Elemental, My Dear, Sonic Pt: 1
"And in other news today, meteorologists are baffled at the recent long surge of rainstorms the Station Square region has been having recently especially in light of no cloud systems moving into the Yucatan Peninsula recently. But now our top story, Professor Charles Throndike announced that his new speed turbine generator would be ready to install in the police team's race cars by next Friday. S-Team leader, Captain Samuel Speed said today –" The news reporter was cut off as Knuckles hit the button on the remote.
"Man, can you believe this?" the echidna grumbled in frustration sitting on the edge of the bed. "Princess Sally gives us three weeks off while the Chaotix fill in for us on special missions and we have to choose a resort town that has nothing but rain." He crossed his arms. "This vacation is turning out to be a real drip."
"You're telling me." Sonic exclaimed polishing the blue surf board he had brought with him. "I was hoping to catch some serious rays, but all this rain is leaving my weekend totally washed up."
"Y'all think that y'all got it bad, boys." Bunny commented, walking over from the adjoining room. "How can a gal get a good fur tan with all this messy drizzle going on out there?" She looked down at the new outfit she was wearing. "And I just bought this bikini just for this trip."
Both Sonic and Knuckles looked over and there eyes went wide as they both gave the same clever and intelligent response.
"Duh duh duh duh duh." The two answered, in unison.
"Y'all can put the drool back in your mouth now." She said rolling her eyes. "Leave it to male hormones to do my friends' talking for them." After composing himself, Sonic wiped a bead of sweat from his brow.
"Hey, is it just me or is anyone else think it's getting kind of hot in here?" Sonic asked.
"Well, I do have that effect on men." Bunny replied with a laugh.
"No, not you. It really does feel like an oven in here." Knuckles answered looking over at the thermostat. "The temperature looks normal. Do you think their heater might be busted?"
"It doesn't feel like it's coming from the resister." Sonic noted, walking over to the door across from the bathroom. "In fact, this closet seems to be the source of the… YOUCH!" Sonic yelled as his hand touched the closet door. "Hey, this thing is red hot."
"Let me handle it, sugarhog." Bunny replied going over and grabbing the doorknob with her cybernetic arm. Pulling the door open, she found to her surprise someone in the closet staring back at her. "Hey, y'all not gonna believe this. There's a catgirl tied up in here." Rushing over to the closet, the other two saw a familiar lavender colored feline with her arms and legs tied up and duct taped across her mouth.
"Hey, isn't that Queen Blaze?" Sonic exclaimed, not believing what he was seeing. "But what is she doing tied up and gagged in our hotel room closet."
"Gee Blaze," The red echidna answered. "I didn't know you were into that sort of thing." Immediately, Knuckles had both a hedgehog and rabbit fist punching him on either side of the head knocking him down. "Oh, I see flickies."
Helping her up, Sonic immediately untied her while Bunny tore the tape off of her lips.
"MYROW! THAT HURTS!" Blaze roared. "Thanks for getting me out of there, you three. I felt like I was going to go crazy cramped up like that."
"Tweren't nothing, Blaze girl. Happy to help y'all out." Bunny added. "But how did y'all end up in our room closet?"
"It's a long story, Miss Rabbot. I came here following a lead on the Sol Emeralds that the thief had brought them to Station Square." Blaze exclaimed, standing up and wiping herself off. "When I found out that Sonic and his friends were on vacation in the same city, I came back here to wait for the three of you. But an evil looking weasel and his two cohorts jumped me and through me into this closet."
"Sounds like the Hooligans to me." Sonic grumbled, punching his fist into his palm. "But you have the power to control fire, how on Mobius did those losers manage to overcome you."
"Well, it was…" Blaze's face turning red as she looked away. "I managed to knock the weasel's gun away and set the bear on fire when he tried to wrestle me to the ground. But the laughing grinning insane one threw a catnip bomb in my face."
"Well if Team Hooligan is involved, that must mean someone big and powerful has your Sol Emeralds." Knuckles said thoughtfully. "But there are a lot of big and powerful people who could be after your artifacts."
"Dreadboys, right. It could be anyone from Eggman to Mogul." Bunny replied.
"Let's check the closet here, where you were tied up." Knuckles replied digging him among their clothes. "Maybe Hooligan left a clue behind." After rummaging through the suitcases and towels, Knuckles found a folded up piece of paper at the bottom of the closet. "Hey, this looks like some kind of a filer or something."
"Huh, it seems to be an advertisement for the opening of the new Station Square Bright Lights Casino." Bunny noted, starting to read of the filer. "Serving both human and mobian patrons alike. The Bright Lights Casino is open to only the wealthiest and most respectable residents and visitors that Station Square has to offer."
