral's current distance from Mobius, our trip will take an hour and a half." Neon stated as she looked at the navicomputer.
"Such a delay..." Adonna-Lyn remarked, "Well, it will give me enough time to verse John in Chandralite diplomacy." With that, she began pulling John out of the cockpit.
"Or is that you just want to spend some 'quiet time' with him?" Vector joked.
"VECTOR!" Neon growled while clenching her fist.
Once in the privacy of John's quarters, he looked at his wife and mischieviously said, "You're not really going to verse me, are you"
"Actually, dear husband, I am." Adonna-Lyn said as she ducked behind a part of his quarters that he redesigned for her...namely for changing her clothes, "Chandralite diplomacy is more than just a shaking of hands, bowing of heads, and exchanging of words. It is also a matter of the right mannerisms for the right lands and cultures." John asked, "And for the place we're going to"
"For Garminsaka, you must lay down any weapons you have in front of you, as a sign that you are coming in peace, and must sit cross-legged whenever you sit." Adonna-Lyn mentioned, "Of course, you must be on your best behavior or they'll make so much sushi out of you, it won't be funny"
"Point taken." John replied...just as Adonna-Lyn came out, dressed in her fire-red diplomatic clothing, "Adon, no matter what clothes you wear, your beauty always takes my breath away"
"Oh, you old flatterer." Adonna-Lyn remarked as John went up to her, meaning to embrace his beloved wife.
"I meant no flattery, Adonna-Lyn." John said as he put his arms around her, "I speak the truth...any man would be a fool not look upon you and become smitten"
She smiled for a moment, but then, a sad look appeared on her fair face. John, curious, asked, "What's wrong"
"John...my father spoke to me a bit after he told me of this diplomatic mission." Adonna-Lyn said as she walked over to a window on the ShadowHunter, "He is having his doubts about our relationship, believing that you're constantly putting me in harm's way"
John was speechless. His father-in-law thinking of him like that?
"Our last bout with Blue Fang and her henchcreeps has especially given my father further cause for worry." Adonna-Lyn said, "This mission is a test from my father to see if you truly are a worthy husband"
"What do YOU believe, Adon?" John asked.
"I believe that I couldn't have found someone I'd rather have for my husband." she said while looking him straight in the eye.
Suddenly, the ShadowHunter began to rock about! John knew instinctively from the sounds outside of the ship that they had not yet reached the asteroid field surrounding Chandral...they were under attack!
He and his wife ran to the cockpit. Upon reaching it, John called out, "Report"
"We're being shot upon, man! What's to report!" Vector remarked.
"It seems to be a Republic Cruiser..." Heavy reported, "...however, it has been given a black paint job, and several modifications ...several of which it is attacking us with"
"Well, I think we can just skip communication protocol and...RUN!" John shouted as the cruiser came at them again...this time, from the front! John got to the controls and brought the ShadowHunter into a dive to narrowly avoid the opposing craft.
"Sir, we're currently within 10 minutes travel leading into Chandral's asteroid field. With a further boost of speed, we could make it in about 3 minutes." Heavy stated.
"Good. Divert all power to the thrusters and give us maximum speed! A craft of that size can't go through the asteroid field." John ordered, "PUNCH IT"
Anything that was not tied down or safely secured was thrown back to the rear of the ship as John put in the major boost of speed.

"Oh ho, think you can outmanuever me that easily, don't ya?" the cruiser's pilot snarled. The pilot quickly ran from the cockpit and down to the cargo bay.
The pilot was a female cat with pink fur and purple spots, aqua-green eyes, dark purple hair, and a long, thin tail. She wore a maroon bandana on her head, an indigo hairband, an aqua top and mits that were looped around her thumb, jeans pants with holes that revealed the upper part of her thighs, a red cloth tied around the tip of her tail, a blue band around her neck, and gold chains that looped around her shoulders from a bell on her neck band. She did have shoes...but she decided to avoid using them. For the foe she was against, she needed stealth...and being a barefoot cat would give her all the stealth she needed.
A couple of gold chains were at her hips as well...but at their end was a pair of gold rings, their outer rim lined with four sharp blades. Woe be to the one who was not experienced enough to use them...and those it was used against.
"Your handing me over to a Hutt will be the last time you put ol' Nibai in her place, Enforcer." the cat named Nibai stated...until she stumbled a little..."I just felt something...a prescence I've not felt since..." another voice spoke through Nibai's lips...

Back on the ShadowHunter...

Chrome Fingers Snake stood (as best a legless being could) in one of the corridors. That attack...it only could be one person...but he thought she was dead.
Neon looked at Snake's grim expression and asked, "It's HER, isn't it"
"Yesssss...the one I'd never think would come back...sssssshe'sssss come back for me, I'll wager." Snake said, checking his blasters' ammo packs.
John, sensing Snake's thoughts, asked, "Snake, do you know who attacked us"
Snake looked up at the blue echidna and said, "HA! I believe you know her, too! God willing, you've put her into sssssslammersssss ssssseveral timessssss. Doessssss the name Nibai sssssssound familiar"
John thought about it for a moment...then remembered aloud, "Yeah, now that I think of it, I do! I had to haul her in to the Republic...then to 'Hutt justice' for murders and assualts she had been carrying out"
Snake took off his shades and said, "It goessssss a bit deeper than you think. You ssssee...ssssssshe wassssss oncsssssssse my partner"
"Say what?" John asked.
"Hear me out!" Snake requested, "Ssssssshe and I were oncssssssse demon hunterssssss, way back during the war with Robotnik. Sssssshe wassss to be a great hunter...but sssssshe sssssseemed to enjoy the killing part of it waaay too much. Then...during one particular kill, something took over Nibsssss...and ssssssshe tried to kill me! I wassssss lucky that my mentor Tai-Zen wasssssss there...otherwissssssse, sssssshe would have reducsssssed me to chop-ssssssui"
"I see." John said.
"After that, sssssshe wassssss taken before the demon huntersssss guild and wassss ssssssupposssssed to be relieved of her weaponssssss...but sssssshe essssssscaped into sssssssspacssssse and we never heard anything about her ssssssincssssse." Snake finished.
"Well, Nibai may be crazy, but I don't think she's stupid enough to fly through an asteroid field." John said...just as a laser blast rocked the ship..."Unless, of course, she's got a smaller ship for the job"
They ran (or in Snake's case, slithered) to the cockpit and watched as a small fighter craft flew past the windows. It appeared to be an old Naboo N-1 Starfighter...but it was painted black wherever there was yellow.
"Damn it!" John cursed as he got to the controls. He began to fly the ShadowHunter down towards the surface of Chandral, with Nibai in hot pursuit!

"You're not getting rid of ol' Nibai that easily, you bounty hunting bastard!" Nibai hissed, never forgetting what the Enforcer did to her one of the times he hauled her in for a reward. He practically hog-tied her and dropped her hard on her back before a Hutt who she wronged...and she was made a slave!
"His biggest mistake was leaving my ring blades with one of the guards...and it will be the amongst the last ones he'll ever make...WHAT THE!" she screamed as the Enforcer's ship came to a complete halt as they reached the end of the asteroid field. Her fighter flew past the dark, arrowhead-shaped craft...

"The pull-back manuever...gets 'em every time." John said with a smirk, "Heavy, lock on to her ship with the ion cannon"
"Lock confirmed, sir." Heavy replied.
"FIRE!" John ordered.

The blasts of disabling ion energy hit Nibai's fighter with the force of a charging horse. It naturally did nothing to damage Nib's fighter craft...it simply shut down everything but her life-support and communications...but seeing as it was within Chandral's gravity well, it was now falling like a rock!
"DAMN IT, DAMN IT, DAMN IT!" she screeched as she tried to pull her fighter out of its unexpected dive...just as a large mountain range began to show up below her.
"If I can pull it off, I just might make it." she thought as she tried to utilize the airfoils to guide her down to a slope...and she luckily succeeded. All she heard now was her fighter grinding against the rocky slope side...not at all encouraging if she wanted to leave this planet.
Finally, the ship skidded to a screeching halt before it crashed into a rock formation.
She got out of it and decided to inspect the craft. Except for many scratches on the underside of the craft, it was fairly undamaged.
She then heard a loud, insectile screech. She looked over her fighter and saw a cow-sized, spider-like creature with blade-like legs and bat-like wings.
"What the hell is that supposed to be?" she wondered...just as it shot out a line of webbing at her from its mouth! She jumped back as the webbing hit part of her ship.
"Okay, so this thing's not an herbivore." she thought as she dodged another line of webbing and quickly went for her blade rings.
The spidery monster, better known as an Arachna, charged after her, hissing madly. Nibai did her best to block the creature's claw swipes...and successfully got in close enough to have one of her ring-blades slice into the Arachna's head, effectively killing it.
"Scratch one creature bent on killing me." Nibai thought to herself as she grabbed a large leaf and wiped the creature's blood from her weapon.
Then she watched as the ShadowHunter began to descend to an area about 3 miles to the east of her position. She gripped her ring-blades hard...it's payback time.

Adonna-Lyn ran up to the cockpit to see John landing the ship. "John, we're only a few miles from Garminsaka's captial city. What's going on?" she asked.
"The audio sensors picked up someone calling for help." John responded, "Nothing like a little action before a diplomatic meeting"
Adonna-Lyn looked out of the window. There appeared to be some merchants, under attack by..."It can't be...those brigands are wearing the attire of the Supreme Royal Guard!" she gasped.
Neon scratched her head and suggested, "Maybe these are guards that got laid off"
"Not funny, Neon." Adonna-Lyn said while angrily clenching her fists, "I'm going out there and I'm going to get to the bottom of this! I will not have the good name of the Supreme Royal Family sullied in this manner!" With that, she stormed out of the cockpit.
"Whoa, reality check here!" Vector said, "There's...1, 2...20 of them...one of her"
"Good point, Vector." Mighty said, "Let's get out there and kick some butt!
But before either Chaotix had a chance to head out, Neela stood in the way. "Um...what're ya doin'?" Vector asked.
Neela answered, "Adonna-Lyn insists that she'll handle this herself"
Adonna-Lyn silently stepped towards these brigands, wanting to take them by surprise. There were five rhinos, five baboons, five alligators, three jackals, a mantis, and a hyena, who seemed to be the leader of these thieves.
The merchants were a pair of otters, a male and a female, and they were scared stiff by these bandits.
"I'm sure...heheheheheheh...you guys know the drill. Hand over the goods and we'll spare your lives, by...heheheheheheheheh...order of the Supreme Ruler of Chandral." the hyena chuckled.
Wanting to live rather than refuse, the merchants began to hand the cart over to them.
The one mantis of the group said, "We meant ALL of the goods.", pointing one of his arms at the female otter. She looked at her fellow merchant, possibley her mate, fearfully...then fainted.
"Ooh, good point, Mannock." the hyena laughed.
"This is absurd!" the male otter shouted, "What gives the Supreme Ruler the right to do this!"...just as he got stabbed in the back by one of the jackals!
"It's the Golden Rule, knucklehead: Whoever has the GOLD MAKES THE RULES!" the hyena laughed mockingly, "Take her, boys"
"You won't be taking anyone...except taking ME on!" Adonna-Lyn yelled at them.
All the bandits looked towards her. Some even dared to make noises of a chauvenistic nature. "Well, now, what have we here?" the hyena jeered.
"I am Adonna-Lyn, daughter of the Supreme Ruler of Chandral, and I order all of you to stand down!" she snapped at them.
The thugs looked at each other...and laughed themselves senseless, not thinking that this lone, echidna female was enough to threaten them.
"What is so funny?" Adonna-Lyn asked, her teeth clenched.
The hyena walked up to her and said, "You forgot to say 'please', sweetcheeks"
Adonna-Lyn then kicked the hyena in the groin, sending him groaning to the ground. "Please." Adonna-Lyn said jokingly.
The hyena rolled to turn to his compatriots and ordered, "Don't just stand there, you idiots! GET HER"
They all converged upon the echidna princess...and she began kicking butt!
The first to get too close to her were the baboons...to whom she did a round-house-kick and sent them sprawling on the ground, their jaws broken.
The rhinoes leaped into the air and dog-piled her...only to be picked up by her, using her prodigious strength, and tossed at the alligators.
The jackals attacked, each of them latching their jaws full of sharp teeth onto her. One of them went for her dreadlocks, another bit into her exposed left shoulder, and another bit into her bare belly (yeah, their jaws are THAT big). She screamed out in pain as their toothy jaws found their mark. Every attempt to shake or beat them off only resulted in them biting harder. The other bandits, recovering from the beating they received from the echidna princess, got up and began to converge on the ailing Adonna-Lyn.

John got up and said, "That does it! I'm going out there, regardless of her orders. Neela, stand aside"
"But I can't!" Neela said, still standing in the way, "I must abide by Adonna-Lyn's orders. She would do the same for me"
"That's an order, Neela! Stand aside!" John ordered.
"I will not, John!" she said back.
"Then you leave me no choice." John said, his eyes glowing.
With that, Neela felt herself being lifted off of the floor and forced against the wall as John walked past her. She didn't feel any pressure, like he was trying to crush her against the wall...rather, to just hold her there. Once John was out of the ship, she fell to the floor...only inches from a nosebleed, if Mighty hadn't caught her.
"Neela, why'd ya have to go and dis' the boss?" Vector asked.
"Because, I am bound by honor...bound to serve Adonna-Lyn because her father saved my life. And I would honor my vow of servitude, even to the death, if necessary." Neela replied.

John walked towards the bandits and took carefull aim at the jackals. He squeezed off three shots from his blaster and shot their lousy brains out of their heads! The jackals fell to the ground.
"WHO THE HARAK'THA IS THAT!" the hyena shouted. When no one answered, he shouted at John, "WHO THE HARAK'THA ARE YOU!
"John, what are you doing?" Adonna-Lyn asked, casting a not-so-friendly look towards her husband as her wounds healed up.
"Saving your hide, looks like." John said while twirling his blaster around by his index finger and slipping it into its holster. With his eyes glowing, he said, "Anyone else care to try something stupid"
One of the alligators snapped, "That does it! She doesn't pay us enough to do this! WE QUIT"
Many of the bandits began to flee, leaving only the mantis and his hyena boss.
"I'll take this whelp down." Mannok hissed as he leaped into the air and attempted to tackle John...just as he aimed a psychic bolt upward and fired...ripping Mannok's insides apart. The mantis fell behind John, dead.
The hyena, gasping from what he had just seen, decided to turn tail and run...just as an enraged Adonna-Lyn telekinetically brought the hyena close enough for her to grab him by the neck and yell, "You had better be truthful to me...for your sake! WHO PUT YOU UP TO THIS"
"If I tell you, I'm a dead man." the hyena whimpered fearfully.
"And if you don't tell me, you'll be dead more quickly!" Adonna-Lyn threatened.
"Alright...ALRIGHT!" the hyena gasped, "It was"
Before he had a chance, Adonna-Lyn was tackled to the ground...by John!
"JOHN! What the harak-MMMMPH!" Adonna-Lyn shouted...until John covered her mouth and pointed at the hyena...who now had a shuriken-like weapon stabbing him through his throat.
John aimed his blaster in the direction of the trees across the path and fired a few shots. "Adon, get back to the ship! NOW!" John ordered as he fired again and again, trying to nail the hidden assasin.
As he walked towards his ship while firing a few more rounds, he heard a shrieking as a small, furry mammal scampered down from the trees and into a hole in the ground.
He looked towards the trees again...saw an outline of a being...and shot at the being. A scream confirmed that he hit his mark.
Satisfied, he went back into the ShadowHunter.

