STH © SEGA

Sarah belongs to me, BlackPetals23. Flame and Sunny belong to Phantomask. Alicia belongs to aliciathewolf45. Thanks, guys.

~.~

Edited.

Enjoy!

Chapter Fifteen:

Game Plan

Scourge hated waiting.

Especially if it was his mate and unborn child's lives on the line. It irked him, and he suddenly knew something. Well, he knew two things. One: he would definitely rip apart whoever stole Fiona from him.

She's mine. They're both mine.

Fiona and the baby. They were his and Scourge had a sudden urge to protect them with his life. He suddenly knew what it felt like to be a father and a husband.

The second thing he learned?

He was keeping Fiona and the baby when all was said and done. When he had ripped apart whoever it was behind the kidnapping, he was taking Fiona home and keeping her safe there. Scourge was going to keep her safe while she pregnant. He would keep an eye on her and the baby from now on.

I should've been doing exactly that to begin with.

He had been cursing himself for the last half hour after Silver had disappeared to the gym room. Rouge and Shadow had gone along with Silver secretly—though the white hedgehog didn't know that. Rouge and Shadow were hopefully figuring out who was behind this mess.

Who he was going to rip apart.

"Seriously, dude, I love your enthusiasm, but please stop talking about ripping someone apart," Flame broke Scourge's train of thought.

The green hedgehog sneered at him, unaware that he had been partially muttering his thoughts out loud to the point that Manic had shivered from the gruesome thought of someone being ripped limb from limb. But it was a Scourge thing to think, Manic figured.

They waited another half hour before Rouge and Shadow showed up.

~~~.~~~

"So…They're the ones behind this?" Knuckles wasn't quite sure if he was catching onto everything. When his girlfriend, scratch that, fiancée had shown up into the room, he didn't really know what they were saying.

Shadow had his arms folded while staring at the remaining heroes and random others. "It's the girl from the fair. I'm positive of it. I never forget a face."

Manic leaned over towards Flame. "He should've been an elephant…"

"This is serious!" Shadow snapped, snarling at the young hedgehog. "There are lives in danger because of these psychos and all you're talking about is my enhanced memory, you uncultured swine!"

Flame blinked. He wasn't entirely sure about what to think about the insult. Uncultured swine? That had to have been from somewhere. The orange hedgehog just couldn't remember where exactly.

"So, if it's the girl that Silver fake proposed to," Blaze said, "Then what are we going to do and why in the hell is she of all people behind the kidnappings?"

Rouge shook her head. "I can't place it either." She shared a look with Shadow. "We've tried coming up with solutions on our way back. We tried to follow them as much as we could without being caught."

"Any ideas as to why they're doing this then?" Scourge asked, leaning back in his chair with Espio nearby—Alicia beside the chameleon. Vector was uncomfortably sitting on the bed behind the three while Charmy was on his back, leaving the crocodile to lie on his stomach and hence his lack of comfort.

"Jealousy, maybe?" Rouge said though it came as a question. "We really couldn't get out of that notion. Nothing else would make sense, I mean."

"So what's the game plan?" Flame asked.

Shadow walked closer to the middle of the large group. "We know where they headed. The good news is that our friends are still in the hotel. The bad news is that they'll be guarded by either the gym guys or the ones we saw outside the door."

"Wait, back track and explain this to us," Sunny leaned forward, clasping Manic's hand while she sat in the middle of Manic and Flame. "This doesn't make sense. So, you followed them to another room in the hotel?"

"Correct. An abandoned part of this hotel," Rouge answered.

Manic's eyebrows furrowed. "Abandoned? What part of this hotel would be deserted?"

"The kind that's under construction," Shadow replied. "Turns out there was a leakage of some sort that left the back rooms on the top building of this hotel to be out of order. How the kidnappers got a hold of the rooms is unknown. The leakage was all I got out of the lady at the desk. She seemed timid and afraid when I questioned her."

Scourge's eyes narrowed. "She could be in on it, too. These kidnappers might own the whole damn hotel for all we know."

"Hotel owners wanting to kidnap heroes?" Blaze scrunched up her nose. "It doesn't seem like a good story."

"Well, whatever their story is, it involves kidnapping us," Scourge snapped. "So, instead of asking questions, let's just save our friends."

Rouge glanced at her partner in crime (figuratively most of the time). "We were thinking about that, too. The hotel room they're in is in the back, top floor—already mentioned. Every room near that has some sort of construction note in orange on the door.

"Dan and Vince were the ones that took Silver. The cat, whatever her name was, lead the way to the hotel room. She had some sort of card she showed the two Mobians guarding the door. I suppose whatever they're doing; she might not be the head honcho.

"The two guards are armed with a gun. Utility belt had a taser and a smaller gun, possibly other gadgets we didn't see too. We can't disguise as one of them or else we'll be noticed. If the guards know they're helping Mobians kidnap the heroes of Mobius, they'll know exactly who we are."

This was where Sunny broke in, standing up a little. "Flame and I could disguise to be newcomers for training. We could sneak in using Flame's persuasion."

Shadow squinted at Flame. "You're what?"

Flame blushed and looked around the room. All eyes were on him now. "I have the power of persuasion. I've been able to do it since I was five…Yeah…My parents hate me for it sometimes."

"Wait, what happens if they do get in?" Manic asked. "They just let us in; we wipe our feet on the welcome mat and come in for tea?"

Rouge sighed. "No. We've got to take the guards out, firstly. Once the guards are out, we can get in."

"We need another distraction," Scourge blurted.

"What?" Blaze asked. Rouge nodded her head in agreement to the green hedgehog. "What does he mean, Rouge?"

"If we can get the girl and as many of the guys out of the room as possible, we have a better chance of not being detected. Just how many people of ours do we need to give up?" Rouge questioned herself. "Two should suffice. Flame and Sunny could still be under disguise to knock out the guards. After that, we need the fighters to go in just in case. That leaves The Chaotix and Alicia."

Espio stood. "I can use my invincibility to distract anyone in the hotel room that isn't on our side. Vector shall come with me, leaving Alicia and Charmy to be the bait."

"The big issue is if they'll want to kidnap Alicia and Charmy," Scourge interrupted. "They're not heroes, technically speaking."

"Neither are Sonia, Fiona, or Sarah," Flame countered. "They're taking anyone the heroes love. Anyone who will get them closer to their prime target. Alicia and Charmy will work."

The she-wolf on the ground glared up at her so called boyfriend. "Thanks for volunteering for me, honey."

Espio blinked down at her, then at Vector. "Did I do something wrong?"

Manic face palmed as Shadow ignored them and continued speaking about their plan. "So, once the fighters are in, we rescue our friends and leave."

"Sounds like an easy enough plan," Blaze purred. "But what if we run into the kidnappers with our decoys while escaping?"

Rouge frowned. "Then we fight. As long as they don't have weapons on them, which I didn't see, we'll be fine. At least, we should be."

Flame could only slump into the couch while exhaling heavily, "Goodie goodie."

Next chapter's title:

Tears of Happiness

Arrivederci!