Wow...two chapters in one day. Not much to say about this one except about Aleutian's pistol. I had a little fun with Julie-Su telling her thoughts about it to Knuckles. Anyways...
Disclamer: I own nothing of rights of the orginal Sonic characters.
Enjoy.
Briefing
by: Mauser
Something strange projected from the disassembled pistol.
Julie-Su had the pieces laid out in a uniformed presentation fashion on the three drawer desk: the barrel laying in front of her, the recoil spring just above it, and the slide and slide release above that. But even as she scrubbed the insides of the polymer handle with something to the effect of a toothbrush, the dormant pieces in front of her seemed threatening all the same as if they were reassembled. She has worked with plasma blasters, fired them too, but they were never this simple but yet crude looking in design as Aleutian's pistol. And to bring it all on home, the weapon she was cleaning possibly still had the residue from the bullet that killed Blackjack just to save her pink fur.
Perhaps that was what made the parts seem so strange.
Placing the grip down to the left of the stack, she took a small glance over at Knuckles; he was still sleeping in "their" bed. Not by his own accord this time but orders from Sally. With it came Julie's instructions: wake him at fourteen-hundred hours and send him to Freedom HQ.
"Fifteen more minutes and up and at em, Knux!" she said to herself with a smirk at her slumbering equal.
Turning back to the request at hand, she picked up a slender, eight inch stainless steel rod and screwed a copper brush to the end of it. This, along with white cotton patches, oil and solvent were found in the bottom of the wooden box like Aleutian had said. No one would've ever guessed that there was more to the case until they lifted the blue velvet tray to expose the cleaning kit. And then came oddest thing about the underbelly of the case: there was an instruction book on how to disassemble the pistol to clean it, which she had read.
But there wasn't anything marked on the booklet as to whom had manufactured the pistol, or at least a "thank-you for choosing" clause on the first page.
Picking up the barrel from the table, Julie observed a grey, worn ring about a half inch back from the threaded muzzle, indicating where the slide brushed up against the barrel during recoil. This was the first time that anyone, outside of Aleutian, had studied the pistol without it being in his hands.The grip was comfortable and balanced, almost tailored to any hand that closed its fingers around it. The recoil spring was still tight enough to possibly be punished with more use for years to come. But the barrel was a different story. The rifling grooves looked to have seen better days when Julie-Su peered down the nine millimeter hole towards the assaulting sunlight from the window. She could still see them, but she questioned how Aleutian managed to pull the shot off without having the round fly astray. Pushing the thought aside, she picked the rod with the bore brush on it, dipped it into the cleaning solvent that smelled like one of Eggman's newly manufactured robots, and rammed it through the back-end of the barrel. While she scrubbed the barrel clean, she gazed at the square breach where the round would be chambered. Their wasn't any clue of a serial number anywhere; not even a desperate attempt to file one off.
When she finished cleaning the residue with a series of cleaning patches, she began to reassemble the weapon. Placing the newly cleaned barrel in her right hand and picking up the slide with her left, she gently positioned the barrel in the forward hole of the slide, making sure the square breach was pointing down and the locking grooves for the recoil spring were facing up. Then came the spring itself. She inserted the stubbed end in a small hole just above the barrel and placed the ringed end into a spot on the grooves. Finally, she placed the slide into position on the railings of the handgrip and racked it back just enough to insert the slide release lever that held everything in place. Making sure everything would function when they needed to, she racked the slide back twice over, navigating the trigger back that snapped the hammer to the rear.
Standing up from her chair, Julie-Su turned to the east wall and brought the sights of Aleutian's pistol up to a dark board with both of her hands firmly grasping around the handle. Placing her left leg forward and her right just to the rear, she lowered herself gently at the knees, bending both of her elbows towards the ground and tucking them up against her rib cage.
There was indeed something strange, something sinister about Aleutian's pistol that somehow seemed to have turned her on. It felt very comfortable in her gloved hands; almost too comfortable.
Moving her gloved, twin fingers down from the slide to the trigger, she let her breath halfway out...and gently pulled it back.
SNAP!
"It's too easy with this gun...way too easy! Who ever made it, designed this thing so the shooter can make the decision to pull the trigger and worry less about control.
"So where does that leave the control over the shooter?"
Turning the pistol over on its left side, Julie-Su reached up with her hand and racked the slide back once more. The crisp mechanical action showered the room with its sound as the slide chambered on an empty magazine well. Again, she dropped into her shooting stance and worked the trigger.
SNAP!
"What do you think?"
Julie-Su turned to the bed where Knuckles was halfway on his back, staring up at her with his purple eyes. "It's light," she explained after shifting back to her target. "I honestly thought it would be heavier just by the looks of the construction, but it's light."
