Author's Note: And here we are again my duckies. Sorry, watched Teen Titans with Mad Mod today. Love that villain, he's hilarious. Anywho, hopefully no one thought I was going on hiatus again. Enjoy ;D
Present
"Agh!" Knuckles yelled as he landed roughly at the bottom of the cliff. Fighting his way through the pain, he scrambled back to the cliff face, forcing his back against the rock as closely as he could while looking up. Small rocks fell from above, bouncing off the echidna's face, but he remained perfectly still, lest his pursuers see him. Bigger rocks falling indicated some one was on top of the cliff, and Knuckles held his breath for a moment or two. Finally, the sound of shifting, shuffling steps indicated they were leaving, no doubt to find a safer way down and resume tracking him.
An exhausted breath escaped his lips, even as the pain in his leg refused to subside. The cliff had only been a hundred foot drop, child's play for the Guardian of the Floating Island. Or at least it should have been.
'Keep it together echidna, now's no time to fall apart like a little puggle,' he thought as he quietly shuffled away from the cliff face. 'You're not too far from a tunnel entrance. Once you're in, you can use the island's defenses to trash these jerks.' And indeed only twenty or so feet away Knuckles came across his objective; a hidden entrance to the network of tunnels that honeycombed the Floating Island, cleverly disguised as a tree stump. Quickly Knuckles raced to the stump, only to be sent flying backwards when his target suddenly exploded.
"A good attempt echidna, but I'm not so easy to lose," said a man holding what looked like a spear, its glowing tip fading as a light smoke wafted from it. The weapon was obviously not normal, but then the man didn't look all that normal either. He was wearing what appeared to be blue body armor, as well as rose colored, rounded glasses. His hair was a close cropped flat top, with a white streak down the middle parting the black hairs. He also had one of those obnoxious, rectangular moustaches that was no wider than his nose. Coming up behind him were four more figures, but a quick glance revealed these to be nothing more than automatons. Armed automatons.
"I don't suppose it would do any good to tell you you're trespassing," Knuckles said as he rubbed some grit from his face, getting to his feet as he did so.
"Has it ever made a difference to anyone?" the nameless man said.
"Okay, get on with it. Give me the whole spiel about how you want the Chaos Emerald for whatever reason so I can throw you and your toys off my island."
"Now who said I was after the Chaos Emerald?" the man said as he pointed his spear. "I was promised a rather large sum of money plus this absolutely marvelous little toy to turn you into the LATE Guardian of the Floating Island." A blast of energy surged from the tip straight at Knuckles, forcing the echidna to quickly dodge. His leap was not far enough to avoid getting caught by the explosive's shockwave, a fact which caused him to lose his balance and go tumbling along the ground.
"Ugh," groaned the dazed Guardian as he held his head. His attacker simply shook his head.
"I must say I am quite disappointed," the human said, a dejected look on his face. "I've hunted some of the most dangerous game in all the world, and I was quite hoping the infamous echidna of the Floating Island would prove to be the greatest hunt of my career."
"I'll try to live up to your expectations!" Knuckles yelled, charging at the intruder with his fist pulled back to deliver a blow. The punch never landed, at least not on its intended target, as one of the robots moved between the echidna and its master. "AGH!!" Knuckles howled as his fist connected with metal, the impact causing his entire arm to go numb. Angrily he fell to his knee, gripping the injured hand.
"Hmmph. I'd heard you were strong enough to punch through metal," the hunter quipped. "It seems that such reports were greatly exaggerated." Again the spear pointed and again Knuckles was forced to dodge an attack. He was breathing heavily again, not a good sign. Was he really this out of practice?
'I have to end this, and I have to end this quickly. Otherwise I might as well dig myself a grave and crawl on in." The four robots began to move, fanning out to surround him and give their master a better shot, standard procedure for cornered quarry. Knuckles's eyes darted to and from each of the mechanical men as he tried to remember everything he knew about fighting machines. The problem was most of what he knew tended to revolve around simply overpowering such opponents, using his strength to overwhelm their unnatural defenses. Now though, if the result of his previous attack was any indicator, such a tactic would not be a viable one. 'Go for the joints. That's the weakest point. If I can do enough damage I can escape and find another way to get into the tunnels.'
