(End A/N)
Chapter 8: Dance with Roses, a taste of the Supernatural
As Wushan came to wake in the bed were he had been all he found himself doing was trying to come to, fighting the blackness as if his life depended upon it. His body was hit like a stone with the response from the overpowering enemy that held him down: exhaustion.
"Wushan, whoa...! Slow down, I just finished patching you up a few hours ago." Amy's concerned voice immediately coming to light as she put a hand on his shoulder, she hoped to calm him and explain to him what had happened.
He looked at Amy and then realized this meant one thing, the fact remaining that he lost his battle with his sister. He looked over to the bed next to him and spotted Sonic, yeah this wasn't going exactly the way that he'd been planning it the first time he put this to thought, in fact he was hoping for things to go a lot smoother than this, maybe that they'd have sealed the first of the beacons instead of having to contend with his sister over the matter.
He was already considering some things in mind and unknowingly was keeping extra quiet, he was already thinking about what he might have to be doing as this continued, this matter would deteriorate if he didn't try to get more help.
There was a lot to be considered and certainly there was nothing there that was going to let this go away, he was immediately snapped back into reality, by a concerned hand sliding up his shoulder.
"Wushan? You alright? You got real quiet, what is it?" Amy was trying to help; she wanted to help no matter what it would be when seen.
"It's nothing Amy, I'm just thinking about how bad it is for her to have activated one of the three of our Sacred Point Temples, it won't be blowing anything up, but if this keeps up all of our people will awaken " he said it and closed his eyes, looking away since only he knew just how bad this really was if all of his people had come to awaken.
"What is wrong with that? I mean is it really so bad?" she asked him, since she didn't grasp just how bad this was all together, she was hoping that there was something that could be done even if this happened that it could worked out.
He shook his head gently at her and then looked back at her, his eyes quivering a moment since it was a hard decision, this was his family that he hadn't seen in so long. It had been many centuries since he'd been in thought about this particular thing, he wanted to see them all again; those he'd trained alongside so many long years ago.
" They couldn't come to understand the overlanders the same way that animal kind has. I fear that war would be an action they'd take once they found out that humes have crossed this world whole, just the fact that they are occupying most spots of 'power' as it would be on Mobius. When my people fought to give animal-kind a better chance so long ago. They wanted to see the Humes put back in their place." He was speaking the truth of the bitterness between their peoples and then clenched a fist lightly; he was hoping he didn't still believe that in his mind.
Though he was calmed once more, by a gentle touch of Amy who rubbed his shoulder.
"It's alright Wushan, I think I understand and if your sister lights all three then your people will come to wake and she will tell them about the humes living across the world?" Amy was trying to understand the worst of the dangers here.
Wushan once more shook his head as he looked at her and then continued once before his thoughts had come to stop him from the continuing.
"Actually I fear they will try to stop her, all of my people know that Lyndia was corrupted by the hand of Hume magicks ages ago. And despite the fact they all loved her as a great warrior and a sister in arms, now she will simply be an enemy. Then she will kill old friends, family, until only those who stopped her remain. Our mother is still the strongest of all Drakehedges, she possesses the strongest will, strongest magicks, and greater power of us all." He frowned; he was remembering how easily his mother bested those humes who assaulted the main camp when her people were doing battle in the Glyph canyons.
She felled them all in one single breath and told her son, that was what she hoped his power to be, something comparable to herself and maybe Lyndia as he aged. But as his mother came to be disappointed once more, he did possess the powers of a Drakehedge but it was just so soft a flame from within that depended on his will rather than his magic. She pushed him to grow his will, today thanks to her his magicks were easily comparable to his and Lyndia's other sister; but never to the level that she wanted or expected of him.
"That's horrible, we have to keep that from happening!" Amy's surprisingly optimistic tone had him look at her with a light look, something that of course she used to smile at him and let her fingers stroke along his fist that he had been clenching hard a moment ago.
She looked at him with flushed cheeks and then drew her hand back.
"U-Um we should wait till Sonic wakes up, Tails is locating your sister and the Temple points. With the tremendous energy build-up since the first awakening of the temple, now Tails knows what to look for." She was trying to change the subject, he really was cute she found.
Though this was something that Wushan nodded to, Amy was still a little distracted by what she felt for that moment.
