Happy 2008! For a gift, I bring you a new, long chapter. I know the new bit sounds entertaining than the long bit.

Okay, this chapter has both mystery, love and tenderness, horror, and suspense. I wrote, or actually started the first part right behind finishing the last chapter. I'm also starting this off with a character we don't hardly see much, and I'm planning to bring more into this story. Ray the Flying Squirrel. I hope I accuratly depicked him.

What I also did for this chapter was to tell a back story of two of my own characters in here. I felt it was missing some, and the absence happened to work out in the long run. I know the title seems long, but I hope it also brings a meaning that things are starting to pick up.

I have one more chapter on the chopping block and I can't wait to bring it to you all. So stay tuned, I'll try to have it done today.

Disclaimer: I observe the rights of the original creators of the Sonic arcs and games and I don't claim them as my own.

Enjoy...(hope I did the scene spacing in this one okay?)

The Gentle Tide Brings the Harsh Surf

By: Mauser

Ray the Flying Squirrel skipped over the stairs at a speed one might fear he could trip over. Need not worry, the blur of short yellow fur cheered, "I can be just like Sonic, too!"

He made good on his fantasy, completing the last series of spiraling stairs to the upper sections of Knothole City, running as fast as his juvenile legs could carry him, and leaning into the turns around the tree-city. Crossing an interconnecting bridge from one tree to another, he bolted left and rounded the large oak tree he was asked to run to, finding his destination closed as soon as he skidded to a stop.

Knocking twice, he didn't bother to wait to receive an answer before bursting through the door and dangerously startling Commander St. John who had a wad of papers as his only weapon. "What!" shouted St. John after coming down from his adrenaline surge. Thank the stars he was already standing.

"Uncle Chuck is tracing one of those goofy transmissions again!" Ray shouted back but filled with glory in his completed mission.

"Right now!?"

"Yea–told me to come get you!"

St. John didn't let a second lapse, slamming his papers on the desk and grabbing the beret underneath them, he synched it down, smoothed the excess to the right side and marched almost at a double timed pace out the door.

Ray followed, slamming the door behind him. "Is this good?"

"Very good, Ray," returned St. John, "now do me a favor!"

"You got it. Anything, Geoff!"

He smiled but kept his head forward as he darted around his office to the left. "Go find Shadow and Espio and tell them to meet me at Freedom HQ!"

"Done!" And the flying squirrel was off in the other direction, jumping from the railing and vanishing behind the supporting trunk after spreading his arms to glide down.

Geoffrey wished he could fly, but he needed the hastened walk to organize his thoughts. "Another signal; lost hedgehog and echidna...oh, right, and coyote. The Prowers haven't called, and I need to eat!"

Climbing down the steps, he was pleasantly met by Hershey with a basket tucked under her arm. "Problem solved!" "Luv, we'll have lunch at the HQ," he said, grabbing her under her free arm and spinning her back in the opposite direction.

"But...Geoffrey!"

"Luv, it's too important right now. Maybe when things calm down some, we can have a quiet lunch...but now is not the time."

A groan under her tempered eyes. "Okay!"

She could barely keep up, even with his hand tugging at her arm. When they scrambled inside the door of the HQ, she was out of breath and Geoffrey instantly became glued to the large screen. "Charles?" he announced, seeing the blue furred, mustache hedgehog at the bottom of his vision. He too was looking skyward at the map.

"It's a bouncer. So far seven satellites and two relay stations. This new encryption he's using just might overload the whole system?"

"Ours?" St. John flustered.

"Nah...his! We aren't the ones receiving this thing yet. What it's trying to do is keep it's original configuration while bouncing through the cosmos at the same time. So the satellites wait to make sure the message is accurate before they send it out to the next relay."

A red line of information St. John couldn't quite understand until he studied it further, popped upon an adjacent screen to the top right of the larger one. "Is it moving?" he gathered aloud.

"Yep," Sir Charles the Hedgehog replied, punching in a sequence of codes to keep up on the tail end of the message. It stopped again, but not for a long period of time, racing somewhere over the North Pole and landing just inside–

"Bingo!" St. John shouted with a slight vigor. "Is it definite, Charles?"

"It's looking good! Nicole, can you confirm?"

"Yes, Charles," came Nicole's voice through the speakers. "I got the message in it's entirety and saved it on the last satellite. I'm redirecting it here as of now!"

Everyone waited. Geoffrey controlled his excitement while studying the blinking red light hovering just inside the Badlands to the northeast. Chuck, on the other hand, was dreading to see the message. He didn't have to endure the anxiety long. "HOLY KNOTHOLE!" he cursed in a fury with his aged voice. "Commander, I'm seeing new characters in this one!"

Geoffrey nodded, looking at the bottom screen from the satellite origins. "Easy, Charles. We have a destination where this mess has been going to as of late. You think it might have the cipher program there?"

"How else are they going to read it," Hershey quipped.

"My point exactly," Geoffrey replied, gauging the room's current inhabits, finding a few missing. "Where's Sally?"

"Lunch," Chuck answered. "I was about to head out when we caught this thing coming out of New Robotroplis. Looks like the old slide rule is needed, again," he sighed.

"Nicole," Geoffrey prompted. "Anymore of these messages went towards the prison or elsewhere?"

"No, Commander. I did follow one going to New Robotropolis, but this is the only one that went out."

"Same cipher?" he quizzed.

"Same, Geoffrey."

Two sandwiches later helped put things into perspective for awhile. Sitting with Hershey in silence was the most refreshing reprieve while he scarfed down some sliced apples. From the current operations and the hast that came with them, lunches such as this were too few for them. But today and due in part to last night's late work load, he could savor the moment and meal. Knowing everything was set and done with Sally's approval along with Elias', all he needed to do was brief and send his next dispatch on their way, given time, of course. Rushing things spelled disaster in the long run, and he definitely wanted input from the team he was planning to send out.

Thinking of which during a swallow, he saw Shadow step through the door. Geoffrey never let the hedgehog announce his brooding presence, pointing with his eyes and nose at the blinking screen.

"Look familiar, by chance?"

Following St. John's gesture, Shadow didn't stray his sight long at the blip on the map. "It does," he allowed, shifting his blank face to the sitting skunk.

Geoffrey snapped up from his chair and crisply walked up to Shadow. "Care to feast on revenge?" he quipped eagerly. "It's a cold dish I hear."

"Catch," retorted the black hedgehog, his eyes searching out the blinking red dot again.

