Chapter 7: The one hazard the hazard perception test missed.
Special thanks to Shadowphantom8, Supersaiyanfever and guest for their awesome review that motivate me to keep this story going. All of you are epic people, and you all rock.
I think Maria looks a lot like a Yu-Gi-Oh character. I mean think about it, she's got the same zipped jacket and skirt that a lot of the girls on Yu-Gi-Oh wear, and she's super smart and likes to cheer for her friends.
50 years in the future: Modern day USA.
Christopher's point of view.
If you're reading this, then it means that you most likely despise me along with everyone else in Station Square.
Who wouldn't? I don't blame you. After all, I'm not the speedy blue hedgehog who's saved the world from destruction more times than anyone can count.
Or maybe that's just a pathetic excuse used by the furious mob to justify looting the mansion that mum, dad and grandpa worked so hard to afford for me, before razing it to the ground in a storm of burning fire until nothing but ash remained.
I guess this is the thanks I deserved for rescuing a drowning alien hedgehog from my swimming pool, and putting my life on the line to help him track down the rest of his friends one by one. But why?
Perhaps it was true that I was not the most likeable chap around. I couldn't match my three truly wonderful friends in any of the things they were talented at. Frances with her breathtaking agility and acrobatics. Danny with his titanic upper body strength and his hulking bundle of chest muscles which would send even Mike Tyson into a hysterical fright.
And last but not least Helen, with her...her ability to be more irresistibly loveable and adoreable than any other human being on this Earth. Who gave me my reason to live after I had lost nearly everything.
Loneliness is a more serious problem than most people will give it credit for. This is why so many people think lowly of me for wanting more attention despite my seemingly incredibly priviliged and cushy lifestyle. But what they don't know is that no material luxuries, no gourmet meals and no fancy swimming pool in my backyard can curb the mental strife that can only be caused by a cold and empty childhood devoid of either my lovely mum and my brave and devoted dad.
Secretly, I suffer from clinical depression. It was diagnosed by Mr Stewart; my eccentric and caring new homeroom teacher who had arrived to replace our old class teacher under mysterious circumstances.
Unlike most illnesses, my depression cannot be cured with medicine or tablets. Nor can it be ignored by simply riding around in a wheelchair, like how Helen can at least move around despite her bad legs.
The disease that I suffer from; truly has no known cure.
This is not an exaggeration or a euphamism or a joke. My depression is as serious a problem as any flu or cancer or any of the other more well-known medical conditions whose symptoms are readily noticeable.
My depression makes it very difficult for me to open up to people, or to trust them. And when I do trust anyone, it's usually because they're a dishonest and cunning charlatan who's tricked me into dropping my usually solid guard down. Like how Dr Eggman; mine and Sonic's sworn enemy nearly convinced me to give up the Chaos emerald that determined the very safety of my world.
It causes me to put a very unhealthy distance between myself and everyone I know. Including the very people I've decided to call my friends. This is why I did not learn to properly express my appreciation towards my three friends from Station Square elementary until some time after Sonic's departure.
But reflecting on past events is not going to change them. There's no use looking back or wondering. All this I know, but still I can't find ways to completely forget the truly amazing time that I spent with Sonic and his friends. Although to be completely honest, I always felt the closest connection with his pink hedgehog girlfriend Amy out of Sonic's entire gang of sentient animals.
We were both hostages lucky enough to be saved from terrible danger by none other than Sonic himself, and we both felt that forever was too short a time to spend with the speedy blue blur whose very life purpose revolved around going fast and never stopping for anything or anyone.
Six years ago, Sonic left. Three years ago, G.U.N began their brutal lockdown in which they planned to fully militarize every country, starting from the expensive grandeur first world and ending with the poorest slum in the third world. Two years ago, I finally found a way to make it possible for my beloved wife Helen to walk using the wonderful art of science, and began work on a special device which aimed to utilize a broken shard of a chaos emerald that was so tiny that I could barely see it when holding it between my two fingers.
I wanted to fulfil the promise that I had made to Sonic, in which I would one day travel to his world to visit him along with my three friends together. Now just two, because the unforgiveable creeps at G.U.N took Danny away with them. I also wished to be able for mum, dad and grandpa to come to, along with my amazing servants Ella and Mr Tanaka. But they too, were absorbed into G.U.N's brutal regime and truly democratic regime
A truly democratic regime elected by the absolute majority of America's population. The absolute majority that G.U.N decided to keep alive, at least.
I had plenty of warning that this doomsday situation would arise. Three years after Sonic left this world and one year before G.U.N's sudden uprising, a strange new hedgehog who looked like a cross-breed between Sonic and Shadow visited me briefly. He wore strange golden cuffs which were similar yet different to Shadow's power limiters, and he had a demeanour that was neither as laid-back as Sonic's nor as ferocious as Shadow's.
He introduced himself as Silver, and told me that his time here was extremely brief since it would disrupt the flow of time and space for him to stay any longer than a few fleeting moments.
He warned me that it fell to me to repair the catacyclam that would unfold in a little less than a year after our meeting, and confirmed to me that it was indeed possible to travel through time and space with the correct preparations.
