Here I am, tougher than the rest of them. The best of them, tougher than leather. You can called be Knuckles, unlike Sonic I don't chuckle. I'd rather flex my muscles. After the beginning of the new month and the announcement of 15 new games for Nintendo's platforms by Sega, I am proud to announce that we are 50% done with the fan fic for now. That means that we need equal the amount or a little less until the whole story is over with now that there's two Chaos Emeralds left to be claimed and one Master Emerald shard to nab. Since things are almost over, I promise that I'll reveal who are the remaining "third parties" that are helping the Legion now that we'll be focusing on the villains from this point on. Get ready to see more about how Ramirez and Selvaria are doing since they'll be the highlight of this chapter other than the obvious jurisdiction of Zomom's big mistake. Now let's get this part started!

As the vampiress hovered over Bug's defenseless body, he thought deeply about what to say since he really didn't want to "lose his life career" at the hands of her rather hungry bats.

"I think I know what you're talking about, but I really wish that I can remember or have something to jog up my buggy memory," said the bug before making a nervous grin.

Elise had no time for waiting since she had other things to do instead of wasting her time with something that only her black winged pets could taste.

"Oh vell, I guess that I could jog up your memory by having some of my babies feed on an arm zat you won't bee needing anymore," she said in a sultry manner.

Elise snapped to have a few of her bats swarm near Bug's right arm for a feast which already scared him. His eyes bulged out his socket in fear as he screamed like a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach.

"Ok ok ok ok, I'll tell you what I know. I was going for a walk and found a factory had caught my curiosity. I've seen a frog being guarded a by a few egg shaped robots that reminded me of the ladybugs back in town and …. Why do I really need to tell you this?" he asked.

Being the impatient vampiress that liked to rush, Elise figured that she had no choice but to use sex appeal to really get him talking instead of fear. She opens her arms wide open and started to shake her massive breasts above his face as the bug eyed Bug stared at her with a look of confusion. While she wasn't technically human, it's the first time she had been teased by a buxom humanoid female since his eyes were still big from this unexpected situation. As he was being "tortured", he slowly started to remember everything that he did within the past four weeks. He was taking a walk to Insectopia from a long filming of his next hit Bug! Three until he noticed something peculiar at the time. It was a hidden base that had a red mechanical design reminiscent of a certain mad scientist's lair.

He remembered sneaking near a window to see a green frog that was caged and was fascinated since it reminded him of his former rival. That said frog was surrounded by a few Egg Pawns and Mettaurs for security reasons, which told him that he had to go elsewhere. After hearing an explosion, Bug had to run as fast as he could since he didn't want to be caught by any of the guards at the time and because of his cowardly nature. After all of such thoughts came to his mind, he came back into reality and told the dark seductress everything that she needed to know.

"I was on my way back to Insectopia from a walk and remembered seeing that frog in based being guarded by those robots and some hardhat wearing shorties. I was curious until I heard something break in and I had to run before being caught. The last thing I remembered was that one of the robots was shouting "The shard is meant to be guarded at all costs from that blue monster!" I that all you needed to know lady?" he explained.

Elise giggles as her body backed away from the terrified bug's body out of amusement. This could mean that the insect actor's off the hook.

"Vat's all I needed to know, puny insect. I bet it must have felt really good from me to activate your greatest desires vith my headlights. You are free to go for now, but I'll definitely keep an eye on you in case you get in our business again like zee last time," she said.

After that, she laughed maniacally while levitating back into the night sky as the petrified bodies of the Police Force were carried away by her loyal bat flocks. Bug watched as she flew off and gulped in relief since those frightening bats were finally out of his sight. He slowly got up and started to head for the west after the vampiress was nowhere in sight, hoping for somewhere else to take back to his insect populated home.

"I bet that Maggot Dog must really miss me since I've been away from home far too long. The poor boy must be worried since that I can't play with him since I have been busy with my new acting career lately," he murmured while sadly walking away.

