Adventures of the Orange Flash
Chapter 61: Raiders
"Press forward, Chaotix! We got them on the run!" Vector declared as he and his team led the assault in ruins of New Megaopolis along with Sonic, Naruto and a still somber Knuckles against the recently formed New Dark Egg Legion.
Sonic was busy taking down several of the members of the legion with highspeed tackles and Homing attacks before rolling into cover behind a broken wall to avoid getting shot at by some of the other legionaries. Naruto was just as occupied on his sides with a squad of legionaries piloting Egg Pods and firing their laser guns at him, it wasn't much of a surprise due to Dr. Eggman having placed him on a high threat level with Sonic.
"Swift Release: Shadow Dance!" Naruto moved at blurring speeds with afterimages trailing behind him and portraying his movements, easily distracting the legionaries to losing sight of him that they were completely unaware that he was above them with Peacemaker in hand and freefalling towards them. The blonde kitsune activated his Air Aspect and took aim "Air Buster!" he pulled the trigger to fire a barrage of compressed spheres of air which sashed the Egg Pods to the ground and knocked the legionaries off them then landing amongst them in a crouch whilst slinging the rifle on his shoulder with a smirk.
"Man, are we really needed for this? These guys are a total joke!" said Sonic with a smirk, then he turned to see Knuckle with a forlorn look on his face "…and I can see that you're not laughing,"
"Because I'm responsible for them," said Knuckles, vaulting over the wall he was taking cover from fire and proceeding to advance through the battlefield.
Sonic rolled his eyes as he ran along the echidna "Oh man, not this again…,"
"It was my actions as Enerjak that forced them to make an alliance with Dr. Robotnik,"
"Dude, I keep telling you that you were under a spell and didn't do it of your own free will. Their choice to do so doesn't leave you up for blame,"
"But I was the one who took their cybernetics away, I need to try to help them, starting by talking to their leader," Knuckles pulled ahead of Sonic, knocking any form of opposition in his way with the hedgehog shaking his head at the echidna's words of self-condemnation.
Naruto landed nearby with the Peacemaker holstered to his back with his arms crossed "Is he still blaming himself about all this?"
"Yup, that guy's as stubborn as ever," said Sonic.
"Guess i'm going to have that chat after this," thought Naruto.
"Be sure to have enough elbow room at that time," said Kurama.
"Let's catch up to Knuckles and make sure he's okay," Naruto suggested.
Sonic simply shrugged in response "Pretty much an extra part of the plan,"
Back at the Freedom Fighters HQ, things were pretty much normal until the Star Posts suddenly activated by themselves and opened up a portal. Tails called Rotor over to help see what the problem only to be attacked by something from within the portal, only to discover that they're under attack by their evil dimensional counterparts along with Fiona Fox.
"What's with the new additions to your body, Anti-Rotor?" asked Rotor diving out of the way of the blast from said walrus' power gauntlets.
"Figured that I could improve myself compared to you, and the name's Boomer!" said Boomer haughtily "it looks like you've been out of shape,"
"Spinal damage can do that to you," Rotor retorted as he took cover behind a desk to avoid another blast.
"Get back here so I can smash you to the ground like a wooden stake!" said Amy, angrily swinging her Piko Piko hammer at Antoine's counterpart known as Patch.
"La fille est une monstre!" Patch ran from the pink hedgehog in fear for his life.
"Be sure to save some of him for me Amy, he owes me just as much!" said Bunnie while she grappled Sally's counterpart known as Princess Alicia.
"You should know better than to focus entirely on me," Alicia sneered at the Mobian rabbit.
Bunnie quirked an eyebrow in response "Why's that?"
*BOOM*
Bunnie got sent flying by a blast from a smirking Boomer.
"Because you'll never know when someone is going to attack you from out of nowhere," Alicia answered.
*Whack*
Now it was Alicia's turn to be knocked to the ground by Sally with a flying kick from the side.
