A Monarch's Corruption
Chapter 6: A Discovery
The sunshine of the day shines brightly onto the large, black castle that rests in the center of New Mobotropolis. Now that the day has fully begun, the people of the town are up and about going about their daily duties and chores. There are still a few people that live in the city that own their own shops, and those that do, are doing pretty good with making money. Since there aren't that many stores in the city, those that do have a shop have a pretty good monopoly over what they can sell to the others living there. The downside being that the more money they make the higher taxes that must be paid to the king.
The citizens had little choice but to pay the taxes or either be kicked out of the city or be imprisoned until taxes are paid to the king. Most citizens just got by, living very comfortable was very rare in New Mobotropolis now with Shadow's empire in control. However, The Dark Legion that lived in the city seemed to live very comfortably, especially the higher ranked soldiers that get to live in the castle instead of the soldier's housing area. Most of the soldiers seem to like the way things are going with them and the citizens of the city. This was mostly because their taxes were either very low or nonexistent the high ranked they got in the legion.
This was all very good to the legion since they were winning their war against all freedom, and to unite the entire planet under one kingdom's rule. There were still a few areas where Shadow's domain hadn't stretched too, since some of the people in certain areas are rather hard to overcome, but in time, they all fell one by one most of the time. Time is definitely on Shadow's side, and he is in no super hurry to have things be totally under his control.
Inside the black palace, Shadow is currently sitting on his throne with a small stack of papers next to him, and one piece is in his hand as he is reading it. He had to do this from time to time, and deal with actual governmental issues that needed to be handled in the city and in other cities of his empire. He normally had someone else do this stuff, but that was usually only when he needed things to be approved to give more value to his decisions, so they will be accepted by the people easier.
Shadow is flipping through the pages of the current proposal to add in better housing into the city. At the moment he isn't thinking about passing unless there is a good reason for him to do so, which he can't think of yet, but he isn't finished reading the proposal. Just then, the doors to his throne chamber start to open. Shadow looks up questioningly to see who could possibly be coming to disturb him at the moment, since he usually didn't like visitors while he was working.
The doors to the chamber open up and show that it's Lien-Da, she immediately starting to walk up to Shadow, but she strangely having someone coming in with her that Shadow did not recognize. The person with her looked to be one of her soldiers from how he was dressed. He was a brown echidna, but was dressed in the dark legion clothing. His hood was down at the moment, which not many seemed to do, though the soldier was confronting Shadow and it was a rule that all that were in front of him had to take their hood off while in his presence.
Shadow sits the papers he was reading down for the moment when he sees the two echidnas heading right towards him, there obviously something that needed to be dealt with if they were willing to come and bug him during his work time. Lien-Da and the brown echidna both get down on one knee and immediately bow to Shadow out of respect before looking back up at him. Shadow nods when they both look back up to him. "You two may rise." he says and watches as the two quickly get back to their feet.
"Now I'm sure there is a reason you have come and disturbed me when I told you that I am busy at the moment, so you had better have something important or both of you will be sorry." says Shadow showing how he obviously hated to be disturbed, but he was at least going to hear them out before he gets too mad at the two of them. He figured it must at least be somewhat important if Lien-Da was escorting this soldier of hers into the room personally instead of just another one of Shadow's personal guards that stand outside the throne room doors escorting the brown echidna in.
Lien-Da didn't look nervous from what Shadow just told her, but the brown echidna looked nervous since it was rare for the normal soldiers to get a personal audience with Shadow like this. He trying to look as strong as he could, but he was still a little scared of Shadow, since he's heard of the things Shadow can do to people when he gets mad. The echidna just hoping that wasn't what was going to happen to him when Shadow hears about what they have to tell him.
"Yes sir, we do have some news that needs to be reported to you and its urgent from what I heard a moment ago. That is why I have come to tell you. First off, this here is Corporal Conner. The corporal here is in charge of patrols for the residential area in the southern area of the city." says Lien-Da, telling Shadow all of this in a very professional manner so as to not upset him, since she did after all disturb him during his work, which she usually never does.
Shadow simply nods at first and eyes the brown echidna when Lien-Da tells him the echidna's name and rank, which is something he didn't really care about at the moment. "Alright, but what is this visit about? Come on, one of you two just spit it out, so I can get back to my business before the day is up." says Shadow obviously a bit impatient with the two and wanting this meeting to go a bit faster than how it's going so far.
"Yes sir, we will get right to the point." says Lien-Da and nudges the brown echidna soldier forward in front of her and steps back a few paces. Obviously it was the Corporal that had something to tell Shadow and not Lien-Da, which did make Shadow wonder if this guy had done something wrong, since this what usually happened when a soldier was in trouble with Lien-Da and he needed to be dealt with in some other way.
