Disclaimer: I hereby disclaim all rights to all characters (save for those of my own creation) in this altercation… especially for the one who first falls.

~保護者~

"Needle in the Thread"

~保護者~

Roughly twenty minutes after his surprisingly lax sparring match with Cream, Sonic returned to the inside of the building to try and track down Armaris. He was supposed to fight her next, after all. "She's probably hiding in a damn shadow again," he muttered to himself.

"What was that?" she asked from behind him, arms crossed and an eyebrow raised incredulously. "As if I'm always sitting in a shadow. It's more like a pass-time than anything."

"Well, you sure make it seem like you're always in one," Sonic huffed, turning around. "But… Look, whatever. Point is, we're all done. It's your turn, if you still want to fight."

Armaris blinked once, almost surprised. "Oh. So, you're ready for an ass kicking?"

Blue ears tilted slightly down. "I mean… I escaped the main one I was really expecting, so I guess this is just karma or some shit."

"Yep." She vanished into his shadow, huffing. "Go on. Outside for your thrashing."

He stood by, stunned into silence for a second, then demanded, "Are you making me carry you?"

"Precisely. Now, move. Go. I don't have all day." His ears lowered further in a display of irritation, but Sonic nevertheless began walking. Though, he did mutter a few choice words under his breath as he went. That ended when they made it to the clearing where he had earlier sparred with Espio and Cream. There was still a bit of evidence of those fights, but it was clear that he hadn't been forced to fight that hard yet. Armaris reformed several feet away, arms crossed and watching him with narrowed eyes. "I've got one rule. Don't grab my hair. I'll kill you if you do."

"...Why would I grab your hair?" Sonic slowly questioned, supremely weirded out by the sincerity in her voice.

Armaris shrugged faintly. "Some people decide that grabbing my hair is some great idea. Then they get impaled by several pointy objects."

For some reason, Sonic's eyebrow twitched a little. "You… sound just like Espio. With the impaling thing, I mean. I don't like that at all, just so you know." After all, that didn't bode well... for him.

There was a faint nod from her before her hair started to tease upwards, slowly lifting around her. "Alright. Let's get moving. I'll give you the honor of a first attack. Just to be kinda nice."

"Gee… thanks," Sonic mumbled with a gusty sigh. He sheathed his sword as an afterthought (he doubted it would do him much good, for once), then flung a fireball at her as fast as he could manage.

Tendrils of Darkness rose up from the ground and swallowed the fireball whole while she stood, unmoving. "What else you got?"

Ugh. Of course she can counter that easily. Resisting the urge to sigh again, he mumbled in reply, "Very little else. I don't have that many powers or anything." Even with that said, he conjured up some magic in his hand.

"Mkay. Guess I'm coming in, then." A gust of wind blew through the area, snow flying into the air and rushing for Sonic as Armaris ran forward, manifesting a sword of Darkness in her hand. Momentarily taken aback by the wind (he had never seen anyone else use it besides Jet), Sonic nearly failed to react. He snapped out of it after a few seconds, but by then it was nearly too late to react. Just barely, he managed to fire a small beam at her with the magic.

Eyes widening in faint shock, Armaris flipped into a sideways dodge, resuming her run as if nothing had happened. She jumped forward, slashing down at him as her hair rushed for his arms to prevent a potential block. Sonic was alarmed by her hair's seemingly deliberate movement and started to jump backward to get away. Alas, he again failed to react quick enough, and he became ensnared. The hell?! Stop doing that, you moron! he yelled at himself internally. I'm not usually this fucking easy to distract, am I? Ah, the joys of having an old brain in a young body. Actually, screw that. He hated it.

At the last second, the sword vanished and her hair let go, her feet planting themselves into his torso and forcefully launching him some distance away. "Hot damn. I thought you woulda done… something."

Grunting, Sonic hit the ground with his feet and straightened. "Look, I'm nowhere near as young as I look, alright? It's hard as shit to fight like I used to."

Armaris walked in Sonic's direction, eyebrows raised. "I figured as much. Focus on reacting, dumbass. Keeping yourself alive is more important than killing the enemy, and as such, find that as your priority." Without giving him a moment to ponder this, sharp tendrils of Darkness launched out at him from her body, each looking to impale him.

His initial instinct, cultivated from years of using this one power, was to loose a burst of fire in all directions as a means of defense. However, that was destined to fail, despite how hot the flames that rocketed outward were. They simply couldn't do anything against the Darkness. Cursing himself and various other people and things along the way, he jumped high into the air.

Better. Blades of wind were fired at him while he was in the air with Armaris following behind them at a rapid pace to meet him if he were to avoid the attack. "Doing better!"

