Author's Note: Hello, everyone. I'm back with another chapter.
First of all, let me thank the Deviantart user, Framraw, for another great cover art which I now use for this story. It came out just this morning just when I had planned to finish this chapter. What a wonderful coincidence.
Second of all, I'd like to let everyone know that I do intend to continue this story for as long as I am able. So there's really no need to comment on some of my other stories asking for the progress of this fanfic. I appreciate it and I want it to go on as much as you do, but patience is a virtue. Don't forget, I do have other fanfics that other people want me to work at.
Lastly, the song featured here is originally from the Kipo show. I had meant to include another song that would be a parody, but I couldn't think of one.
Now, with all that out of the way, let's see what the chapter has in store.
All of Kipo's fellow humans were taken to the shopping mall at the center of Scarlemagne's kingdom. They all muttered in confusion and fear.
"Where are we?"
"What do they want with us?"
"Where are our children?"
"Ask Lio!" Hoag said accusingly looking at Lio and Aleena who both stood at the center of the crowd. "His daughter and her mute friends led them right to us. This is Kipo's fault!"
"No! This is my fault!" Lio called out. "The mute who took us, he has it out for me."
"Lio, you can't blame yourself." Aleena said. "You made an impossible…"
She was interrupted by Scarlemagne's Nobles, who went from human to human spraying each of them and putting them under Scarlemagne's control. They were about to hit Lio too, but Scarlemagne stopped them.
"Uh, uh, uh. Not him." The mandril said approaching them.
"What about the hedgehog, sir?" Gerard asked.
"First of all, my pheromone only affects primates, not rodents—no offense, fair Aleena." Scarlemagne said. "Second of all, even if it did, I'd never use it against her."
"Sir," Lemieux said approaching Scarlemagne, "We found something in the human's bag." She held up the purple Chaos Emerald that Lio took back from Kipo. Scarlemagne was delighted to see it and took it back.
"Beautiful. Once again, I have two Chaos Emeralds at my disposal! And this time, I'll make sure no one takes them away!"
"Hugo… I mean, Scarlemagne," Lio said, "This is between you and me. Let them go."
Scarlemagne laughed. "It is between you and me. And that's precisely why I won't let them go."
"What are you going to do with them?" Aleena asked.
"So much, my dear. So much." Scarlemagne said menacingly. "And when we finally find your kids, we can be a proper family just as we had always planned."
Aleena frowned worried for her children just as Lio worried for his.
With the ride of the Freedom Fighters' van, Kipo (who was driving with just her human hand) was on her way to rescue her people with the hedgehog siblings.
"Are we there yet?" Sonic asked tapping his foot impatiently. "Come on, guys! I can probably catch Scarlemagne on my own!"
"Just be patient, Sonic." Sonia said. "We'll save our families soon. And then, we'll get some answers about Scarlemagne."
"What did you think he meant by 'father'?" Manic asked. "You think he's actually…"
"It can't be." Sonia said. "I mean, we're not exactly part mandrill."
"I bet we're getting close." Kipo said. "We'll get all the answers when we get there."
Sonic sighed as he continued tapping his foot. He looked around the van until something caught his eye behind him. "Oh, sweet!" he said before zipping on over. "The Freedom Fighters have a minifridge in their van."
"Ooh. See if they have any Explosion Berries." Manic said. "Ah, that takes me back."
Sonic opened the minifridge full of excitement, but was surprised to find something other than food taking up the space inside.
"What the… DAVE?!" Sonic yelled pulling the bug out of the fridge.
"Dave?" Kipo asked. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, I saw the fridge in this van and I figured 'Hey, maybe these Freedom Fighter dudes have something for Dave's tummy'. Next thing I know, everything's shaking around."
"That's because we're driving to Scarlemagne!" Sonia said.
"Hey, do you still have a can of Explosion Berries in there?" Manic asked.
"Manic!" Sonia yelled.
