Hello and welcome back to 'Dark Diamond Flarice'!
So yeah, second chapter. Don't worry, it won't be as dark as the prologue. This is the chapter where the story officially starts and... actually I really don't know what else to say. All I can think about to say is here's chapter 2!
Disclaimer: I don't own 'Sonic the Hedgehog' in any way what-so-ever.
Started: 4/17/16-Finished: 4/18/16
...
How Flarice managed to get into a situation like this was way beyond Ren. Then again, this was Flarice they were talking about, that girl gets into crazy problems all the time. She swore that she was a magnet for these things.
But, Ren sighed, this was just another day in Westheart. Located literally on top of a massive Chaos Energy deposit, the large town was always getting a visit from some evil/ mad/ old/ crazy scientist and/ or others who wanted the deposit all to themselves. In fact, Westheart was under the control of one such person before Macy came along with a feverish Flarice. While Ren was part of the resistance movement against their tyrant ruler, she was able to make little change while the once strangers took down their enemy in one day. One day! She doesn't know how they did it and she probably never will.
"Ren!" Yelled a voice. "Stop spacing out and get a move on. Who know what that damn scientist is doing to my cute little sister!" Did she mention that Macy was extremely protective of her adopted kid sister? Emphasis on 'extremely'.
"Well excuse me for spacing out when you woke me up at exactly 3 in the morning!" The echidna shot back. Macy rolled her eyes at her friend. Ren was never a morning person and everyone from Westheart knew never to wake her up early. But, Macy thought mischievously, she wasn't someone from Westheart, now was she?
"But this is an emergency!"
"No it's not! Flarice can handle herself you know!" Ren irritatedly said as they ran through the forest. "Knowing her, she's probably trashing the lab as we speak!"
'If I wasn't tied up in these restraints,' Thought Flarice. 'I would've already trashed this lab a long time ago...'
How Flarice got into this situation, she didn't know. One moment she was playing catch with some of the younger villagers, the next she was on a dissection table, restrained, in some whacked up version of a bad horror movie's mad science lab.
"OH, HO, HO- BLECK!"
'And let's not forget the sorry excuse for an evil scientist with a really bad sore throat voice.' Flarice sighed in her head while looking at said scientist. She watched, bored, as Doctor... Beep? Beet? Bell? She couldn't remember. Anyway, she watched at the newly named Doctor Bleck, Flarice gave herself a mental pat on the back for her name choosing, regained his composure and turned his attention to the Mobian.
"Now then," He said. "You're going to tell me the fastest way to get to the Chaos Energy deposit." Flarice tilted her head in a fake thinking position.
"Hmm... No."
"You will tell me!" Bleck yelled, his face turning red.
"No." She responded flatly. On the inside, she was laughing loudly as the doctor's face turned the same shade of red as Ren's emerald, as much as she hated that thing, which was a feat in itself.
"Yes you will!"
"No."
"TELL ME!"
"No." The doctor stomped his feet in frustration while walking and reaching for a large machine above the dissection table. He positioned the really unfriendly needle at the tip of it above Flarice's head.
"You're going to tell me," He spat. "Wether you like it or not, cat." Flarice smirked. Oh, she was more than just that. The cat looked up at the machine.
"So," She said. "What's this doohickey supposed to do?" Bleck gave her a smile before walking to a table full of buttons.
"That, my dear," Flarice blanched at the fact of an old guy she didn't know calling her 'dear'. "Is a mind altering-nerve wave blast that will change your brain's chemical components to my liking." He finished proudly. Flarice gave him a blank stare.
"... Huh?" Bleck gave her a deadpanned look.
"It's a mind control machine."
"Well why didn't you say that befo-"
"ENOUGH!" Bleck shouted. He turned back to the table behind him. He pushed multiple keys on one of the boards and the machine's needles started to glow. Flarice, now putting all jokes aside, started to struggle against her restraints.
'I'll give the old man this," She thought. "He doesn't mess with restraints. All the other scientists just use plain rope where this guy uses metal. Said scientist turned around and gave a not-so reassuring smile.
"Don't worry dear," he said. "This won't hurt. Much." And he pushed a large green button...
… Which released Flarice's restraints.
It took Bleck a second to realize what he had before going into a massive panic. Flarice, smirking, jumped off of the table while destroying the mind- something, something, something. She then landed in front of the scientist, eyes dancing with mirth.
"Sorry doc," She said. "But I'm afraid I'm gonna have to cut your little experiment short." She went to the control console and hit the red button labeled 'Self-Destruct' before grabbing the doctor and rushing out of the lab.
