Chapter 2
Full alert
"Master, the first stage is complete. They now know about the Mortuus clan." The Pink Cat said towards a figure in the shadows.
"Send my regards to Necroa. He has fulfilled his task for now." The silhouette responded back in an eerily deep voice. He turned around, revealing his glowing red eyes against a dark purple layer of fur. He was a hedgehog, with a great many long, cascading quills on his head. His eyes had no pupils, only color, and on his stomach was a large black spiral.
"Now it comes to your duty. Warn them of my presence and plans, so they may begin their panicking efforts to stop me. I want this to last longer than my last 'challenge'." He kicked the body of a light blue echidna down the small flight of stairs leading to his dark 'throne'.
"Yes, my lord. But, there lies one problem, referring as to location." The purple hedgehog tossed a scroll of parchment towards the masked cat. "You still don't want to use the modern ways do you? Parchment is long out of style." The cat teased. The hedgehog seemed a little annoyed for a split second, and then his face relaxed again.
"Do not seek to question me. I have my ways." He retaliated.
"Heh. Whatever." The pink cat unrolled the parchment, revealing a map of the city with their home, frequent locations, and other points of interest regarding the plans.
"Show them the map, that way we can alert them without much effort." The hedgehog turned and sat in his chair upon the small staircase, and was silent.
"I take my leave, master." The cat said, bowing, and then walked away towards the door.
-O-
Sonic had been watching T.V. for almost an hour when their came a knocking at the door.
"I'll get it!" Tails yelled from his room. (Not his workshop). He heard the door open, and bits of a conversation, then Tails yelled back "Sonic, they're here for you!" Sonic groaned, getting off the couch, and walked towards the door. He was surprised to see a masked pink cat at the door. Is that blaze? And what's with the mask? He thought.
"There you are, Sonic. I have something I must show you." She reached into her back pocket, and strangely, pulled out a dilapidated piece of parchment. "This is my master's, He wishes for you to know about his plans for this city." She said darkly.
Sonic read over it, shocked at the evils that were printed on the parchment. "How long have you had your stalker out there, following me?" He asked urgently, still reading at the map.
"That is not for your knowledge, hedgehog." She said coldly.
"I'm not going to let you get back to him, not after I've seen this!" Sonic attempted to grab her, but she was so agile as to handspring back about 10 feet.
"You're so vigilant. I'll bet my master will have fun with you for a while. He's been rather bored of late." She chuckled a bit, and then hopped onto the rooftops, gracefully fleeing the scene.
"She's not gonna get away so easily!" Sonic ran back in to grab his katana. "Tails! We're going right now!" He took up his katana, strapping its sheath around his waist.
"What for? Why are you so frantic?"
"I'll explain later, right now we've got someone to chase." He rushed out the door, leaving it hanging open.
Tails sighed. "Whatever. Better go with him." He grabbed a hand-cannon he had designed some weeks earlier, and flew away to catch up with him.
Sonic was running down the streets, looking up on the roofs trying to spot the feline apprentice. He turned a corner, looking down the long street. Sonic then spotted the pink figure dashing down the street, heading towards an aged, wrecked house. "Got ya." He said to himself. He sprinted at full speed, quickly coming towards her back.
She let out a small gasp of surprise as he had hold of her in an arm lock. "Now let's see who you are behind that mask!" Sonic reached to pry it off, when the image of the cat dissipated into the air. A multitude of colorful orbs floated away from the original spot the villain was in.
"What?! Where did she go?" He looked around frantically, searching for her running away somewhere, but found nothing but the stillness of the neighborhood.
"Ok, now what are we doing here Sonic?" Tails asked as he flew in towards a panicking
Sonic.
"That pink girl that paid us a visit, she showed me these. I tried to catch her, but I grabbed her and she just… disappeared. Right out of my arms." Sonic Handed tails the scroll, who read over it thoroughly.
Tails eyes widened when he finished reading it. "We have to do something! From what this map says, they're going to target the city's residents!"
"I know. This… Mesmeros… I think he's their leader." Sonic looked around once more for her. "They were even kind enough to show us where there headquarters are." Sonic pointed to a marker on the map.
"I don't think we should go there so soon. It might be a trap." Tails said.
"Yeah." Sonic thought for a minute, then an idea hit him. "Hey! We could get Espio to sneak in for us. This shouldn't be too new for him."
Tails nodded. "Do you know where he lives?"
"I think so. If not I'll bet one of your doohickeys can track him down for us."
"Right. Then let's get going." Tails lifted off, and Sonic ran along with him.
-o-
They arrived at Espio's house, which was designed in a pagoda style with shrine lanterns and many other eastern style things.
"Wow. He went all out!" Sonic exclaimed. "Espio has a tendency to go overboard. 'ULTIMATE NINJA POWER!' yeah. That's a nice catch phrase." Sonic finished sarcastically.
"Well, anyways, we still need him."
"Yeah, I'll go get him." Sonic walked up the cobblestone path, towards the large wooden doors on the pagoda. After knocking three times with the Chinese dragon knocker, it opened up but revealed no one inside.
"Espio, it's just me. You can drop the ninja act."
"It's not an act! It's a precaution. As a shinobi, I take no chances." Espio coldly responded, then faded in from camouflage.
"Well anyways, I need your help. Take a look at this. It'll explain everything." Sonic handed the scroll to Espio, who scanned over it quickly.
"I see, I see. So what is it you need me to do?"
"We need you to sneak into their headquarters it talks about on the parchment. We need to see who or what this is all about."
Espio let out a small sigh. "I guess there is no choice. I will try, but for Mesmeros to reveal his plans and locations to you, he must be very confident about this. Or he's giving us false intelligence." Espio said. He walked into a room to his left, and shortly returned with two daggers, a pouch of shuriken, and one very large shuriken strapped to his back.
"Thanks, Espio. I knew I could count on ya." Sonic smiled and gave him a thumbs up.
"I will return any information I find to you." Espio back flipped onto the pagoda styled house. "Oh, and this will cost you. Business is business." Espio smirked and faded into camouflage.
"Hey, that's not right! Get back here!" Sonic yelled at him, although he was invisible. He pondered for a moment, before shaking his head in frustration. "Tch. Asshole." Sonic turned around… and tripped over Espio's foot, which he had intentionally stuck out whilst invisible. Sonic landed into Espio's koi pond, causing the fish to scatter in all directions and some even jumping out. Sonic grumbled and got out, letting out a loud growl. He walked back to the gates with shame.
"Hey, did he agree to it?" Tails eyes him for a second. "Why are you soaking wet?" He asked, tilting his head.
"It's… not important. Let's head back. He's going after them." Sonic took off running at a faster than usual pace, trying to dry off.
There was nothing he could do to prepare himself for the sight he was about to bear witness to.
((another cliffhanger! Gotta love em. Anyways, please review; I'll give you a cookie! Next chapter is comin' up!))
