Chapter 14

Sudden Reflux

Now with Tikal and Mina on her side, Rouge can now face against the remaining members of the Destructix. Her first task was finding Fiona Fox and Nic the Weasel. As the lift goes up, her mind was on ending this conflict. The echidna and mongoose were nervous inside.

Once the lift stops, they armed themselves, sneaking towards the hotel room door. Rouge came to realize that it was a secret headquarters disguised as a hotel room. It was uncertain if Gabe can escape alive. Rouge didn't care, with the other three dead, no person would care.

Mina broke the door, drawing her gun. Tikal searched the place, and Rouge stood near Mina. Nic and Fiona were just standing there. Their grins make you want to blow their faces off.

"Rouge," Nic said. "Still have a grudge-"

Rouge didn't lose it. She aimed her weapon with her arm straight. She wasn't the easiest bat to insult. "I played this game, I know to bypass your words."

"How did you find that one of your cronies died?" Mina asked.

"It was a dumb move for that shit." Fiona was glad that Flying Frog died.

"Not for me." Gabe showed up just to see the mobian responsible. "I like to know what the fuck is going on right now."

Rouge was ready to give the rundown. "Fiona Fox is the leader of the Destructix. Nic the Weasel is her lover, her motive was revenge for Nack."

Tikal brought over Drago with a gun pointing to his head. She knew Shade wasn't one of the Destructix. If she was, she would have killed her, the moment she walked in. Shade was keen into learning more.

"This place is the Destructix' headquarters," continued Rouge while eyeing on Gabe. "A rival government organisation Rejoice, hired an undercover turncoat, who by the way is one of your "pals", so they can outdo GUN."

"That won't matter, he already died," interrupted Gabe.

"Actually that was his son," corrected Nic.

"He's so pissed," remarked Drago.

Rouge continued the rundown of what just happened. "Geoffrey St. John worked with Theobald Williams and held the passengers of the subway hijacking."

"How did he capture them?" asked Gabe.

"He used a teleportation device he bought on the black market." The voice didn't come from Rouge's mouth. They all gazed at Shade, they think a lose end hasn't been tied up. "I'm pursuing St. John too."

Shade explained while she doesn't work for GUN or Rejoice, she worked in the shadows, she was the first freelance agent. She further told them she went to Council of Acorns, expecting an ambush from St. John. It was a surprise for her when Lightning Lynx came by guns blazing.

Storm detached one of the backup save drives. He connected it to one of the computers to check to see if they have the information they need. Wave detached two more drives, and made sure each have the same files.

"Just in case they catch us?" wondered Storm.

"Or if one them gets destroyed," responded Wave.

Jet knew it would be a good idea. He exited the room, searching through a nearby janitor's closet. He found to rolls of duct tape. After placing the Extreme Gears flat on the floor, they each taped the drives on the bottom.

"What if they make the gears off balance?" asked Jet.

"They're not a ton of bricks," said Storm.

Wave spotted Fiona Fox on the security monitor. She can spot Rouge's silhouette made by the ceiling light. "I believe we found the right bat to handle sensitive information."

"Do you know where she is?" Jet wanted out as much as the next creature.

"They must be in a penthouse," suggested Storm.

They gathered the Gears with the attached drives. They took the lift instead of using the Gears, fearing they might get damaged during the flight. Jet pressed the button to the highest floor. The ride was a bit unstable due to the explosion. Its structure will collapse if a big explosion occurred. Anthony watched them go, Nazo felt his undiscovered power building inside.

They slowed stepped out, the doors to the penthouse were wide open. They found Mina and Rouge pointing their guns at Nic and Fiona. Gabe was stand there, watching everything that's going on. Rushing in wasn't the correct option, the Babylon Rogues had to approach with caution. Tikal saw them coming in.

"The Babylon Rouges? Why are you in this building?" she asked.

"We have evidence of Rejoice's scheme." Jet showed her the hard drives attached to their Gears.

Fiona didn't want them to leave alive. She clicked the switch of a built-in radio she attached to herself. The recording is being broadcast to Bernard McOulen, who managed to receive it on the radio, in the car he's driving.

"Rejoice is having financial difficulties, so they join the Destructix to receive a financial boost," said Storm. "McOulen was making committing acts illegal acts so he can beat GUN."

Mina saw the three drives. "Which drive contains the evidence?"