"Oh, and by the way, my name's Flarice, not 'dear'.
"You have got to be kidding me..." Ren sighed, looking up.
"You can say that again." Macy said, also looking up.
Flarice was on an airship. One of which was surrounded by an armada of other airships that looked anything but friendly.
"How the hell are we supposed to get up there!?" The echidna yelled. "The Red Wind is still in the repair shop and the only person we know who can actually fly is not here!" Macy grabbed Ren's shoulders.
"Ren, calm down." She said before grinning. "There are other planes that can get us up there." Ren gave her an unreadable look.
"No."
"Oh, come on Ren!" Macy whined. "It's the only safe way to go!"
"I am NOT going to ask that jackass for help." Ren growled out. Macy sighed at her stubbornness.
"We seriously need to work on your language..." The hedgehog mumbled. She then put on a fake smile and started walking in the opposite direction that they came from. "Alright then, Jump Valley it is!" Ren's face suddenly turned horrified.
"O-on second thought," Ren sweated nervously. "I guess we could ask if we can borrow the Blue Victory..." Macy gave a smile too sweet that it sent chills down Ren's spine. Like everyone else in Westheart knew, Macy always got her way.
"Okay old man." Said Flarice. "Which was is out?" Doctor Bleck gave her a smug smile.
"I won't tell you." He said. "Even if you find it, we're in the sky. There's no way for you to get off." Flarice gave him a smug smile of her own.
"I wouldn't worry about that." She said. "What I would worry about is the fact I hit the Self-Destruct before leaving your lab." Bleck's face went pale as he jumped up to his feet and starting running down the corridor.
"Hurry now!" He shouted. "The exit is this way!" Flarice sniggered into her hand before running after the old scientist.
'Works every time.' Unfortunately for the two of them, they, or in Bleck's case forgot, failed to realize that there was a security camera in the same hall they were in. Which, in fact, was streaming them live to the bridge where the leader was. And she was far from happy.
"What in Chaos' name are the guards doing!?" Shouted Jewel. "Have them intercept the doctor and the prisoner! Take us above the cloud layer, we can't allow them the slightest chance of escape! And someone shut down that Self-Destruct!" The captain of the Delain May Pirates was not happy, not like she was 3 days ago. Chaos Energy was a limited resource. And despite it being generated within the planet's core, it was very rare to find a place where even a little bit of the energy was released onto the surface. So, when she had heard of a small town in the western parts of the Sylaris Kingdom sitting on top of a wellspring of Chaos Energy, how could she not resist?
But of course, if she had heard of this place then other Sky Pirates would have heard of it, which brought up a very curious question: Where were they? There was no way for the town to defend themselves, her capturing that cat girl without any trouble was proof of it. So why hadn't they made a move?
The swallow shook her head and smirked to herself. Oh well, it was their loss. With or without that cat girl's information, she would take the Chaos Spring for herself, and her crew of course. She wasn't heartless or selfish by any means.
"Captain!" Shouted a young male chameleon. "The guards have found the targets!"
"Self-Destruct has also been aborted!" Shouted another crew member. Jewel laced her hands together and place her head on them.
"Good. Capture them."
"Absolutely NOT!" Shouted Ren, getting more and more irritated by the minute.
Currently, Ren and Macy were back in Westheart in the Mechanic Shop district of the village. Westheart was split into 5 areas': Mechanic Shop, Town Square, Lake Mills, Valley Farms, and Westheart Tower, located directly in the middle of the village. The tower itself was directly connected to the Chaos Spring directly beneath the town, providing everyone with Chaos Energy to operate day to day machines, mostly the ones in the Mechanic Shop district. And while Ren and Macy don't usually visit this part of town, the situation called for it. And as they say, desperate situations...
"Come on love." Said Arthur. "All I'm askin' for is a date in exchange for usin' my Blue Victory."
… Call for desperate measures.
While Macy was worried sick for her kid sister, she had to admit that watching Ren refuse Arthur's request for a date was quite hilarious. The mechanic was also an echidna like said hot-headed girl and he had nearly every girl in Westheart head-over-heels for him. Macy herself admits that she also did find him cute, but he wasn't her type. Now a certain white hedgehog might be, but...
"You can go date a Chao for all I care!" Shouted Ren. "Just let us use the Blue Victory so we can save Flarice from those Sky Pirates!" Arthur wave a lazy hand at her.