"Um, sir, it's about what happened to me today while on patrol in my district. I saw a strange fox loitering around an abandoned house and approached him thinking he was up to no good and might be stealing or vandalizing the old house. When I approached him, he informed me that he was not doing anything wrong and had spotted a burglar enter the residence and was stealing things. Since he didn't look to be a threat, I believe him and entered the house to check for myself. Once I entered the house and began my search, I'm guessing the fox that was behind me, must have knocked me out." says the brown echidna nervously. He wasn't sure how Shadow was going to take this part about him being knocked out, since it was embarrassing for someone to be tricked so easily he thought.
Shadow is hearing what this echidna is telling him so far, and at the moment Shadow does not look very pleased at the moment. Shadow is scowling and looking very displeased with the soldier and how he could be so naive and just walk into the building with a strange he does not know still standing behind like that. Shadow wanted to hear the rest first before he jumped down anyone's throat or became even angrier than he already looked at the soldier from just the first part of his story.
"Um, well uhhh, when I woke back up not long later, I found myself tied up in the house, wearing nothing but my boxers. Apparently that fox had stolen my clothes while I was out cold. Yet strangely, not long after I woke up, he returned and knocked me out yet again while I was still tied up. By the time one of the other soldiers found me, I had apparently been out a lot longer that time before I could call for help. The fox was long gone, yet he had left my clothes back with me again. I have no idea what this was about, but he did something with my uniform, but I don't know what." says the echidna looking even more nervous now wondering if something would happen to him or if Shadow was going to get mad at this. From the look on Shadow's face, that would be a pretty safe bet that he was mad over this.
Shadow stands up and starts to make his way over towards the echidna now. Shadow getting out of his throne and coming towards you is never a good thing, and the echidna knows that as his feet are slowly starting to slide in reverse. Shadow just out of nowhere giving this sudden burst of speed and grabs the brown echidna around the neck and lifts him off the ground. Shadow just holds the brown echidna there in the air gasping for breaths. He was getting some, but he was just barely getting them since this was hurting a lot.
Shadow turns his head over towards Lien-Da as he holds the echidna up in the air like this not looking too pleased. "Do you have any other news about this matter to report to me, or do I go about my own investigations to find out what this fox did in this city?" asks Shadow in a very angry sounding tone towards her. This actually startling Lien-Da a little bit when he started to do this to her soldier and then looking angry at her as well.
"Ummm, no sir, I was just informed about this and figured you would want to know about it right away." she says as quickly as she can since she didn't want to leave him waiting for an answer. Shadow does glare at her a little bit before throwing the brown echidna across the room a little bit and onto the floor. He immediately grabbing his neck and gasping for air now that he can get a breath again.
Shadow watches him land, but it then no longer interested in him for the moment. "Lien-Da, take him and see to it that he is stripped of his rank and given lowest rank once again for his patrolling routes. If these are the stupid things that he is going to do, then he doesn't deserve to run the patrolling of a whole section of the city." says Shadow and points to the brown echidna on the floor. "Oh, and give me his I.D. I have some investigating work I need to do and I might need it to check some things I think might be in need of a check." says Shadow giving Lien-Da her orders, who immediately jumps into action and runs over to the soldier to grab his I.D. for Shadow.
The echidna soldier gets to his feet just as Lien-Da gets over to him. She immediately reaching into his pocket and taking his I.D. away from him and simply tosses it over to Shadow. Shadow has no trouble catching the I.D. before he starts to walk towards the door to his throne room, his cape gently swaying up and down as he walks out of the room. Shadow just leaves Lien-Da and the brown echidna in his throne room for the moment while he goes to deal with something.
Shadow quickly walks over to the main door to his castle and beats on the door to make the people on the other side open it up for him, he knowing it was locked at this time of the day still. The door was rarely if ever open for people to come and go so that people who weren't suppose to be in there didn't get in without going through the castle's security squads. It only takes a moment before Shadow hears the clicks of the guards outside unlocking the doors and starting to open both pair of doors at the same time.
Shadow walks out the double palace doors and out into the sunlight. Shadow's black fur immediately begins shining in the sunlight as he looks over at the soldiers that are standing guard here at the door and glaring at both of them looking rather angry still over what he just heard inside. The two guards immediately give Shadow a Dark Legion salute but putting their right fists over their heart and standing at attention to show respect for their ruler. Shadow didn't come out that often, but when he did come out, it usually wasn't that good for the people he was going after or looking for.
