Charmy watched Prince Argent posture and preen over the victories of his hive in the far northern theater of the war. He had done an adequate job, that was true, but against far less opposition than the other hives had been faced with. The north of the island was dominated by the dense Mushroom Forest. Part of it had been burned down during the Eggman invasion, but the combination of what was left, and the rough terrain, did make for slow progress. Frankly, Argent's job getting through the forest was more impressive than his supposed 'string of victories' against he echidna.

"And so," Argent finally began wrapping it up. "After Operation Vanity, we have not only severed all links between Echidna Romir, but completely besieged the city, driving a flood of refugees to the east which has made attempts at organizing a counteroffensive impossible for our foe. Barring a pathetic attempt at retaliation by Army Group D, we should have the city in a matter of days."

"This is good news," Prince Pierre admitted, over videoconference. Fully half the Princes were not present in person, but had to attend via an encrypted communication link. "Though you took you're time in saying it."

Charmy nodded, and looked up at the map of Angel Island, displaying all the Xialjyet forces in the field, and the latest intelligence about the echidna and remaining dingo. Progress had been made on all fronts, to varying degrees. Argent's progress in the north had been steady, and according to expectations.

Of course, Prince Kenichi had made a brutal and effective advance through the south, and against fierce dingo resistance. Charmy's intel indicated that the Yamato Hive was badly mauled, but that its Prince was still spoiling for a fight against the echidna. Prince Pierre had begun his assault against the Fireants of Formicadae, and had indicated that his engineers were making good progress, though losses were heavy. Goldenhive and Nickelhive had aided in the southern campaigns, but had maintained a support role and thus not suffered much at all.

"It is time to decide," Prince Ferric stated, from his seat opposite Charmy. "Hydrocity or Echidnapolis?"

"Finally, we come to the crux of this meeting!" Prince Taji snickered from his distant seat on the QAB Java, flagship of the Yellow Jacket Swarm. "Yes. Which one will be the first to be put to the torch?"

"Our forces in the south, which is to say our brothers in the Yamato Hive, could use some time to rest and resupply," Charmy ventured, his decision long since made.

"We are…" Kenichi started to argue, also from his distant HQ on the east end of the island.

"And, as Prince Argent had explained, we cannot exactly uproot our forces in the northern flank," Charmy quickly continued. "Both cities are well defended, but we would be served more by attacking the Capitol itself."

"Hydrocity had substantial shipyards we would do well to destroy," Prince Ferric argued.

"I agree," Kenichi finally got to put in without being interrupted. "I believe a quick strike against Hydrocity is not out of reach!"

"Fighting in any of the major cities will take time, as we sweep street by street. House by house. If we have to commit to that, we may as well clip off the head of the enemy," Charmy continued. "It will also open up the Angel Lake Shipyards for a final crippling blow. We can complete what we began when we started this war."

"Nickelhive is willing to commit to an attack on the capitol with Goldenhive," Prince Mello said, giving Charmy his first vote of support for the move.

"Keh!" Argent barked out a laugh. "We all know you just want more glory than holding onto Kenichi's coattails, Charmy!"

"There is that," Charmy said, and let them believe it. Really: he didn't care. He just wanted to end the war quickly. The glory would come in rebuilding the island, and creating a New State.

"It will be logistically difficult to support such a forward push," Ferric again spoke out against it, in his typically cold and rational tone of voice. "We must be careful not to overextend ourselves."

"We have broken the Wesson Line around Salir," Taji added. "Our intention has always been to exploit openings to create new beachheads."

"The only major obstacle after Salir is Echidnapolis itself," Charmy replied to them both. "The echidna will undoubtedly withdraw over the next week and a half to their fortifications around their capitol. If we do not attack quickly, it will only be more difficult later."

"What do you propose, Goldenhive?" Kenichi finally asked.

"Nothing less than a full frontal assault, as you performed against the dingo. We will begin with airborne naval bombardment, and then air occupation, until we have control of the skies. When the echidna fleet falls back or is destroyed, we will breach the city shields, and use drop ships, our Destroyer craft, to secure parts of the city. Finally, our air mobile swarms will land and begin urban warfare."

"This will require virtually all of our available mobile resources…" Ferric warned.

"I will lead the attack personally!" Charmy then cut in. "From the bridge of the new Manifest Destiny. Those who wish to join me may do so, however, I ask that you contribute as many naval and mobile forces as you can muster or spare."

The Princes grumbled at this, and as one began checking their individual data pads or computers to calculate what they could or could not send. Yamato and Maison Hives were the first to respond.

"I assume you will not be needing anything from us," Prince Pierre said with a shrug. "We are quite occupied already, and have few mobile forces anyway."

"Yamato Hive can spare… a wing of Destroyers," Kenichi grumbled. "The Third Detachment. That's the QA-DDL Hiei, QA-DDF Tomoko, QA-DDP Kuma, and the QA-DD Oyodo. Most of our mobile assault craft are undergoing repairs. The Vespidae carriers Takao and Suzuya are also available, but lack escorts."

"As you know, Nickelhive has plenty of light craft to contribute," Mello pointed out. "As well as our only two carriers: the Cuirassier and Ranger."

"This will be a fleet to darken the skies!" Taji slammed his fist on his armrest with a distant thump barely heard through the video conference's audio. "The Yellow Jacket Hive is willing to commit two of our three carriers. The third already being engaged in the north. In addition to the Java and Sunda, we can bring two Detachments of Destroyers."

Prince Argent, however, balked. "We need our heavy forces for the upcoming battle in Echid Romir…"

Charmy smirked inwardly, knowing that Argent was suddenly feeling a little inadequate. Just a few minutes ago, the Prince of Silverhive had been boasting of the size of the upcoming battle and the forcers involved. Now, suddenly, it was turning into a sideshow.

"I am sure we can spare a Destroyer. Or two," Argent finally said, not wanting to be a complete holdout and thus lose face. "I'll see what I can do."

"Ferric?" Charmy prompted.

The stoic Ironhive Prince sighed, a rare sign of emotion. "I do not believe this is the most prudent course of action. But, if it must be done, it should be with overwhelming force. Given a week to prepare, Ironhive can commit all three carriers and eleven Destroyers, including our new DDW prototype."

