((for the benefit of mister Kite...and the anonymous person mainly... My email is aeyviallenpoe at hotmail dot com. There ya go! For those of you who are confused, "for the benefit of mister Kite" is a Beatles song. You're all officially enlightened! Ah, I love the Beatles but then who doesn't? They're British! Yay! Ok, I'm very strange today (moreso than usual) so beware. ))

Knuckles: I like the dyingsoul36 version of me! It's awesome! I'm like- all primordial and savage and shit! Hoo-waa! Fear me! -strikes ninja pose-

Espio: stop mocking me...

Sonic: anyway, I think he's implying that you go and read dyingsoul36's "born in darkness, loved by light" fic. Although that's a completely different me, mind you.

Shadow: a sexier, less obnoxiously repulsive you...

Sn: ...okay, by saying sexiER, do you mean that you think I'm sexy NOW?

Sh: ... clings to Karpa meh... Now I'm confused...

K: you know what? I like grapes.

All: we know. T.T

&( Manic: they love me, they really love me! I get to do the disclaimer again! Righteous! Ok, like, her incredibly awesome dudetteness Aeyvi does not own me, my sis, my bro, my bro's buds, my bro's un-buds, or any of those nice people we haven't met yet. But, like, whatever is uniquely unique and totally devised of her super-powered noggin is hers. I guess that's it. Any questions? )&

Sn: o.O have you taken your medication today, Manic?

M: nope!

Sh: we can tell.

Chapter 4- A Cumulative Effort

Foiled again, I suppose. Now I had a good reason to kill him. He intrigued me.

In meeting up with Aka, I found myself in the midst of a tongue lashing and I didn't even know how or where the thing had started. At some points she actually slipped into Japanese: a sure sign she had completely lost her temper. I think her pet name for me is "baka" and I'm almost sure it's meaning is unpleasant. She's adorable when she's angry, though.

I flopped on the bed while she was still screaming at me, thinking over new and interesting ways to skin a chameleon. I could make his hide into a nice jacket...or perhaps a hat... Don't call me Buffalo Bill now- even though Silence of the Lambs is one of my favorites- I just wanted him dead and soon. I had very few true enemies in my past, the kind you admire almost as much as you despise them. This one was by far my most challenging.

"...will never happen again! Do you hear me? Kono bakayarou! Chikusho!"

I toned her out again, staring at the ceiling and yawning. She'd soon run out of air...

Just then Poe walked through the door, tossing down the sack in her hand angrily.

"Do you have any idea how close you were to killing him?"

"'Twas outa me 'ands. Just as I was about to do 'im in, he koncked me out. Took me best pistol too..."

"I'm going to finish the job. You two are WORTHLESS!" Aka fairly shrieked, snatching her scabbard and storming out the open door. We both winced as it slammed behind her.

"I hope she gets her tail caught the next time she does that." Poe remarked, sitting on the bed opposite mine and flicking on the TV apathetically.

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A month and three weeks previous in Tuskanon...

"Don't worry!" she had told me at least a hundred times. "They'll love you!"

Easy for her to say... She had the privilege of knowing our parents all her life. I, however, was as nervous as if I were about to go on American Idol... And I'm no Kelly Clarkson...

We didn't go straight "home", no, first we went "shopping". I've never felt so poor in my life. We were in the foreign equivalent of Beverly Hills. She went and bought me an off-white suit I could never afford in twelve years, then some equally expensive shoes... Well, more like stilts made of Italian leather. Now, if you know me, you'll know I've never been one to glitz up and strut proudly. Not for anyone! I'm content in a torn pair of jeans and a T-shirt. But, when for the first time in my life I had to act like a model, I found the whole thing excruciating. (I know some other big words too.)

If my own mother would love me any less in my usual clothes, then she'd be no mother of mine! I always thought my real mother would be kind and caring... have the same lust for life as I always had. Maybe it was just how I grew up... and she turned out to be more like Karpa than anything else... not that being like my only sister is bad... I just didn't want her to be shallow...

I took a deep and wavering breath as I looked up at the large, golden double doors of the Fairchild estate. The expensive fabric clinging to my fur itched like crazy. I just wanted to rip the damn thing off and find my overalls, for godsake. I didn't want to do this! Not today! Not without a teleprompter giving me lines... what was I supposed to say? "Hey, mom! I know you put me up for adoption because I'm a disgrace to your name, but I want us to be a big happy family anyway! Grouphug!"

I looked at my sister for a little courage. She nodded happily, giving me a thumbs-up. She didn't look bad in her black pinstriped suit with the matching skirt. I mean, black was her color. And even though white was mine, I hated the sight of myself in it. Bad enough she was making me wear make-up...

I jumped when a smaller door within the door opened, and a butler ushered us inside. Even the help wore expensive suits in this place... where I came from, you were lucky to have something nice to wear to church besides the regulation brown dress from the orphanage.

