Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't own Sonic anything except for my own crud and my copies of various games and comics. You want to sue me? Good luck with that. You'd probably only get about two cents out of me anyway since I'm so broke. I blame college.
Author's Note: Again, my massive apologies for my typical delays-of-doom. As I always do, I'm afraid I have to blame both college and personal laziness. I know this story is crawling along at a snail's pace, but thank you to all of those that have stuck with this series/trilogy/thing so far. Also, my thanks to the nine of you that chose to review last chapter. (Reviews make the caushog happy; as I'm sure everyone has already figured out.) I am glad to hear that my writing hasn't been horribly messed up as of yet, and with any luck I've delivered on that level of quality with this chapter as well. Also, scene breaks that are actually connected are now marked as ... because ffdotnet is being obnoxious and getting rid of my spacing. As promised, there is Shadow badass-ness in this chapter, which I think the majority of you will get a kick out of. As ever and always, read, enjoy, and review.
"Sheh, sheh, sheh- eh so va-da-ra… Ehlo Ma-re-sha, tiim veh ta…," Mighty sang quietly as he brushed through Sonia's quills. The Chaotix and the triplets were out in the open air enjoying the sun without having to work. The princess had missed some of the pampering she had once been used to, so while she had been quite flustered at Mighty's joking offer to do so, she couldn't find it in herself to refuse her friend. Neither had missed the occasional jealous glares that came from Knuckles, aimed at Mighty. Both of them couldn't help laughing any time they caught him at it. What did Knuckles have to be jealous about when the armadillo had no interest in women in the first place? Of course, granted, he had yet to tell Sonia who he was interested in, but it most certainly wasn't her.
"What's the translation for that Mighty?" Sonia asked as she looked back at her friend over her shoulder.
"A good translation would be, 'Silence, silence, silence- on the river. Hello Mercia, home's welcoming light'," he replied, "Of course, that's just a very basic translation- not quite accurate, but it can't really be worded any better."
Espio gave a snort within the branches of the tree he had chosen to lounge in. "Pick a better song Mighty. I've heard that one enough to make me choke."
Mighty rolled his eyes, "I wasn't singing it for you, genius."
"Children, knock it off," Knuckles snapped.
A few feet away, Sonic leaned over to Manic and muttered, "Can you believe the regular 'family' drama going on here?"
The green hedgehog was on his back, staring up at the sky. Not looking at Sonic, he muttered in return, "Just be glad you can't 'hear' even half the spraint I can. You'd be calling it a soap opera then."
"What are you doing, eavesdropping?"
"Not on purpose."
Sonic shook his head at Manic and changed the topic. "So, how far along do you think 'Operation: Princess and Guardian Set-Up' is?" he muttered.
"I'd say we're on about phase three," Manic whispered back, "Knux is actually getting little pangs of jealousy. A bit longer together and next thing you know they're going to be falling over themselves and turning beat red any time they look at each other. Then we'll just have to push it to phase four-"
"-'The Date'," Sonic finished. Manic nodded.
"We just have to make sure she doesn't think of Bartle-face. After that point, Knux can take care of the rest."
"Yeah, but she'll still have to break off the engagement."
"So? Knux is higher profile anyway. More 'appropriate' for a princess than a 'mere noble' could be any day. And we know he wouldn't dream of doing what Bartleby did," he stated as he sat up, his elbows resting on his drawn-up knees.
"…You do realize we're going to have to tell her about that eventually, right?"
Manic considered for a moment before saying, "It might be damned manipulative of me, but I'd rather have Sonia thoroughly smitten with Knux before it ever comes up. That way she won't have a guilty conscience about jumping ship. Otherwise she's going to go straight for denial and I'm going to have to get Qet to tell her who the 'other person' was, straight to her face."
"You might need to do that anyway."
"Yeah, but hopefully not for a while," he stated calmly. Before the conversation could continue any further, Charmy rocketed himself at Manic's head with a squeal, bowling over the green hedgehog so he fell flat on his back out of reflex as he caught the hyperactive bee in his arms. "Dude! Kamikaze bee! Not cool!" Manic squawked before he bolted back upright and fell to mercilessly tickling the cheery insect.
Through his gales of laughter at the tickling, Charmy crowed out, "I… finally… snuk up… on you! Sto~oo~op!"
"Oh no you don't!" Manic grinned as he held on to Charmy, "This is revenge!"
"You wi-i-in!" the bee laughed as the others tried to stifle their own amusement at the antics of the thief and youngest Chaotic.