Suddenly, everyone went silent when they heard a loud, screeching noise. They all looked out the front window just as the trees began to clear up. Right before them, a very familiar mega-mute chased after them with fury in her red eyes. She tried to grab the van, but Kipo drove out out of the way. Then, the metal collar that she wore beeped before spraying out a pink mist that she inhaled.
"It's the Mega-Monkey!" Manic yelled.
"The one that Scarlemagne sent to attack Kipo's old burrow?" Sonic asked.
"How many other Mega-Monkeys do you know?" Sonia asked.
"Scarlemagne must be forcing her to guard his hideout!" Kipo said before stopping the van.
"Kipo, why aren't we moving?" Sonia asked.
"We have to save her!" Kipo answered racing out of the van. She jumped up in front of the Mega-Monkey waving to get her attention. "Hey! Over here! This way! Look at me! It's me! Remember?"
Kipo:
We may not have sunshine
Or starlight or weather
The Mega-Monkey tried to interrupt her by punching down at her, but Sonic ran in and scooped her up. The Mega-Monkey chased the blue hedgehog while Kipo kept singing slowly strirring the mega-mute back to her senses.
Kipo:
We've got each other
And that's even better
You don't need the sun to keep you warm
When you've got arms
Wishes come from you and not
A random shooting star
Finally, the Mega-Monkey managed to snatch both Sonic and Kipo in the same hand. She held them up ready to finish the job, but Kipo kept singing helping her see clearly.
Kipo:
We may not have storm clouds
But the sky's always blue
The Mega-Monkey stirred roughly before finally calming down. She looked down at Kipo and Sonic actually showing care and affection. Now, she released her grip allowing the two to stand on her palm. She gently held out her finger to pat on their heads.
"Hey. Easy with the quills, big girl." Sonic said.
"You know," Sonia said approaching with Manic, "It amazes me to see a mega-mute this tame."
The Mega-Monkey smiled and used one of her other hands to scoop the other hedgehogs over to her right next to Kipo and Sonic.
"Well, it's not her fault, remember?" Manic asked. "Scarlemagne hooked her up to that… Uh, oh!"
As if on cue, the metal collar began to beep again. Acting on instinct, Sonic spun himself in place like a rolling ball before dashing up to the collar. As soon as he made impact, he was able to cut the collar off of the Mega-Monkey's neck. He then landed in the monkey's hand where his siblings were.
"Yes! You're free!" Kipo cheered.
Happy to finally be free, the first thing the Mega-Monkey did was cuddle softly with the kids.
"Whoa. I guess we're all a little furry." Sonic said.
"So what are you going to do now?" Manic asked the Mega-Monkey.
The Mega-Monkey made hand gestures pointing to Kipo and the hedgehogs before pointing into the distance.
"You want us to go with you?" Kipo asked. "Aww, that's sweet."
"It is," Sonia said, "But I'm sorry. But we can't go with you right now. Kipo's dad, our mom, and a whole bunch of other humans have been kidnapped by Scarlemagne."
"And I'm sorry, but you can't go with us." Manic said. "If he catches you, he'll turn you into a weapon again."
The Mega-Monkey frowned. Kipo helped her by pulling out a blue rubber band and wrapping it around a small bit on her fur.
"Don't be sad. We have to go, but here. A little something so you know we'll always be friends."
The Mega-Monkey smiled and gave the kids one last cuddle before setting them down next to the van. She proceeded to run off into the wilderness.
"That was touching." Dave commented. "Wow. I got chills. If I could give my heart a tissue now, I would."
"Guys," Kipo said, "Is it just me, or is that Mega-Monkey, I don't know, special?"
"Well, you got that right?" Sonic asked. "Most mutes are a bunch of mindless savages. This is the first one I've seen that actually has common sense."
"Still, I'm with Kipo on this one." Sonia said. "Something about that Mega-Monkey… I don't know. She just seems… familiar somehow. Like I already know I can trust her."
"We can figure that out later." Manic said. "Right now, we've got families to save."
"Right." Kipo said before driving the van again. "I'm coming for you, Scarlemagne. Because of what you did to her and… because of all the other bad stuff you've done."