"Well, that means not getting in." Sonic grumbled scratching the bottom of his nose with his index finger. "Me and this knucklehead are the bottom of the barrel when it comes to mobian society."
"Sonic, are you kidding me?" Blaze asked, the fur on her back tensing up. "We have a queen, a royal prince, the niece of a wealthy West Side Island aristocrat, and a proud tribal warrior. We're the cream of the crop when it comes to Mobian society."
"Yes, but we are also of known heroes traveling with the queen who is known to be looking for the Sol Emeralds." Sonic replied. "They'll see us coming from a mile away and that will be the end of our little expedition."
"Then, we are going to need to go in disguised." Blaze replied, curiously. "But what kind of disguises would get us into a casino?" Everybody thought for a moment before Sonic and Knuckles turning to stare at Bunny and Blaze with a leering gaze.
"What!? Why are y'all staring… Oh no, not again." Bunny rebuked. "Y'all aren't getting me into that outfit again. And it's below Queen Blaze's dignity."
"What? What is it?" Blaze asked. "What are you talking about? Nothing is below my dignity, if it means getting the emeralds back."
"Blaze girl, trust me there's got to be a better way to do it than this?" Bunny grumbled. "If you two are going to insist on this, I demand a coin toss to determine if it's the boys or girls this time…"
"Gee, it's a good thing we won the coin toss, Knuckles." Sonic chuckled. "I didn't even know you had that double-sided quarter on you, with the two heads."
"It's okay, it's cool, Sonic." Knuckles replied with a smile to Sonic. "Besides, I'll do anything for cheesecake." He stated as he shoved a piece of cheesecake into his mouth. The two mobians were standing on the rooftop opposite the flashing neon lights at the entrance to the casino, looking down at the customers going in and out through two sets of binoculars; Sonic had borrowed from Tails from before the trip; he told Tails that they were for him and Knuckles to go bird watching but Sonic really had another use for them.
The two kept their eyes open for some sort of signal from the girls but so far there was no indication that they had accomplished their task.
"Geez, when are they gonna get that door on the roof unlocked?" Knuckles asked, impatiently. "It feels like we've been waiting here forever."
"Give 'em some time, Knucklehead. It's been an hour." Sonic rolled his eyes. "Besides, I don't wanna think about what those poor girls are going through right now."
"I do not believe this." A feline voice growled in a dangerous tone. "When this mission is complete, I swear I'm going to kill your male companions."
"Ah, don't be too hard on them, sugar." Bunny replied sadly, shaking her head. "Besides, I want the pleasure of strangling those two carpet baggers."
"HEY YOU TWO, Don't just stand there gawking." Miss Possum yelled at the two girls. "We've got customers at tables three and four waiting on cocktails."
Bunny and Blaze had attempted to get into the casino disguised as either cooks or gambling table workers. But the only jobs open were the most degrading ones on the casino floor. The two girls were dressing in high heels fish nets and one-piece bathing suits with little bowties around their necks. Blaze glared angrily at all the men staring at her while Bunny tried to keep a smile and ignore all of the male patrons' pinning her legs and arms.
"That's thirteen drinks to one table." Blaze said in disgust. "How much booze can one lounge lizard hold?"
"Hey, pretty girl." A lizard hissed, his forked tongue going in and out of his mouth. "One more round, please. My buddies and I don't got all day."
"I'll handle this one, Blaze." Bunny groaned, tugging her uniform back into place after having it tugged on by drunks one too many times. "See if you can pick up any clues about the Sol Emeralds in the customers gossip."
Blaze picked up a tray with three martini glasses and took them over to a table where three familiar forms sat. Gritting her teeth in anger, the cat queen had to stop herself from attacking when she noticed the trio who had ambushed her in the first place.
"Wow, wow, we did a good job stopping that kitty cat from warning Sonic and his friends, huh huh?" The duck with the twitchy and spazzed-out look asked. "Miss Breezy's gonna pay us a whole ton of dough for everything we've done for her."
"That's all well and nice, Bean." The oversized polar bear declared as he first downed the martini and then ate the glass. "But what are we gonna do with all that dough? I don't wanna make bread." Blaze turned her real ears towards their conversation, grateful that the trio were too drunk to recognize her.
"Not that kind of dough, youz idiot." Nac snarled, downing another glass of booze. "We are getting a whole lot of mobiums for everything we did for that dane like gettin' the Sol Emeralds for her and tryin' to start that war between the tribes."
As soon as she heard that, Blaze turned to run back and tell Bunny the news. But as she tried to leave, Nac spoke up and started to cause trouble.
"Hey good lookin', where're you going in such a hurry." He reached out grabbing her behind. "Old Uncle Nac has a few mobiums with your name on them in exchange for a lap dance."
