Meanwhile, back on Angel island, things had got a little hectic. With Knuckles still having to use his hated wheelchair to get around and Seth choosing the most inappropriate to find he could crawl, Rouge was up to her wings with task she had to in order to keep the two boys in order. Seth couldn't understand Rouges requests for him to stay still and play like a good boy, but Knuckles was a different matter.
" Rouge!" His wailing voice yelled at her for the second time in five minuets. The bat dropped what she was doing, her temper fast coming into play again and rushed over to Knuckles, hoping whatever he was calling her for would be important. " I'm stuck!" He moaned, answering her minds question. The bat turned the corner of their house, finding herself in the living room, where Knuckles had somehow wedged his wheelchair in the frame of the narrow door.
" Can't you walk yet?" She demanded, taking hold of the arm rest of the chair and tugging it with her arm. Knuckles flopped to the side in it, his head back, and panted
" No". Rouge huffed and managed to pull out the object, but the subsequent jerk in movement caused the poor echidna, whose grip was not the strongest in the world at that moment, to tumble out of his seat and fall flat on his face on the floor. He groaned and sluggishly moved his arms, trying to persuade them to lift his body of the floor, but in no success. Rouge rolled her eyes and wrapped her arms around him, heaving with her own arms to try and urge him off the floor. But because of his weight, she simply ended up getting him to his feet, only to let go too soon and ending up with him toppling on top of her, landing with an oomph. If this were anyone else, perhaps even Shadow, Rouge would have got annoyed and threw them off of her, storming out of the room. But this was Knuckles and she loved him, no matter how useless he got.
The echidna caught onto their position too and grinned slyly, lifting his head and looking at Rouge.
" Well, look at what position we're in" he mused, grinning childishly. Rouge knew she was in a hurry and had to visit her friend, but somehow, being like this with Knuckles, she knew she had more time than she first thought. Moving her head forward, she bought their lips together in a smooth, slow kiss. She felt Knuckles mouth curve into a smile against her own and sped up the kissing, licking around Knuckles top lip and slipping her tongue into his mouth. Her hands moved from their position around his neck down to his lower back and she began to trace the line of his spin, causing a shiver of pleasure to ring through him. He almost began to pur with delight and tried to move up and down atop her. But his lack of energy proved his downfall and he slumped against her, falling asleep.
" That's not an attractive look, Knucklehead" the bat commented, fed up , referring to Knuckles mouth hanging open millimetres from her own face.
" Sorry" he mumbled, only half awake and Rouge smiled slightly, pushing the echidna off of her and picking him up, with was no easy feat. She managed to get the heavy with muscle animal onto the sofa. When she was down, she stood up straight, hands on her hips, saying to herself
" That's one boy, now where's Seth?". As if he had heard her, the little Bachidna crawled into the room, a leaf in his mouth. " No! Seth! Don't eat that!" She said in alarm, dashing over to the little creature. Unfortunately, she arrived too late, as Seth half swallowed the long streak of grass. He started to choke, coughing in small, almost cute little sneezing sounds. Rouge picked him up carefully, supporting his back with her hand, and started patting him gently, trying to urge him to cough up the leaf.
He did, along with half his lunch.
When the bat was done changing into some clothes that weren't flavoured with vomit and sealed Seth safely in his cot, she headed of the island, taking of with two sweeps of her powerful wings, filling them with the current of the wind.
She had found it surprisingly easy to keep flying, rather than starting to heave for breath half way through, she managed to keep up her pace for the whole flight. She remembered this was how she used to be before she got pregnant, light, flexible and agile. A feeling which she now had back. It was good to be fit and healthy again, she thought to herself, as she dipped and twisted and somersaulted in the air, Rouge forgot about her friends problems, so much so that she almost missed Siberias house and flew straight into the sunset.
" Siberia? Are you all right ?" Rouge questioned, as she walked into the house, it's door ajar. There was no answer from the hedgehog as she lay, curled up on the sofa, surrounded by used tissues and a blanket that he fallen to the floor. A week after the still birth, Siberia had been discharged from hospital. But in that time, she had hardly spoken to anyone.
Rouge scolded herself at the stupid question.
" Oh Siberia! Of course your not all right! Where's Shadow?" The bat said, trying to cover up her dim remark. Siberia sniffed and rustled around in the pool of tissues, not facing Rouge. The bat thought Siberia wasn't going to answer, because her response was delayed.
" Shadows picking up Draco" said, her tone the darkest Rouge had ever heard it. She answered the question almost with spite, as if she didn't even want Rouge talking to her. " I told him not to though. He's safer with Vector" she continued, mumbling almost inaudibly. Rouge listened carefully, taking a seat in an empty chair. She didn't need to ask why Siberia thought this, as she started talking again after a few snuffles. " Vector Is a detective, he doesn't kill people, not like I do. If Draco comes, I might kill him to, just like I killed my twins". Rouge gasped and said in astonishment
" Siberia! You didn't kill the twins! It wasn't your fault they...". Siberia seemed to anger more every second and she sat upright, looking Rouge in the face for the first time. Her eyelashes were matted together with sticky glue, left over residue from her tears. Her cheeks were flushed, probably from anger and a deep frown line present across her forehead, making her look more menacing than ever before.
" Who's fault was it then Rouge! Was it Shadows? Was it the nurses? Was it that little stalk that delivers babies? Did he forget to pack my two? Is that it?" She half shouted, with sarcasm. Her voice weak but angry, its tone varying in between sobs of sadness. Rouge didn't know what to say, she couldn't blame it on Siberia, even though technically it was her fault. Yet to blame it on anyone else would be unfair.