He feels like he was on the edge of hope's horizon since he was not only humiliated by a female vampire, but threatened for his life at the hands of hungry bats. He had no choice but to act defenseless since his Bug Juice wouldn't work on night terrors like bats and his stringer could only work for a single target instead of multiple ones. Where he planned on going, he really hope that he didn't run into any more dangerous foes like her and hoped to actually reach home safely for comfort. Meanwhile, Zomom is back in the Deadly Six's Warship to confront his team, Nack the Weasel, and Dr. Eggman about the incident that had occurred in Metro City. He nervously twiddled with his fingers with a guilty look as both Zavok and Eggman glared at the fat loser.

"So you used most of your strength to not only try to destroy the Master Emerald shard, but kill one of your own comrades. And now those fools aren't going to trust any of us because of that and you are the one Deadly Six member that we could least count on," said the angered red Zeti.

"Indeed Zavok, I could really pity that you have to deal with such impotence with this gluttonous pile of uselessness. If I was in full control, then I'd use that Cacophonic Conch on all of you to really make him feel sorry for messing up for you guys," Eggman said nonchalantly.

Just hearing that alone made Zavok glance slightly at Eggman since he could still remember the day that his entire team was cringing from extreme pain due to his usage of that conch in the past. He could still never forgive him for that day and still didn't' trust Eggman despite joining the Legion of Subspace under Nack's influence.

"Can you pipe down about that conch situation, will ya Eggy? I can still tell that they are deeply traumatized about that event and they could turn on you like Zomom did to the Syndicate members over there," said the cautious weasel.

"I don't really care and I can explain whatever I want. I am your boss after all Nack and I have control over you just like every other member in this army," the scientist said coldly.

"I was only trying to impress you guys and the original Deadly Six code is to show remorse for no one even if it's an ally. Can you please give me a second chance and let me redeem myself with something tasty in return?" the greedy Zeti begged in a sad manner.

The red Zeti leader sighed sarcastically with a face of relief as he folds his arms in power and solitude. Nack thought deeply about the situation while making a few adjustments to his new pistol that Zik had upgraded for him recently. Eggman was too busy conversating with his fellow scientists about something new in regards to their new prisoners that Elise had bought them recently. The spherical scientist looked back at his screen and cleared his thought before speaking again.

"You, I highly recommend that you don't do anything as stupid again during this next mission. One of your members, Zazz or was it, need your help since the ride to the Curien Mansion is giving the other group some trouble. These guardians are pretty tough and the group that flew there is currently having a rough time as we speak. Perhaps your destruction could come in handy for fighting otherworldly foes like them since we need that sixth emerald as ours," the scientist explained.

Zomom heard this statement and this gave him a big smile on his yellow face due to the fact that he's forgiven for now. The yellow Zeti did a generous bow to thank both his master and the Legion's leader in comical gratitude.

"Thank you, thank you Eggman and Nack for giving me another chance! I won't let you down and will do my best!" Zomom exclaimed.

Nack sighed in relief while Zavok shook his head in approval after hearing Eggman's decision on Zomom's next mission.

"But before I leave, what happened with the other members?" he asked while scratching his chin.

This is when Zavok would walk over to a nearby keyboard and type in a codec to activate another holographic screen for his fellow Deadly Six member to look at.

"You want to know what you're up against Zomom? Perhaps you might not only see the whereabouts of the rest of our group, but also let you know what we are dealing with. After all, I do want to see how things are going for the rest of them," he said casually.

Everyone except Eggman looked at the screen as it revealed the remaining four Zeti and their current locations. Zor is seen talking with Turbo and the Baron about their next plan in the warship's room. As usual, he still had his same mournful look and held his blue rose in his left hand. Zeena is seen entering another ship with Napoleon talking as they walked the hallways past a few Syndicate criminals. She was obviously insulting their sense of fashion and laughs it off with the armored Frenchman afterwards. Zik is talking with Mishaela about how he had first formed the Deadly Six and explained about their last conflict with Sonic and his allies (who are obviously Eggman and his robotic sidekicks). He even joked about how young and experienced Zavok used to be before the he had joined the Deadly Six years ago. This caused Zavok to groan in embarrassment since the Zeti he had respected for years had to bring up something like that from the past.