"This will be the only way that my future and yours can be saved. The enemy that will soon ravage you and all those you hold dear, can be overcome by no army in the world. For they will become the only army, and crush all others without resistance. Fear the watchman, Christopher Thorndyke, you are a worthy heir of the Thorndyke family. But ponder in complex detail this one query. I beg of you. If the watchmen watch us? Who watches them?"
I opened my dry mouth to probe him further for information, but he merely cut me off and continued his cryptic warning.
"All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you. The only lasting truth; is change. The past is NEVER dead, it's NOT even past."
Then Silver disappeared, in a blinding flash of white light. Before I could summon either of my servants, or wake my parents or call my friends from their houses to tell them that a silver hedgehog had contacted me in the dead of night while talking in riddles that I could not for the life of me piece together, even with much help from my friends and family who understood Silver's confusing words no better than me.
But it all made perfect sense now that it was too late to do anything other than the crazy thing I was about to do. "The past" was a metaphor for the earlier time period I had configured my time machine to travel to, and "the watchmen" could represent no other than G.U.N.
Why did time travelling geniuses have to be so insufferably difficult to understand? I had seen this cliche too many times in bad science fiction films to find it anything other than annoying. I had the feeling that had Sonic, Shadow and Silver met somehow; none of them would get on with each other.
All this however was a discussion for another time.
For as I continued to carefully tap the newly installed buttons inside my old family limousine which I had retitled "Delorean 2.0" after one of the few science fiction movies I actually enjoyed watching, the loud crunch of footsteps against mud and sticks could be heard from above us.
"Hurry up Chris! It's now or never!" the hot-blooded Mexican redhead Frances calls out from her position in a backseat behind my place in the driver's seat.
"I'm trying. I'm doing what I can." I reply back desperately, as the weak purring of the engine starts to strengthen ever so slightly with each button that I tap. One wrong tap, and we could be transported instead to a very, very bad time.
"What's taking so long? Chris. They're going to get in here any second now. Please. Do something." My beautiful and newly wed wife Helen cries from her position riding shotgun right beside me.
"I'm honestly doing my best Helen. Please. You gotta believe me. My tests showed it should work. It should work." Then all my desperation became anger and the anger went to my head. My big, fat and empty head.
"Now work you damn thing. WORK! For crying out loud! WORK! WORK!"
Then I started to hammer the steering wheel with both my incredibly tired arms, crying out like a madman.
Then the sound of exploding metal deafened my ears, and transformed all my anger into regretful grief.
"I'm sorry Helen. I'm sorry Frances" I wept as the footsteps from upstairs got ever louder. "They're down here. Let's get em." I hear a deep and throaty voice rumble."
"It's alright Chris. You did your best" Helen tries warmly to comfort me by putting her hand on my shaking shoulder, but I shake her off and choose to look away from her out my window instead.
"I'm sorry, mum and dad. I'm sorry, Ella and Tanaka. Sonic and Tails and Knuckles and Amy. Cream and Cheese. Shadow and Rouge and Silver. I've let all of you down."
Then I curled into the fetal position of a newborn infant, and bawled out so loudly that I made the cabin of my failed time-machine shake.
There was no chance that we'd survive whatever G.U.N had in store for us. Even if they decided to spare us and enslave us into their work camps, we had all made vows that we'd kill ourselves before they could.
"Kill me Frances." I pleaded, still not looking up from my hunched position with my head on the steering wheel. "Kill us all. Shoot all of us quickly so that G.U.N can't capture us. I'll sooner die than give up my freedom and human rights."
Frances' point of view.
From the day we took shelter in this den that still reeked of a thousand wicked deeds of pure evil, I had become a paranoid wreck. So much so, that I made it a point to always keep my Desert-Eagle pistol fully loaded and beneath my pillow even when I slept.
I was hence fully prepared for the dreadful request made to me by the first pure-hearted American to ever open his heart to me ever since I set foot in this discriminating land of complete and utter hypocrisy. Everyone loathed me as if I were no better than a slimy worm when I was first forced to flee to Station Square with my family to escape the massive war ravaging my warm and welcoming homeland.
Everything about me; everyone derided. From my outlandish accent, to my yellow skin which was not completely white and therefore marked me as not a true Caucasian.
So everyone teased me, threw stones at me and roughed me up to take my lunch money.
Every person. From my school homeroom, to the sidewalk I shared with the disabled blonde who'd soon become my second friend besides the one boy who saw my hand to mouth existence, and actually decided to help me.
The instances in which Chris intervened in such a way as to make me owe him my very life are many and varied. My memory is short, and so I cannot recall the exact circumstances behind the first time I vowed to myself that I would defend Chris's life to my last breath.
I'll instead state the obvious fact that every single one of Chris's enemies seems to ignore when choosing to attack him for his selective nature in choosing a blue hedgehog as his new friend. I'm a Mexican and Danny is an Ethiopian. We're both minorities whose very presence offends the white skinned citizens that make up the bulk of the USA.
Chris's decision to befriend us instead of leaving us by the wayside, costs him dearly.