" It was no ones fault Siberia. These things just...happen" Rouge said uneasily, struggling to say something that wouldn't upset her friend even more than she already was. Siberia seemed to take no notice of what the bat had said. Her face dropped, her anger ebbed away, replaced by a face which showed no emotion, as if nothing in the world was important to her now. Ignoring Rouge, she curled up into a tiny ball, hugging her tummy and weeping softly to herself. Rouge had to strain to hear her words, but when she did, she was so sickened she had to leave.
" I'm a murderer. I'm a murderer. I'm a murderer..."
" Dr Eggman. Surly your not suggesting we give you this information for free?" Asked the annoyingly squeaky voice that had become all too familiar to the Sonic heroes. The doctor shifted in his seat, his base dusty and unattended, with backward technology and half working robots filling it's space. Robotnic himself frowned at the cats request, slightly angered already by her voice.
" Well what do you want then? Scum bag reporters like you are never interested in anything with real worth". Marisha maintained her faked grin, despite the fact she had just been insulted. Prowler was chewing on his scabby fingers and Kai looked bored in the background. The doctor screwed up his face in disgust at the mangy alley cats that had found his base, how, he had no clue. He had a good mind to kick them out straight away, but then the little one had told him she knew the whereabouts of a certain collection animals that the doctor had been after all his life, so the doctor temporarily became a great deal more hospitable, at least until the deal was done.
" I want access to Knuckles son. Alive access" she said firmly. The doctor nodded absentmindedly, not listening to what the cat had said. " Is that a problem?". Suddenly, the doctor seemed to wake up. His glasses almost feel off his face.
" Wait! Did you say son?" He said, double checking. Marisha grinned with her pointed teeth and nodded. The doctors hands tightened around his chair arms and he said silently, as if afraid to know the answer. " But Knuckles is the last of his species!" he declared, standing up suddenly. To any normal creature Marishas height, this would have been very intimidating. But to the press working cat who was used to the most violent celebrities, this was nothing.
" That is true. But we believe he used some kind of genetic experimentation to alter his own genes, as well as his wife's, to create his son. It's some kind of cross breed, and that's what we want to find out. We want to know how he did it". The doctor nodded, a frown of deep thought appearing on his old head.
" That's quite remarkable. I didn't think Knucklehead would have had the intelligence to leave that stupid rock of his". He looked down at the ever more excited bunch of cats and asked " May I ask. Who is the mother?". Marisha grinned slyly and said
" I believe you know her. She may have even worked for you at some point. Does the name ' Rouge the bat' ring any bells?". The doctor feel of his chair.
" WHAT!". The cats snickered at the doctors comical behaviour. The doctor himself couldn't believe it. A mixed feeling of repulsiveness and disgust pulsed through him. He thought of the two nursing a baby together, of Rouges swollen tummy, he was so used to the bats thin figure. She was a thief, Knuckles was a guardian. Who did the two ever get together? " But Rouge and Knuckles hated each other! They used to fight and insult each other and she even stole his emerald once. How the hell did they end up together? And imagine the sex..." He said allowed, half to himself.
" You wouldn't have any experience in that field would you doctor?" Marisha snickered, watching the doctor blush.
" You shut up! I've got to kill this son of his! Before it has a chance to grow up and I have more vermin to clean away from my perfect world". Marisha jumped in and growled
" No! I want Seth alive!". The doctor raised an eye behind his ever opaque glasses and muttered
" Seth?". He shock the thought away and said " Fine, very well. They live on angel island I assume?" He said, already setting up his egg walker for flying. Marisha shrugged and said
" Yeah, but good luck finding it. I heard it moves around over the entire ocean". The doctor stepped back into his chair, which began to hover and whirr as he fiddled with the controls.
" That's why I set up a tracking device to find it. I think it still works after all these years" Marisha yowled with delight and said
" Doctor! You are a genius!". He smiled smugly and said
" I know, I know".
" So, let me know when you have Seth captured, all right? " Marisha said, turning round and heading to the door, her two brothers following her. The doctors smile disappeared and he muttered darkly
" Your not going anywhere, my precious felines" he said as the entrance door to his base slammed shut in front of the three. The cats hissed and arched their backs, ears twisting round looking for signs of danger.
" Fine" Marisha spat, folding her arms with clear annoyance. Kai frowned darkly, still picking his teeth with his pic , while Prowler simply stared into the distance with an empty expression. " But you'd better hurry up and get back soon. I have other business you know". The doctor laughed in a shadowy way and muttered
" I'm afraid that's not possible. You've seen my base, know my secrets, I cannot let you go free because I know that being the vile, dirt eating reporters that you are, you will spill my secrets out to the world and then I would be ruined. No my dears, your staying here" he said, and at his un-direct command, robots appeared out of the darkness, clasping their bloodless fingers, pincers, claws, around the cats arms, trapping them. They hissed and spat, writhed and struggled, but in the end it was too late. They were not super heroes and in the end the robots grip proved just too strong. As they were dragged away Marisha yowled in desperate bursts
" This isn't the end! Sonic will save us! You'll see!". Robotnic smiled and said in a smug way
" After you publicly humiliated him and exposed his friends greatest secrets? I think not". He turned to one of the larger robots, a high ranking command bot and said snappily " Throw them in the holding cells. And give them some food in a day or two. I am not to be disturbed, something important has come up". With that the robot saluted without enthisium, marching off into the darkness of the corridor that led to the cells, while Robotnic began to work at the console, muttering to himself as Marisha panicking screams and hisses echoed down the walls and died away.
Authors notes
Man, I really couldn't get the insperation for this chapter, but then It came to me! I know its a bit on the short side but I know exactly whats going to happen next so the next should be up quicker next time.