Knuckles charged, moving in a serpentine pattern to keep the hunter and his minions from drawing a bead on him. With a final step he leapt forward, his fist extending forward to strike.
And the robot stepped backward, out of the way of the blow. The echidna had been too slow in his attack, unable to compensate for the machine's robotic reflexes. It however, was quite capable of handling him, grabbing hold of Knuckles's arms and pulling him close. The echidna struggled, but he was no match for the robot's iron grip. Painfully he was turned around to face his enemy. The human's face remained disappointed.
"Hardly worth the effort of coming to this flying dirt clod," he said as he approached Knuckles. "You have been a massive disappointment, echidna, but I'll make this quick just the same." The spear was aimed directly at the struggling Guardian's head, its tip glowing with power as it prepared to fire a deathblow.
There was a bright flash, and Knuckles prepared to join his ancestors. But such a meeting was not to take place today. Before the echidna's startled eyes the spear tip fell to the ground, its severed circuitry sparking from both ends. Less than a second later the heads of the two robots holding Knuckles suffered the same fate, followed closely by their arms.
"Did I hear someone say they wanted a challenge?" asked a voice Knuckles hadn't heard in years. With the sound of rushing wind, the blue form of Sonic Hedgehog appeared. "Because I'm always eager to please."
"Perfect; a meddler," the human stated accusingly, glaring at Sonic.
"I prefer to think of this as pre-emptive action," Sonic quipped back. "See you take out the knucklehead here, and sooner or later I'm gonna have to come up here full time to keep wannabes from snatching the emeralds, ya know?"
"Enough of this. Kill him." The two remaining robots moved forward, ready to comply with their orders. Sonic looked lazily at the two of them, allowing both to raise their weapons before he disappeared. For a few precious seconds, both robots performed a sensor sweep to locate the hedgehog. It was the last act either of them performed slashed though both of their midsections, severing their connection to their power cores.
"Now then," Sonic said, turning back to the hunter, "let's talk about which jail you'd like to spend the next dozen or so years in." From behind his back the man drew a hand gun, aiming it at the approaching hedgehog.
"You didn't really believe that spear was my sole armament, did you hedgehog?" he said grinning. Again Sonic was unimpressed as he prepared to disarm his opponent, only to watch as the need to was nullified as Knuckles leapt up let his fist connect with the man's jaw. A pained gasp escaped the echidna's lips as his attack connected, but his attack still had the desired effect, knocking out his former attacker.
Surreptously Knuckles shook his hand. Though not nearly as hard as his robots, the hunter's job had still been like punching a rock. This action was not lost on Sonic, causing the hedgehog to advance to investigate.
"Why are you here, hedgehog?" Knuckles asked in a voice that had no shortage of hostility in it. Sonic stopped for a minute, a familiar anger rising within his gut. Knuckles had never been the most welcoming of people, but this time Sonic was not overly keen to coddle echidna pride.
"What was that? 'Thanks Sonic for saving my bacon.' 'Always just in the nick of time Blue Boy.' 'Glad you could take time out of your busy life to visit and old friend when he needed you.' Were any of those the words you really wanted to come out of that flapping trap of yours?" the hedgehog retorted with an equal amount of hostility. He had to remind himself just why he was putting himself through this. Suddenly Knuckles began to look around suspiciously. It wasn't hard to guess what he was looking for, or rather who. "He's not here, if you're so concerned about it. I left Tails back at the landing strip with Amy and went looking for you. You're lucky that human made so much noise with his spear, I might not have found you in time."
"I was handling the situation just…"
"Horribly, Knux," Sonic pointed out. "Back in the day a schmuck like that couldn't have gotten within a country mile of beating you, but now you get held down by a pair of second-rate tinker toys? If that isn't a cry for help, I don't know what is. What's going down Knuckles?"