But the last most interesting thing was what was going on Zazz. He was throwing some explosive caltrops at what appeared to be a massive green serpentine dragon that was flying over him. Balder's voice could be heard as another one of them said dragons were severely slashed by him flawlessly. Basically a school of massive Squilla was attacking the ship from getting in their way and they are relentlessly keeping them from getting anywhere near their next location. This image alone made Zomom even more determined to help out his fellow comrade and he thought more about feasting on these pathetic dragons.

"Those dragons are going to feel what it means to insult the Deadly Six! I'll leave the ship and make sure that I'll fry those dragons for Zazz. Thanks for the video, Zavok!" he exclaimed before running out of the room.

Nack puts his pistol inside his new holster and looked at Eggman's screen for one final message. The scientist eagerly waits for a concrete answer since his conversation with the other doctors had ended a few minutes ago.

"Egghead, I'm heading out since I'm ready to take on Sonic for the second time now that I'm sure that I'll defeat him with every new upgrade that I've gotten. This time, getting the Marvelous Queen damaged by anyone else will not stop me from obtaining that goal. That hedgehog will be yours sooner than you'd say "Get a load of this!" at least once," he declared.

This had really interested the scientist to the point of making him grin and eventually break into his trademark laughter. This unsurprisingly causes Nack to roll his eyes sarcastically in response to such a laugh.

"That's really good to hear from you, Nack. Just seeing you capture Sonic within the next few days would definitely make this the best month ever. Many more captured civilians held prisoner in my mothership, more areas engulfed in subspace from my special bombs, me having the upper hand over all of the heroes whether we have one Chaos Emerald or not, and all that's left is to have that repulsive hedgehog in my possession. I'll be counting on you this time Nack and Zavok can help you out since you two seem so close now that I've spoken to you for the past few days," Eggman said.

"Thanks Eggman for giving me the permission to help my master. And I guarantee you that I'll definitely crush the hedgehog and bring him back to you alive. I've gotten stronger since the last time we've met and I've been waiting to showcase this new power to that blue menace," said the red Zeti in sadistic glee.

Zavok shuts the screen down and walked next to his master with a determined look on his face. He had a powerful posture as if he's ready for the toughest fight for his life as Nack checked his scanner for the location of Sonic and his friends.

"Are you ready to take him on, Master?" he asked.

"Believe me Zavok, I am ready to finish this fight like I've been wanting to for years," Nack said slyly.

The devious duo laughed together in a serious manner as they walked out the briefing room for their newly improved ride. Soon as the room was empty, the Zavok and Zazz androids arrived to take their positions for looking out for any future intruder. This way, no one would attack the ship and find the real Deadly Six riding it in case it was to happen in the future. Later, Ashra is working on controls in the pilot room to find the safest route to Outrun Bay while drinking soda with his lower pair of hands. The multi-armed being enjoyed having leisure time and work at the same time due to such multiple arms, which was something that Mishaela didn't want him to do. This was one for the main reasons why he would rather be under the command of Ramirez and Selvaria other than his obvious fear of getting on her bad side easily. The two captains at least show some appreciation and compassion for him unlike the more sadistic dark sorceress whose crew was heading for the Curien Mansion for the semifinal emerald.

"I heard she's currently having trouble getting there because of some Squillas, how unfortunate. If she's this big bad magician, she should have gotten her group out of it instead of looking hopeless in front of Eggman. On the other hand, I should be more concerned about that plastic bear that had been complaining about the captains' "gross relationship" with each other," he said before chugging some more soda.

Selvaria stood in her room staring at the wall ahead of her in silence and solitude, thinking about how things would go for her team and future. Her bright red eyes seemed more puzzled as opposed to angry and her expression had a great mixture of determination and anxiety. There were many questions going on in her head ranging from is really worth serving the Legion of Subspace while she still breathes or should she just accept her noble death like she had done before being given life. She still felt her heart beat in her chest and puts her hand on it to feel the pulses occur in her still alive body. The door creaked open behind her and she turns to see just the right person to talk to: General Ramirez. The silver haired man observed her with a serious face as she looked back at him as if she was caught doing something forbidden.