Sonic snickered, his shoulders shaking as he tried to keep from laughing. His and Manic's plotting could wait for later. For the moment, things were peaceful just the way Sonia had wanted things. He just hoped that it would stay that way long enough for 'Operation: Princess and Guardian Set-Up' to be successfully carried out.
Qet and his adoptive siblings wandered through Robotropolis; the sun setting as they defaulted into food-hunting mode. Arajia had sent them out for being obnoxious again, hoping that they might find something better to do than annoy an old man that was trying to keep them fed. Yet there was little they could think of to keep them entertained at the moment; Robotnik's 'bot-patrols were out in force, so there was no time for some good-natured exploring and bantering. Their path was one of habit, headed by Ka'eh as she proudly swaggered past Robotnik's estate like she owned the world. True, going anywhere near the Overlord's residence was a risk, but it was almost like a patrol route of their own. At times it could lead to gaining some highly valuable information. All of them were on high alert out of long habit, but it was Sabbat that felt something was off first.
When his blue eyes swept up toward the sky he froze and his jaw dropped. "Guys… There's a dragon… a BIG dragon," he silently stated in their minds.
Ka'eh snapped her head up to take in the sight of the large black dragon almost imperceptibly outlined against the night sky. "Nakté," she muttered, deliberately keeping her tone as quiet as she could.
Tryst's ears flattened against his head as his wings pulled in close in anxiety. Dragons were not good news in any of their experience; except for those whom Tahl had been adopted by. The small group watched silently as the dragon landed on the grounds of the estate and three people slid off its back soon after. As the large double-doors were pulled open by Sleet and Dingo the thieves exchanged concerned looks. If Robotnik was having any dealings with a dragon, then things were going to get worse. "Folks… I don't think I need t' be sayin' it, but we may be in deep spraint," Tryst murmured to the others.
"You think?" Baenya hissed in reply.
"Guys!" Qet snapped just as quietly, "We need to find out what's going on. Whatever this is, it's huge."
Ka'eh snorted, "Save your breath Qet. None of us is a brainless noble that can't see a disaster three feet in front of us."
With that last comment they fanned out and slowly crept toward the mansion. Qetzenthala kept Sabbat close by his side as they went off one way, Ka'eh and Baenya went off another, and Tryst started for the front door after Robotnik's three visitors disappeared inside. Whatever they overheard was going to go straight to Manic and the resistance. If Robotnik got a dragon on his side he'd be able to lay waste to everything and no one would stand a chance.
...
"…So we have an agreement?" Liidara asked with a threatening grin that hinted at the violence she was capable of. She and her companions stood within the immense and opulent Great Hall of Robotnik's estate, the only room large enough for her great size.
Robotnik gulped nervously, but stood his ground. "Indeed. That is perfectly acceptable." The black dragon's stipulations for her work wasn't exactly what he'd wanted, but he had no desire to anger a creature that was capable of biting him in half or engulfing him in a giant ball of flame at a whim. At least, as promised, The Mercian Rose was more than willing to go toe-to-toe with Kleptomaniac and bring him down if needed.
"If we're completely finished, I'd rather be on my way and get this job finished," Marietta snapped, her right hand resting on the hilt of the sword at her hip.
Gone was her maid's-wardrobe and in its place was the black leather outfit of a Mercian berserker: A sleeveless vest zipped up to half an inch below her collarbone, pants with numerous sheathes and pockets clad her legs, a flap that was slit almost completely down the middle hung over her tail, and she wore combat boots that were meant to take a beating. Around each of her upper-arms was a strip of tied-off leather to illustrate mourning, but the necessity of her trade. In stark contrast to this image, the back of her vest bore an embroidered blood-red rose- a symbol that was mirrored on both the sword-sheath strapped to her back and the one hanging from her waist. Fingerless gloves, a cord around her neck with a blue-and-white tear-shaped pendant hanging from it, and her braided chocolaty-brown hair with the serrated spear-head tied to the end of it completed her appearance.
She very strongly doubted that Robotnik would ever recognize her as the maid of Bartleby Condammer. If he did… 'If he does, then the man is smarter than I'm giving him credit for.'
"Patience my dear," Robotnik stated, "We're waiting for the arrival of the others I requested, and then you all may be on your way."
"So I would hope," the cat/fox stated coldly. Clearly she didn't like being in the human's presence any more than a certain dark hedgehog did.
"Who are we waiting on, precisely?" Rouge asked, her attention half on Shadow as he began pacing back-and-forth in an effort to dispel some of his agitation. Almost as soon as she spoke, the doors to the hall blew open to admit Nack and several others.
