Adventures of the Orange Flash
Chapter 50: Kicking up a Sandstorm
"Man, it's pretty hot out here," said Naruto, wiping sweat from his eyebrow as he gazed upon his surroundings with Nicole, Spicy and the Chao. Ever since the group had split up with Sonic and Tails with their separate objectives with the duo going in search if the Chaos Emeralds and the trio seeking out Eggman Nega as well as Blaze to learn more of the current situation.
As of now, Naruto and the others have found themselves wandering into a desert then came across the ancient ruins of an Egyptian city with numerous pyramids and a few Sphinxes scattered about. Spicy walked ahead of the group and looked around in wonder of the place.
"Wow, I never thought that I would come to a place like this," said Spicy in awe.
"First time experience can give that kind of feeling," Naruto reached into his ninja pouch and took out two water bottles and held one out to Spicy "Here you go, we can't afford to get dehydrated in the desert,"
"Thank you very much," Spicy gratefully took one of the water bottles and took a deep drink to quench her thirst "Do you think Eggman is around here?"
"I'm sure of it, I performed a scan of the place and I'm detecting multiple Badniks in the zone," Nicole responded in affirmation to the question.
"We'll work on clearing them out along the way while searching for that rotten egg," said Naruto with the Chao chirping in agreement.
"O-okay," said Spicy a bit nervously, she took a few steps forward when the ground suddenly broke apart underneath her and she fell into the hole "Aaaaahhhhhh!"
"Spicy!" Naruto jumped into the hole to dive in after the young vixen.
"Help me!" Spicy cried out in fear.
"We're coming!" Naruto shot jets of foxfire from the soles of his feet to propel himself forward and increase his falling speed to reach Spicy and wrapped his arms around "Gotcha, now hang on!" he flipped forward for his feet to point at the fast approaching ground and shot jets of foxfire from his feet once again but with greater power, soon their fall slowed down to the point of hovering a few feet over the ground. Naruto placed Spicy on the ground and began to check her over "Are you okay Spicy-chan, were you hurt?"
"No…I'm okay, thank you for saving me," said Spicy in gratitude and admiration, getting Naruto and Nicole to sigh in relief "But where are we now?"
Nicole scanned the are before speaking up "It appears to be an underground labyrinth of sorts,"
"In other words, a minor detour. We'll just make our way out and find Eggman," said Naruto with a shrug, he crouched down on one knee with his back to Spicy as he willed Masamune and Hazy-Moon to detach from it and reattach themselves to his waist "Hop onto my back and hold on tight, it's much faster and safer this way,"
"O-okay Naruto," Spicy climbed onto Naruto's back and felt his tails wrap firmly around her waist as he rose to his feet.
"Alright then, let's kick it!" Naruto crouched slightly before taking off at high-speed with Nicole flying next to him with her Digital Wings active.
Music Start: Sonic Rush - Original Groove Rush; Ethno Circus
Naruto zipped down the sloped pathway with increasing speed before bouncing off a spring at the end to take to the air with a couple of somersaults before landing on a rail to grind along it which sloped downwards at the end, he got off and moved along before coming across some kind of pod attached to a large rope. Nicole analyzed it before speaking to Naruto.
"According to history, the ancients use these to transport items too heavy through the use of gravity or speed," Nicole explained.
"In that case, I'll use speed for it," Naruto triggered his Swift Release Bloodline for a rapid acceleration as he ran into the roped pod with the momentum causing it to swing upwards to a platform overhead for him to launch out right into a diagonal spring to launch him further upward in the opposite direction to land on the next pathway. Naruto jumped off the edge to landing on a hovering platform which lifted him up to the next area where he stepped on top of a platform designed to resemble a large clawed hand which spun rapidly and carried him into a room, he made to leave through the exit when the stone doors suddenly closed in to trap him inside then Egg Pawns began teleporting inside to attack.
"I-it's a trap!" Spicy peeked over the kitsune's shoulder in worry.
Naruto rolled his shoulders a bit "So it is, but nothing I can't handle. Hang on tight!"