"Angel Island is a sovereign nation, hedgehog. I don't owe explanations to you or anyone else."
"Not good enough," Sonic said, grabbing hold of his former friend's arm. His hand almost completely encircled the echidna's bicep, a testament to how thin the appendage was. Indeed the Guardian's entire body looked much thinner and frailer than Sonic would have expected of someone with Knuckles's reputation. Even his famous dreadlocks looked thin and greasy. As if sensing the hedgehog's silent inspection of his physical condition, Knuckles angrily yanked his arm free.
"You have a lot of nerve, hedgehog."
"I get that a lot. You gonna tell me why you look like a red noodle?"
"It's none of your concern."
"Yeah, I know, but Rouge seems to think it's important." At the mention of the bat's name, a hurt look crossed Knuckles's face.
"She shouldn't have done that," the echidna said in a quiet voice. Then he shook his head, regaining his old swagger. "Look, you've checked up on me for her, so go and tell her I'm fine."
"You don't even remotely look fine," Sonic pointed out, his arms crossing as he went into his obstinate mode. "And since I can't keep coming up here to save your tail, I'm not leaving until I know I don't have to."
"You're treading dangerous waters, hedgehog. I suggest you leave now before I…"
"Sonic!" a familiar feminine voice called through the woods, followed closely by a second call in another familiar voice that was in a higher pitch. Sonic looked over his shoulder in the direction the sounds were coming from, and most likely the trail Amy and Tails were following.
"I thought you said they were back at the landing strip," Knuckles said in a nasty tone.
"Oh like this is the first time either one of them has followed me into a dangerous situation," Sonic half joked back before turning to face Knuckles again. The horrified expression on the echidna's face caught the hedgehog by surprised. Realizing he was again being stared at, Knuckles once more mastered himself, glaring at Sonic.
"I told you before Sonic, Tails isn't allowed on this island anymore. Get him off within the hour or I'll notify G.U.N. you're willfully violating the laws of the Floating Island." Before Sonic could retort to this ultimatum, Knuckles was gone, disappeared down one of the many boltholes that littered the island. While understandably angered by the unreasonable demand, Sonic had not been altogether surprised. Time may have been able to heal all wounds, but it did nothing to an echidna. What did surprise him was the fact that Knuckles had used G.U.N. to threaten them. Since when had the Guardian of the Floating Island felt the need to use a third party to protect himself?
Just as Sonic was mulling this over in his mind, Tails and Amy made their way to his location, Amy's hammer resting on her shoulder in the expectation of trouble. Tails was the first the notice Sonic's unconscious prisoner.
"Who's that guy?" the cub asked
"The second biggest idiot on this island," Sonic responded.
"Things didn't go so well with Knuckles, huh?" Amy surmised.
"About as well as can be expected," her blue beau answered. He pulled a length of rope out of the backpack Amy was carrying and proceeded to tie up the hunter carefully before continuing. "But Rouge was definitely right. Something's up with him and it ain't good."
"So what do we do now?" Tails asked, all ready for an adventure. In his mind he was picturing Sonic and himself scouring the island looking for the wayward echidna, dodging traps and enemies as they did so. That the traps and enemies in his dream seemed a little too accurate to be merely fantasy never once fazed the boy.
"First thing we do is head back to the Tornado and let G.U.N. know about this loser." Sonic grabbed hold of the unconscious human and hefted him over his shoulder. The man was big, but Sonic had gained a few inches in height over the years and, while he was still only a little more than half as tall as the average human, it was enough to keep his captive from being dragged along in the dirt. That the sprinter had become stronger as well as faster in his intervening years also aided in the carrying. "Tails, pick up as much of those robots as you can. Someone paid and outfitted this guy to go after Knux, and maybe those 'bots'll give us some idea who." Quickly Tails complied with his guardian's commands, hustling off to grab severed arms and broken bits. As Sonic watched, he couldn't help but feel a bit nostalgic. He certainly had not been that obedient when he'd been that age. Quickly the fox returned to his friends' sides, his arms full of machine parts as Amy looked at Sonic quizzically, unsure what she was supposed to do. "Ames, if this jerk even twitches funny before we get back to the plane, nail him with your hammer. No telling what other tricks he's got up his sleeve, and I'm not overly interested in finding out."