Shadow looks at both of them before grabbing the I.D. he was just given and holding it out to both of the guards that were currently on duty. "Did either of you two see this soldier enter the building this morning? I am checking to make sure if he came into the palace or not?" asks Shadow making sure the two soldiers on duty can make out the soldier's I.D. without any problems.
It only takes a moment before one of the guards nod to Shadow. "Oh yes, I let the corporal in this morning?" said the guard confused as to why Shadow was asking about the corporal like this. It seemed weird to both of them as to why Shadow would be looking for one particular soldier, unless he was in trouble. They hoped their fellow soldier was but waited to hear what Shadow had to say now.
Shadow immediately eyes the one guard that tells him that he had let the corporal into the palace this morning and walks right over to him. "Did you ask the corporal to remove his mask before he entered?" asked Shadow figuring that would be the most obvious question he should ask and was the first thing all legion soldiers were suppose to do no matter what. Shadow just waits for his answer now and doesn't still look all that pleased at the moment.
"No sir, the corporal has a very bad cold today and I figured he should keep his visor down so he doesn't spread his germs all around. I'm guessing he went to the doctor to get some medicine, because one he was done, he left really quickly." says the soldier simply shrugging thinking that is what happened. The soldier seems nothing wrong with the situation and just hopes that was all the information that Shadow needed now.
Shadow takes a step closer to the soldier and gives him a much harder look at him to show he was really meaning business now. "You let the corporal into the palace without checking his visor because he had a cold. Is that right soldier?" asks Shadow once more just to clarify what he was just told. Shadow's appearance now was looking more and more serious, like something really important was going on and this information was high class information from the way he was acting. All of this was just confusing the soldier, but he just nods and smiles to show he was being sincere to his king.
Shadow clinches his fist looking rather angry now before just out of nowhere swinging his fist around and decking the soldier right in the side of his face and in one very hard blow, knocks the echidna to the ground and out cold. The other soldier panics at first and backs up to defend himself wondering what was going on and why the king just knocked out one of his own soldiers like that. "Siiir? What's the matter my king?" asks the other echidna soldier standing over by the door, with his legs shaking like mad. He obviously knowing the power that Shadow possesses and doesn't want the same thing to happen to him that just happened to his friend.
Shadow glares over at the other soldier and walks over to him and pushes him into the door rather hard and holds him there very mad now from the look on his face. "Listen you incompetent asshole. Your little friend over there might have just allowed someone that is not supposed to be in the palace inside! He is lucky I didn't kill him right there, which is what I wanted to do in the first place. Now, you go get some guards and have your idiot friend here thrown in the dungeons. He will be down there for a good long time for his incompetent ways." says Shadow shoving the echidna to the side and to the ground as well. Shadow turns and storms back into the castle, slamming the doors when he enters showing how angry he is right now.
Shadow begins to head back towards the throne room angrily, but does see Lien-Da and the brown echidna coming back out of the throne room by now when he was returning. The echidna immediately tries to hide slightly behind Lien-Da, but Shadow stops Lien-Da and makes her move out of the way for a moment so he could talk for just one more moment to the soldier. "Now hold up, I just need one more bit of information out of you before you may go for the moment and resume going back to your lowest of lowest rank now. I need to know whatever description you can give me of the fox that entered the palace now." says Shadow wanting to know if he could get a mental picture in his head for people to search for later.
Connor was skittish at first to answer Shadow, but figuring he might only get hurt again if he withheld any bit of information, he was just going to come right out and tell Shadow what he knew. "Well, all I got was that he was a fox, he was yellowish colored, wore a brown belt with traveling pouches around it, and goggles on his head. Oh, and he was an odd one because he had two tails instead of just one. You know, it looks like he either got into some accident or had some weird kind of birth defect." says the soldier just shrugging not seeing anything else suspicious about the fox that he encountered and then got knocked out by.
Shadow's eyes open as wide as they possibly could when he hears that description and looks even angrier, if he could be angrier. "Very well, you may go. Lien-Da, go into the throne room now." says Shadow trying to keep his cool for the moment while he is in the hall and in front of many other soldiers. From the look on his face though, it would appear that any moment now, he might explode. Lien-Da just nods and hopes that won't be on here, since she knows she can't do anything if he does decide to take anything out on her, or else risk losing her position or even a limb or something worse.
Lien-Da follows Shadow into the throne room and shuts the door behind them. They were in the throne room alone now, just the two of them. Shadow runs up to his throne and sits down before slamming his fist down hard into the arm of his throne, actually shaking its foundation a bit, he hitting it that had. "I can't believe it. After all this time, now Sonic's little fox friend is up and out and actually managed to sneak into my castle undetected? How is it that your guards are that pathetic Lien-Da! HUH! ANSWER ME THAT! I want to know how it is, that these soldiers you have been providing me with can be tricked that easily it sounds like. That fox was able to sneak into the city, steal a uniform, and sneak in here and do who knows what!? God damnit!" yells Shadow sounding absolutely furious now hearing how stupid it sounds many of the soldiers he has guarding his capital are now.