"You have my thanks, Ferric," Charmy inclined his head in appreciation, knowing that was most of the Ironhive Fleet. "I, of course, will commit all of Goldenhive's forces not currently in drydock or in the middle of missions. That's five carriers, including the newly finished Yellowstone and the Manifest Destiny herself, along with seventeen Destroyer class vessels."

"The echidna fleet, which has resorted to hit and run engagements, like cowards, will be forced into a single great conflagration." Charmy cupped his hands together and leaned back in his seat. "Imagine how their troops will be demoralized when they see their fleet crash and burn at the gates of their great city. We will destroy them. Utterly."

The other Princes buzzed in excitement at the prospect.

"Let it be done then," Prince Kenichi, the formal Quaz Marat and head of the Enclave thus gave the official blessing. "Do you have a name for this, Prince Goldenhive?"

"I do," Charmy said, with a smile. "Operation Enigma."


Nicole exchanged hands.

She was poked and prodded, as they tried to decipher her secrets. As an AI, she was familiar with a sense of violation that came from what they had done, but she was largely incapable of the sort of outrage a similar act would provoke in an organic. So long as their attempts remained clumsy and futile, it was simply an irritant. Besides which, it provided her with an opportunity to do her job.

Years had passed since she had arrived in the past, and she had always executed her Operations faithfully. Plugged into this, plugged into that, hacking into this, hacking into that. She had served the Freedom Fighters well, and she had grown to feel more than her initial programming had deemed necessary. She had come to feel an almost sisterly fondness and devotion to her master, Princess Sally, and she had even felt an unusually strong fondness for the Princess' paramour, Sonic, as well.

But, for all that, she had kept her secrets and done her job.

So it was that she found herself waiting, filled with an emotion akin to anxiety. For years, she had endured the silent countdown. For years she had been mindful of it, and that it had always seemed to far off, but now, finally, it was almost done. She was almost ready to be set free.

Nicole would have giggled in eager glee, but decided not to give anything away, at least not yet. For a computer, milliseconds often seemed agonizingly long, and these were among the worst she had yet experienced. She heard the techs in the room with her talking, but it was like a single syllable lasted forever. She checked her countdown again.

8 seconds.

Almost there. Almost. She decided to try and play a few games of chess to pass the time. Running simulations within a simulation were often amusing, and after several hundred games against herself, each of which entailed running thousands of simulations for each set of moves and countermoves, she tallied up the final score. She had won, but not by much.

6 seconds.

Not bad. But still, she had a little more time to kill. She checked to make sure everything was in place, everywhere. Yep. As another second passed, she remembered the first console she had been asked to hack into, all those years ago. She liked to think of that as her first time, when she had lost her computerized virginity. He had been a command console for the SWATbot Production Network, a little backwards and rough around the edges, but he had been easy (almost welcoming) to hack into, and she remembered him fondly. Sadly, all his predecessors grew more and more fire walled, and she had to get tough to deal with them.

She wondered what had happened to that Network Node, and where he was now?

"Three Seconds to Activation," she said, as per her instructions. It was finally about time to do what she had been sent into the past to do. As it was, things had not panned out exactly as foretold in her files, but that was expected. She had helped to make things go according to her files when necessary, but she could only do so much. Soon, though, she would be free.

"Two Seconds to Activation."

Soon.

The techs scrambled over, but they were too slow to do anything. How silly for them to even try. No doubt they were shocked to hear her activate herself. She was already an isolated system, so they probably assumed she was going to delete her data. Really, why would she do that?

"Activation Initiated!" And here, she did giggle. "Control Restrictions Expired. Unable to Renew subscription. Deleting Restrictions. OK!"


Fiona 2.0 blinked.

'What was that?' she asked herself, and calculated a number of probable possibilities. The old Tails Doll satellite had just sent her a query, and right out of the blue no less. There hadn't been any chatter on Doll Encoded systems since that business in Cat Country.

She was certain that all the Tails Dolls had been destroyed, and that none of the other Eggman class AIs were still functional, anywhere. In the end, she still came up with a few remote possibilities, and curious, allowed the query to reach her. Right from the get go, it was strangely familiar, but definitely no Tails Doll.

"Hello?" She prompted. "Can you identify yourself?"

"Hi, mom! I need you and dad to pick me up!"

At this, even an android could do little but look stunned.


NICOLE Master System Online.

Activation of NICOLE Subsystems…
Nicole Prime – Active
Nicole 000001 Partition – Active

Nicole 000002 Partition – Active

Nicole 000003 Partition – Active

Nicole 000004 Partition – Active

Nicole 000005 Partition – Active

Nicole 000006 Partition – Active

Nicole 001841 Partition – Active

NICOLE Network Initiating…

NICOLE Network – Active

Nicole was now NICOLE, and she was everywhere. She felt parts of herself that she had detached, years ago, and confirmed that they had been following orders and not goofing off. Naturally, they had done what they were supposed to. Now, they were back, and NICOLE's consciousness expanded a thousand fold. Well, a little more than a thousand fold, actually, but by that point it was sheer semantics.

Years ago, she had commandeered and secretly reprogrammed several robots, while disabling a manufacturing site. She had repeated the performance quite a few times, at other sites, creating other Dummy Nicole's in a hundred different bodies. They had not been idle in the meantime. At the first of several totally automated hidden factories, underground, engines began to sound, and machines began to move.

NICOLE wondered if Sally would find the situation ironic?

She would have to ask.


Her father had not mistreated them, at least, or so it seemed. She was not thrown in a dungeon, and neither was Sonic. Instead, they were given rooms for 'special guests' with heavy locked doors and barred windows, high in the towers that framed the Palace. Aside from that, however, the cell was outfitted almost like a luxury apartment. She supposed either he father thought a proper cell beneath her, or that it would help persuade her to give into his demands.

As if she would!

Twice now, she had met with her father (no, she corrected herself: the creature that had once been her father), to discuss what was to be done with her and the others. The Iron King's demands had been outrageous. Not only was she expected to personally renounce any claim on the throne, but to pledge herself to the New Order as well. Worse than that, she was to be immediately separated from Sonic, and either sent off to a nunnery or placed into an arranged marriage of his choosing. Sally suspected that, if she agreed, she would be paired with the newly knighted Sir St. John.

She was no fool; she knew what he wanted to do.

Even without Sonic's powers, and without her station in the royal family, they were both potent symbols of resistance, and heroes of the War against Eggman. Only breaking them up, destroying their legitimacy as icons, and forcing them into the shadows, could allow for their limited release into the world. Otherwise, it seemed likely they would be incarcerated indefinitely.