"Gotcha Sonic." Thus prepared, the trio began their hike back to the Angel Island landing strip.
Past (Twelve and a half years ago)
Bartholomew Prower, Barty to his friends, and there were precious few of them left these days, walked into the study that belonged to his son, his movements the controlled stride of a man used to discipline. It may have been several years since he'd been a part of the military, but some habits could never be broken. Inside he found Miles sitting in an armchair, fiddling determinedly with something in his hands. Were he capable of such an action, sweat would be rolling down the vulpine's brow but, as it was, his tongue did protrude from his closed mouth as he concentrated. This was not a sight in and of itself unusual. Miles was a tinkerer by nature, and it would have been a much worse sign had he been sitting in the chair doing nothing. The object in his hands, however, was something of a shocker.
"You're working on that puzzle box again? How many times do you have to solve that thing before it becomes boring?" the elder fox asked, laughing a bit as he did so. The puzzle box in question was about the size of a large rubix cube and made of wood that looked quite old. Odd markings appeared all over its surface, some merely carved etchings, others indicating pieces that could be slid about. Currently several such pieces had been moved about by their owner's hand.
"Not again; still," his son answered back.
"Hmm?"
"I'm not solving it again, I've never solved this devious little monstrosity," the fox inventor admitted. An audible click suddenly sounded from his hands. "But maybe this time…" Muscles flexed as Miles attempted to open the box, though he was careful not to put his full strength into it. The last thing he wanted was to break the seemingly fragile item. For what must have been the hundredth time, the box refused to open. A soft growl of frustration escaped Miles lips. "Sometimes I think Mom gave me this thing simply to try my patience."
"Ha, you can put together a full sized plane with a blindfold on, but a simple toy is able to stymie you for years." As he spoke, Bartholomew pulled out a brown pipe from his pocket, gripping it in his canines before padding down his other pockets searching for something.
"I thought the doctor told you you weren't allowed to smoke that thing anymore? Especially after that scare you had."
"Fie on that man. According to him, I'm not supposed to do anything anymore. What's the point of living forever if you have nothing left to enjoy?" The elder fox finally found the small, drawstring bag he was search for and emptied a small quantity of tobacco into the pipe's bowl. "I don't suppose you happen to have a match about, hmm?" Miles favored his father with a look that contained all his thoughts on the absurdity of such a statement. "Well, it is not as though I am without my own resources." So saying, Mr. Prower pulled forth a flimsy restaurant matchbook and proceeded to light his pipe. For a few brief seconds he gently puffed, nurturing the young flame with fresh, oxygen rich air. Soon a contented breath escaped his mouth, along with some gray smoke, and he cupped the pipe in his hand and moved further into the study. At his son's drawing desk he spotted what looked like the beginnings of some plans. Though an aviator himself, Bartholomew Prower had not the engineering knowledge his progeny did, so he was never quite sure what he was staring at on the drawing board. Still he always took a bit of pride in seeing his son's work in its earliest phases, even if he didn't completely understand it. Again he puffed his pipe, careful to turn away from the drawing board lest an errant ash land on the paper and smudge something critical.
It was then that the door to the study opened again, this time to admit Evelyn Prower, looking a bit more disheveled than she usually did.
"Ah dear, is everything all right?" Bartholomew asked, his pipe still gripped between his teeth as his wife entered the room proper.
"Everything's fine of course. Sonic has been washed up and put down for the evening. That boy certainly is able to cover himself in chili-dog sauce, isn't he?" As she spoke, the matronly fox expertly snagged the pipe from her husband's mouth and plunked it down into the glass of soda her son had resting near him, extinguishing its flame.
"Hey," both males yelped in unison. A clawed finger was pointed at each in turn, starting with the elder of the pair.
