*With Blaze and Silver, in Blaze's kingdom*
"Is this sufficient? Are you satisfied with these terms, now?" Blaze asked, sitting across from another representative from the opposing side. "Changes have been made to the bill. We can't add or get rid of any more things."
The cat across from her picked up the document and began to nod. "This will do. I'm glad we could finally come to an agreement."
The two stood up and shook hands with each other before exiting the room into a larger hall, where blood red paint stretched the pathway and covered the walls. The floor was a golden color with flame designs in the tile, and as soon as Blaze left the room, Silver joined alongside here, accompanied by three royal guards bearing assault rifles.
"We can finally put this behind us, I assume?" Blaze asked, turning to the opposing representative.
"Most definitely. We're all quite eager to move past this," The cat replied. "Well, except Malkovich."
"What about that guy?" Silver questioned, cocking his head to the left.
"He's a bit…shall we say…vengeful?" The cat continued.
"He's never had the backbone to do anything foolish before. I'm sure he won't now," The pyrokinetic stated, walking out of her palace with the two.
"I wouldn't be too sure of that," The representative stated. "Even though this is over, he still wants penance for how you treated him as well as an increase in his rank. He'd do anything to get that."
The cat walked towards the palace gates, accompanied by two armed guards. Before he left, the cat turned around and looked back at the two, making a finger-gun and pointing it at Blaze.
"Anything."
The cat pretended to fire a shot before walking out of the courtyard to the palace. The gates clanged shut behind him.
"That guy was weird," Silver stated.
"Extremelly," His girlfriend replied.
"But true!" A voice echoed from behind them.
The two heroes turned to see the three guards who escorted them out of the palace standing behind them. Two of the guards were looking at the one on the far left with confusion.
"What was that, soldier?" Blaze asked, walking up to the guard. "Did I ask for your opinion? Give you permission to speak? You think that cat's guesses were correct?"
"Yes, I do, Princess," The soldier replied, taking off his helmet and revealing Malkovich. "And I don't need your permission to speak."
Malkovich quickly drew his pistol that was latched to his waist and fired a slug into the pyrokinetic's chest before she could react. Turning to the other guards, he fired twice into their heads and began to take off towards the palace.
Blaze staggered back and crumpled to the ground, grabbing her chest and wheezing heavily. Alarms began to sound all throughout the palace as guards rushed around to different stations.
"Make sure she's fine!" Silver barked at the soldiers, running after the shooter.
The telekinetic stormed into the castle, scanning for Malkovich, but since he was dressed as a guard and there were guards running everywhere, this proved to be a challenge. Silver closed his eyes and trained his mind, rapidly scanning each soldier's thoughts.
"…get to my station…"
"Where the heck is Michael? His post is…"
"Come on, Princess. Breathe! Breath! Just…"
The last one was from a guard who was now performing CPR on Blaze. Silver snapped out of his trance, but shook it off and closed his eyes once more.
"…happened? Why're alarms ringing?"
"Top off and move out. Let's go."
"Where's my gun? Dang! Jeff better not have taken it!"
"Nobody recognizes me. Too busy getting to their stations and helping Blaze. Just need to get to a river to cover my tracks…"
The hedgehog snapped his eyes open. He'd found him, and Silver knew just where a river would be near the palace. Quite a drop, but if timed right, one could survive.
The hedgehog rose off the ground and shot down the west hall, turning corners and dodging guards. Eventually, he stopped at a place where the hall broke off into three separate wings. Silver looked around wildly, searching from Malkovich. Suddenly, he heard a door slam shut in the hall ahead of him.
Gotcha.
Silver shot down the hallway and blasted open the door, sending a surprised servant flying backwards.
"Malkovich?"
The servant shook their head wildly, scooting backwards.
The hero kicked himself mentally. Why did he assume that one sound meant that the shooter was there? The hedgehog was about to leave the room when he looked out a window and saw Malkovich running across the bridge; the one that was connected to the hall if the hedgehog would have taken a right instead of going straight. Silver thrusted his hands forward, using his mental strength to shatter the glass and soared after the gunman.