As soon as the ShadowHunter raised itself into the Chandral sky, Kazuna descended from the trees, clutching her chest. No one was lucky enough to cause her to bleed...no one.
After healing herself by using dark magic, she called out, "Tanikai, you can come out. They're gone"
The small furry mammal came out of the hole and transformed back into her Tanuki apprentice. He shook his head and muttered, "I don't know about this, Kazuna. I just don't know about this"
"Don't know about what, Tanikai?" Kazuna asked.
"Well, that princess' bunch she has there; they look like a bunch of bruisers...and that blue guy who came out? He had an aura like a forest fire! I just don't think we truly know what we're up against this time." Tanikai said.
"Well, snap out of this funk you're in! Do you honestly think Kirana-Fel will approve of your current attitude?" Kazuna hissed, "Come. We must report to her Ladyship immediately"
With that, the two assasins vanished into the shadows, the illusion of the traders vanishing with them.
As they did so, however, Nibai peeked out from the bushes nearby. "So, the head-hauncho is in on this, huh? In that case, I think I might need a disguise." she thought to herself.
She sniffed the air a couple of times. Silk, slight incense perfume...one of those servant types...bingo...

The Garminsaka Royal Palace...

Kirana-Fel was busy meditating when her two assasins appeared in the room.
"Well?" the echidna monarch asked, expecting a report.
"We just got an approximation of the skills of our adversaries." Kazuna answered, "We should be able to take them down with little difficulty"
"Very well. Get everything set up for their arrival." Kirana-Fel ordered, "Get the ferukbos pollen ready"
Kazuna looked towards Tanikai and she whispered to him something. This, unfortunately, did not escape the notice of their benefactor. "Care to repeat that?" Kirana-Fel requested, her eyes beginning to glow, both of her sai daggers hanging in the air, pointed towards them.
"Your Ladyship, they brought along...the One of Darkness." Tanikai whimpered, fearing her reaction. Kirana-Fel's front dreadlocks perked up a bit, a curious look on her face.
"You-you-you're not angry?" Tanikai asked, looking up innocently.
"No, as a matter of fact, I'm not. Best damn news I've ever heard." she said with a wry grin, "Just go and get everything prepared"
As both ninja-garbed Chandralites faded out of Kirana-Fel's view, she then created a small orb that showed Adonna-Lyn and a blue echidna dressed in Mobian garb. "Well, well...isn't he interesting..." she mused, one of her dreadlocks circling her arm unconciously.

Outside of the palace...

"Alright, here's the plan. We go in, settle the diplomatic affairs, and hopefully get out without a hitch." Adonna-Lyn said to her friends, "Neela and John will come with me, while the rest of you watch after the ShadowHunter. After that little surprise back on the trade path, I think it's just best that we don't take any unnecessary chances"
"Can't argue with logic like that." Snake agreed.
John looked at the palace, his face reflecting his thoughts.
Adonna-Lyn noticed it quickly and asked, "What's wrong"
"I don't know...but...something doesn't seem right here. I mean, who did those creeps mean by ' SHE'S not paying us enough for this'?" John asked.
Adonna-Lyn's eyes narrowed as she said, "Yeah, it certainly does raise suspicions...and I'll be sure to grill the region's royalty about it"
With that, Adon, her husband, and her lady-in-waiting approached the palace, which greatly resembled many the architecture of both Chinese and Japanese nobility.
One guard, a Panda noticed them and lowered his spear at them. "HALT! State your name and business here!" the guard ordered.
"I am Princess Adonna-Lyn, and these are..." the echidna princess started.
The guard brought his spear back up and said, "Ah, yes. The daughter of the Supreme Ruler of Chandral. Her ladyship, Kirana-Fel, has been expecting you. Right this way"
As the guard led them to the main chambers, John telepathically said to Adonna-Lyn, "We were expected...'said the Spider to the Fly"
"Ease off, o' Harbinger of Doom." Adonna-Lyn telepathically said back, "IF this Kirana-Fel was behind the raider attacks, it's better if we don't let her think that we know something's up. My kind happen to be psychics, you know"
"Well, DUH!" John telepathically replied, a slight grin on his face.
With a slight giggle, she inched herself closer to him as he gently massaged one of her dreadlocks with his right hand. Finally, they were led to the throne room. "Please wait here. Her Ladyship will be with you shortly." the panda guard stated after a former bow.
After a few, less than exciting minutes, Kirana-Fel entered the room. John accidently let out a gasp. The echidna monarch there was absolutely gorgeous!
If looks could truly kill, the look Adonna-Lyn gave John would have killed a Rancor.
"Greetings, your Highness...and comrades." Kirana-Fel said while moving towards the group, "Forgive me, I was dealing with some hair-brained suitor...you know how most men can be on this planet." Adonna-Lyn said, "Don't I know it...Lady Kirana-Fel. This is my lady-in-waiting, Neela Persephone Squirrel, and this is"
"The Enforcer, I know." Kirana-Fel interupted, "I mean, who hasn't heard of the great Hero of Chandral, the one who defeated Blue Fang, the last remnant of the Order of Darkness?" She had one of her dreadlocks rub the underside of John's chin.
"Um...Adonna-Lyn had a larger part in Blue Fang's defeat." John hastily replied.
"Indeed." Adonna-Lyn said coldly.
Neela (through the Force) spoke, "Why, Adonna-Lyn, I do believe you're jealous"
"JEALOUS! ME!" Adonna-Lyn telepathically snapped, "SHE is hitting on my HUSBAND! What further infuriates me is that he is honestly falling for her! Believe me, I heard that gasp"
"Be wary, Adon. Neither paranoia nor jealousy are becoming of a future Supreme Ruler of Chandral." Neela further remarked through the Force.
True to Garminsaka tradition, they each put their weapons down before them. Adonna-Lyn was a bit embarassed that John was creating quite a pile of weapons in front of him, whereas only she had to put down her dagger and Neela her De'kar stick. John saw them both looking at him and asked, "What"
"Well, then, now that we've met each other, shall we get down to business?" Kirana-Fel asked...before turning to a dark-red vixen servant girl and requested, "Bring us some tea, if you would"
"At once, your Grace." the vixen servant replied.

Outside the palace...

Vector was staring hard at the palace. Something was seriously wrong and he knew it.
Neon had already left the group to get some info in the nearby town...and at Vector's request, find out if the chow was any good around here.
Vector then asked, "When's Neon comin' back with some grub? I'm starving"
"Hard to believe, considering you ate several of my Dewback steaks...which I spent several BLOODY HOURS ON!" Heavy snapped.
"I'm not too sure about eating another world's cuisine, you guys." Mighty said, "Once, I tried to eat Hutt food...well, let's just say it disagreed with me"
Whist polishing his blasters, Chrome Fingers said, "Mighty, m'boy, you mussssssst be open-minded and embracssssssse asssssss many exsssssperiencssssessssss assssss posssssible"
Something grabbed Vector's interest hard as he then said, "Speakin' of embraceable, who is THAT"
Neon returned to them, wearing a fancy Chandralite outfit: opaque dark grey pants, a greyish purple shirt-like top with a veil-like fabric that wrapped around the elbows and connected to sleeves that started at her elbows and ended at her wrist. She said, "Some store owner offered me this outfit. All I did was mention the 'Hero of Chandral' being here and our being with him. What do you guys think"
Mighty smiled and said, "You look very lovely"
"You clean yourssssssself up good, kid." Snake replied while flicking out his forked tongue a couple of times.
"Neon, you make this old mechanical fool feel like he just came off the assembly line." Heavy said.
The others gave him a weird look.
"What? It's a compliment. Just like saying that you make an old person feel young again." Heavy explained.
"No offense, Heavy, but hearing that statement come out of you is just plain disturbing." Vector commented.
Heavy muttered in Droidspeak and returned to fixing the damage done by Nibai.
Neon turned to Vector and said, "I don't know why I'm asking you this, but what do you think of the outfit, Vector"
Vector replied, "Why didn't you get the outfit sooner in your life? It's much, much better than the Mobian rags you were wearing"
Mighty laughed out loud as Neon promptly slugged the crocodile upside the head.

In the forests outside of the Garminsaka Palace...

"And the mighty predator stalks her prey." Nibai muttered to herself as she snuck up on a red panda servant girl in the midst of a Nikto Berry harvest.
The servant girl was dressed in a deep blue (with green leaf patterns), silken Chandralite kimono-like outfit, a white headband, a bright red veil over her mouth, and a pair of shoes that conformed to the shape of her feet. Her hair was black, and her eyes were green.
Nibai slowly approached the servant girl from behind, carefully stepping over the many vines laying about the ground. She slowly and cautiously brought out her ring blades, as to not arouse the servant's suspicions.
However, she stepped on a vine.
The servant turned around and shrieked, "NO! What have you done"
Nibai gave the girl an odd look and said, "What? It's a plant. An inanimate object...GACK"
One of the vines on the ground wrapped around her throat. With a hiss, Nibai sliced through the vine with the ring-blade in her right hand. Several vines leapt at her, trying to seize her, but she reduced them to an inedible salad.
She heard a muffled scream, looked and saw the servant girl being held above a section at the top of the plant she was originally harvesting and dumped her down into the plant.
"Cripes...carnivorous plants...never a good thing!" Nibai cursed...just as several vines wrapped around her mouth and neck, and pinned her arms to her sides and her legs together!
"Nice mess you've gotten us into...now it's Bai's turn!" another voice growled through Nibai's mouth.
The plant dumped her into its slippery interior. She then landed on the servant girl who was, at the moment, screaming for help and trying climb out.
"OW!" the servant girl bellowed. As she recovered, she turned towards Nibai and said, "You realize this is all your fault! If you hadn't stepped on one of the Nikto plant's vines"
"I get it! I get it!" Nibai shouted back as she then used both of her ring blades and then sliced an opening for them to escape through.
As they both stepped through the hole, they heard a loud shrieking. They looked and saw the plant thrashing about...then collapsing, its greenish-black sap pouring out of its "mouth.
"Heh. Good riddance to bad roughage." Nibai joked...just as she wound up with with a sharp blade being aimed at her throat by the servant, "Oh. So this is the thanks I get for saving your life"
"You killed that Nikto plant!" the servant girl shouted at her, "It is a crime punishable by death to kill one of our main food and medical sources"
A voice in Nibai's fair head snarled, "ME? Die by a servant's hand? I DON'T THINK SO!"

Back at the palace...

"You know, something funny happened on our way here." Adonna-Lyn mentioned as cups of tea were handed out, "We ran into bandits, dressed in the garb of the Supreme Royal Guard. And when they beat a hasty retreat, one of them mentioned that they weren't being paid enough by a female employer"
"You don't say." Kirana-Fel replied.
"You don't perchance have any enemies, do you?" Adonna-Lyn asked, tightening her scrutiney.
"I must say, I am appalled that anyone would dare do this to my people and try to instigate a war between Garminsaka and your father." Kirana-Fel said, "But, enough of the unpleasentries. Please, enjoy some tea"
John took a sip and complimented, "Mmmmm. It's rather delicious."...until he fell face forward.
Adonna-Lyn didn't know what to make of this. She put her fingers to John's blood canals in his neck. He was alive...but unconcious.
"Oh, my. Something wrong with the tea?" Kirana-Fel asked, just barely holding back a snicker.
Adonna-Lyn, seeing the barely-hidden look of malice on Kirana-Fel's face, quickly kicked the cup of tea out of Neela's hand. As it shattered, Adonna-Lyn saw a glimpse of yellow in the shards that lined the edge of the cup...just as Neela fell over to her right, unconcious.
The echidna princess angrily grabbed Kirana-Fel and demanded, "What is the meaning of this"
"Your just desserts, princess." Kirana-Fel chortled as a small bag hit the Supreme Ruler's daughter right in the face. Kirana-Fel had part of her baggy sleeves cover her face as it hit...with good reason. It was open and sprayed a yellow powder into Adonna-Lyn's fair face. She coughed and gagged...and fell to the floor.
Kirana-Fel turned to Kazuna as she appeared out of the shadows and said, "Well done, Kazuna. The ferukbos pollen proves to be very effective against them." "Indeed. I shall let Tanikai know..." Kazuna agreed.

Back at the ShadowHunter...

Vector alerted the others to something strange that he had noticed.
"Vector, I swear, if this is another false alarm..." Neon said, readily pulling back her sleeves.
"No, I mean it! Look at those birds!" Vector said, pointing to a pair of flying creatures above them.
Mighty looked up, confused, and said, "Well, other than the fact that they resemble fish with feathers all over them, what's wrong with them"
"They're not moving." Vector said, "They just...stopped"
Neon gasped. Not only was Vector right, but she remembered that Adonna-Lyn said that her world seemed to freeze around her...the day that she wound up in that bubble prison..."TAKE COVER! IT'S A TRAP!" Neon shouted to the others.
Before they knew what hit them, Vector, Mighty, and Snake were hit by bags of yellow dust. They coughed and hacked, then fell to ground.
She took to the air and slung fireballs downward, hoping to burn their attacker...just as a bag of the same yellow powder smacked her in the face. As she hit the roof of the ShadowHunter, she looked up and saw a racoon-like character with a dog-like muzzle, dressed up like some kooky ninja.
"Well, hi to you, too!" the tanuki said as he waved at her.
"Prepare to...ACHOO! fry, you little...little...ACHOO!" Neon sneezed...before she also fell to the ground.
"Hmm...this one took a little longer than the others...oh, my goodness gravy! A Detrossian! This is not good! This is not good!" he panicked aloud.
A hand emerged from his shadow and slapped him upside the head. "Snap out of it, Tanikai! She, the other bodyguards, the Enforcer and the princess have been subdued. We are victorious this day." Kazuna said as she emerged from his shadow.
"Great...so, what do we do with them?" Tanikai asked.
Kazuna slapped her forehead and shouted, "YOU KNOW THE PLAN! WE DISCUSSED IT THIS MORNING, WHILE YOU WERE BUSY STUFFING YOUR FACE, YOU IDIOT!"