His job opportunites and social circles are both made smaller by the two of us. So Chris likes blue. But he also loves the other colors. Colors aren't a barrier to friendship for Chris. He is beyond such shallow superficialities, and he has my eternal gratitude for his kind soul.
It was with all this gratitude in mind, that when I managed to draw my gun; my hand started jerking uncontrollably. My usually steady trigger finger completely fumbled, and my eyes quickly became as wet as the deepest ocean.
"I can't do it Chris. I can't kill you. Just how can I kill the only two people who mean anything to me in this world?"
"Do it Frances. That's an order! You can leave Helen and yourself alive and I won't begrudge you. But I don't deserve to live. I'm the reason you're all in this terrible mess and you should hate me for it." He shouted with surprising anger, uncharacteristic of such a demure and peaceful young man.
"Please just kill me. If you don't, G.U.N will just do it anyway. You and Helen will be treated well by them, I'm sure. Helen can just pretend to still be unable to walk, and G.U.N will understand that they can't work her too hard. You can say that without you, Helen can't take care of herself. G.U.N will let you off the hook too. Just shoot me. G.U.N will be grateful to you both for getting rid of me. It's me they really want."
I unbuckled my seatbelt with my hand that wasn't holding my loaded gun, and then leaned forward so that Chris could see the entirety of my face from where he now sat.
Tears were still blurring my vision, but I still managed to pull myself together and crack a light grin as I shook my head defiantly for both Chris and Helen to see.
"You're perfectly right Chris. As you always are. G.U.N will be very pleased with me for helping them take down one of their innocent targets on their completely insane list."
Chris began to smile eagerly with my every syllable. He was very clearly not all there, and deeply excited by the prospect of an imminent death that would release him from all his pain and suffering.
"Their approval, would disgust me. It would go against everything I stand for, and everything you've taught me to stand for after you gave me a purpose to live." I continued, not caring at all about the increasingly heavy footsteps searching the floor above us.
"And a life without you would mean nothing to me, Chris." Helen chimed in. "We made a vow that we would stay with each other for better or for worse. In both sickness and in health. How can you ask me to accept a life in which you just give up? That's no good. The only reason I've kept going as long as I have now in this cramped and oppresive bunker is because I had you, Chris. So screw G.U.N and any benefits they could give me. I'm not even disabled anymore, and I'm not going to act like I still am. I don't need their pity."
"I was the one who officiated those vows between the two of you, and I'm not just going to let you break them now. Marriage vows are sacred, and you both knew that when you asked me to be your priest." I finished, continuing to lean forward so that Chris could not help but meet my fiery gaze of blazing passion.
Then I jerked my head back and with one smooth motion, flung upon the rear car door nearest to me, holding onto my prized pistol all the while.
"Where are you going Frances? If you go up there, you'll be shot before you've gone a yard." Chris anxiously asked, trying and failing to prevent me from opening the door by pressing the "lock door" button" a second too late.
"I will hold them off" I insisted. "I can't promise that I'll make it out alive, but I can vow from the bottom of my heart that I'll slaughter an entire squad of their best men before I go down. You keep trying to get the time machine working, Chris and then you and Helen go on without me."
"Frances, no! No! No-hoh-hoh" Chris sobbed with a painful sniff. "Please don't do this. We've already lost Danny, and now you! Please stay!"
I shook my head once again as I jumped out of the vehicle, shutting the door behind me as I did so. "Change the past, Chris. Just like Silver told you, like he told us. Make the right decisions, and you will create a new and better timeline where I still exist. Perhaps not the same, but even better. Just keep your wife Helen safe. Look after her for me since I'll no longer be able to, and she's all yours now."
"Frances!" Chris shouts as he bolts out of his seat and out the fancy but badly worn car to try and stop me. He lunges forward to try and grab me, and I simply jump backwards to leave him gripping only air.
"You will be a wonderful husband, Chris. There's no need to worry. Now, get that time machine working. You don't have much time. If you really still consider me a friend like you did when we met each other as kids, then leave me and go."
My voice becomes wracked with the most bitter sorrow as I give him a light shove backward, knowing that he'll never stop trying to restrain me otherwise and that there may be but seconds prior to G.U.N entering this chamber.
"GO! Before I denounce you and everything you stand for. Go back to the past like that silver hedgehog told you, and do what you must. Know that I will always live on in yours and Helen's memories and that you are better than you think you are."
Before he could protest or try to grab me once again, I shot out of the room as quickly as my legs would carry me and hastily charged up the metal staircase to the floor above. The floor which contained all the bedrooms and living quarters which the soldiers chasing us would no doubt still be searching intently.
For my sacrifice to have any value, I needed to act immediately.
Molly's point of view.
Ship's log: 2346.
I'm losing all hope. It is all useless. Even after Shadow helped expose Leon; the traitor in our midst, our war with the Metarex went completely south.
I promised to keep fighting. To find the source of where the all-powerful alien group now laying total control of every planet in the universe keep coming from.
The Metarex are merciless. Every planet they capture, they strip completely clean of life before quickly moving onto their next target. They despise all living things made of flesh and not plant life, which unfortunately includes humans.