"I have none to offer, mate," Geoffrey offered, thoughtfully. "You'll just have to bear with an addition to your dining out, is all."

"I go alone!"

"Figures," Geoffrey snuffed, then shook his head evenly, "Unfortunately for you, I can't allow that. Too much at the moment is at stake with just one pair of eyes. I need two. But it's all I'm asking."

Turning to Charles, St. John made his next inquiry. "How was the pass last night?"

Chuck sighed under his tiredness. "Rotor didn't get anything, Commander. The pass was too low latitude wise and our resolutions came up with trees and mountains. Same on the infrared."

"Blimey!"the skunk cursed under his breath. "Well...?"he trailed off for Shadow to snatch.

He was still pensively mesmerized at the large screen, grasping for a decision. His silence passed briefly as a roving thought of Eggman's raving face from another failed plan and trashed goods which actually amused him this time. His tirade possibly being taken out on Snively was the most rewarding aspect he saw coming...if that was what he was being asked to do.

"What do you have in mind?" he asked, his voice still noticeably flat. It was just him.

Geoffrey took in a long breath and rehearsed his op-order from memory. "You'll be teaming up with Espio. He doesn't know it yet, but you two will be heading out to have a peek at this place, and take it out if at all possible."

Shadow shrugged his face. "Anything else?"

"Just need to wait for Espio, then I'll give you two the parameters fully."

They didn't have to wait long, Espio waltzing in and his first cold look at Shadow nearly had him waltzing back out. It couldn't have been that much more evident of how many "friends" Shadow had made in the course of his alliance with Robotnick.

"Count me out! I'd rather poke fun at Julie-Su right now than team with him!"

Geoffrey's brows rose to the heavens, but they stalled halfway when his temper flared up. "You're going–period! I don't care if 'ya have to keep a ten foot distance between each other the whole time, but you are going."

"Not if Knuckles has his say, I don't!" Espio fired off, still trying to leave through the open sliding door.

"He's not here, so that debunks you to my authority!" Geoffrey snarled, beginning to wonder if Shadow was far easier to negotiate with than a leading member of the Chaotix! Knuckles was truly the fail-safe with the bunch! "I need you and I need you bad, Espio."

Espio stole a hard glare at Shadow–who seemed to be enjoying the tantrum war–then dead squarely at St. John around his horn. "Nah, not that much!" And he started out the door again.

"It could concern Knuckles, Epee," St. John said as his final weapon of bartering. It did the trick; Espio stopped cold. "We haven't heard from him since he left yesterday, along with Sonic. What and where I am sending you to just might concern him getting back."

Espio's back was still to the HQ, his eyes steady, however, in front of him. "I'm listening," he said after a moment.

St. John bit down on his inner lip, wondering how the purple Chameleon would take the truth. "You need to work your disappearing act and gather some information for us. We've been following these transmissions under a new cipher for the past couple of days. We can't break it totally without the encryption, and I have this hunch it's at this place they've been going."

Espio turned around, his stern face hadn't changed. "So I've heard...but I refuse to go with him."

"Will you if it involves something about, Chameleon?"

Geoffrey's slow tone grabbed Espio at his throat and crushed it. "Go on," he swallowed with a painful desire.

"I can't say if it does involve your species, or if it's a codeword operation that means what it says, but so far, Knuckles, Sonic and Twan are missing, and the Prowers haven't bothered to call or return as well." The skunk sighed his plea after a breath. "We need the encryption programs to help bust this thing wide open. We need you to do disappear for us to get it. Shadow knows his way around the bots and he can help sack a few for your benefit--" He eyed the hedgehog whose face was still blank but he apparently wasn't backing down. "–and blow the place up afterwards."

"Just like what I did with the Beehive Coloney," Espio seemed to groan within himself. He still was tortured about sending Charmey's home to the ground under a hive of explosives, but the Kingdom that was once his friend's had been under Eggman's rule and his bidding. It had to go...it was the Hive's last purpose. Coincidently, he pondered back, it was for Charmey in the end. He just hated pushing the button to do it.

"How we getting there?" Espio challenged, still on the bench debating whether to assist or not.

"I seem to have one more boogie at hand," Geoffrey replied earnestly. "Can you two contain yourselves?"

A single brow raised on the horned chameleon. "There goes the ten foot rule."

Shadow bit his lip this time trying not to laugh. "Don't worry, I don't bite...well, sometimes."

Espio raised his cheek as if he were to snarl. "What d'ya?...Slack-jawed!"

Whatever semblance of amusement Shadow had etched on his face dissipated with the drop of his arms from his chest. He was now possibly staring at one dead Chameleon if neither one of them could contain their contempt. But he bypassed any counter he thought of; Espio's remark was, at best, ill-conceived and it enlightened Shadow to the fact Espio really wasn't wanting to venture out with him. "Sucks to be you!"

"Cool it, both of you!" Geoffrey managed to wedge in. "Espio...I'm to the point I'm not really asking."

His last, glowering look at Shadow didn't mean good news on Geoffrey's part, however Espio's defeated slump had shown a different light. But he still looked regrettable, nonetheless. "Yea, sure! Just let me sign my will first."

"Hey," Shadow perked up, "my neck is in your hands too, pal, so let's just keep this puke mutual, if you don't mind." "Well, not really," he concluded to himself. "I can just use the relief from around here for a change. Unless Aleutian comes back!" That thought released a light smile across his lips about which only he would know the meaning.

Espio was not impressed about it...for that matter any of it. "Plan?"

"I'm leaving it up to you?" Geoffrey frowned, but in a good way. "The latest operations have gone down the tubes and knowing how you work, I'd rather leave it up to you instead of me dictating it. Honestly, I feel safer about it."

"And you should, Geoff!" Espio said frankly. "But thanks anyhow."

"Don't mention it," Geoffrey affirmed, though he knew Espio insulted him somehow. "How soon can you head out."

Espio turned to Shadow and then back to St. John. He had this thing about reading people, and from his standpoint, Shadow was in no hurry, which was marvelous being how he liked to run things. "Couple of hours. Darkness is my element and from what you said, and what I've been hearing, I'm going to need it."

"Very well," nodded Geoffrey, then stepping away from the pair. "Just don't kill yourselves until you get back!"

Without so much of a bow or a flying insult, Espio left Freedom HQ. After a minute of standing, perhaps to make sure he wouldn't catch up with him by coincidence, Shadow took his leave as well. The dull hum of Nicole's operating system and Sir Charles scratching pen and shifting slide rule was all that resonated from the room. As for Hershey, it was a relief.