Later that night...

John groaned a bit. His head was aching like hell. "Man, that was a right bastard to the head." John muttered to himself.
He looked around. The room he was in was ornate in royal decourum. Mirrors, fancy dressers...and he was on his back on an equally extravegant bed.
"Whoa, what the hell happened here?" John wondered as he tried to sit up...only to feel move but a few centimeters off the top of the bed. His other senses kicked in. The rattle of metal, the coin-like smell of Ditanium alloy, the feel of manacles around his legs and arms...he was chained to the bed. Even his dreadlocks were weighed down by heavy clamps.
"Oh man, this can't be happening." John thought to himself worriedly.
John closed his eyes began to focus, trying to aim and open the locks to the manacles with his telekinesis...just as something came close to skewering him through his head. He looked to his right and saw the handle of a sai dagger-like weapon!
"We'll have none of that, handsome." Kirana-Fel stated from the door into her room. With a mere look, the weapon came out of the wood and flew right back into her hand! Her eyes were barely glowing, as if she required very little concentration for this show of telekinesis.
"What do you want? What have you done to Adonna-Lyn!" John demanded.
"I gave her what she deserved: my idea of justice. Her crime: the murder of Prince Jirrard!" Kirana-Fel answered.
"What!" John exclaimed, "What are you talking about"
"Right. I guess I should start from the beginning." Kirana-Fel said as she very slowly approached him, "Way back, before you first came to Chandral, I was madly in love with Bumeria's Prince Jirrard. However, his hearts were quite taken by someone else...namely, Princess Adonna-Lyn. And then, just recently, it comes to my ears that Prince Jirrard has been murdered...by the one he mistakenly lusted over...ADONNA-LYN"
"Then punish me!" John snapped, "I'm the one who killed Jirrard, not Adonna-Lyn! Leave her out of this"
"If it were not for her, Jirrard would have been mine!" Kirana-Fel bellowed down at John as if she had not heard him.
"Guess you never met him in person, especially to know that he was a sick, twisted pervert." John rebuked.
After a slight show of restraining her temper, she smiled and said, "However, I think I have found a suitable replacement"
John, knowing damn well what she was talking about, said, "Whoa, hold on there! I don't kiss on the first date, lady...and besides, I'm already married"
"Easily remedied. You see, her and the rest of your followers have been dumped into the dungeon maze. Even if they do manage to find a way out, it will be a long time...long enough for you and I to get to know each other better." she said while bringing herself closer and closer.
"FAT CHANCE!" John snapped as he focused his own telekinetic powers and threw her across the room, "You certainly won't get such pleasure from me, lady! Give me one good reason you think I'll submit to you"
Just then, Kirana-Fel's two assasins appeared on both sides of the bed.
"I'll give you TWO good reasons: Kazuna and Tanikai. Will you two soften him up for me?" the echidna monarch requested of her two lackeys.
Kazuna narrowed her eyes at John as she and her partner laid their hands upon the chains, hissing, "This is for that shot you put in me"
Several bolts of dark electricity coursed through their hands and into the chains...and right into John! His body writhed about in agony before John released an ear-shattering roar of pain into the night...

Meanwhile...

Adonna-Lyn's eyes opened immediately as she screamed. She felt intense pain all over her body...but there was no one or nothing to cause it. As it finally subsided, she looked around to see where she was.
Tall, black stone walls formed a long and seemingly endless hallway on either side of her. The only light, it seemed, came from patches of glowing mushrooms on the walls. On the celing, there were numerous stalactites. Wherever she was, it was underground.
Fortunately, she was not alone, for on the ground nearby was Neon and Vector. As she went over to them, they were slowly recovering from the effects of the feruckbos pollen.
"Man, did somebody get the license plate of that sneak attack?" Vector asked, rubbing his eyes a bit.
Neon glared at Vector and snapped, "Do you always have to make some dumb wise-crack in bad situations!
"It's what called 'comic relief'. Maybe you've heard it." Vector replied.
Neon looked up and saw Adonna-Lyn. "So, what kind of trouble have you gotten us into this time?" Neon asked.
"Quite frankly, I wish I knew." Adonna-Lyn replied.
"Allow me to clarify." a voice said behind them. They looked and saw the hazy image of Kirana-Fel.
"ACK! IT'S A GHOST!" Vector panicked.
Neon slapped him upside the head and said, "It's just an illusion, you maroon"
"What is the meaning of this!" Adonna-Lyn demanded.
"Already with the questions." Kirana-Fel sniffed, "Adonna-Lyn, for the murder of Prince Jirrard, I have chosen to condemn you and your followers to the Garminsaka dungeon maze"
"WHAT! But I didn't kill Prince Jirrard!" Adonna-Lyn shouted.
"Regardless of that fact, because of you, Prince Jirrard is dead!" Kirana-Fel shouted back, "I wanted him to myself...but you had to snatch him away from me, you royal slut"
Neon and Vector respectively gave Adonna-Lyn some room...they knew what she was like whenever she got angry.
"THAT IS THE MOST INSANE THING I'VE EVER HEARD! I NEVER LOVED JIRRARD...AND HOW DARE YOU CALL ME THAT!" Adonna-Lyn roared.
"You deserve what you deserve, princess." Kirana-Fel taunted, "Anyway, I'll be keeping your blue friend. He's quite a fine specimen...the One of Darkness and I...it's got quite a nice ring to it, wouldn't you say? He's a bit standoffish...but I love a challenge...and I saw how he reacted upon first meeting me. Breaking him won't be too difficult"
"Geez, and you called her Royal Highness here a slut?" Vector remarked.
Adonna-Lyn became so infuriated, she aimed her hands out...but nothing happened. No psychic blasts, bursts, beams...nothing.
"Oh, did I perchance neglect to mention that down here, your powers will be negated and rendered useless?" the echidna monarch taunted even further.
"UP YOURS!" Neon snapped as she grabbed both Vector and the echidna princess, and took to the air, thinking she could fly them over this stupid maze...just as she saw the walls rise at the same time she did, as if to block her off. She flew higher and higher...until the walls completely cut her off. Dismayed that this would not work, she glided down to the ground.
"And we'll have no cheating in the maze." Kirana-Fel taunted even more.
Only then did it dawn on Adonna-Lyn that Neela, Mighty, and Chrome Fingers Snake were not amongst them.
"As for your other friends, they're in another part of the maze. You could always find them...but I doubt it. No one has ever escaped the maze...NO ONE." Kirana-Fel laughed as her image faded.
"Well, great." Vector fumed, "She's got John while we're stuck down here in this puzzlin' hellhole"
Adonna-Lyn was about to say something...until she noticed Neon with her eyes closed, chanting something. Then, a bright light appeared above Neon's head.
Vector, his jaw agape for a moment, finally asked, "How did you do that"
"I'll explain once we're out of here. I don't want to take the chance that the walls have ears down here." Neon answered, "Well, your Highness, you got us into this mess. How about you get us out of it"
Adonna-Lyn shook her dreadlocked head and answered, "I don't know...ealier, I felt an intense feeling of pain, yet, there was no one there to cause it. They're torturing John"
"Whoawhoawhoa! How the heck do you know!" Vector asked.
"That's one thing about Chandralite Echidnas. We share a unique bond between male and female: we can see, we can hear...we can feel what the other is experiencing." Adonna-Lyn explained.
"I see. But if that kimono-clad bitch is trying to romance John, why would she need to torture him?" Neon asked.
Vector then ventured, "Maybe Johnny-boy's resistin'...and she's trying to soften him up"
Adonna-Lyn smiled deep down. She knew it. John was a hard nut to crack...and it would take more than the most intense pain to tear him away from her.
"Well, are we just going to stand around here?" Adonna-Lyn said, the fire in her rekindled, "Let's find the others, get the harak'tha out of this labyrinth, and get John back from Kirana-Fel!"

In another part of the maze...

Neela took point for Mighty and Snake. Mighty thought it would be better if the squirrel servant girl would lead, feeling it would help give her some better confidence in her abilities.
Then, right in front of them was a patch of sand. Knowing better, Neela tossed a rock into it...and watched as it sunk out of sight.
"Quicksssssssand...well, that'sssssss jusssssst great! How the heck do we get acrossssssss?" Snake asked, his tongue flicking out repeatedly.
Mighty grinned a bit, grabbed Snake by his back and tossed him over to the other side!
After he finally rolled to a stop, Snake angrily glared at Mighty and shouted, "YOU MUSSSSSSSCLE BOUND MORON! You could have injured me"
"Atleast you're not in the quicksand." Mighty laughed.
Neela looked over to Mighty and asked, "How are you going to get across"
Mighty simply said, "Watch this.",...jumped between the walls, and landed on the other side.
Then it dawned on Mighty. "Neela! How are YOU going to get across"
Neela didn't answer. She ran back...then began running towards the wall to her left.
"I could watch that all day." Snake said, a look Mighty didn't like appearing on the cybernetically-armed serpent's face.
Then much to the two Mobians' surprise, they watched as Neela began to actually run across the wall...just as a bit of the wall bulged out and tripped her up...dropping her into the quicksand! As Neela recovered, her feet had already sunk below the surface of the patch.
"NEELA!" Mighty cried.
He nearly ran to get her...but Snake slapped his coils around him, saying, "I'm not pulling the both of you out of there! That'sssss too much sssssstrain on my coilsssssss"
"So what do we do, just let her sink down to her death!" Mighty snapped at Snake, "I'm not leaving her"
"For oncssssssse in your exsssssisssstencsssssse, musssssclesssss, ussssssse your head! Rassssssh actionssssss only resssssult in death! Honesssstly...you mammalssss..." Snake said, just as he had a grappling hook pop out of one of his cyber arms and fired it out to Neela's outstretched hands.
Mighty gasped...then said, "You had a grappling hook...AND YOU DIDN'T TELL US"
"It'ssssss made only for one persssssson, knucklehead, and you're looking at him!" Snake replied as he then pulled Neela out of the sinking sands, via a special winch for the grappling hook.
As Neela was brought on to firmer ground, Mighty went to help her up. "Are you okay?" Mighty asked.
"I think so." she replied. She then looked over at Snake and said, "Thank you, Master Chrome Fingers"
"Pleasssssse, jussssst call me Sssssssssnake, fair maiden." Snake said as he got the grappling hook retracted back into the compartment in his cyber arm.
"Well, let's keep moving. I'm sure Adonna-Lyn and the others are looking for us. The sooner we find them, the sooner we can find a way out of this horrible place." Neela said as she once again led them onward.
As soon as she was out of earshot, Snake received a mean look from Mighty. "What?" Snake asked.
"Don't play innocent, Snake! I think you darn well know! Neela is MY girlfriend, so keep your slimy coils and your metal mits away from her!" Mighty snapped.
Snake snorted, "Let'ssssss watch that jealousssssy, toughguy! I believe that kind of possssessssivenesssss, believing that the girl sssssssshould be all yourssssss, issssss what led that Jirrard fellow to hissss untimely demisssssse at the handsssss of the Enforcsssssser"
"Still...unless you want worse than what happened to you when I tossed you over here...just don't get any ideas...lousy reptile..." Mighty huffed as he went to follow Neela.
Snake grinned and flicked his tongue out a couple of times. "Touched a nerve, didn't I?" Snake thought as he slithered after his two travelling companions.

The Garminsaka Palace, 10:29 PM...

Kirana-Fel broke into a sweat. Having to send her message down into two different parts of the maze really took a great deal out of her.
"M'lady, is there something wrong?" a servant girl asked, standing to attention at the doorway to the throne room.
"No, nothing's wrong. Go bring me some Nikto berry tea." Kirana-Fel requested.
The servant girl bowed and went away...but not before the echidna monarch noticed the servant's pinkish, felinoid tail with purple spots on it.
"That's funny...I don't recall hiring any servants with a tail like THAT..." Kirana-Fel thought suspiciously.