However Sonic awakened within the following minutes and as things were picking up, they brought Sonic up to speed on the events that were happening, how his sisters plans were to re-awaken their mother; with the side effect of awakening everyone else of their tribe.
"And the worst part is, they are too proud to accept help from humes, as we were betrayed by them first so long ago. Yeah I admit that I have a little bias, but I've learned to live with it. All people aren't that bad I know, I can trust some people and even have some friends in humes today. But leaving it at said value, the goal of coming to you Sonic and Tails is to gather your friends. I am sure you have many a soul that would move to stop this crime at hand." He said as he looked to them both, well he knew Amy had asked the two of them earlier but this was more officially of his asking her of course.
There was little to say this very moment wasn't going to be any less smoother than it had been going, Sonic gave him his trademark smirk and a thumbs up.
"Hey man, I know she's your sister but you've got the spirit, I'm with you man; let's juice. We've gotta stop this thing before it gets too bad." Sonic agreed with Wushan, and was ready to make this thing go down in the proper way that it should; with the good guys in victory.
Wushan nodded, though he was taking this action, he still in one way was torn he wanted to help Lyndia, he wanted to see his family again; for the first time in centuries he was struggling with the raw fact that he'd wanted this to work out in a way that wouldn't end in more bloodshed of his people; worse yet of his family.
He could only imagine what Lyndia was going through, being enslaved as she had been to the humes through one final curse and now trying to escape it. She was devastated by what was running through her veins, the same thing that fueled her was eventually going to run her straight into the ground and he understood that will to survive, none were stronger with it than Lyndia and he knew that.
"Damn this whole thing, must we be left to do nothing but bury one another my sister?" he said with a hiss, turning away and immediately leaving her in this place that was just not a good thing to feel or to know, what was this in life? To be driven and then to have it all fold up in your face, it really sucked and he knew that for a solid point of a fact, they were here right now weren't they? Trying to understand what was going to what was going on right now now.
Sonic gave his shoulder a light pat and then a small thumbs up.
"We'll fix this, I give you a promise that we will see that this works out for your sister and for you." Sonic's promises were never broken, the hedgehog did all he could whenever he gave a promise like this.
Wushan was smiling lightly, these friends maybe they could be his friends right? Such optimism, it was infectious and he liked it really. For once his thoughts retreated and he returned the thumbs up to his friend, giving him a look that was more of Wushan's side that Amy knew; a confident grin and a nod.
"Indeed Sonic the Hedgehog, you are a true friend; I would now like to consider you my friend, and so I will, thank you for your efforts before we go forward down this path that I know we are heading to." He said with a light nod, it was something that wasn't going to overpower him it just seemed that the mood was right back where it should have been to start with.
"Sonic! I found the temple, its good and bad, since we really need to see Knuckles, its right on Angel Island in the depths of the Hydro City Zone." Tails pointed to the doubt on the map, well yes of course it would be there.
Wushan nodded and rose, moving over to Toresule and plopping down, as he slowly took off the bloodied bandages and revealed his healed flesh.
Amy gasped a moment, was this that healing power that he spoke of earlier? This was the healing at a high point?
"W-Wow that's amazing, your better already?" Amy was looking over his chest where the claw marks had been at one point and now it seemed that things were all better on him suddenly, this was a form of incredible she had yet to witness before.
There was just enough that was going on to say that even Sonic was impressed since he knew that Wushan was as bad as he had been when they first came. Sonic had forgotten about his wounds and grunted in a bit of pain once he moved his torso, yeah his sister really did pack a wallop didn't she?
"Er...yeah I'm not exactly in great shape here." He said as he looked and gestured to the numerous patches that had been made over his body after that fight with Wushan's sister it seemed to be sure that he wasn't a match at least on the physical level he wasn't.
Without a word Wushan waved a hand in Sonic's direction, immediately sending a cold wave throughout his body. Wushan had enough rest when his sister choked him out, yeah she hadn't wanted to hurt him; yet he noticed that. She was just being nice and put him into a healing rest with that move, there was the extent of it all. Yeah it was not at all pretty but still remained to being something that was to be remembered.
"Totally awesome Wushan, I feel like new." He said as he looked to Tails. "What are we waiting for? Let's move!" he said as he moved out to the Tornado III and hopped onto the wing that was always his preferred spot, to feel the wind in his quills and the freedom and feeling of adventure.