Sitting beside her again, Geoffrey took up another apple slice and bit into it, munching on it before he looked tiredly into his wife's eyes. "See what I have to put up with!"

"HAHAA!" came Chuck's shouting laughter, startling St. John and Hershey. "M'boy, my points exactly!" The once robotosized hedgehog shifted round in his chair. "Try being around here over four years ago with Sonic and the rest bickering."

"I can only shudder, Sir Charles," Geoffrey seemed to have moaned.

"Ah," Chuck grunted dismissivily, "we still won, and even now I have high hopes for us."

"I do too, Charles," the skunk nodded, mostly at his wife and took another bite, "but the slowness has me worried. More lives can be saved if things would just move along a lot faster. Unfortunately, and I hate to say this, but I fault King Elias some."

Charles knew how much St. John loathed to put down his higher Arc, but alas, it was true about Elias. He was slow to grasp the concepts about commanding troops in the field. Honestly, Chuck wished Sally was at the forefront again with his nephew being the battering ram of her might. But King Max has such high hope for Elias that Charles felt, his Sire pushed them too far and put too much on the young heir.

"No Commander, we should only fault the war," Chuck reflected after a long moment. "After all, that is what is dragging on and burdening our friends and leaders."

Hershey lifted a small cup. "Absolutely."

Seeing the cup, Charles sighed and shook his head, leveling it back to the jumble of scratch paper and his slide rule. "By chance you can save some for me?"

"Of course, Chuck," Hershey replied.

"Thank you kindly..." he said furtively, stretching his neck one last time toward the screen, becoming hypnotized for a moment at the blinking red dot hovering over the Badlands while musing over his own quizzical notions:

"Wonder what is so dang-gum important out there?"

Everything seemed to have a radiant, brilliant white glow with this haze floating around the contours. The apartment buildings with their red and marble colors had it. The gathering people, mostly Echidna's, but other investigating species as well, had this blurred, white orb around them. It was as if the sun had grown hotter, drawing closer to Echindolopis. But it couldn't have been. Kripta looked to the sky, seeing the black ink of the pocket-zone in which the city was still lying in sanctuary from the ravages of nuclear fallout on the Floating Island. Reasons for the blinding light weren't explainable. Nor the burning pain in her hands and wrists. Nor the queasiness of fright churning in her stomach.

She was slumped on the curb of a sidewalk, she gathered from her out of body feeling. It seemed it was the notion she could make sense of. A desire to look over herself blossomed, finding her legs, clothed in a blue skirt that reached to her thighs with a shirt to match, sprawled out on the edge of the street. Across from her, in the street itself, was the ensuing calamity that she feared she had caused a short time ago. Two hover cars, one facing down the street towards the east with the second smashed in on its driver side, making a mutated T-bone impression at an angle. Their operators were already out, a darkly furred blue echidna pointing his dismay at a composed crocodile wearing a grey suit, his arms tucked under each other while adding his unmoved expression to his stiff posture. He wasn't buying what the accusing echidna was flapping about.

"You hurt?" said a male voice, concerned in tone but had an aura of authority mixed in behind it.

Her eyes never strayed from the combative echidna. "I'm fine," she shakingly replied on what felt like instinct rather than mere telling the truth. She couldn't fathom why her hands ached and stung.

"Alright. Just stay here and stay calm, please," came what seemed like a rehearsed reply.

A shadow passed over her, and she was late to gaze at the voice that seemed to show more care than the gathering onlookers. All she descried was his back, covered from a black polo-shirt with the excess tucked inside his belted jeans. His fur was brown, his dreads waving across his shoulders and collar as his stride took him across the two lane street. When he glimpsed to the left, watching for oncoming cars through the intersection, Kripta saw the muzzle of her savior, his eyes attuned to his surroundings with duty somehow speaking from his pupils and posture.

Over the bustling noises and the chorusing mumbles of the onlookers, Kripta could still hear him:

"Anyone hurt?"

The cantankerous dark blue echidna abruptly turned to face him. "No-thank-you very much–but my car is smashed! You know how much this costs. It's a Jupiter Special and–"

"I'm sorry for your misfortune, sir, but I am more concerned about the health and well-beings of you two, at the moment," interrupted the brown echidna evenly. His eyes, Kripta observed, darted from the other echidna's lavish sports car to the crocodile's "lemon," which had the driver-side door caved inward from the Jupiter's bumper's front corner. "Sir?" he questioned once he looked up to the crocodile's face.

"I'm alright," he replied benevolently.

"I was telling this gentleman here," pushed in, it seemed, the blue echidna, "that if it wasn't for that adolescent girl over there–" he waved an accusing finger towards Kritpa, "I could be back at the office and this gentleman here, at his interview."

"Uh-huh," frowned the brown echidna, his hands clasped over each other at his chest.

It was here Kripta was going to strive to stand. Past events lapsed in her quivering mind; a single step out from the sidewalk; the "walk" signal changing to her favor; a blur of red and black rounding beside her; the squealing of tires followed by aluminum and plastic crunching against each other. And now she was forcing herself to stand. To her aid, a firm hand wrapped around her arm, however the tug wasn't filled with kindness.

Neither was her brother's voice.

"Kritpa! What happened? You okay?" He spun her to have his wide eyes meet hers! "I told you to wait for me!"

Anzio's rapid questions came out to her as riddles to her racing mind. Kripta tried to answer, but her big-brother's brutish stance and gaze robbed her the last of her strength. Her eyes began to fill with tears, but she fought desperately not to cry.

"Hey!" shouted the brown echidna's authoritative voice from behind them. "Unhand her, now!"

Anzio's face twisted to malice. "On what authority?"

"The Echidna Security Team," came the echidna's approaching reply.

"Where's your uniform?" Anzio spat back, almost as a taunt. Kritpa turned her head to see the echidna closing in on her, his back straight as a wall, his face leaning towards indignance.

"I'm off duty." Under prediction of the next question, Kripta watched him bring out a black wallet that was much thinner, opened it, and shoved his shield and I.D. card towards her brother before closing it. "Now you mind telling me why you have your hand around her arm?"

"She's my sister, sir," Anzio said, releasing his grip some on Kripta, but still holding on to her.

He nodded his head, but shifted his eyes to her. "Do you have your Echindolopis Residency card with you, milady?" he asked, giving out a resemblance of a smile that eased her.