The wind was easy enough to deal with. Sonic was at least familiar with that power. Using his fire again, he created a wall of flames too massive for winds to break through and get to him. That only left Armaris herself to worry about, and he fully expected her to get around the flames easily enough. Plus there was the issue of him falling… because he couldn't fly. It'd be just my luck if she can, though.

Armaris stopped about two feet from him and groaned. "Damn. You're gonna fall, eh?" Falling wasn't something he was normally concerned that much about (he could handle rough landings pretty damn well, he had learned), so Sonic tossed her a moody glare in response to her comment. Then, after a second, he curled in a ball and launched a single Homing Attack at her. Her hand rose up and wind surrounded it as she simply batted him out of the sky and directly into the snowy ground.

After a few moments, Sonic's head popped out of the snow heap. "For the record, I said the second my fur got matted with snow I'd be done," he snapped, "and now it is, so we're done!" With that said, he encased himself in flames briefly to thaw himself… but also got wet in the process for a second. Which only made him more irritable.

The cat landed nearby and frowned faintly. "You left yourself far too open at the end there. Granted, you couldn't do much else, but I'm fairly certain you could've used your fire to move yourself in the air. Or, you could've delayed me with some flames and bought a little time."

Sonic nearly groaned. "Maybe," he muttered. He then paused, ears suddenly perking when he heard the very faintest rustle of leaves, and gained a fresh scowl. "And of course we had an audience watching me get my ass beat again. Ugh."

"Eh. It happens. Except when it doesn't." Armaris shrugged unhelpfully, her hair shifting around to prevent itself from tangling. "You'll get better in time, but you've definitely gotta work on ingenuity in fights."

Sonic shrugged once himself (rather moodily) and began walking toward their silent watcher instead of bothering to properly reply. "Maybe," he repeated over his shoulder a second later. "But for now, I'm done. I'll deal with it later."

Armaris shrugged once more and made to follow, arms behind her head casually until she saw a green blur appear. She hardly had time to blink before the blur disappeared into the trees. The cat made a wise choice and teleported herself and Sonic forward in time to watch as Espio unexpectedly perform a drop-kick on the green blur and sent it rocketing back in the other direction. Sonic stared in mute surprise, mouth slightly agape while Espio landed on his feet and then simply jumped out of the tree like nothing had even happened just now. "Alright then, badass," Armaris called, trying to gain the chameleon's attention. Espio shot her a vaguely disapproving look.

"The hell was that all about?" Sonic demanded, frowning at his old friend. Predictably, Espio didn't make any effort to explain himself, choosing instead to gaze in the direction that the blur had flown in.

Steam appeared in a teleport, huffy and noticeably pissed with a glare at Espio. "Asshole. Not like I-"

"Was about to plow into the tree and take me down with it?" Espio cut in coolly, managing to again seem vaguely disapproving.

Steam was about to reply, but the fact that Espio of all people had so suddenly cut him off had him stunned into momentary silence. Sonic sort of shared in his reaction, though he was a bit less surprised than he had been earlier. Armaris, however… she was rolling in laughter, more than amused by this display. "Oh my fucking god, Espio!" This time, the glance he tossed her was more calm and reserved than before. It had lost that disapproving quality, almost giving the hint that perhaps he was amused, too. If such a thing were even possible.

"Alright. Fuck you guys," Steam huffed, blinking a few times rapidly as he tried to process what just happened.

Sonic made an appeasing motion with his hands. "Alright, relax. I don't want anymore fights of any kind today between anyone."

"And there won't be," Espio smoothly assured, "so long as he ceases to behave wildly." Sonic stared.

The green hedgehog glared faintly. "Wasn't trying to."

"Why'd you come tearing in like that, anyway?" Sonic asked, trying to change the subject.

"I could've sworn I sensed something going on, so I showed up as quickly as I could," Steam answered, frowning. "Dunno what it was, though."

"Nothing else was happening besides some sparring matches," Sonic told him honestly. "It's been dead freaking silent and boring otherwise."

Armaris shrugged. "Not sure about that. I've gotten a kick out of scaring the shit out of you."

"Shut up," Sonic groaned. He swore he saw Espio smirk for just a second, and he pointed an accusatory finger at the ninja. "And you can stop finding all of this so damn funny!"

"I did nothing," Espio responded blandly, tone hinting at (of course) nothing on an emotional level.

"Honestly, I doubt you could stop any of that either. I've got way more tricks up my sleeve that you don't even have a clue about." Armaris snickered, a smirk playing at her face.