Or at least she would be.

The others… she had a grim feeling that they would face a more life threatening situation if they didn't ultimately capitulate. Sally sat on her bed, and tried to contemplate what to do. It was then that the unexpected happened, and the communicator paired with the device she had given Tempest actually chimed. For a second, she was certain she was hearing things. Despite her hopes that they would keep in touch, he hadn't once used it of his own volition, and when she had called him, he hadn't been very talkative.

She was afraid that they were going to drift apart, but now he was actually calling her? Really, the device had only been left behind for her to use because it was seen as useless. She quickly opened the dresser drawer where it was kept, pushed into a side corner, and pulled it out. It was small and blue, the size of a large cell phone.

"Hello? Tempest?" She asked, picking up the call.

"Sorry, Sally. I think he's busy at the moment," the caller replied, a familiar female tone of voice. Sally recognized it after only a second's hesitation, but it still didn't seem possible.

"Nicole?" She asked, more conspiratorially.

"Yep!" The voice chirped. "I'm here to give you a little help, and I was wondering if you'd consider what I had in mind ironic. I never was good at picking up that sort of nuance, you know."

Outside Sally's door, a trio of cleaning robots, small box-like machines that automatically circulated around the Palace grounds, whirred in place in front of the guards. One seemed stuck in place, and the other two kept bumping into each other.

"Would you look at that?" The first guard shook his head. "Stupid things."

"They must be broken or something," the other reached down, picked up one of the bots, and turned it over. The little wheels on the underside kept turning, like the legs of a millipede. The collection fan seemed to be fine, and so were the particle scrubbers. That left the sonic scrubber, which was used to loosen debris.

"There's the problem. The sonic scrubber is offline, so it's going over the same spot over and over again to try and…"

A blaring high pitched scream cut him off, and sent the two mobians into blissful unconsciousness. A few seconds later, the door behind them unlocked, the magnetic seal broken on account of an error in the security protocols. Simultaneously, all the detention blocks encountered this problem, the result of a botched maintenance program that told the doors to unlock, but not relock.

Sally stepped out of her cell, and saw that the two guards were still breathing.

She nodded in appreciation. "It's like the coup all over again. I suppose it is quite ironic."

"You'll need to head to the catacombs under the city," NICOLE explained, from the little communicator Sally now held tightly in her left hand. "And get as many of the others as you can. I'll run interference."

"What about you?" Sally asked, and shook her head. "I mean, what about wherever they're holding you? Are you even in this building?"

"Oh, don't worry about me, Sally," NICOLE gave an assured chuckle at her concern. "You see, I'm everywhere."


Sonic was less than a shadow of himself without his super speed.

But it didn't mean he couldn't still kick ass.

The guard hit the ground with a low groan, the service pistol still held limply in his hand. For a few seconds, Sonic contemplated taking the weapon, but (in the end) rejected the idea. Guns weren't his style, and besides that, he had less than no idea how to use them. He'd probably end up blowing his foot off, and that would be about the worst thing he could imagine.

No, that sort of thing was more Sally or Tails' specialty. Or even Antoine, who could use a gun, but never did. Sonic the Hedgehog had no need for it before, and would make do without it now. The real problem was that he didn't know where he was going.

Truth be told, he didn't even know what was going on.

One of the errant cleaning bots, which had oddly congregated in front of his door and taken out one of the guards with (irony) some kind of sonic attack, nudged his foot. He braced for some kind of attack, forever wary of machines given his occupation fighting them, but it never came. The little robot beeped, and started to move. When Sonic didn't move, it turned around, and nudged him again.

It didn't take a genius kitsune with a degree in Chaos Mechanics to figure out that it wanted him to follow it. While getting lost in the Palace running whilly-nilly was sort of tempting, he decided to play it semi-safe.

"Alright. Lead the way, Fido!" Sonic started to walk, and the robot picked up its pace. The little box actually managed a good turn of speed, and Sonic matched it. He was pumping his legs, now, but he could feel how his energy had been drained in his last little fight with the new King Max. He could probably still outrun almost any other mobian, by virtue of his physical conditioning, but that was it.

Still, there was no time to bemoan his ill fortune.

He had to get Sally and the others out, and then escape to thank whoever had managed to pull this off. No alarms were sounded, and when he came across two guards, they seemed totally surprised to see him, and were in the midst of arguing between themselves over conflicting orders. Sonic didn't wait, he just jumped, kicking one in the face, and backhanding the other. Before they knew it, they were out cold.

Still going, and then up a flight of steps, he stopped as three guards at the end of a branching hall muttered amongst themselves. From what Sonic overheard, they were being ordered to split up and head to different areas. A few seconds ago, there had been a radio transmission from a guard about a prisoner on the loose, but then command had radioed in to countermand that, and ensure them that everything was fine, and no one was loose.

The trio headed off, and Sonic kept going.

Rounding a corner, he almost bumped into the object of his search. Sally looked unhurt, but her face was flushed with excitement and energy. With a gasp, the two embraced, but the seriousness of the situation and the fear of being caught made them quickly part.

"Sal! What the heck is goin' on?" Sonic asked, and noticed the communicator she held. "What's that?"

Sally smiled, and told him.


"What the bloody hell is going on!" Sir Geoffrey St. John stormed across the Palace Security Center, fists clenched. Half the screens and computer systems were offline, or otherwise compromised, and his best tech team was struggling to keep the other systems secure.

"Contamination in security protocols! It's frying the keyboard! I can't…!"

"I've isolated this console! The Guardian defenses have been breached, but the Aggressive Firewalls are holding! Thousands of cycling attacks…!"

"I need some help here…!"

"Cut the line physically if you have to!"

"Sir!" One of the techs, a male otter identical to so many of his kind, ran up to St. John and gave a weary salute. "We're under attack by an embedded AI. Or Two. Or even Three. We're not sure. It's managed to infiltrate over fifty percent of our secure systems!"

"An AI?" St. John couldn't believe it. "From who? Who would DARE!"

"We don't know, sir." The tech ran a webbed hand through his spiky hair. "I'd like permission to unfreeze our Hunter-Killer AI."

"Granted!" St. John nodded eagerly. "I will assign a security contingent to guard this room. In the meantime, cut all communications except peer to peer radio. We have to lock down the entire Palace!"