"Ye–yes sir, I do," she replied shyly.

"Alright, you'll need to produce that when an officer comes to take the report. I have that charming jerk-off and the other gentleman getting their hover-car license, registration, insurance, and Residency cards as well."

"You didn't cause this, did you, Kripta?" Anzio asked shrewdly.

The off-duty officer's eyes brightened in defense. "Hey, lay-off, man. She just about got plastered by that reject flying a red light and not yielding the right-of-way. He's already trying to blame her for it."

"He isn't going to sue us, is he?" Anzio put in, letting his sister go.

"You've got me. I was behind your sister when he executed his bad driving habits. He's pretty much buying the croc a new car."

Anzio sighed and eyed his sister. The wail of a police hover-car started to echo nearby. "Al'right then, sis. I guess I'm sorry."

"It's okay Anzy," Kripta whispered wetly. "I know you're trying to watch over me."

"What big brothers are for, right sir," offered the echidna.

"Oh, with her skipping mind. Someone has to." Anzio looked to the echidna with a smug grin. "Thank you, sir."

"Don't..." he said, shoving his hands up as if to shove away the gratitude. "It's my duties; it's my job."

"My hands are burning," Kripta said seemingly out of the blue, under a coy voice.

"You did take a fall, milady," the echidna said.

"My eyes, too." She waved her head some, squinting her eyes in hopes the radiant haze would disappear and the world's pigmentation would return. "Everything seems to be blurry."

The crying siren was becoming closer. "I'll ask for a medic when the cavalry shows."

Kripta opened her eyes, the bright orbs still encrusted her brother and the brown echidna, but his smile seemed to dull it some. Or was it the comfort she was finding with it? Safety was emiting from him, like a net woven with caring arms. It was as if she expected it to come from him; as if she had embraced it once before.

"Your name, sir," she asked, fishing a smile inspite of her ill-stomach.

His mouth moved; but his voice was shrieking; distorted:

"SEEKKKzzzzzzELLLIeeerrZzZZZZ!!!!"

Kripta stepped back, bringing her arms close to her chest as her face shattered from a smile to a harrowing gasp. "WHAT!"

Again, the echidna's mouth opened. She was expecting him to say his name. She knew what it was but the same distorted, demonic voice seemed to smear from his lips. "SAAAZZzzzEEEeQQQiizzzzZZz"

Anzio roamed into her sight. He too opened his mouth but nothing came as sound.

The twinge in her hands burned more explosively. Her vision didn't seem to get brighter but duller, watching the buildings get swallowed in the blackness of the pocket-zone, watching her brother froth away like fog, and thus, with the brown echidna. She slammed her eyes shut, feeling needles prodding at her retina and locking her eyelids under the immense pain she felt inching its way through her nerves. Then a cold numbness laced her body, producing spasms in her legs and arms as uncontrollable shivers that were so violent her queasiness in her stomach became the least of her excruciating pains. Under the pressure of her shut eyes they began to tear, tracing down her broad face towards the back of her neck and dripping off to the metal table she was shackled upon. It was the cold aluminum across her bare body that brought her back to the horror that had become her reality.

"KIIlllllZZZzzEEERREeeeEr–"

The snap of a switch was the call to lift her eyes open. The abrupt silence of the loud distorted sound was the beckoning signal to turn her head over to the right. Two bulky frames, bearish in figure, but colorless in the glimmering dark, stood mere feet from her. With the blurriness of her eyes, she could make out a third slender figure sliding between them, caseous in his movements.

She wanted to moan her pain. She wanted to cry at her nightmare. But Kripta in all of her torments lay motionless on the table with the cords from her hands, and sensors pressed against her head and chest like meshed strings concealing the identity of her eyes. It was only when she winced that a round shaped hulk strode beside her.

"Status?" it said to the slender figure. It was the tech-bot the Eggbot was addressing.

"The voice boxes on both are faulty," explained the tech-bot with it's own shrilling voice box. Kripta watched its skeletal metal head rotate to its right at the Eggbot. "They can't relay their programmed orders."

"It won't matter. The program in itself is running flawlessly, and the purpose for them is silence. Hydriodic actuators?"

"They simulate the wind," the tech-bot relayed.

"How long before the last of the tests?"

"They're done. We can power them up now."

"Do it," the Eggbot replied without a moment's computing. "We are to send them off within the next few hours. Master wants them fully powered up with elapse time to make sure the program is running smoothly."

It was as if it were a command, but unspoken. The twin dark figures rose up to what Kripta could see as full height and took two steps forward in cadence, standing over her like ominous skyscrapers in the darkest of cities. The tech-bot wove between them, triggering sensors and pushing buttons, she observed in her stupor, before he stepped back from them to stand rigid and waiting.

An arc of violet-blueish light connected the left arm to the neck, then an additional series licked at the frame to the right. She could hear the electric impulse over the ambient noise of the machines in the building, becoming louche as more of the visible, purple current seemed to play at the chassis. Be spelled, she watched the second figure began this lightning ritual, the reflective glow adding more texture to the room with its metallic inhabitants.

And it was the flickers that engulfed her senses with a soiling fear. Her eyes weren't keen, but they could still see the design; the pushed chest, arms incased in shielding that covered all internal workings, leaving cracks and lines for movement. Legs built like titan mammoths, they too were enshrouded with mystery of how they operated. But it was the mask that seemed to maul her sight when she gazed upon it. Resembling the skeleton head of the her nightmarish captor, it was green with black blotches, its eyes colorless and hardly noticeable in their shadow crevasses. There was no glimmering smile, its lips concealed under a vented mask–

The electric arcs ceased; leaving the machines still rigid in their stance. Kripta swallowed hard, but still found her throat thick with spit and mucus. And when she blinked to force more moisture around her eyes, she swore she was losing her sight all together. But no! What she was seeing was real. "It's a devilish prank," she thought. But it was the weapon that was transforming to be the nightmare.

Coming as a ebbing tide, the textures and contour of the machines began to vanish like rippling water. Their arms flickered in and out of existence, followed by their legs, leaving their chests and heads floating on air until they too began to blot out of sight. The head on the left was the first to vanish from the room, leaving the backdrop of several duplicates of itself behind a row of overhanging, weak florescent lights. The last bot left her frightened eyes as well; but with its dark eyes staring into hers!

"The subject's awake!" decried the tech-bot, its cyclopsed head turned over its shoulder after the phantom machine's head alerted it.

