Dragons were anything but simple minded creatures. Years of evolution on their home world had given them acute hunting intelligence, even that of puzzle solving. That combined with their fire, flight and sheer size and strength made them one of the greatest predators in existence.
Fiercely territorial, they patrolled the skies above hunting grounds. Often on their own, but when they felt their territory to be threatened by invaders they would move together into packs. There was hardly anything left to eat on Fellena now and their kind was growing more and hungrier.
The one who held their leashes however had forbidden them from attacking the felines on the floating island and show they circled endlessly looking for something left to eat. Before too long, they'd be forced to resort to cannibalism.
Teleporting past them, Sonic and Shadow emerged from Chaos Control on a small ridge just out of sight. Metal Sonic tagged along, reducing the burn from his built in engines to utterly zero to avoid being overhead. So he was forced to walk at that point along with them.
When they reached the craters Blaze had spoke off, they were created with a strange sight. An entire valley littered with holes from high velocity impacts stretched to the horizon. The ground was barren and cracked, deep ravines carved into the rock face.
But what was of real interest lay before them in the largest crater.
"What in the world is all this?" Sonic asked starting around at the scared remains around him as they walked down the side and into the crater bowl. There had been buildings here, quite recently in fact. Their shattered remains stood out against the dirt and mud on the ground. Metal Sonic knelt down and dipped his claws into the dirt, scooping it up inn his hand. It was blackened with soot, but he could tell right away that this had not been caused by the Dragons outside. They swirled around this hidden fortress; never flying too close as being with a certain distance of the craters caused them distress.
"This has to have been a laboratory of some kind." Shadow remarked, lifting a piece of curved glass out of the ground. It had been shattered directly along the front but it was clear it was some kind of container. Strange markings in a language neither Sonic nor Shadow recognised ran across the curved surface.
"Looks like those Dragons really tore this place apart." Sonic remarked, placing his hands on his hips, glancing around the scorched walls. Anything substantial inside this place had been reduced to ashes.
"I don't think so." Metal Sonic added, straightened up. "My sensors are detecting residue from an explosion." The two organic hedgehogs blinked before looking his way. The robotic hedgehog lifted his metal hand, showing them the blackened soil he had between his fingers. "This contains intense traces of carbonized materials, sodium and oxygenized particles." Sonic stood there with a blank look on his face. Shadow rolled his eyes.
"He's saying that a bomb did this not the Dragons." The blue hedgehog remained still before going…
"Oh." His face adopted a puzzled expression. "But I thought Blaze said their army didn't make it to the craters." Shadow took another look around at the debris around him. "I don't think they did, but then who set the bomb?" Metal Sonic remained silent as he let the dirt drop from his hand and as he did so, he noticed something in the ground by his feet.
"Well whoever it was." Shadow began. "It's clear there was something here that someone didn't want anyone to see and I doubt those dragons could use explosives."
"There's more to it than that." The robotic hedgehog added in. "Look at this." He jabbed a single metal talon down at the ground. Following his gaze Sonic and Shadow could see a foot print in the front. The print were deep at the heal, showing that whatever made them walked on two legs. Claw marks ended at each of the four toes but the print was far too small to have belonged to a Dragon.
The only thing either of them knew that matched these foot prints was a feline.
"I don't get it." Sonic stated, now terribly confused. "Why would felines set a bomb to go off here?"
"They're not even supposed to use them; their technology is too different for it." Shadow added, forged an annoyed frown. The print was relatively fresh. With the lack of rain in this world it could well be a few days old, but no more than that.
"Either Blaze was lying to us." Metal Sonic began slowly as he stood back up straight and stared back across the wasteland towards the faint outline of the flying island in the distance. "Or there's more going on here than even she realizes." The two organic hedgehogs behind him were silent for a moment.
"I think we should get back now." Shadow announced. Sonic just nodded in agreement.
-
Once again, Vector's suggestions proved fruitless. A cover-up of this scale wasn't going to leave much in the way of finger prints lying around. The entire editing section of The Falling Star media building was as clean as a whistle in terms of incriminating evidence, not that the chameleon expected to find any evidence simply lying out in the open for him.
Espio was quick to realize that if he was going to get anything in the way of solid evidence he going to have to go about doing it more directly.
Sliding unnoticed into the officer of the company's president, Espio stepped quietly into a corner, keeping his eyes on a secretary sitting at a desk on the far end of the room.
"Hey Espio, I've got some new data here for ya!" Vector's loud voice called over the microphone in his ear, so loud the woman looked up in surprise. Espio fumbled with the headset, quickly turning off the communications link. The secretary looked around for a brief moment, before shrugging her shoulders and getting back to her computer. The chameleon let out a silent sigh of relief and tiptoed past her, creeping across the room to the large double door with the words; Arthur Cross, Company President, printed in gold of a plague directly in the centre.
