See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer
Chapter 21: The Plan hits a few roadblocks
Queen Vespa laid in her royal spa chamber, a green cucumber facial mask on her face and her entire body submerged in thick, brown mud; after Knuckles'...um...unfortunate accident, she had decided to spend the last two and a half hours detoxing her brain of what she witnessed. It almost made her regret deciding to torture him with sexual stimulation rather than continuing to have her soldiers beat the ever loving crap out of him.
As she reached over, with one of her hands that wasn't submerged in mud, to grab a cherry from a bowl that was close by, one of her attendants came up to her. "Um pardon me, your majesty", he said humbly. Vespa grumbled, "What is so important that you need to interrupt me during my all important spa time?!", she snarled. The attendant flinched, "I wanted to inform you that Dr. Eggman has finished work on Phase 1 of your plans", he said.
This caught Vespa's attention as she suddenly stood up from her mud bath, "Oh did he now? Well, let's just see how well of a job he did then", she said as she went into the shower room to wash the mud and facial mask off and put on her crown and cape. Her attendant led her down the long castle corridors until they came upon a room labeled "Technology and Mechanical Equipment". Queen Vespa entered the room to find Dr. Eggman hard at work building some sort of device.
"My attendant tells me you've finished Phase 1", she said with a devilish smile. Eggman wiped the sweat from his brow as he pointed to a part of the large machine he was constructing, this side of the device had what looked like several white, egg shaped pods attached to its surface. "Yes, the Energy Conversion chambers are complete. Though, the rest of the machine needs more work and you'll need to test the chambers to see if they really work", he said.
Vespa let out a chuckle, "Oh don't worry, I've got the perfect test subject to evaluate the chambers efficiency. Attendant, go and tell Yellow Jacket to bring the tiny blue rodent I had him and the soldiers capture a few weeks ago. He'll make a perfect little lab rat", she said. The attendant bowed his head as he left the room to carry out his task, that was when a spark of realization flashed through Eggman's brain.
"Wait...tiny blue rodent? You don't mean-"
Eggman's words were immediately cut off when the doors opened again to reveal Yellow Jacket and two Hornetite soldiers, both of whom were carrying a struggling small blue hedgehog. "Its that puny Sonic from another dimension! What's he doing here?!", asked Eggman. He was right, the two soldiers had Tiny Sonic clasped tightly in their four hands and he was struggling to break free and run away, but they were too strong.
"Oh so you know him. Well, I captured him for the express purpose of using him to test the Energy Conversion chambers after you finished constructing them. Let's see how they work, soldiers...", said Vespa. The two soldiers walked over to one of the chambers, pressing a button on the side which opened it; it opened to reveal what looked like four metal clamps and a strange circular head visor.
They placed Tiny Sonic into the chamber, clasping the metal clamps around his wrists and ankles, which held his body in a 'T' position; then one of the soldiers lowered the visor down onto his forehead, where it wrapped around his skull and clapsed itself shut. One of the soldiers pushed another button, this shut the chamber closed and then a strange pink gas began filtering in; Tiny Sonic held his breath to avoid breathing in the gas, on the off chance it was poisonous, but his lungs started screaming out for oxygen and he exhaled.
He then breathed in the gas and suddenly felt very drowsy, his eyelids began drooping and soon enough, he fell asleep; just then, a small green light lit up in the center of the visor and Tiny Sonic gave a small shudder as an electrical current ran through his body but remained asleep.
Vespa smiled widely, "Yes! It works! These little pods will siphon the energy from those mammals and use it to power my machine, while the pink gas filtering in will keep them unconscious. The gas is made from the pollen of a special flower known as "The Dreaming Lotus", breathing in the pollen will cause the victim to fall into a deep slumber and cause their brains to unknowingly trap them inside pleasant dreams, leaving them vulnerable.
"I had my scientists gather a large collection of the pollen and synthesize it with protein particles and other nutrients. To put it simply, the pollen will keep them unconscious while the nutrients will be absorbed into their bodies through their skin, sustaining them indefinitely as my machine siphons the energy from them. Meaning there will nothing to get in my way as I dominate this dimension and theirs!", she said as she began to laugh maniacally.