Nibai grinned as she picked up the scent...the scent of the very bounty hunter who dragged her in to the Republic and the Hutts alike. Oddly enough, the scent led to an elaborate bedroom.
She peeked in and saw John, lying on his back, panting and groaning from the torture Kirana-Fel's assasins put him through.
"The Enforcer...without his armor...weakened...a girl could get spoiled." Nibai thought to herself pulling out her ring-blades.
John looked up weakly...and gasped, "NIBAI! How did you"
"Survive the fall? Naboo engineering...such a wonderful thing." Nibai said to him, removing the slightly bloodied veil, "As for the get-up, I ran into some servant girl on the way here. She thought she could finish me off after I slaughtered this carnivorous vegetable...well, I proved her wrong"
"Nibai...you have to get out of here! It's not safe!" John said to her. The chains that held him there would not allow him any movement to get away, let alone dodge any of Nibai's attacks. So, he thought he could atleast reason with the spotty cat.
"Yeah...for you! You've had this coming a long time, Enforcer!" Nibai jeered as she prepared to launch her ring-blades...just as she heard footsteps behind her.
She quickly whipped around and brought her ring-blades into a defensive position...just as Kirana-Fel attempted to stab her with her sai daggers.
"And you are, young lady?" Kirana-Fel asked as she brought her sai daggers into a defensive position in her hands.
Nibai hissed...and made one of her ring-blades slash across Kirana-Fel's left cheek! The echidna monarch recoiled and held her cheek...felt her green blood spill out...then angrily turned back towards Nibai, yelling, "LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO MY FACE"
"Please...your kind are healers." Nibai taunted while rolling her eyes, "It's just a scratch...compared to what I'm about to reduce you to"
"Uh-oh...cat fight!" John joked...just as a couple of chains wrapped around his snout, effectively keeping his mouth closed, too.
"I'll deal with YOU after I put out the cat...out of her misery, that is!" Kirana-Fel snarled at John.
"Ladies first." Nibai taunted even further.
With that, the two females flew at each other, their weapons clashing and clattering at each other. Nibai held her own fairly well...until Kirana-Fel bashed her in the neck.
As the two separated, Nibai felt at her neck. There wasn't a bruise, but a small puncture wound. She looked and saw a small black spike retract into her opponent's left wrist.
"Oh, right...the spur..." Nibai muttered before she collapsed to the floor. Kirana-Fel allowed herself a small grin. The venom had done its work, paralyzing this intruder before her...temporarily, of course, but when the cat woke up, she wouldn't be anywhere near the echidna monarch again...now where were those two assassins of hers!
Almost as if on cue, Kazuna and her partner materialized from Kirana-Fel's shadow. She turned on her two ninja-clad killers and shouted, "WHERE THE HARAK'THA WERE YOU TWO! This feline here nearly killed me"
Kazuna answered, "We were called away...if only for a few moments, your Ladyship"
"Well, you should have dealt with this first! Look what she did to my beautiful face!" she said, pointing to the slowly healing scar.
John telekinetically forced the chains off of his mouth and said, "On you, it's an improvement"
Tanikai snickered a bit...until harsh looks from both females in the room silenced him.
"Throw this would-be assassin down into the maze." Kirana-Fel ordered.
She then turned to John, smiling smugly as she did. "Now, haven't I convinced you of how much I want you? I defended you from that feline menace. Doesn't that make me even more so desireable"
John did his best to turn away from her as her hands caressed his facial features. Her touch was soothing, her scent intoxicating...but John once again focused his powers and pushed her away from him!
"Don't you ever...EVER...touch me again!" John growled at her.
Kirana-Fel, in her anger, had one of the chains wrap around John's neck...and had it tighten, trying to strangle him!
"Rest assured, Enforcer, this damned resistence you've been showing will end...one way, or another!" Kirana-Fel snapped at her captive. She finally released John from the chain around his neck and stormed out.
Just then, John heard a beeping at his right wrist. He knew instinctively that it was his communicator. He stretched one of his dreadlocks out and pushed the button that would allow him to answer the communicator. It was Heavy.
"Sir? Sir, are you there?" Heavy called.
"Yeah, Heavy, I'm here." John replied.
Heavy gave a slight quizzical look before he asked, "What the hell happened to you"
"Don't ask..." John said, embarassed of his position, "Where are you"
"Still aboard the ShadowHunter. I hid in here while a couple of ninja clothes-wearing bozos gathered up Neon, Vector, Mighty and Mr. Chrome Fingers Snake. Where they took them, I wish I knew...anyway, these same two individuals tried to infiltrate the ShadowHunter and take the Chaos Emerald that powers the ship." Heavy explained, "Fortunately, I took the liberty of shutting off the life-support systems, seeing as they need air to breath and I don'-WAIT! The scanners just picked up something...on board! It looks like it's in the lower cargo hold. I'll go investigate. Heavy out." The communicator then went off.
John, relieved (even if only for the moment), focused his powers and had it reach down into the maze. He had to know if his friends were alright.

Back aboard the ShadowHunter...

Heavy tensed as he got into the lower cargo hold. In days like this, he was lucky he didn't have the olfactory sensors like all biologicals did...the stench of those John had killed or imprisoned in his bounty hunting career would have made him shut down right then and there.
He switched to his infrared sensors. If it was a life signature, he could atleast pick up its heat...Bingo! It was hiding behind a crate. He rounded the corner...and found what appeared to be a kitten!
"What the devil!" Heavy wondered as he picked up the small kitten by the nape of its neck, "How did this get on board"
He looked closer at the kitten with his normal sensors. It had indigo eyes, a moon-like shape on its forehead...and most bizarre of all, dreadlocks! In addition, it had a small breather device in its mouth, feeding the kitten precious, breathable air.
Suddenly, the kitten began to change its form, growing in size and changing to a bipedal configuration most commonly found in sentient biologicals. Soon enough, Heavy found himself holding HANAKO FAIRHALL by the nape of her neck! Oddly enough, during the transformation, her clothes were on her, nothing Heavy would have expected, seeing as how he found her in her non-anthromorphic form without clothing at all.
"OW! OW! THAT REALLY HURTS!" Hanako shouted.
"Oh, sorry!" Heavy said as he let go, "Now, Miss Fairhall, what are you doing aboard the ShadowHunter"
"Master Dave sent me. He sensed that something was amiss and sent me to stow away on the ShadowHunter." she replied while rubbing the back of her neck, "You have one hell of a grip, you know that"
"I said I was sorry, didn't I!" Heavy shouted at her, "How did you manage to evade detection of the sensors? Jedi can hide their prescence, but not from machines"
Hanako grinned a little, then threw Heavy a device, saying, "Sensor Jammer. One of Dave's own design"
"Hmm...I guess I'll have to upgrade the sensors." Heavy said as he waddled off towards the cockpit.
Hanako took in another breath of her breather before she asked, "So, what's up with shutting off the life support"
"We've had intruders in the ShadowHunter...members of the Order of Darkness." Heavy answered.
Hanako was taken aback. "B-b-but, I thought we..." she stammered.
"Disposed of Blue Fang and her group, and that would be the end of the Order? Apparently, there were more members of that vile cult then we originally accounted for." Heavy said, "They seem to be working for this Kirana-Fel person who's torturing John"
"Whoa, whoa, WHOA! Back all of this up and run it by me again." Hanako requested before taking another breath in with her breathing device.
"Ugh...Well, it started with her Highness, Princess Adonna-Lyn, receiving a message from her father, the Supreme Ruler of Chandral, to conduct a diplomatic mission to a region of Chandral called Garminsaka." Heavy explained, "But now, it seems, it was a trap, concocted by the region's ruler, the Lady Kirana-Fel and a pair of assassins who are members of Blue Fang's thought-to-be defunct clique"
Hanako slumped against part of the hull. More of those dangerous maniacs running around? Even though she only briefly viewed Blue Fang and her group's powers and attack capabilities, she knew enough that any more members of the Order of Darkness could mean nothing good for either Mobius, Chandral...or the entire galaxy, for that matter.
"What will become of John?" Hanako asked after a long silence.
"Oddly enough, when I contacted him, I saw that he was...chained to a bed?" Heavy replied, confused.
"Well, what do we do now?" Hanako asked.
"For now, I guess we wait." Heavy replied.

Back in the maze...

Nibai woke up with a groan, lying on her backside. Her neck hurt where that damned echidna bitch stabbed her.
"That was careless." Nibai muttered to herself. She had forgotten about Chandralite Echidnas having spurs that would inject a temporarily paralyzing venom into those who opposed them. She couldn't believe she would get so careless in the face of an enemy.
She did her best to look around, despite what little light there was. From what she could see, she was in a place underground, with great stone walls all around. It seemed that she was in a corridor of some sort.
But as she tried to get up, she felt something pull her body back down! Slightly bewildered, she tried to get up again...only to be pulled back down. She tried to lift her arms...and in the fungus-generated light she saw what was pulling them back down to the floor.
Webs. Large, sticky, webs!
She attemped to reach for her ring-blades...only to find they were gone! "Damn it!" she cursed. That dreadlocked female probabley took her weapons from her while she was unconcious.
With a growl, she tried to pull herself loose from the webs...and she succeeded in getting back up. Unfortunately, she looked and saw that her feet were mired in the webbing!
She pulled on her legs and got her feet pried from the shoes. But as she did, she heard a sound...namely a sound like a fishing rod unreeling its line...but with a slopping sound, giving it an almost organic quality.
Suddenly, a dark shape appeared before her, and smacked her with an appendage that felt like the fiberglass of a surfboard and just as large. The impact of the hit sent her flying against the wall...where she seemed to stay!
"Crap! Whatever that thing is, it must have lined the walls with its webbing!" she thought to herself as she struggled to pull herself free from the webs that now began to bind her.
Then, the same dark shape that sent her against the wall appeared before her again and began spraying her with more webbing until she was cocooned with only her eyes, a tuft of her hair, her hands, and her feet were showing.
"Hmm..." she heard the creature hum, "It's been a long time since I've had a cat of any kind thrown down here"
"Huh?" she wondered...until she looked to her right (no mean feat with the webbing that bound her) and almost shrieked! Cocooned against the wall next to where she was trapped...was the dried up skeletal remains of a felinoid being! In fact, the walls were practically lined with cocoons...and their unfortunate captives, long dead by now.
"Hmm..." the creature said while sniffing a bit, "It seems I have other guests down here. Guess I'll have to prepare for them"
She watched as the creature, obscured by the near darkness, sprayed more webbing about, ready to ensnare these other "guests" the creature was talking about.

In another part of the maze...

Adonna-Lyn was leading Neon and Vector through the maze, keeping her eyes open for traps or triggers for the traps. As it was, they heard the arguing between Mighty and Snake echo through the maze.
On the good side, it meant they were still alive.
On the bad side, it meant that there were traps down here, meant to either ensnare...or kill anyone foolish enough to blunder into them.
However, her concentration wasn't being helped with Vector and Neon sniping at each other.
She eventually got so fed up with it, she whipped around and said, "I can't take this anymore! Why must you two constantly bicker and fight with each other! You're allies, remember"
"I'll tell you why! He's never had a true hardship in his life! Me, on the other hand,...I've had to work and slave for a bloated, miserable human who performed unspeakable acts of cruelty right in front of my very eyes!" Neon snapped, "Not to mention, he's always joking around and he's never serious"
"Well, let me tell you what I think of you, Neon, since we're on the subject!" Vector growled at her, "All this time, since you've joined the Chaotix, I've been showing a particular interest in you, hopefully to go further than just bein' comrades-in-arms! But ALL I've gotten out of you is grief and simple hard-assed behavior! You need to lighten up once in a while and think about what you and I can accomplish together"
"HA! Me and you! We may be reptiles, but that's as far as it goes. We're not even the same species!" Neon shouted at him.
"John and I are two different species and we come from totally different backgrounds. Do you see us arguing that much?" Adonna-Lyn interjected, hoping to end this petty debate before it grew into a slaughter.
Surprisingly for the echidna princess, that shut both of the reptiles up.

Snake, Mighty, and Neela had reached a certain point in the maze where the voices of Adonna-Lyn, Vector and Neon were getting louder and louder. They had to be getting close...they HAD to.
Neela stopped for a moment near a wall. She looked towards it, her emerald-green eyes wide.
Mighty took notice of her sudden behavior and asked, "Neela, are you okay? What is it"
"I just felt something...a tremor in the Force...there's someone behind this wall." she replied, feeling a part of the wall.
"Thisssss isssss ridiculoussss! I thought thissssss mazssssse cancssssssseled out powerssssss of any ssssssssort." Snake rebuked, "That dreadlocked female ssssssaid it hersssssself"
"It doesn't seem to limit my Force senses and I'm telling you I can sense someone behind that wall." she said.
"And I'm telling you..." Snake started...before Mighty interjected, "For once, don't argue with her! She knows what she's doing"
"Hmm...this wall seems to be a bit unstabl-WHOA!" she cried out as the wall seemed to swivel around, swallowing the servant girl up and revealing the person on the other side of the wall.
"Who the heck is that?" Mighty asked.
Snake answered in an angry hiss, "Nibai"
Nibai looked up, still cocooned, and tried to shout something to the two Mobians. Of course, with the webs over her mouth, it came out as an unintelligible collection of muffled words.
"Begging for mercssssssy won't sssssssspare you from the punisssssshment the Guild had in sssssssssstore for you." Snake remarked as a buzz-saw-like weapon folded out from one of his arms, "The csssssybernetic exssssssspertssssss who attatched thessssssse armsssss to me sssssssaid thisssss buzzssssssssaw could cut through ssssssssolid bone in 15 sssssssecondssssss. Well, time to prove them right"
Nibai panicked. She was so wrapped up in the cocoon that she could neither escape or fight back.
"Don't do it, Snake! She can't do anything to us...well, not tied up like THAT..." Mighty protested, "Besides, we need her help"
"I don't think I need any help from HER...unlesssssssss I wanted to commit ssssssssuicsssssssside!" Snake snapped at him.
"I meant that we need her to help us get Neela back!" Mighty retorted.

Neela recovered from the stumble she took. "So, it was a revolving wall...who knew?" she thought to herself as she got back up.
She surveyed her surroundings for a moment. Mighty and Snake were not with her.
But she was not alone...for suddenly, something swooped down, enveloping her with a net of sticky webs, then tossed her against the wall, cocooned.
She was lucky her mouth was unrestrained (unlike the rest of her body, unfortunately), just merely pinned down by her facial veil. She squirmed a bit, trying to break out of the webbing that way...but all she succeeded in doing was having the webs bind her tighter and tighter.
"Shriur-kackt!" Neela cursed to herself.
She then heard something above her...she looked and saw a giant, spider-like shape descending towards her. Her emerald-green eyes widened, her body began to quake, and she began whimpering.
"Hmm...not the feast I ensnared originally, but I guess you'll do..." the creature spoke to her.
Neela, unable to contain her fear, screamed!

"NEELA!" Mighty cried out. He ran to over to the wall.
"Mighty, ussssssse your head! I don't think sssssshe'sssssss sssssssscreaming without a good reasssssson!" Snake pointed out as he grabbed Nibai by the nape of her neck and asked, "Alright, Nibsssss, what'ssssssss on the other sssssssssside of that wall"
Nibai once again shouted at Snake, of course, the webs made her words come out as buzzing babble.
"Wait, what?" Mighty asked as he stripped a bit of the webs off of Nibai's mouth.
"OOOOOOOOOOW!" Nibai sceamed!
"Oh...sorry." Mighty apologized, "Now, what's happening on the other side of that wall"
Nibai smirked a bit and said, "I could tell you, but you'd have to get me out of this goop"
"We're not doing negotiationssssssss here, you missssssserable little..." Snake started, bringing the fold-out buzzsaw closer to her neck.
"EASE OFF, SNAKE!" Mighty said, grabbing his slithering companion's metal arm and keeping it away from Nibai.
"WHO DIED AND MADE YOU THE LEADER OF THISSSSS GROUP!" Snake shouted.
"No one's died...yet...but I'm going to make sure that NOT ONE of our group gets killed down here!" Mighty argued.
"Excsssssept SSSSSSSSSSSHE'SSSSSSSSS NOT PART OF OUR GROUP!" Snake retaliated.
"Well, that's MY call." Mighty snapped.
The Armadillo grabbed Nibai by the nape of her neck hard and said, "Look, a very good friend of mine might be in danger. If you SWEAR not to kill us and agree to help us out of this maze, I'll get you out of this webbing. But if you betray us...the next fix you wind up in, you're on your own. GOT IT"
"FINE! I agree to your terms! Just GET ME OUT OF THIS!" Nibai whined. Between the confining webs and the Mobian Armadillo's vice-like grip, she would be willing to do anything to get out of this situation...and back at the echidna female who had her placed down here!
With that, Mighty ripped the webbing around her apart and helped her up.
"Thanks for the pick-me-up, Muscles." Nibai thanked while rubbing her neck from Mighty's grip.
"You're welcome...AND THE NAME'S MIGHTY!" Mighty retorted as he aimed his fist at the wall Neela fell through...and PUNCHED IT DOWN!
"His strength is inhuman..." Nibai remarked.
"Gee, what a newsssssssss flassssssh that wassssssss." Snake commented while rolling his eyes, "WE'RE ALL INHUMANSSSSSSS"
"If you two are done, we have to hurry up and find Neela!" Mighty called to them.
As all three of them entered the corridor, Mighty and Snake were struck with a mixed feeling of shock and revulsion as they surveyed the area.
"Manoman...John would have a heart attack if he saw any of this..." Mighty commented as he looked around.
A slight muffled sound alerted the trio. They looked to their right and saw a cocooned figure...with dark red hair, emerald-green eyes, and a pair of light blue Chandralite slipper-shoes wriggling about!
"NEELA!" Mighty cried out as he ran to her.
"Have you lossssst your mind!" Snake shouted at the Armadillo, "Ssssssshouldn't you concsssssssern yoursssssssself with WHAT did that to her"
Almost faster than anyone could have predicted, the very creator of those webs swooped down and wrapped Mighty in a net of its webbing! "So, the girl means that much to you, huh? Well, then...far be it from me to keep you two apart!" the creature cackled as it stuck Mighty face-to-face with Neela!
"That's it, I'm getting out of here!" Nibai remarked...just as another one of the creatures swooped down and captured her as well.
"ACK! Not again!" she managed to shout before her mouth was trussed up with the webbing and was stuck against the walls...again.
Snake decided to just stay still. It seemed these creatures, whatever they were, homed in on anything that moved. All he had to do was stay absolutely still...not even so much as a twitch..."Man I hope the other group findsssssss usssssss...I don't know how long I can keep thissssssss up." he thought to himself.