The fight to resist and to spring up was meet with force from the shackles at her legs and abdomen. Kripta, in her fight, suddenly felt the cold hand of the Eggbot wrap around her throat as she squirmed more out of terror and anguish. It held her down, pressing hard on her to the point she feared her wind-pipe would be crushed, drowning her in her own blood.

"Put her back in coma-status and render her brain dead!" the Eggbot hissed.

"Computed!"

Buttons being were pushed, initiaing a wink of reprieve; the burning torture in her hands ceased only for the moment as the cold liquid was injected through the prongs in her hands to ice its way through her bloodstream. The coming fog was quick, filling her eyes with the last shred of tears before her mind succumbed to the hypnotic concoction. It was her voice she last heard, recalling the peace she had once met out in the street that had brought her comfort from her ordeal, and who she wanted to save her in this moment of despair.

His tan muzzle was the last thing she could see...

"Christian...Christian..."

"Christian!"

The sharp whisper was enough to break his slumped, encrusted shell, leaning on the far wall, though still keeping his arms folded tightly across his opened shirt chest. He let a side glance stray over his shoulder at Lemeans. The leopard sat almost impatiently forward in his rickety chair, drawing a look that was devoid of any of his charming pleasantries, balancing both hands and his torso over his dark-stained cane. Christian felt a cataclysm of rage and loathing spread fiercely through his temple and nervous system just with the mere sight of Lemeans' pushy demeanor. The dark alcove of despair he felt himself hiding in, as if to search for Kripta in it and bring her back to him, crumbled instantly and he felt more alone now than when he felt himself go in.

"Are you in this conversation or not," Lemeans interjected, sweeping his alert eyes around the shield of bodies in front of him, however still able to spy through Knuckles and Mikhail at the gloomy brown echidna.

A squint to push reality back into perspective and to squeeze the salt of sweat from his eyes. "Sorry," Christian breathed apologetically. "Just watching for any unwanted guest." And really that was his current job, eyeing through the cracks of the walls and watching for passing shadows that were engineered from blueprints and not evolution. Even the shade of the hut only held in the stifling dry heat, triggering everyone's sweat glands to rain over their fur and open blotches of skin. No one was without their mouth open to breathe, but not panting. Silence was still key in the current operation of becoming liberated.

Retreating back to the waiting looks after an affirming nod to Christian, Lemeans began to rehash their next move:

"In the event we get burned," he said, his benign twinkle in his eyes and voice coming round again, "concentrate on our current guards and smash a hole through the fence–but that is if we get burned."

"I still 'zhink we should stay put'z," Antoine fussed beside Sonic. Both hedgehog and coyote were standing, unswayed in their posture and demeanor, to the right of Lemeans in the half-moon circle around him.

"Our safety is dwindling here by the hour," Lemeans countered.

Sonic snorted. "Tell us something we don't know, kitty cat. I just like to know what odds you came up with that gives us the go ahead to 'relocate?'"

"It's on a hunch," answered the leopard. "And besides, the schoolhouse was built for our winter season here. No cracks through the walls. Better to conspire, you might say."

"Ah, great," Knuckles frowned as his eyes rolled above his crossed arms. Antoine's boundless duty to Sally's orders were becoming a wise thought process. One, Knuckles kicked himself in the tail, now, for that he didn't listened to. "So who's running interference, again?"

"Us," Mikhail said boisterously, slapping Knuckles on the shoulder with confidence. Knuckles looked at him with an open-mouthful of surprise and incredulous eyes burning with sweat. Mikhail returned it with a hurt expression. "Come on, echidna. No fear, eh! Me and Christian...good team, we are."

Knuckles wandered his bewildered and reserved face around to Lemeans. "Maybe we should just do this now–"

"No...sorry, but the camp isn't all informed yet," Lemeans said, cutting Knuckles off. "I'm letting some loose lips be out in the cold until the last minute; willing of course, that other lips stay hushed about you all." The room's eyes, even Christians', were upon him now. They weren't all keen. "Look, as before, Leo gives us the go-ahead from the north block of huts, Christian makes sure it's safe to round this one to the open side of the south fence, and Mikhail guides the lot of us to our destination."

"It's ludicrouz, Monsieur!" Antoine snapped, stepping forward to the leopard.

"I couldn't agree more," added Christian from afar. "Make the call, get the transports here, and bug out! This waiting is only going to get others killed, Lemeans, instead of saving!"

"Haste makes waste, Christian."

Knuckles stepped forward now, still keeping his back tall all the while cocking his head maliciously. "Like the day before?"

"My point exactly!" Christian snapped, coming up to back his Guardian in their upheaval towards Lemeans and his shrewdness. "You haven't been forthcoming to us before, and I can't understand why all of this now!"

"For the good of our lives, Christian!" The leopard leaned back, inhaled deeply, and swayed his eyes to his embittered audience. "There is a lot that goes on in this camp, and the secrecy has to remain in order to keep the living, living."

"Then how are we supposed to trust you if all you do is a run a game in the shadows?" Sonic announced.

"It's up to you," Lemeans growled dryly, looking up with a cold expression.

"Really," Christian frowned, then turned to Knuckles. "Okay, then...I trust my Guardian."

The brass nub on the leopards cane snapped the wood under Lemeans' leaning posture. Christian spun his attuned eyes to the cracks of the walls for listening threats, while Knuckles did like wise, but was looking for an opening to rid his strain at his torment. The room, though, was still and silent onwards. "You listen and you listen well...all of you," Lemeans' snarled after a still pause. "I will not take this, nor hastily made plans to get us free. Many of times I have seen this done in my previous life and all it did was get people killed and children orphaned. I will not stand for it here, and I promised myself I wouldn't. So if the muscle we've needed here for sometime comes here and goes their own way, half-cocked, and in the process disrupts my plans to getEVERYONE safely out of here, then so be it. I will do my best to undermine your little soiree. Get me?" Unwavering eyes were his crude answer. "So fine. If you don't trust me, you don't trust me. Good! Then the whole camp is dead! Blood is on your hands, and all you've done is mimicry my operation to help others."

"I don't mean to crush your little fanfare, pal," Sonic interjected, "but we've pulled a heck of a lot Mobians out of trouble more times than I can count."

A raised brow. "I know, Sonic. Much doesn't pass my feline ears about you and your deeds, but I've helped get intel for staged operations to save others as well. You know how risky that is? I stand–well–sit before you now, because I used my uncanny talent of patience and didn't risk a hair on anyone's throat and neck. I could've been killed more times than I can remember just because I did hold my breath and I did stick to my prudent planning to help the ones help the others.