The blonde kitsune stood at the ready as the first of the Egg Pawns rushed towards them and attempted to grab them but he swiftly ducked low and countered with a low sweep kick to knock it off its feet then continued with the momentum to follow-up with a kick to send the Badnik crashing into the others "Foxfire Dual Shot!" his arms ignited in azure flames before thrusting forwards to launch two fireballs in the shape of fox heads to slam into the robots. Nicole lobbed a Static Bomb to disrupt the Egg Pawns functions then used Digital Projection to conjure multiple spears of data to hover around her before launching them to finish the robots off. An Egg Hammer appeared last and swung its weapon at Naruto who leapt high into the air to dodge then he brought out a Hirashin Kunai and grabbed the hilt of Hazy-Moon with the other, he threw the kunai at the Badnik and teleported with a yellow flash to reappear behind the robot which feel into many pieces upon sheathing the ninjato with a metallic clink.
With the robots destroyed, the stone doors opened up for the trio to exit through it as Naruto bounced off a spring to reach up to a ledge overhead and boosted off a dash panel to grab onto a zip line as he sped along it to the other side where he bounced off yet another spring and was propelled even higher via several dash rings to reach up to the surface.
Naruto dashed up the sloped pathway to the top where he leapt off the edge and maneuvered himself to land on top of hovering platforms but had to make his way along them as they were crumbling away from the weight to the next area, there he triggered his swift release to boost in a roped pod to swing upwards and exit to be bounced away by a diagonal spring high into the air before finally descending to land into a funneled sand pit where the duo began riding down a series of sand slides which guided them back down to the underground labyrinth. Naruto sped forward whilst taking down an Egg Pawn with a foxfire powered punch before launching of a dash ramp before landing on a rail to grind along which guided him upwards to a ledge where he used a pair of moving platforms to climb up further.
The duo stepped atop another paw-shaped platform to spiral them to the next area where they bounced off a spring to ascend to a ledge then dashed down a downhill path and into a room which locked up upon entry and Badniks began teleporting inside to attack them "Ugh, I get the feeling this is gonna happen a lot. Foxfire Kick!" Naruto ignited his feet with foxfire before charging forward and attacked the first Egg Pawn with a flying kick then flipped backwards to avoid being by an Egg Pawn from his left side before countering by leaping into the air and lashing out with an aerial roundhouse kick to take it down. An Egg Bishop took aim with its wand and fired a purple energy ball at the duo, Naruto saw the incoming attack and with careful timing sent it right back with a kick to destroy the Badnik. Now two Egg Hammers appeared and approached to attack the trio.
"Shroud of Invisibility!" Nicole turned herself completely invisibility such that the Badniks were unable to track the Holo-lynx as she stealthily approached one of the Egg Hammers from behind and proceeded to use Data Drain to extract data from the Badnik, causing it to cease function permanently. Naruto activated his Celestial as a white halo hovers above Naruto's head and starlight sparkles around him "Light Gatling Bullets!" Naruto shaped his hands into finger guns rapidly fires photon bullets at the Badnik, destroying it and playfully blew imaginary smoke from the index fingers as the doors reopened for them to continue onwards.
The group kept running into more rooms with Badniks trapping them inside and attacking them which somewhat got on their nerves but were eventually able to make their way through all of them as they found themselves landing on top of a large golden wheeled platform as it proceeded to move along a track constructed for it. Naruto kept a sharp eye out for anything and soon enough, giant boulders began falling from the ceiling above towards them, Naruto quickly triggered his Earth Aspect and manipulated the boulders fall into the abyss below them instead of hitting the platform itself. Something else began dropping from overhead and landing on the platform, revealing themselves to be Egg Pawns, Naruto frowned at this but then got an idea to solve this.
Naruto saw a boulder falling towards him and made his move "Terra Vulcan!" he levitated the boulder in front of him then punching to shatter it into small pieces which he launches rapidly at high-speeds towards the Badniks like Gatling bullets which took many out with several more remaining "Time to end this, Bedrock Rhino Rush!" he caught another boulder and shaped it into that of a rhino's head and then launched it forward with a palm thrust, barreling through the Egg Pawns and knocking them off the platform as well. They soon took notice that the platform was about to fall off the end of the track.
