Chapter 5: It's Not What I Thought
Vector instantly ran down the hill, as Kyousuke followed behind the exhilarated and relieved Vector. He instantly caught up to Espio, who seemed to be looking the other direction, and must've not heard them coming.
"Espio, it's you!" Vector says happily, with no reaction from Espio whatsoever. "I knew you weren't gonna be a goner!" Vector says happily, as there is still no reaction from Espio, worrying Vector. "Hey Espio, what's wrong?" Vector says confused and concerned, as Kyousuke walks over to try to get a glimpse of Espio's face. Espio, however, quickly draws a kunai and throws it directly at Vector, as Vector is thrown into shock. Kyousuke draws a pistol and shoots the kunai, throwing it off-course as it hits the grass. Kyousuke then looks carefully at Espio, before feeling bad for him. "What was that for?! You got something against me now!" Vector says, resorting to anger before being intervened by Kyousuke.
"Vector, I don't think he's what you were expecting." Kyousuke says calmly and upsettingly, as Vector looks at him surprised.
"What do you mean?" Vector asks confused, before getting his answer as Espio had turned to look at them both. He had pure black eyes with blood red irises, and had a purple skin color, as it reflected within the sunlight, along with some bolts and other mechanical parts in his body.
"He's a robot." Kyousuke says, as Vector looks at Espio in horror, shaking his head in sadness.
"Eggman turned you into a robot, didn't he?" Vector tells the roboticized Espio, as Kyousuke looks at Vector in shock.
"WHAT?! He can turn people into robots?!" Kyousuke shouts in panic, throwing his hands onto his head as Vector sadly agrees before focusing on stopping Espio.
"Yeah, but we don't have time to talk about it now!" Vector says, preparing to fight Espio, who is standing there, making a tiger seal with his hands. "We gotta stop him before we get to Eggman." Vector says, as Kyousuke holsters his pistol and unsheathes his chokuto, holding it out in front of him in a guarding stance.
"Alright then, tell me what you want me to do and I'll do it." Kyousuke says, hesitating to attack without command. Espio throws two kunai towards both of them, as Kyousuke draws a pistol with his left hand and shoots one of them so accurately, that it throws itself into the other kunai and takes them both down. Espio then throws more kunai at Kyousuke, as Espio runs around and heads for Vector, taking a couple shuriken and throwing them towards Vector. Kyousuke shoots the kunai down as Vector simply dodges the shuriken, watching Espio run up to him and attempt to sweep him off the ground with a sweep kick as the shuriken head towards him again, like a boomerang. Vector jumps up in the air, not noticing the shuriken get closer, about to cut his back. Kyousuke, however, shoots them down, acting as only a form of defense unless told otherwise. Vector then prepares to hammer him, but misses as Espio dodges it easily and Vector only hits the ground, making an imprint about the size of his fist in the ground.
"Seeing a shinobi doing that isn't surprising." Kyousuke comments, as Vector breathes heavily for a bit.
"Yeah, but I couldn't bring myself to hit him." Vector says to himself, as Espio then makes a tiger seal, turning invisible and blending in with the environment.
"C'mon Espio! Don't you remember me?!" Vector says concerned, as they both get frustrated when he turns invisible.
"It didn't think he could've done that." Kyousuke says surprised, as he carefully looks around him, wondering where he is.
"Kyousuke, watch out!" Vector shouts troubled, as a large group of shuriken and kunai head towards Kyousuke, about 20 in total. Vector then gets hit in the face by an invisible punch, as he wobbles back and carefully looks around him, as Kyousuke aims his pistol at them, only for it to get knocked out of his hand by the invisible Espio.
"It's not that easy!" Kyousuke says, sending a large current of wind from his chokuto towards the flying kunai and shuriken, throwing them off-course as they fly into the ground.
"Kyousuke, don't hold back! Give him whatever you got!" Vector shouts, as Kyousuke is a bit uneasy about it. "Ok then, I won't hold back." Kyousuke says, starting to feel guilty for attacking Vector's former friend.