"Now if you're willing to listen, we can pull our experiences together and get this one pickle wrapped up right. No one killed. No one orphaned. Everyone healthy at the end." He pointed with his cane to Christian. "And you, officer. Doesn't your duties involve what I just said."

"Does it matter," Christian fired off.

Lemeans nodded his head. "It does because I need you. We all need you. Misplace your anger about them taking Kripta away and place your sworn duties to serve and protect this camp at the forefront." He then eyed Knuckles. "You too, sir. You–all of you can do a great deal if you listen to what I have in mind."

"Which is?" Sonic asked.

Lemeans leaned to the side and stole a glance at a wide opening in the wall. His voice was hoarse and quick. "In about five minuets, if we stop our bickering, we can get to the schoolhouse before our window closes and I can tell you further and with diagrams. That is if you all can trust me?"

"Say what!?" Knuckles jumped, looking back to Christian.

"Like I said; there is more that goes on here. I promise you I will explain more, but not around these walls."

Glances were exchanged, Knuckles seeking out Sonic's and not Christian's. Sonic shrugged with his eyes widely. Given his look, the Guardian had a funny feeling they were about to get some sun.

"Let's juice this place!"

"Perfect. Let me step out, get a situation report and soon enough we can be safer."

"How?" Christian inquired while still keeping tabs on the outside. "They are just as likely to search the schoolhouse as here."

"Yes, but it would be the last place they search if what I think is going to happen, does. Mikey is right. Their programs have become too predictable and it's now in our favor. But we need to keep it that way."

And on that, with a sharp breath to summon his muscles, Lemeans planted his cane to the floor and used what upper-body strength he could muster to stand up from his chair. Swaying over his permanently injured right leg, he buttoned his shirt and strolled out like anyone with a cane would; tapping and limping while closing the door carefully with Christian taking up a position behind it. When things seemed to be calm after the passing of several seconds, Sonic stepped in the way of Knuckles' view of Christian.

And for once–or at least one of the few times Knuckles has seen it, and not since over two years ago with Sally presumed dead–Sonic's expression had nothing simulating his gassing humor. "You 'buyin this, Red? I seriously want to douse him in catnip and throw him to Mickey here."

Breathing his indifference and the choice option of telling Sonic to can-it while he thought things through, Knuckles eased a mitt out from his folded arms and made a face of mild discontent. "He's made points, Sonic, but I don't like it anymore than you...for once."

"Ohh...I have your side then, eh?"

"Just shut-up, Blue!" Knuckles snuffed in annoyance, and turned his back towards the rear of the hut.

Antoine grimaced while searching for his wrecked tunic on the bed and said, "He actz like 'eh spy, if you azked, 'moah."

"I have this gut feeling he is," Christian allowed, his head still towards the door, shoulder leaning against it. Knuckles took note of a small knothole he was possibly peering through. "Question is...who's side–if any? All we know is he could be going for a few bots now."

"I doubt it, Officer," Knuckles said. This got Christian's attention from the door. "This guy maybe a jerk–"

"Got that right, Red!"

Knuckles shook his head with a snort at Sonic's interruption. "He maybe a jerk, but he hasn't told about us, yet."

"And your reasoning for zhis?" Antoine asked, spinning around with his tunic clutched in his right hand.

"It hasn't been too clean to get in, and they could've rounded us up in our sleep. But they didn't."

What Knuckles didn't add was their conversation from the morning, but the Guardian was still trying to digest that as well. Lemeans maybe shrewd, but his answers amidst the pressure they all put him under had enough passion behind it that wasn't lacking nor abundant to be suspicious. Knuckles had seen those particular cat-and-mouse games played out with the Legion and Robotnick's minions, and the fat-man himself when he played on Knuckles to get at Sonic. Lemeans exhumed none of this, and Knuckles saw it as the bonafides in his experienced-built conclusion. And with it, like the rest, he waited for the leopard's limping return.

There wasn't a special knock nor a whispered password. Christian with a suddenness that caught Knuckles', Sonic's, and Antoine's eyes, pulled the door open and Lemeans tapped his way inside as fast as he could, sweating profusely. He turned his head behind him and watched Christian shut the door with a quick gentleness before he turned back to the standing trio. Mikhail held his post by two bunks.

"We're set, but we need to move fast. Leo's been in position a lot longer than he's been needed, and I think a moment more might arouse the bots."

"What about this window?" Sonic politely snapped.

A curt nod. "The bots are fixing themselves up for a blind spot in about a minute. But it isn't without it's discrepancies. We've been watching this pattern for months and used it to shuffle some of my 'watchful-eyes' around during the day." He turned once more to Christian. "Let me know when he passes."

When the brown echidna nodded and went back to his attentive observation, Lemeans continued. "Once this bloke passes, we get out the door. The one we really have to worry about is the one walking towards us, but he should turn around before the other rounds the fence line and can see us. At least that is how it's supposed to work out–"

"I see him," Christian whispered.

Lemeans' eyes jumped in alert and waved his hand as a come-on to Knuckles, Sonic and Antoine. They all obeyed and gingerly sprinted to the door, huddling around it with Christian slammed against it, and Lemeans taking a position behind Antoine with Mikhail behind him. And to Knuckles pounding heart, Christian slid the door open. The mid-afternoon sun rolled in like a tidal-wave, covering everything with a blinding yellow light, and engulfing the former EST Officer as he stepped out the doorway. Knuckles followed but paused for a moment until Christian waved his hand behind his back by his tail.

The heat slammed at his fur and felt like it had singed his skin under it. But he pushed the burning discomfort aside, and checked behind him that Sonic was in fact following. Christian halted and peered around the corner of the hut. Knuckles did likewise and balled his fist as he watched the brown echidna study the unknown threat to the east. He could see Christian bobbing his head slightly, counting steps or something, or perhaps anticipating the bot's turn.

Sonic, however, was covering Knuckles' back, his shoes dug in and posed to propel himself like a plasma bolt ready to be discharged from it's capacitors to rip a machine up in a blur of blue fur and spines. A mother and a child past, both foxes Sonic could see through the x-ray heat as they passed down the last row of huts to the north.

"Go!"