"Quick, grab my hand!" Nicole called out urgently as she activated her Digital Wings and took flight, Naruto immediately jumped to grab her hand as she carried him and Spicy through an opening in the ceiling before dropping them into a safer area.
"That was close, thanks for the save Nicole-chan," said Naruto with a foxy grin.
"Thank you," said Spicy timidly.
Nicole blushed at the praise "You're welcome, I just did what I need to help,"
"Let's keep moving, I doubt any of us want to remain here much longer," said Naruto, getting nods of agreement from the others before continuing onwards.
Music Change: Sonic Rush - Original Groove Rush; Ethno Circus (Blazy Mix)
The trio continued their run with Spicy still being carried on Naruto's back and Nicole was flying next to them as the kitsune launched off a dash ramp at the end of the pathway to get across a deep gap to the other part of the ruins, he landed atop a paw-shaped platform to be spiraled to the other side. Naruto kept moving before a wall was ahead, he applied chakra to the soles of his feet to run up to the top and bounced of a diagonal spring to be redirected by another spring before landing on rail and grinding along to the next area.
Naruto took to running down a series of downward sloped pathways to end up deep in the underground labyrinth, he boosted off a dash panel to run up an uphill route and further higher via a ramped wall that curved forward to enter a roped pod which swung upwards to a path overhead then bounced off a diagonal spring to land on another rail and grinded through a rail loop to the end. Naruto saw that he was heading straight towards a dead-end and quickly formed a Rasengan with a hand outstretched before himself to smash through several walls blocking the path to the other side and finding himself in a room with Egg Pawns teleporting in to attack them.
The Egg Pawns charged forward to grab the duo but Naruto leapt into the air and stomped on their heads before performing a somersault to evade blasts from the Egg Bishops, he unsheathed Hazy-Moon and threw it to pierce the head of an Egg Bishop before landing before it and used one of his tails to pull it out to perform a 180 spin to slash the other next to him into half. Kou encapsulated itself in a white energy sphere and proceeded to ricochet off the walls like a bouncy ball at high-speed to pummel an Egg Pawn into pieces of scrap while Yoru lunged at the other Egg Pawn to bite off pieces of its body to the point of no longer being able to function.
The doors soon opened for the group to move on ahead as they dashed down the pathway in the labyrinth and were being redirected by springs in the walls to descend further before running off the edge to grind down a sloped rail. He went through a roped pod which swung downwards to the lower level for him to exit and dropped through a sand pit to ride down a set of sandy slides to the bottom. The group bounced up a spring to reach to an upper level to step on top of another paw-shaped platform to be spiraled to the other side to bounce off a diagonal spring and landed to run up a sloped pathway to the top and bounced off another spring to take to the air at the end, Naruto kicked off the wall with a backflip to land atop a hovering platform but quickly turned round to hop across the others as they were already crumbling under the weight to grind along a rail and jumped to grab a zipline to get across a gap to drop over at the other side, he boosted off a dash panel to run up a ramped wall and through an upward guiding shuttle loop to launch off a dash ramp into the air then descending to through a sand pit to ride down yet another set of sandy slides before dropping through an opening into a room which then closed up above them.
Naruto calmly waited for the Badniks to begin teleporting into the room before taking to the offensive to end the fight as soon as possible "Aero Beast Swipe!" Naruto triggered his Air Aspect then stretched out an arm to form a large beast paw and swung it to send a few of the Egg Pawns smashing into the walls and shattering into pieces, An Egg Hammer approached from the side and attempted to bludgeon the kitsune and his passenger with its weapon but Naruto was quick to notice and leapt high into the air to evade the air "Tempest Dragon!" the winds swirled strongly around him before rushing towards the large Badnik whilst shaping itself into a serpentine dragon and slamming into the target, leaving behind scraps of metal within a large crater. Now a trio of Egg Bishop appeared and were firing a volley of energy blast with Naruto moving rapidly from left to right to avoid the incoming projectiles "Wild Tempest Kick!" He formed a windstorm around the legs and lashed out with consecutive aerial roundhouse kicks to destroy the Badniks without even touching the ground before the doors reopened for the group to move on.