"Got 'em, Doc, as requested," Nack grinned. Arrayed around him was an echidna in black leather, a bull-dog that towered over the others and carried a battle-axe, a squirrel mostly concealed beneath a dark cloak, and an individual that looked as though he was the elder brother of Gehmeh. "All the best an' brightest."
"Well done, well done. Let's get our introductions out of the way so that I can tell you all exactly what it is I want," Robotnik stated, as though he were granting them all some sort of boon. Not everyone shared such sentiments. Marietta and the bull-dog were glaring daggers at each other within less than a second.
"Lien-Da," the echidna stated with a sadistic grin, "Of the Dark Legion. Your turn… 'darling'." The last was aimed at the bull-dog, who took his eyes off of Marietta long enough to give Lien-Da a wry smirk.
"Dahlink," he said in a thick accent, "do not patr'nize me or I may break you in 'alf. As for the rest of you, you may simply call me Patros."
"More like pahst-chal-trosa," Marietta snarled venomously.
"Ah, Rose… dahlink… Are you still sore that I helped make your gut freund 'disappear'?" he grinned at her. A fight between the two was almost inevitable- and then Shadow started for the door.
"Shadow," Robotnik snapped out, "Where are you going?"
Shadow paused and looked back at the human condescendingly over his shoulder. "If I'm not mistaken, the entire point of this meeting was to tell us what it is that you want of us. Not to get to know each other and 'make friends'. Since you clearly have no inclination for getting to the point, I thought I'd absent myself from this bout of inane stupidity and come back when some actual business was being conducted." The hall resounded with the silence that was the immediate response to his bold statement, and then Nack doubled over laughing.
"Damn! I didn't think anybody could yiff somethin' over so damned quick! Rouge… Where'd ya get 'im? I wanna snag him," the weasel cackled out.
Shadow snorted and stated in a flat tone, "If you and I are ever in a room together alone, your corpse will be left for the others to find the next day."
"Izzat so?" Nack chuckled as he straightened up and walked toward Shadow challengingly. "Izzat a 'threat'? …'Shadow'?"
Shadow stood his ground, eyeing the weasel like he was some foul substance he'd had the misfortune of stepping in. "Baka. You stand about as much chance against me as against the dragon. Do your job, leave me be, I'll do mine, and you won't turn up dead." Turning his attention to Robotnik he snapped out, "Are we going to get to business, or should I just spare you the trouble and leave?"
Robotnik scowled at the hedgehog that dared mouth off to him. Where did this rodent get off being so flippant? What right had he earned to be so challenging to him? "And pray tell, what makes you think that I should tolerate your attitude?" the overlord demanded.
A slow smirk crept onto Shadow's face, combining with a slight narrowing of his eyes in a bone-chilling look that made him appear to be almost psychotic. "I believe you have more than enough reason to tolerate my 'attitude' due to the services you are receiving from Rouge. However, if that is not enough for you-" In the blink of an eye Shadow was across the room and he stood right in front of Robotnik, a fang-bearing grin that contained nothing but threat on his face. "-I could happily demonstrate by ripping your spine out through your stomach. The choice is yours." An amused chuckle pulled itself from him as everyone but Rouge jumped. With that said, he nonchalantly walked back over to Rouge, and in a bored tone asked, "So, Robotnik, are you going to stop wasting our time with 'formal pleasantries' and tell us what you want?"
Quietly, so that no one else but Shadow heard her, Rouge murmured, "You know I hate it when you do that." His smirk became a touch more victorious at that.
Robotnik scowled, but did as Shadow 'asked'. Though he most definitely didn't like this hedgehog any more than the others he'd had the misfortune of running into, Robotnik couldn't help but think that if Kleptomaniac were involved with the triplets then Shadow would be the perfect person to counter him. With that thought in mind, he began outlining precisely what he wanted… and those that Rouge had brought with her would be at the forefront of tracking the royal triplets down. The others could do the rest.
...