Meanwhile, in the palace above them...

John let out several breaths. He was extremely exhausted, currently from his psychic probing into the underground maze, but also from the torture that Kirana-Fel and her cohorts were putting him through. He wasn't sure how much more of this he could take.
Suddenly, there came the sounds of a fight from down the hall from where he was. Running right to the door was...ADONNA-LYN!
"John, my beloved! Thank Chandrala, you're alright!" she called to him.
"Adon! Where are the others? Are they okay?" John asked.
"They're fine, John. They're dealing with those ninja-clad clowns of Kirana-Fel's right now." she replied, smiling as she approached him.
"And that psycho bitch Kirana-Fel? I doubt that vengence-obsessed floozie would be far away from where I am." John said.
A slight growl was heard...but Adonna-Lyn said, "Our Detrossian friend dealt with her, already. C'mon, I've gotta get you out of these chains"
"Believe me, for THAT, I'm grateful." John said...but his own Force-sense was going off. Somthing wasn't right here. As a slight test, he grunted a little in pain.
"Oh, my dearest, dearest John. What that horrible Kirana-Fel has done to you...let me...kiss away your pain." she said as she brought her lips close to John's face.
"Just as I thought..." John angrily growled as he used a hard Force push and threw Adonna-Lyn against the wall...only for the image of her to fade away like billowing smoke...and reveal KIRANA-FEL!
"How! How did you know!" she yelled at him.
"For one thing, Adonna-Lyn is quite a leader in her own right. She would never leave my friends to deal with enemies they've never had experience fighting. Second, that growl I heard after I did a little name-calling was right here in the very room...and I know it wasn't my stomach." John explained, "Last, but certainly not least, that whole sleazy seduction act you pulled...geez, Adonna-Lyn is definitely above THAT kind of behavior"
"UGH! They got me...I'm a goner!" Tanikai gasped, a bloody wound in his torso.
"Oh, knock it off, Tanikai! He knows it was a sham." Kirana-Fel remarked while rolling her eyes.
"Huh? Ah, nuts." the ninja-clad tanooki muttered as he ripped off the wound like a sticker.
"I told you this wouldn't work." Kazuna snapped, a De'kar stick seemingly going through her head.
"You know, you're only making this more difficult for yourself." Kirana-Fel growled at John, "Not to mention what I can do to your friends"
John rose up (as best he could in his restrained state) and snarled, "You leave them out of this! If you have a problem with me-GACK"
Tanikai's own eyes began to glow. The chains around John's neck began to tighten again. "Shall I continue, your Ladyship?" Tanikai asked.
"If you would. Do so for about 10 minutes or so, then let him breath." Kirana-Fel muttered as she and Kazuna left the room while rubbing the back of her head, "Ugh, breaking this 'Enforcer' is tougher than I thought. Not only was he able to deduct that it was all an illusion, but he sensed me through the Force. I felt it like...a Nikto Plant's vines wrapping around my body"
"I might as well tell you this now, Kirana-Fel...the master is not pleased with your activities with the Enforcer." the ninja-clad kitsune said, "He feels that you should destroy him at once"
"He can still be of use to m-I mean, the Order of Darkness. You've said it yourself. He has already embraced the 'Dark Side' of the Force. Such power could be put to excellent use for the Order." Kirana-Fel rebuked.
"Don't act so coy, your Ladyship. I sensed it in you myself. You have feelings for the boy. I'm warning you right now, he and Adonna-Lyn will be the death of the Order...and to properly prevent that, we must eliminate him and the princess as well." Kazuna insisted.
"But the prophecy won't come true as long as he's with me and not that little bitch!" Kirana-Fel exclaimed, "Besides, judging from where Adonna-Lyn and her little band is, I think it's safe to say we've seen the last of them"
"You assume too much." Kazuna snorted...and was tossed against the wall by a telekinetic push from the echidna royal.
"And you over-estimate them!" Kirana-Fel yelled as she then ran into her personal training room and slammed the door shut!
Kazuna got back up, growling, "Why, that impudent, self-serving,..." Tanikai grabbed her from behind, saying, "Easy, Kazuna, easy! It's not worth losing your head over"
"Not before she loses hers." Kazuna snapped.

Back down in the maze...

As Adonna-Lyn and her two reptillian partners continued along their way, the echidna princess stopped them. Something was hissing in the darkness...surrounding them.
"Neon, increase that light's brightness...very quickly." Adonna-Lyn whispered...just as a head-sized mouth nearly bit off her toes before retreating back in to the darkness.
Neon muttered a few more words she had learned in her homeworld's tongue...and the light increased a ten-fold, illuminating not one, not two...but hundreds of nasty-looking creatures ALL AROUND THEM!
They were about the size of German shepherds, but their bodies were more cat-like in appearance. Their tails were prehensile, but ended in a ball loaded with sharp barbs. Their limbs with multi-angular, their claws scythe-shaped and sharp as well. Their heads were even more wicked-looking. Boomerang-shaped, their mouths were loaded with razor sharp teeth, their eyes black with red pupils, small ears looking more like a devil's horns...all in all, they were just nasty to look at, let alone, to be in the midst of.
Fortunately, they let out loud shrieks and retreated into the darkness, away from the light.
"Those are Fraksars...nocturnal, cavern-dwelling little beasts." Adonna-Lyn said, almost as if Neon or Vector had asked the obvious question, "They can't stand bright light, naturally. But don't let any of them bite you. Once they do, they won't let go until you either kill them...or you bleed to death"
"Nice." Neon remarked.
"I dunno..." Vector said while holding a Fraksar...minus its head, "Needs salt"
"Vector...their flesh is poisonous..." Adonna-Lyn said, not believing the crocodile would do something so foolish.
Upon hearing this, Vector threw away the Fraksar and spat out its head.
The echidna princess shook her head. "That's not good enough. Neon, hold him down by his ankles and tighten your grip. We have to make sure it doesn't spread to the rest of his body." Adonna-Lyn said as she grabbed Vector by his wrists.
"Whadya doin'?" Vector cried out.
"We have to FORCE the poison out of you. We're going to start from your limbs, press into your stomach, then give one hard push. The rest...well, I think you'll know what to do"
As Adonna-Lyn and Neon did as she explained to Vector, a rumbling was heard in Vector's bowels..." 'SCUSE ME!" Vector shouted as he quickly ran down the corridor a bit and began coughing out the venomous flesh from his body..., "Hoo-boy...gals, I think you might wanna take a look at this"
"Actually, no." Neon said, disgusted.
"NO! I mean what's down this corridor other than what I up-chucked." Vector growled after slapping his head.
Both girls looked at each other, then went down to see what Vector was talking about...it was a hallway lined with webs.
"Holy shit..." Neon remarked.
"By Chandrala..." Adonna-Lyn gasped.
"Adon...WHO THE HELL IS CHANDRALA! You keep bringing up this Chandrala person whenever you're awed about somthin'. WHO IS THIS CHANDRALA!" Vector exclaimed.
"Chandrala happens to be the creator of this world, Vector. She is our patron goddess." Adonna-Lyn answered, a bit angered at Vector's lack of respect.
"Really?" Vector asked, "Is she seeing anyone"
Neon clenched her fist and said, "You idiot! She's a deity! And I hardly think she'd date you"
As the carefully stepped into the corridor, Neon saw a glint of metal on the floor! She ran up to it...and found it was a pair of metal arms!
"Oh, no...Snake..." Neon gasped, "Poor Chrome Fingers...if I only could have told him that...I"
"Tell me what, Neon?" she heard Snake's voice say...cocooned against the wall next to her.
"Um...that I didn't know you could remove your arms from your person at any time. Heh heh heh..." Neon lightly laughed, embarassed.
"Natch." Snake muttered, a bit disappointed.
"So, what the heck happened to you?" Neon asked...just as four spidery legs surrounded her...holding the sticky net of webbing that was now enveloping her!
"That'ssssss what." Snake replied as Neon was hoisted up, was cocooned even further, and placed above her disarmed (hyuk hyuk!) friend.
"I thought there was more than just 4 people down here in the maze today." the creature said as it sprayed more webbing over Neon to hold her in place, "Kirana-Fel must be really pissed at all of you to throw you down here"
"HEY! Get away from my woman, ya web-slingin' freak!" Vector shouted as he ran at the creature from behind.
"Vector, you numbskull, get back here!" Adonna-Lyn called out to him...just as she heard a loud THUD behind her. She turned and saw another of the large, spider-like creatures behind her.
"You're not an Arachna!" Adonna-Lyn noticed aloud. The creature was devoid of the characteristic bat-like wings and blade-like legs that were typical of an Arachna. But it was large enough to resemble an adult Arachna.
"Gee, how observant, princess." the creature sarcastically remarked before making an chitter, a roar, then a grumble. All around, Adonna-Lyn heard the sounds of many skittering legs.
"Vector, I could use some back-up, right about now!" Adonna-Lyn whispered...but as she then saw, Vector was trussed up in webbing as well.
"As much as I hate to beat an old cliche line into the ground, princess, I'm a little TIED UP at the moment." Vector said...through what part of his mouth wasn't tied up by the webbing.
"Oh, great." Adonna-Lyn muttered to herself. This was not the way she wanted this to end: surrounded by spiders, her friends cocooned about the walls.
As soon as they sprayed their webbing at her, she leaped high into the air. She wouldn't let it end here! She couldn't! The lives of her friends...and her husband...depended on her!
When she landed, however, she felt something bang against the back of her head. She felt around...and she felt the sheath of her dagger...and, even better, it was full!

At the moment, topside...

Kirana-Fel entered her bedroom again to face John...a confident grin on her face.
John weakly looked up at her and grumbled, "So...you finally decided to just finish me off"
"On the contrary, Enforcer, I'm not finished with you. To be terribley honest, I'm really getting sick and tired of being tossed against the wall by you..." Kirana-Fel taunted while bringing out the Chandral Dagger, "Well, let's see you do that WITHOUT YOUR POWERS! Adonna-Lyn was a fool to leave this in front of her"
John winced. He knew first-hand of the dagger's power to strip powers from beings.
But as Kirana-Fel said the incantation, something happened. The jewels began to blink, almost as if in a sequence. One jewel at the hilt blinked out...then the other at the hilt.
Quickly, the echidna monarch got the hint. It wasn't just a decoy of the Chandral Dagger...IT WAS A BOMB! She quickly made the dagger teleport. An distant explosion was heard outside.
"So, that little bitch had the dagger on her person the whole time." Kirana-Fel angrily hissed.
"Has anyone ever told you you're an absolute psycho?" John asked, "Then let me be the first...YOU'RE AN ABSOLUTE PSYCHO"
"If you'll excuse me, I'm going to find those assassins of mine and beat them senseless for this incompetance! They assured me they got every last one of those ruffians' weapons!" Kirana-Fel snorted as she ran out of the room.
John's communicator flared to life. "Sir? Sir, are you there? We just heard an explosion down there. What happened?" he heard Heavy calling.
"Let's just say Kirana-Fel nearly had a close one...damn." John commented glumly...

Back down in the maze...