Naruto boosted off a dash panel to speed down a downhill pathway with increasing speed as he barreled through multiple Egg Pawns standing in his way, sending them flying from the impacts without slowing down before reaching the end and dropping through an opening to land atop another large golden wheeled platform as it proceeded to move along a track it was currently on. Like before, the blonde kitsune had to watch out for the rock falling towards him and Spicy from above which he managed to do by kicking them away with his feet empowered with chakra. The platform suddenly broke off the path and fell into a river before floating along the current. More rocks fell but this time, Naruto switched to his Water Aspect with a puddle of water appears around Naruto's feet with bubbles rising into the air from it as he manipulated streams of water to deflect the rocks into the river.
"Don't look now Naruto, but here come even more Badniks," Nicole called as the aforementioned robots dropped onto the floating platform from above and were approaching to attack them.
"Ugh, I'm seriously questioning that Egghead's financial status. Oh well, more additions to the scrap heap," Naruto shrugged before channeling his energy "Water Snakes!" multiple streams of water rose from the river and took of the shapes of large serpents which swooped in to wrap around several Badniks before dragging them into the water "Water Shuriken!" he held his arms out for orbs of water to float around before shaping into spinning shurikens before thrusting forward to launch them at the Egg Pawns and destroying them. Soon enough, no more boulders and Badniks were appearing on the platform.
Music End
The platform soon reached a port of sorts for the group to get to a long staircase which led them up to a massive chamber with a wide circular platform with what appears to be the broken remains of a statue at the very center of the chamber. Naruto was looking around the place when he suddenly stopped with a frown on his face, something Spicy noticed and spoke in concern and mild worry towards her fellow vulpine.
"What's the matter, Naruto?" asked Spicy.
Naruto looked across the chamber towards a long staircase leading out while still frowning "We're not alone here," no sooner he said that did the others began hearing the sound of footsteps and looked to see three strangers descend down the stairs and enter to chamber to face them.
The first is a purple-and-white Mobian weasel with a long bent tail, a large blue nose and eyes. He sports a large pointed tooth poking through his lips despite his mouth being closed, he wears a brown fedora, a brown belt around his waist that holster a pair of firearms, brown gloves with metal plates on the backhands, and brown-and-white boots.
On his left is a Mobian duck with green feathers and blue eyes, his beak and legs are yellow as he wears a red ascot around his neck, white gloves and red sneakers with white straps.
And the third to the weasel's right is a yellow-furred Mobian polar bear who is much taller and bulkier compared to the first two. He has a triangular patch of white fur on his chest and red eyes. He wears a red beanie that has holes to allow his ears to poke out as well as a green scarf around his neck, completing the outfit are a pair of brown gloves and a pair of brown-toed red boots.
"Looks like we finally found our troublemakers, took long enough," said the weasel with a smirk.
"Yup, just before our lunch break too!" said the duck excitedly.
"…," the polar bear stood there silently.
"Who are you three?" asked Naruto with a small frown.
"Begging your pardon, allow me to introduce my crew and I…," the weasel tipped his fedora "The name's Nack the Weasel, to my left's Bean the Duck and my right is Bark the Polar Bear…we're known as Team Hooligan!"
"I've heard of them, they're mercenaries for hire and are wanted by GUN for numerous crimes," said Nicole with a glare at the trio "What are you doing here?"
"As if it isn't obvious enough, we were hired by Dr. Eggman to stop you guys as well as get that little girl who's riding on that fox's back," said Nack, Spicy fearfully ducked out of sight in fear of still being targeted.
"Please lose, there's this video game I've been wanting to get my hands on and I need the money," said Bean pleadingly.
"…," Bark crossed his arms silently.
"Why didn't Egghead come after us himself?" asked Naruto in annoyance.
Nack shrugged his shoulders "He was at first, but someone had thrashed his toy which left us to pick up the slack. Mind making this easy and handing the kid over to us?"