"I meant how it feels, Julie?" Knuckles said with a weary chuckle. It faded when Julie-Su's expression went uneven.
"Scary. Even for me." She aligned the three white squares of the iron sights that formed an even picture against the dart board. She brought the double-action trigger back again.
SNAP!
"Why does that one scare you over your's?" Knuckles asked with an even voice.
Julie raised her right brow when her observations finally came after a moment. "Power. Something with this pistol has a feeling of power that I fear...even for myself." She sighed, dropping the pistol to her side along with her eyes. "I just wonder if I can turn it off before..."
A curt pause followed. "...What?" Knuckles finally asked just above a whisper.
"Before I kill a lot of people. Especially with that extension on. I could really get lost with it then."
Knuckles breathed out a troubling sigh. Rolling over and out of bed, he moved across the floor to his equal on his bare feet. "Never thought we'd have a monster living under our bed."
Julie-Su nodded as she studied the large frame pistol in her hand. "Your brother has total discipline over himself, Knuckles. Possibly more so than your hothead." Knuckles rolled his eyes at her. She smiled. "It's true!"
"Really, how does he have total discipline when..." He stopped himself for say something that he knew he would regret.
But Julie answered for him anyways; "Because he stopped after Blackjack. If he totally lost it with the power he had in his hands, he would have finished the job for Eggman."
Knuckles lowered his gaze to her grey boots and gently took her left hand. Rubbing it, he said: "Put it away...and make sure we lock the door before we go."
Geoffrey St. John took another hard look at the intelligence briefing he had in front of him on the table. Shifting his attention-to-detailed eyes to the main screen of Freedom HQ, he was satisfied that everything was in order to be presented.
"Right!" he curtly huffed to gain the attention of his volunteered audience. Sonic and Tails sat beside each other at the forward table to St. John's right. Twan and Bunnie holding the rear table down behind them. Knuckles on the opposite side, Julie-Su multitasking her attention to the Skunk and her equal's arm. Uncle Chuck and Rotor focused their dreary attention towards the two echidna's backs, fighting the urge to sleep. And standing next to St. John; Amadeus, Merlin, and Princess Sally.
The room fell silent before Sally spoke: "Okay, yesterday we intercepted a message with a new encryption tied into it." Sonic caught the snideness in her voice. "I commend Uncle Chuck, Rotor and Nicole for losing sleep to crack this."
A few low cheers and nods circulated towards Chuck and Rotor.
"But...needless to say it hasn't been cracked yet," added St. John. "So far we only have one word tied into this and that's Chameleon. It could mean a code named operation, a diversion in the message, or a hidden base–"
"–Which we think we've found!" General Prower announced beside him. "Thanks to Rotor, a pass-over of the area from a satellite has come back with a nice image of a compound of sorts. Commander?"
St. John went to console and pressed a few buttons that brought up the image of a large open area. Different shades of black and white contrasted a verity of farm fields. In the center, a large fenced off compound that had what appeared to be guard towers: four on each corner and two positioned between a west facing entrance. Centered in the square were twelve large huts, divided closly together in a four by three square.
Sally spoke as she handed out the photos to the tables: "We honestly don't know what is going on here. We could only get one pass without Robotnick getting alerted to our suspicions, and St. John and I have been going over this as much as we can."
Knuckles picked up one the photographs, studied it and pointed to the huts. "This looks like a camp or something..."
"...like a concentration camp?" suggested St. John. "Yes, we've thought that over, but we haven't seen anything that resembles life other than Eggman's blokes."
"...And that's why we are sending you out to have a peek at this place!" Sally added with a nudge in her voice.
"ME!"
"Don't worry, mate. Sonic and Antoine are going with you," St. John added with a smug grin.
"HIM!?"
'Twan festered in his seat; "I'm notz ze complete buffoon az you takze me..."
"...not you, 'Twan! HIM!" Knuckles scoffed while pointing his left mit at Sonic.
"Yea...I know I'm loved!" bolstered the Blue Blur, interlacing his hands behind his head.
"What's the problem with Sonic?" asked Amadeus, smiling the whole time.
"One word," St. John began with a sneer, "im-ma-ture!"
Sonic brought a disarming smile across his face. "I wouldn't go that far, Geoff."
"Ehh, there are days, Sonic," Sally joked. Small snickers flourished in the quiet room at that moment. "Anyways..."
"...right, Princess!" St. John festered as he got back on track. "You three will be surveying this place and THAT IS ALL! No actions, no fights, no blowing up stuff! Just a quick look-see and get out."
Sonic jolted his head back. "What? You mean we can't smash this place up?"