"You know better than to be smoking in my presence. You already broke stride tonight with that low cholesterol diet the doctor gave you, the last thing you need is to puff that disgusting old pipe." Her husband suitably cowed, the finger of accusation then turned to her son. "And you should know better than to let him get away with it at all, particularly with a small child in your house. The last thing a boy like Sonic needs is for all that smoke to get into his lungs."
"Yes Ma'am," both said again. Dressing downs completed, a smile returned to Evelyn's face as she found herself a chair to sit down in. It was then that she too noticed the object in Miles's hands.
"Goodness gracious, you still play with that thing?"
"It helps me to reset my mind, especially when I'm having trouble coming up with new ideas."
"Yes, I know that feeling," his father said. "It was fishing for me that helped get my brain cells back in line." Bartholomew had moved over to a shelf case, pulling down a model F-22 Raptor to inspect.
"Hmm, I've just been drawing a blank lately," Miles admitted. "I've had some… inklings, but between actually having to run the company and trying to make time for Sonic…" At these words, both of his parents looked at each other, concern on their faces. Miles caught the look. "I don't mean anything by that, honest. I knew full well adopting him would necessitate a large chunk of my time. I'm fine with that. If anything, it's the company running that's wiping me out worse, especially with all the meetings with the lawyers I'm having to take."
"Lawyers?"
"Prower Aerodynamic is being sued."
"Sued?!" Mr. Prower cried, indignation in his voice. "Outrageous! Who in their right mind would be suing you? Don't tell me, Cyberdyne's crying foul over some perceived similarity between your product and one of their knock-offs, trying to pretend YOU'RE the one pilfering secrets."
"No, no, Jonathan's been quiet. This is actually coming form a small R&D start-up out near Empire City called MeteoTech."
"What in heaven's name could they have against you?"
"They don't have the tech level we do, so they wanted us to run some tests and crunch some numbers on some theoretical work they were doing in bio-electric energy and techno-organic hybridization. They even had a prototype machine we could use to run the experiments but…" Memories of the mechanical protozoa he'd seen in the research labs came back into Miles's mind. "I was unsettled by some of the results. And I wasn't the only one. I nixed the contract and sent them back their money along with all their data and equipment as well as the stuff we figured out. And now they're suing us."
"Trying to get more money out of you for breach of contract?"
"No actually. Money's not the point. If it was, I'd write them a check just to get them off my back. What they want is for us to continue the experiments and finish developing their ideas. The guy in charge even called me up and said point blank that if it was merely a question of money, I could name the price on my end. And he's been calling me every day harassing me about it."
"Who is this guy?"
"Some doctor with more than brain cells and zero charisma when it comes to dealing with other people." Miles stood up and walked over to the glass cabinet that held his most treasured possessions, replacing the puzzle box in its traditional place next to what looked like a curved piece of blue scrap metal with what looked like a talon painted on it. "In any event, the man's proven rather stubborn, but that's it. It's nothing we can't handle." At that point the young fox stretched. "Well, I hate to say this, but I'm feeling rather wiped from the day."
"Not as spry as you used to be?" Bartholomew quipped with a chuckle as he took his son's chair.
"Says the man who had to take five rest stops over the course of the evening," Miles quipped back as he kissed his mother goodnight and left the room.
Two months later
Sonic faced the end of the school year with a mixture of excitement and, more interestingly, regret. Back in the Green Hill Orphanage, school had been a year round affair, if only to give the children something to do for the majority of the day. Sonic had often fantasized about what he'd do if he didn't have to go to school for an extended period of time. When Tails had not immediately taken him to classes after adopting him, Sonic had, in his naiveté, held out the slight hope that he was no longer going to need to go to school. Childish in retrospect, but still, a kid could dream. Now though.
