Chapter 10 - Conclusive negotiations
Drasyre stood on the grass beside a phone booth, where Vector was trying to contact one of his informants. Drasyre sniffed the air, half-hoping to pick up the thief's scent. There were many smells, but none he recognized. He had had no more visions of the thief, which he regarded as a good thing and a bad thing. It was a good thing, because the visions hurt his head and he was glad that they were over, but a bad thing because he no longer knew how close he was to the gem and his body. He looked down at his puny limbs scornfully. They were nothing compared to his powerful dragon body, his silver scales that could deflect bullets, and best of all, the fire in his throat and jaws. He missed breathing fire ...
He paced up beside the phone booth. Vector's back was turned, and he was almost whispering into the phone. Drasyre's ears pricked up. Vector was saying, "We're already too close to Knothole, what're you talking about? Just have someone bring the gem down here. Yes, keep him there. What do you mean Slasher's coming? No, no, he'd never agree to that! What? No! I can't!" Vector glanced over his shoulder and saw Drasyre watching him, eyes narrowed.
"Gotta go," said Vector, and hung up.
As he stepped out of the phone booth, Drasyre growled, "To whom were you speaking?"
"A friend," said Vector. "They have the emerald, and they're sending it down here. They said to be at the Riverbase gates at four PM."
Drasyre glanced at a clock in the branches of a tree overhead. Three o' clock. In an hour he would be a dragon again. "What of the thief?" he asked.
Vector shrugged. "He's being taken care of. Come on." The crocodile strode up the street.
Drasyre hurried after him, fur bristling slightly with irritation. "What do you mean, 'taken care of'? I want him dead."
"Thieves don't deserve death," snapped Vector. "Punishment, yes, death, no."
"Honor demands it," said Drasyre. "A robbed dragon has the right to administer justice as he sees fit. By running from me the thief has ensured his death."
"You're in West Mobius," said Vector. "We have laws about these things." He pulled a ragged paperback book from his jacket pocket, opened it and held it out to Drasyre. "Got this out of my bag this morning. West Mobian laws. Right there, look: section three-seventy-two, pertaining to dragons. A wronged dragon must use the justice system like everyone else."
"I don't need a justice system," snarled Drasyre. His eyes had a red tint. "Dragons understand justice as well as anyone. Better, in fact. And justice will be done."
The dog and crocodile stalked the rest of the way to the gates in silence.
Slasher was already on her way. She wore a harness around her body like a horse's saddle, which supported a saddlebag on either side of her shoulders. The white Chaos Emerald was in one bag, and in the other she carried electromagnetic binders. The idea was to tie up the dragon to prevent him from going crazy with excess chaos charge. She had spoken to Sally about the idea of returning the emerald to the dragon at a distance from Knothole, and Sally agreed, although reluctantly. A dragon anywhere near a population center was a bad thing, and what if he attacked Riverbase? No one could fight an angry dragon.
Slasher felt sick to her stomach, and even a two-thousand foot altitude couldn't improve her spirits. It was clear and cold, and the wind carried her southwest with hardly any effort on her part. She had left after Sally had spoken to Vector, and Vector was upset and afraid. So was Slasher, for that matter. Spark had brought this danger on them all, and he was hiding in the Great Forest. She was angry at him, deep down, and she couldn't seem to get over it. Yes, he wanted healing from his disease, but at what cost? How many people would die for Spark's selfishness?
The communicator that was strapped to her wrist chirped. Slasher flicked it on. "Yes?"
"Slasher!" said Sonic's voice. "What're you doing? You can't let the dang dragon transform!"
"Sonic, every moment that he remains shapeshifted, the angrier he'll grow," said Slasher, settling into a glide.
"But Slash!" Sonic exclaimed. "It's a DRAGON! He'll come after Spark and kill everyone in Knothole!"
"We don't know that," said the raptor, but her voice shook. Sonic had voiced her own fear, and she was afraid that he was right. She swallowed and said, "The dragon has been wronged. Giving him back his property is the right thing to do, and it might perhaps give me some negotiation power with him."