Amadeus shook his head; "Not this time, Sonic. We need to be cautious with how we charge into something with fresh new intel. We've already lost one tool and that's reading the messages. Next could be the satellites with jamming signals, or Robotnick blowing the birds out of the sky." Prower could see Sonic nodding inwards in agreement. "Just find out what's going on there, and get back. Afterwards we'll sit on the information before we make our move."
"Sounds good to me," Knuckles confirmed. "How we getting there?"
"Boogie!" replied Sally. "Twan...make sure you fly it low."
"Right, and when you get there," added St. John, "this field here to the southwest of the entrance seems to be a wheatfield or corn field, I'm not sure. But, there seems to be a small trench at the edge of the clearing. Good spot to cover in during the night to make your observations. You can approach from the south about six miles from the sight. That should be enough ground to cover without raising any suspicion."
Julie shifted her attention to Knuckles. "Are you taking your hover-board?"
He mused over the idea but then shook his head. "Nah, I'll be fine without it."
"Say..." Sonic blurted out, "why didn't you bring Espy in on this?"
St. John cleared his throat and looked towards Sally. She just nodded. "We picked up two messages this morning that have red flags all over them. One was sent on the old encryption ordering a patrol of Eggbots to survey a site that was ambushed in Deer Wood Forest."
"Wahoo! Rob-O is still handin' it to em'!" cheered Sonic.
"Sonic...that isn't the problem," St. John grossly pointed out. "A second message was sent out from New Robotropolis under the new encryption."
"Destination?" asked Julie-Su, her tone even like the soldier she was.
Another shake of the skunk's beret head. "East, but that's all. We lost it over Eggman's satellites this time..."
"...And the basic portion of the code has changed," observed Uncle Chuck. "Whole new math system we have to start figuring out just to find the whole sequence again."
"So why is he using one cipher and not the other?" asked Knuckles with a deadpan expression.
Sally bit her lip over her thoughts. "We don't know. And it's got us worried..."
"...Which is why we need Espio on stand-by," affirmed Commander St. John. "We might need him to do a recce if we can track another one of these messages to a different location. There might be something tied in with this Chameleon project that Eggman only wants sent out with this new cipher. As of today, this has become top priority."
Silence filled the room.
Sally toured the nodding faces of the gathered Freedom Fighters. "Okay, get yourselves on the move. No time to waste. Oh, and Tails..." She waited when she had the kit fox's attention, "need you to stay here for a second."
The room became active as everyone found their way out of Freedom HQ. Bunnie followed Antoine towards the door but stopped briefly by Sally. "Anything for me to do, 'shug?"
"No Bunnie, not at this point." Sally could see the worry under Bunnie's brown cowgirl hat. "I'm sure Twan will be fine; Knuckles will make sure of it."
"Ah know, Sal. Ah'm just concerned with you, that's all. You look like you need a nap, sugar Princess."
Sally bowed her head and gave her best friend a kiss on the cheek. "I know...things haven't been easy lately." A long sigh, "I'll be fine, Bunnie."
"Okay, 'shug. Just wish you'd take it easy just for a day...tonight maybe."
Sally bowed her head with an even smile. "Plan too."
When Ms. Rabbot left after saying her farewells, all attention went to Tails.
"We're going on a trip, son," announced Amadeus.
"Where, dad?"
"About two hundred maybe three hundred miles from here. We have a mission from Elias and I volunteered you to be our pilot."
"Our?" asked Tails with a puzzled look.
"I'm going with you, nephew," replied Merlin, "catch up on some old times with your dad."
Tails grinned. "Cool, when do we leave?"
"Sooner than you think," replied Sally, "you'll be taking one of our other transports to survey a battlefield of some sorts. You're becoming an archeologist today, Tails."
"Looking for what exactly, Aunt Sally?" Tails asked eagerly.
"We don't know, son," said Amadeus, "that's why Merlin is coming along. He's going to be channeling his powers to see in the past."
Tails nodded his head with a broad smile. He was thrilled that he was going to be spending quality time with his relatives on a mission. "So why does Elias want us to search this place out."
Miles' father lowered his head but kept a disarming face all the while. "It's for a friend."
She had never felt so out-of-it in her life. Confusion seemed to constrict her senses as she laid on a metal tabletop. Or at least that's what Kripta believed she was on.
Fighting the heavy notion to sleep, she desperately tried to force open her eyes. Everything projected as a hypnotic blur at first. Lights flickering here and there in the cold darkness that licked at her skin. She blinked once–twice, asking for her tears to comeback so they could soak her dry eyes. The last thing she attempted was to swallow away the cottonmouth that seemed to torture her more than the cold metal pressed against her back.