"Alright Sonic, let's go Amy." Tails said with a light wave to Sonic, heading towards the third version of the famed biplane series.
Amy looked to Wushan on Toresule and considered the option, she wanted to ride with him this time.
"I'd like to ride with Wushan, if its alright with you?" she looked at him, hoping deep down that it would be fine of course.
He nodded to her and gestured for her to sit behind him.
"Alright!" She said as she hurried over to Toresule and slipped onto the back behind Wushan and took a hold of his waist.
Without another word, Tails shot off in the Tornado III with Toresule kicking off of the ground and following closely to the wonder of technology made by Tails.
As the flight passed by quickly, there went to be noticed the change in the air overall, it was almost noticeably a thicker atmosphere that has been taken this far after one temple awakened?
Amy clutched onto Wushan, hard to believe still that the world had been affected so much by a single temple; but it wasn't a bad feeling she found almost.
As the moment passed, she decided it was time to ask Wushan the question that was on her mind, she rubbed his back and looked over his shoulder, since he was sure that she wanted something of course.
"Wushan? I wanted to ask you, Toresule mentioned something about me being a target to your sister; why would that be?" of course she had been curious to know, though it was also running through her mind about that hidden meaning that she was sure that she'd known.
He was quiet for a moment, though he knew Toresule had the right thought, telling her this way was not what he'd had in mind for it really.
"Well what he said was right, Lyndia has probably caught your scent close to mine, from the night that we were resting together when you laid upon me and just rested with me." He was of course speaking of something that was extremely important to him inside, he felt a feeling that hadn't stirred since when he was with his last mate; it was a thing that troubled him actually.
"O-Oh, does she think that we um?" she didn't have to finish it, since he shook his head lightly at that.
"Not exactly, she believes that you are interested in me, and what's worse is that I know she'll be looking to challenge you; she wants to see if you're worthy of me." He knew this would come up, and he lightly swatted Toresule in the head with the back of his hand.
Wushan knew one thing would lead to another, so Toresule just grinned while in flight, since this had to be done; he wanted his master to be happy and have some kind of love in his life.
Amy had not said anything after that, Wushan hoped it might end there or that she might at least learn from this, not to do such a thing after the fact that Lyndia defeated both him and Sonic without much trouble. He didn't want this young girl throwing her life away for him.
"So I'd have to fight her to be near you?" she asked him again, innocently hinting at her interest in that; she was a strong willed girl and not likely to quit on anything she was interested in.
He felt his heart sink a little bit, she wasn't seriously considering was she? He was just shaking his head at her lightly, though it was more of a mental shake.
"Yes, she would test your strength according to our rites, I can tell you Amy that there would be nothing to keep her from wanting to test your mettle in combat. I am most certain she intends to hold that above my head, I know her thinking." He said this as a warning, hoping once more to show her that there was nothing easy about it.
Amy just went quiet and held onto him a little tighter without saying too much since she wanted to leave it along right now. But she nuzzled into his back, unable to keep her feelings back anymore. At least now she was certainly enjoying his company, his protectiveness since he was just too sweet. She was certain that she liked him, though now she found herself at a halfway point, a crossroads as of now she was trying to ascertain where she stood with her feelings for Sonic and her growing feelings for Wushan. She was going to give herself some time, this was nothing that she could decide so easily, she knew that she felt a lot for him; he'd treated her with respect, took her out to romantic dinner, rescued her already more than three times and all she could do was try to understand, how this was even possible that she could feel like this, it almost bothered her on a small level.
While the group was already three quarters of the way to the floating Angel Island, there was no doubt that this was not going to go very easy; since Wushan knew that his sister already knew the location of the island.
-With Knuckles
As it seemed to be that there wasn't anything but an argument already going on, the power display going on in front of the Shrine of the Master Emerald was quite the spectacle really, as Knuckles traded blows with Shadow; the two chaos users were evenly matched for the moment it seemed.
As Knuckles collided with Shadow's spinball, the powerful fist of the guardian sent Shadow into the ground, immediately creating a small crater upon the small impact that had been the result.
"That's quite enough Shadow, what the hell do you want here? I'm growing tired of asking this question, since you came onto my island!" he was furious that Shadow had come onto the island without a word of his being there and then tried to get to the Master Emerald.