He'd gotten rather used to going to school each day. Sure the weekends where he didn't were fun, but Sonic was not so foolish as to fail to realize that day in, day out with nothing to do would get boring. There was a fine line between relaxing and going stir crazy. And besides, while the classes could be boring, school was also where he got to hang with his buds. Unfortunately, summer break also meant many parents were scrambling to find something to occupy their children's time. For Mighty and Ray it meant a return to Never Lake and summer camp, while Carl was supposed to be visiting his Aunt and Uncle over in Soleanna. Sonic had asked his father if he could go to summer camp too, but Mr. Cervid had pointed out that Sonic had missed a great many school days thanks to the Battle Birds' attack on the city. Though his grades were not bad, if he did not wish to be held back a year and thusly separated from his friends, it would be important for him to attend summer school to make up the hours.
Needless to say it had surprised Sonic to learn that the deer was paying that much attention to him, especially considering Cervid's stated outline of his official duties did not include the hedgehog cub. Why he'd felt the need to display his interest at that point, however…
"Tough break about having ta go to summer school, Blue," Mighty said as he clapped Sonic on the back consolingly. "I hoped you'd get to come to the camp this year."
"Ta… Dad says next year, so long as I don't get kidnapped by any feathered nutjobs with goofy names," Sonic replied, just a little crestfallen. He'd seen pictures of the camp via Mighty and Ray and it looked like it was a blast; excluding the lake of course, though even that looked rather nice from the pictures.
"Still, I was kinda lookin' forward to you being there. You'da been a big help in the end of summer games, 'ceptin' the water sports of course." A slightly annoyed look crossed Sonic's face as he looked at his armadillo friend.
"I'm so sorry me going to summer school has ruined your plans to sweep the summer camp competition."
"Ah don't sweat it," Mighty returned, ignoring the irritated look as though it were nothing. "You can make it up to me next year." This attitude, of course, elicited a quick punch to the armadillo's yellow shoulder. "Ouch!"
"Hand slipped."
"Uh-huh. Anyway, summer school doesn't start for a week or two yet and it's not like me an' the guys are leaving the moment the bell rings." Which was true enough They still had plenty of time to hang out before they went their separate ways. It was then that the final bell chose to ring. The classroom was a flurry of activity as students practically upended their chair/desks getting up, all while the teacher reminded them not to forget any of their possessions. Mighty, stronger than other kids his age, even humans,, muscled his way through the crowd with Sonic following closely in his wake, determined to get to the front door first. Soon they were joined by Carl and Ray, both of whom looked fairly harried from the day's activities. They just made it to freedom before a hand grabbed hold of Ray's shoulder, yanking the smaller squirrel away from his friends.
Sonic was the first to notice they were short one flying squirrel and he leapt up onto the concrete side of the school's stairway for a look around. He quickly spotted the golden Mobian near some bushes, back turned to the wall by a big crocodile. Sonic had seen the lizard before, he was a fifth grader and something of a troublemaker if the fact that he was in the Principal's office at least as often as Sonic himself was any indicator. Ray didn't seem overly thrilled to be in the croc's presence, as evidenced by him doing his shirking violet routine and trying to disappear into the brickwork. Deciding this may be an event in which he needed to intervene, Sonic made his way over to the two.
"I'm telling ya fuzzy, I'm getting mighty tired of you dodging me," the crocodile said, crossing his scaly arms as he gave his quarry an annoyed look.
"I'm sorry Vector, I wasn't trying to…"
"Don't feed me that line, squirrel. You were trying to duck out without giving me my money weren't you?" Vector asked, looming somewhat menacingly over Ray.
"Hey! Scaley!" Sonic yelled in his most authoritative and, he hoped, intimidating voice. The teen turned around to face the hedgehog, and Sonic really began to notice how much larger the crocodile was than him. Silently he questioned why Ray couldn't attract aggressors closer to his own size.
"Do I know you?" Vector asked.
"Name's Sonic. Sonic Prower. And I don't like bullies threatening my friends." The crocodile snorted at this.
"Sonic huh? Yeah, I heard of you. You're supposed to be a pretty fast runner. So why don't you just run on home so me and this little rat can finish our business up." Vector began to turn back towards Ray.
