So this guy pulled me over once, but I wasn't having that, so I put on my kewl face, then everything was kewl.


Fujin Gem Saga: Chapter 41 – Like a Virus, Infecting for the Very First Time

At the shopping mall, Lily and Rose walked along the second floor. There was a fountain in the middle of the area and dozens of shops on either side. Lily pumped her fist in the air as she yelled, "Hell yeah! Villains out shopping!" which got weird looks from half the people around them.

"Must you say everything that pops into your head?" Rose asked.

"Of course, since it increases my likeability." Lily nodded several times.

"If you say so." After thinking for a few moments, Rose then said, "How about we get some ice cream?"

"Now you're talking!"

In one section of the pyramid, Omega walked down a few steps and changed his right arm to a machine gun before going on ahead. Mummies suddenly came out from spaces on the left and right, which he blasted through as he moved on. There were a few balconies up ahead with two mummies on each, throwing down pots, though Omega took them out quickly. Omega entered a small room shortly afterwards and began rapidly firing at mummies which armed themselves with swords and shields, dispatching them at a regular pace.

In another area, Sally Sue was travelling down several narrow paths filled with giant demonic spiders which came out of the walls and repeatedly attempted to attack her in groups. Sally Sue punched them out as she moved along, while she yelled, "Stupid insects! You probably thought I'd run off, but don't count on it! I am Sally Sue, from the almighty and all powerful family in existence; now wet yourselves in fear as I punch you all to death!" She then continued to do so.

At the same time, Shadow was making his way through an obstacle course shaped like a 'Z' with things such as quicksand pits, floating spiked blocks, and arrows hidden in walls, as the ceiling slowly descended over time. Shadow made it to the end moments before he was crushed by the ceiling and arrived in a large clear room with dozens of pillars around and a parchment on a pedestal just ahead. As Shadow picked it up, Virus slowly rose up out of a puddle far behind him. "Well if it isn't Shadow the Hedgehog…"

Shadow spun round and sighed. "It's you again…"

"Hey old buddy, you see the game last night? The intensity was amazing."

"Cut the crap, Virus, what do you want?"

"Bah, you're no fun. Besides, what I'm after isn't that high of a priority. I might be after that gem I've been hearing about, but I've got quite some time to spare."

"If you came here for a fight then I'll be happy to beat your face into the ground."

"I should warn you, I've improved and become stronger since we last fought, so you may wanna consider using a certain power of yours." Virus said with a smile. "Now, let's begin."

Shadow quickly fired a chaos spear which Virus deflected before summoning a dozen purple balls of fire which appeared to have faces. They charged at Shadow, who evaded all of them as they continuously tried to hit him. Shadow flipped over one fireball and caused it to slam into another, exploding upon impact. Shadow then blew up the rest using chaos blast and charged at Virus who lengthened his claws.

Virus sank into a puddle of darkness as Shadow attempted to spin attack him, and then came to a halt as he noticed there were dozens of puddles on the floor, ceiling and random spots in midair. Virus moved around the room using the puddles, occasionally slashing at Shadow and causing a few cuts.

"I came up with this one just a week ago, you like it?" Virus continued to gloat as he launched his assault. Shadow eventually took out a chaos emerald and attempted to activate chaos control, but the emerald was quickly knocked out of his hand as he did so. "That technique is cheap." Virus said as he did so.

"And this technique isn't?" Shadow retorted.

"I see your point."

Seconds later, several sharp purple tentacles shot out from one puddle, trying to stab Shadow from behind just as he jumped to the right. Virus landed in front of Shadow and tried to stab him, only for Shadow to grab his arm, stopping him by a few inches as Shadow tried to hold him back.

"What's the matter?" Virus asked. "I haven't even transformed into a hideous form of my choosing yet. If you need me to push your buttons by insulting your precious deceased friend, then I'll kindly do so. You're overrated, you're typical, and you hog the spotlight too much."