Adonna-Lyn pulled out the dagger and held it out in a defensive stance...for what! The Chandral Dagger was, of course, a short range weapon, even with its power-stripping properties.
"Ooh, a flimsly little princess armed with a dagger...I'm so scared!" the largest spider (the leader, she assumed) said sarcastically, "GET HER"
As the spiders came at her, she felt something on the dagger. It was a button of sorts...she pressed it. SHIIING! She looked, and saw that her dagger...HAD NOW BECOME A SWORD!
At the sight of it, the spiders shrank back!
"The Chandrala sword...BANE OF THE ORDER!" the lead spider hissed, "Never mind capturing her, lads..KILL HER"
"I don't think so." Adonna-Lyn thought to herself as she charged forward.
She sliced one of the spiders in half...which then turned a bright green and vanished.
"Illusions...they're all illusions!" she realized aloud.
Upon this realization, she jumped atop one of the spiders and made a large leap...and landed on the back of their leader.
"HEY! GET OFF!" the spider growled as he began trying to shake her off and hopefully paste her to any of the waiting webs on the walls.
But Adonna-Lyn turned around and aimed the dagger's hilt at the spider's head. Reciting words known only to her and her alone, she made the dagger strip the leading spider of his powers...however, she fell off and landed in a sticky patch of webs on the floor and wall!
"What?" she wondered as the collosal arachnid that threatened her friends was not only shrinking rapidly...he was changing shape!
Upon the completion of his transformation, the spider appeared to have a humanoid shape...more or less. He had dark brown hairs on his body, six long spindly arms that ended in four-fingered hands, his bulgy abdomen was gone, his feet ended in 3 sharp-looking toes, and his head was adorned with six beady black eyes and a wide horizontal mouth full of triangular shaped teeth...in two rows!
The spider looked around, looking a bit confused. Then, he saw Adonna-Lyn and rushed over to her. "So, come to finish me off, huh?" she remarked, "I won't go down easy"
"Have you lost your mind?" the spider asked as it began prying Adonna-Lyn loose from the webs.
"I know what you are...you're a Goblin Spider...everyone worth their salt knows your kind. Treachorous, deceiving little web-spinners...and users of Black Magic to boot; ideal troops for the ORDER OF DARKNESS!" Adonna-Lyn said...before bringing the blade of her (now) sword close to his throat, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right here and now"
"Because I built this maze...because I know the way out...and because I am no longer a supporter of the Order of Darkness or of Kirana-Fel." the spider replied, shaking nervously.
Still holding the blade close, she asked, "So, what does Kirana-Fel have to do with this"
"You see, Lord Tarkhalius somehow managed to convince some echidna monarchs and nobles into joining his cause, including Kirana-Fel...of course, he would betray them later. He even left her his two most trusted assassins, Kazuna and Tanikai...chances are, you've already had the displeasure of meeting them." the spider commented.
"You might say that...now, how does a trusted member of the Order wind up down here?" Adonna-Lyn asked, just aiming the tip of her sword at the spider.
"You see, once Tarkhalius was defeated by your father, I felt there was no need to serve a group with no leader. This did not sit well with Kazuna and her partner, both fanatically loyal to Tarkhalius." the spider continued explaining, "One night, some years ago, I eaves-dropped on Kirana-Fel conversing with Blue Fang, Tarkhalius' mate. She said something about imprisoning the Supreme Ruler's child and making the Order's big move. I wanted to report this immediately to your father...but I was ambushed by my former comrades and was dumped down here. Here, they gave me limited powers...but transformed me into the beast that caused the chaos you see around you"
Upon the very mention of that, Adonna-Lyn gasped. She completely forgot about her friends, cocooned to the walls. She turned...and found Neon undoing the webs around Snake and Vector. "What?" Neon asked.
"Um...nothing. Just get everyone out of those cocoons." Adonna-Lyn told the Detrossian.
"Even Nibsssssss?" Snake asked, grinning at the thought of the psychotic feline being left down in this maze, stuck to a wall and wrapped up in webs. Nibai saw Snake's grin and snarled something that obviously sounded like a curse.
Adonna-Lyn cast Nibai a look...then said, "We're ALL leaving this place, Snake. No one gets left behind"
Nibai struggled to get her left index finger free...and made a face at Snake, which caused the reptile to hiss very loudly. "Well, um...didn't get your name." Adonna-Lyn said.
"My name is Ananson Gabaros" the spider replied with a bow.
"Okay, Ananson. You said you knew the way out of here. Lead on." Adonna-Lyn ordered, "And no tricks"
"I promise, no tricks. I'll take you straight to the exit of this maze." Ananson promised.
As the spider began to lead the group to the exit, Neela turned to Mighty (both of them freed from the webbing that bound them) and said, "Mighty...you charged toward me...not even considering what had happened to me or what caused my predicament...why? You could have been killed"
"You think that mattered to me, Neela?" Mighty said as he put his arms around her, "All that mattered was that...that I...I love you, Neela. From the moment I held your hand and helped you off that cushion for one of the emergency entrances to FICC...I"
"If you two loverssssss are done, can we pleassssssse get a move on!" Snake shouted, turning very green in the face.

Meanwhile, back on the ShadowHunter...

"So tell me...this 'Ben Wolfson' fellow you're seeing..." Heavy began as he continued to recharge his circuits, "When did you two meet"
Hanako sputtered a bit. This was kind of personal, what the robot was asking to know.
"Oh, relax. You're only telling this to a robot, a collection of servomotors and circuits." Heavy laughed half-heartedly, "It's not like I'm capable of feeling the kind of sensations you biologicals feel"
"Well, it took place quite a while ago, back when Robotnik was in control." Hanako began, "I was with the Knothole Freedom Fighters for a while and I took on a personal mission to recover any information on my past, going undercover as a Swatbot"
"Hmph. That was one of Robotnik's biggest mistakes...making the Swatbots' armor hollow, the dumb git." Heavy interjected, "Just about ANYONE could sneak into Robotropolis in those things"
"Right...anyway, Ben was in the midst of carrying out a different mission for another Freedom Fighter group when we..." she stopped and giggled, "Bumped into each other. We went at each other for a moment before a group of Badniks spotted us. We continued to bicker at one another until we reached the city limits...and I guess, we kinda went from there"
"I see...and now, you're at the lovey-dovey stage of your relationship." Heavy asked, retracting his power chord.
"Hee...you might say th-!" Hanako giggled...until she gasped and shivered a bit. Even the tea she was drinking ceased to produce steam.
"Miss Fairhall? Are you alright?" Heavy asked.
"I...I don't know. For a moment, I felt a chill...cold..." Hanako breathed heavily.
"Hmm...I've seen this happen to John before on a couple of hunts...these 'chills' were often triggered by his Force-sense..." Heavy remarked...just as something made Hanako scream out loud and fall to the floor, shivering as if someone had thrown her into a meat locker.
"So cold...death..." she muttered.
"Dear God...what is going on?" Heavy muttered, looking down on Chandral...

A while later...

After many lefts and many rights, the group finally arrived at a stairway leading upwards...to even the faintest glimmer of daylight.
Neela breathed a sigh of relief, "We made it. We're finally on our way out of this wretched place"
"We're not out of this yet, Neela. One more thing remains..." Adonna-Lyn said, a grim look on her fair face.
Vector, surprisingly, got the hint. "Oh, John. Right." he said.
"Princess, before you and the others leave, I need to give you something." Ananson said as he reached into his ninja garbs for a few things.
Snake immediately had a pair of blaster cannons emerge from his cyber arms...just as Ananson pulled out several vials of a glowing blue liquid and a baseball-sized orb that shimmered in a dark-purple glow.
"First, these vials contain an antidote to the feruckbos pollen that knocked out the lot of you. It takes but a few minutes to take effect...but it has a good two-hour protection time from Kirana-Fel and my two treachorous students." Ananson said, his triangular teeth grinding together.
"Whoawhoawhoa! Your students?" Vector asked.
"I meant Kazuna and Tanikai. I trained them in Nimjaka or 'killer shadow' in plain terms. They can move within any place where light does not touch, they can create multiples of themselves, they can even shroud an entire room into darkness." Ananson explained, "As Her Highness figured out, all the spiders who attacked you were multiple illusions created by me...and that is just a mere sample of what Kazuna and Tanikai are capable of"
"And...this orb?" Adonna-Lyn asked as the spider put it into her hands.
"This is a de-spell orb. I want you to use it, your Highness. If you can force Kirana-Fel to fight on the grounds outside of the palace, this orb will undo the black magic that keeps anyone from just digging a way into the maze." Ananson replied, "You could dig all your life and you still woundn't be able to see the walls of the maze here. The orb will make it so that even the slightest geological disturbance would cause a cave-in down here"
"Why?" Adonna-Lyn asked.
"For revenge." Ananson hissed, "Kirana-Fel was the one who condemned me down here...and she made it so I could never leave this place. I want to give her that same feeling of helplessness I have endured for...what year is this"
"3238." Snake replied after a quick glance at his chronometer.
Ananson looked pale for a moment..."Has it truly been this long?" he wheezed in his consternation.
Adonna-Lyn, looking at him with understanding, said, "It doesn't matter, Ananson Gabaros. You WILL have your vengence. WE'LL make sure of that"
He smiled at her (not exactly the most encouraging of sights) and said, "Bless your hearts, Princess Adonna-Lyn. Your mother would have been so proud of you"
Adonna-Lyn backed from away from him. "How did you know my mother!" she asked. After all, he WAS a member of the Order of Darkness.
"I used to be her tailor." Ananson smiled even further.
There was a mass anime-style fainting.
"Now go. It won't be long before that back-stabbing bitch and her cohorts realize you've escaped the maze." Ananson warned.
"Thank you, Ananson." Adonna-Lyn said as she and her friends went up the stairway leading back to the surface.
"You're welcome, your Highness." Ananson whispered as he saw the last of her disappear up the steps, "And may Chandrala bless you with luck...you're going to need it."

Vector looked at Nibai as the group made their way up to the surface. She certainly looked like an interesting speciman..."So, what brings you to Chandral?" Vector asked of the spotty cat.
"Mostly revenge against the Enforcer...he arrested me often...both for the Galactic Republic and for 'Hutt Justice'." Nibai replied.
"Really? What'd ya do to earn such a bounty on your head to get my blue buddy on your trail?" Vector asked.
"I've murdered people...and enjoyed every minute of it." Nibai said. Vector, upon hearing THAT, backed off. She grinned, knowing she had achieved forcing the crocodile away from her.
Neon smirked at Vector and said, "Maybe that will teach you to pick your women more carefully"
"Hey, I was just curious. That was it!" Vector exclaimed.
"Alright, guys! I think we've finally made it back to the surface!" Adonna-Lyn called, pushing up on what appeared to be a heavy metal door at the top of the stairway.
"Let me, your Highness." Mighty said as he wound up one fist and slammed it into the door. It ripped straight from its hinges from the force of Mighty's punch and flew into the air! The group was then bathed in the sun's light.
"Anything else?" Mighty asked enthusiastically.
"Maybe later...I'm working on a plan..." Adonna-Lyn said, looking hard at Kirana-Fel's palace.
As Nibai came into the light, however, something screamed and tackled Nibai to the soil! It appeared to be a red panda...wearing Nibs' clothes!
"I've finally found you, you rotten feline! First, you risk both our lives with that Nikto plant YOU KILLED, then you slice at my throat, get some of my blood on my GOOD veil...then you knock me out and swap our clothes!" the red panda roared down while gripping the spotty cat by the throat, "For all of these transgressions, I'm going to strangle every last breath out of you"
But before the girl could do so, she received a hard, scaly bashing from Vector's tail. "And you'll back off and chill out!" he shouted at the servant girl.
The servant girl did not respond, though...it then appeared that she hit the back of her head on the trunk of a tree and was knocked out.
"Comfortable as this kind of clothing is, I kinda feel like I'm wearing nothing at all..." Nibai remarked as she dragged the servant girl into the bushes nearby. It was quite obvious she wanted to change her clothes in private. Neon even had to grab Vector by his tail...you know what he wanted to do.
Mighty turned towards Adonna-Lyn and asked, "So, what's the plan for getting John back from the bad guys? I mean, a direct assualt would put us right back where we just came out of"
"You're right, Mighty...which is why you and the other Chaotix are going to create a diversion to lure out the guards, while I go into the palace and rescue John." Adonna-Lyn replied.
"All by yourself...that's madness!" Neon protested, "We may have the cure to that knock-out stuff they used on us earlier, but even that won't make ya invincible"
"With my skills, not even Kirana-Fel's hired hands won't stop me." Adonna-Lyn remarked proudly.
Just then, the ShadowHunter came down from the sky and landed near the group. As the door opened, Adonna-Lyn immediately stepped aboard. Heavy started, "Your Highness, I must say that it is a great relief to see you and the others alive and well"
"And it is good to see you...and Miss Fairhall." Adonna-Lyn acknowledged, "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to make a quick change." With that, the echidna princess stepped into John's quarters.
"What did she mean by a quick change?" Hanako asked.
Heavy turned to her and said, "Well, I doubt she would sully her diplomatic clothing with the blood that's about to be shed"
After a few short minutes, Adonna-Lyn stepped out. She was now dressed in a brown Chandralite outfit. It consisted of a strapless top, opaque pants, and a pair of slipper-shoes that conformed to Adonna-Lyn's feet.
Hanako just barely stifled a laugh. Adonna-Lyn heard it, however, and asked, "What's so funny"
"That's it! That's what you're wearing while going into battle?" Hanako laughed, "What are you going to do? Belly dance them to death"
Adonna-Lyn abruptly pulled out the Chandral dagger and had its blade extend into a sword! She pinned the young Mooncat/Echidna mix against the wall with one hand and held the blade close to her throat. "This outfit was handed down to me from my mother. Care to make any more stereotypical remarks?" Adonna-Lyn hissed.
Hanako quickly shook her head.
"Good." Adonna-Lyn finished, letting go and storming towards the airlock.
"That really was a bad move on your part." Heavy commented to Hanako while helping her up.
"Tell me about it." Hanako coughed while rubbing her throat, "She's got one hell of a grip"
As they stepped out of the ShadowHunter, Snake quickly took notice of Hanako. "Hello, kitty!" Snake whispered to himself, a silly grin on his face. He sort-of remembered that the Fairhall family, in its day, was a considerabley wealthy family...

Meanwhile, inside the Garminsaka palace...

"Your Ladyship, I strongly suggest you reconsider what you're about to do." Kazuna demanded after the echidna monarch as she went straight for her room and her captive.
"I'm not changing my mind about this, Kazuna. I am going through with it and that's final!" Kirana-Fel snapped.
"Perhaps you've forgotten what happened the last time you did this." Tanikai advised, "The guy went mad from rage and nearly took your head off with his bare hands"
"We're warning you, Kirana-Fel...the Enforcer is too powerful! If you go through with this, I doubt that either Tanikai or I will be able to stop him." Kazuna further advised, "Even if the process is complete, we cannot be totally sure it will help you control him"
"He will be mine, willingly or not." Kirana-Fel snarled, opening the door to her room.
John looked up at her, groaned and said, "Isn't your back sore by now! Geez, give it up, already! You can't break me"
Kirana-Fel chuckled to herself as she slinked up to John's head, chortling, "I don't need to break you anymore"
John was a bit stupified. "You don't?" he asked.
"No. Perhaps you know what THIS is?" she asked, holding up a small device of some sort. It was rectangular, black in color...and had what looked like a small, drill-like shape at the top of it.
"From the markings I'm seeing on it, I'd say it's a device dating back to the ancient Sith Wars." John examined.
"Very astute." Kirana-Fel smirked...before ramming the drill part of the device into John's right ear!
John roared in pain! He could just feel the device drilling right into his head! "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TO ME, YOU BITCH!" John screamed at her.
Fortunately, the drilling stopped.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the end.
John could feel it within his head. Something was snaking its way into his brain.
Kirana-Fel watched gleefully as John's body thrashed about, his screams and roars breaking the silence around her.
Finally, his thrashing stopped.
"Your Ladyship! The guards are under attack...by the Enforcer's friends!" Tanikai reported, sweating like crazy.
"How is it possible!" Kazuna wondered aloud, "They couldn't have made it out of the maze...unless"
"Well, what are you two waiting for? Back-up?" Kirana-Fel asked, "Keep those miscreants busy"
With that, the two assassins left in their usual manner. Kirana-Fel looked towards John, smiling and saying, "I can't wait to see the look on Adonna-Lyn's face when she sees you by my side, my love..."...just as John's eyes opened, a red-ish haze over his silvery-blue eyes...