"Thanks for the advice," said Sally teasingly before running for cover from Boomer.
"Keep the geek and nerd at bay so they won't contact anyone else," said Fiona before taking a step back when Antoine stood before her with his sword drawn.
"I do not understand zhis, you're from our zone and yet you side with our evil twins," said Antoine with a frown.
Fiona simply sneered "Goes to show how little you know of me, just the way I like it,"
Sally was busy grappling with Alicia and could see that things are exactly going in their favor, apparently Fiona and their evil counterparts are somewhat stronger compared to their last encounter and could tell that the situation is about to get worse.
"Freedom Fighters, we need to call Sonic and Naruto back here!" Sally called out before kicking Alicia back and racing for the console.
"We'd rather you do not," Boomer took aim with his gauntlets but was tackled to the wall by Bunnie.
"Nobody asked you!" Bunnie retorted.
Miles swooped towards Sally but Tails was quick to intercept his evil twin in midair, Antoine kept Patch at bay with a swordfight, Amy tried to cover her but Alicia used her whip to constrict the pink hedgehog. Sally was almost upon the console but was knocked away by Fiona who smirked down upon her.
"Too bad you're not as fast as your on-and-off boyfriend," said Fiona tauntingly.
Sally groaned before responding with a defiant smile "I may not be as fast, but I am certainly smart enough to divert your attention from what really matters,"
Hearing this, Fiona frantically looked around before seeing Rotor holding a finger to an earpiece and remotely connecting to the console to call for backup. Fiona tried to stop the walrus but was held back by Sally to prevent any further interruptions.
Back at Megaopolis, Sonic and Naruto were backing up Knuckles as they advanced through the battlefield and knocking down legionaries in order to reach with the former two using their speed to do so until reaching their objective. Knuckles glided up to their leader known as Lien-Da, he attempted to reason with his fellow echidna but she refused to listen him before calling for a retreat upon receiving communication from Snively about the lack of reinforcements.
Knuckles glided back down to the others with a sad look on his face "Why won't she listen to me?"
"Lien-Da has never been much of a listener…or much of a sister either," said Julie-Su.
"Chillax Knux, she'll probably straighten out once we take over Eggman's trashed little city. So take a break and leave all that emo brooding to Shadow," said Sonic.
"Yeah, the dude is practically a master of brooding," said Naruto, getting chuckles from the others.
"Pretty good that the enemy is being pushed back and all, but how's the second team doing?" asked Mighty.
Julie-Su had her mechanical dreadlocks act as a comm to contact the others before ending the transmission and speaking to them "Saffron and others are setting the charges to destroy the tower but Lien-Da and her forces are heading their way,"
Naruto frowned at this "In that case, let's-," he was interrupted by the sound of beeping from his ECG-X gloves and Sonic's wrist comm, both looked to see that it was an SOS signal coming from Freedom Fighters HQ.
"Looks like something's going down back at HQ," said Sonic with a frown.
"Then head back and see what's going on," said Mighty.
"But what about you guys?" asked Naruto with mild concern.
"Sonic said it himself, you're not really needed here. Plus, we have everything under control here," said Knuckles.
"Just leave the rest to us," Vector insisted.
"Alright then, but just in case…," Naruto created a handful of shadow clones "My clones will act as your backup,"
"Thanks man," said Mighty.
"Let's juice Naruto!" said Sonic revving up before taking off with Naruto right behind him.
The speeding duo rapidly made their way out of the ruined city while taking note that an Egg Ship flew over them in the opposite direction of where they were coming from but made no move to turn back considering that they believed that the Chaotix can still handle things plus Naruto left behind shadow clones to help them. They soon arrived at the HQ, kicking open the front door and striking a pose.
"Fixers in the house, swooping in to save the day!" Naruto declared playfully, Nico appeared on his spiky blonde hair in her Faerie Form and giggled in amusement.
"And we've got the right tools for the job!" Sonic added with a smirk.