Shadow emerged unscathed from the mighty blow given off by the Echidna, and simply gave him a sneer.
"I owe you no explanation Echidna, remove yourself from my sight before I get serious; I'll give you this one last chance since you've been useful in the past." He said as he glared at him, obviously not going to let this thing go on.
Knuckles scoffed at him and brought both fists up in front of him, there was no question as to his answer to that foolish demand of his, he was going to get him good and put and end to this.
"Very Well." He said as he raised his left hand and immediately summoned a plume of chaos onto his fingers and began to charge it thoroughly as he was going to let him eat a Chaos Spear.
Though a loud laugh seemed to end the conversation, the staredown; all of it coming to an end with the simple look on the face of the guardian.
Lyndia's sudden appearance wasn't anything but something to further anger the guardian, Knuckles didn't need anything else interfering with his wish to pay back Shadow.
"Get the hell off of my island lady, I don't care what you're doing here, I've got someone to play with already." Knuckles was very straight-forward with his tone and his anger, not in the mood to hold back with some pitiable bystander.
"Quite the contrary Echidna warrior, I'm here to make a request of your aid. As I can see you are one of the few Echidnas on this world and I would like to see if you are willing to let me borrow the Master Emerald." It was maybe half the reason that she was here, since the point temple was still on the island.
Shadow cast a glare at her and then looked to her.
"It's already soon to be occupied, if I were woman, I'd leave and now." The black hedgehog warned her just that once, not in the mood for another irritation either.
Knuckles ignore Shadow and looked at her. "A request? I'm sorry, as the guardian I can't let the Master Emerald out of my sight; therefore I must deny your request." He was glad she asked, but the answer wasn't going to be one for her favor at any rate, he wasn't at liberty to let anyone use the emerald for any purpose.
She gave a light nod to him and then popped her neck, unfolding her arms and glancing down at him from the air with a little sigh.
"Then I am sorry gentlemen, I will have to thrash you both and take the Master Emerald." She said it as if it were a matter of fact.
Shadow broke out with a laugh, something befitting him as he looked at her and rolled his eyes.
"You have no idea what your up against." Shadow said this while looking at this new target. "Now begone with such a foolish claim, Chaos Spear!"
Without another word further he launched the Chaos spear at her.
She batted the spear of chaos energy into the air with little effort, though found herself smiling at him, oh this was going to be fun for her; a lot more fun than she thought really.
"The joys of battle, how I have missed you but I will enjoy them with you warriors, you are warriors of a caliber unseen to this world for many ages; let us enjoy the glory!" she was hoping to enjoy this, a nice battle, maybe even a long battle against these two.
Shadow was not flabbergasted or anything, quite the contrary he was annoyed that this utter stranger treated his attack was like a joke.
"You're going to learn your place." Shadow said as he leapt at her.
Moving with incredible speed that only Shadow (or Sonic) could manage, and his fist struck home; he caught her off guard and hit her in the chest, to which he found he struck incredibly hard muscle; what he almost mistook for a wall of some metal alloy.
"A good punch, I felt that." She said as he brought her knee towards his face.
Shadow maneuvered ahead of her fast move, using his free hand to push up off of her knee, before bringing his foot over to her shoulder and bringing it down hard on her neck. The force was enough to get her attention she would indeed have fun with these two.
Lyndia turned to Knuckles and caught the first of his punches, letting the second one hit her side, while Shadow's other foot striking her chest forced her back into a stumble.
"You two are strong together, good." She was gauging them for only the moment, as off now, she wasn't going to let this continue the way it had been. Lyndia was suddenly in front of Shadow, it was a pace that surprised him, she was pretty fast.
Shadow was currently trading blows with her, blocking her punches and her kicks, while striking her with much faster blows; as there was no need to hold back anymore. Lyndia took each of the blows that Shadow was throwing her way, she was like a solid carapace; trained under the harshest conditions and absolutely built to take this combat.
Knuckles hated to join Shadow, but did end up doing so after that. Knuckles' unleashed a flurry of punches that were capable of shattering even the great walls that held together Robotropolis. And yet to this one stranger, the blows were hardly moving her. In fact he found that she was simply laughing more as the battle progressed, certainly he was glad to see she could bleed; since some of his and Shadow's combined attacks had both bruised and made her bleed.