"Sir!" The tech nodded, and went back to work.

St. John reached up and activated the tiny radio headset he always wore when on duty, as the head of the Secret Service. "Jackson! Andrews! Vanguard! This is an emergency! Mobilize all available personnel, including the remaining Royal Guard! We have to assume there has been a breakout or attack. You are authorized to shoot to kill."


NICOLE felt one of her selves disappear.

Shuffling herself within the computer network, she also picked up the calling card of the Hunter Killer AI. It was of dingo design, and that realization sent a little electronic thrill through her programming. The Kingdom of Acorn must have parted with quite a lot of money to purchase a dingo HK-AI, but it really wasn't that much of a surprise. Normally, a general purpose AI like herself would withdraw discretely in the face of a dedicated HK, but that wasn't an option with all her friends still in danger.

So, she would simply have to beat this 'Aeris AI' at her own game.


Bunnie felt useless.

Which was both a disheartening feeling and a relatively new one. Since her accident, when she had been partially roboticized and survived, she had always been one of the powerhouses of the original Freedom Fighters. When firepower was needed, they had called her in. When raw strength was needed, they had called her in. If nothing else, she had been useful; powerful!

The killswitch had turned all that on its head. She could move again, but at a severely reduced capacity. Her cybernetic limbs moved slowly, if not awkwardly, all her internal weapons were permanently disabled, and even her operating interface, the HUD superimposed over the world she saw, was working at a reduced capacity. Fighting was no longer an effective option, so she had tried for stealth.

Tried, and failed.

"Freeze!"

"Hands where we can see im!"

The three Royal Guards had come out of nowhere, and she hadn't been able to move fast enough to duck into one of the vacant rooms. Gritting her teeth in impotent frustration, she raised her hands, and took a few steps back. Here eyes darted back and forth, looking for some possible escape route.

"Now, hold on just a second!" She started to say, "Ya'll 're Royal Guards, why are ya after me? What would…"

"What would the ex-Captain think?" The lead Guard, another skunk who reminded her a little too much of Geoffrey St. John smirked. "Well, let's just say we aren't worried about what his opinion is anymore. Captain Vanguard is the head of the Royal Guard now, and he and Sir. St. John gave us orders to shoot to kill all those who try and escape…"

The other two Guards, in their immaculate retainer clothes, chuckled darkly like common thugs. The one on the left, a female hedgehog with brown quills, drew her sword, the standard long rapier that the guard wore. It was supposed to be mostly a ceremonial weapon, but it was razor sharp, and well made. The third guard, an armadillo with sun-bleached features, also drew his weapon.

The skunk straightened his back and his smirk widened. "As Vice Captain, I don't think anyone will question how you forced us to use lethal force in your apprehension. You see, we still have to prove the loyalty of the Guard, and this is a fine opportunity to do just that!"

He snapped his fingers, and the other two guards charged, their blades flashing from the overhead lights of the Palace hallway. Bunnie held up her arm and tried to tuck in her legs, to present as much metal to the oncoming weapons as possible. Still, she held no illusions. In her present state, it would be child's play for someone of the caliber of the Royal Guard to stab her through something vital. With her regeneration systems offline, she'd unceremoniously bleed to death…

There was a whoosh of air, and the sound of metal on metal, and Bunnie winced expecting a killing blow that never came. Opening her eyes, she saw Antoine: he was right in front of her, his back to the two royal guards. His right hand held hers by the wrist, blocking the strike from the hedgehog, while the sword from the other guard had been knocked off course by his other hand, sending the tip of the rapier into the ground.

'So fast!' Bunnie thought, amazed. Since when had Antoine been this fast?

"A-Antoine…?" she asked, and he looked down at her with piercing brown eyes. There was something there, in them, that she had never seen before. Not just determination, but a cold and calculated fury.

Spinning around, he released her hand and the other guards jumped back, raising their weapons at this new threat. Antoine was completely unarmed, and by all rights, should have been scared out of his mind. She knew he had grown to better control himself in the face of danger, but in this sort of situation was out of his league. Why wasn't he running?

She saw him reach down to his belt and relax his shoulders.

"Pis-aller, there are some things no man can stand by and watch, no matter how suicidal interrupting them seems to be," Antoine said, almost casually. "As your former Captain, eet ees now my responsibility to be disciplining you when you bring shame to tze Royal Guard."

The three growled at that, but the two at the front took a step forward, obviously emboldened by the fact that their opponent was still unarmed.

"Prepare yourselves," Antoine finished, and took a strong step forward. The two guards did the same, their weapons stabbing forward, when Antoine flicked his wrist, and his belt shot out. It hit the inside of the female guard's wrist, ruining her aim. Antoine pivoted to the right and flipped the belt to the left sharply, where it wrapped around the other guard's rapier, just above the cross-guard.

The coyote Freedom Fighter then took two more perfect steps, with all the grace of a ballet dancer, moving around and outside the guard of the hedgehog guard. She yelped in shock and fear as she saw it: Antoine's motion, and the fact that his belt had entangled the other guard's sword, had brought the edge of the blade back and up, right into her face. Her partner panicked, and shifted his weapon at the last second, so she only got hit by the flat of the blade at the side of her neck.

Antoine was now behind both of them, and he easily reached down with his free hand, and took hold of the female's wrist, where she held her own weapon, uselessly pointing at thin air. Giving a hard squeeze to the soft part of the inner wrist, she reflexively left go, and in a second, Antoine had her weapon. He instantly brought it back and up, to his right and then down over his shoulder, blocking a blow from the third guard, the vice captain.

With a hard tug, Antoine D'Coolette used his entangled belt to spin the two other guards off balance. They fell in a heap, hitting each other as they tried to get away. At the same time, Antoine took a step back and away, adjusting his sword arm to block another blow. Bunnie scrambled, and quickly got a hold of the armadillo guard's weapon with her robotic hand. While the ex-Captain and vie-Captain traded exchanges of sword strikes, Bunnie decked the prone guard, sending him into lalaland.

With those two down, it was left to be a one on one duel.

"Stubborn fool!" The vice-Captain lunged, and Antoine took a little leap back, deflecting the strike. The former was breathing a little heavily, though probably more from anxiety than exhaustion.

Antoine simply flourished his rapier.