The chameleon put his ear to the door. He could hear nothing beyond. As quietly as he could he turned the handle. The secretary behind him was making too loud a noise with her typing to notice the subtle click as the door opened and then closed. Once inside, Espio surveyed the room. It was the President's office alright, a large pine desk at the far end with potted plants about in the corners.
There was a door leading into a side room in the wall on the right, a large set of windows revealing the city to the left. Espio, against his better judgement, switched the headset back on.
"Espio, what's the big idea?" Vector demanded almost at once.
"You almost blew my cover that's the idea." The chameleon replied, keeping his voice down as he became visible again. "Sorry I had to cut the line off there, what's the new Intel?" There was a brief moment of static as Vector handed the mic over to somebody else.
"Hey Espio, you there? It's me." A new voice asked. It was Rei.
"Yeah what's up?" The chameleon asked, advancing over to a collection of filing cabinets behind the desk.
"We checked the background on this 'Henry Patterson guy," The flying squirrel began. "He seemed pretty clean at first. Wife, two kids; job at Hexagon industries as a research scientist. Makes about twenty grand a year."
"Nothing about turning into a dragon unless he takes his medication?" Espio asked as a jest.
"Nope. But we did manage to find something interesting."
"Like?"
"We managed to get a look at his accounts up to his reported death. He was making a lot of dough from something, extra income way above his normal salary. He was even in the process of creating a Swiss bank account to hide it to avoid paying tax." Espio blinked in curiosity. Now that was interesting.
"Know where he was getting the extra stuff from?" The chameleon asked.
"No. But I can tell you it wasn't in anything illegal. In fact, the watch dogs looked the other way when it was deposited in his account. It was lawful, or at least everyone was paid to mind their own business."
"Then just where was he getting the extra cash from?" Espio wondered out load. Suddenly he heard voices coming from the door. It sounded like two men talking to each other and they were getting closer. "I'll have to call you back." The chameleon whispered into the mic before turning it off. Shadows cast themselves underneath the door before the handle began turning. At the last second, Espio turned invisible and darted slid to the side to avoid his shadow or faint outline being seen.
"It's getting too much to handle Frank." One of those who entered muttered. From his against the wall Espio watched. The speaker was the President of the company to whom this office belonged, Arthur Cross. The chameleon recognised him from the picture outside the door. "Their leaning on us to hard to print only what they say I'm loosing business."
"Whattaya mean loosing business?" The other man, Frank; Espio supposed, asked. He was a good head and shoulders taller than Arthur with short cut brown hair and gold eyes. He seemed a bit out of place in an office wearing a blue jacket and a pair of jeans. "With Hexagon running the show we get to run the other media groups into the ground."
"And what good does that do us if people won't use our company?" Arthur asked in return. "The public are refusing to buy our newspapers because we have those company tycoons telling us what to write about." He went over and sat down at his desk. "Now they're calling us liars because we told them what they saw is was a lie."
"We're the press Arthur." Frank reminded him. "Face it, at the end of the day; the public believe what WE tell them to believe."
"I can't be a party to anything like that." Arthur sighed, leaning on his desk burying his face in his hands. The top of his shirt had been undone and tie loosened. A great deal of anxiety was on his face.
"I thought you might say that." Frank replied, reaching into his jacket and withdrawing a gun. Espio froze at the sight of it. There was even a silencer on the end of the barrel. "That being the case, I'm afraid your run as President of the company is now over." Arthur looked him right in the face, eyes widening.
"What are you doing Frank?" The other human just raised the gun to point directly at him. "What in the name of hell are you doing?"
"Taking your place what does it look like?" Frank asked with a grim smile. "Hexagon's a tad concerned you might blow the whistle on them to the public and they can't have that. So that means you have to go. Falling Star's my company now."
"Killing me won't get you it." Arthur protested loudly, raising his voice to try and attract someone's attention.
"Don't bother yelling. No one can hear you, not even that busty secretary you keep around. I paid her to have a five minute early lunch break." Was Frank's reply, the sneer over his lips spreading wide. "As for the company, Hexagon's already given me their word that if you don't cooperate with them then it's all mine and since they're the legal owners, what they say goes."
"Wait… Wait we can make a deal…" Arthur began, slowing standing up out of his chair and holding his hands up defensively.
"Too late for that old buddy." Frank raised his gun and his finger tightened around the trigger.