Lien-Da was nearly as mad as Shadow was that her soldiers could do something so stupid and allow someone access in here so easily. She was going to have a word with some of them later, that or a good whipping until they learn to obey orders. She wasn't about to let something like this happen again. "Yes, I'm sorry your highness. It will never happen again. I will be sure and beat it into their heads to not be so lazy anymore when it comes to security. You don't have to worry about them. I will see to all of that personally, believe Me." she says looking serious yet grinning a bit as well.
Shadow just glares at her for a moment but does finally nod. Shadow's fist resting there on the arms of the throne with his fists still clenched in anger. He might be trying to control himself, but if something else bad were to happen, he might do something worse to the next person that gave him any bad news. "Well, unless there is someone else with two tails, that has to be Sonic's little friend Tails that came in here. Since he came alone and would risk so much to get in here secretly, he must be looking for Sonic. Yet, at the same time, this could almost be a blessing to me as well you know?" says Shadow starting to calm a little bit down when he says that and thinks it over for a moment in his head.
Lien-Da stood there silent for a moment trying to get what Shadow was telling her, but eventually it hit her and does grin a bit as well. "Oh I think I get what you are thinking Shadow. You are planning to let the fox find Sonic so you can get your hands back on him once again aren't you?" she inquires since that was the most obvious solution in her mind. Shadow though sometimes did things unexpected, so with him, a simple solution might not be the route he usually takes to solve a problem.
Shadow simply nods this time and taps his hand there on his throne a bit more as he is trying to think up his plan so that it was sure not to fail. "That is the basic plan yes, but it just seems too simple. If we just let the fox find Sonic, we have no way of tracking Sonic, where he goes or what he might be doing once he is found. We will need a way to track him once his location has been found." says Shadow looking deep in thought at the moment. Shadow didn't often do a lot of super heavy thinking, he usually acting on the spur of the moment. This matter however, was very important to him, so he was going to deal with it personally.
"Um sir, if you don't mind me giving my opinion at the moment, I think I might have a suggestion that could be of use?" asks Lien-Da grinning a bit yet again. She wasn't one of Shadow's closest advisors for nothing, so it wasn't that unusual for her to be the one that had the really clever, yet usually sinister ideas for Shadow. Shadow immediately looks interested and motions for her to continue, he wishing to hear what kind of idea she has cocked up this time.
"Well, how about having someone keep an eye on the fox secretly and relaying his position back to us. That way if he does find Sonic, that way we know when to strike and take him into custody. We only need to watch him. No need to get others involved, too much." she says grinning rather sinister looking and chuckles a bit when she reveals her plans.
Shadow immediately grins and chuckles a bit too. "Hmmm, I think you might be right on this one. If we go out looking with massive groups of troops, the fox is sure to pick up on what we are doing. He is rather intelligent from what I've seen. It would be better for us to keep a low profile for now. That is perfect for this. Lien-Da, I want you to go get in contact with one of our special agents and send them to keep an eye on the fox. He could be anywhere in the kingdom, but I think I might have a few ideas to where you might want to have the agent check first for him." says Shadow apparently on board with this plan from how it sounds.
"Oh? Do tell Shadow? Any little clue will be very helpful for our agent in tracking him down. If he can get into the city that easily, he obviously is rather good at hiding his true identity. I'll do a little research of my own, but the agent should have an easy enough time. I'm sure the fox has made a mistake somewhere and believe me, I will find that mistake." she says grinning as she looks like she is ready to pounce on this mission as soon as possible. Lien-Da loves her job and any chance she has to use more of her power, the better in her opinion.
"Good, go contact the agent, but tell them that they might want to at least check out Angel Island first. A lot of the foxes other friends are known to still be around there, and if he has come all the way out here, he is bound to get into contact with at least one of them. We will find him. Now go ahead and get on the mission this moment." says Shadow raising his hand and basically shooing Lien-Da away, he wanting her go get onto it this instant and not just stand around talking with him anymore about the plan.
Lien-Da bows and grins as she starts to leave. "Yes sir, I am on my way." she calls out as she rushes over to the large throne room doors and quickly leaves Shadow on his own in his throne room. Shadow just sat there for a moment to catch his breath on all that had just happened before he stood up and starts to make his way towards a door not that far from where his throne sat in the room.