Sonic opened his mouth to reply and Espio, curious as to what the other man would say, watched him for a moment. But a split second later he stiffened and started to spin around at near-max speed, reaching for his sword all the while. For once, it wasn't fast enough, however. He felt a sharp prick at the back of his neck, and for the moment the sense of danger vanished. Cursing once under his breath (something he normally never did), he reached back and quickly removed the source of that slight pain. It was… a sewing needle…?

Armaris and Steam tensed up, immediately alert. Steam quickly attempted to locate their threat while Armaris hurried to Espio to check on him. "What the hell was that?"

As Sonic also rushed forward, Espio started to reply, but was cut short when he suddenly began feeling lightheaded. Within seconds, he collapsed, utterly unconscious. Sonic cursed loudly and bent down to check on him. "The hell?" he exclaimed. No doubt sensing the trouble, Shadow and Cream rushed over to them all from inside the building. Cream dropped down to her knees beside her former guardian with wide eyes.

Armaris formed a sword in her hand, gritting her teeth. "Steam! On the lookout!" As she spoke, Shadow pulled out his trusty handguns, Sonic placed a hand on his sheathed sword's handle, and Cream ran an assessing eye around the area.

Steam gave a nod and flicked his gaze around. He knew who the enemy was, but not where the hell they were. It wound up not mattering to him for that much longer, anyway, for within a matter of mere seconds he was also pricked in the back of the neck with a needle. The enemy left it protruding from his skin as they had done before and vanished again before anyone had a chance to see them. Fucking hell. "Armaris! Catch her! It's gonna make us all pass out!" Very promptly, he collapsed to his knees while attempting to, through sheer willpower, stay awake.

Shadow started to scan their surroundings, attempting to locate whoever or whatever was attacking them, but by the time any foreign readings of any sort came up it was too late for him to try to shoot or dodge. He was stabbed in the back of the neck as well, this time with enough force to knock down onto his knees. Swearing, he reached back and ripped the needle free, then tried to find the strength to get up out of the snow. This quickly failed and he blacked out.

Armaris, in a display of protective nature, quickly grabbed Espio, Shadow, and Steam with rapidly elongating hair, then surrounded the entire group in a dome of Darkness. "Cream, Sonic. Stay close. Do whatever you have to do to slow her down."

"Is it her?" Cream questioned quietly, psychic energy visibly gathering around her body. "The woman Espio-san fought with before?" Sonic gritted his teeth and drew his sword. Armaris only nodded, suddenly whipping around and launching a tendril in Sonic's direction the moment she sensed Nyokae's entrance into the dome. Sonic began to whip around and draw his sword, but his fate was already sealed. A quick stab to the back of the neck and he went down while Nyokae simply vanished yet again. Pursing her lips together, Cream all but shoved Sonic back toward the others (though she did so very gently) with her psychic powers and then turned her attention to Armaris. Speaking in an unusually crisp tone, she demanded softly, "Let me out of this dome." The dome fell in response, the cat already having begun a plan of her own.

Cream turned away from her just as Sonic passed out and closed her eyes to concentrate. The energy around her began to burn ever brighter and brighter as it gathered force and energy. Armaris' left arm began to morph, surrounded by Darkness she inherited through her demonic ancestry. Cream focused as hard as she could for as long as she was able to before their enemy revealed herself once more. Knowing there was no time left to prepare, Cream snapped her eyes open and loosed the frenetic energies she had been gathering straight at Nyokae. A massive circle of corrupted Darkness enveloped the area where Cream's attack was heading, intent on giving their enemy no room to dodge as it attempted to consume her whole.

Seeing all of this coming straight at her, Nyokae let out a small frustrated, "Tch," and reluctantly dodged quite far away as quickly as possible. More than a little annoyed, She glanced down at the bundle in her palm. "Pity. I still have a needle left, too…" The attacks she had just dodged exploded very violently where she had been not an instant beforehand.

Armaris glared hatefully in Nyokae's direction, Darkness swirling around her as she tried to keep control of herself. Slow down. Calm yourself… Thankfully, Nyokae had already decided that enough was enough for now. She had no interest in dying, after all. Not yet. So, taking no further chances for now, she teleported away. She had done what she had set out to do.

Sensing her departure, Cream slowly allowed the tension in her body to fade. With lips still tightly pressed together, she turned back to her friends and knelt down to check on them all. "What do you think she has done to them?" Frowning, she plucked the needle out of Sonic's neck.

Taking a moment to calm herself, Armaris landed gently on the ground from where she'd been momentarily hovering and breathed. "Not sure. But… it can't be good. Likely something long term."

Cream nodded and reached over to remove the needle as well. "These objects are magical. They must be. Is there any way of determining exactly what they were intended to do?"