Adonna-Lyn stole carefully into the palace halls while Neon and the others dealt with the guards outside. "So far, so good." she thought to herself.
Suddenly, she felt a sharp rush of pain in her right earhole! She cringed and screamed out loud, it was so intense! Eventually, she recovered. But deep down, she knew her beloved was in danger, so she continued her trek through Kirana-Fel's domain.
"Adon...Adon, where are you?" she heard a voice calling to her...it sounded like...she rushed into a room and found John, clutching part of his chest, where his dark green blood was making a dark patch on his shirt.
"John...how did you escape Kirana-Fel?" she asked as she rushed over to him.
"I just waited until the dumb broad let her guard down...then I wrapped her up in chains...just like what's happening to you!" the blue echidna laughed as he grinned.
She then felt what certainly were chains wrapping around her neck, arms, legs and body! She was then lifted into the air! She looked towards John...only to see the chains coming from his BACK!
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I can't believe you fell for the 'poor-bleeding-boyfriend' trick! What a goof!" Tanikai laughed as he shed his "John" disguise like stepping out of a wetsuit, "What's with you, lady! Come on"
With that, he brought the echidna princess closer and closer to himself and chortled, "You stupid little echidna! Even after facing off to the likes of Blue Fang and Lady Screech, you couldn't even sense that it was me under that disguise! Well, either way it doesn't matter. All I have to do is strangle the very life out of you, and then, I'll earn some big-time brownie points with Kirana-Fel. And best of all, I'll have the satisfaction that there's nothing you can do about it! Ah HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-OOOOOOOW!" Adonna-Lyn poked him in the eyes!
With that, Adonna-Lyn managed to force the chains off of her and slammed her fist into Tanikai!
"Well, that's where you're wrong, you miscreant!" Adonna-Lyn snapped as she then kicked him against the wall.
After the beating Tanikai received, however, she was dismayed to find that he was grinning at her...but as the room suddenly grew darker and darker, she soon found out why!
Something plowed across her face and sent her sprawling to the floor. She tried to get up...just as something wrapped around her throat! She pulled at it...but it only tightened even further, just about ready to choke away every bit of life out of her.
"Luminous Formente!" a female voice shouted, followed by a burst of light that slammed into Adonna-Lyn's would-be killer and bashed him into the wall behind him.
As the darkness faded, Adonna-Lyn looked...and saw Neon, her hands going back to her sides after casting that burst.
"Alright, Neon. Confession time! How are you doing this?" Adonna-Lyn demanded as she got to her feet.
"Well, I just read a few books on Detrossa and I wanted to try out a few things I learned from them." Neon said with a smile, "Besides, the gang and I took care of the guards. They won't be bothering us during this battle"
"Good. Now to deal with you, you little roach." Adonna-Lyn said while stomping towards Tanikai.
"N-n-n-now wait a minute...let's not be too hasty...surely we can work something out!" Tanikai whimpered, "I mean, we didn't kill you when we had the chance! Doesn't that count for something"
"Yes...a very stupid mistake on your part" Adonna-Lyn snapped as she brought up her dagger and aimed it at the ninja-clad tanuki.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Tanikai screamed as the dagger did its work, robbing him of his powers! He finally collapsed to the floor.
"Tie him up with his own chains. I don't want him coming back after us." Adonna-Lyn said to Nibai and Snake.
As Nibai did so, she noticed something on Tanikai's back...hanging from a clip of some sort were her ring-blades! "These are mine, ninja boy!" Nibai hissed as she snatched them away. But, as it further turned out, there were more of THEIR weapons on Tanikai.
"Hey, there's my headset, too!" Vector recognized as he removed those from Tanikai's person.
"Hello, boyssssss. Did you missssssss me?" Snake crooned as he held his blasters close to his face.
"Ho-kay, he's starting to creep me out." Vector remarked.
Neela looked...but slumped in disappointment. "My De'kar stick...it's not on him." Neela whimpered, "My only weapon...and the only..." She broke down into tears.
This infuriated Adonna-Lyn. Neela's De'kar stick was the only momento of her ubruptly departed family...and for these scumbags to take something so precious from her..."They...are going...TO PAY!" Adonna-Lyn shrieked in her fury, "Neela, you, Snake, Hanako, and Nibai will stay here and keep an eye on this little deviant. Neon, Vector, Mighty, you're with me"
"Um...Adon, are you sure you wanna leave Neela with HIM?" Mighty asked, eyeing Snake suspiciously.
"Mighty, we don't have time for petty love triangles! We need to get to John! Every second counts!" Adonna-Lyn commanded.
"Don't worry, mussssscelessssss. Her ssssssssafety isssssss in my capable handsssssssss." Snake said.
"That's what I'm afraid of." Mighty said, his normally brown eyes turning the most violent green.
"C'MON! And Snake, you lay so much as one of your digits on my adopted sister, you better get used to hissing WITHOUT your forked tongue." Adonna-Lyn warned before leaving with the companions she chose to come with her.
As she proceeded, her friends close behind her, something came close to slicing her head off! Only split-second ducking kept her from having it severed.
"That's far enough, echidna scum!" Kazuna hissed as she stepped out a patch of darkness on the wall, aiming one of her razor-sharp kitana-like swords at Adonna-Lyn.
"For me, kitsune, it's never enough." Adonna-Lyn said as she made her dagger's blade extend into its newly discovered "sword" form.
"Too bad, then...because I will personally enjoy slicing you to bits!" Kazuna hiss/laughed as she then charged at Adonna-Lyn, swords singing their violent song as they clashed with each other.
After a few moments of their fight, Kazuna backed off a bit and said, "Your skills are quite considerable...you would have made an excellent fighter for the Order, like Kirana-Fel did"
"And wind up acting like some street-bound floozie? Get real!" Adonna-Lyn remarked as she flew against Kazuna...only to hit the wall behind the assassin.
Instinctively, Adonna-Lyn got her guard up. She remembered that these nimjaka masters could ACTUALLY hide within the shadows.
"Your Highness, behind ya!" Vector called.
Upon hearing Vector's call, she did a forward roll and dodged a stab from Kazuna's swords that could have run her through her heart.
"Give up, princess! You and your comrades are way out of your league." Kazuna shouted, still hidden from sight.
"Them's tough words...comin' from a sissy who hides in the dark." Vector remarked.
A growl was heard.
"Smooth move, idiot." Neon commented.
Kazuna emerged from the wall, her cold blue eyes narrowed in anger. "I was just going to finish you off one-by-one...but I guess I'll just have to settle with killing all of you right now!" she hissed.
"Oh, and how do you plan to do that? You Chandral guys are so primative, the overlanders on this world created fire before you did!" Vector joked.
Kazuna suddenly appeared to be splitting in two...then four...then eight...then sixteen...until it seemed there was an army of ninja-garb-clad kitsunes surrounding Neon, Adonna-Lyn, Mighty, and Vector!
"I believe you were saying, reptile?" all the Kazunas seemed to say at once.
"Just had to go and open your fat mouth, didn't you!" Neon shouted at Vector.
Then all of the kitsunes attacked! Vector dodged, Mighty pounded, Neon incinerated, and Adonnna-Lyn slashed...but there seemed to be no end to the army of Kazunas!
"Surrender, princess! I will destroy you and your...AAAAAAAAAAAGH!" Kazuna screamed.
All of the other kitsunes vanished, leaving only Kazuna, with Neela in a defensive stance behind her, her De'kar stick's blades retracting.
"You really shouldn't leave weapons in plain sight, assassin...you don't know who could sneak up from behind and take it from you." Neela said.
Kazuna, realizing how exposed she was to attack, quickly jumped for one of the shadows...but Snake grabbed her by her right foot and dragged her back out. The kitsune put up a struggle, but it proved no match for the steel-strong grip of Snake's hands.
"Oh no, ya don't!" Snake hissed as then threw her against a wall!
Before Kazuna could do anything else, Neon summoned a spell of her own, "BINDING LIGHT"
What appeared to be a long line of light began wrapping around Kazuna! She cried out as if the very light was burning her wherever it touched her.
"Well, your Highness, would you do the honors?" Neon said with a confident smirk.
"With pleasure." Adonna-Lyn said, holding up her dagger...muttering the incantation. The dagger did its work, ripping Kazuna's powers from her. She screamed as if her soul was being torn from her body. Finally, Kazuna fell into unconciousness.
"Okay, guys. All that's left now is Kirana-Fel. You guys better deal with Kazuna and Tanikai and wait here." Adonna-Lyn ordered.
"Your Highness, won't you need our help?" Neela asked.
"I don't want to risk any of you getting hurt." the echidna princess replied, "I know what Kirana-Fel's capable of. I can take her down"
"Well, alright...but...should ya need us...just give us a hollar, okay?" Vector offered.
Adonna-Lyn smiled and said, "Thank you...all of you. I can see why John considers you his most trusted friends. And guys, take the de-spell orb. I don't wanna have to lose this in the battle ahead." With that, she went down the hall.
"So, what are we gonna do with these two?" Mighty asked as Nibai brought Tanikai with her.
"If you ask me, I say we should just cut them apart." Nibai said, glaring at the two assassins.
"No, we won't!" Neon said, stopping Nibai from going for her ring-blades, "For one thing, I think Adonna-Lyn wants to interogate them...you know, find out if there's any more members of their Order running around"
"She wanted to what now?" Vector asked as he heaved Kazuna through a panel on the wall. The same one, coincidentally, that saw Nibai into the underground maze.
"VECTOR, YOU IDIOT!" Neon shouted.

Adonna-Lyn stealthfully approached the room where she sensed her adversary, Kirana-Fel. She certainly wanted to catch her off-guard, then get John out of there.
She rounded the corner and leaped into Kirana-Fel's bed room...where she found Garminsaka's resident monarch lying nonchalantly on her bed. "So, what took you so long, princess?" Kirana-Fel asked, smirking quite wickedly.
Adonna-Lyn drew her dagger...no, sword...and aimed it at Kirana-Fel's throat, saying, "Give me one good reason not to cut you down right here and now"
Kirana-Fel, much to the echidna princess' surprise, began backing off to the back of her bed, pleading, "Now, Princess Adonna-Lyn...let us not be too hasty, huh"
"Given what you've done, I see no other reason why you deserve to live." Adonna-Lyn remarked..."Wait a min-where is John"
"Why don't you ask him?" Kirana-Fel said with an even more devilish smirk.
Adonna-Lyn heard someone breathing behind her. She turned...only to receive a combination of a hard smack and a swift slash that knocked her to the ground away from Kirana-Fel's bed. She felt her face and felt two distinct scars (even as they were healing up) on her left cheek. She looked up and gasped at her attacker-IT WAS JOHN!
His shirt looked ripped apart, his body charred by electrical burns of sorts...but more importantly, his normally silvery-blue eyes were now covered by a reddish haze!
"John? What's gotten into you!" she cried out.
John didn't respond...except with a hostile growl.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HIM, YOU WITCH!" Adonna-Lyn shouted, charging at the corrupt monarch...only to have John dash over and kick her away from Kirana-Fel! This was too much. Not only the fact that she couldn't get close enough to wipe that smirk off of Kirana-Fel's face, but it was her own beloved husband that was beating her!
"Let's just say that he was just too easy to manipulate. Just show him a pretty face on top of a curvacious body like mine...and he's practically clay in my hands." Kirana-Fel said while bringing a small black device to her lips, "John, dearest...kill her"
John aimed his hand out. His double-bladed lightsaber flew right into his hand...which, after a slight moment's hesitation, became activated, its twin red blades igniting from the handle.
Adonna-Lyn backed away as far as she could. As good a fighter as she was, she was no match for John, who was not only an accomplished bounty hunter in his day, but a truly skilled warrior.
She then focused, trying to decipher telepathically what had happened to her beloved. What she found, it seemed, was that there was something coursing through his mind...and from what she sensed, it reeked of the Dark Side of the Force.
"Oh, figured that one quickly didn't you?" Kirana-Fel mentioned in a bored tone. "As I'm sure you have clearly found out, I'm using a device from the ancient Sith Wars. It was rather experimental in its time...but, as assured to me by the smuggler who brought it to me, it is fully functional. John! Stop standing there and kill her"
John lunged forward and slashed at Adonna-Lyn, who quickly brought up the Chandrala Sword and blocked it...then made a quick movement of her wrist to block the other blade of John's lightsaber...then he thrust his head forward, his mouth wide open...and bit into her shoulder!
Adonna-Lyn screamed and kneed John right between his legs ...strangely enough, he wasn't affected!
"Hmm...normally, that works." she wondered aloud as she then back-tossed John right into the wall behind her!
Much to her surprise, that didn't slow John down at all. He got right back up and charged at her again.
She did her best to keep the plasma-hot blades of John's signature weapon from getting to close to any part of her...but with her husband's speed and skill, she knew she couldn't promise herself much...

Outside of the palace...

"Now let me sssssssee if I've gotten thisssss sssssssstraight." Snake asked as he planted a mini-seismic charge in the center of a circle large enough for two Hutts to duel in, "We sssssssomehow manage to convincsssssse the two female echidnassssss into this Jurak-Tral thingy. Then, regardlessssssss of who winssssss the duel, I ignite the charge oncssssse the de-ssssssssspell orb issssssss casssssst to the ground. The ground collapssssssesssss, John getsssss Adonna-Lyn safely out of the way, and that Kirana-Fel persssssson fallssssss into the mazsssssse and a long period of 'quality bonding time' with our sssssspidery friend down there"
"Yeah, Neela...I kinda find it hard to believe that this is all gonna happen because of a vision you had." Vector remarked.
"C'mon, you guys!" Mighty remarked, "Jedi can sense things before they happen. And I trust Neela with this. She is a Jedi, after all"
Neela blushed a little, hearing Mighty stick up for her like this...then, she felt a cold chill run down her spine. She let out a slight gasp of horror then fell to the ground.
Mighty ran to her and held her up, asking, "Neela, what's wrong"
"Adonna-Lyn...she's in pain...I see John...but something's wrong with him." Neela answered shakingly, "It's like...like he's not in control of himself. Kirana-Fel has done something to him"
Neon frowned and said, "Vector, Hanako, Neela, come with me! Looks like we're going to save both of those echidnas' skins. Snake, you and Mighty stand ready. Take the de-spell orb and attatch it to the seismic charge"
"Wha...oh, alright." Mighty pouted, not wanting to be left behind with Snake..."Wait a minute. What about Nibai"
"Yessss...for oncsssssse, the armadillo hasssss a valid point." Snake conferred with Neon, "If I were you, I wouldn't turn my back on her"
"Riiight..." Neon replied in deep thought, "Nibai, stay here with Mighty and Snake...you know, extra support"
"Pffffft, whatever." Nibai replied.