Humans such as myself.
I've been drifting from planet to planet ever since leaving my hero Shadow. Or as I and I alone prefer to call him from the fairy stories my adoptive father used to read to me every night to help me drift away into the realm of dreams "Black wind".
Black wind was the hero in the stories. The grand arbiter. The bringer of hope. The defender of the helpless. The hero of the innocent and the bane of all evil.
Black wind and his equally heroic entourage gave my doomed planet Cascade its final chance at life. Even after Leon sold us out to the Metarex commander Pale Bayleaf, Shadow and his dependable comrades Rouge the bat and Dr Eggman the wise stayed true to our cause and delivered us from the evil clutches of Pale Bayleaf; who was never going to give us peace no matter what his undercover agent Leon did for him.
How long have I been running since I so cruelly and coldly abandoned my hero to his fate? Scurrying through the vast emptiness of space like a rat in a maze. Months? Years? I don't know. My Spaceship's warp engine which allows it to exceed even the speed of light itself, really messes with my perception of the passage of time sometimes.
I've lost track. Not just of time, but of my ideals and goals. A small part of me remembers that it's the Metarex high emperor "Dark Oak" that I seek, but eventually I will forget even this key fact when my final shreds of lucidity dim out.
Oh look. Another planet just below my rapidly failing ship, which will soon run out of both food and fuel. This one seems to be a mixture of green and blue. Strange... Very strange...
My ships computer reads the planet's air composition to be about 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen and 1% a mixture of numerous other substances too many to list, with 0.8% mostly comprising of the Noble gas Argon.
21% Oxygen seems wonderful for supporting life. As does the planet's temperature, which ranges conveniently from -60 degrees centigrade at it's southernmost area made entirely out of ice which can be easily avoided, up to a warm but not overbearing peak temperature of 35 degrees at the lush green area at its centre.
Why do these values seem familiar? Why does the big, bright star which seems to be the heat source providing that planet and the eight other planets in this solar system with their heat and light, seem like something I've seen before?
Think Molly. Think. You're a space captain and twenty one years old. Three years over the age of maturity. Act like your age and position. Be logical. Take another look at the computer if you must.
I click a button beside a visual diagram of the planet on my ship's computer reading "more information". Perhaps there's something in that section that's been revealed by the brief customary scan which my computer always conducts when it's within range of any interstellar object large enough to be classed as a planet, which isn't displayed in the "Key data" section I'm now perusing.
Grrr. Loading. I can't stand loading times. Can this thing not load any quicker. The Metarex are claiming more innocent human lives with every second this thing takes to...
Wait. That's it. It's loaded. Finally. About time.
So let's see here. Planet name...
Earth.
Planet name Earth!?
No. There must be some mistake. There's just no way. I mean yes, the small red planet just a short distance from the big blue and green planet I'm just above looks awfully like Mars, and the pretty hot star I see shining brightly in the distance could certainly be the sun.
But surely I haven't travelled so far from Cascade all without noticing just how much distance I've covered. Now let's be reasonable. Let's just refresh the page and see...
That the big blue planet with an ideal atmosphere for supporting human life is called Earth. With a diameter a little over 12,000KM.
Oh happy day. Oh thank the heavens. My firm belief in Black Wind's awesome power and my divinations have led me all the way back to the crade of humanity itself. The planet where our young yet ambitious and resourceful race orignated.
But mostly importantly, it is where another Cascadian that shares both my ancestry and bloodline is currently residing. One that I've seen from a still functioning old satellite that we erected some time ago to orbit Earth, so we could keep up to date with the progress of the home planet which Cascade originated from.
There exists in many ancestry records ludicrous and far-fetched relationships; which are more watered down than fresh spring water. Fifth-cousin eight times removed. Seventh uncle ten times removed.
Then there's "first cousin once removed". Which is the intimate and heartwarming relationship shared by myself and my first cousin Frances. Who I've heard about but never seen. My great grandfather Sora, was a space-traveller with an insatiable wanderlust. He discovered the faster-than-light warp drive system which allowed him to hop across galaxies, where he started many families and fathered many children before departing to continue his life of endless adventures.
It is through him that I have a distant but still legitimate relationship with the daughter of the beautiful, honest and responsible reporter known as Scarlet Garcia. Who I've also heard about, but never seen.
One aspect about us Cascadians, is that we take a vested interest in geneology. We also take great pains to protect the other human inhabited planets who cannot protect themselves. We are a people of faith. Faith meaning peace, where the strong shield the weak as all things fair should be.
The spaceship has nearly run out of fuel. If I don't land soon, then I'll be left drifting until either I starve or the ship's Oxygen tanks run out and sufficate me. I would have landed anyway; to warn Earth that the greedy Metarex have their sights set on it as their next target.
"Emergency Landing Protocol activated. Landing in approximately 30 minutes." The ship's computer responds as I pull the switches and levers that will begin the process of slowly bringing my ship down to touch down on Earth's crust in an area I've confirmed to be reasonably safe and away from any major cities which my landing could damage.
