All ratings and copyright, and legal stuff is listed on the first chapter and carry forward to all subsequent chapters.
Here's a quick review of events since the start for those who are reading this story and have forgotten what happened earlier, or is reading this story out of order(what the hell are you reading this out of order for?). Robotnik was experimenting with the void again and something went wrong, big surprise there. As a result coconuts and crabmeat get shredded by the mysterious stranger that appears as a result of the accident. Unfortunately he is captured and tortured for information, not like he says much! Tails was originally sent in on a recon mission to discover Robotnik's latest plans, but discovers the creature in the process. He frees the creature from his restraints and rescues him from the fortress. The creature goes through some freaky transformation when he grabs a strange crystal becoming much smaller (yes it does sound like he de-digivolved, but believe me its something else). Tails returns to Knothole with the creature and places him in the hospital. Sally freaks out about Tails, and discovers Rotor has been experimenting with a new series of weapons. The creature wakes up the next morning, holds Antoine hostage sends Sonic through a wall and Sally nearly gets killed. That was cut short when Antoine revealed that Sally's a princess, now the creature claims he is sworn to serve the monarchy. Now Sally has taken the creature into the hospital to get some answers.
A Visitor From Afar
Ch 5 Twenty Questions
Knothole Medical Center….
The waiting room inside the hospital was now fairly busy with various people waiting for treatments, or check-ups; so many of them chatted amongst themselves, unaware of the drama that had just recently occurred outside. Some of the people in the waiting room fell silent when the Freedom Fighters enter the lobby, and anyone who hadn't before did so when the strange creature, it's back bleeding badly, entered behind them. Dr. Quack rushed over to the group as he entered the room from the hallway. "Princess, are you alright?" Dr. Quack asked, a little out of breathe from the quick jog between the creature's room to the lobby. Antoine rushed up beside him, an equally distressed look on his face.
"I'm fine guys, really." Sally assured them holding her hands up. "Dr. Quack we need to patch him up, you have a room we can all fit in?" Sally asked pointing to the bloodied creature behind the group.
"Yes, of course your highness… follow me." Dr. Quack replied obediently, turning on his heels and waddled, like any duck would, down the corridor from which he had entered. The group followed the duck down the hallway, receiving more stares as the creature walked past the many onlookers.
As they all proceeded down the warm blue hallway Sonic quickened his pace till he got up beside the princess, a questioning look on his face. "Sal, you sure this is a good idea, can we really trust him?" he asked shrugging his thumb over his shoulder towards the creature.
"Look Sonic, he's already been tortured by Robotnik for information, and he never told him anything. If we hope to learn anything about him peacefully, we're going to have to show we mean him no harm." Sally sighed raising her hand trying to explain herself. "Besides he seems to listens to me a lot better then you, we'll be fine. Just keep it cool." Sally smirked as Sonic frowned at the notion, but Sonic nodded he understood.
"In here Princess, there should be plenty of room for everyone." Dr. Quack said opening the door to the large examination room; holding the door open for everyone as they filed inside. The Freedom Fighters took a seat on what was available; Tails, Antoine and Sonic took the only seats in the room while Bunnie hopped onto a nearby sink. Rotor went to the sole window in the room and rested his elbow on the sill. Sally went to the center of the group and propped herself against the cold surface of the wall, pulling Nicole by her strap into her hands and opened the small contraption up.
"Have a seat on the table son." Dr. Quack instructed to the creature. The creature looked to Sally unsure, Sally nodded affirmatively, so he hopped onto the exam table without any further fuss. Dr. Quack walked over to a phone hanging on the wall and picked up the receiver. "Available nurse to examination room three please." As he spoke into the phone his voice came over the speakers in the ceiling at a much greater volume.
The voice coming from seemingly no where alarmed the creature sitting on the table and Dr. Quack quickly picked up on his distress as he turned away from the phone. "It's alright my boy; I just paged a nurse, that's all." The explanation seemed to calm him down a little, but his worried expression changed to one of confusion; like he had never heard of such things before. "Curious…" The doctor thought.
A moment passed and short while later a grey, apron wearing shrew entered the room. "It's Nurse Shrew from last night." Tails observed. The Shrew jumped a little when she spotted the creature sitting on the exam table, but said nothing. She walked over to the doctor and patiently watched the doctor examine the many gashes and scraps on the creature's body.
"Dr. Quack, can you patch our friend up while we have a little chat with him?" Sally asked as she leaned against the light—blue wall of the room.
"Uh, oh here we go again!" The creature thought, believing they intended to interrogate him in the same manner as the human last night.