"The police… the police will match the bullet to that gun…" Arthur whimpered, jabbing a finger several times at the weapon.
"Not with Hexagon pulling the strings of their budget they won't." Frank replied, mere seconds away from pulling the trigger. Espio had seen enough now.
Frank doubled backwards as something slammed into his stomach and then crashed to the floor as some invisible object scoured an upper cut across his chin. The gun went spinning from his hand and across the room. Frank tried swiping out but found himself unable to hit his invisible opponent. The chameleon became visible behind him, brought his leg sharply around and knocked Frank's feet out from under him. As he toppled backwards, Espio dealt one last blow to his head that knocked the human to the floor with a loud thud. He did not get up again.
Arthur was left standing there with a dumbfounded look on his face.
"You can start by saying thank you." The chameleon told him, turning to face the bewildered human.
"Just who are you?" The man demanded.
"My name isn't important." Espio told him sharply. "I want information and you are going to give it to me." His eyes cast a gaze back at the unconscious man on the floor. "And from that little scene I'm willing to bet you have it."
"He was supposed to be my best friend. We went to high school together." Arthur almost whispered. "But he was prepared to kill me without a second thought."
"And they'll be more after your neck before too long." Espio warned him. "Unless of course you want to tell me exactly what you know that Hexagon finds so threatening."
-
Blaze had already been told Void was returning with a specialist to help them unravel the mysteries of the Blood and that this specialist would not be a feline. Even so, she was quite unprepared for the sight of the being that accompanied them as the porthole opened up again.
The creature they returned with was perhaps the most bizarre looking thing Blaze had ever seen in her life. For a moment the feline almost mistook it for a Dragon with the scales running over the body as skin. It was roughly humanoid, with reptilian features like a long muscular tail acting as a counterbalance for the long and arms at the front. Its hands were cloven, each large finger ending in a curved talon. A pair of large, wet flaxen yellow eyes stood out at the front edge of the face curving out like a dome. There didn't seem to be a mouth, at least not one that Blaze could see. Its skin was dark grey, almost jet black but changed to crimson around the end of each limb and at the peek of its tail. Startled by the creature's appearance, Jack drew his hunting knife.
Blaze held her arm out to stop him from doing anything foolish.
"Jailos!" Amy began with a wide smile spreading over her lips, recognising the being as it emerged completely from the gateway.
Jailos was the Black Arm they met while their ship, the Typhoon had been captured by the Black Arm fleet. It was her who helped them escape the confines of the mother ship. Her race was Fesonian, heralding from the planet Feson; a world in a completely different spiral arm of the galaxy.
"Good to see you again Amy." Jailos replied with a slight inclination of her head. "When Void and Knuckles asked for my help I admit I wasn't exactly prepared for anything quite like dimensional travel." She waved her large hand in the air as if dismissing something.
"Yeah, this kind of thing takes a little getting used to." The pink hedgehog omitted with a slight grin. Suddenly she blinked, noticing the lack of a translator device around Jailos' neck. "Hey, you can speak in our language perfectly now!" The Fesonian equivalent of a smile passed over her face.
"It comes with practise." She explained. "As part of a good relation program between our two cultures, Commander Rikoye insisted all top officials learn how to speak English without the use of a translator device."
"You're a top official?" Amy asked in surprise.
"Well I was the one who took the initiative to help you during the rise of the Destroyer." Jailos reminded her. "I was awarded with the position upon my return to my people. It's purely a ceremonial title; my real job is overseer of the genetics division." She paused to give Knuckles a glance as he stepped out of Void's gateway tugging something of great weight out behind him. "Which his why I'm told I was asked to come here." The Echidna grunted one last time and pulled a large box twice his height out of the porthole before it shut behind him with a shunting sound like blunt metal scraping against itself.
"Just what is in this?" Knuckles asked, pausing to catch his breath. He could lift some of the heaviest boulders but this thing was almost more than he could hardly. It was roughly box shaped with a single silver line running horizontally around the middle. The strange rune like Fesonian language was seemingly engraved in vertical rows along the lid.
"That your luggage?" The pink hedgehog asked pointing at it.
"My equipment actually." Jailos replied, pressing one of her long fingers directly on the top. Like a snake shedding its skin, the surface peeled back layer by layer espousing a complex set of glass instruments underneath.
Void had brought the Black Arm here because their race were professionals in the field of genetic engineering. If that was what created the Dragon blood, Void wanted to know how, who by and of course the motive behind it.
Blaze was watching the alien set up her equipment with great interest, her large servant Jack standing nearby drumming his fingers on his quadriceps. He trusted none of their visitors, this newsiest edition by far. Noticing an absence, Void looked around to see that Amy was standing away from rest of them at the far side of the room looking out the window.