Back inside the palace...

"That's the beauty of this device. It not only nullifies the brain's main receptors for pain, but it also removes such emotions as pity, remorse, and...HEY! WATCH WHERE YOU'RE SWINGING THAT THING!" Kirana-Fel explained...only to shout when an ill-aimed swipe from John nearly hit her head, "Plus, if given the order to kill, it improves his reaction time and boosts his aggressive levels off the charts! You might as well give up now, princess"
Adonna-Lyn was too focused in her fight with John to insult Kirana-Fel. As it was, John was coming far too close to killing her!
Then, it happened. John thrust his hand forward. Adonna-Lyn then felt herself being violently thrown against the wall behind her...and again...and again until she dropped her weapon!
She then felt herself being pulled towards John...then received a hard blow to the face that sent her the floor. She felt like crying, not only because she was in so much pain, but because the one she loved was causing it!
"Now, Enforcer...FINISH HER!" Kirana-Fel cackled as John wrapped Adonna-Lyn in a Force Grip, with her about 2 feet off the floor, grabbing her throat as he was strangling her with the power of the Dark Side of the Force.
Adonna-Lyn looked at John, his face contorted with anger, and pleaded, "John...please don't do this...it's me, Adonna-Lyn...your TRUE love"
"And what do you hope accomplish by pouring your bleeding heart out to him?" Kirana-Fel chortled, "Thanks to this device, my voice is the only one he'll hear"
"And we're sick of hearing it!" Neon shouted as she aimed her hands out and directed a fireball at the corrupt monarch!
Kirana-Fel leaped above the fireball and ordered, "Enforcer, destroy these intruders! ALL OF THEM"
Before John did so, he felt a hard Force-Push that sent him crashing into the bed! "Not bad..." Hanako commented, "I mean, for a Chandralite"
"You're not so bad yourself." Neela replied with a smile.
Adonna-Lyn hit the ground, coughing a bit from the choke hold, then dashed forward and kicked the device out of Kirana-Fel's hands...and into Vector's!
"So, this is the do-hickey causin' John to wig out..." Vector said, "Well, I know what to do with this..." He put it on the ground...and lifted his right foot.
"NO!" Neon, Adonna-Lyn, Neela and Hanako shouted.
"What?" he asked, confused.
Adonna-Lyn explained, "We need to free John from this device's control. From what I've sensed, there's some kind of mechanism that's burrowed its way into John's central nervous system"
"Oh. Okay." Vector replied, "So, how do we get it out"
"YOU DON'T!" Kirana-Fel snapped, kicking Vector hard in the stomach...and grabbing the device with her dreadlocks in the process, "This is MINE, you walking hand-bag"
With Vector groaning on the ground, Kirana-Fel brought out her sai daggers, snickering, "You know, that's what I'll make out of you"
"BACK OFF!" Neon shouted angrily as she slammed into Kirana-Fel head-on, sending the echidna crashing through her closet doors.
"Neon...you...you kept her from guttin' me..." Vector gasped between breaths.
"I just don't like the idea of reptillian skin being used as clothes or accessory covering, okay!" Neon snapped.
Hanako seized the wicked device, examined it...and pressed a button.
John screamed out loud as a foul, disgusting noise was heard...and those gathered watched as something was slithering about under John's skin on his head...and finally, a small drill-like object flew out of John's right earhole and right onto the top of the device.
Hanako dropped it, simply in reaction to this..."Vector, would you do the honors?" Neon asked.
"With pleasure." Vector growled as he brought his foot down and crushed the device.
John clutched part of his head, crying from the pain. Adonna-Lyn got over to his side, and began healing John back to full strength.
"Get your hands off of him, you little whore!" Kirana-Fel shrieked as she then tackled Adonna-Lyn...and then, they teleported out of the room.
John shook his head a bit and asked, "Did I miss something"
"Well, a lot, actually...right now, we have to get to where Adonna-Lyn and that monarch whacko went and fast!" Hanako said.
"Not a problem. Each of you hold on to me." John said with a smirk. When everyone did so, John teleported out of the room...and so did they...

Outside of the palace...at the exact spot...

"WOO! Cat fight!" Snake jeered as Adonna-Lyn and Kirana-Fel went at each other, their blades clashing, their eyes filled with rage.
Mighty watched them both with trepidation. Why were they out here already? Did something go wrong? Where were the others?
Suddenly, John and the others appeared behind him. Upon seeing John, he said, "JOHN! Man, are you a sight for sore eyes"
John weakly smiled at his armadillo friend and said, "Good to see you, too, Mighty. What's the situation?" "Well, your wife and the raging-hormone queen there are right on top of an elaborately planned trap." Mighty explained, "We placed a mini-seismic charge underground with an artifact given to us by a...friend. The artifact will de-spell the magic that keeps anyone from digging down into the maze long enough for Kirana-Fel to fall down there"
"And Adonna-Lyn?" John asked, a combination of worry and anger in his tone of voice.
Mighty looked dumbstruck for a moment..."Well, we kinda pre-planned that the two echidnas would duke it out in one of those Jurak-Tral thingys and then, with Kirana-fel exhausted from the fight, we'd activate the charge and let her drop..." he explained, "However, seeing how things are going NOW"
"HIT IT, SNAKE!" Nibai shouted.
"I can't, not while John'ssssssss wife issssssss in the way..." Chrome Fingers Snake shouted back, holding the remote detonator.
"FINE!" Nibai snapped as she snatched the detonator away from her former teacher, "I'll do it MYSELF"
"NO!" John cried out...but it was too late. Nibai pressed the main button for the detonator!
A sound like an electric guitar being strung (with the speakers at their maximum volume) was heard, as well as a low, vibrating hum.
Then, it happened.
Cracks in the ground began to appear...bits of earth began to sink out of sight into the inky darkness below...and by the time both female echidnas noticed it, much of the ground around them had fallen down into the maze!
Adonna-Lyn quickly punched Kirana-Fel off of her and made a mad dash for her friends, leaping on bit of falling terra firma to try and keep herself close to escaping her rival's fate.
At one point, she made a high leap...but John sensed it immediately..."She's not going to make it..." John realized fearfully.
He scampered forward...and his fears were confirmed. A bit of land that Adonna-Lyn had landed on broke away and fell, taking the echidna princess with it!
"ADON!" John cried out as he reached out to catch her hand...but missed!
Running out of other options, he called out, "Armor, capture cable!" Part of John's right arm became covered in his armor...and he shot out the cable, using the Force to wrap it around Adonna-Lyn's outstretched left arm!
When the line grew taut, however, John was pulled, face-first, to the ground, his right arm over the edge of the hole. Neon saw that he was truly straining himself to pull Adonna-Lyn up.
"Oh, come on, John! I don't weigh that much!" Adonna-Lyn called up to him...until she felt something grabbing her legs. She looked...and saw Kirana-Fel, her eyes reflecting her fury!
"I'll kill you...AAAAAAAAH!" Kirana-Fel started...but screamed as she lost her grip and fell.
John fired out a second capture cable and manipulated the Force long enough for the chord to wrap around Kirana-Fel, pinning her arms to her sides.
She laughed upwards to Adonna-Lyn, saying, "How do you like that, you little brat! He does have feelings for"
John was reaching for a button on the left gauntlet on his arm...the button for the cable release...leading to Kirana-Fel!
"Oh no...no..." Kirana-Fel begged...John grinned down at her, waved goodbye and severed the chord, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" With that, the echidna monarch fell, screaming into the darkness below.
That brightened Adonna-Lyn's spirit considerablely...she then began to climb, one hand in front of the other...but fell back down until the line tightened again. John was slipping...right to the point where he was about to fall in himself!
Mighty leaped forward, grabbed John by the ankles and pulled him from the edge, while Neon flew down, seized Adonna-Lyn around her waist and lifted her out of the hole.
Within minutes, the hole sealed itself shut.

Some time (and a couple of deleted scenes) later...

John eventually found Adonna-Lyn sitting on the bed in his quarters, a sad look on her face. He approached her and asked, "Adon...is something wrong"
"I've been thinking about our relationship...I mean, there was that moment we first met up with Kirana-Fel..." Adonna-Lyn said, "The point is, I don't know about you, John. After what happened in that moment, how do I know you'll be faithful to me"
"Adon, I think you know the answer to that." John replied, looking quite serious.
"To be honest, I think not! What if some other pretty face comes along and you go gallavanting off after that person! I don't want to lose you, John, but you're REALLY going to have to prove that you're worth it!" Adonna-Lyn finished, glaring angrily up at him.
John quickly went forward...and gave her a good, long kiss on the lips. As they parted for a moment, Adonna-Lyn, stunned, said, "One more time..." She then looped her arms around John and had them both topple headlong onto the bed...just as a loud blast was heard on the hull of the ship!
"Oh, now what!" John growled.
He ran up to the cockpit..."Oh, crap..." John muttered. On the view-screen was a fleet of various fighters.
"Off-hand, I'd say we're looking at...20..50 interceptor-class craft." Neon reported, "And oddly enough, they're property of the Kingdom of Acorn"
"Yo, bossman! Call on line 1!" Vector called out.
"Okay...Armor: Activate." John called out, having his armor covering him, "Everyone, get out of sight"
John, his armor hiding his true form, said, "This is the ShadowHunter. I am the Enforcer, bounty hunter, pilot, and commander of this vessal. You better have a damn good reason for firing on me"
"This is Geoffrey St. John of the Royal Secret Service. By order of his Majesty, King Maximillian Acorn, I'm placing you under arrest." the skunk on the screen replied.
John growled deep down. He always hated Geoffrey St. John, the smelly, arrogant prick..."Might I inquire as to what the charge is?" he asked.
"I think YOU should know THAT, echidna scum!" Geoffrey snarled, "You have 1 minute to surrender into my custody...or we'll be forced to open fire and destroy your ship." After that, the transmission was cut.
"Uh, boss, do you have an evil twin that we're not aware of?" Vector asked.
"Vector, I'm as puzzled as you are." John said, "They're trying to arrest me for some crime I probabley didn't commit...and given the recent timing, this must have happened while we were on Chandral"
"Attention! Unauthorized usage of Escape Pods 1 and 3!" the ShadowHunter's main computer announced.
John watched as one of the pods angled itself and disappeared into hyperspace. The other headed straight for Mobius.
"Ssssssssorry, guyssssss, but I want to live to ssssssssee my cassssssssino." Snake's voice said over the communicator's speakers.
"Alright, and thanks for your help, Snake. I've forwarded your fee to your account." John said.
Snake looked...and smiled, "Thanksssssss. Nicssssssse doing busssssinesssss with you, Enforcsssssssser"
Neon looked to John and asked, "Now what"
John grinned.
"Heh, I know that look. What are you up to?" Neon asked.
"I've been waiting to pull this trick since my bounty hunting days." John said, "Heavy, set Hyperspace coordinates for..."

Amidst the array of ships...

"Sir? Geoffrey St. John, sir?" one of the fighter pilots called.
"What?" the skunk asked, his right eye twitching.
"You gave them a minute to surrender...it's been ten minutes already..." the pilot stated.
"Okay, fine...we'll just blow the bej-UMPIN JACKRABBITS! Where'd he go!" Geoffrey shouted, for the ShadowHunter had vanished.
Suddenly, the ShadowHunter reappeared behind them and launched a horde of small devices...which exploded and hit the oppressing ships in a wave of energy...ion energy, that is. The figher ships had all of their systems shut down except life support and communications.
"Sorry, St. Jerk, but I'm innocent 'till proven otherwise." John said over the comms.
"RRRRRRRRR, DAMN YOU, ENFORCER!" Geoffrey shouted from his ship...

Epilogue...

Chrome Fingers Snake brought the escape pod he was in for a soft landing close to his casino...and was dismayed to see Mike outside, looking absolutely frantic. Snake knew that look pretty darn well.
"Mike, what did you do now!" Snake demanded.
"Well, remember how you told me to run the place as you would?" Mike asked sheepishly.
Snake grabbed Mike by the collar of his shirt and yelled, "ANSSSSSSSWER THE QUESSSSSTION! WHAT DID YOU DO NOW"
"Some teenage human came in, named Lando...something...and he has won 500 thousand Mobiums...that's almost enough to buy our casino!" Mike wailed, "I tried YOUR means of seeing that he doesn't win...but he JUST KEPT WINNING! He asked me for the deed to the Night Zone Casino"
"YOU DIDN'T GIVE IT TO HIM, DID YOU!" Snake yelled at his rat accountant.
"No...but things are starting to look ugly in there. The customers are getting restless." Mike whimpered.
"Lucky for you, the Enforcsssssser paid me a great deal for my time on Cssssssshandral...we may need to cover our lossssssssssesssssss." Snake muttered...

The End...or is it.

Copyrights

John the Echidna, Adonna-Lyn, Neela, and all Enforcer Saga-related material is copyright of John P. Fadeley.

Neon Dragon, Nibai, Chrome Fingers Snake, Mike the Rat, and all things Detrossian are copyright of Emma Goodman (love ya, sweetie!).

Hanako Fairhall and all pertaining to her are copyright of Hannah Lupton

Ben Wolfson is copyright of Brian Caslis

Heavy, the Chaotix, and all Sonic-related material is copyright of Sega, Sonic Team, Archie Comics and DiC.

Lightsabers, the Force, hyperspace, and all Star Wars materials are copyright of George Lucas (you rock, man! ), Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Fox.

SPECIAL THANKS

To Emma Goodman: Thank you once again for the usage of your imaginative characters and for the artwork you've done to inspire my fanfiction. I hope that your talent will take you far in life.

To Hannah Lupton: Thank you for the use of your character and for the large amount of fan art you've done for my fanfiction. May your talent for art bring you much fortune and happiness.

To Brian Caslis: Thank you for your writings, which have helped to further inspire my work. I look forward to your every reply at my message board.

To all major media companies: Thank you for the fruits of your labors, for they are a shining example to writers, artists, and movie makers.

To the Almighty: Last, but certainly not least, I thank you, God, for giving me my talents and my many talented friends. May you bless your children with peace and love through the harshest of times.

John has been wrongfully framed for crimes committed during his time on Chandral. Can he and his friends uncover the true perpatrator...and more importantly, can the perpatrator be stopped? Find out next time in "The Enforcer Saga Episode 11: A Smirking Shadow". Don't miss it!