The surprised cat turned his head to see the angry hero rushing towards him, and before he could draw his gun again, he was hoisted high into the air by Silver and brought to the top of the palace, which stood at about 40,000 feet.
Malkovich narrowed his eyes at the hero, squirming in his grasp.
"You really want me to lose my grip so you can fall to your death?" Silver questioned, pinning the cat to the roof.
The shooter only grunted and attempted to pull out his pistol, but the gun was ripped from his hands and tossed aside, sliding off the roof.
"You shot my girlfriend," The grey hedgehog said, his eyes boring holes into Malkovich. "Your plan was to flee across the river? How's about you go THROUGH it instead?"
Silver picked up the attacker and floated towards the ground, submerging the cat under the rapid stream. Malkovich thrashed and struggled against Silver, but it was no use. After a few seconds, the telekinetic brought him to the surface, having his prisoner cough and gasp for air.
Silver launched the assailant behind him, sending the cat burrowing into the ground and sliding to a stop. The hedgehog got on top of the villain and began punching him in the face until Malkovich was nearly unconscious.
"I'm throwing you in a tight prison cell," Silver muttered. "Hope you're not claustrophobic."
The telekinetic hauled Malkovich down to the dungeon and tossed the cat in a cell, slamming the door shut and locking it.
After leaving the cat slowly got up and looked around his cell, surprised to find a big, burly rhino in the cell with him who bore a broken horn on his nose. The prisoner looked over at Malkovich and grinned menacingly, making the newly captured cat gulp with nervousness.
*With Blaze*
The cat slowly opened her eyes to find herself in the medical ward of the castle, lying on a bed with bandaging wrapped around her. Hearing shouts from down the hall, the hero slowly lifted her head to see Silver jog into the room.
"Hey, how're you feeling?" The hedgehog asked.
"Like I've been shot."
"Correct assumption."
"Is Malkovich…?"
Silver nodded. "He's in the dungeon, getting acquainted with a new friend."
Blaze weakly smiled in response.
"Doctors here say you were dead for fifteen seconds before they could finally revive you," The telekinetic continued. "Had me worried."
"I've got enough fire in me still," The princess reassured. "When am I discharged?"
"Well, the bullet was a clean hit. Through and through, that is. The only thing that was a danger was that it was really close to your heart and hit a vein. Lost a lot of—"
"Just tell me, Silver," Blaze cut in, rolling her eyes. "Gonna die of old age by the time you're done."
"You should be out in two days," The hero finished. "Apparently, pyrokinetic's heal fast."
After a moment of silence, Silver clasped Blaze's hands and pulled up a chair.
"What about that treaty?" The hedgehog finally asked. "It seems that the opposing side doesn't think that this bill will change anything. They thought that killing you was the only way to make this thing die."
"These are powerful people we're dealing with, Silver. I know I haven't been very open about this issue, but maybe, since you're my main escort at the moment, I should let you know what we're up against," Blaze sighed. "This act is supposed to help the middle and lower parts of my kingdom; to assist those who need help the most. In order to do this, we'd have to take more from the rich and give to the poor—a legal Robin Hood kind of stance. Big business owners, and their friends who they have in power, such as Malkovich, don't like this idea."
"And these guys have enough money to hire dangerous people such as assassins and spies to tilt the scale in their favor," Silver concluded.
"Right."
"But why now? Why is this bill happening now?" The telekinetic asked.
"The lower and middle class have asked for it."
"But why at this moment? What his gotten them so riled up that they demand change now?"
The cat scrunched her face together. "That's an excellent question."
"Maybe someone predicted this would happen and set this chain of events into motion," The hedgehog stated, standing up.
"Whoever it was, it worked, because now my kingdom is divided, with us caught in the middle. I'm afraid that a civil war is going to have to happen," The princess responded.
Silver lowered his eyebrows. "I want to do a little digging first."