It was almost a straight five to ten minutes of straight combat, through which neither side backed down. Trading blows, both Knuckles and Shadow both took hammering blows from Lyndia as she continued to take from them, but still neither side stopped.
"Magnificent! You two are worthy of being Drakehedge warriors, I must say that you have gone very far; maybe I should really get into this. You guys are making me sweat some now, for once I feel truly challenged." She said as she gave them a wide smile.
Shadow gave an annoyed 'hmph' and looked her in the eyes, who did this woman think she was? Certainly she was strong, but to mock the Ultimate Lifeform like this was beyond reproach, he was going to finish this and end any struggle that they might be having early on.
"This isn't a game, get off of my island!" Knuckles cut Shadow's thought short by rushing in and swinging his fists at Lyndia, at this point packing greater strength in them than he had before.
It seemed that his anger was getting the better of him, he couldn't believe this female was suddenly so strong; what the hell was a Drakehedge, he was being compared to them, and she was still standing after he'd hit her a lot more times than many other opponents have taken blows. So yeah, it was easy to understand that he was a bit bugged, what the hell was this?
As Lyndia was caught off for a moment, she felt the delectable pain race through her gut once he struck her, though she'd caught his other fist, she felt the force and grinned more. Maybe she should make him furious then? If his strength had increased this much, then she needed to get him utterly pissed off; she wanted to see him explode with rage and anger.
There was a growing moment of her excitement, once the black hedgehog shot into the air and leapt back over to the discarded Emerald that he had used in the past.
"Energizing with Chaos? Most interesting, I wonder if one of those fabled emeralds in your possession can make you more powerful." Lyndia wasn't mocking him, oh no quite the contrary.
She'd never seen a Chaos Emerald in action and was suddenly looking forward to it; this until she felt a forceful blow to her back, something that made her fly forward, the combination felt like two hits at once this was the famed spinball attack from Sonic the Hedgehog? As she fell she saw two spinball forms flipping in midair, she smiled as she noticed this; her brother was one of the two.
Before she hit the ground, she broke into a nice tumble and rolled along the ground a few times before raising onto her knee.
"Ah Sonic and my brother, refreshing to know you both are alright, and back so soon, I'm glad that you two are so adamant." Her eyes soon casting to the landing Toresule, on the scent of the one who was still on his back, this was who she was waiting to see and meet.
She locked eyes with Amy Rose in that moment, casting something of a knowing look on her face, a light smirk and then as she dusted herself off and stood up shortly following this moment.
Amy looked at her with a confused look, did she know this woman? She was in awe at the fact that she was so powerful looking, it of course didn't her to see that she was well filled out; she noticed that she had a body to kill for really; but she wasn't going to let it cloud her mind's judgment.
"Amy Rose, the one who's scent I smell on my brother; a pleasure to meet the person with whom I will soon fight." She said it with an elevated moment of joy, Lyndia was reading all the signs the way she found them.
Amy gasped at the words, she was going to directly challenge her with so many opponents before her? Was she really that important?
"Hey Lady, you can't fight her until you've gone through me." Sonic was moving to protect Amy without question, though Wushan knew what she was speaking of and the nature of the moment was awkward for him.
She looked to Sonic and gave a light grin before she stepped forward, her body growing more muscular as she stepped forward, she was upping the ante since there were now 4 opponents against her.
"Very well Sonic, I will defeat you, my brother, this proud echidna warrior , and the Ultimate Lifeform as he calls himself." She knew their names, but was musing over the fact that she knew they thought she didn't know them.
Without a word, she made the first move and clotheslined her brother, noticeably moving faster than she had been; she dropped him to the ground and turned to block a punch from Knuckles with her forearm, before pushing back against him with enough force to match him.
Shadow nailed her in the upperback and got her attention, while she turned and took another kick to the chin, she ignored the blow and slammed her head directly into Shadow's stomach, as if she were an immovable pillar of strength, she showed immense strength by forcing the black hedgehog to the ground with the blow.
She was soon realizing how difficult this would be when Sonic clipped her cheek with his heel; she returned the favor by belting him in the stomach with her right fist, shooting him back into the grass while she backed off a moment.
"Truly impressive, even without your help brother, they are certainly powerful as a trio." Lyndia spat some blood from her lips to the ground and popped her neck.