"Why don't you just make me," Sonic bit back, putting as much bravado into his voice as he could as he balled his hands into fists. Though he was much shorter than the croc, he wasn't entirely defenseless. On advice from his personal assistant, Tails had enrolled his son in a self defense class, one that specialized in allowing kids to defend themselves from adult abductors. While Sonic wasn't exactly the "Super Kung-Fu Master" he might have wanted to be, it wasn't entirely impossible that he would be able to take Vector on solo.
Thankfully the need for him to do so evaporated.
"Everything all right here?" the familiar sound of Mighty's voice asked as the armadillo casually walked up, cracking his knuckles and giving Vector a momentary pause. Sonic might have been known more for his running prowess than ability to fight, but everybody knew Mighty was a tough customer, and his presence more than evened the odds in their favor.
"This hasn't got a thing to do with you, dillo, so just back off," Vector pointed out, holding up his hands as if to ward off an impending assault. Beside Sonic Carl turned up, though his body looked less tense than Mighty's.
"Seems to me that when a guy twice the size of one of my friends is making all sortsa noise about being owed something that is my business" the armadillo retorted, smacking his right fist into his left hand. Reptilian eyes narrowed as Vector rounded again on Ray, who curiously had not looked relieved even with the timely arrival of his friends. In fact, the squirrel looked just a bit embarrassed.
"Was this you stupid little plan, Squivel? You welch on me all month then get you friends to tell me to leave you alone so you don't have to pay up."
"No Vector, honest I…"
"Man, I went outta my way to get you that stupid card you needed and this is the thanks I get." At the mention of the word "card," three sets of eyes went wide. Even Mighty seemed to deflate a bit as he cast his gaze at the now blushing Ray.
"Ray, what is he talking about?" Mighty asked as his friend gave him an embarrassed smile.
"Well, it's just that I… kinda… sorta… owe Vector here twenty dollars."
"WHAT?!"
"How'd that happen?" Mighty asked, tromping over right past Vector and up to the squirrel.
"I kinda… sorta…"
"Oh for the luva…" Vector called, clearly tired of this. "Two months ago your friend came up to me about this card he wanted, some tournament he was going to get to play in." Suddenly Sonic, Mighty, and Carl were all glaring at their golden friend who could only scratch his head. "So I went out and found a guy with the card he wanted and set up a deal for him. A whole chain of 'em if you wanna know. Took me a whole week to get everything to everyone who wanted their stuff. And this little penny pincher promised me twenty bucks for my trouble. Only every time I keep trying to get it from him, he disappears."
"Ray…"
"It's not my fault, really," the squirrel protested. "I had the money I really did, but then I got this excellent deal on a Kumodian Dragon and…"
"And you spent my money on it. Just great."
"That's low Ray," Sonic said, very much perturbed by his friend's apparent lack of ethics.
"No, no, you don't understand. I thought if I could just hold out for a few more weeks, I'd save enough from my allowance to pay you back."
"That wasn't the deal fuzzy! I want my money. You had no right to spend it on another dumb card when you still owed me." It was at this point that Mighty felt the need to grip the bridge of his nose.
"Where's the card Ray?" he asked. Realizing what was going to happen, the flying squirrel suddenly clutched his backpack and began shaking his head frantically.
"Oh, no. No, no, no, no…" he said plaintively, his hand held over a very particular pocket.
"You didn't pay him Ray, you gotta give the card back."
"I don't want the stupid card you twits, I don't play the stupid game. Squirrel boy here owes me money and that's what I want," Vector explained. Ray looked a bit relieved at this, his muscles relaxing as he stopped gripping his treasured deck of cards. At least until Vector added, "If you aren't going to pay me fair and square, maybe I should take it up with your Granny. Bet she'd love to know you're stiffin' people on what you owe them." Immediately Ray's fur stood on end and he looked pleadingly at Mighty. This wasn't the first time the squirrel's hobby had gotten him into trouble, and if Mrs. Squivel found out he was spending money he didn't have again, she'd be furious. Most likely Ray's entire collection would get thrown out as a result, including the deck of cards he prized so highly. Mighty groaned, already knowing what he had to do.