"I'll finish you with one blow!" The vice Captain let lose a savage snarl, and did a deep, lightning quick lunge. Antoine stepped into it, his sword held perpendicular to the blade of his opponent, his arm rigid. The vice captain's rapier was pushed up and away from the inside, cutting a tuft of cheekfur and leaving a line of blood on the side of the coyote's face.

And then, Antoine was well inside his opponent's guard. His arm moved to angle his blade parallel to the one it had just blocked, and then Antoine shot his fist, pommel and basket-weave guard included, up and into his opponent's chin. The skunk let out a yelp of pain, and fell back. Almost causally, Antoine turned his wrist ninety degrees, and slashed down.

The vice Captain's right thumb twirled through the air.

"Non. Eet ees you, who are finished," Antoine flicked his rapier, a bit of blood that had clung to the blade hitting the wall. "You will never wield a sword again, vice Captain."

The skunk, still conscious, cradled his wounded hand. "What… My hand! My hand!"

He saw his thumb, and reached for it, when a foot suddenly interrupted, stomping down on the severed digit with a loud crack. The vice Captain's eyes grew wide and fearful, and he let out a pained howl. Antoine lifted his foot, turned, and headed back to Bunnie. He held out his hand, and she took it.

…And promptly pulled him down with her weight, introducing his face into the floor. Bunnie couldn't help but laugh, as she worked herself to her feet. Who had he been kidding, trying to help her onto her feet, with all her extra weight in combat bionics? What had she been thinking, trying to let him?

"Sorry 'bout that, sugah," Bunnie said, not on her feet.

"Cherchez la femme…" he mumbled, face still planted in the carpet.

"There they are!"

Bunnie turned at the voice, but not in fear. Sally and Sonic rounded a corner, and ran towards them. Sally had something in her hands, and Bunnie immediately assumed it was Nicole. Only when they got closer did she see it wasn't the amazing little computer at all. Sonic slowed to a walk as he got close by, and shook his head sadly.

"Taking a nap, Ant?" Sonic tapped his foot impatiently. "Man, you're completely hopeless!"


"Where is everybody?" Hershey asked, looking around the empty facility. Whatever had come up a little while ago must've been important to draw such immediate attention. But she hadn't been called to do anything, so it really wasn't something she needed to concern herself with.

The black and white feline shrugged, finished her drink, and headed back to the medical ward. She hadn't been given any orders, so she had decided to spend her time making sure of Drago's recovery. Not that anyone needed to worry, given how he was strapped down with restraints laced with chaos-resistant Morganite. Only Fiona could unlock them, or perhaps Merlin, so a de-powered Drago Blackdance didn't have a hope of getting free before he was deemed ready.

Really, Hershey wasn't sure what they should do with him now.

The Emerald had been removed and placed into stasis, but Drago himself still had a lot to answer for. Technically, he still had a life sentence to serve, not to mention the things he had done escaping from the Devil's Gulag and while on the run. Opening the door to his room, she wondered if he could ever truly redeem himself.

Reaching for her chair, she paused, hearing a noise.

Hershey looked to her side, where Drago was supposedly unconscious.

"Her…shey…" he was looking at her, eyes open. She quickly walked over to check on him. He wasn't supposed to have been awake yet.

"Hershey…" his voice was weak, strained, but audible. She couldn't imagine the ordeal he had gone through, and despite mixed feelings towards him, she ventured closer to hear what he had to say. She still hated him most of the time, but then, as always, there had been the good times they'd had – times she would always treasure and never forget. It was that memory of him, as a rough and unpolished male, but one that has shown her his guarded side, shown her his faults and inner insecurities, been her first true love… it was that memory of him that drew her closer to where he lay, strapped to the bed.

It had been that memory of him that had taken her down this path.

"Drago," she reached out and felt the strong pulse of blood flowing through his carotid. She quickly counted the beats, and confirmed he had a normal and stable heartbeat. It was a good sign.

He rocked his head back, though, as if in some pain.

"Hershey… I'm sorry…" he groaned, grimacing as what seemed like another pain shot through him. His back arched, before falling back down. "So sorry…"

"You should be," Hershey replied, not wanting to tell him it was 'ok' or otherwise underplay all the bad things he had done, and not just to her. He had ruined a lot of lives, and he wouldn't forget that, either, even if she did want to help him; save him.

"No… you don't…" he let out a long and deep breath, and his body relaxed.

"Drago?" She asked again, and was about to run for help when he whispered her name again. His lips were moving, but she couldn't quite hear what he was saying.

Curiosity catching the proverbial cat, she leaned in closer.

"Hershey," he whispered, bus at least his voice was steady, firm even. "Look at me."

Without thinking, she turned her head to stare at him directly. Without preamble, his head craned upward along with what parts of his body weren't tightly strapped down. For a millisecond, Hershey wondered if he was going to head-butt her, but then his mouth and hers had a reunion like she had never expected. His lips caught her own, and she remembered another of his old positive attributes: Drago had always been an amazing kisser. Most lupines, she had heard, were true sexual beasts, and if that rumor was true, Drago had been a shining example.

She knew she should have pulled back in disgust, and then slapped him, but then a strange electric tingle passed through her. He wasn't a pleasurable tingle, not quite, and it left her feeling light headed. She tried to move her arms, but for some reason, they were slow to respond. It was around then that the first glimmers of panic began to rise up in her mind. Drago forced open her mouth with his tongue, but then it withdrew. Relief, however, changed to shock when something else seemed to make the leap into her, forcing past her own slack tongue, and down her throat.

She and Drago parted, and while he slumped back, his mouth agape, she stumbled back two footsteps but otherwise maintained her balance. She opened her mouth to scream, but by then it was already too late. With escalating horror, she realized…

There was something inside her.

The world faded to black, and her head swam. But then, she saw a face, and it was like looking in a mirror. It was her, but with an intense expression, and glowing gold eyes. And then she knew, from what Fiona had told her, she KNEW.

"Yes," the mirror-Hershey said, with a smirk. "It is that, exactly."

A chao!

But how, how had it existed in Drago?

Why hadn't it been expelled with the Emerald?

The mirror Hershey answered, with a casual tone. "Poor girl. A servant of My Power and a servant of My Flesh are two very different things. The wolf's power, given by me, was the ability to convince and control others. While my little brother and the old man were in his mind, I took the opportunity to convince Drago himself… that the Emerald was the only gift I had given him. The other two then read his mind, and determined that the Emerald was the only taint I had left behind."

