These pre-chapter comments are harder to come up with than you'd think. Some are planned ahead, some are made up on the spot, and some are disguised as pre-chapter comments in itself…


Black Cat Saga: Chapter 32 – Wrapped in Black, Part 2

A short while after the previous chapter, Sonic, Tails and Amy were walking back from the abandoned factory, feeling confused and in need of answers.

Amy sighed. "Sorry guys, seems someone beat us to it…"

"But who could have beaten us here?" Tails asked.

Sonic shrugged. "Maybe Knuckles thought he'd help out, or maybe Shadow."

"Actually I saw them earlier outside the gym." Amy replied. "Then they went to that diner place."

"Well that's strange…" Sonic said. "I'm gonna check it out." Sonic ran off as Tails and Amy followed close behind.

Blaze was currently travelling along an underground path which was fortunately silent. The black substance spoke soon afterwards. "So, are we done for the day?"

"I'll do one more, and then take a break."

"That's what I like to hear. We could be awfully good friends, Blaze."

"I doubt it." She reached a gate minutes later and kicked it down, travelled along a few more paths and then went through a sewer waterfall on a giant box. As she touched down and was drenched in sewer water before reaching land, she shook it off and growled. "I hate water…" Suddenly, robot sharks with boxing gloves jumped out along the sewer river and launched an assault against Blaze, which proved to be futile as Blaze easily smashed them to bits from every side as she travelled down the river.

She soon arrived by a large boat where one generic robot was sailing. The robot was light blue with a watering pot attached to his head. As Blaze jumped onto the boat, he began talking. "It looks like the target came to me. My name is Lame Guy."

"Lame Guy?" Blaze raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

"Seriously, now let's get started." Lame Guy began chucking water balloons which bounced up and down. Blaze quickly jumped between the first two balloons and punched his head off before taking the note from within his chest. "I'm starting to get the hang of this." Blaze said as she walked off.

"There wasn't much to hang from with me." The black substance replied.

Meanwhile, at the Station Square diner, Shadow and Knuckles were at a table, having a conversation about who knows what. Soon enough, Rouge approached the table. "Okay, after some exploration, I stole a purse from an old woman, candy from a baby, and a person's brakes." She said before pulling out a brake pedal.

Somewhere far away, SA3 was driving a jeep across the countryside. He soon came to a conveniently placed area where a train was approaching. SA3 immediately tried to apply the brakes, as he was travelling at 65 mph before reaching the area. SA3 realized the brakes weren't working, and then he looked down and saw they were gone. He looked up with a look of pure terror written across his face before ending up in the middle of the train tracks and uttering, "Oh shi-" before being immediately hit.

Back at the diner, Knuckles calmly said, "You didn't try to steal the Master Emerald too, did you?"

"Of course not, you silly goose." She hand waved his comment. "Besides, it wasn't there…"

"And you'll never know where it is."

"Alright, see you round, boys." She said before leaving.

Shortly afterwards, Sonic, Tails and Amy arrived and sat by the two.

"Hey guys." Sonic said as he sat down.

"What are you doing here?" Shadow asked.

"Geez, no "hello" or anything? That's cold, even for you."

"Anyway…" Tails interrupted. "There are these robots which came up on the news, and we found out one was at this factory thanks to Amy, but by the time we got there the robot had been destroyed. We were wondering if you guys know anything about that."

"Well If I'd known I would have taken care of it." Knuckles replied.

"I've beaten one recently." Shadow said. "Her name was Girl Guy, and it was pathetically easy."

"That's good to know." Sonic replied. "So what could you two honestly have in common?" Sonic asked.

"For one, we both find you annoying a majority of the time." Knuckles retorted.

"Whatever you say." Sonic said with a shrug.

In an unknown location within the Egg Cruiser, Lily entered Cream's holding cell with a plate of carrots and a mini TV. She placed the TV just ahead of the chair and then placed the plate by the chair before untying Cream. "Okay, I brought you a TV to watch in the meantime and some carrots in case you're hungry, because, y'know, you're a rabbit, and I saw it on a cartoon once…"

"Thank you for your kind thoughts, Lily, you're being awfully nice."

"Should you really be thanking your kidnapper?"

"Even though you claim you're evil, I know there is some good in everyone as long as they're given a chance."

Lily narrowed her eyes at her. "You're making it hard for me to hate you. Anyway, there's your food and TV, go nuts." She said before leaving.