As the darkness fell, the kids finally made it to a large tree with a shopping mall wrapped up inside. That's where Scarlemagne makes his base of operations. Kipo successfully drove through the foliage until they stopped at the center of the mall. Without any warning, they all charged our ready to fight. Kipo hipped out her jaguar paw and the hedgehogs changed their talismans into their instrument weapons.
"All right, Scarlemagne!" Kipo called out. "Give me back my people or I'm going to introduce your face to my fist!"
That's when they all noticed. There was no sign of Scarlemagne, or anyone for that matter. The whole place was entirely lifeless.
"Hey! Where is everyone?" Dave asked.
"Look." Manic pointed at the far side of the mall. Two Nobles, Gerard and Lemieux, were standing guard in front of a sealed gate of what used to be a store. Behind the gate were three figures. One of them was hard to make out, but the other two were easy to see. They were Lio and Aleena.
"Now's our chance." Sonic said. "Time to kick some monkey butt!"
With his speed, Sonic dashed until he hopped on Gerard's head. He bounced off pushing him to the wall. Kipo followed swinging her jaguar paw, but the apes dodged. Kipo went for another charge, but the Nobles pulled out two spray cannisters and blasted her with purple mist. She couldn't stop herself from inhaling it in time. She coughed and groaned.
"You okay, Kipo?" Sonia asked.
"Yeah. It just stinks." Kipo answered.
"Wha… Why isn't this working?" Gerard asked confused.
"And why is that human's hand a paw?" Lemieux asked.
Sonia and Manic ran right at them and knocked the spray bottles out of their hands. Gerard attempted to grab them, but Sonia sidestepped out of the way and swept her legs at Gerard's making him fall on top of Lemieux. They were both unconscious from that fall.
"Kids, you're here!" Aleena gasped.
"That's right! Now, let's get you out of here!" Kipo said before ripping the cage door to pieces.
"Oh, dear? Are these yours?" a woman's voice asked.
The team took a good look at the third prisoner to see who it was. They raised their eyebrows in surprise.
"Hey. Doesn't that look like…" Manic asked.
"It is." Sonia said. "Excuse me, ma'am. Do you happen to know a rabbit named Cream?"
The adult rabbit gasped. "You found my baby? Where is she?"
"You're her mom!" Sonic laughed. "This is great! Now, we got three people to save! Don't worry, Ms. Rabbit. We're gonna take you back to your daughter."
"Why are you even here?" Sonia asked.
"The truth is, I bake for the Freedom Fighters. Those poor kids. They all lost so much, especially Sally. After what Scarlemagne did to her… But it's not like I know how they work. I just deliver some of my goods. But Scarlemagne never believed me. He thought I could be more useful. Name's Vanilla, by the way."
"Well, he won't be using you for much longer." Dave said. "You saw what we did to those guys."
"You got lucky." Lio said. "You were very brave, but very lucky."
"Listen, Mom," Sonia said, "While we're here there's something we need to talk about."
"I'll keep an eye out." Lio said keeping his eye around the corner.
"Talk about what?" Aleena asked.
"It's about Scarlemagne." Sonic said with a small chuckle. "We—hehe—overheard him say that… Well, it's pretty funny. But he actually made it sound like he's our dad. But that's crazy, right?"
Aleena widened her eyes before slowly frowning concerning the kids.
"No way." Manic said. "Scarlemagne really is our dad?"
"Well… technically speaking, no." Aleena said. "But… Well, it's a long story. Let's just say that you wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for him. He did a very brave thing to ensure that you'd be born. I was very grateful to him, so I told him that he would help me raise you as your father."
"Wait, wait, wait!" Sonic said. "So you used to be together with that psychopath?"
"He wasn't always like that." Aleena replied. "Back when I knew him, he was just Hugo, a very kind person with big dreams."
"So what happened?" Kipo asked.
Aleena looked over to Lio, who exchanged a shameful look with her.
"I'm… not sure if we will have time to explain everything." Aleena said. "We need to get out of here before reinforcements come and get us."