"Chriisstiaann..." she breathed out. Beeps and mechanical moans invaded her ears. Her vision briefly adjusted to the mild darkness before grogginess required her to shield her pupils.
She began to fall asleep again.
A vocal beep from beside her broke the defense of her lids, snapping her eyes open as her heart began to steadily race. How long was she out again? She didn't know; she couldn't tell. The dark room had nothing in the way of windows with which to view the outside world. However if there was, a good portion of her sight was concealed by machines with display screens that showed calligraphy that seemed like an alien language to her. Wires fell from them like hair strands. She let her mind become entertained as she traced the wadded maze with her dazed sight. Somehow they traced up to her, connecting to points on her body that she couldn't see due to a white sheet over her naked body. She knew she was. The chill cut through her and the thin cover like a razor.
When she danced her fingers around on her left hand, she felt a painful tension coming from her wrist. She was surprised that she could even lift her hand at all as she brought it over to her blurred gaze. To her horror, multiple needles with clear and purple cords attached to her hand and laced it like a glove.
Her heart seemed to want to escape from her chest as terror tried to tighten it's clutches around it. She tried to raise up but found resistence around her ankles and abdomen. She was shackled to the table.
BEEP!
She shot her head over to the left upon hearing the piercing sound in her throbbing head.
"ANZY!?" she forced with a quivering shrill.
Between the obstacles of machines that separated them by mere feet, her brother laid motionless on a surgical table. Tears finally started to flow from her eyes as she fought the restraints and her drug induced stupor, trying desperately to reach her brother.
She lost. Settling back down in defeat, Kripta sniffled in her anguish, weeping.
"Where's my Christian?" she begged in her tears. "Where are you..."
The shunts of a heavy door opening from behind her filled the heavy, rank air. She slowed her breathing, battling herself to make them more shallow as she listened for footsteps. Nothing...only the beeping of machines and...
...Something moved in the shadows of the poorly lit room, spiking her fear and heart rate to unmeasurable heights. Kripta still kept her head pointed towards Anzio as her eyes shifted around to see through the darkness. If it wasn't for the sedation that the machines used, which enlarged her pupils, she wouldn't have been able to make out the large silhouetted figure that skulked towards Anzio.
She fought to discipline herself; fought not make a sound ,but something in her adrenaline charged mind told her to cry out to her brother:
"ANZY!"
It stopped over the body of her brother. She concentrated her sight with all the will power she could put forth. The thing towered over Anzio, its shoulders wider than the bulkiest of humans and a mid section that could take on a large truck without breaking a sweat. There were no lines of contrast, for she couldn't see them between the dark lighting and her hypnotic state.
Red glowing pupils cut through the black, dung laden air like a switch had been flipped. Kripta felt every molecule in her body freeze in terror as the head of the monstrous figure stared deep into her eyes.
Heavy metal footsteps brought sound to the room. Keeping her panic stricken sight on the pair of crimson eyes in front of her, a shiny glimmer filtered through her peripheral vision of the walking skeleton of the single ocular tech-bot. It strode like any other android would from its physical characteristics, stiffened steps without any notion of a swagger. When it stopped, it looked as if it might topple over on its face. It didn't, however, but instead it snatched a thick cable from a machine that hovered beside Anzio like a television on a metal supported tray, and hooked it into the large figure beside it. Kripta never saw the movements that the tech-bot did next–sheer terror had won out over what little life she could feel in her shivering body. Whimpered cries seemed to be the only thing to soothe the anguish that tormented her.
The machine at her brother's side began to groan as the large screen began to flicker on. For a span of seconds that seemed to trail on for eternity, everything remained still.
Anzio's right hand began to twitch in Kripta's tear laden eyes. When his arm began to jolt violently, her body became enveloped with the urge to release her bowls right then and there, however, she felt helpless to do anything to stop the butchery of her brother.
Forcing herself to look away, she still felt her pupils burn when Anzio's body began to shake and shudder from the brief glimpse she caught of him. Her cries turned to mournful screams as the thumping of her brother's body on the table replaced the silence of the room.
"ANZY–ANZY!" she screamed over her choking wails.
Rolling her head completely over from the painful sight of her brother being decimated by a machine, Kripta found her aching pupils adjusting to blotches of green, tan and black on something large and smooth. She felt her heart jump to her tightened throat when a hand snapped open six inches in front her grimacing face, never witnessing the long dagger extend from the wrist as panic took hold of her consciousness.
Lot of diologue in this one, but hey, figure you all want something else besides sadness for once. How about fear...did the last section grab you? I've never read anything horror based...seen it, but writing it has been a bit of a challenge.
See you next chapter.