Her heart beats faster than usual, invoking feelings of bliss and surprise due to his unexpected appearance in her room. He eventually made a slight smile and approached the silver haired Valkyrian general slowly. He had this aura of kindness emitting from him unlike the more hardened seriousness he normally hand when it came to fighting or commanding troops. Selvaria lowered her right as he still approached her and calmed down since she could trust speaking with an individual like him. Soon as the positive Ramirez met the calm Valkyrur, they were eventually looking into each others eyes to make things more romantic.

"I've had a long day today and you are the right person for me to talk to. I was wondering where you were the whole time, Miss Bles," he said softly.

Selvaria took a deep breath and sighed in belief before saying what went on in her rather conflicted mind.

"Nothing, nothing at all. Just thinking deeply about what's my real purpose of living other than being a slave to someone who had given me life for her own selfish reasons. While I do like being on the battlefield again, I just hope things could be better for the two of us in our future because I'm really….."

A warm index finger was placed under her chin as a nice way to stop this depressing talk, which caused her to blush severely from being touched by him again. He looked at her beautiful face with the same positive face since he wanted to tell her that there should be no worries for anything at all.

"Miss Bles, there's nothing for you to worry about at all. I had the same thoughts when I've first been here for the first four weeks, but then I had realized the good things about living for the second time. I can actually fight back into the battlefield again, have a rematch against Vyse whenever we actually see him, get to relive the experience of being able to travel the skies, and most of all," he said sincerely before stroking her face lovingly to her surprise, "Being close to you, my love."

Selvaria felt a part of her being stitched was she widened her eyes after hearing such words. Having her heart being touched this easily, let alone for a dangerous and powerful general like her, had made warm tears stream down her face in happiness.

"I really love you too, General Ramirez. You may not be Lord Maximilian, but you are almost as thoughtful as him and I would definitely owe my life to you for as long as I live," she said as her even more tears formed in her fiery eyes.

Ramirez had put his left arm around her to embrace this lovely woman and comfort her as such emotions where following from her expressive face. She responded by glancing at the arm and then back at him in surprise.

"I like such words from you, Miss Bless. Confident and full of emotion, like how I was devoted the man I had owed my life to. But I'll definitely owe my life to yours since you are becoming a great big part of it too," he said in a gentle voice.

He inches his face even closer to hers as she grew less afraid and their lips had eventually met. The two had eventually started to kiss compassionately and embraced each other even tighter in this dark room for a more romantic effect. Selvaria's mouth became as warm as her heart as she challenged her silver haired lover's erogenous vocal cave of flesh. Ramirez felt the feeling that he had never felt in a while as he kisses her during this lovely moment: love. The two kept romantically embracing each other's bodies with their comfortable arms since this was something that they had always wanted to do during the night since work was over for the day. Things were going well until something happened that would ruin the calm atmosphere for the night.

"There you two go, making such disgusting scenes that would make me gag gears for days!" said a high pitched grouchy voice.

Ramirez unlocks his lips from Selvaria's and they both turned to see the every grouchy Trouble Bruin hovering outside their open door. He glared at the two of them like he had always done so ever since the two had their close relationship since Day One of the invasion. Out of disappointment, Ramirez lets go his sweetheart and focused his attention on the one Legion member that had always gotten on his nerves. He went back to his usual merciless expression that he's usually donned for battle and clenched his left fist with such burning hatred. Selvaria was equally as mad as him, but tried her best to suppress it since she would rather not cause any extended damage in the inside of the ship.

"Who the hell are you to even look at us if its disgusts you so badly? You could have reported back to your room since you're not allowed to be in theses halls without any of our permission," he said coldly.

This was the side of him that he would rather not show around Selvaria, especially considering how mentally unhinged and insane he went after Galcian's death. The toy bear grumbled and hovered even closer to challenge his human superior. His large yellow eyes looked back at Ramirez's dark red eyes as they challenged each other in tense scene.

"A true leader shouldn't impose such stupid rules and do gross things like expressing pointless feelings like love. Hell, the Dark Demon is a much better leader since he shows no remorse towards anyone and never expressed such repulsive feelings like love. I respect him since he's the guy who had also taught us that showing no mercy and attacking is all that we should do …. Even more than the likes of you!" he uttered under his breath.