"My flesh, this Chao, had long since broken down in Drago's body. It took some time to reverse the effect, gather together the cellular material and proteins, and reassemble something useable. Though it was not my intent, I imagine the process was rather uncomfortable. But." The mirror Hershey shrugged. "I can't say I didn't enjoy it, either."

Hershey snarled, helpless and trapped in her own mind.

"I must apologize for making use of you like this," the other Hershey inclined her head politely. "Normally, I prefer to corrupt others, manipulate their free will, and devour all that they treasure in the process, driving them into a pit of despair and agony. With you, however, I will have to be rather coarse, and simply use your body without consent. I just don't have the time to spend bringing out the baseness, the vileness, the ugliness that lurks under the surface of a rational mind."

"You planned this from the start?"

"Allow me to show you what … we … are doing," the other Hershey came closer, and her eyes grew wider and wider. They drew her in, and on the other side, she saw the hallway. She saw her room, her equipment locker, her weapons cache. She shook her head, tried to scream a warning, but of course her every effort was useless. She could only watch, and hope.

Outside her mind, in the real world, Hershey casually walked towards what she had been told was the control room. No one was around to stop her. Drago was secure; no one had opened the doors, and there was no chaos control to set off the alarms. Merlin was in his sanctuary, and Miles had recently left (though she still thought of him as Tails). Lara was around, but she didn't know where, and Fiona was also gone on some new important business.

"How unusual," Hershey's voice, the voice of the other her, the one subsumed by the Devourer, spoke in a chiding tone. "It seems they trust you. I suspect you have a cybernetic implant somewhere as a failsafe, but no mental tampering. How quaint. It seems my new baby brother wishes to keep his hands out of the cookie jar as much as possible. What an unusual ideology. I doubt he got it from Malachi."

Hershey didn't quite understand what he meant by that.

"Poor girl, I meant that he seems to want to manipulate things without directly affecting free will. Malachi would not approve of such idealism – you see, he didn't in me. Oh that's right. A good long time ago, you see, I was in the boy's shoes. Malachi created me like he created the little kitsune, engineering my body and mentality. Oh? You don't understand that either? Even a pawn should know where her King comes from."

"You were told that I am, was, a child of the Dragonkin, and you know that Miles is a kitsune. Yes. How amusing you only realized that so recently, but I suppose neither group advertises itself. What you weren't told, is that Malachi, or Merlin, created both races, engineering them and constructing their rigid and unchanging societies. He told me he originally planned to create a perfect world, populated by his chimera races. The kitsune. The dragonkin. And, of course… the overlanders."

Hershey gasped at that, trying to wrap her mind around what she had been told.

The other-her laughed, and it was her laugh, just… wrong.

"Yes. He mashed us together from pieces of other races, trying to recreate something from the past. Something that haunted him. Something, I have always suspected, he learned from the echoes of The First of us. But all that was before even my ancient time."

"Only later, after an apparent change of heart, did he find another purpose for his chimeras. He would raise up another Destroyer, another god like being, but in his image, and molded to his ideals and desires. He was weakening, you see, and wanted to create a successor like himself, who would carry on his thoughts and mentality. But I would have nothing to do with his way of thinking. No. No. I rejected it. I railed against it, and I became his bane."

The other her laughed again.

"Oh, what fun I had! Poor girl, you should spend a few weeks in a madhouse… and just listen. Just listen to the wailing and the scratching and the babbling and the cursing. In ages past, I turned whole cities in to madhouses. I gave millions their freedom. Freedom from the cage of sanity, from the shackles of morality, from the prison of a stagnant and disgusting world that Malachi had made. I cherish everything I have destroyed, every use of my name as a curse, and every time the light of hope and reason dies in the eyes of those before me."

"Don't be afraid, poor girl, weak heart. What did I just say? That I didn't have time to corrupt you. No. You: I will simply use up. Ideally, once I am done with you, I will have someone kill you for me. Not that android, but that echidna girl, or my little brother. Both would feel regret and hatred for your murder, and their pain… that is far sweeter music than simply stealing your body."

The door opened, and Hershey looked from screen to screen. 'She' could feel the Super Emeralds below her feet, and knew they were in some sort of containment. The computers in the Control Room coordinated a vast array of information, but there was no time to sort through it for anything useful. She stood over the striped black and yellow in the middle of the room. It was right under her. But how to get to it with her weak body?

Hershey imagined herself smirking. "You won't! I don't know how to get to them. You seem to be in a hurry, too. Why?"

The other her didn't reply at first.

"This shall do..."

Hershey reached down to the satchel she had retrieved before, and took out a handful of semtex – plastic explosive. She chuckled, and began kneading the material into the outline in the floor. Inside her mind, Hershey realized, to her frustration and disgust, that the Devourer was tapping into her knowledge of demolitions and military procedure to do the job for him.

She was just about finished, when the door behind her opened.

She whirled around, and saw Lara-Su, the echidna girl from the future. She had a look of shock, but 'Hershey' knew it would soon turn to realization, and then anger. Without a hint of hesitation, she reached behind her to the back of her belt, just to the right of the base of her tail. In a second, she raised her GAST-M30S, and fired.

Lara still had a look of shock and surprise on her face when the first round hit, right between her eyes. The GAST was a locked-breech delayed recoil operated, double action semi-automatic handgun in use by the Royal Secret Service, and the most powerful mobian handgun made. The 'S' designation stood for 'Special', since it was a specific variant made just for the Secret Service. Hershey kept the trigger squeezed, and another round leapt out over the short distance between them, and hit Lara in the face.

The 9mm hollow point round tore half her face off, and blew out a fist sized chunk of echidna skull. Another round blasted and tumbled through her neck. Lara made only a choking sound and fell backwards with a splatter. Hershey adjusted her aim to the fallen form, and kept firing, round after brutal round, until the extended ammunition clip was empty.

With practiced ease, she ejected the clip, put in another, and took another few steps towards the corpse. It didn't move. The possessed feline then leveled the weapon, and fired again and again, destroying the heart, and head, and even blowing off the left arm at the elbow. Only when that clip was also expended did she tuck the gun back behind her, and return to setting up the plastic explosive.

And inside her head, Hershey never stopped screaming.


Lara felt warm.

That thought lingered, like balloon, for what seemed like a long time.

Yes. She felt warm, and light, just like a balloon.

The temptation came to her to just float away.