"We just grabbed more than one in case… well you know."

Lien-Da and Julie-Su managed to arrive at the Cabfolone. McOulen suddenly drove at a high speed, he collided into their vehicle. He just dashed out the door and into the hotel. None of the GUN soldiers or any of the police forces managed to stop him. They couldn't risk shooting him, he's the head of a rival organisation after all. Lien-Da doesn't take attempted killings well. Whenever she survives, she takes a grudge on the culprit. "We have a new target."

Julie-Su didn't argue, she knew her all too well. Killing McOulen will be the only thing that will come to her mind. She followed her rival inside, only to be halted by one of the policemen. Lien-Da was almost inside and Julie-Su was only four feet away. Gunshots alerted the two echidnas. With the exception of the police cop, he barely lived to see the truth.

Julie-Su and Lien-Da chased inside, they took the lift; instead of the floor with the penthouse, they ended up meeting Nazo and Anthony. Lien-Da can only see through Nazo's emotions. Seeing the transformation of Nazo made her think that he should be used for good; using him for evil isn't the right time at the moment.

"What happened?" asked Julie-Su.

"The Babylon Rogues has evidence against Rejoice, which will expose their dirty deeds." Anthony made a quick glance at Nazo. He hated to see what happens if he gets pissed. "If there's something you know about Nazo say it now."

Lien-Da's intelligence began to show. "Nazo's power is based on the Chaos Emeralds. McOulen wants that power."

"Why couldn't he just capture Nazo?"

"He did. He picked some cell mates in a police jail after posting their bail. They were assigned to make a fake distress call so Nazo can arrive on the scene. As you may have guessed it all went wrong they got killed."

"You mean the kid was the first to be shot?" asked Julie-Su. "It could have been an accident."

Lien-Da knew she's right. It had been reported all over the news. That news story was a bigger hot topic than the demise of SWAT. In the current state they're in, the downfall of a corrupted group wasn't a major fact.

"You should know that Geoffrey St. John escaped," concluded Lien-Da.

She quickly prevented Nazo and Anthony from throwing a tantrum. She had a plan B. She showed a digital tablet with a tracker.

"Does he know he's being bugged?" Anthony wondered.

"Nanomites. Placed all over his fur while I was restraining him. All of them combined create a signal on the receiver."

"You sound like you're on our side," Julie-Su said with suspicion.

"Do want to put the Destructix to an end, or do you want Mobius go into another string of terror?" Lien-Da reminded Julie-Su the threat.

Anthony watched Nazo glowed bluish-grey. Nazo stared back, he's not the hedgehog that Anthony knew. Nazo lifted the pad out of Lien-Da's hand, he focused on the beacon. His eyes became transparent, his quills stood straight up. The blip on the tablet scrambled and stopped. None them knew what happened.

Phil Peters couldn't feel any tenser when Geoffrey St. John stopped the vehicle. The bumper almost touched his legs. He wanted to see if he could rush in and arrest him, or kill him on the spot. He waited for that skunk to make the jump. His mind went to a different place.

Geoffrey discovered that the car was tampered. He ruled out Phil Peters, because he wasn't the kind of politician who would expose himself by committing foolish acts.

Peters went deep into finding the holes in the hijacking of the subway train. He was familiar with advanced technology, both legal and illegal. He was always discreet when approaching anybody responsible for terrorist attacks.

"You're probably guessing who tampering your ride," said Peters.

"If there's any way of-"

Peters snapped, almost like he's going to attack. "Forget it, you can't tempt me. You're hanging on by a thread. No matter where you go, they will still track you down."

Geoffrey wasn't easily intimidated by Phil Peters. He didn't think of hurting or killing him. A new law passed declaring that anybody responsible for the death of a political figure, there will be a worldwide mobian-style manhunt. This also applies to killing a member of a monarch of any kind. It was passed after the killing of Hamlin Pig. "A death sentence is the last thing to occur thanks to me."

"Good thing you came unexpectedly just as I was about to put it all together. Now it comes to a decision."

"What is it that you want?"

Peters took a small step forward, his unchanged expression was still on his face. He was explaining a ploy which will make Geoffrey St. John go down along with Rejoice. "Once Bernard McOulen eliminates the Destructix, he'll put everything in his power to flush GUN down the sewer. He's been doing that ever since."

It was everything or nothing for Phil Peters.