Ordinarily, I'm a strict partisan of pacifism and peace. But my recent scuffles with the Metarex and the traitor Leon have taught me that caution must always be advised. If I die today, I'll never see my beloved hero Black Wind again and that wouldn't do.
I put on my suit of Ceramic armor, tested to easily withstand even a bolt-action Rifle bullet. Then I head to the weapons room to arm myself with my weapon of choice for whatever hostile encounters I may face as an unfamiliar newcomer to a planet that has morphed into a highly dangerous warzone, according to the other Cascadians.
I choose a Plasma rifle. A larger, stockier and far more dependable version of the plasma pistol I had used in my battles alongside Black Wind, or simply Shadow as he personally prefers to be called.
At last it is time to head to my Spaceship's garage. Where I take a few minutes to check over the all-terrain buggy I've titled "The Igelkott" which is Swedish for "the Hedgehog".
It's a three passenger vehicle, which passes through sand and mud as if they were no different to a paved tarmac road, and it even contains a spacious boot which in a pinch can fit a fourth passenger with it's open-topped design.
With all my equipment well-prepared, I sit down beside the Igelkott with my legs crossed in a half-lotus shape and begin to meditate with closed eyes.
50 years in the past. Japan.
Maria's point of view.
I woke up to the sound of a viciously roaring engine whose loudness had skyrocketed to the point of almost piercing my eardrums.
The noise that ensued afterwards however, actually shattered my eardrums.
For Tea, the cool-headed, calm and collected driver of the motorcycle that I was having such a great time riding in, had began once more to emit wails of damnation that I felt for certain could shatter apart the ARK's reinforced metal hull.
"What's wrong, Tea?" I anxiously asked, rubbing my eyes a little to shake them from the slightly sleepy state they were still in after my brief nap.
"It's. It's. It's him." She replied, continuing to increase speed along the incredibly narrow and curvy road we were speeding down. "H, him."
"Who? Is it G.U.N? Have they caught us?" I anxiously asked as I felt my stomach begin to churn up from the sheer speed of the ride that had until now been so pleasurable.
"N, no. Maria. It's worse. Far, far worse. The destroyer of friendships and the breaker of hope is right behind us. We cannot let him catch us or the worst fate imaginable will await us both." Tea very timidly squeaked, as she struggled to grip onto the bars of the motorcycle herself.
Knowing that any further conversation would only lead to a fatal crash, I decided instead to turn around to see just what kind of sinister character could possibly be so frightening so as to make a fearless scholar break.
My blood froze to ice almost immediately. For tailing us effortlessly despite all the speed that Tea was using to try and lose our pursuers, was a high-end sports car painted purple-blue with a red flame pattern. Inside the sports car along with an entire squadron of large uniformed men who were almost impossible to distinguish from G.U.N's agents, was the one Yu-Gi-Oh character that I hoped to have nothing to do with.
For there was nothing redeeming in his rule, nor pleasant in either his words or actions. A blight upon his planet who grudged everyone their good fortune.
"I've got you now. Tea!" The tall and incredibly thin teenage man in the rough lilac leather jacket, slightly ripped jeans and black tank top mockingly jeered, as he easily continued to match speed with our motorcycle which Tea was now pushing to its absolute limits.
"Seto! NO!" Tea very anxiously shrieked, as she barely avoided veering off a ravine just in front of us, by turning left at the last possible second. This mountain road was very curvy, and the ravine that was all around us looked bottomless. Even with my helmet that Tea had so kindly provided me, I very much doubted I'd survive a fall of such magnitude.
"You will be all mine. Tea. You will make a truly priceless addition to my personal harem. You're going to look good on my mantle. Do not bother trying to escape this time. Your useless and fake friend Yugi, and that pretender King Atem cannot save you this time." The thin man named Seto threatened as he nigh-effortlessly followed us despite the many turns and twists we were just barely managing to take at such high speeds.
"Y, you don't own me Seto. I'm not just one of your many toys." Tea replied, as she clung to the handlebars of her motorcycle for dear life and tried to accelerate her motorcycle further but to no avail.
We were already going as fast as we were able, and nearly getting ourselves killed because of it.
"Oh but you are. Once a Kayaba-land employee. Always a Kayaba-land employee. I have a special opening at my emporium just for you, Tea. It's been left open since the day you so coldly left to be with that pathetic little worm Yugi and all his other miscreants." Kayaba purred with feigned affection, his voice becoming more menacing and unbearable with his every syllable that he seemed to chew before spitting out.
"You wouldn't want to disappoint little old me, now would you? Tea? Why don't you just stop right now and come with me. Then maybe I'll spare that wanted criminal that you're trying to shelter from rightful justice."
"You leave Maria out of this, Seto. She's not a criminal. She's the most kind, sweet and pure person I've ever met, and she's my new best friend because she risked her neck for me."
Wow. Just wow. Someone apart from Shadow now actually considered my their best friend. That was the most sincere compliment I had ever been given.
"You can't hide from the truth, Tea. You know that by hiding her from the authorities, you are only sheltering a wanted felon from justice. Yet, I thought you were a squeaky clean, law-abiding goody-two-shoes Tea. I guess I completely misjudged you."