She decided that she couldn't play anymore and turning quickly, she darted into the woods, leaving all stunned but Wushan who immediately shot off after her.
"She's trying to activate the sacred point temple beacon, Come Sonic!" Wushan yelled as he disappeared into the blush, moving as quickly as his body could manage, she hit him with her elevated strength, which stunned him greatly, he was amazed by her power even to this day, but he had to stop her from activating this. If this became active, he was certain that Lana would awaken, there was no way she could not. Her twin was active and he had been awake for some time now; he undoubtably going to regret not having stopped her if he could.
Sonic followed without question and left Shadow and Knuckles there with Amy and Tails, the blue blur was gone quickly; tracking his new ally and now trying to catch his sister.
-With Knuckles and Co.
"What the hell's going on here Tails? What's all this about? You would be one to know." He looked to the two tailed fox who was more often a friend, just as Amy was.
"Well Knuckles it's a long story, but I'll give you the quick version." Tails was going to cover the gist of things, for him and Shadow very quickly, time was of the essence and they needed to act quickly.
He covered all the things of importance: That female was Wushan's eldest sister, she was infected with a powerful dark magic, if she activated the three sacred point temples that her mother would awaken; her mother awakening would be a very bad thing potentially, that they still didn't know what the arcane magicks were trying to do by commanding Lyndia to do these things.
Shadow gave a little snort and looked at them.
"The only reason why I'm going to stop her is because she's after Chaos Emeralds, nothing else of this matter interests me. Now simply put, the best way to put this to an end, is through Chaos Control!" he commanded the green emerald in his hand to activate and so it did without question to Shadow's command, taking the black hedgehog and sending him off towards Sonic's energy; as he knew the blue faker would have found her by now.
"Knuckles, well not that's more clear I'll give you guys a hand." The guardian now understanding things decided it best to help them for the sake of the planet and of course for the sake of the Master Emerald.
Though everything went alright, Amy was trying to grasp why she wanted to fight her? What was it that made her suddenly the focus?
'You care about him don't you?' a small voice whispered.
'Who are you? Do you know why she is after me?' Amy's mind was quick to ask this strange voice without question.
'Yes that is the reason, do you want power to fight her?' the voice whispered once again.
'Power? Why?' she asked the voice.
'You want to fight for him, you need that to save your heart and soul from her.' The voice whispered to her again.
'I I want some power.' Amy was being as true as she could to herself, she never liked being so far behind the others. She didn't know what this voice was, it didn't sound all that good; but maybe it would help her.
The voice acted quickly, once she had given the permission, the voice zapped her from the woods; the magicks of the Sacred Temple were asking her to trust them.
Without any understanding, Amy was being exposed to the newly awakened Temple's magicks; there a powerful burst flowing through her body, she felt her muscles grow in strength, while her body had not been straining wildly out, the magicks were suddenly changing her.
Even her tail grew, she felt more awake no more aware, the power flowing through her was tremendous. Her fear and hesitation? Both faded to nothing, she was energized by the power she needed, she'd grown maybe 4 inches and felt for a lack of better terms; powerful.
But she also knew that the others had failed to stop her, instinctually Amy now knew what Lyndia was doing and what had to be done to stop her.
As all of this unfolded before the eyes of one curious bat, she had to say this little drama was really turning into quite the adventure; just what the hell did this mean as a whole? She wasn't really sure.
"Looks like I've got some searching to do." The surly bat pulled back and spread her wings, taking off into the hanging sunlight; off to search for this third sacred point, luckily she had just the tools she needed.
(End Chapter)
Well I hope this confused you, don't worry its supposed to. And if you understand it all, then awesome.
I will say that yes, Amy will be a bit stronger, bigger, though for the sake of my being realistic about one thing. While Lyndia is not unbeatable, she is still the best warrior of her people; stronger than her brother (who isn't exactly a wimp) and individually stronger than Knuckles (without using any of his power) and Shadow (without him getting serious), its to say that she'll be trouble enough with all of the magic and strength she has inside to say the least.
So I do hope none of you mind that little fight early on, its necessary to make a good tale; besides things are about to get far more exciting. Still as Amy's feelings become stronger for Wushan, this will be her trial, and yes I still plan for Rouge to be in the race for his heart; the next chapter will reveal all.
Until then, I bid you all adieu
-Quentix