Chapter Seven

As Luke walked into the court with the two guards and the group, everyone became quiet and looked at him.

The court was a big open space in the middle of the room with pews along the border of the room.

At the front of the room was a raised lectern with Princess Sally standing atop it while in the middle of the room was a second lectern.

'May the defendant please approach the lectern' Sally said.

Luke approached the lectern with full confidence.

'Mr.…' Sally started

'Flare' Luke finished.

'Mr. Flare' Sally started again 'you are accused of 'The Destruction of Knothole', 'The Attempted Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog and Miles 'Tails' Prowler. How do you plead?' Sally finished.

'I plead not guilty, your honor, on the counts of destroying Knothole and the attempted murder of Miles 'Tails' Prowler. The count of attempted murder of Sonic the Hedgehog was, however, self-defense' Luke finished.

Sally looked at Sonic and asked 'How was it self-defense?'

'He came at me first without reason and kept coming at me' Luke replied.

'Hey, I asked you a question and you didn't answer' Sonic interrupted.

'And does that give you reason to assault me?' Luke retorted.

'No it doesn't. But what about the other two charges? If you didn't do them, then who did?' Sally asked.

'The person you are looking for is the same person I am looking for' Luke replied.

'Who is he?' Sally asked. 'A person called Brick. He was my friend once upon a time but he did something. And I'm going to kill him for it' Luke said grimly.

'But how does that explain Knothole and Tails?'

'I am assuming Knothole was just a bit of fun for him and Tails is the only one who can tell you about what happened' Luke finished.

'Very well then. Miles Prowler, please approach the stand' Sally requested.

Tails stood at the lectern as Luke came down and retold what happened on the cliff.

'So Flare actually saved your life?' Sally said, more of a statement instead of a question.

'Yes he did' Tails replied.

Sally looked at Luke and sighed. 'Then I guess I have to drop the charges, Flare'.

'Thank you, your honor but can I say one last thing to everyone here before I go?' Luke asked.

'Be my guest' replied Sally, motioning him to the lectern.

'This is a warning to everyone, leave Brick alone' Luke started, getting confused looks from around the room.

'This man was once my friend and I do know how dangerous he can be. If I am lucky I might be able to defeat him, but that is a long shot. There are others like us out there and I need to find them, for without them I won't be able to defeat him'.

As Luke walked away from the lectern, everyone considered what he had said until Luke broke the silence once more.

'Also, can you say that the man you are hunting for is wearing a brown robe 'cause if you don't, it will cause my friends and I some displeasure that I want to avoid' Luke walked out of the build and into the streets with Sonic and the others.

Tails walked to Luke as they walked and asked 'Flare, why an alias?'.

'Well Tails' Luke whispered so the others couldn't here, 'you aren't supposed to know about my real name either. We use aliases because if you were to give someone your real name, it shows that you trust and respect them. So can you please just go along with it for now?'

'Okay Flare' Tails said enthusiastically.

Everyone stopped outside Cream's house as Luke turned around and said 'I must thank you and your daughter again Miss Vanilla, but I must be on my way now'.

'But why don't you stay with us until you find your friends' Vanilla replied.

'Mom!' Cream interrupted.

'Well because I think I have imposed on you both long enough and I think your daughter doesn't like me' Luke continued.

'Nonsense Flare. You can stay in the guest room and Amy can stay over to watch Cream'

'Okay, one moment please' Luke said.

Luke put the tip of his thumb into his mouth and bit on it, releasing blood.

To everyone else, it seemed as if nothing happened.

But to Luke the world was spinning around. In his mind a map of the world appeared with three small white dots appeared.

The first dot he identified was his dot showing him where he was.

The other two dots he couldn't make sense of, whether they were friend or Brick.

The closer dot seemed to be headed in his direction and would be here tomorrow, so Luke decided to take his chance and wait here.

As the world stopped spinning, Amy asked 'Hey, are you okay?'

'Yeah, I'm okay. Miss Vanilla I guess I'll have to take you up on your offer for tonight' Luke replied.

'Okay, then come in' said Vanilla, inviting everyone in.

'Would anyone like anything to eat?' Vanilla asked as everyone sat on the chairs in the living room.

'Nothing for me please' answered Luke.

Everyone else said the same.

'Flare, you haven't eaten anything at all today' Cream pointed out.

'And?' Luke asked, trying not to sound rude.

'Aren't you hungry?' Cream asked.

'Well we, my friends and I, can live without food for a whole month' Luke answered.

This earned everyone looking at Luke.

'Okay. I think you should tell us everything' Sonic stated.

'I can't' Luke replied.

'You won't get anything out of him Sonic. I have already tried' Tails said.

'I can't tell you everything, but I can tell you all a small portion of it' Luke said.

'Enlighten us then' Vanilla said as she came in with a cup of tea for herself.

'There are six of us. There is Brick, Lightning, Tempest, Blizzard, Aqua and me, Flare. We were called The Knights. Each of us could do special things. Our job? It was to hunt down evil spirits. Sounds cliché, I know but if you were to fight one then you wouldn't think so. The weakest were equal to 100 of the strongest soldiers in the world but they weren't worth sending all six of us at them. One of us was enough. I was in love with Lightning and she was in love with me'.

'Excuse me but how is this relevant?' Sonic interrupted.

'Well Brick became jealous of us and was taken over by Clivion, the strongest of all spirits. Being a knight meant you had to be mentally strong to resist the spirits, but when he was taken over by Clivion he wasn't in the sharpest state on mind. Soon after he killed Aqua, who tried to stand against him alone, and Lightning. But when he killed her he forced me to watch by getting other spirits to hold me, and be sure that he wasn't merciful. He was about to kill me when I had, I don't know, an adrenaline rush is as close as I can describe it. I lost sight of Tempest and Blizzard after the trouble began. Soon I got to safety but was forced into suspended animation and the next thing I know I am here' Luke finished.