We were going too quickly for me to clearly see everything around me any longer. I knew that Tea by her own admission was an ace driver, but I also knew that if she kept this speed up then she was bound to make a mistake eventually which would end with a fatal fall for both of us.
I also knew from what I had learned about "Seto" in the same game that I learned about Tea; that he could not resist a good gamble. If presented with any bold and risky opportunity where the prize for victory was attractive enough, he'd certainly take it.
We couldn't escape his expensive sports car forever. Even if we could, the loud noise from the high speeds we were travelling at and the necessity to flee onto a less secluded roadway would certainly draw G.U.N to our position.
"Stop the motorcyle, Tea. Please." I shouted above the din of the two roaring engines that were now duking it out for speed supremacy.
"But Maria. Seto will catch me and I don't even want to imagine what he'll do with you." Tea pleaded, just barely avoiding another cliff edge once again.
"No he won't. I promise nothing bad will happen to you, Tea. Trust me please. I saved your life, remember?"
I hated having to use guilt-tripping as a tactic, even if it was for the greater good. But desperate times like these called for desperate measures. We were not going to be able to keep this high speed for much longer, and I was getting incredibly woozy.
Very relucantly with a very painful shudder, Tea nodded and slowly slowed the engine down so that we came to a dead stop a little way down the road, at what appeared to be some kind of mountainside picnic spot. There was a little wooden table with chairs, and two rows of Bonsai trees on either side.
Seto came to a stop too, just behind us. He disembarked from his sports car sporting a toothy grin, and his pack of henchmen followed suit. Each one of them drawing the black pistols from their belts as a silent gesture to warn me from taking any hostile movements against their employer.
I carefully removed my motorcycle helmet and handed it to Tea, who very anxiously placed it back in the sidecar I had been riding in which still contained all of my valuable supplies including my special medication.
Tea's eyes were closed, and she seemed to be murmuring some sort of silent prayer as I boldly strode up to our determined pursuer and drew myself up to my full height so as to appear as strong as was possible.
"What do you want!?" The tall, thin tycoon spat, keeping his gaze averted as far away from me as possible. "This matter of business is strictly between myself and my prized possesion Tea."
Then he returned his gaze to me, with a look that seared through skin, mind and soul. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't have my guards shoot you in the leg, so we can haul you over to G.U.N for the big bounty on your head." He demanded harshly. "And it had better be a darn good reason."
I held up my hands in a concilliatory gesture of surrender. But when I spoke, my voice was firm and hard.
"Because; Seto Kaiba, Chief executive officer of Kaiba-Corp Limited. I challenge you to a Yu-Gi-Oh duel."
He twitched lightly as I finished my sentence and shook up a little. Before letting out the loudest and most condescending laughter I had ever heard in my entire life. It was enough to make my icy blood begin to boil.
I waited close to one full minute for his laughter to subside, before he wiped his brow down ever so slightly with his sleeve and finally deigned to look me in the eye once again.
"That's funny. For a second there, I thought you were challenging me to a card duel. Ha. The thought of a stupid nerd like you dueling the second best duelist on this entire planet of idiots."
A fleeting look of pure pain and humiliation crossed his impenetrable gaze as he mentioned the words "second best". Only diehard Yu-Gi-Oh fans would understand as I did right then and there; that it was because Seto had been beaten time and again by the invincible Yugi Muto and his millenium Egyptian god cards.
"I'm going to repeat my statement again, just in case you didn't hear me the first time." I stated, with a faint hint of impatience. "I; Maria Robotnik the wanted criminal, challenge you right here and right now to a Yu-Gi-Oh duel. If I win, then you'll let both me and Tea go in peace."
"And if I win? Like I know I will, but just in case; let's hear what insignificant offerings you have in store for me anyway." Seto mockingly asked, with crossed arms.
"You can take me instead of Tea." I replied, feeling tears in my eyes but quickly blinking them back. "You can do whatever you want with me. I will be completely submissive to you. Fork me over to G.U.N for my bounty if you want. Or..."
I choked back a very painful sob. I knew the full magnitude of what I was about to propose was something so ludicrous that no sane man or woman would ever consider suggesting it, but I knew it was the only bargaining chip that I had which Seto would take seriously.
I swallowed boiling saliva as I continued my offer. An offer so degrading, inhumane and undignified that till this day, I still get shudders when I reflect back on what I said that day.
"You can keep me with you, to garnish your harem. I have all the talents that anyone could possibly want. I'm smart, pretty and good with all the common household chores. I will be a far more attractive catch than anyone else. If you win, then I will be yours forever."
"Hmm" Seto replied, genuinely piqued and interested by this unexepctedly rich proposal coming from a commoner who had lost all her family, wealth and land (well technically a space colony, but the principle was the same). "A young Robotnik genius to garnish my harem. To keep my big home cleaned and to do everything that I ask of you."
"Yes. All that and more. If you beat me." I confirmed, standing firm despite my legs turning to jelly. "Or are you too much of a chicken to try your luck against a stupid nerd like me?". I stuck my tongue out at him with a heavy heart, knowing that this was the peak of rudeness.