A while later, Blaze had reached an area at an airport, after evading many moving planes, and smashing dozens of Eggman robots. She went through a gate located in a small corridor, which led to a large room where a generic robot high up ahead of her was waiting. "What's that in the sky, is it a bird? Is it a plane?" the robot then proceeded to drop down from far ahead. He was dark blue and wore dark shades as he continued, "No, it's a badass, fool, and he's bringing the pain! Arm cannon on the fly, his name is Awesome Guy, he's gonna blow this cat straight off the map, goodbye!"

Awesome Guy then quickly fired a wide spread pattern of proton shots which Blaze jumped over, then performed a spiralling downward kick just as Awesome Guy jumped back. They moved back in Awesome Guy's direction as he swiftly dodged her attacks but was sent flying back to the ground by a kick to the chest. Awesome Guy quickly jumped up and fired dozens of shots at her again as she flipped around the area. As he landed by a few cars, he quickly tossed one at her. She hopped onto it, but was then hit by a second car before clinging to the back and leaping over it.

Awesome Guy fired several more shots which Blaze easily evaded in midair before flinging part of the black substance at his arm cannon, jamming it completely. He looked down at the cannon and said, "Crap, now I'm as useless as Lame Guy."

Blaze landed in front of him and said, "You'll be the only one here to say goodbye." Before punching him left and right across the face, two spinning kicks to the chest and then finally punching through him, causing him to explode before she pulled out the note. "I guess that's enough for today…"

Back at the diner, Sonny and Shade arrived and sat by a table near Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy and Shadow.

"Hey, you guys." Sonny waved. "How's it going?"

"It's alright." Sonic replied.

"I'm just not going to say anything in the meantime." Shade said. "Though I'd just like to inform people that I got Pure Ownage yesterday. Amber recommended it…"

"Same here." Shadow replied. "By that, I mean I got it yesterday too. I'm now on level 7."

"Level 7?!" Tails said in shock. "I only got it a few days ago, and the last level I reached was 6, which was awesome."

"I'm at level 5 right now, you know, the one where you infiltrate the laboratory of robotic dinosaurs wielding flaming chainsaws. It was ridiculous to the point of awesomeness. I-" before he could finish, he was suddenly tackled by Bronze. As they hit the floor, Knuckles looked up and squinted. "Bronze…" They both got to their feet and began their fight, with them moving back towards the exit as they smashed tables, and Bronze lit one on fire by tipping a candle.

They soon reached the exit and fought along the streets, causing many cars to swerve out the way and crash, while one hit a ramp and flew over the two before crashing into another car and exploding in the background. The two entered a toy store just as Bronze quickly fled down a left aisle with Knuckles close behind. Down one corridor, he threw several toys, one of them being a tickle me Elmo which promptly slapped Knuckles across the face before he charged at Bronze. As Bronze fled again, Knuckles picked up a remote control to a toy plane, which he used to bug Bronze until he got close enough to punch him.

As Bronze got up, he kicked one toy shelf towards Knuckles, who jumped out the way at the last second as the other shelves tumbled over like dominos. Seconds later Knuckles gave chase as Bronze climbed out a window in the toilet, then down the street to a multi-story business. As Knuckles entered, they began punching each other in the face as they waited by the lift. As they entered, they stopped fighting and waited for it to reach the top floor in complete silence, which was shortly interrupted.

"So you got Pure Ownage?" Knuckles asked.

"Yeah, great game, I'm at level 5 right now."

"You too? So what's your current level, character wise?"

"Oh, well m-" The second the lift opened, Knuckles punched Bronze in the face. The two continued their fight through a large office, flinging papers and using desks as weapons as they passed SA and SA2 sitting at one desk. They soon exited the office and arrived on a balcony with a bunch of ladders leading up to the roof. Bronze quickly climbed the ladder before Knuckles and began chucking barrels down, which Knuckles proceeded to jump over as he gave chase. When they reached the top, Bronze tackled him, knocking them both off the roof.

After a violent struggle, Knuckles managed to avoid hitting the ground first. Assuming Bronze was dead; he got to his feet, took a deep breath, and then walked off into the sunset. As he did, Bronze suddenly opened his eyes and squinted, revealing yet again that he was far from dead.

Knuckles arrived back at the diner where some staff were putting out the fire. He appeared bruised and incredibly tired, and sat back down at the table. "Sorry about that."

Amy scratched her forehead while Shadow raised an eyebrow and said, "Should I ask?"

"It's better if you don't."