"Are ya even hearin' yourself love?" He said. "This is Flarice we're talkin' 'bout 'ere. We all know she can very well take on those pirates by 'erself."
"Not against a whole armada of them!" Macy placed a hand on her shoulder, her sickly sweet smile back
"It's alright Ren." Her grip growing stronger. "We could always go through Jump Valley to save our friend." Everyone in the district stiffened at the mention of the horrid place. Arthur nervously stepped back and presented the door he was previously leaning on.
"Y-your chariot awaits m'ladies!" Macy released Ren's shoulder and walked into the workshop.
"Thanks Arthur!" She chirped. Once she was out of sight, everyone let out a breath and relaxed. Macy was absolutely terrifying when, 'asking' for something.
"O-okay..." Bleck nervously said as he looked down an the cloud layer from the exit door. "This may prove to be a problem." Flarice shrugged next to him.
"No, not really." Bleck gave her a glare.
"Of course this is a problem! How do you expect we get off the airship?"
"Easy! I'll just-" The door slammed shut as multiple Sky Pirates entered the room and surrounded the two. The leader, a silver fox, threw a smug smile at them.
"You two are coming with us." Flarice crossed her arms and raised and eyebrow.
"And if we don't?" Several swords, guns, hand-held cannons, spears, and stunners were immediately pointed at her and Doctor Bleck, who had pretty much fainted by this point. Flarice sweated and gave a nervous smile, raising her hands in mock surrender.
"Lead on."
"I'll admit this," Said Jewel once Flarice and Bleck were brought to her, hands tied behind their backs. "You've got guts, trying to escape from me. And for activating the Self-Destruct when you had no way off." Flarice grinned.
"Well what can I say? I'm a gutsy person."
"That you are." Jewel turned to the now conscious doctor. "Now as for you Doctor Bleck..." Said doctor fell into a low bow towards the Sky Pirate.
"I was never helping this youngster!" He shouted. "I meant to lead her right into your trap the entire time Captain!" Flarice gave him a deadpanned look.
'Really feeling the love here doc...' She thought. Jewel looked at him with a hard glare.
"Silence!" She shouted in a commanding voice. "Did I ask for you to speak?" Bleck quickly nodded. "Good. As for your punishment for aiding our prisoner in an attempted escape, you will spend and entirety of four months in the brig with only 3 glass of water and 1 loaf of bread a day. Understood?" Bleck quickly nodded again. Jewel nodded to two of the guards on the bridge, who nodded and took away the old doctor. The captain of the Delain May Pirates looked at Flarice.
"Now as for you..." Jewel rose from her seat and walk towards Flarice, stopping and kneeling down in front of her to look at her. "Flarice, was it?"
"Yeah... Who's asking?" Jewel's first mate snarled at her.
"How dare you talk to the Captain with such disrespect!" Jewel held up a hand.
"Clam down Regal." She said calmly. Still looking at Flarice, the swallow stood up. "I'm Captain Jewel la Mink, the, well, captain of the Delain May Pirates. And I'd like you to be a part of my crew-"
"No thanks." Flarice said bluntly. Jewel blinked in surprise as the girl immediately shot down her offer. "Don't get me wrong, being a Sky Pirate sounds really cool..." Blue eyes danced with mirth as she smirked. "But it's kinda my job to defend my home from Sky Pirates and the such."Jewel looked at Flarice for a few moments before closing her eyes and smiling.
"That's too bad." She immediately grew serious as she turned to another guard. "Prepare the plank!"
"Come on, come on, come on! Can't this piece of junk go any faster!?"
"Oi love! Don't go callin' my girl a piece a junk!"
"If it's your girl, why do you keep asking me out for a date?!"
"Well I can't go an' marry a machine, now can I?"
"Well you might as well!"
Macy sighed as she rubbed a hand to her forehead. Ren and Arthur have been going at it for almost half an hour now and they still were no where close to catching up to the Sky Pirates and Flarice.
"I have to agree with Ren, Arthur. At this rate we're going to lose sight of them." The hedgehog said pointing at the group of airships quite a distance from them. And they were getting farther and farther away from the trio. Arthur turned slightly to give her a confident smile.
"Don't worry lasse! I've got a sure way to catch up with 'em in only a few seconds!" Ren gave the other echidna a doubtful look.
"Then why haven't you used it yet?" Arthur smirked.
"Because we weren't high 'enough." The mechanic then started to press multiple buttons on the screen in front of him, the Blue Victory's engine starting to hum louder than before. Macy looked at Arthur nervously.
"Um... Arthur?" Said Mobian grinned.