"It's the only chance we got!" Vector shouts, as Espio, still invisible, kicks upwards into Vector's chin, and then kicks him in the stomach, making him trip as Kyousuke notices something strange.
"What was that?" Kyousuke asks himself, seeing a weird rippling effect in the air when Vector got hit.
"Not in the gut again." Vector complains, as he gets up and guards himself carefully, as Kyousuke is carefully watching the entire valley. He then sees it again when Espio kicks Kyousuke in the stomach and disarms him of the sword. Kyousuke tries to grab the sword, but fails as it flies over towards Vector too quickly to grab.
"He makes a cloaking effect when invisible and moving!" Kyousuke notes, as Vector hears it all.
"Cloaking?" Vector asks confused, as Kyousuke makes it clearer.
"The air ripples when Espio moves while being invisible, showing where he is!" Kyousuke explains, as Vector starts paying attention as more ninja weapons appear flying towards Kyousuke. Kyousuke goes to grab his other pistol, but is startled to see the other holster empty as well.
"Damn, oh well." Kyousuke says, shooting strips of electricity from his fingers as they hit all the weapons and float in the air. "Where is he?" Kyousuke asks out loud, now controlling the weapons.
"Behind you!" Vector shouts, as Kyousuke sees the cloak effect behind him. He backflips over the invisible Espio, landing and pulling the tools down onto Espio, who becomes visible again as the weapons pinned his robotic-self down. "We gotta stop him now!" Vector shouts, grabbing the robot Espio and punching him into the air with an uppercut. "Let's see this!" Vector says, grabbing Kyousuke's chokuto on the grass and jumping up towards Espio, shocking Kyousuke.
"What are you doing?! That's going to destroy him!" Kyousuke yells, as Vector already slashes through the robot Espio with the sword, causing Espio to explode as Vector lands and watches the explosion regretfully and realizing that Espio has to be reverted to normal manually.
Kyousuke runs up to him in shock as Vector quickly hands Kyousuke the sword, letting it go as Kyousuke grabs it before it falls to the ground. As he sheathes the sword, he sees Vector walking up towards Eggman's base vindictively, and Kyousuke runs up to him concerned.
"That must've gotten to you pretty badly." Kyousuke says, as Vector continues heading for Eggman.
"Yeah, it did, and sitting here talking about it isn't gonna get us to Eggman any faster." Vector says bitterly, as Kyousuke stops in his tracks.
"At least let me say this." Kyousuke says, as Vector stops and somewhat looks towards Kyousuke, being fumed up in rage at Eggman and Theotrin for doing that to Espio. "I'm sorry that had to happen to you." Kyousuke says penitently, as Vector looks down at the ground, filled with nothing but rage. He punches a nearby tree with full force, splitting it into two with pure muscle power and anger as he tries to settle down, but has trouble due to his anger. Kyousuke walks up in front of him and tries to help him out.
"Now Espio's really a goner!" Vector says clenching his fists as Kyousuke has trouble trying to comfort him, thinking about himself in his ship when he was coming here in the first place.
"I held back as much as I could." Kyousuke says sadly, as Vector starts to look at him, still clenching his fists. "I don't want you to be mad at me for this." Kyousuke says, as Vector calms down and looks at Kyousuke calmly.
"I'm not mad at you. I'm just mad at Eggman for doing this to Espio." Vector says upsettingly, as he starts to flare up again.
"Eggman's gone too far this time!" Vector says angrily, as Kyousuke comforts him.
"I don't blame you." Kyousuke says sympathetically, looking up at the setting sun that's almost night time with Vector staring at him surprised. "I'm not stopping either, but let's take the rest of the time off until tomorrow." Kyousuke suggests, as Vector sighs before answering.
"Alright, let's take a break." Vector says, as he smiles in response, Kyousuke then smiling back.
Later, they manage to get the fire started as Kyousuke found a bunch of apples, and has them in a pile on the ground. Vector is just eating them whole, throwing one into his mouth as Kyousuke finishes his and throws the core into the flames.
"How'd you find these?" Vector asks surprised, eating another one as Kyousuke lays his head against a large rock in the ground.