Meanwhile in the Honeycomb mines, Sonic and his friends were fast asleep in their cubbie since it was 11:45pm and the work day had ended about two and a half hours ago. They were all curled up with their blankets that Infinite had created for them, resting up after the exhausting day they had of hacking at the mine walls and lugging almost 50 lbs honeycombs into mine carts before pushing them up to the surface. Silver tossed and turned as he was the only one having trouble sleeping, or to be more precise, he did fall asleep but he was having a nightmare.
"...No, stop! Get away...! M-Maria?...No! Leave...leave my little girl...alone!", he muttered in his sleep before abruptly waking up. Silver sat up and looked around the cubbie, everyone was still asleep as his mumbling wasn't loud enough to disturb them; he looked to his side to see that Shadow was still asleep with little Kimba cuddling close to him, with one of his hands gently gripping his chest fur.
Kimba's fur was actually a lot more cleaner and straightened out because when Infinite and Nyx were allowed to go take baths, Infinite used his illusion powers to make Kimba invisible as Nyx carried him on her back. This way, they were able to sneak him into the castle bathhouse so Nyx could finally give him a nice warm bath; then when they were done, Infinite conjured a comb so Nyx could straighten his hair and fur out before they carried him back.
Silver sighed as he stood up and carefully walked out of the cubbie to search for a guard, he then found one sitting on a flat rock while using a smaller rock to sharpen his spear. The guard then noticed him, "What are you doing outside of your cubbie at this late hour?", he asked. "I'm sorry but I can't seem to get any sleep, do you have anything that might help with that?", said Silver. The guard dropped the small rock as he stood up, "What you need is a Slumber Poultice made from extracts of lavender and chamomile. Wait here while I retrieve it", he said as he walked away.
Silver then sat on the flat rock as he waited for the guard to return, using his psychokinesis to make the small rock float around in the air as a way to entertain himself; while he sat there, Silver hadn't noticed the figure slowly creeping up behind him. Before he had time to register this other presence, something struck Silver in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious.
The figure then grabbed Silver's limp body and carried him bridle style as they turned to another figure that stood behind them, "Good. Now bind him and let's bring him back to the chamber", the second figure said. The first figure then pulled out two lengths of rope, using the first to tie Silver's arms together and then using the second one to tie his legs together; they then pulled out a blindfold and tied around Silver's eyes before picking him up and carrying him away as they followed the other figure.
The guard soon came back with a beaker filled with a purplish blue liquid, that was when he noticed Silver wasn't sitting where he had left him; the guard then ran over to where the others guards were standing on nightwatch duty, "We have a situation! That ivory mammal the Queen needs for her plans has vanished, he may have tried to escape. Half of you, spread out and search for him, the rest of you stay here and make sure the other mammals as well as the slaves don't escape", he commanded.
The guards went about to undertake their tasks, two guards stood by the cubbie where Sonic and his friends were sleeping, the commotion waking them up. "Hey...what's with all the racket? We're trying to sleep!", Sonic grumbled as he let out a deep yawn. That was when Shadow sat up with Kimba lying on his lap and saw that Silver wasn't snuggled up next to him, "Silver? Silver! Hey, where is Silver? Where's my husband?!", he said to the guards.
"If you're referring to that mammal with the ivory fur, he had woken up and walked out of your cubbie, requesting assistance from a guard for his sleeping problems. The guard had left to retrieve a Slumber Poultice for him, but he wasn't present when the guard had returned; he has ordered us to search for the mammal as he believes he must've escaped", said one of the guards. Everyone was taken aback by what the guard had said, "Wait...something doesn't add up here: if Silver was going to escape and found a way to, why wouldn't he wake us up? I don't think he tried to escape", said Nyx.