The doctor nodded in agreement and went over to a drawer and began to fetch some medical supplies. After grabbing what he needed he pulled up a rolling tray together they placed the stuff on it. He pulled a needle from one of the boxes and inserted the business end of it into a small jar. He pulled on the back of the syringe and slowly it filled the chamber with a clear liquid from the jar. He retracted the needle out and placed the jar back down on the table, and turned to the creature.
The creature saw the device in the doctor's hand and his eyes bulged out; already guessing his intent. "Oh no you don't…" the creature started to object as he tried to jump off the table; but Sally rushed forward and grabbed the creature's shoulders firmly.
"Just relax; we're trying to help you." Sally said trying to calm the still fidgeting creature in her arms.
"Ya right, the last doctor I came across tried to kill me…" The creature replied, both anger and worry in his voice.
"You have my word we won't harm you." Sally interrupted the creature, tightening her grip on his shoulder in assurance; a sincere look in her eyes. The creature stopped fidgeting and nodded his head in approval. With the patient calmed down, Dr. Quack bravely stepped closer.
"This might hurt a little, but the pain will die away quickly." He assured him. The creature stared at the instrument a little worried but made no objection. The doctor quickly swabbed some alcohol on his skin and swiftly inserted the needle, to the minor discomfort of the owner of the arm; but despite it, he remained calm. "There, you'll feel the pain go away in a few moments." Dr. Quack said with a satisfied smile. "Now, let's clean those cuts."
Seeing that near-crisis pass, Sally finally decided it was time to get some answers. "Alright first off, I think we need some introductions." She said calmly, placing a hand on her chest. "I'm Princess Sally Acorn, leader of the Knothole Freedom Fighters." The creature nodded in a greeting gesture. "This is Bunnie Rabbot..." she said directing his sight to the partly metallic rabbit.
"This one wears armor, hmmm…" the creature thought as he greeted her with another silent nod.
As Sally introduced the others, Dr. Quack took a damp clothe and gently scrubbed the blood, dirt and blades of grass from the creatures body; he even had to pull a few fragments of glass that had imbedded themselves into his skin. Every time the doctor's clothe passed over his many cuts or removed another shard it caused him to flinch a little, breaking his sentences with an 'ow' or 'ouch'. He tried his best to observe the individuals as best as he could, but the pain from the clothe's movements over his already sensitive skin, and the equally tender perforations of his skin caused him to shut his eyes every now and then, and made it difficult to focus on the faces and names.
"This is Tails…" Sally explained, pointing to the small fox sitting next to Sonic.
The creature recognized this one. "I know you; you're the one who rescued me aren't you?" He asked. The twin-tailed fox nodded yes shyly. "Thank you kid, I'm in your debt." he thanked the young kit, a broad smile crossing his face for the first time since he had arrived in this strange place. Tails smiled back, his expression saying 'you're welcome' without him having to speak at all.
Sally smiled at this as well, this was at least a sign this stranger wasn't all rough around the edges. "And you already met your sparring partner over there…" Sally pointed in Sonic's direction. ", that, is Sonic the hedgehog." The creature nodded, but Sonic just grumbled bitterly as Nurse Shrew placed an ice pack over the bruised spot on his face before she returned to Dr. Quacks to side to aide him.
"Well, that's all of us, so how about you tell us who you are?" Sally asked sighing as that formality was now out of the way.
The creature straightened its back and neck with dignity and raised his right fist over his heart, almost like he was saluting. "You may call me Slasher." He said proudly. Everyone was a little surprised by the name, and as such they looked at each other confused.
"Yes, I know that, but what is your real name?" Sally asked; irritated to not find out what she had wanted.
"That is my name…" Slasher replied coldly.
Sonic was chuckling under his breathe, trying to cover up his amusement. "What kind'a name is that!" Sonic finally burst out loud accompanied by a harsh glare from the Princess. The creature glared at the offending hedgehog with a stare that would kill.
"Watch it blue boy, that's the only name I've ever had, so back off!" he said sternly; almost shouting in anger.
"Really, you don't have any other name?" Sally asked a bit surprised; thinking that the name he had stated was just a nickname. After all, 'Tails' was just his nickname, he at least had another name. The creature shook his head.
"No, I was nameless for a very long time; until I got these." He replied extending the battle claws attached to his arms, showing off his namesake.
"Ah can see where the name came from, but does that mean ya'll are an orphan?" Bunnie asked trying to affirm the creature's implication. Slasher nodded yes, hanging his head low.