"While you went to get the firewood, I found a tree full of apples in the forest behind me and brought them over, since we haven't eaten in a while." Kyousuke says, as Vector eats yet another one, being very hungry.
"Man, they definitely taste good." Vector says impressed, as Kyousuke breathes heavily for a second. Vector begins to wonder about Kyousuke, and bored, asks him about his species.
"I've always wondered, are you the only elemental?" Vector asks, as Kyousuke closes his eyes and looks down at the ground for a few.
"No, I'm not the only one." Kyousuke says, as Vector continues to ask more about him.
"Then who's also an elemental?" Vector asks out of curiosity, as Kyousuke takes a minute to answer.
"Well, there's someone named Dayton." Kyousuke says, as Vector asks what he's like. "He's an arrogant, stubborn, hard-headed, bastard who can be very selfish and only does what's he believes is right, even if it comes at the cost of his friends." Kyousuke says bitterly, as Vector is a bit surprised by his initial reaction.
"Man, you really don't like him, do you?" Vector says surprised.
"Sometimes we work well with each other but other than that, BINGO!" Kyousuke says, imitating a gun with his fingers as Vector asks who else is an elemental.
"Well, there's this girl named Alisa too." Kyousuke says, as Vector begins to get more interested.
"Ah, is she pretty?" Vector asks, as Kyousuke instantly blushes and becomes speechless.
"Uh, what?" He says speechless, as Vector chuckles in response.
"Oh c'mon! You gotta tell me if she's pretty or not!" Vector says gleefully, as Kyousuke then exhales, smiling and controlling himself before saying so.
"Yeah, she's pretty." Kyousuke says embarrassed, as Vector smiles more.
"Do you like her?" Vector asks, as Kyousuke stars to get overwhelmed with embarrassment and Vector's questions about Alisa.
"OK ok, you gotta give me a break here." Kyousuke says breathing relief as Vector lets up on the subject, tossing a log of firewood into the fire to keep it going.
"Anyone else you know?" Vector asks, as Kyousuke looks at the ground in remorse.
"So is Theotrin." Kyousuke says, shocking Vector as he stares at Kyousuke in shock.
"What?! He's one too?!" Vector asks in shock, as Kyousuke exhales loudly before answering.
"Yeah, but something happened to him, so he isn't like us." Kyousuke explains, as Vector stares at him concerned. "I don't want people to think that I'm an enemy because he's an elemental and so am I." Kyousuke says, as Vector disagrees instantly.
"Don't think that because you're an elemental that I'm gonna hate you." Vector says, as Kyousuke looks up, filled with relief. "You really helped me out. Man, without you, I would've been in a lot of pain right now. You healed my gut, helped me fight that Shavecke, and Espio." Vector says comforting, as Kyousuke looks at him affectionately.
"Thanks Vector." Kyousuke says kindly, as Vector smiles and Kyousuke prepares to sleep. "I'm going to sleep now." Kyousuke says calmly, adjusting himself to sleep comfortably. "Thanks to you, I won't have nightmares now." Kyousuke says, as Vector chuckles in response.
"Well, see you in the morning." Vector says, as Kyousuke drifts into sleep. Vector then pulls out the journal that he found in Kyousuke's ship, reading the page about the research again out loud to himself.
"The research data that I have collected proves to be sufficient, showing that elementals do have DNA that they share with a species of humanoid animals called, MOBOSAPIENS." Vector reads out loud, as he instantly closes the book in complete shock and throws it behind him, staring at the sleeping Kyousuke, mind-blown about what he just read.
"Could he be related to me?" Vector asks himself, as he then decides to put it off for later. He moves back to a tree and lays his head against it, breathing deeply. "I knew he was gonna be a mystery, but I never thought I would get close with him like that." Vector says to himself, starting to get worried about his fight with Espio. "Man, I can't believe this. Espio's dead, and I can't even reverse that now." Vector says upsettingly, as he starts to get tired in the midst of the night. He closes his eyes, as he passes out in the night and time keeps moving on.