"Her Ladyship and his Lordship are in the master library, Lady Karpa..." the pompous mouse butler announced, then looking to me and smiling stonily. " 'And' Lady Tarsa."

We stepped through those elaborate oaken doors, and I drew a deep breath as I saw the backs of my parents' heads. That was all it took. I was so nervous I could have wet myself...

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Back to the present... The courtyard outside Knothole Castle's Promenade.

She frowned down at the dark form as it crossed the pink marble. Clutching her scabbard while perched on a branch, she slowly slid her gold-plated kitana from its sheath...

Espio jerked at the sound, stopping midstride. Instinctively, he slipped a throwing-star from his sleeve to his hand...

Simultaneously, the red panda dropped gracefully from the tree and the chameleon swung fluidly into stance. The two faced each other as newfound foes.

A minute seemingly stretched to an hour as the two stared each other down, Aka was wearing her favorite white stealth suit with many zippers and our bodyguard was in his uniform of black. He wondered for a moment if the suit would be a disadvantage to his maneuverability...

With a sudden quick cry, the assassin advanced spinning and bringing the sword down against a notch in his throwing star, this of course the result of a parry from Espio. She smirked, slashing at him again in an instant, causing him to leap back, dropping his small weapon in surprise. He growled low. Until now he had never lost his concentration. She would pay dearly...

He reached inside his coat and pulled from their opposite sheaths his long knives, crossing them with a crisp clang. Both were still for another agonizing minute...

Poe saw her chance. She raised her gun silently from her hiding spot on the roof above, centering the laser on the back of his skull...

As he stared into his opponent's eyes and watched her calculate her next attack, he saw them shift ever so slightly upward.

'DAMN! What is she doing here?' Aka thought silently, returning her steady glare to the reptile.

She lunged once more, blade singing through the air. She stumbled in surprise as her target disappeared.

"POE!"

The accused lowered her gun sheepishly, gulping.

Before the bird could escape, Aka had scaled the wall and was perched on a rail, her long blade centimeters from Poe's face. She looked up in terror, eyes crossed as her attention was centered on her very-possible rapid death.

"I should eradicate you now for what you've done."

"C- c- come on, Aka... think of how long we've known each-"

"That was MY fight! Do you know NOTHING of the code?"

"Code? What code? I..."

"Of course a gai-jin like you would know nothing of the Bushido!" she glared down at her with fire in her light brown eyes, the slant to them making her scowl all the more sharp and terrifying.

"Aka, I'm... I'm deeply sorry... I only intended to help..."

"Help by killing the Princess when my work is done. She is a worthy target for you, weak and unassuming. The chameleon is MINE."

Poe fell to her knees, shaking. "Ok...ok...he's yours..."

She drew her sword away, sheathing it with a click.

"Never again."

"I promise..."

She gave her one last sneer before dropping from the roof and out of her sight. Poe gasped with relief, falling to her back. Aka would have done it too...

--------------------------------

I was about to start the day off with one of those good-Samaritan acts you hear about, you know, where the reward is the happy look on the person-in- need's face, when a sudden idea struck me.

How can I make Knuckles' life a living hell?

Staring at computer screens gives you eye strain or cataracts or one of those technical medical whatchahoosits, and it's boring besides. I have much better things to do... like play pointless computer games and listen to illegal downloaded music... Ahh, what would I do without you, Kazaa? Oh, and generally waste time. Everything I do with an actual deadline is last-minute work and I am known for my speed... well, not in ALL areas... Stop looking at me like that... Where was I? Yes! I decided to give my amiable red friend a visit... and deliver this letter I got from... Tusk...Tuscany? Isn't that in India or Russia or one of those obscure and eventless areas? Hell if I know. Anyway it was from Tarsa and it WAS to him, so let's take a break and go give it to him, shall we?

"Tails! Get your... uhhh.. that helicopter-like-thing ready."

"My gyrotating elevation module?"

"Is THAT what you call it? How about we call it something like the Monsoon or the Cyclone or..."

"T.T where are we going?" he asked, interrupting me in the midst of my inspirationative moment. Wait, that's not a word... ok, now it is.

"Angel Island!"

"...why?"

"Why does it matter?" I shouted up to him as I erased the mail-to name on the envelope, replacing it with a much more fitting one... heh heh...

He sighed exaggeratedly and trudged down the stairs.

"I'll go get it..."

Wow, someone's PMS-ing today... Anyhoo, I had more deviant things to plan. At least I'd get a good laugh out of it... and hopefully evade his flying fists fast enough. I had to admit, this one would be a little lame for me, but we often to strange inexplicable things when bored now, don't we?

(((Ok, it's late and I'm slowly going insane because my young cousin is talking incessantly about Harvest Moon and farting into kazoos. (he got that from Richard the pedantic's fic, BTW) I shall attempt to write more tomorrow. Happy mother's grandmother's, aunt's, second-cousin's who just had a baby and the nice lady across the street's day. Reminding you that you have to buy gifts for all of them. Nighty-night.)))