"MYROW!" Blaze screamed in fury turning back to face the weasel. Her eyes burned with a fiery rage. And her claws had flames shooting out of them. SWIPE SWIPE!
"AH, My face." SWIPE SWIPE! "Hey, that hurt." SWIPE SWIPE! "Oooh, sharp." The angry feline stormed off leaving a scorched and scratched trio behind her lying near unconscious in the booth.
"Nice special effects." Bean stated, before passing out.
Meanwhile on the casino floor, Bunny was already fiddling with the security controls that opened the locked door on the roof.
"Good luck, boys." She said under her breath as she threw the final switch. "I hope y'all get down here soon." Outside of the casino, Sonic and Knuckles saw the big bumper light near the sign light up.
"Hey, that's the signal." Sonic noted. "Let's get in there and help the girls." Knuckles nodded and the two of them jumped across the rooftop hitting the bumper and bouncing up to the roof of the casino. Going in the unlocked door, they ran down the stairs and found themselves in the casinos ventilation systems.
"Hey cool, this looks like the inside of a video game." Knuckles said seeing a bunch of spiked robots moving up and down in formation. "Getting through here should be a whole lot of fun."
"Those are probably the casino's security system." Sonic warned. "Just try to stay with me and don't get too cocky." The two began racing through the shaft jumping over the spiked platforms and smashing into the security robots, breaking them into tiny pieces. Energized rods fell from each one floating just above the floor where Sonic and Knuckles had destroyed them.
"Ooh, chaos drives." Knuckles exclaimed as he picked up several of the rods. "This is just what I needed."
"For what?" Sonic asked, tapping his foot impatiently.
"Oh, I'm raising a chao to be a good runner." Knuckles explained. "Gotta give Speedy a lot of the green chaos drives if I want him to be able to go fast."
"You know, why don't you just give him a bunch of mobini that we smash out of badniks?" Sonic asked scratching his head. "Those work much faster than raising their stats than chaos drives do."
"Are you kidding me? Giving them the animals makes the chao grow freaky animal parts." Knuckles replied with a look of disgust. "I don't want Speedy to have cheetah ears, a peacock's feathered tail, and seal flippers. Sounds like something that escaped from a genetics lab." Sonic stared at him.
"Sometimes Knuckles, you act even weirder than you look." He said. Resuming their journey upward, the two continued to smash robots and dodge traps. It wasn't long before they came to a large chamber filled with oriental music and strange dream like paintings on the wall.
"Whoa, what is this place?" Knuckles asked, looking around. "Looks like something out of an old Dreamcast game."
"I think we found our way into one of the casino's skill games." Sonic looked around. "I guess this is one of the kind where mobians serve as the ball."
"You got that right, intruders." A soft but commanding voice declared. "And you have no business being in one of the dreams I protect." Suddenly, an elf like figure with two purple horns flew down from the ceiling and floated in front of them.
"I don't know where you two came from but you are the freakiest nightmarens that Reala has sent in here." It stated.
"Sonic, who is this guy?" Knuckles asked. "He seems really familiar."
"I don't know, Knucklehead." Sonic replied, crunching down into a morphball but I think it's time we run. The two mobians shot away through the large pinball maze with the elf-like figure in hot pursuit. Up and down through the flippers and bumpers, the two raced, hitting the point bumpers and lighting them up.
"Sonic look, we scored over 10,000." Knuckles exclaimed unrolling from a ball and pointing up at the scoreboard.
"Not now, Knuckles." Sonic exclaimed, stopping and grabbing his arms. "We need to get out of here before…" The elf-like figure bumped into the two of them knocking them down the lost ball hole.
"Oh dear, you got rid of them before you could ask any questions." The elf-like figure sighed to himself. "Nights, you can be a real idiot sometimes."
As the two tumbled down the hole, they landed in a large room filled with security monitors and several robotic guards pointing guns at them.
"End of the road, you two. You've caused quite enough trouble in my casino." A voice called out. The two of them looked up and Sonic's eyes suddenly went wide. Green quills, heavy purple eyeliner, slinky red dress, there was only one hedgehog girl on all of Mobius who dress like that. And Sonic couldn't believe that he was seeing her again.
"He-hey, Breezy." Sonic waved nervously. "Long time, no see." Without a word, Breezy walked up to the surprised blue hedgehog leaped into the air and delivered a spinning roundhouse kick right into his skull. The blue blur was sent flying back into the opposite wall. The impression of a high-heeled shoe stuck on his forehead.
"Ow…" He groaned as he slide down the wall.
"Nice to see you, too." She answered.
"Sonic, what's going on here?" Knuckles asked. "Who is this?"
"The worst kind of monster in the universe." Sonic grumbled, rolling on the floor in pain. "Knuckles, meet my ex."