"Give me a second to try something." Armaris' arm slowly morphed back to normal and she kneeled down, black, wispy magic slowly enveloping the group. "Alright… so… Steam seems to have had one of his powers nullified. Shadow… something cognitive was affected. Espio's Darkness is fluctuating really badly… and Sonic… one of the energies he has access to was messed with…" She growled in frustration, the magic suddenly vanishing without a trace. "Can't get anything further than that right now."

Cream gained a deep and uncharacteristic frown, one borne from worry, but was startled into dropping that expression when Jet suddenly was just there next to her. He knelt down, running an assessing eye over the collapsed individuals as Alana also appeared. Sein appeared mere moments after, casting his gaze toward Armaris for a moment before he shifted his attention back to the others. "What happened?" he asked the two non-Immortal women, a touch of annoyance in his tone betraying his mood.

Eyes a bit wide now, Cream sent a beseeching look Jet's way, hoping he would somehow be able to explain. She knew it was irrational, since he hadn't even been here apparently, but somehow he came through. "A woman named Nyokae was here," he said simply, standing up. Though he sensed Armaris's energies, he currently chose to focus on the bigger problem at hand. "She works directly under the leader of the Trokkelar army and she was armed with these." He held up one of the needles he had retrieved from the ground, carefully pinched between two fingers. "They were coated in a magic that is known for having random negative effects on each victim it claims."

"Jet. Do you have somewhere we can take them for now? I don't want to leave them unconscious here after this." Sein glanced to his son, trying to keep down the certainly notable anger.

"I'm taking them to Babylon," Jet answered in a clipped tone, turning back to those who were down and out for now. His voice held a certain note of irritation of its own, though he was quick to squash it. Alana made no argument to this idea. Surely New Babylon would be safe, after all.

Sein nodded gently to this and glanced to Armaris. "I wanna talk with you for a minute before we figure out what to do from here. Alright?" A short nod served as a response, and he seemed fine enough with that. As they spoke, Jet knelt back down and carefully checked the others over one by one. It didn't escape Alana's notice that he chose to check on Sonic first, and that managed to warm her heart a little despite the circumstances. Smothering a small smile, she bent down to help him out.

Armaris stepped over to Sein quietly, and they both moved a short distance from the group. "So, what did you want to talk about?" Meanwhile, Jet finished his brief examination and teleported Sonic away. He then moved on to Shadow.

"The demonic energies I can still sense on you. You didn't tell us anything about that, and it would've been nice to know a bit ahead of time," Sein responded softly, a notable frown on his face. Shadow was sent away in about the same moment, closely followed by Steam.

The black cat held her arm lightly, turning her head away. "I don't like talking about it. It's… not… something I wanted." After a prolonged moment and with a few quiet words exchanged between himself and Cream, Jet sent Espio away and stood up.

Sein gave a faint sigh at this, glancing away. "You're fine, kid. I'm not mad. I just wanted to check and make sure of my suspicions." He set a hand on her head in a gentle manner. "Just be careful. I don't want you or anyone else getting hurt if it can be avoided. Alright?"

Armaris blinked a few times and gave a wide-eyed nod, having been worried that he would have disliked her purely for that side of herself. "I'll be as careful as I can."

"Good. Now, come on. Let's rejoin the others." Sein cast her a faint smile and nudged her along softly, following beside her.

Alana looked over to see them coming back and murmured to Jet and Cream, "They seem to be finished."

Jet barely nodded in response, frowning subtly to himself. I should never have left them alone. Gritting his teeth, he forced his tone be as normal as possible and stated, "Then I'm leaving." He teleported away without waiting for a reply.

Sein sighed softly at this, bothered by the way he could tell his son was feeling. "Alana. We following him?"

"We should," Alana answered immediately. "He is a lot like you, I believe… and I would not often recommend leaving you alone when you are upset, either." She thought for just a second, then added, "Perhaps you should speak with him first. I wish to check on his friends. That magic… concerns me greatly." Cream's eyes clearly showed the fact that she agreed with that last part.

He nodded softly, glancing to Armaris. "You joining us, or do you have something else to do?"

Armaris frowned. "I'm going to report to Cere. I want her to know what just happened." Alana had no objections to this, so she stayed silent. Armaris opened a portal under her feet and fell through, said portal snapping shut in time for Sein and Alana to teleport away. Alana went to New Babylon with Cream, while Sein… Sein went after their son.

~保護者~

3,834 words this time. Thanks again to Blazing Winds for all his help, and I hope you all enjoyed! Posted (at about 12:15 p.m.) 08-13-19.