"They won't get us." Kipo assured. "Didn't you just see us? We're invincible."
"You're not." Lio said walking back to his daughter. "And you need to be careful. There's something I need to tell you. I should have told you a long time ago. Your mother and I… We infused your DNA with a mutagen so you could become a Mega. That's why Scarlemagne's pheromone doesn't work on you. It only works on primates, and you are more than human. You'll become a Mega-Jaguar."
"What?!" Kipo gasped. "I'm going to be a Mega-Jaguar? Because you and Mom infused my DNA? That is… SO COOL!"
"That's not the reaction I expected." Sonia said. "Mr. Oak, why did you do it?"
"It's a long story."
"Sure are a lot of long stories lately." Manic said.
"But I can tell you is that we don't know the entire thing. Kipo, the reason you have these powers is the same reason Aleena's kids have theirs."
"Us?" Sonic asked.
"Haven't you ever wondered how you can go super fast?" Aleena asked. "Or why your pendants can magically transform into weaponized instruments? Them, and Kipo's powers, they all come from the same source: the Chaos Emerald."
"The Chaos Emerald?" Kipo asked.
"Yes. Scarlemagne took the one you gave back to me," Lio said, "And it's the same one we used for our experiments."
"Experiments?" Sonic asked. "I don't understand. What's going on here?"
"We can answer those questions later." Kipo said. "If I can become a Mega-Jaguar, maybe I can ge us out of here."
"Yeah. We can ride Kipo to safey." Dave said.
"You're not ready yet." Lio said. "Before I lost your mom, we learned that if it's not done properly, you could get lost in the transformation and never come back."
"But there is someone who can help you all reach yor full potential." Aleena said. "They're called the Chevre Sisters, the apprentices of the Oracle."
"The Oracle?" Kipo asked. "That weird, ghostly, anteater guy? Why don't we just go to him?"
"Because we don't know where he is." Aleena said. "Shortly after we met him and he foretold the prophecy, he disappeared. Not even the Chevre Sisters know where he is. He could only contact us occasionally through his projections."
"But the Sisters will be able to help you." Lio said.
"THERE THEY ARE!"
A booming voice echoed from across the halls. They all turned to see more Nobles charging in at them.
"To the van! Now!" Sonia shouted.
Everyone ran toward where the van was parked and entered. Vanilla was the last one in before Kipo turned it on. However, just as she did, one of the Nobles grabbed Aleena by her shoulders and Lio by his leg. They pulled them out of the van just as they were being driven out.
"DAD!" Kipo gasped.
"MOM!" the hedgehogs yelled.
"Get out of here!" Lio shouted.
"We're not leaving you!" Sonic shouted preparing to run.
"No! You'll risk being caught!" Aleena said. "You know where to go! Children, please! Don't' worry! We won't be hurt!"
"But…" Kipo started to say just before Sonia took the driver's seat. She stepped on the gas pedal and they all drove right through the mall's wall racing out as fast as they could.
"Sonia, what are you doing?" Sonic asked. "Our mom! Kipo's dad! We can't just…"
He stopped when he noticed a teardrop fall from Sonia's face and onto her lap. Sonic took a good look and saw the tears building up in her eyes.
"I know what we're doing, but they're right." Sonia said regretfully. "We'll get them back. Just not yet."
"There wasn't any easy choice." Vanilla said. "But at least we can still make more."
Everyone looked down. They knew while they would have put up a good fight, it wouldn't forever. They said nothing on the way back to their friends.
"And that's what happened." Kipo said to everyone after reuniting with them. "We found Cream's mom, I learned my parents experimented on me, and after all that, we failed to save our parents. I was so sure we could get everybody out, but if we had stayed, we would've been captured like everyone else. My dad wants me to become a Mega-Jaguar and save everyone. How can I do that when it seems every instinct I have is wrong?"
She frowned heavily with her friends surrounding her on the forest floor. Sally approached her and placed her hand on her shoulder assuringly.