That was when they heard Sonic let out a gasp of fear, "Uh guys...you don't think, and I'm only speculating here, but...you don't think that slave death cult is responsible for this do you?", he said in uncertainty. Everyone's eyes, Shadow's especially, widened in horror at the thought; Shadow then set Kimba down and ran up to one of the guards, "You have to find my husband now! I think he's in serious danger!", he shouted in desperation.
Meanwhile in a small cavern in deep recess of the Honeycomb mines, Silver let out a small groan as he felt himself wake up; when he opened his eyes, he was greeted by darkness as he still wore the blindfold on his face. Silver tried to move his arms or legs, but he struggled as he felt them tightly bonded together with rope. "Wh-what's going on? Where am I? Why can't I move or see?", he asked out loud as he tried to figure out what was happening.
Just then, a bright purple light flashed on, though Silver could only barely make out the sight of it through the blindfold; he then heard the sounds of shuffling feet and the light buzzing of wings, that was when someone had ripped the blindfold off of Silver's face. He squinted his eyes as they tried to adjust to the bright purple light, but once he did, he could see he was inside a small chamber of the mines, surrounded by about twenty slaves.
Half of them were Hobidons while the other half were lower class Insectoids, all of them looking at Silver with crazed, bloodshot eyes; Silver recoiled in fear as he tried to crawl away from them but felt his back hit a wall meaning he was trapped. Silver looked around the chamber: there was an old tattered tapestry hanging on the wall, depicting a picture of what looked like a black serpent with long horns, red eyes and sharp teeth; in one corner of the chamber was a pair of chains hanging from the ceiling and in the other corner was a small machine that had purple sparks of electricity flowing through a conduit.
Just then, one of the slaves walked between the group until they stopped in front of Silver; it was an Insectoid, specifically a blue Mothrel with a white neck ruff, that stood before the frightened ivory hedgehog. "W-who are you? W-what do you want?", Silver said in a quivering tone. The Mothrel then grabbed him by one of his head quills and pulled him up abruptly, causing Silver to cry out in pain as pulling on his quill was akin to pulling someone's hair.
"We've been offering ourselves as blood sacrifices to the great God Febreus, but he has yet to free us from our suffering! Then I thought: we were doing it all wrong! We shouldn't have been trying to sacrifice ourselves, we are not the cause of our suffering, we ARE the ones who are suffering! What we should've been doing is sacrificing those who have brought suffering upon us, and they are you and your friends!
"The Queen needs you for her plans of domination, which is why she has been treating you as her little pets: giving you real food, water and medicine, allowing you to bathe in an actual bathroom, and letting you sleep in a cubbie lined with a cushion filled with goose down. As long as you are here, we will continue to suffer under the injustice of slavery! But if we offer you all as sacrifices to Febreus, he will be appeased and deliver us from our suffering! We have suffered and so now you will bleed for our sake", said the Mothrel.
Before Silver could fully register what was happening, the Mothrel commanded the other slaves to grab him, remove the ropes on his arms and then clamp his wrists in the chains hanging from the ceiling, leaving him to dangle in the air with his toes barely touching the floor. Silver struggled to pull his arms free but the chains were too strong, "Let me go! You people are insane! My friends and I aren't the reason for your suffering, we're prisoners just like you! Why can't you see that? And why can't you see that this isn't the way to solve your-"
Silver was abruptly cut off when the Mothrel suddenly grabbed his face, squeezing his cheeks together to silence him as he held a small, flat and sharp rock up to his face. "SILENCE! You sound like all the other slaves: those ignorant fools who believe you can bring salvation to us and the heretics who do hate you but refused to join our cause, saying that the great Febreus is not real and that our madness will consume us! So unless you want us to cut your tongue out, shut up!", the Mothrel screamed into his face before letting go.
Silver began tearing up, it was clear that there was no negotiating with these people, their insanity had already consumed them and they were too desperate to see reason; the Mothrel stood before him, smiling darkly as he watched the tears rolled down Silver's cheeks. He then turned to one of the slaves, a light green male Hobidon, and took something from him; he then walked behind Silver, watching him dangle like a fish on a hook.
THWACK!