"You two showed up just in time," said Sally in relief with the other Freedom Fighters feeling the same way.
Fiona got nervous upon seeing the blonde kitsune who looked in her direction and was once again staring straight into her eyes…she's beginning to hate it when he does that before calling out towards the Star Posts which were still active.
"Sorry hon, but I think you need to speed up your grand entrance!" said Fiona urgently.
A rather familiar footwear stuck out through the portal before fully exiting to reveal who now stands before everyone, it was none other than Scourge the Hedgehog who appears to be wearing some sort of crown on his forehead as he smirked at everyone.
"To all the scrubs of this zone, the king has arrived…respect!" Scourge sneered at Sonic and Naruto who stood there, unaffected by his declaration aside from being amused.
"So I'm guessing that this invasion thing is your idea?" asked Sonic with a quirked brow.
"That's King Scourge to you," Scourge replied.
Naruto retorted "So we can officially declare you to be a royal pain in the butt,"
"Ha! Good one!" said Sonic but he got knocked back by a punch to the gut from Scourge before he had a chance to react.
"Think that you two are so funny when it hasn't clicked that I am now superior over you, remember what you said to me Sonic?" said Scourge.
Sonic got back to his feet with a light groan of pain "I said a lot of things to you," he jumped out of the way of a Spin Dash.
"You pointed out to me that we're one in the same, that a single decision is what it would take for one to be the other. Hearing that had gotten me thinking; you're the Hero of Mobius and the strongest in the planet, so what does that make me?" Scourge lashed out with a fast punch which was blocked by Sonic having crossed his arms to defend himself.
"I'm rather surprised that you actually listened to me,"
"Same here, so I went back to my home and let loose or rather applied myself, taking over Moebius in a matter of days," Scourge suddenly grabbed Sonic and flung him at wall before standing in front of his group "I gave my world the same thing I gave to myself on my birthday…we are no longer your evil twins. I am now King Scourge of a bold new Moebius, and now your world is going to fall to me and my Suppression Squad,"
Sonic stood back up to his feet and was about to respond when they all heard a scoff and turned to see Naruto leaning against a wall with his arms crossed and eyes closing as he shook his head at all this.
"You got something to say?" asked Scourge with a small frown.
"I heard everything you said and frankly it's no different from the ones said by my enemies and there's a core aspect that they all share…," Naruto opened his eyes with a look of annoyance "A fool who wants absolute control over everything, forcing others to do what they cannot do for themselves without caring about the amount of suffering others would go through until they're satisfied. The reason for this; either because they don't have enough and want more than necessary or selfishly believe that they had suffered far worse than anyone else and wants the world to feel the same way no matter what,"
"Well aren't you a mister know-it-all, did you read that from a book in the library or something?" Scourge sneered.
Naruto simply shook his head "I speak from experience, I am an orphan who lost his parents and almost his village on the day he was born, possessing a power which was nearly the cause of the village's destruction and became a scapegoat of its grievances and hatred. By all rights, I should have ended up just like you or any of the enemies I faced in the past but I choose not to respond to their hatred with hatred of my own but to have them acknowledge me for who I am and not for what I reminded them of,"
"Naruto's had it rough huh, don't know if I could have been able to do what he did," said Rotor with a frown.
"Mon dieu…," Antoine muttered lowly with Bunnie interlinking her hands with his.
Naruto continued to speak "Soon I gained people who accepted me and willingly stand by my side, they're precious to me more than my own life. They may not really know it but I am eternally grateful to them for saving me from myself which is why I am willing to protect them no matter what. A friend once told me 'When a person has something precious that they wish to protect, it is only then that they become genuinely strong'. I held onto those words and to this day, I never failed to protect those who matter to me,"
"What a load of hogwash, power is what decides everything. You're being nothing more than a naïve pacifist," Scourge snorted with the others sans a silent Fiona who stared at Naruto intently.