"No one calls me chicken." Seto growled quietly, though I could tell despite his best efforts to conceal it; that my indignant attitude had given him a grudging respect for me. I was now a very grand catch for him, and any doubts about my value had been allayed.
"Fine. I'll humor you in the charitable spirit of almsgiving, because I'm such a nice man. The moment I beat you into the dirt so hard that you cry, you'll belong to me. There will be no going back for you, Maria Robotnik the loudmouth. You will be taught a crushing lesson in humility, and about sticking your big, eggy head where it doesn't belong."
"Maria! No!" Tea shrieked as she caught my sleeve with her less injured hand, having listened in dead silence up until this point. "You can't do this. I won't let you. You don't know what Seto's going to do to you once he takes you away."
"But he's only going to take me and not you. And only if he wins, which I'm not going to let him." I replied, wishing I could soften my voice for the sake of comforting my newfound soulmate, but knowing that I could not afford to show weakness before such a vile excuse for a human being that was watching us with addled interest. "You'll go free either way. It's the fairest thing we can do in this situation."
"Don't let him take you!" Tea begged, as she stepped forward no doubt to try and bargian further with a very amused Seto. But then I grabbed her hand and pulled her away, much to her unexpected and terrified surprise.
"Remember this, Tea. It was not your choice." I said, mirroring Shadow's last words to me.
Tea opened her trembling mouth to protest, but I held up a hand for her to fully stop and for her to understand that my decision was final.
I turned back to the now morbidly bemused Seto. "Well? Are we going to stand here? Or are we going to duel?" I asked, sounding far more confident than I was actually feeling deep inside.
A faint twinkle of admiration flashed in my new enemy's eye and then left it. "Finally. Someone like me who understands that time is money." He replied. "You could have had a great career in my industry, unlike your lousy friend Tea. What a tragic waste of potential!"
Then without further delay, he gestured to one of his henchmen who nodded immediately and flew to his car boot to return nary a second later with a large, black rectangular briefcase.
Seto bent down to the case as his henchman held it, and scanned through its conetents until eventually emerging with a small deck of symboled cards which he was careful to keep hidden from me and Tea.
"Tea. Lend me your cards, please. I promise I will return them to you after I ace this duel and put this despicable villian in his place." I gently asked, to which she grimly nodded with a very weak "alright" as she fished out a small plastic box from one of her pink blazer pockets.
I also briefly scanned through my own borrowed deck, taking care also to keep it hidden from my upcoming opponent; who was practically beside himself with eagerness at the gigantic reward I had been goaded into promising him. A dehumanizing and undermining reward which this monster deserved nothing less than total condemnation for even daring to accept.
A sinking feeling in my gut began to erupt almost immediately upon glancing over the first card in the deck that Tea had lent to me. It was not difficult to see from it's very low attack and defence values the reason why Tea had not been doing well in her recent duels, and why her fake friends saw her as weak and useless.
If only those jerks learned to see beyond superficial success and failure, and to focus on Tea's vivacious optimism and brilliant manners instead. But at least I saw Tea's true talents, and so it was their loss and not mine.
I quickly skimmed through the other cards, keeping my expression neutral the entire time so as to reveal as little as possible to Seto. As the renowned Chinese manual "The art of War" succinctly described to me: All warfare is based on deception. It was no different whether on a battlefield, or at the table which both me and Seto had taken our places on opposite sides off, his gang behind him and Tea behind me, both at a fair distance so that we could clearly see that they were not helping either of us cheat.
At the very least Seto was not the cheating type when it came to his life passion of dueling. This would almost have given him one redeeming quality in my eyes, if he wasn't such a sexist bully and so unbelievably arrogant.
"Well then, Seto. Game on!" I declared, seeing the midday sun now at it's highest point in the clear blue sky above me. It was a good day to die. Or in my case, to suffer a fate worse than death.
"Game over! Chump!" He agreed, as two of his guards each held out an electrical tablet to display two vital pieces of information in the words that they were forming in green letters on their black screens.
The first tablet now read "Champion: Seto Kaiba. The Tycoon Tyrant. Challenger: Maria Robotnik. The stale egghead."
Egghead...I would have to take that as a compliment. It was clearly Seto's idea of an honorary title, and at least it meant he recognized my keen Robotnik intellect to some degree.
The second tablet displayed the life points each of us had remaining. Both of us still had the full 4000 that each duelist started every solo duel with, since neither of us had taken any damage yet. The instant one of us had this all important value drop to 0, it was game, set and match.
I had seen this information displayed countless times in the duels I had watched as entertainment from the safety of my private cabin on ARK, on the huge high-fi plasma screen TV grandfather so kindly bought for me.
But to actually be taking part in one of those duels; put me at a total loss for words. A tainted mixture of excitement, enthusiasm and acute fear laced my emotions.
At the very least, Seto's remaining life points were no higher than mine. Not yet anyway.
"Well. Guess I'm feeling even kinder than usual today, rookie. You can go first. It's not like it'll make any difference to my inevitable victory." Seto offered with completely fake sympathy, gesturing lazily with his hands and yawning slightly.