Silver let out a loud scream of agony as he felt a sharp stinging pain on his back, he strained his head to turn around and see that the Mothrel was holding a whip in one of his right hands. He then swung the whip again, cracking it against Silver's back again; Silver screamed again, a river of tears cascading down his face. The pain was unbearable, the stinging, burning sensation running through his nervous system; the Mothrel ignored his pained twitching and swung the whip again.
THWACK! THWACK! SNAP! CRACK! THWACK!
"AHHHHHHHH! No...p-p-please...s-stop! It...h-h-hurts!", Silver screamed as he sobbed and cried hysterically.
The Mothrel ignored his cries and looked to the other slaves, "You see? You see how he suffers, how he begs for mercy? It's all a test, a test from Febreus! He wants to test our fortitude, our willingness to perform this sacrifice! Join me, my followers! Assist with the sacrifice and Febreus will grant us freedom for our devotion and loyalty!", he shouted in a deranged voice. The other slaves then began to join in while chanting "Praise be to Febreus, deliver us from enslavement!" over and over again.
As the Mothrel continued to whip Silver's back again and again, a few of the slaves lit the ends of twigs with torches and then pressed the ends of the twigs against against Silver's arms, legs, abdomen and one of his cheeks; Silver shrieked in agony as the twigs burnt through his fur and into his skin. The whipping became so bad that the lashes were bleeding and the blood dripped onto the floor, some of the slaves caught some of the blood and began smearing it on their bodies.
Silver didn't know how long this had been going on nor did he really care, the only thing he was aware of was the hot lances of pain rip through his back and the burning sensation of the burnt twigs being pressed into his fur and skin; he had tried to struggle to break free again but after so long of being tortured, he was sapped of his strength and now all he could do was flinch and twitch as he felt the whip lash his back again and again and again.
He was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief when the slaves had all stopped torturing him, the Mothrel then walked around him until he stood before the limp, bloody hedgehog; he used a hand to lift up Silver's chin so they were looking at each other eye to eye, he smiled at the sight of Silver panting from the exertion of screaming and the tear streaks that stained his cheeks. "Have you finally accepted your punishment? Have you accepted that you have brought suffering upon us all and the pain you have just endured shall appease Febreus so he shall grant us mercy and freedom?", asked the Mothrel.
Silver wanted to refuse to answer him because he knew how insane all these slaves were but at the same time he thought if he did, maybe they'd let him go; so he sighed and said, "Yes...I have accepted the truth and...and I'm sorry..."
Silver was having trouble staying conscious but the adrenaline from the pain he had endured had finally dissipated and he was losing quite a bit of blood, but then he saw the Mothrel give him an almost sympathetic look as he reached over to unbind him from the chains before carrying him in his four arms. The other slaves got down on their knees and bowed their heads as the Mothrel laid Silver down on a rock slab beneath the tapestry depicting Febreus.
The Mothrel then used a rag to wipe away the tears from Silver's face and the blood from all of his wounds, which didn't really help much since they still continued to bleed. Disposing of the rag, the Mothrel then looked back at Silver, who laid on the slab with one hand on his chest, breathing heavily. "How do you feel, hedgehog?", he asked calmly. Silver only opened his eyes a tiny bit to look up at him, "M...my body aches...and I'm finding it harder to stay awake", he said quietly.
The Mothrel then gently placed a hand on Silver's head, stroking his head quills in a comforting manner. "Sleep now...it will be over soon", he said. Silver tried to make sense of what he was talking about, but he felt too tired to care, and so he slowly closed his eyes and finally lost consciousness. The Mothrel removed his hand from Silver's head and reached behind his back, pulling out a small dagger. "I'll end your suffering soon enough, and by extension ours as well", he whispered.
He then clasped the dagger in two of his hands and raised them above his head as his other two hands held Silver down, one pressed to his forehead and the other pressed to his abdomen; Silver felt none of this as he laid there unconscious, breathing softly as the Mothrel held the dagger up above his head. Just as he was about to bring it down into Silver's chest, where his heart was...
"CHAOS...SPEAR!"