Knuckles skirted behind Christian on his fast whisper, Sonic backpedaling with his hand on the hut as a guide for when he needed to turn. Once he did, he could see the back of the Eggbot walking the perimeter of the twin fence line, its weapon a broadsword and its arms swinging as it marched to the corner of the boundaries. Antoine was keeping up beside him, Nicole at the ready to be flipped open.

And all of a sudden, Sonic slammed into the back of Knuckles, coming to a dead, and frightening stop.

Knuckles nearly toppled over Christian, but his strengthened legs held true to the ground and took Sonic's clumsiness. He had the urge to look back and deck the hedgehog, but the roving bot walking east, away from them, was the focal point of his attention. What had made Christian stop? "What the heck are you doing?"

To answer the question, one had to be at Christian's standpoint. And he was breathing just as hard, his adrenaline charging him with fear as the rest. Not only could the bot behind them turn to the north and instantly spot Sonic and the rest just with a mere side-glance of it's sensors, but the bot in front was closing in on it's perimeter to turn completely around and take one good view of the whole line of Freedom Fighters. But what made him stop his train of muscle and speed was Lemeans' grey-furred harecompatriot shaking his head violently as he too was peering around the corner of a hut to the east of the last line, and one short of the schoolhouse they were attempting to get to.

Knuckles looked behind him. The bot was a few yards from his pivot point. Struggling his eyesight further to see Sonic, he clenched his fists tighter and brought them up past his waist upon seeing the blue hedgehog take a charged bead on the Eggbot. If anything were to explode, it was going to be Sonic. Knuckles would have to bolt to the bot ahead of him to give anyone cover and advantage. It was a long sprint, and one he feared he wouldn't make–

Christian disappeared around the corner in a blinding jolt. Knuckles labored under his feet and pumped his fists now in order to keep up. Sonic followed after a curt delay in awareness, with 'Twan dashing behind him. Lemeans, however, kept to his limping pace, watching casually as the Eggbot in front made his turn a moment too late to catch the coyote's tail vanishing between the final row of huts. Mikhail supplied the second half of the screen. Both leopard and beagle strolled side-by-side and turned the corner, his eye falling back to the west and nodding as the second roving bot made it's turn, after which, he took to be a caring Mobian in helping an old, disabled cat to his destination.

To both of their jumping hearts and charging nerves, Antoine leaped through the door of the Schoolhouse with Leo behind him just as the oncoming Eggbot came into view of the gauntlet of deteriorating structures.

"One problem wrapped up, 'ah Mickey?"

"Of many, my friend. Now what's for supper?" the beagle asked as he followed Lemeans inside and shut the door.

The leopard smiled broadly. "Machines. But we need to bait them first."

Crutching under his own power, Lemeans made his way between the aisles of benches to the green chalkboard that still had the white stains of previous lessons. Taking a piece of chalk with his right hand and dubiously supporting himself over his cane with the other, he drew a square, then, another around it, placing two large dots to the left side and an additional one to the right.

"Since you came absent of a plan to get out, I figure I might share mine," he said, still scribbling on the board. "What was said last night about baiting a few bots could be the key to our initial break out–follow me?"

Lemeans saw Sonic and Knuckles nod. Christian stood firm by the door, with Mikhail and Antoine finding a few benches to collapse in. A lasting smile was quickly diminished when the leopard brought his attention back to board. There he drew lines that represented the organization of huts as a block. Bold dots came next, two as roving bots in the fence line, three positioned in the guard towers, and lastly, the surplus he couldn't account for which were unpredictable to be in a fixed location around the camp, scattered outside the perimeter.

Knuckles judged all this without Lemeans having to say a word.

"We can cream the guard towers at the front," the Guardian said, his tone firm but low. "The rest is going to be one heck of a brawl."

Lemeans winked his right eye and, again, smiled. "Here," he said, drawing more markings in the blank spaces to the North and West of the block of huts, "we have our water-spigot for wash–believe it or not, Eggman has given us ambient amount of water to thrive with–however–" he pointed the chalk from the north end where he etched two wavy lines, to the west where the last guard tower stood and a crude estimation of bots in the rear, "–I have to say, you are correct, that our captors have spread themselves out. But on the bright side...they are spread out."

Sonic added his qualm thought. "Why don't you add us to the list!"

"I would, but you didn't let me take into a account the camp as a whole."

"Say what?" Christian blurted out. "If you haven't noticed,Lemeans, but our three new-comers to the camp aren't dragging their knuckles on the ground for food and support to stay up–no offense Guardian."

Knuckles shook his head, showing Christian none was taken, and within himself, chuckling at the former EST officer's statement. He couldn't be further from the truth. And on that note of sarcasm, Knuckles realized how much work Sonic had snuck in, along with them, to stage the coming escape. He didn't mind breaking in to liberate the oppressed, but siding odds would have been more welcomed. "But, hey, I did say I'd party too!"

"So what's the camp going to do?" Knuckles firmly asked. He felt uneasy about the coming answer.

"My intention," Lemeans elaborated, "is to keep us looking glum. As long as we don't attack attention from Eggman, and wait this coming dread out, we should be alright."

"That still doesn't answer my question, Lemeans," Knuckles put in under a glower. "Looking pitiful has been your job from the get-go. But as Christian put it, you all an't looking up to snuff on running, much less fighting."

"And I realize that, but believe me; they will bolt on a moments notice from the impending doom. Get this through your heads! We are not as weak as we look–"

"You can't be counting on a finial hoo-ra of strength to get us out,Lemeans?" Christian snapped, his arms unfolding and bringing up a shooting arm. "Com'on! Get a life, leopard. You're asking way to much from these people. We have mother's with children here, and I'm quite sure their mother's instincts are going to get in the way."

"How many children are in ze camp?" Antoine inquired, his stomach pitching from the forgotten revelation.

Still air lingered in the schoolhouse before an answer came forth.

"Eleven," Christian said bleakly. "When I got here, there were fifteen."

"And when I came, we had twenty," Lemeans offered. "Not to mention all the still borns." He then sighed at the floor, only lifting his eyes when he seemed to have found his strength where he lost it. "Just give me your patients, please. I can give you all a screen and security without getting burned. I have David running around getting some last scraps of intelligence and voicing some warnings of mine to a few trusting helpers...and they are giving their all for this. We know the jig is coming, and I am hoping our send off is as predicable as I can fathom."

"How's that?" Sonic trumped.

"Like they did to those few souls two days ago. Line us up and slaughter us down." Lemeans face cringed some, but his charming feature never left him. "I swear Eggman has a voyeurism about that."