"I'm so sorry to hear that… many of us have lost loved ones, especially Tails; he lost both of his parents when he was a baby and has no relatives at all." Sally said sighing as she spoke. The creature raised his head in surprise at Sally.
"But eef you were ze orphaned, how were you raised?" Anotine asked, speaking much more calmly, and coherently, then his first discussion with Slasher.
"I was raised from an egg by the Guild of Guardian's. I am now a Third Echelon." He stated proudly.
"Guild of Guardian's? Third Echelon? What are you talking about?" Sally asked shaking her head in confusion from the strange terms.
"The Guild is an ancient order of warriors that took an oath millennia ago to protect the weak and serve the rulers of their lands. There are five levels within the order. The first level is the training level they stay within the guild and learn many weapon techniques and ways of combat there. The second is where the novice trainee's are sent out into the world to learn the lessons of life and establish themselves in it. The third is when they are granted full rank as a Guardian. The fourth is the Elite Warrior rank, this is a highly sort for title. The final level is the Grand Master title, only a small number of warriors reach such an honored level; they are the leaders of the Guild and are the teachers of the most advanced skills." He explained fighting hard to ignore the stabbing pain Dr. Quack's cleaning was causing the short reptile.
"I've never heard of such a society before…" Sally said, her tone flat as she typed into Nicole. "Nicole, scan memory for a Guild of Guardian's."
"Scanning Princess… no data found on requested topic." The computer replied.
"Not even in the encrypted royal files?" Sally stated surprised by the computers response.
"Negative Sally."
"What magic is this?" Slasher asked astonished by the small computer Sally held.
"You mean Nicole? Its no magic, she's just a computer." She explained, holding Nicole out for Slasher to see.
"(Ow!) A computer? What's (Agh!), a computer?" Slasher asked tilting his head in confusion while flinching in pain as Quack removed some rather large fragments of glass from his back.
"She's… well… a machine." Sally replied struggling to describe it to him. This explanation did nothing to remove the puzzled look on the crimson creatures face.
"You know; a machine…" Sally trailed off seeing this was not helping. "You don't know what a machine is, do you?" she asked realizing the source of the problem. The self-proclaimed Guardian shook his head glumly. "Well it's not important." She said comfortingly. "What I'd like to know is where you came from and how you ended up in Robotropolis." She finished crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back against the wall in interest.
Slasher closed his eyes, placed a hand on his head and concentrated hard on what he could remember. "The last thing I remember… I… I was walking through a lush forest with the Elite's…"
"Elite's, who iz zes Elite's?" Antoine muttered listening intently to the story.
"The Elite's are a small group of creatures I lead against a powerful alliance of tyrants who seek to conquer our world." Slasher replied with a scowl of hate upon mentioning his foes.
"Ya'll mean Robotnik's goons? There's only one a' him thank goodness." Bunnie replied believing he had mistaken a group of Robotnik's sub-bosses.
"No, I've never seen that fat human before; the only humans that exist where I'm from are the ones that are aiding us against the tyrants. And I've never seen knights like the ones that captured me." Slasher shook his head in disbelief at the memory of the fierce dome-topped soldiers.
"What do you mean Slasher?" Sally asks confused and intrigued by the creature's story.
"Well, like I said; one minute I'm with my friends in a forest, the next thing I know I'm lying on a cold, metallic floor. Then some fatso, possibly this Robotnik, orders these two armored creatures to attack me."
"Armored creature's?" Sonic mused, removing the icepack from his eye. "Knights? I think ya hit yer head on that window or somethin' pal." Sonic mocked, amused by the rather primitive descriptions.
"Not now Sonic, let him finish!" Sally told him sternly. "Please, continue."
"Thank you, your highness. I beat them easy enough, but I've seen animals like them before. They're skin completely metal, and when I cut them in half, not flesh inside, just more metal, and they're blood as black as night's sky. One looked like a small, red crab, and the other an annoying brown monkey, tried to harm me with a strange coconut that exploded when it hit my shield. But as soon as I beat them; these tall, fully armored knights showed up and fired these strange beams of light at me."
"Let me guess, they all looked exactly alike and had dome-shaped heads." Rotor interjected crossing his arms knowingly."
"Yes, you're familiar with them?" Slasher replied a little surprised by the uncanny description.
"Yea, ya might say that. As for the crab and monkey they gotta be Crabmeat and Coconuts." Sonic said clenching his fists in anger at the memory of the annoying robots.
"You… (Ow!) know these… (Ouch!) warriors by name?" Slasher commented, his sentence broken up as Dr. Quack roughly scrubbed a particularly dry blotch of blood.