"Then why is it that Sonic always beats you? Why do you have so much trouble every time you face him and forced to retreat? The answer is simple…Sonic's ideals are superior to yours, easily overpowering it in every clash,"
Scourge frowned at this "What is that supposed to mean?"
"You rule with violence and tyranny, people fear and begrudge you. Sonic however has the respect and companionship with the ones around him who will not hesitate to stand with him to face whatever challenges, this drives him to fight beyond his limits unlike you who'd sooner run away or take shortcuts when the going gets tough," Naruto looked over his shoulder to see Sonic smiling and nod to everything he had said so far "I can even tell that your belief in your own ideal is weak, easier to break than a teacup in a china shop before the before the bull enters,"
The green hedgehog was now growling at this point "Like you know a thing about me,"
Naruto stared straight into Scourge's eyes "I'll give it to you straight; there's no way you can beat me or Sonic so long as you don't truly believe in your ideals or even yourself,"
*WHAP*
Scourge disappeared from where he stood and was right in front of Naruto with a fist buried in the kitsune's stomach…or what was the idea if the fist wasn't caught by an open palm. Scourge looked up to see Naruto staring at him with a quirked eyebrow.
"You tried this the first time we met, don't expect me to fall for the same thing twice," Naruto pulled Scourge in and knocked him back to his group with a palm thrust to the chest, the kitsune held out a hand and did a 'Come on' gesture "Wanna try this song and dance again?"
Scourge snarled in rage before yelling out "Suppression Squad, attack!"
"Come on guys, let's get in there!" Sonic called out before rushing in with the others close behind after Naruto.
[Rotor, are you doing okay?] asked Nicole through the comm link.
"I'm okay, but I'm kinda glad that I haven't yet gotten back in shape…cause I don't wanna be in the middle of this," said Rotor with sweat dripping down his forehead.
Antoine had once more engaged Patch in a swordfight with more determination than before in order to stop him from causing anymore harm to his comrades like before when he was impersonated by his doppelganger in the past.
"You have much to answair for, villain," said Antoine.
Patch merely smirked in response "Iz like they say; 'Like fathair like son',"
Tails was just as busy engaging his evil dimensional counterpart who seems to really have it out for him this time as he was being rather offensive, forcing Tails on the backfoot at the moment.
"You ignored your magical heritage and follow that blue fool like a lost puppy, you sicken me!" said Miles Prower angrily.
"Who are you to judge my decisions? Besides me of course!" Tails retorted whilst dodging an aerial kick by pulling away.
"You willingly gave up being all natural?" asked Bunnie, using her cyborg arm to block a double hammer blow from the cyber gauntlets of Boomer but was being pushed back slightly due to his enhanced strength.
Boomer grinned as he applied more pressure on her "Anything to get out of obscurity, I prefer to be strong and not weak like my so-called good counterpart over there,"
Bunnie got angered by his statement and knocked the cyborg walrus back with a strong kick to the stomach "Yer have no right ta say dat, specially when ya don't know what Rotor went through,"
"First you betrayed Sonic, then the Freedom Fighters and you're betraying your own world?!" said Amy, angrily swinging her Piko Piko Hammer at Fiona who simply frowned.
"Normally I'd retort at your tantrum…," Fiona ducked under the swing of the hammer and countered with a leg sweep to knock the pink hedgehog to the ground and kicked her weapon away from her "But I'm exactly in the mood today, so do me a favor and go to sleep," she attacked with a punch but it was caught in an open palm by someone else, they looked to see that it was Nico who intercepted the attack.
"You…," Fiona growled in anger at the sight of the Hololynx.
Nico frowned in response "I believe a second round of our match is in order,"
"Yeah, and I'm gonna make sure to send you to the Recycle Bin this time," the fox proceeded to engage Nico in hand-to-hand combat like the first time they had fought.
Naruto was currently occupied with Scourge who was unleashing a flurry of punches and kicks at the blonde kitsune with him maintaining defense by blocking and parrying the incoming attacks.