Sonic sighed noisily into the speaker. "At least let me come with you. Where are you meeting him?"
"The Riverbase gates," said Slasher. "Four o'clock."
"I'll be there," said Sonic, and hung up.
Slasher flew on, feeling that this situation had suddenly taken a turn for the worse.
Alone in Sonic's hut, a young anteater sat on the floor, legs folded, the green Chaos Emerald in both hands. A green chao sat in his lap, gazing raptly at the glowing gem.
"I can't feel anything, Max," said Talon softly. "It's pretty and everything, but ... I can't make it do anything."
"I sure could," said Max. "But I'm a chao, and it's my emerald."
"The guy in the chao garden said that you might have got your power from me," said Talon, running a hand through his black forelock.
Max looked up at him. "Ooo, really? In that case, you won't do anything by just looking at the emerald." He jumped out of Talon's lap and stood beside his knee. He held up a flipper. "Give me your hand." Talon took the little flipper in one hand.
"Healing is a transfer," said Max, eyes alight with excitement. "You can't touch it directly. The great thing is that it heals you and the other person at the same time. Okay, now siphon the emerald through you and into me."
Talon looked at the gem in his left hand, and at the chao holding his right hand. Siphon the emerald? Somehow he knew what that meant. Frowning, he laid his ears back and clenched his fingers around the emerald.
A rush of warmth flowed up his left arm, through his chest, and down his right arm to Max.
Max jumped as if electrocuted. "You did it!" exclaimed the chao. "Whoa, you're really strong!"
Talon released Max and rubbed his chest. "Is it supposed to go through my heart like that?"
"Yeah," said Max, nodding. "It's like ... like it's checking to see how kind you are, or something. You're way stronger than me, so you must be really kind-hearted."
Talon smiled. Kind-hearted? He had never thought of himself that way. Wimpy, yes, always afraid, yes. Kind, no.
He rose to his feet and stretched. "I guess we can tell Knuckles and Sonic that I have a Chaos Fiel--"
Talon was interrupted as the door bust open and Sonic charged in. "I gotta go, sorry Talon," he said, grabbing the Chaos Emerald out of his hand. He vanished in a pulse of chaos energy, leaving Talon and Max standing there, stunned.
Knuckles looked in the open door. "He's so rude. You okay, Tal?"
"Yes sir," said Talon, picking up Max. "I used the emerald, but Sonic took it. I can do healing."
Knuckles grinned and clapped a hand on Talon's back. "I'm proud of you, kiddo."
"Can I tell Zephyer?" said Talon with a shy smile.
"Go right ahead," said Knuckles, and watched Talon run up the street. His smile faded, and he looked up at the afternoon sky. It was time to get his family back to the safety of the Floating Island.
Two miles from Knothole, in the depths of the Great Forest, there grew a tree that was thirty feet in diameter. It stood hundreds of feet above the forest floor, last survivor of an older world. In its trunk, someone had long ago cut and burned a small room. It wasn't large enough to harm the life of the tree, but it had once been enough to hide the Freedom Fighters. Now a single hedgehog sat inside, peering through the doorway at the sky.
Spark wore his silver headband that contained the eighth emerald shard, and constantly clenched and relaxed his hands, living and robotic. The dragon was coming. The dragon would find him.
"You've always known this," whispered the voices in his head. "Even a Chaos Wizard couldn't save you. Your crime has condemned you."
Spark had no answer for the voices. He knew that they were right. He also felt the tell-tale fever at the base of his skull. His agitation had caused his infection to flare up, and it was a matter of hours before he lost his mind entirely. How long would it last? What would he do while his mind was gone? He often woke up with blood on his hands and knife, with the voices in his head laughing in delight. Oh, how he wished for freedom from that!
He had been willing to steal from a dragon to end it, and it had fallen down around his ears instead. The voices mocked him as they gained strength, and he began to sweat as his fever rose. "I must stay here," he told himself, wishing that he could tie himself up. "Otherwise the dragon will find me. I have to stay here."