Naruto passed Spicy over to Nicole with Kou and Yoru joining her "It's obvious what my answer's gonna be, so let's have that rumble we both really want,"
"Can't deny that I didn't want to take a shot at you," Nack's hands inched for the firearms on his belt.
"It's fighting time, I'm so excited!" Bean was bouncing in place.
"…," Bark raised his hands in a combat stance.
"Let's get this party started!" Naruto charged forward with Team Hooligan taking to the offense as well.
Music Start: Metal Gear Rising OST; A Soul Cannot Be Cut (Platinum Mix DLC Version)
Bark took the lead as he lunged at Naruto with a leaping punch for the kitsune to evade with a cartwheel to the right to see the fist create a crater upon impact, he retaliated with a flying kick but Bark was quick to recover and catch the outstretched leg then spun round a couple times to toss him towards a pillar. Naruto performed an aerial recovery to land against the pillar feet first and latch on with his chakra, noticing something from the corner of his eye and turned to see Nack draw out a pair of handguns from his holster with a twirl before opening fire, Naruto quickly ran down the pillar to the ground and charged forward, then he channeled chakra to his ECG-X gloves to create a pair of kunai to rapidly deflect the incoming purple energy bullets whilst approaching the weasel.
"Hey hey, let's have a blast!" Bean stretched his hands out and summoning what appears to be black spherical bombs with lit fuses in a puff of purple smoke before throwing them at the kitsune who leapt into the air to evade the twin explosions whilst still deflecting the bullets fired until Nack ran out of ammo.
"Swift Release: Shadow Step!" Naruto blurred from eyesight and reappeared before a surprised Nack with a fist reared back for a punch when he suddenly turned to the right with his arms crossed before him to block a dropkick from Bean and was pushed back towards Bark who grabbed the kitsune and performed a suplex to slam him to the ground. The polar bear stood up to see a wooden log in place of the blonde kitsune "Swift Release: Shadow Rush!" he turned round to see Naruto rapidly switching targets between Nack and Bean whilst unleashing a barrage of punches and kicks with a trail of afterimages depicting his actions before sending them flying equally strong hits.
"…!" Bark's eyes narrowed in anger and charged to attack Naruto who saw him coming and actually awaited his approach, both engaged in close combat with Bark constantly throwing punches and several attempts to grapple the kitsune who was darting from left to right to evade the punches and deflecting the polar bear's grapples with backhands to disrupt any initial moves. "Time to change gears!" Naruto rapidly moved into the offensive as he ducked underneath a punch from Bark and countered with an uppercut to knock him into the air "Shadow Clone jutsu!" two clones appeared then leapt into the air after the target with the original following after them as they each grabbed an arm and slammed Bark to the ground with Naruto driving a knee into his torso before flipping away with the clones dispelling.
Bean had recovered to see this and rubbed his eyes in disbelief "Okay, no more radish-banana shakes for midnight snacks for me,"
"Quit quacking nonsense Bean and let's get this guy!" said Nack in annoyance as he reloaded his guns
"Oh right," said Bean, though frankly was angry at Naruto being mean to his buddy Bark and so began flinging bombs rapidly in succession and Naruto was darting from left to right to avoid them, he made to approach the duck but was forced to the defensive when Nack began shooting at him. In the midst of evasion, Naruto couldn't help but notice that none of the bombs which Bean flung at him detonated and even saw that the fuses weren't even lit.
"Why aren't they lit? the dude just threw them like that? Something doesn't add up," thought Naruto as he deflected the energy bullets then he reached into his ninja pouch and took out a handful of shuriken to throw them before forming a handsign "Shuriken Shadow Clone jutsu!" he watched as they multiplied into a thousand copies of the originals in direction of a panicking Nack but Bean snapped his fingers, causing some of the bombs lying on the ground to explode to take out the shuriken "I get it now, he can remotely detonate them. Something to keep in mind,"
"Don't look now kit, but guess who's back?" said Kurama.