Shadow's body suddenly became covered in a dark purple fiery aura and his eyes glowed purple as he looked up.

Virus expressed curiosity over this discovery. "It seems its taken effect faster than I had expected during the level of power at the time." Just as Virus finished, Shadow kneed him in the stomach, knocking him further back. As Virus looked ahead, Shadow appeared behind him and kicked him into one pillar before grabbing his head and slamming him into the ground.

Virus coughed a little as he got up. "Well, it seems my work is done, so I'll be seeing you quite soon, Shadow the Hedgehog." He said before sinking into another puddle, which made the others vanish as well. Shadow, who was still covered in the dark purple aura, ran down a path to the right.

In other part of the tomb, Rouge, who had just made her way through a massive room containing a waterfall of sand, puzzles involving stone blocks, and slowly moving along edges as well as jumping across platforms, reached the parchment. As she picked it up, a giant boulder suddenly came out of nowhere as a stone door opened up. Rouge quickly ran down the path, and grabbed a rope moving over a pit, then flew by an area of fiery arrows. She approached the exit where a stone door was slowly closing, and slid under the door, dropping her hat in the process. She reached in and grabbed it a moment before the door closed.

It took her a few moments to realize Team Chaotix were there, and had already solved the puzzle. Rouge got to her feet, shocked and amazed. "How did you manage to solve this without the clues?"

"We didn't." Espio replied. "Charmy did."

"Turns out the secret word was 'Pretzels'." Vector added.

"Pretzels?" Rouge raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

"That's exactly what I said." Espio said.

"Pretzels are awesome!" Charmy exclaimed. "They got pretzels here, right?"

"I don't think so, Charmy, we'll get some on the way back." Vector replied.

"Awesome." The four of them entered through the fifth door just as Omega appeared, who also followed them in.

At the shopping mall far, far away, Rose was sitting by the fountain eating a vanilla ice cream cone. Lily, who had just bought one, walked over to her and sat on her lap. After a few moments of silence, Rose finally asked, "Are you going to sit on my lap all day?"

"Is that an invitation, Rose?" Lily smirked.

"Don't make me push you into the fountain."

Lily quickly got up and sat beside her instead. "Okay, just calm down, geez. You're too uptight, you gotta relax. Just go with the flow, and make stupid jokes about everything to relieve stress and tension."

"I thought you made stupid jokes because you were secretly stupid." Rose said bluntly.

"Go ahead and insult me as much as you want, Rose, because I've gotten enough of that as it is."

Rose turned to Lily. "Hmm? Does that have to do with your past? What was your life like?"

"Well I usually don't like to discuss it, but I'll tell you." Lily cleared her throat. "When I was born, despite how good I was and what I did, I was constantly shunned because my parents secretly wanted a son, and they were non-believers. Even my classmates shunned me for being a know-it-all. A group of boys soon decided to put their thingies in my thingy, and I was hit by a car soon after. I woke up in hospital, with a disease called the lulz. It was incurable and seemed to hurt me when I laughed. I then died on the toilet weeks later."

Rose frowned and morphed her right arm into a large sharp icicle. "You're making fun of my fanfiction story, aren't you?"

"N-no! I'd never do that!" Lily protested as she moved further away. "Okay, the real story is, as you know, I have a genius level IQ and capable of making basic robots. When these gifts started to manifest, my parents took advantage of this by having me make bizarre inventions and whatnot out of ordinary items, MacGyver style. I was soon somewhat famous, and rarely got to have some fun without people bugging me constantly. Now I can have all the fun I want."

"And your idea of fun is blowing up things and attempting to kill people?"

"Well when you say it like that then it just sounds evil…"

"I guess I'll tell you mine, but if I tell anyone else, I'll kill you." Rose said.

"Got it."