"How much money do you have on you Ray?" he asked. Immediately the fuzzy flyer began to rummage though his pack pockets, desperate for a way out of this situation.
"I've got five bucks on me, but I have ten more at home," he said, holding up the money hopefully. Mighty let out an exasperated sigh, grabbing hold of the bill as he turned towards his other two friends, neither of whom looked overly pleased to have been remembered.
"Guys, I hate to ask this but…" And so the collection plate was passed. All three chipped in five dollars each, though both of Sonic and Carl favored Ray with annoyed look. The money thus collected, Mighty offered it to Vector. "Here, will this keep you from telling Granny Squivel about this?" The crocodile snatched up the money, counting it as thought expecting that Mighty had pulled a fast one.
"Well, I should charge you extra for all the trouble I had to go through to get this," Vector replied as he finished counting. At this pronouncement, Ray let out a distressed squeak/ "But I guess I can be lenient in response to such a display of camaraderie." The teen stuffed the money into his jacket pocket, pointing a finger at Ray. "But next time you need my help fuzzy, you better have the means to pay for it up front, got it." With that proclamation, Vector walked off and Ray released his final sigh of relief.
"Thanks guys, I really thought I was going to… HEY!" A quick hand zipped into the suddenly unprotected pocket and pulled out a deck box made of green plastic and decorated with several stickers depicting fearsome monsters. Quickly stepping away from the suddenly grabby squirrel, Mighty opened the box and pulled out the deck of forty cards, casually flipping through them. "Is this the card that just cost me my snack money?" he asked, holding out a specific card that pictured a gleaming white Pegasus with sapphires in its wings on it. Unsure what was going to happen, Ray nodded sheepishly.
"Please Mighty, don't hurt it. It's too important."
"Geez Ray, relax. It's just a piece of paper, I'm not gonna hurt it," the armadillo replied, handing that single card back to his squirrely friend. Then he proceeded to divide up the rest of the deck into three equal piles and hand thirteen cards each to Carl and Sonic.
"Hey! What are you doing?!"
"You owe each of us money Ray, so we're gonna hold onto a third of your deck each. That way, when you pay us back, you'll get your cards back," Mighty said, his voice sounding very reasonable.
"NO!!" Ray practically squealed. "Guys please, you can't do this to me. There's an end of school tournament going on at Ichthor's Comic Palace Monday and I need my deck if I'm gonna win and I won't get my allowance till Wednesday."
"You telling me that outta all those thousands of cards you got at your place you can't make a spare deck?" Mighty asked as he, Carl, and Sonic all turned to leave, a desperate Ray trailing behind them.
"That's a tier one deck you goofs just split up, unbeatable. I can't just throw a bunch of cards together and be competitive." The squirrel began to plead. "Come on guys, what's five bucks among friends."
"Three chili-dogs at the vendor outside my place," Sonic quipped.
"I got it! How about I do all your homework for a week AND pay you guys back. That'd be a fair trade off for the cards."
"Ray, school's out for summer," Carl pointed out. "The only one who's gonna have any homework is Sonic and you're not even gonna be around for that."
"ARGH! This isn't fair! I spent so much time putting a winning deck together and now I can't use it."
"Yeah, well maybe next time you'll think before you get yourself into this situation. Till then I'm sure there's a violin somewhere playing just for you." As the four friends made their way over to where the school buses had convened, Ray continued his pleading, heedless of the fact that his begging was falling on deaf ears.
To Be Continued…
Author's Note 2: You ever notice how things don't always go as planned? Here I wanted to start focusing on the present segments, and I keep finding myself drawn to the past segments. Of course it doesn't help that there's just so much backstory to explore and I also don't want to depress my readers with too much tragedy (Some of you have guessed at some of the events that have to rake place and frankly taking it all at once would depress me. And I'm the fanboy that came up with this story. :D) Still, we're gonna keep moving here. I know it seems like this chapter was a lot talking heads, but I promise I dropped a lot of important things here for everyone to see. Hopefully the next chapter will have more action though. Anyway, questions, comments, don't forget to review! Ciao for now.