Chapter 16: Knight of the Wind

(Near Avalon: 9:15 PM)

The young members of the Mercenaries were playing Daytona 2 on the Sega Dreamcast while Yayoi and Fuu were watching the ground from the window.

"Wow, so this is Avalon, England!" Yayoi gasped in awe. Soon, Sonic walked in.

"Yeah. England is one of the famous countries of the world, you heard about the legend of King Arthur, right?"

"Yes. The famous king who wielded the legendary sword, Excalibur. He protected the kingdom of Camolot with the aid of his Knights of the Round Table. Avalon is his final resting place." Fuu stated.

"Looks like we're landing soon. Stay frosty, people." Sonic told them, everyone nodded in agreement.

The Great Hurricane landed in the docks and everyone got out. Sonic looked around. Avalon reminded him of his last adventure. They noticed an castle and by the looks of it, it was haunted.

"Castle Avalon…" Knuckles folded his arms.

They noticed Zoey, Pierre, Sailor Moon and Peach shaking like leaves.

'Oh no…' Renee, Mao Scarlet and Raye thought to themselves and sighed.

"Oh no… Don't tell me you four are afraid of-" Before Blaze can finish, Zoey yelled.

"Don't say the G word!" Zoey trembled.

"Gerbils? Gophers?" Yayoi explained cheerfully.

"No! Ghosts! Ack! I said it! I'm afraid of ghosts!" Zoey's scream can be heard throughout England. Then her mood did a 180 as she faced Sayo, who looked hurt by the outburst, "Except you, you're nice."

Knuckles, Laharl, Corina and Blaze grabbed the four terrified girls and dragged them.

"Come on you scaredy cats, the fate of the world depends on it." Corina sighed.

The Mercenaries entered the castle, at the foyer, it closed behind them.

"Well, looks like we can't get out till we find the source." Bridget stated.

Zoey was whimpering.. "Hmph! Weaklings…" Sesshomaru said coldly.

"Alright, the sooner we get done with this, the better." Laharl frowned.

"Hey! Check it out!" Haruna pointed to a picture on the wall. The Mercenaries got a good look at it. They saw a picture and it show the Knights of the Round Table with King Arthur who was sitting on his throne, all donned in their armors. The appearance of King Arthur and his knights made the Mercenaries except for Sonic and Pluto gasped in shock.

"Is that…?" Amy gasped.

"What??" Blaze gawked.

"It couldn't be… Could it?" Zoey gasped before she and the others turned to Sonic who remained calm. If anyone knew anything about this world, it'd be him.

"That ain't me," he said as he folded his arms to the back of his head, "That's King Arthur alright."

"But he looks just like you!" Kikki said.

"That is because Sonic is the reincarnation of King Arthur," Pluto said.

"Say WAH?" Mars gasped.

"Yeah, sorry for not telling yall," Sonic nodded.

"Did you get sucked into another story while we were away?" Venus asked.

"Uh... more or less."

"I knew it! Told ya so!" Mini Moon teased.

"So then you didn't lie after all," Amy smiled as she sweatdropped. "I'm sorry, Sonic."

"Don't worry about it. Come on, let's go." As Sonic said that, Strikeans appeared near the stairs aiming their guns at the Mercenaries.

"Phantaroids!" Yue gasped.

"Come on, let's take care of them!" Rozlain fired her guns at the Strikeans, blowing one of the Strikeans' heads clean off.

"Let's get to the top of the castle and find out what the Phantaroids is looking for!" Kagome stated.

So the Mercenaries cut through the Strikeans and begin their journey to the top. At the beginning, they encounter Zap Shockers, but Asuna and Makie double team them and they pressed on. At the second level, they encountered Magnum Loaders firing at them, but Akiwo and Knuckles used their attacks to blast them away. As they got to the courtyard, the were met with met with Slash Soldiers. Thet had to fight them as well to get moving. Now they were near the stairs to the third floor. While they were climbing up, Surveillance Eyes appear in front of them, but Setsuna and Sakura H. gave them a double whammy. They also needed to get over a pack of deadly spikes. On the third level, they have to jump over the holes while avoiding the ceiling collapsing on them. They were now in the final level, they have to get pass Strikeans and swinging maces. Finally, they reached a huge door.

The Mercenaries opened the door and a silver gauntlet suspended in a pulsing yellow energy shield. Sonic recognized them. It was the same gauntlet Merlina, the granddaughter of Merlin, King Arthur's master, gave him before she turned on him.

"That gauntlet has the power to increase a wizard's magic abilities," Pluto explained.

"Just like the Star Crystal back in my world," Negi said as he went up to it.

"Negi, be careful!" Asuna warned, "It might trigger another trap!"

Negi nodded and walked closer. He pushed at a switch and the energy shield disappeared. Negi now clearly saw Merlina's Gantlet hovering above the pedestal. He reached out, grabbed the Gantlet, and pulled. With a slight buzzing noise, it came loose from the force field.

Everyone tensed for a few seconds... but nothing seemed to happen.

"Huh?" Konoka blinked, "No alarms? No falling walls? No rolling boulder of doom?"

"Stay on your toes everyone. I've got a bad feeling about this…" Setsuna said in alarm.

As the Mercenaries exited the room, the roof began to collapse. A large metal orb came floating down. It had floating claws and two chains of spikes connected.

"Jesus Christ!" Sonic gasped. That earned him a bop on the head by Pluto. "Ow!"

"That was for blaspheme," she glared.

"Look's like this is the next guardian," Evangeline frowned. "And he does not want us to leave."

MEDIEVAL MACHINE (Theme: Masters of the Desert from Sonic Adventure 2)

The Medieval Machine started to fire a row of missiles at the heroes, but they dodged it. Sonic used a Hurricane Tornado to give it some damage. The Medieval Machine cast a fire spell at Negi, Ayaka blocked it with her whip. Sakuya fired a bazooka at the Medieval Machine, giving it some damage. Naruto and Sakura H. threw kunais at the Medieval Machine for some minor damage. The Medieval Machine swung its chained spikes at the Mercenaries, but Sesshomaru used Tokijin to protect his allies. Laharl and Etna combined their attacks to give the Medieval Machine hefty amount of damage. The Medieval Machine used its claws to fire blue ice magic at the Mercenaries, but they managed to dodge it. Pierre got hit by the claws, but recovered and gave the Machine a Hyper Crush. Knuckles and Amy used their attacks to give the Medieval Machine some good amount of damage. "Mars Flame Sniper!" Mars used her attack to give the Machine some heavy damage. The Medieval Machine began to mix its attacks. "Sonic Wind!" "Silent Glaive Surprise!" Sonic and Saturn combined their attacks to give the Medieval Machine another dose of heavy damage. "Heart Arrow!" "Silver Slash!" Corina and Renee combined their attacks to give it some major damage. "I'll finish this! Rose Bell, full power!" Zoey used her Rose Bell to destroy the Medieval Machine. When it was destroyed, the room begin to light up by a blinding light.

When the light faded, the Mercenaries find themselves outside the castle.

"I guess the castle let us out once we beat that thing," Daisy guessed.

"Yeah, so what's next on our agenda?" Li asked.

"Huh," Sonic thought, "I think for now, we head back to the USA."

The Mercenaries got back into the Great Hurricane and set a course for the USA.

Next time: Daytona