*With Silver, twenty minutes later, in the poor villages of Blaze's kingdom*
As the hedgehog walked through the muddy, run-down area of the poor areas of Blaze's kingdom, he felt like he wasn't welcomed there. People peered out from behind wooden boards and clothes that stood as curtains, shopkeepers gave him dirty looks and homes were being locked up and stores shut down as Silver made his way towards the heart of the village. Eventually, he came upon the center of the area, where weeds grew up from the stones placed in the ground and a moldy, broken statue of Blaze stood. Obviously it hadn't been taken care of in years.
Everyone in that area was gone, except a young girl raccoon around the age of eight, who was playing with sticks, grass and stones in the dirt. Slowly walking up to her, Silver knelt down and tapped her on the shoulder, making the girl turn and look at him. She didn't seem afraid of him or act unfriendly, but she didn't exactly welcome his presence either.
"Ex…cuse me. I was wondering if I could talk to whoever is in charge here." Silver asked.
The girl nodded. "You wanna speak to M?"
"M?"
"Mhm. M!"
"Uh…Who's M?"
"The one in charge!" The raccoon replied, looking at him as if Silver had two heads.
"Is he the one that started this whole issue with Blaze and this bill?"
The girl nodded again. "M talks about it all the time. Everyone listens. Even me! All the children and grown-ups come to the center here and listen to him speak, but he only speaks to certain people if he wants to."
A short pause hung in the air.
"M says he doesn't like you. Or Princess Blaze," The girl stated. "He says you're traitors. Betrayers."
This is getting weird…
"M is talking to you right now?" The hero asked.
"Yeah. He doesn't wanna talk to you."
"What does this…M look like?"
The girl shrugged. "Dunno. He never shows himself, but he says true things and so we believe him."
"M!"
"WE TRUST M!"
People began to come out of their houses now, circling the hero with angry expressions.
"Any enemy of M is an enemy to us!" A villager called, grabbing a club.
"M wants what's best for us!"
Silver's hands began to glow a bright blue. "We're doing everything we can back at the palace to help you guys!"
"Which wouldn't have happened if M hadn't given us the idea!" Another villager spat.
A resounding "HOORAH" emitted from the crowd.
At the feet of Silver, the little girl began to draw a something in the mud. When she was done, a message that said "fear me" was scrawled into the ground.
"M gives you that piece of advice." The raccoon stated.
"You are one freaky child," The hedgehog stated before shooting off into the sky, heading back towards Blaze's castle.
*With Shadow and Rouge, on the outskirts of Mobius, three hours earlier*
As the phone rang, Shadow and Rouge waited for whoever was one the other end to pick up. Soon, a familiar voice answered.
"Hello? Shadow?" Tails asked.
"Yeah. Do you know Mobius is completely locked down?"
"What? No!" The fox replied. "Why?"
"Apparently so Eggman or some creations don't leave or enter. Wanna fill me in on what's going on?" Shadow seethed.
The young genius agreed and recalled the whole story, from when he and Rouge left to why Mobius was locked down. After a moment of silence, the Ultimate Life Form spoke.
"So Eggman is back. Great. I thought we shut him down a while ago."
"Apparently not. He may have taken a few things with him before he went off the grid," Tails stated. "Anyway, we need all the help we can get. We need to get this force field down, so I'll contact Sally and have Knuckles go with her while Vector, Charmy and Espio gather ingredients in here for the cure."
"And if the President doesn't power down this energy dome?" The dark hero asked.
A brief silence hung in the air.
"We need Sonic to get back in here if we're going to save Amy. If he refuses to do so on his own accord, we may have to resort to a more…creative tactic," The fox replied.
"So basically storm the area and destroy the power source?" Shadow whispered, turning away from the guards.
"Pretty much."
"Fine. What should Rouge and I do until then?"
"Keep your eyes peeled in case those things come back. Don't wanna be caught off guard. Tails, out."
Sorry there was no Sonic bit in this one, but I had to do a major update with Blaze and Silver. That all will tie in soon enough. The next chapter will be 90% Sonic. Don't worry. Now that I'm on summer vacation, updates should come more rapidly.
Leave a review with your thoughts! Please favorite and follow me/the story if you haven't already to get the updates right when they happen!
Hiatus is over.
More to come…