"You ok?" Void asked. Amy sighed but did not look back, continuing to the stare out the window across the stretch of the Felines city.
"Just confused is all."
"Confused?" Void replied.
"Everything's just gone mad." Amy continued with a melancholy look on her face, folding her arms on the window ledge. "Alternate worlds, dimension travel, alien races, zombie dragons…" He hissed through clenched teeth and let her head flop down on her arms in front of her. "I should be going to university by now if all this strange stuff didn't keep happening." She looked up and smiled grimly. "But what bothers me the most is I wouldn't chance my life in anyway." Void raised an eyebrow questioningly. "How could I sit down to exams and stuff when I know all this is going on. I've fought alongside heroes and helped save my world more than a dozen of times. How many people of campus age can say that?"
"Not many that I know anyway." Void replied with a looped grin. Amy smiled back.
"I mean, I want some of the normal things life has to offer but… I don't want to give up adventuring either." She paused and then sighed deeply. "I can't have both can I?" Void remained utterly silent for a moment.
"If you want advice, then you're probably talking to the wrong guy." He replied eventually. "I often wonder what my life would have been like if I hadn't repelled against Illumina that long ago." He leaned back against wall. "I guess I'd still be one of her utter loyal and fanatical guards, and by now she would have spread her influence to every corner of existence in an attempt to crush evil, but would have destroyed free will in the process." Amy blinked in confusion.
"That sounds horrible."
"Yeah it does." Void agreed with a single nod. "But it's still the path I didn't take so I wonder perhaps if it would have played out how I imagined it." He looked her straight in the eye. "And thinking about it now, it's something I don't think I could live with. You wonder how your life would be if you lived on Campus in comparison to your present one on a space ship? I think you can answer that question yourself." Silence endured between them for a moment. Amy sighed suddenly and then smiled.
"Hardly as exciting, that goes without saying and knowing about all this…" She gestured to nearly everything around her. "I don't think I could endure university for long." Her smile faded a little. "But it's normal, that's what I want, a piece of normalcy in my life. I just want something that's NORMAL!" Void managed his own grin.
"Define normal." Amy struck silent by that. "Everyone, on Earth and otherwise, has their own definition of what's normal. Take Sonic for instance. For him, it's perfectly normal to be in near constant combat with bad guys. Then Knuckles, for him utterly normalcy is living on an island in the clouds. Now does that sound normal to you?" She shook her head. "Damn right it doesn't and I can bet you if you ask them, they'd find the notion of going to University strange and unusual."
"It's all how you look at it huh?" Amy asked looking up.
"Try to keep that in mind when adrift in a sea of utter insanity." Void reminded her before floating away.
Jailos retracted her head back from the microscope lens and blinked her large yellow eyes to clarify them. Blaze looked up in anticipation anticipating anything that might be of some help.
"Now that's interesting." The Black Arm stated.
"What is?" Void asked floating near with Blaze near hovering over his shoulder.
"Well, from what I can tell…" Jailos began. "The Dragon Blood isn't actually a disease; in fact it's not even a proper form of life. D.N.A from various species have been blended together into one, thus creating the epidemic sweeping your world. It's a composite, trying to imitate life by copying, absorbing and then mutating the genetic code." Blaze nodded, not really understanding the words but getting the gist of it.
"The Dark one's experiments."
"Correct." Jailos replied. "I have tried to decipher what he mutated to create such infectious beings but the chemical bounds are so tightly interwoven I can not. Although one thing is already clear from that. This… Dark One… as you put it, had access to a genetics technology way in advance of my own." Void growled in his throat.
"I thought as much." He sighed through clenched teeth. "This is one hell of a dimensional breech. I just don't understand how it passed us by for so long."
"Another thing." Jailos continued interrupting the overseer of Maginaryworld. "The genetic code of the Dragon Blood isn't simple a random blurring of species created by an accident. It's far too complex a strain for that."
"What do you mean?" Blaze asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I mean this, Dark One, of yours couldn't possibly have made the mistakes that created the Dragon Blood. A genetic splicing this superior could not be a simple accident." Void and Blaze cast each other a glance.
"You mean he unleashed it on purpose?" They seemed to ask at the same time. Jailos nodded once.
"That's the only conclusion I can draw at the moment. I might have more given time."
"That monstrous bastard!" Blaze hissed. Void remained silent, his eyes narrowed as he hovered there deep in thought. Something very strange was going on here. Why would anyone purposely create a virus as deadly as the Dragon Blood? Surely they wouldn't go to all that trouble simply to be malicious? But try as he might Void could not seek out the reasoning behind it. Perhaps there was more to it, a nugget of information he was missing.
