Right, here is the next chapter, sorry that it's a bit late and shorter than normal, but I'm not feeling very well at the moment. Anyway, It gets me to a suitable cliff-hanger.
15. From Bad To Worse
Edward had been leaning on the glass when MJ had smashed through it in a desperate attempt to save their Mum. She'd given almost no warning though, and as Edward didn't know how to fly he'd fallen all the way to the fall. Slowly, he picked himself off his face.
MJ was staring at the hole in the wall that Blossom had just disappeared through. Her face was a perfect image of horror and disbelief. Her mouth hung open and her two fanged teeth wobbled sacredly. In comparison, the Prince looked rather pleased with himself.
"It's over!" he declared. "The defendant is guilty, and we shall take the world as punishment!"
MJ feel to her knees. "Mum…" she sniffled. Tears welled up in her eyes. Edward staged to his feet (ignoring the blood draining from his face) and ran over to her.
"It's okay MJ," he said, hugging her from behind. "It'll be okay…"
"NO IT WON'T, SHE'S DEAD!" MJ wailed suddenly, breaking down in a fit of tears. Edward held her tightly, but was also aware that it wasn't just blood dripping from his face. He tried to hold back the tears, if he broke too…
The Prince clicked his fingers and wondered slowly towards the two kids.
"You know," he said snidely, "I gave her a chance, an opportunity to save herself, and you two. But she turned it down. She thought that those pathetic fools down below where more important then you two. Her own kids." He smiled. "I bet that hurts. Really, really hurts."
Anything could have happened next. Edward thought that he would have just backed away, taking MJ with him, before braking into full "running away" mode. But instead, he left MJ staring at the floor and hurled himself at the Prince, swinging a punch at him with ever once of strength he could muster.
The Prince calmly caught the punch, and held the young kid up, letting him dangle from his own hand. Then he began to crush. Edwards face went pale, and he screamed in agony as he writhed helplessly. The Prince smiled.
"You're a fool," he said calmly, "just like your mother. And just like her, you will pay for it!" He looked at MJ, how was still staring at the floor desolately. "Now why couldn't you be like your sister, and except your fate?" he asked.
MJ's head rose up slowly. The crying had stopped, and her eyes now burned with rage. But it wasn't a humane rage, or even a puff rage. It was pure spider rage.
"YOU KILLED HER!" a twisted voice shrieked – a voice Edward hadn't heard since MJ had been out of control (Tangled Web) – and she threw her self at the Prince, her mouth dripping acid and the sanity gone from her eyes. The Prince calmly raised his other had to stop it, but this was a huge mistake as MJ, weaving through the air in a twisted yet graceful way, simply sunk her fangs into it.
The Prince screamed in agony, as the fangs pierced straight through his hand. He dropped Edward, how ignored is own mangled fingers and looked at MJ. She was gnawing away at her prey delightedly, with a strange look of satisfaction on her face. The Prince brought his now free hand up to smash down on MJ, but only succeeded in hitting himself, as MJ had now moved up his arm. He tried again, but Edward jumped on to his shoulder, and blew on the arm, freezing it in place. This only lasted for a moment, but as anyone who's trapped their fingers in a door on a cold day know, it meant it hurt a lot more when Edward hit him.
The Prince tried to ignore the irritating attacks of Blossom's son, because he was fully occupied trying to stop her daughter eating him. So Edward used this distraction to trip him up. As he fell, the spider instincts in MJ took over, and she dived mouth first for the throat, to administer a killing blow. But her victim had now finally got a free hand, and he smashed MJ across her flight path before Edward could do anything to stop it. It was a good hit, right on the side of the head, and MJ tumbled away, completely unconscious. Edward was looking at his defeated sister for a moment too long, because the Prince suddenly had him around the neck. His arm was in a very bad state, and he wasn't very happy about it.
"Right you freak!" he hissed at him, "I was going to do this the other way round," he picked up MJ by her neck, "but since she's knocked out I'll have to do it this way. I'm going to crush both your necks, but I'll crush hers faster then yours, so the last thing you see it your precious sister dying! And, thanks to the damage she did to my arm, that's going to take a very long and painful time!"
Sonic had finished explaining his plan. Tails nodded.
"I won't let you down Sonic," he said determinedly. "I'll go to the bridge and do that for you."
"Great, I new I could rely on you," Sonic said. Tails nodded, trying to look sort of tough, but he quickly gave up, and flew up to the air vent in the corner of the cell. The removed the guard, but Knuckles grabbed his foot before the fox could go.
"You're not seriously going there alone?" he asked, looking accusingly at Sonic.
"Of course not, Sonia's going to."
"Oh please," spat Knuckles. "I'm still legally responsible for her Sonic, so I'm going to."
"Yes I knew that," the blue Hedgehog said coolly. Knuckles blinked.
"Then why didn't you tell me the plan?"
"Because I didn't think you liked taking orders from people, especially me."
"I'm very good at taking orders!" growled Knuckles. This was of course a lie, but Knuckles wasn't going to let that get in the way of him arguing with Sonic.
"Alright," said the Hedgehog, "Prove it. I want you to follow all of Tails orders during this mission!"
"Fine!"
"You can start by letting go of my leg," Tails said. Knuckles did, with an I-told-you-so look on his face. Sonic chuckled.
"Maybe Shadow can go with you and adjudicate?" he said without even blinking. The up-until-now silent black Hedgehog suddenly appeared inches away from Sonic's face, staring straight in his eyes menacingly.
"You may think that you're back in charge Sonic," he hissed quietly, "and I will go on this mission for you, but I just want to make it clear that I still see you for what you really are, a murderer who is going to pay for it when we get back home!"
"What ever makes you happy Shadow. Now get out of here, it sounds like they've nearly finished outside."
Shadow turned, and he joined Tails and Knuckles in climbing into the air vent. Sonia however hesitated. Sonic looked at her.
"Go on then," he said, but she shook her head.
"I'm not leaving you Dad," she said. Sonic paused.
"She'll catch you guys up," he called to the vent. Tails responded with an okay, and they clattered off. Sonic turned to Sonia.
"It'll be okay," he said. "You go with them; I need you to do that for me. I'm going to cause a distraction, so the safest place to be is with Knuckles and co."
"But," Sonia blurted, "I don't want to leave you Dad. I don't want to be somewhere else if anything happens. I want to fight with you!"
"We'll get chances to do that later," he said. "And causing a diversion shouldn't cause me any problems. These guys are nothing on Robotnik, and I've got the Puffs to protect me…"
The door of the cell we flung open. "Well you took your time finishing those guards off!" Sonic said without turning round. But Sonia was jabbering helplessly. And the voice which responded was not one of the Puffs, or Ruffs.
"Sorry about the delay," growled Arm-OR, Buttercup firmly beaten on the floor behind him, "but at least I managed to defeat YOUR guards in less time then it took my lord to kill Blossom!"
Sonic turned round slowly. Oh shit…
Okay, please review. Thanks.