"Methinks this guy is reeeallllyyyy mad at me," thought Naruto, sharply leaning backwards to evade a high kick aimed at his head and deflecting a grapple from the green hedgehog.
"He's one of the many that can't handle the truth when it's plainly told," said Kurama with a shrug of his shoulders.
"I'm gonna hang your head on my wall!" said Scourge angrily, throwing a punch for Naruto to block with a forearm.
"I might consider it if it's over a fireplace, till then it's a big fat no,"
Naruto stretched out two of his tails to grab Scourge's hands and hold in place to launch rapid jabs to the stomach before knocking him away with a kickflip. Scourge got back to his feet and into his spinball form for a Spin Dash attack, Naruto took a stance as he activated his Air Aspect with a strong gust of wind swirling around him. The blonde kitsune reared a fist back as the winds swirled around and encased it with a howling sound being heard throughout the room. Naruto calmly waited as Scourge rushed up to him before he sharply darted to the side "Fist of the Wind God!" he landed a punch at the side to send the green hedgehog spiraling across the room and slamming into a wall before sliding down to the ground with a pained groan.
"I know better than to meet with a Spin Dash head on constantly," Naruto glanced to the side and saw something rather displeasing before calling "Hey Sonic, mind tagging in with me for a bit?"
"Sure, been wanting to have a shot at his 'royal highness' anyways," said Sonic as they dashed by each other towards their new targets.
Antoine and Bunnie were ambushed by Patch, Boomer and Miles Prower, being restrained with Patch holding Bunnie with his sword close to her neck, and Boomer had Antoine in an armlock.
"So what waz thiz wonderful idea you juz had?" asked Patch with a menacing smile.
Boomer rolled his eyes in response "Just get it over it,"
A voice suddenly spoke up "Mind if I make my own input in this conversation?" an orange blur moved about rapidly, knocking the three members of the Suppression Squad away from Antoine and Bunnie.
"Thanks Naruto, that was too close for comfort," said Bunnie gratefully.
"Indeed, thank you for the assistance," added Antoine, picking up his sword from the ground.
"So you're the guy Fiona told us about," said Boomer.
"Fiona told you guys about me, not Scourge? For some reason, it doesn't surprise me," said Naruto with a quirked eyebrow.
"It hardly matters, we juz need to get rid of you," Patch pointed his sword at the kitsune.
"Believe me when I say you don't want this fight,"
"Like we're going to listen to you, blast him Boomer," said Miles Prower indifferently.
"Like you need to tell me," Boomer took aim with his gauntlets and fired energy blasts towards the kitsune with glee.
Naruto swiftly reached into his ninja pouch to bring out a scroll which he unraveled for the seals to glow before absorbing the blast and rolling it back up to hold it with both hands forming a handsign much to their shock.
"Sacre bleu! How iz zhis possible?!" said Patch.
"Could it be some sort of magic?" muttered Miles Prower with a frown.
"I believe this belongs to you big boy," Naruto unraveled the scroll for the seals to glow again then releasing the very blast it had absorbed back at Boomer, knocking him away to the ground. Hearing footsteps approaching from behind, Naruto channeled chakra into his ECG-X gloves to form an energy construct of a kunai as he spun round to block a slash from Patch's sword "Nice try but you were louder than a rockstar at a concert,"
Patch smirked in response "That was the idea, to keep your attention on me!" Naruto sensed Miles Prower swooping from above to attack him, he was about to react when something wrapped around his neck to restrain him revealing to be Alicia having used her whip to constrict the kitsune.
"Your arrogance will be your undoing," Miles Prower sneered as he drew close to strike.