"There, you're all cleaned up, now we just need to disinfect those cuts and then we can wrap them up." Dr. Quack softly spoke to his assistant. "Nurse, pass the iodine." (Bum, bum, bummm…) (ominous music)
"Yes, they work for Robotnik, so we see them quite often." Sally explained. "But as for those knights you mentioned, they're called Swatbots."
"Swatbots?" Slasher asked confused by the term. While he spoke to the Freedom Fighters, he didn't pay any attention to the good doctor behind him, who, at that moment soaking a swath of cotton with the yellow-coloured iodine. Dr. Quack casually, and absent-mindedly, rubbed the cotton onto Slasher's back and across his open wounds! "What are… YEEEEEEEOW!" he screamed jumping off the table as the stinging iodine began to react with the tender flesh.
"What was that!" he yelled at the shocked doctor; spinning around, ready to leap at the doctor as he landed on the ground.
Dr. Quack stared at the furious patient in shock for a few moments; recovering from the initial shock of his patient's reaction, he grinned in embarrassment. "Heh heh… Sorry about that my boy, I should have warned you about that." He apologized weakly.
"Ya right, you're trying to kill me, just like that lardo from last night!" Slasher shouted back angrily.
"It's just iodine my boy." Dr. Quack explained innocently.
"Io-what?" Slasher replied confused by the word.
"You don't know what iodine is?" Sally asked both curiosity and surprise filling her words. The lizard shook his head in agreement, still keeping one eye suspiciously on the doctor.
"It's just meant to prevent infection, its nothing lethal by any means." Dr. Quack explained for the princess.
"Like the doctor said, so, let him finish, and quite squirming like a little kid." Sally said in a rather commanding, yet motherly assertive way. Slasher sulked in defeat and hoped back onto the table.
"(Hmph…) That fat creep last night called himself a doctor too, and he was hardly trying to help me!" Slasher scowled angrily plopping back on the table as he rested his head on his hand.
"Yes, I heard about what Robotnik did to you last night." Sally replied crossing her arms as she leaned against the wall.
"So that is what the human calls himself?" Slasher pondered, never lifting his head under off his hand, concentrating hard to ignore the extreme stinging pain that came from the iodine Dr. Quack continued to apply.
"Yes, I take it you've never heard of him before?" Sally asked after judging his reaction.
"Yea, but then again I've only known a few humans in my life." Slasher admitted.
"Humans, what iz zis human you speak?" Antoine asked, unfamiliar with the term.
"Hmm… we've always known them as Overlanders." Sally said pondering over the two terms. "Although, the royal archives have made reference to them as humans. Where did you meet these humans Slasher?"
"That… is a LONG story. But they're from a planet called Earth, and they're helping my friends and I defeat the Overlords." Slasher replied, sounding a little hesitant to try and explain everything.
"Who are these here Overlords?" Bunnie asked as she crossed her arms with interest.
"They're those tyrants I mentioned earlier that we're trying to defeat." Slasher calmly explained, moving his arm to allow Quack to wrap some bandages around his chest and shoulder.
Just then the window across the room burst open, knocking Rotor away from the window onto Antoine's seated lap, followed by the light green head of Dulcy the dragon. "Sally, thank goodness you're safe, I just heard what happened and I…" Dulcy bellowed, oblivious to the strange creature sitting on the table nearby.
"Look out!" Slasher shouted leaping off the table and placing himself in front of the others in a defensive stance before the perceived threat. The bandages that Dr. Quack had been wrapping dangled limply from his body since the doctor had not tied the bandages up before Slasher had suddenly jumped off the table. He threw his arms to the side, letting his blades extend out, and leapt at Dulcy. He lashed out at the stunned dragon's head with his blades and narrowly missed as Dulcy twisted her long neck to avoid the razor sharp blades.
Dulcy recovered quickly from the initial attack and without thinking launched a fireball at her attacker. By shear instinct Slasher took a deep breath and on the exhale let fly a fire ball of his own. The two blasts collided in mid-air; canceling each other out with a loud explosive thud. Sonic leapt from his chair, jumped in front of Slasher and grabbed hold of him to keep the reptile from attacking any further. Aside from a small scorch mark on the ceiling nothing caught fire and no further harm was done.
Everyone present stared, frozen in shock, especially Dulcy. Her stunned expression never faltered as she spoke to Slasher with eyes the size of saucers. "You… you're a… a Dragon?"
End Ch 5
Oooo, pretty pretty fireball... o... um didn't see you standing there well, what do you think of that? more answers and many more questions coming up soon. not to mention som major ass-wupping too.