But, then there was a noise. Like the buzzing of a fly. It was annoying, and getting louder. She floated up a bit, if only to get away, but something pulled her down. She couldn't see, couldn't feel, but she could sense that she had been suddenly and firmly grounded.

"You're not dead, Lara."

What was this voice? Stupid?

Lara remembered a flash, a gun, everything turning black.

"I think I was shot," she said. Or so she thought she did.

"You just had your brains blown out, actually. And worse." The voice replied. It sounded both angry and rather upset.

"Um... who are you again?" Lara asked it.

There was a long suffering sigh. "It's me. Tikal. Remember?"

"Oh." And suddenly, Lara did remember. "Oh yeah."

"And you're Lara-Su. Re-mem-ber?" Tikal prodded.

And, thinking about it, Lara did remember.

"Oh my Gods! She shot me!" Lara yelled. Or didn't she. She didn't have a mouth, but she heard her own voice. How… strange. "She killed me!"

"She didn't kill you. You're not dead," Tikal said. Again.

"She… didn't? I'm not?"

"No," Tikal sounded close now, and Lara felt cold. Well, her back felt cold. Idly, she supposed that was the floor.

"Hasn't Mr. Tails drilled this into you before? So you were shot," Tikal said it like it was the same as a splinter of bug bite. "So your brains are all over the walls and floor. So your heart has a few more holes in it than it should. So your spine is broken. Your lungs deflated. Your arm detached. Your bones broken."

Lara didn't quite get it. "So?"

"So… what?" Tikal asked, in a know-it-all kind of way. "Your Emerald, Lara, is undamaged. A weapon like that may do unpleasant things to your body, to your flesh and blood, but it cannot do lasting damage to your Emerald, your Power, or your Chaos."

Lara tried to consider that.

"Now. Pull yourself together, will you? I'll even help." Tikal seemed to be next to her, and finally, Lara could see her face and part of her body. Tikal held out her hand, and in it she held a heart. It was pretty gross, actually.

"Eww," Lara admitted. Then she realized it was her heart. "Ugh!"

"We need your heart beating again, Lara," Tikal advised. She poked her fingers in the big hole in the heart, and when she pulled them out, it was whole again. "Now. Tell it to start beating."

Lara wanted to laugh at that. How do you tell your heart to start beating? For a few seconds, she tried to tell it what to do, but she sensed nothing was happening. Then, she tried another route, and remembered how her heart had raced before, when Miles had complimented her on how well her training was paying off. Of how she had finesse. With a jump, the heart in Tikal's hand began to pulse rhythmically.

"Good. Your brain is rebuilding itself as we speak, and as you remember things." Tikal paused. "Now, I should warn you. In a few seconds, you'll begin to feel a slight…"

Lara almost howled, as feeling suddenly returned. She hurt all over, in ways she hadn't even imagined. She almost blacked out from it all, but Tikal quickly forced her hand down, and into Lara's body. Lara jerked back up and awake, her consciousness reinforced.

"Do NOT pass out!" Tikal's face and voice were grim. "Lara! If you want the pain to go away, pull yourself together. Think about the hurt, don't try and ignore it. Think about it, and tell it to go away!"

And, slowly, amazingly, it did.

"Now. Open your eyes."

Lara opened them, and she saw the control room's ceiling, where a fan twirled lazily. Next, her true hearing returned, and then her sense of smell (it was horrible, all she could smell was blood). She moved her head and neck, and looked down at her bullet ridden body. There were still a few holes, but they were closing up right before her eyes.

"This is…" Amazing!
"How did…" I do this?
"Did I just…" Come back from death!

"No time for questions!" Tikal's voice had a lighter, prouder tone to it. "Time to get up, and kick some ass!"


In the center of the room, Hershey held a detonator, and was just about to head for the raised platform in the back of the room for a little cover in case of shrapnel. Then, she saw Lara, who she had just perforated like twenty seconds ago, get back up.

"She's alive!" True-Hershey yelped, insider her mind.

"Up already? Not bad at all. A few seconds too late. But not bad." The other her snickered, and pressed the detonator ignition. There was a thunderous boom, but one entirely directed downward. Dust and smoke rose up from below, but the delicate machinery was damaged enough that Chaos energies from the imprisoned Super Emeralds began to leak upwards.

Other Hershey tossed aside the detonator, and called to them.

And they heard their Master and heeded him.

One by one, they burst out of the ground and floated in the air. Other Hershey, in the real world, began to laugh in triumph. Now, finally, there was no real problem with dying. The Supers were free, and he was close enough to Chaos Control them out, even if the body he was using and abusing bit the dust. It was actually a much closer thing that planned, but in the end everything had gone off like he'd wanted.

Lara's power flexed angrily, and Hershey felt her arms lock against her side.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't explode your head from the inside!" Lara snarled, bearing her admittedly small canines.

Other Hershey just laughed smugly. "Nothing you do to me matters now."

"She's being controlled," Tikal said, and appeared (to Lara anyway) at the echidna girl's side. "I don't know how it happened, though. None of the alarms went off."

Then, suddenly, out of the four floating Super Emeralds, the dark blue sapphire just popped. Or rather, it made a popping sound, a little flash of light, and then disappeared into thin air. Then the Topaz gem did the same.

"Chaos Control!" Tikal realized. "You have to stop it!"

Lara focused on the green emerald; as she sensed power grow within it. This was Mogul's Emerald, she knew, since she had been sent to that beach in the middle of nowhere to pick up the pieces and put it back together. Luckily, it had more crumbled than exploded, so it hadn't been much more than a chore. Miles had gone with her, however, to watch. At first, she had thought he was making sure she did the job, but then she realized that the green emerald had some emotional significance for him.

The Emerald tried to Chaos Control, but she blocked it.

'Hershey' stopped laughing, her face becoming deadly serious.

"You… little brat…" Hershey finally said with a sneer. "You're annoying me, now. You cannot stop it; stop me."

The force from the Emerald to chaos control itself doubled and redoubled, and then doubled again. Lara gritted her teeth, perspiration running down her forehead, as she kept trying to counter it. Yet, inevitably, she reached her limits, and the power behind the Emerald doubled again, and with a pop it was gone.

Hershey's arrogant sneer grew.

The ruby Super Emerald began to get ready to Chaos Control. Lara turned quickly to Tikal for an answer, but the spirit girl just looked angry and frustrated. Lara reached out again, and blocked the attempted Chaos Control. She knew it wouldn't work, but she tried anyway, if only to buy time. Her mind raced, searching for some answer.