An arrow of yellow energy flew into the chamber and knocked the dagger out of the Mothrel's hande, before he had time to process what had just happened, he was tackled to the ground by Sonic in his werehog form; he held him down as he growled and snarled into his face, scaring the moth like man. The others slaves were about to run away but they were ambushed by Shadow, Rouge and several of the Hornetite soldiers.
It had taken quite a lot of convincing to get the guards to allow them to join in the search for Silver, with Shadow even threatening to slit his wrists if they didn't comply. Fearing the wrath of their queen, the guards let Shadow join in the search, bringing Rouge and Sonic along with them since the former was still a pretty good foot fighter and the latter knew about the cult and could probably sniff them out with his strong werehog sense of smell.
As the guards went about rounding up the slaves, Shadow ran over to Silver's limp body; he gently lifted him up into his arms, relieved to see that he was still breathing. "Its okay, Silvy. The doctors here will patch you up, you're going to be alright", he whispered as he gave his husband several kisses on his face. While he was distracted, Shadow hadn't noticed one of the slaves pick up the dagger and raise it above her head. That was when Shadow spotted the slave, "Shadow! Look out!", he shouted. Shadow barely had time to register this as the slave ran up to him, "You must die to appease our God!", she screamed.
She raised the dagger and plunged it down, but when Shadow looked, the dagger hadn't pierced his body but rather it had pierced Rouge in the left side of her hip as she had jumped into the path of the dagger to protect her best friend. "ROUGE!", Shadow screamed. The slave pulled out the dagger but before she could attack again, a guard stabbed her in the chest from behind with his spear; Rouge almost collapsed to the ground but Sonic caught her by stretching his arm out to catch her.
Rouge breathed heavily but it wasn't just because of the stab wound, she looked down in horror to see that the lower part of that one piece outfit she always wore was stained and wet. "Oh my Chaos! Where's the infirmary? They both need a doctor right now!", shouted Sonic. Two of the guards led Sonic and Shadow into the castle to the Med Lab as they carried Silver and Rouge in their arms; one group of doctors took Silver into one room to treat his lacerations while another group tended to Rouge.
"We'll need to stitch that stab wound before she bleeds out", said one of the doctors. "Forget that, she's in labor! Hurry up and deliver her baby before they both die!", shouted Sonic. Now, he hadn't known Rouge was pregnant again as she had only told Infinite about it and he was asleep when she did, but since he was at her baby shower when she went into early labor during her first pregnancy, Sonic could recognize what it looks like when the water breaks.
Sonic and Shadow covered their eyes as the doctors removed Rouge's clothes and placed a light blue hospital gown on her before laying her on a bed; they then uncovered their eyes and ran to either side of Rouge so they could hold her hands. One of the doctors took a blood sample from Rouge and placed it into a machine to be analyzed, "It appears this female mammal possesses A- type blood", he said. Another doctor turned to him, "Then go to the cold storage and fetch two liters of A- type blood, she losing quite a lot! If she dies right now, the Queen will butcher us!", she said.
Rouge began breathing heavily as she felt the contractions beginning, she squeezed Sonic and Shadow's hands tightly, almost crushing the bones in their fingers but they didn't care about the pain as their friend was in the midst of childbirth. A doctor looked up from the blanket draped over Rouge's spread legs, "Alright female mammal, I've used an anesthetic to numb your lower body so you shouldn't feel anything as I perform a C-section", he said.
Shadow used his free hand to gently stroke Rouge's head, "Its okay Rouge. Just breathe and push, it's almost over", he whispered softly into her ear. He then looked over to see Sonic clasping his free hand around Rouge's hand as well as his other hand that held it, and his head was bowed down onto the bed, he looked as though he was praying for Rouge and her baby to be okay.
Rouge let go out one final loud scream of intense agony until...
"WAHHHHH!"
The three friends looked up to see the doctor holding up Rouge's baby as he took it into a small room to be cleaned, then two other doctors worked to stitch her stab wound closed as well as the wounds made by her C-section; another doctor came and attached a bag of blood to Rouge's arm to replenish the blood she lost as well as placing an I.V. drip into her other arm to keep her fed and hydrated.