Shadow walks over to the door and turns it, it leading into a small stairwell that Shadow slowly makes his way up. This being his private passageway to the second floor that led to his private quarters. No one else was allowed to come this way unless they had his permission. The second floor was all personal living quarters or guest rooms for the few guests that he does get here in the palace. There were guards on the second floor, but they are usually higher ranked and very few in numbers.
Shadow reaches the top of the stairs and exits the door at the top leading to the main hallway on the second floor. Shadow only has to take a few steps down the hall to get to his own quarters the closest room to the stairwell. This was done on purpose, so that Shadow could get to and from his room to the throne quickly, but also for a quick escape route, that is, if it was ever needed, which was doubtful.
Shadow walks over to the door and opens it to enter his personal quarters. When he walks in however, he looks up to see Sally over in one corner of the room putting away what looked to be a cloak into one of her person drawers. This catching her by surprised as she quickly puts it inside and shuts the drawer looking nervous that Shadow had just walked into the room like this. Shadow scowls a bit and starts to walk over towards her, after shutting the door and locking it.
Sally starts to take a few steps backwards before falling onto the black seated bed in the center of the room and looking up nervously at Shadow once he gets over towards her. "Just be lucky you are good at getting in and out of this palace without me finding out. I've caught you before leaving without me at your side. I have no clue what you are doing, but if I find out, you can believe me, I doubt it will be that pleasant." says Shadow glaring down at her for a moment before turning and walking over to the dresser to have a look for himself.
Sally just nods to Shadow and knows what he was going to find and knows he probably won't enjoy it that much. She had been doing this for a good while now, and knows he doesn't like it, but she feels it had to be done. She had a duty to fulfill and she would always rather risk her person safety than give up on her responsibilities.
Shadow grabs the drawer and opens it up and finds the cloak inside and pulls it out. Shadow tilts his head slightly at first trying to figure out what it was, but does sorta get the idea after a moment. "So you are the cloaked figure that has been seen around town giving out coins to the people right?" asks Shadow figuring she must be giving them those coins from his personal treasury. Shadow didn't look very pleased, but that was still partially from the news about Tails and not about this. This was rather minor to him and just a small thing to tick him off. This not the first time he's caught her doing something similar in the past.
Sally has leaned in time that lying would only get her hit most likely, so she figures it best not to and simply nods to Shadow when he asks her that. "Yes, it was me." she says sighing a little bit wondering what he was going to do next knowing that she was out helping the people like that again. Sally just couldn't help herself. It was just the kind of person she was and in her nature to help people out in need.
Shadow takes the cloak out and throws it over onto the bed and stares down over at her when he throws it over there. "Burn it. I don't want to catch you going out like that again alright. Once I am done with my next mission I'll give your people another small improvement in living if that will make you stop stealing from my dang treasury for goodness sake." says Shadow grumbling as he turns and starts to head over to the balcony door so that he could stand outside and get some air.
Sally looks rather confused, because Shadow didn't do anything but say to burn the cloak and no go out like that again, which rather confused her. The last time she was caught, Shadow flipped his lid, but this time he didn't? "He must have something big on his mind if he is not going to over react this time." she says mostly to herself as she sees him shut the door and go sit out onto a chair near the balcony.
Whatever was on Shadow's mind right now was of more importance than Sally going out and helping the citizens of the city have a better life in any way that she could. She wasn't going to complain since if she wasn't going to be punished, she was just going to listen to Shadow's wishes this time and not go out for at least a little while. "I better not disturb him or I might get into more trouble. Whatever is going on, it can't be good for whoever it is, he is thinking about." says Sally as she grabs up her cloak and goes into the bathroom nearby, where she secretly stashes it under the sink where Shadow never looks. No way was she going to burn the cloak. Shadow had told her to burn it before, and she hid it from him each time. One time he did burn it himself, but getting another one wasn't that difficult in this city.
Shadow really had no concern with Sally's little annoyances she is always making for him. He had only married her to settle down the citizens of his nation, so that they would think they were getting a better side leader in their eyes. He listened to her only very rarely, and most of the time didn't care for her that much. This was really nothing more than a political strategy to keep the citizens happy to him.
Shadow just looks up into the sky for the moment and shuts his eyes as he tries to rest for a little bit. Shadow had a lot on his mind at the moment and he needed to make sure he understood everything that had happened already today, that way when the big things go down, he will be ready for them. No matter what happens, he was going to be ready to deal with them personally if he had to. Every last little thing was going to be dealt with in this situation in his head. When Shadow finally got what he was looking for back, he was going to put it to an end to it, once and for all.
To Be Continued….