"My dad pushed me an awful lot when I was little; in order to be one of the best assassins I could be, because his time had passed. We trained vigorously, and he showed no mercy during our training. Regularly would I end up with bruises and broken bones, so much so that I couldn't feel the pain soon enough. I soon made a friend who gave me confidence to try harder, but that friendship was short lived, as my dad killed her, seeing her kind-hearted spirit as a sign of weakness which would misguide me."

"Your dad sounds like a real douche." Lily commented.

"Very much so. Anyway, we continued training, even though I was torn apart inside. I soon found out that it was my dad who murdered my closest friend a few weeks later and went to confront him. After a fierce battle, I managed to kill him, but he was happy to know I was able to do so at my age. My mother had watched me kill him, so I froze her in a block of ice."

"But isn't your mom also a-"

"So I froze her in a block of ice and learned to take care of myself which worked fairly well, since angels don't normally keep track of others whereabouts sadly, and tend to keep out of others business."

"…I don't really know what to say to that."

"There's no need to say anything."

After a short period of awkward silence, Lily finally said, "Well you've got a friend right here, and I'm not going anywhere. C'mon, let's go buy some clothes!" Lily rushed off.

"Sure, why not." Rose said as she got up and followed her.

Meanwhile at Tails' house, Amy, Cream and Knuckles were sitting on the couch, watching TV when Knuckles suddenly looked out the window and saw Bronze standing there, who squinted at him. Knuckles squinted back. "Bronze…" Bronze jumped in through the window and tackled Knuckles. As they got up, they punched each other while knocking things over as Amy rolled her eyes at them.

"I'd appreciate if you gentlemen would kindly take your fight outside." P.A.L said while Sonic ran by them into Tails' laboratory unnoticed.

They nodded and did so while P.A.L thanked them. As they got outside, Bronze called for a taxi and hopped in. As another taxi came down the street, Knuckles leaped in through the window and pointed ahead. "Follow that taxi!" SA2 who happened to be the driver, did so and there was suddenly an epic chase scene as the two taxis crashed through someone's garden, knocked down several trees, and drifted 360 degrees around several corners. They then came towards people carrying mirrors across the street.

"Mirrors in my way, I MUST PUNCH THEM!" Knuckles yelled as the taxi charged forward, he punched them out the way. The two taxis avoided civilians walking through the streets, and then Knuckles suddenly pointed right. "Quick! The fruit cart!" SA2 nodded and turned right, smashing through the fruit cart where SA3 happened to be standing. "I've gotta stop selling fruit during car chases…"

As they passed a red car, a mother pointed out the window at the two taxis. "Look Timmy, it's a red mole and a golem in a high speed chase!"

"Just shut up and drive, mom." He responded, clearly showing that he no longer cared.

The two taxis hit a ramp and flew over a building, just as Knuckles leaped out of the taxi and onto the one in front moments before it crashed near an underground entrance to a train station. Knuckles and Bronze tumbled down the stairs and got on the train. They moved along the train, punching each other, occasional slapping, Bronze kicking Knuckles in the crotch, and Knuckles jabbing Bronze's eyes out. They reached the front where SA4 was driving and their punches and kicks messed up the controls as they missed their target.

The back of the train flipped up slightly and onto the second set of train tracks as it curved around the corner at full speed. SA, who was reading a newspaper and waited for the train, stood at the next stop. As the train passed by him, he looked up in awe and exclaimed, "Multi-track drifting!"

The train soon reached the countryside and fell off the tracks, hit several rocks on the way down and exploded before touching the ground, igniting the train in flames. Knuckles and Bronze jumped out, unharmed, while everyone else was also perfectly fine. Bronze slowly approached Knuckles, and instead of throwing a punch, offered him a handshake.

"Huh?" Knuckles asked, utterly confused.

"I'm tired of this now. We've fought four times now, let's just put it to rest now."

Knuckles shook his head. "Hey, you're the one starting these fights."

"It was mainly about honour. Anyway, let's go eat; thank goodness no real damage was caused." Bronze said as the two walked away from a burning train.