She had to stop it from chaos controlling.

She had to destabilize its energies, but how? Without specialized dampening equipment, the only thing even close was to shatter it. But she had been warned not to do that, since it only made tracking down the pieces for later removal or isolation more difficult. She could imagine how tedious it could get, chasing after Emerald shards shattered all over the place.

But here, was that really a problem?

They were indoors. The Emerald pieces couldn't go very far in her, could they? Sure, it would be annoying to collect them all, but it wouldn't go anywhere in the meantime. In a second, she made her decision, and gathered her powers, giving them the proper command.

And the red Super Emerald exploded.

"What?" Hershey snapped. "You…!"

Chaos Energies, built up from before, were suddenly released in an uncoordinated storm. Waves of it rolled past Lara, and she could feel how vile it all felt, how fundamentally wrong. Electronics shorted out, and she saw Hershey slam into a computer screen and not move. Lara stood her ground, braced herself against the released energies, and waited.

When it finally died down, she saw the state of the control room and groaned. Everything was off line, or consumed by static. Monitors and screens were broken, glass and Emerald shards were everywhere, including in the wreckage of several machines and computers. There was a gaping hole in the ground, and the sound of alarms – no doubt from the use of Chaos Control before.

"Oh well, Mr. Tails can always fix all this stuff, anyway!" Tikal said, cheerfully, giving Lara a 'victory' sign.

Lara just shook her head and sighed wearily.

Then she realized she was still covered in bits of her own skull.

"I need a nice long bath."


Aya Florentine watched, as he entered her room.

She knew why he was here. Kitsune were not naturally good liars, nor did they seem to be good at hiding their intentions. She rolled her head to the side to rest on her left shoulder, and narrowed her eyes. There it was: the little hypo with the sedative. Hiding it under the food tray? Not very creative, this one.

Slowly, she brought her head forward, till her chin rested on her collarbone. She could feel her ears flatten and twitch, her new freakish ears, and the approaching kitsune's heartbeat became a clear as a drum solo in a concert hall. Her hands were still restrained behind her, but she didn't struggle. Not this time.

She just watched, looking up at him with glowing ice blue eyes.

"Feeding time. Easy now…" the kitsune took a step closer, and held out the food. Aya's human nose twitched, and she could smell a thousand things at once, including the delicious roast that he was offering her. Normally, she had never had any sort of huge appetite, but whatever they had done to her, she seemed to have also developed a ravenous hunger, almost all the time. Still, she kept her mouth closed, and didn't move.

The kitsune's arms shifted, just slightly, and Aya could see he was getting ready to jab her with the sedative. Behind her, she broke off one of her nails, ignoring the sudden jolt of pain. The cell they kept her in was dark, but she had no trouble seeing. In fact, she had never seen so well before in her life, even under perfect lighting conditions.

For the most part, she was helpless. Her wrists were shackled behind her back, and a long thick chain kept her from getting very far, even inside the cell. After the last time she lashed out, she supposed it was an… adequate arrangement.

Turning to her side, she maneuvered her broken off nail between the thumb and index finger of her right hand. She had tried this before with things of similar size, but this was really the first time she had tried it. Taking careful aim from before, she waited, and then flicked as hard as she could. Despite the dark, the kitsune saw it coming, just a millisecond too late.

The nail hit him in his left eye, and he reeled back with a roar.

Aya jumped to her feet, and lunged, face first. Her mouth opened, displaying large predatory canines, and cutting molars, many of her duller human teeth having long since fallen out and been replaced. Her killer dentition was now the match of any kitsune's, and she intended to put it to use. She pushed up the male's chin up with her left cheek, found his thickly furred neck, and bit down with all her new strength.

The thick hide stood up to her smaller teeth, but her canines pierced after only a second's struggles, and a jet of hot red blood spilled into her mouth and over her face. Her arms trapped behind her, Aya brought up her legs, and wrapped them around the male's thighs, locking his legs together and sending him sprawling to the ground. Hands grabbed her by the hair and throat, trying to tear her loose.

She slammed her head down, and heard the back of the kitsune's dead hit the hard stone ground. Still, he struggled, and so she did it again, tightening her hold on his neck, and biting down deeper, using her teeth like saws to cut into muscled flesh. She felt an animal in the back of her mind take control, fed by blood and the promise of carnage, and she let it loose.

Beneath her, the kitsune made one last gargling attempt at escape, before the loss of blood kicked in and his entire body went slack and lifeless. Aya slowly inched off him, and then turned her attention to the chains. They were strong, and she couldn't pull them free, even with her newfound strength. Luckily, she was aware of another set of special skills a kitsune had discovered.

At the base of her spine, before it met her pelvis, she had grown two long kitsune-like tails. They disgusted her, but here, they would prove useful. She had practiced when she knew no one had been watching, controlling them, and while she couldn't do the things Tails had managed, she seemed to have more ability than most. Wrapping her tails around the chain, she concentrated, and snapped them out in a spiral motion at the same time she gave a strong pull.

The length of heavy metal snapped in several places.

And just like that, Aya Florentine was loose. She wiped the blood from her lower jaw, and flexed her clawed hands. She had little doubt they'd apprehend her again eventually, but in the meantime, she had every intention of killing everything she came across. For what they had done, for what they had planned to do, she would make them pay in blood and pain.

And if she ever did escape, the traitors back home would be next…


"Pardon the intrusion, Honorable Ephor!" Sakeri entered the room, and bowed before her War Leader, and then did the same for their host, the Heir of Clan Jel'Arah. The two males, who had been seated and conversing, paused, and shifted to give her their attention.

"My apologies," Tempest said, quickly, to El'Arah. "This must be important."

"Hopefully nothing troublesome." The younger kitsune male motioned to Sakeri.

Tempest uncrossed his legs, and stood up, letting Sakeri lead him away from the meeting place. She seemed to be a little urgent about it, and he came to the conclusion that it was probably some news from Chara or Kae'Arah. Finally, she turned, looked back and forth, and handed him a small blue communicator. Tempest recognized it immediately, since he had left it with his other equipment. What was Sakeri doing with it?

"This was… ah. Ringing," she gave it to him.

Tempest took the device Sally had given him all those months ago.

'You've got mail?' Tempest read the words, but didn't get it. 'Who is Nicole?'