Ramirez is slowly starting to grow a more disturbing face of aggression the more the toy bear questioned his authority, which is something that he never tolerated when it come to being a general. Selveria had raised her left hand in front of him to keep him from losing it while she glares at the bear from such harsh words towards their commanding officers. The concerned Valuan general looked back at her with more concerned face, wondering what she was planning to say to this plastic rebellious jerk. Trouble Bruin unsurprisingly rolled his eyes since this wasn't a shock to him as his female superior still kept her eyes on him.

"You are really crossing the line if you think that you can say whatever you want to your own superiors. There's one thing I've always hated about you ever since I've laid my eyes on your before the invasion," she said in a strict tone.

"Like what, constantly going gaga over your second-in command like the disgusting flesh sack you are? Please, it's not like you are going to kill me when you'll most likely be in trouble for treason. That Zomom idiot is going to suffer for that reason alone and I'd doubt that Eggman will spare his life for it; and neither will he for any of you," Trouble Bruin barked.

Selvaria still stared the bear down with the same serious expression and knew better to not use her Valkyrian aura in a situation like this.

"You talk very big for a small fragile toy like yourself. I would be much more intelligent if I were you and get out of your superiors' sights or else things will really get much grimmer," she said.

This really made the ignorant bear take her "small talk" as a grain of salt and counter such words with ones that would really make her mad. He made an even deeper grimace and grew a few mechanical clawed arms to cross over his mechanical body.

"Make me! I dare you to if you really want me to listen to the two of you pathetic humans!" he remarked.

The Valuan general had enough of the rude toy's words and moved Selvaria aside to deal with him personally. His killing intent is slowly returning and at this point there was no turning back from committing violence towards a stubborn individual like Trouble Bruin.

"I am not a pathetic human, you worthless piece of trash!" he said aggressively before he severely slashes at the bear's mechanical body with his blade.

This attack had really caught the toy bear off guard with bulging eyes since he thought that there was no way that his mechanical body would be wounded badly by one slash. The attack was enough to reveal every bit of mechanical detail inside like golden gears, cut red and blue wires, and silver scrap metal, something that Dynamite Headdy was never able to do in one headbutt. Trouble Bruin had hit the ground from the shock of the attack and felt something heavy stomp on his already damaged body, just to see his male superior standing above him with the face of a violent warrior. This was legitimately the first time that he had expressed fear as he shivers at the sight of Ramirez's pissed off expression alone.

"I've already tried my best to tell you that you should never question your superior's orders, but you had to push me to my boiling point. I've never felt this way since the day "he" died at the hands of those Blue Rogues and you better be lucky that I'm not using it to destroy this world like I've nearly done in the past," he said with no remorse.

Selvaria watched as her lover threatened the life of an ignorant fool that should have known better to talk back against those of higher authority than him. She used this opportunity to take out her iconic rapier as she walked towards the treacherous toy and hold it towards his vulnerable slash wound.

"I would gladly kill you as punishment for challenging someone as dangerous as me and Ramirez, but we'll give you another chance under one condition. Either apologize for trying to reach our level or burn in hell like all the other fools that we've defeated," she said in her trademark commanding voice.

The terrified toy bear gasps in mortal dread as his exposed chest erupts sparks of electricity like fireworks in the night sky. Before he could say a word, a roughly feminine voice stopped anything else from happening.

"This is what happens when you dare challenge your commanding officers, teddy bear. You should have regretted what you've said earlier about questioning a girl's tastes or insulting a fellow member of the Deadly Six," said the green Zeti while doing a hip pose.

Things are getting really interesting at this midpoint, isn't it? The last few emeralds are found in the Curien Mansion and Outrun Bay, Bug was threatened to remind Elise of the final shard and Froggy's location, Zomom was given another chance to help out Misheala's group from a flock of Squillas, Zavok and Nack are going to hunt down Sonic for the last time, and Trouble Bruin shall rue the day for interfering with Selvaria's relationship with Ramirez. So alot have happened and I can tell that you guys are at the edge of your seats for the next chapter. But don't fret, I'll be back with a chapter that's equally as suspenseful and you should all be satisfied when it happens soon. Remember to follow, review, and rate if you haven't done so yet! Later!