Hopefully, when Sonic's team returned they would have some more light to shed on the subject.
And they did, but it what they came back with was more confusing than revealing.
"What is this?" Blaze demanded and the three hedgehogs, two organic and one mechanical confronted her upon their return.
"You heard me." The blue hedgehog stated with an unblinking stare. "Whoever was up there had that place blown sky high, by a bomb planted by a Feline." The cat stared him out for a grand total of five seconds.
"That's ridiculous." She eventually stated. "My people can't even leave the island. How could we have possibly gotten to the craters to do as you claim? None of us have ever been there." Okida was silent for a moment, putting a forefinger and thumb to his chin deep in thought.
"You say the Dragon's can't stand the presence of the Arcanum?" Shadow asked and Blaze shot him a sharp, blade edge like glare.
"Of course. It's what keeps them off the Island."
"So in theory you could remove the Arcanum from the energy chamber, take it with you and it would keep them from burning you alive. Like a giant bug zapper."
"In theory." Blaze reminded him. "But you forget; the Arcanum is also what keeps this island flying above the devastation below. Without it, we'd drop like a rock into the ground."
"Yeah, besides, what motivation could they have for blowing up that place?" Knuckles asked, taking Blaze's side in the argument.
"How long can the island stay airborne without the Arcanum?" Okida asked after ending his brief moment of silence.
"About a few weeks if we went on energy conversation for that long." Jack replied. "That's how we managed without it when the Apes had their raid."
"Then there's your answer." The major told him. "Simply take the Arcanum, travel to the craters and back, then place the Arcanum back in its place before your home goes crashing down."
"Believe me, if the Arcanum had been taken, I'd notice." Blaze told him, tapping a finger to her forehead and the perfectly oval red jewel there. "This is the locator stone. Its connection to the Arcanum itself keeps me informed of its present whereabouts at all times. It's what altered me when the Apes stole it."
"But it doesn't work as well in their world I'm willing to say." Void began suddenly, his eyes widening. "Tell me Blaze, who gave you that stone?"
"The court magician, Sebastian, the Overseer of the Arcanum." She replied. "He's an expert enchanter. He harnessed the magic jewel from a fragment of the Arcanum that broke off several years ago." There was a sudden silence as Void hovered there, mouth half open. Suddenly he shut it and folded his arms.
"Just the one fragment for this?" He asked, gesturing in the direction of the red jewel. "The Arcanum's capable of lifting an entire continent into the air. Something tells me a fragment ought to manage more a simple locator spell and teleportation enchantment."
"What are you saying?" Blaze asked with hard eyes. "That Sebastian's been deceiving me?"
"If he was the creator of that stone, he may very well be in control of when it alarms you to the Arcanum's removal or not." Void replied simply.
"But why?" Knuckles asked, now the most confused of all those here. "Why go to all that trouble? Why the elaborate scheme? What would he gain from it?" He paused and smiled cruelly. "And what evidence have you got to support this theory?"
"None at the moment." Void admitted. "But I think a word with Sebastian might be in order." Jack cast Blaze a side glance and she did the same, a silent conversation passing between the two of them.
"And I'm inclined to agree with you." Blaze announced after the moment had passed. "I don't know what's going on, but I will not tolerate such things in my city." During the march down to the mages common rooms, it was clear anger was festering in Blaze. Her eyes were alight with rage and burning with embers of frustration.
Sebastian's apartment was a small room at the back of the fortress grounds and by the time they reached the large front door a large crowd had gathered with them, murmuring with conversation; all of them eager to see what the matter was.
Blaze hammered on the door when she reached it but no one came to answer.
"Sebastian. Come on out!" Blaze ordered and still the door did not move. "I'm giving you an order magician!" Not a sound came to her in reply. "Jack, break it down." She announced, her patience finally slipping. Jack cracked his knuckles.
"With pleasure." He stated before throwing a huge fist forward shattering the door right down the middle. Splinters flew everywhere as the door flew inwards, skidding across the inside of the apartment. The inside was so dark it took a few moments for their eyes to adjust to see what lay beyond the threshold. Blaze opened her mouth to order her magician out, when her words froze in her mouth at the sight inside.
There was no wonder now why Sebastian could not come to answer his door. Amy gasped and put her hands to her mouth. Okida just grimaced and looked away. Sonic and Knuckles shot each other a nervous glance before staring back. Lying on the floor by the side of an oak table was Sebastian, face down in a pool of blood. Driven through his robes and in through his back was a dagger, the hilt pointed upwards towards the ceiling.