After the two distinct groups began to disperse, Qet had Sabbat send the others the 'clear out' signal. Any longer and they would run the very real risk of getting caught. What they'd heard was enough to demand a visit to the Floating Island in person, but their chances of getting there before the dragon weren't very good. Only Qet and Tryst could fly, and it was a sad fact that the larger wings of the dragon equaled flight faster than either of them could manage even with a head-start. Speaking of Tryst… 'Where is he?' the pea-hawk fretted. The others had turned up outside of the gates, but not Tryst. It wasn't like the mixed-breed to be so late. Not unless he'd found a computer to hack or-
A blood-curdling shriek ripped through the air, leaving little question as to who it could be. Eyes wide, Sabbat looked to Qet and silently asked, "Is that…?" He had never been able to communicate telepathically with Tryst as easily as he could the others; and now, more than ever, Sabbat wished it were otherwise. At Qet's grim nod, Sabbat's ears flattened against his head. "Is he…?"
'I don't know.' Though he hated to do it, Qetzenthala knew they'd have to leave Tryst behind. Lesson One in their lives had always been to never go into situations when they knew they didn't stand a chance. Looking to the others, he knew that Ka'eh and Baeyna were of the same mind: if Tryst couldn't get out on his own, they would have to come back later. 'Tryst… Forgive me.' "Let's go," he muttered aloud. 'I'll be back. I promise.'
...
Tryst's brown eyes were locked on the echidna standing over him, dark blood trailing down his face and his right wing trembling from the pain of the hole she'd put through it. Papers were scattered about the floor of the dark room and the computer he'd been hacking was giving off sporadic electrical sparks where his head had collided with it a moment before. A smirk on her face, Lien-Da leaned forward and seized his chin with her bloody hand. "I think you're going to tell me everything I want to know, lovely. And if you don't…" her grin was sadistic as she licked her lips, "I'll make you wish your parents never birthed your unnatural hide."
Tryst considered carefully, but defiance was just as much a part of his nature as it was any of his siblings'. Giving a smile through the blood, he said, "At least m' 'rents cared enough t' make sure that I'd stay out o' whores' closets."
Lien-Da's eyes widened in rage as her grip on him tightened. "You little half-breed cur," she snarled.
'This is gonna hurt…'
Manic sat in the 'living room' of the Hidden Palace, eyes skimming over the text of a book he'd jokingly swiped from Mighty. All three triplets and all of the Chaotix were in the room, which was rather comfortable considering the hour. Then again, Manic was used to being in slightly crowded rooms. At least Espio didn't seem to be interested in staring holes into the back of his head anymore. That Charmy had nodded off in Ray's lap and Sonic was (for once) worn out enough to sit still without fidgeting went a long way toward keeping his 'mental static' in step with the slightly tired ambience. 'Much more of this and I'm heading off to bed to pass out.' And that was precisely when his wonderfully quiet evening fell apart.
"MANIC! MANICMANICMANICMANICMANIC!" Sabbat's mental voice shrieked in his head.
"Holy spraint!" Manic yelped in surprise, the book hitting the floor as his hands clutched his head. The others jumped much as he did and gave him a bewildered look.
"Manic, what the heck…?" Vector began to ask in confusion, his game of chess with Espio forgotten.
"Give… Give me a second," he muttered, his breathing slightly ragged due to the shock he'd gotten. Sonic and Sonia's eyes met with identical looks of concern.
"Manic… is it another attack?" Sonia asked.
Waving off her question the thief said, "No, nothing like that. Just one of my… 'adopted sibs' just shrieked in my head."
"Another empath?" Espio asked archly, drawing befuddled looks from Vector, Ray, and Mighty.
"Telepath," Manic snapped back. "Just give me a sec to find out what he wants." That alone was enough to draw even more baffled looks his way. Ignoring the 'WTF?' looks from the others, Manic turned his attention to Sabbat. 'What's going on? What's the prob?'
"The problem is that there's a DRAGON heading RIGHT FOR YOU! Floating Island! Yes! Employed by Robotnik to hunt you and the other two! Get it? And she's moving fast!"
'How big?'
"BIG. Bigger than big. Big enough to bite 'Bot-Face in half."
Manic's eyes went wide and he turned pale as a sheet under his fur. Looking to Knuckles, he said, "We've got a big problem headed our way…"
"How so?"
Giving a sigh that contained a trace of panic in it, he confessed, "Robotnik just employed a giant-as-hell dragon to come after me and my sibs. And she's on her way to the Island now."
Violet eyes widened. "How- …How long?"
The thief was quiet for a moment, conferring with Sabbat before he answered. "Tomorrow. She'll be here tomorrow."
For the first time Knuckles was beginning to wonder if his father had at least been partially right that having the triplets on the Island was a bad idea.
Review if you would, you know you should, and I can promise in the next chapter I show, Manic will meet Shadow. n_n You know what that means people! Things are getting more complex and heated from here on out, so push the button and leave me your thoughts!