Everything in my short life had been leading up to this showdown. Every duel I had played with Shadow, thinking it was all fun and games, rather than the political and worldly importance that these duels really held. In the ancient past; Kings themselves would play this game to settle century and even millenia long disputes.
"Hostile armies may face each other for years, striving for the victory which is decided in a single day." Wrote the wise Chinese general Sun Tzu in his manual for war, which had stirred even a devoted pacifist such as myself.
No words better described this tense confrontation. It was time to give it my all.
The scuffle with the G.U.N soldier had been a physical challenge, but this duel was undeniably a challenge in the "mental" category.
I had no excuse for botching up this time, in the field that I proclaimed myself to be strongest in. Since this time, Tea could do nothing to help me beyond generously giving me her special deck of cards to use against Seto.
So now I had been given both a physical and a mental game. Two of the four categories of games that the contestants in my favorite live-action game show known as "the crystal maze" had to endure in order to secure as many of the valuable crystals as possible. Exactly half of all the available options.
Physical, mental, skill and mystery were the full list of the types of games available in the mysterious and enigmatic place known as "The crystal maze", which encompassed multiple areas around the world from multiple time-periods into a single neatly compacted space, which could be circumnavigated in less than a hour.
So far for me, it had been one game down and no crystals won. (An emerald counts as a crystal.) Since I required help from a teammate in a game meant for just one single contestant, and so had to resort to cheating; forfeiting my prize for that particular round.
Would this next challenge as closely matched to my preferences as was possible, yield a better result?
It had to. For both mine and Tea's sake. As well as for cousin Ivo, since if Seto added me to his harem then there would certainly be no way of me going all the way back to Italy; where Ivo was probably worried sick about me.
Yet another gap in my usually infallible intelligence; was failing to demand credit where credit was due. In my bold but perhaps rather foolhardy attempt to "be a hero", I had forgotten to ask Seto for a crystal as my reward for when I won.
Once again, this would be a "no crystal" game whether or not I won. Which meant no seconds in the crystal dome at the end for my team, and no shot at a fabulous prize accompanied by a firm shake of the hand from the generous and charismatic game-show host.
Despite no possibility for a crystal to be awarded at the end however, there was a very real shot of a lock-in for me if I lost this game. Since this was an automatic lock-in game, and since we hadn't won any crystals yet; Tea had no way of buying me out if I lost, even she badly wished to
Angel Island: Tikal the Echidna's point of view.
I sense a strong feeling eminating from the land beneath me. A thoroughly unpleasant one.
I can smell blood in the air. I can hear the screams of the damned. I can almost see a pile of corpses that only continues to increase in size by the minute, on the not-too-big landmass just beneath where Angel island is now drifting.
I cannot say for certain I know what has been happening. But one thing I can say for sure; is that the world has changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the air.
The foolish humans on the Archipelago underneath are engaging in a furious slaughter. It saddens me, but what can I possibly do to help any of them? Trapped as I am in this deeply confining prison that I've built for myself, I can do nothing but obeserve and weep in painful silence.
The master emerald. The prized artifact that I once loved with all my heart. Now my oppressive prison, which keeps me shackled in this hellish state of being neither fully dead or living.
Some of the Echidnas back in my clan would call me a Zombie. I would say that "Lich" is a more appropriate term for what I've become instead.
Angel Island seems to be doing everything it can to spite me, choosing the most war-torn and chaotic continents to continue it's path of flight. Why can't it just take me somewhere peaceful and serene for a change? Don't I deserve some peace after I selflessly gave myself up just to defend Angel Island's most important artifact from the grubby hands of my corrupted tribe?
The answers to both these rhetorical and pointless questions, is a big sad no. Even my sacred island has turned against me now.
The screams of the dying and the stench of smoke continues to plague my senses. I can bear it no longer. I gather together all my agony, pain and suffering in one indrawn breath.
This time, I'm able to successfully scream.
This is surprising. I was never able to do this before. When I confined myself in the master emerald, I had lost all my senses and physical capabilities which I still possesed in my physical body, which has no doubt rotted into nothing by now.
Something about the energy flow of this brave new world, is starting to re-energize me. Restore me. Fix me. Complete me.
Should I feel hopeful? Should I be afraid? Should I pray for this to carry on? Should I beg for it to all stop so that I can be left to languish in peace?
Well the one thing I do know is: if I regain my physical form and escape the master emerald that I'm trapped in, I will certainly not place my trust in any human. They're nothing more than a horde of glorified barbarians, cruel and ruthless. They've committed sins worse than my traitorous tribe ever did when I was still with them.
Above all else, no one will take my prized Master emerald crystal away. It's not for sale. Not being offered as a prize for anything. All the gold from the Echidna islands won't placate me to let anyone even touch the Master emerald.
It's me and my sacred crystal. That will be my new life. I need no one else.
No one.
...
Thank you so much for reading. Please review if you like this story and want me to keep going. Bless you all, and have a nice day.
Why do Chris and Molly mention Shadow; even though he died in the past? What will unfold next for our various heroes.? What nasty tricks do G.U.N have up their sleever for next time? Find out in the next chapter. Coming soon.