"Oh, yea!" Sonic tittered. "Why do you think he's single? Shoot, he had to make his own girl just to hang out with him."

"Aside from his rotten pleasures on us," Lemeans said, shifting his weight for better comfort under his leg and cane. "I'm begging on hope that his bots will also line-up for the send-off."

Sonic's eyes brightened, almost glistened with moisture if the room that had nothing molecular of humidity inside. "Oh, please tell me I know where you're going with this."

"Like I said, Sir Sonic, I have heard much about you, and your charitable deeds to the planet." He then turned his cane upon Knuckles and Christian. "And I might add you two aren't the first echidnas I have met in my travels. I know when your kind has a passion and set purpose on something, you lot stick to it till the very end...no matter the out come. The whole camp is counting on this. Our lives depend on your strength and resolve to see this through."

If the leopard's speech was a rallying cry to Knuckles and Christian–especially to Christian–it worked.

"You got it," Knuckles affirmed over his crossed arms and straightened tail.

"Marvelous!" Lemeans almost hailed, but kept his voice in control.

"Am I still getting pulse-launcher?" Mikhail sang.

A quick nod. "I plan on it. Plus their swords and plasma weapons, if they aren't fixed to their arms. Once the show begins we need to be on the ball about sacking the rest and pilfering their weapons as fast as we can."

Antoine spoke up. "What about our exit. I don'z like ze idea of running towardz ze the enemy for an ezcape!"

"Not to worry, 'Twan," Sonic plied, sweeping his hand across his chest with a cocky grin fixed on his face. "Of all the bets we're throwing out, mine is on me. Their attention will be on me once the show starts. You know, my fans love me and I just can't get away from 'em."

Knuckles snorted hard enough that Lemeans worried the walls might've caved outwards. "Don't flatter yourself, blue!"

"Precisely," Lemeans said with serious eyes. "You may be our surprise diversionary but Eggman does have his numbers."

"I'll cover the escape then," Knuckles said softly. "'Twan, where do you want to be in all this?"

"Running with ze resz. But I can fillet my share...and someone needs to coordinate ze pick-up and ze lead."

"Lead the way then," Sonic quipped. "When do we make that call, by the way?"

Lemeans delayed his answer after a quick thought. "A few hours at the most. In fact, I need to show my face some and prepare my next screen for you. I hope you don't mind singing?"

"As long as the music is good," Sonic grinned.

"Can you dance to nursery rhymes?"

Sonic's mouth gaped, and Knuckles chuckled at the dupe look. "Schools out, eh?"

"Need an excuse to keep you in here, and not them checking this place out," Lemeans replied. Picking himself up from his hunch, he limped across the hut and managed a smile. "Mikhail...Christian, if you please accompany me. Our absence has been long enough."

"In a 'sec, Lemeans," Christian festered. "I want to get this all nailed away."

The leopard stopped and beamed a suspicious expression towards Christian. A moment slipped by with his leaning posture on his cane as his gaze ran through Christian like a dull knife. "Don't be long," he finally manipulated across his lips. "Mikhail, lets go. I need your eyes for an escape route."

"Da!" said the beagle and he was soon at the door, opening it, and awaiting Lemeans to creep out while holding a blank look.

Once the door was shut, Christian glanced at Sonic then Knuckles. Antoine had become a figment of his imagination. "How fast can they get here?"

"You'rethat worried?" Sonic fronted.

"Okay, let me put it this way: can they get here before the Oil Field reserves show up and finish the job?" Christian growled, throwing his pointing hand up and towards the docking port to the east.

"We've battled worse, Christian," Knuckles eased, but his tone was sharp.

"Yea, but we haven't. Sure the Legion is bad, but we aren't the EST and only half of us are trained. Now is the equation a little more defined?"

"Oui, along with my reservations," Antoine said crossly.

"So what do we do?" Sonic said, shrugging his arms. "We can't devise another plan since he is putting things in motion."

"Yeah, but we can wrap ours around his and make it more realistic," Knuckles confirmed.

"Zee, the echidna zhinks better than you, Sonic," Antoine flustered brightly, jamming his finger into the bathos hedgehog's chest. "What are your ideaz, Knuckles?" the coyote asked snidely.

"We brawl...simple as that! We crunch as many as we can and run like there is no tomorrow."

Antoine shot Knuckles a gawking, bewildered look. "You're kidding me, right? Zhat your plan?"

Sonic smirked and jabbed his elbow into the coyote's left side. "I'm not looking so shabby now, eh 'Twan."

Knuckles waved his head and turned his back. Honestly he didn't like it either. Calling in the cavalry before the beat down started, getting the right bots to walk into a trap and take their weapons after ripping them apart, and further more, trusting everything to a leopard who seemed more senile than sane and quite possibly deserved a wrap-around-sport-coat than a cane. It all made Knuckles' head hurt, and enough so to make him reach with his hand to comfort it. The rolling caress offered comfort he wanted, but didn't soothe the situation, of course, however it did produce one minor thought which daunted him for some time. "What if Aleutian were here? What would he say and do?"

He answered his question while Antoine and Sonic started to bicker behind him. Nothing. Aleutian was too far down in his depression to think accurately. After all, he did turn the Plunger straight into an oncoming torpedo over a week ago.

"...It has been over a week since I met him. Boy, time has gone by and I still feel our distance hasn't come any closer than it should be. But he's gone again. Will I see him? I want to, but he does need Dad, and Dad does need him."

He took to a bench, still facing the chalkboard, staring hard at Lemeans' scribbles. Locke's teachings seemed to come from it. The board wasn't the trigger as was the mere thought of his own schooling with his father. "Think outside the box," he had once told him, and what he took almost as a religion. "Look at things far and wide before doing the simplest of chores. Things may become simpler before you know it."

And so Knuckles did, supporting his chin with his hands while supporting his arms with his legs, he looked towards the floor, ignored the grumbles from Sonic and Antoine from behind him, and hoped Julie-Su would somehow be intertwined in this delusional mess.

But worthy of its cause.

Whew! I hope this was enternaning more than it was long and tedus. I didn't mean for it to be this long, but it grew that way. I also tried to bring past occuanses from the comics into play, and will try to do more in the coming chapters for better refrences--and making this plausable.

Please tell me how I am doing, and please don't be shy to make suggestions in story telling, grammer, and orginization. If I loose you--and not because of the lengths--tell me so. I'm not doing my job if I loose you all on something.

Next chapter is shorter...but warming.