"The dragon will find you anyway," said the voices, laughing. "Run. Run far away. It's your only hope."
"No!" Spark snarled, clenching his fists. "I have to stay here!"
Vector and Drasyre arrived at the Riverbase gates as a nearby clocktower chimed four. As they stepped out onto the road that curved northward, following the river, they saw a strange lizard-like creature with feathered wings sweep down from the sky and land on the pavement a short distance away. A few seconds later, a blue hedgehog materialized in a flash of green light.
Drasyre's nostrils flared. He knew the blue hedgehog's scent. It had accompanied the thief's trail from the train station. So here was the one who could Chaos-Jump! A tricky adversary.
Vector and Drasyre walked up to the winged velociraptor and the hedgehog. "Drasyre," said Vector, "This is Sonic Hedgehog, and this is Slasher."
Drasyre nodded curtly to Sonic, but bowed to Slasher. She had six limbs, and therefore must be dragonkin. "A pleasure," said Drasyre. "You have brought my emerald?"
He knew they had it. The power resonated from nearby, and he could feel his dragon body, curled tightly in a small place, aching for freedom and laced with power. His canine body began to tremble uncontrollably.
"Yes," said Slasher. "But in exchange for that, I wish to plea for the thief's life."
"No bargaining now," said Drasyre, teeth chattering with his shivering. "Please give me my body back. I can't think until I have it."
Slasher extended both hands entreatingly. "Listen to me. I need your promise that you'll spare the thief once you transform. I know of the dragon honor code."
Drasyre was losing control this close to his full body. Her words scattered and became nonsense as they reached his ears. "Please," he whispered, clutching at his chest, where his hammering heart was threatening to burst from his ribcage. "Give me the emerald ... please ..."
Slasher looked at the silver retriever, gulped, and turned to open one of her saddlebags. "Sonic," she said softly, "take out the binders first. Vector, you and Sonic put them on Drasyre before I hand him the emerald. Then run."
Vector and Sonic gaped at her, and moved to obey.
But they never got the chance. Drasyre sprang at Slasher, ripped the top off the bag containing the emerald and sprang away with it clutched in both hands.
"Run!" cried Slasher. "Just run!"
The three bolted up the road as Drasyre dropped to his knees on the asphalt. "My beauty," he whispered to the emerald. "Give me back my body. Chaos FORM!"
The white gem exploded with light, pouring its condensed power into Drasyre's body. The hands clutching the emerald grew to the size of garbage cans, the arms gained the thickness of sewer pipes. His neck stretched longer and longer, and the dog muzzle lengthened and thickened into a dragon's jaws. His hind legs ballooned out and scales emerged to cover the fur, and the feathery tail grew into twenty feet of spike-studded sinew and gleaming scales.
Drasyre was a mithril dragon once more. He opened his wings and beat them, reared up on his hind legs and shot a plume of flame straight up in the sky. The white emerald remained clutched in one hand, and white lightning arced and danced over his body, meshing him in energy. He had emerged from the emerald with a chaos supercharge.
He leaped into the sky with a scream of rage. The thief! He must find the thief and exact justice! His mind swirled with the raw power, amplifying his rage a thousand times. First to kill and then to rend! The thief had held the emerald not an hour ago. The messenger had flown in from the northeast. The thief must lie in that direction.
With another roar and another spurt of flame, Drasyre flew off toward the Great Forest, streaming white lightning and crackling stars of energy.
Sonic, Slasher and Vector watched him go.
"I told you this wouldn't work," said Sonic.
Slasher gaped after the dragon with her jaw hanging slack. At Sonic's words, she came to herself. "We have to distract him," she said. "Sonic, on my back. Vector, run back to Riverbase and alert them that there's a mad dragon on the loose."
Vector saluted and ran back to Riverbase, relieved that she hadn't asked him to help fight Drasyre.
Sonic jumped on Slasher's back, and she launched herself into the sky in pursuit of the dragon.