"Hang onta somethin' ladies." He pushed forward the dive knob and the Blue Victory shot forward at ten times it's original speed, Ren and Macy screaming all the way.
Flarice whistled as she looked down from the edge of the mother ship of the Delain May Pirate's fleet, wind rushing past her. Jewel, Regal, and some other guards stood behind her.
"It really is a pity." Said Jewel. "Something tells me you would've made a wonderful Sky Pirate." Flarice turned to her.
"Maybe. And for just so you know," She nodded to the edge of the plank she was on. "This isn't going to kill me." Jewel smirked.
"Heh, I like you kid. Too bad you're gonna go splat now." Flarice smirked.
"We'll see." Jewel's smirk grew wider and turned to the guard at the plank.
"Push her over." The guard smiled creepily as he moved to do just that.
Macy, along with Ren, had finally calmed down enough from the Blue Victory's sudden acceleration to admire the speed they were now going at. Even Ren couldn't hide that she was impressed by Arthur's new acceleration program. The Sky Pirates were just within reach, and Macy and Ren were about to jump aboard when they saw their friend on the edge of a plank on one of the ships.
"Flarice!" Ren shouted. She was about to jump onto the ship when Macy held a hand in front of her. Ren was about to protest when her friend shook her head and pointed to where Flarice is. The echidna looked down and met Flarice's eyes. Said Mobian gave her a barely noticeable smirk and shook her head. Understanding what she meant, Ren returned the smirk. Those Sky Pirates were in for quite the surprise.
"You know what?" Flarice said, starling the pirates at her sudden question. "I'll just save you guys the work." And much to their shock, Flarice let her body tilt backwards off the ship, her smirk never leaving. Jewel rushed over to the ship's edge to see the girl's body nothing but a speck as it fell further away from the ship. Jewel's mouth formed a nervous smile.
'Crazy kid...' Behind her, Regal huffed, echoing her thoughts.
"Stupid cat, what was she thinking? Did she expect to grow wings and survive?"
"Good guess." Jewel jumped back as a blur of black, blue, red, brown, and tan rushed up and stopped just a few feet above the pirates. "But I guess nobody ever told you..." Flarice started. "That this cat has wings."
The Sky Pirates look on, dumbfounded, at the large, black bat wings extending from behind the cat girl's back.
Above Flarice, the Blue Victory flew by, Ren and Macy laughing and Arthur smirking at the pirates' expressions. That was Flarice for you, always putting on quite the show with her little surprise tactic. Said, now confirmed, cat-bat waved at the captain of the Delain May.
"It's been fun captain!" She shouted over the wind. "But it's about time I get home! Catch ya later!" Flarice turned around and flew back towards Westheart, the Blue Victory following close behind.
"S-seriously Ri-inka!" Flarice laughed. "Y-you should've se-en their faces when they- ha ha, saw my w-wings! It was priceless- ha ha ha!" Rinka rolled her eyes at her friend.
"Ha ha, your a real comedian Flarice." The fox said, not looking up from the Red Wind's engine while Flarice pouted at her lack of reaction. By the time they got back to Westheart, it was already dark and the towns folk were extremely worried about them, especially Rinka, who was running errands when they had left. While Westheart was a relatively large town, it was small enough to the point where everyone knew who was who, including Flarice and her friends. They were all like one huge family.
"You wouldn't be saying that if you were there as wel~hhaaahh..." Flarice yawned. Rinka smiled at her friend, removing her goggles as she turned to said Mobian.
"It's late." She said, nodding to the stairs in their house. "Go get some sleep, you don't want to be exaughisted while you're helping your uncle tomorrow, right?" Flarice too tired to protest, gave slurred 'goodnight' as she walked up to her room. Rinka shook her head fondly as she also got up and went to her room as well.
Just another ordinary day in Westheart.
...
This has got to be the longest chapter I've EVER written to date. And it was totally worth it!
And that's 'Chapter 2: Day 1- Westheart'! Hope you all enjoyed it! I'm on a roll with this story! It only took me about a day or so total to finish this chapter. My legs may be hurting from not moving around all day, but, again, it was totally worth it!
Our main character is half-cat and half-bat, bet you didn't see that coming. Fun fact, when I was coming up with my, literally, very first sonic fan character, I had always like the cat and bat Mobian designs and so came Flarice. Her design did change over the years but I eventually came up with the final design! (When I finally get a pic of her done I'll put it up as this story's cover. Which is probably not gonna happen for a LONG time.)
Until The Next Raid!