At that moment, Naruto ducked to evade a punch from behind and performed a spin dash to move away and checked to see Bark albeit bruised but still capable of fighting with Bean riding atop his shoulders. Nack took to the offensive once more as he brought out an SMG to attack Naruto with a run-and-gun tactic. Naruto took evasive action to prevent getting shot but still had to watch out to the bombs laying on the ground with Bean remotely triggering them whenever he got close to one, the blonde kitsune switched tactics as he activated his Air Aspect with the wind swirling around him quite strongly "Wind Vortex!" he swung his arm out in an arc to create a large tornado then proceeded to remotely control it to move around and draw all of the bombs into it before dropping them off the platform "Time to put an end to this!" Naruto disappeared in a yellow flash and began to pummel the trio at high-speed, giving them no chance whatsoever to recover. He appeared above bark with a leg raised high above his head before bringing it down on the polar bear's head with an axe kick and slamming it to the ground for the knockout, then he warped to Bean to perform a rising uppercut then firing a foxfire ball to take him out then he warped towards Nack with a Rasengan in hand to send him crashing into a pillar and hung in place.
Music End
"I think you went a bit overboard Naruto, I don't think we're going to get any answers with them unconscious like that," said Nicole as she flew over with Spicy and the Chao.
Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly "Yeah, my bad,"
"Um, didn't the weasel say that Eggman would have been here but someone destroyed his machine?" asked Spicy.
"You're on to something here Spicy-chan, someone got to Eggman first and I have an inkling who it might be," said Naruto thoughtfully.
"Perhaps we should search for information elsewhere since there's nothing else to look fr around here," said Nicole.
"Good point,"
Later on, the group had left the desert zone and were now walking through a prairie. They were walking along the dirt path when Naruto caught sight of a house in the distance and soon recalled something with a look of realization.
"Hang on, I remember Cream-chan telling me that her home is around here. Maybe we could drop by and say hello," said Naruto.
"Sounds like a good idea, it has certainly been a while since we last saw each other," said Nicole with the Chao chirping in agreement since they wanted to see Cheese. They made their way over to the house and rang the doorbell, they didn't have to wait long as the door was opened up to reveal Vanilla who smiled brightly upon seeing familiar faces.
"Oh, what a welcome surprise! Hello Naruto and Nicole, it appears that you brought along a new friend," said Vanilla fondly.
"Hello Vanilla-san, this is our new friend Spicy the fox. We were just dropping by to say hello," said Naruto with a smile as Spicy shyly waved in greeting.
"That's nice of you, but I'm afraid that Cream isn't home right now. She's out with a new friend like you with Wendy and Milla going with her,"
Naruto was surprised to hear that "Wendy-chan and Milla-chan were here?"
"Yes, they wanted to invite Cream to help create a potion but then decided to join Cream to help her friend. I don't recall her name but she had an interesting purple outfit,"
The group were taken by surprise upon hearing that they were actually hanging around with Blaze whom they themselves are searching for besides Eggman Nega.
Nicole asked with urgency "Do you remember which way they've headed?"
"Hmm…I think they're headed to town," said Vanilla, a bit surprised at their reaction.
"Thank you Vanilla-san, we'll go and catch up with them!" said Naruto before carrying Spicy on his back and taking off at high-speed with Nicole flying next to him.
"My, Cream's friends are always so busy," said Vanilla with a sweatdrop as she watched them leave.
This is Hussbek online with the latest chapter, so far Naruto and the group found themselves over at Mirage Road zone and began searching the desert ruins for any clues which could lead them to Eggman Nega or Blaze. After much exploration and combat, the group encountered a trio known as Team Hooligan who were hired by Eggman to capture Spicy which ended in failure due to Naruto's rather physical refusal. With nothing else to do in the ruins, the group passed by Cream's home and learnt from Vanilla that Cream is escorting Blaze along with Milla and Wendy. Now they have some catching up to do and they need to do it fast. Be sure to read and review as always.
On a side note, a fellow Fanfic author by the name Ortizale has taken to drawing up sketches of the Orange Flash story on Deviantart so be sure to have a looksee when you get the chance.
This is Hussbek from Ghana.
Signing out.