Just then, a bed was rolled into the room and placed next to Rouge's bed; upon it laid Silver, his body wrapped in bandages and an I.V. inserted into his arm. Shadow walked over to him just as he woke up, "s-s-Shadow...?", muttered Silver as he tried to register where he was. Shadow responded by placing a gentle, passionate kiss upon his lips; this allowed Silver to come to his senses and he kissed Shadow back.
A doctor walked in holding a small bundle wrapped in a blue blanket, "The infant is male", he said as he gave the small bundle to Rouge. She looked down upon her newborn son: he had a peach muzzle, a pair of two foot long black wings and bright red fur; a pair of big bat ears poked out from a curtain of Echidna quills that draped around his head, the quills so long they covered his eyes.
Rouge gently lifted up one of his quills to see he had her real colored eyes, the baby boy looked up at her and let out a soft coo as he tried to reach up and touch her face with his tiny hands. "My beautiful baby boy...my little Emerald-Jasper", she said softly as tears fell from her eyes. She felt a gentle hand caress her head and looked up to see Shadow smiling at her, "He is a very beautiful child, Rouge. I'm so happy for you", he said quietly.
"Can I hold him, Rouge? Please?", asked Sonic. Rouge nodded as she gently placed her son into him arms, Sonic looked down at the baby boy and smiled. "Hey there, little fella. Aren't you so cute with those quills drooping down your face?", he chuckled. "Can I see him? I'm a little too weak to stand up right now", said Silver. Sonic walked over to show him the newborn, "Hi there, little buddy. Aren't you a cutie?", Silver said with a smile. Shadow let out a soft chuckle as he looked back at Rouge, but saw that she had fallen asleep as she was completely drained and exhausted.
He smiled as he pulled the blanket up to her shoulders, allowing her to snuggle into the warmth of the bed; he then looked back at Sonic and Silver, the former holding little Emerald-Jasper as the latter was letting the newborn pull on his fingers. Shadow smiled at his friend and husband as they played with the baby, "Its moments like this that remind me that life is full of wonder", he whispered to himself.
Meanwhile in a mysterious room in the basement of the castle, the Mothrel as well as all the other slaves of the death cult who had tortured Silver awoke to find themselves inside a room lined with metal on all sides; in front of them was a screen of plexiglas and standing on the other side of the glass stood Queen Vespa and her second-in-command, Yellow Jacket. "Tell me...did the two mammals survive?", Vespa asked Yellow Jacket.
"Yes your majesty, but it will take time for the ivory hedgehog to recover from the lacerations and burns, and as it turned out, the white bat was pregnant and had a child", he responded. Vespa was taken by surprise by the news that Rouge had a baby, but she put that piece of information to the back of her mind, deciding to worry about it later. For now, she had a small cult of slaves to deal with. "You slaves have committed a grievous crime against me! You attempted to kill two of the eight mammals I need to achieve my goal of dimensional domination! I've realized that the punishments of starvation and beatings are too kind for you...so here is your punishment", she said through an intercom.
Vespa then pushed a button on a control panel, which opened several holes in the floor and ceiling of the room the slaves were trapped in; all of a sudden, a powerful torrent of red hot flames filled the room as she watched with a perverse smile on her face.
Meanwhile on the Isle of the Wyverns, Fluke let out a sudden gasp that shook him out of his meditation; he sat on his hands and knees, panting as sweat dripped down his face. Speedy and Turbo, who were playing in a pond nearby, noticed this. "Hey are you okay, Fluke? What's the matter?", asked Turbo as he and his sister looked at their friend in concern. Fluke looked up at them with fear in his eyes, "I'm...I'm not sure. I...I feel as though something awful has just happened, as if several small voices suddenly cried out in agony and were then suddenly silenced", he said. The twins looked at their friend with expressions of fear, genuinely creeped out by what he just said.
Author's Note: That's it for Chapter 21, come back soon for Chapter 22. Until then, this is SuperKirbyLand234 signing out!