"I lost my dad too." She confessed getting everyone's attention.
"What?" Kipo asked.
Sally nodded. "When Scarlemagne first came to power and announced his rule, many of the richest mutes in Las Vistas supported his ideas and vision. But not my dad. He didn't want to be an enemy to humans nor did he approve of how Scarlemagne wanted to rule with fear. So he assembled like-minded mutes and formed the original Freedom Fighters. He took many great risks opposing the mad mandrill, but it always paid off. He did so without any fear in his eyes. I always looked to him for that.
"One day, a mysterious letter arrived for my dad. It was from Scarlemagne, who wanted to end this conflict once and for all with a peace treaty. He proposed a meeting with my dad to discuss the terms of their treaty. I had a bad feeling though. I warned him not to go, but he assured me he would return. And… he didn't."
"Oh, my gosh." Amy said.
"One of my dad's guards returned to us. He said that when they got their meeting place, they were ambushed by several large mutes in hoods. Then, the Mega-Monkey showed up. She wiped my dad's forces out with one swing before taking him away. Since the news, the other Freedom Fighters were in a great conflict. Many of them wanted to take the fight to Scarlemagne and rescue my dad. Many others didn't want to oppose him if he had a Mega-Monkey under his control. One after the other, all my dad's allies… defected. Eventually, the Freedom Fighters disbanded until there was only me, Bunnie, Antoine, Rotor, and the Timbercats. Vanilla helped too, but only to feed us.
"Without my dad, I had to take up the leader position. However, I was still too scared and hopeless. We only did miniscule jobs to keep us going and keep an eye on Scarlemagne. I didn't have the courage to do anything else. I truly thought it was all for nothing… until you."
"Me?" Kipo asked.
"You and your friends." Sally went on. "When Yumyan told me everything you've done, I kept an eye on you. Seeing you outmaneuver the strongest monsters and the fiercest mute gangs, it was actually inspirational. Seeing you gave me the courage to take the big steps. Thanks to you all, I finally found the hope that I once lost.
"So Kipo, if you truly think your instincts are always wrong, then you're the one who's wrong. You reassured me that there was a chance for freedom for every living thing in this city, that we could finally see Scarlemagne faces justice for everything he's done to us, that we could have a better future."
"She does have a point, Kipo." Wolf said. "Looking back, I'm actually proud of everything we've done."
"And it was all done because you made the right calls." Benson said.
"And freeing that Mega-Monkey? You didn't have to do that." Dave said. "But you did, and it was the right thing to do."
"Sounds like we did good after all." Sonic said. "And don't worry, we'll find a way to save our parents."
"Thanks, guys." Kipo said with tears in her eyes. She hugged everyone for a while before breaking it. "So what now?"
"Well, first, I'm going to take Vanilla to the Timbercats for safety. Plus, she'll want to reunite with her daughter." Sally said.
"Why thank you, dear." Vanilla said.
"And after that, I'm meeting back with the others at our hideout." Sally said. "We'll strategize our next move against Scarlemagne. Meanwhile, you guys find the Chevre Sisters to help you control your powers."
"Do you know where we can find them?" Sonic asked.
"Not really. They're more secretive than we are." Sally said.
BOOM!
The night colors changed into fiery red from the distance. Everyone turned their heads at the explosion of fire coming from the middle of the city. They had the most horrified look as they saw several two-headed flamingos carrying bits and pieces away from the fire.
"Ratland." Benson gasped.
"They're using Kipo's burrow-mates for Scarlemagne's dirty work." Sonic said.
"It looks like Scarlemagne's finally taking a big step." Sally said. "Go. Find the Chevre Sisters. Come see us again when you control your powers. Then, we'll take the fight directly to him."
Also witnessing the explosion were three figures. They all had robes, hoods, and plague masks on, but at they also had mute characteristics attached to them. Two of them had fake bunny years, and the one at the center had on black feathers on her robe. Though they dressed like mutes, they were humans behind their masks. The middle one glared at the destruction.
"We have to stop him."