"That'd be true…," Naruto smirked much to their confusion "…If I wasn't purposely luring you all within range for my counterattack!" he raised his tails to block Miles' attack before making his next move "Swift Release: Shadow Step!" the kitsune blurred from eyesight, causing everyone to be confused until they heard his voice "Thunder Shot!"Naruto summoned his Star Ball from within himself as it radiated electricity then he reared a leg back and kicked to launch the Star Ball as it left behind flashes of lightning and began to ricochet off the walls multiple several times and striking his targets while at the same time zapping them before returning with his Lightning Aspect activated "And now… Lightning Chain!" he thrusts his hands forward to launch a stream of electricity which shock with enough voltage to make them collapse to the ground.
Meanwhile, Sonic and Sally were laying on the pressure and pushing Scourge back towards the Star Post with the former having landed a Homing Attack to knock off his crown. Fiona saw this and got worried as she pulled away from Nico and went to check on the green hedgehog.
"Are you okay hon, what should we do?" asked Fiona, holding out the crown to Scourge.
Scourge looked rather irritated and forcefully snatched the crown away from the red vixen but not before smacking her on the cheek "I almost got tossed back to my home dimension and you're asking me stupid questions?! You lot better get your act together cause you don't want to be sent back with me!"
Naruto immediately sensed fear from the others, even seeing Patch place a hand over the eyepatch and began to get a rather disturbing idea of what's going on around here and wasn't liking it in the least bit.
"Kurama, do you think?" thought Naruto.
"I don't think I need to answer that question since you already know," said Kurama with a frown.
"I see…," Naruto was about to move on to his original target when he heard a cry and turned to see Nico having been knocked down to the ground with a vexed Fiona standing over her with a knifehand formed and about to strike. Naruto intercepted the attack with Shadow Step and successfully blocked with a forearm. Naruto glanced at the bruise on her cheek and was saddened "Why do you continue to support him when he's more than willing to hurt you?"
"Shut it, I don't want to hear anything from you anymore! And stop looking at me like that!" said Fiona angrily.
Suddenly Naruto's forearm ignited in foxfire without his command and shot up Fiona's arm, causing her to see visions. She saw a human child bearing a certain resemblance to the orange fox going through hardships, being mistreated by the villagers and viewed as some sort of demon.
"Watch out, it's…him again!"
"Why don't you go away, you freak?!"
"He's a monster, don't even look at him!"
"Why on earth are you still alive?"
Amidst tears, the child still struggled to live and attain their acknowledgement despite the near impossibility of it happening. The visions suddenly ended with Fiona stepping back and reeling from what she just saw and Naruto was frowning at what just happened, unaware of what she had seen.
"You…how?" Fiona was having difficulties asking the question.
"I don't know what you're trying to ask but there's something I need to do before giving you guys the boot," Naruto disappeared in a blur, leaving no clue about what he was up to.
"Hey Scourge!" said green hedgehog turned to see Naruto standing there with his arms crossed "There's a lesson that I need to teach you,"
Scourge scoffed in response "And what kind of lesson would that be?" Naruto disappeared in a yellow flash and his voice was suddenly heard from behind.
"Never let an enemy get behind you," Naruto was crouched behind Scourge with his hands forming a tiger sign, Scourge tried to move but "Too late…Leaf Village Secret Finger jutsu; Thousand Years of Death!" Naruto shoved his fingers straight up Scourge's butt with great force to send him flying before crashing with his face in the ground and butt sticking in the air with steam wafting from it. Everywhere was silent until it was broken by Sonic who was beside himself with laughter.
"Oh man…I'd never…thought that…I'd see something like this…but I'm so glad I did!" Sonic barely stammered out as he laughed.
"Well, I'll be…that certainly is something," said Bunnie as she reined in her laughter along with Antoine.
"Anyways, I got two pieces of advice for ya; a seat cushion and lots of cocoa butter," said Naruto with a smirk while the Chao had no qualms laughing "Hey Sonic, mind doing the honors?"
Sonic looked to see the prone form of Scourge before the Star Posts and got an idea of what Naruto was getting at with a grin "I'm so gonna enjoy this," he crouched slightly before dashing forward and practically punted Scourge through the portal back to the Antiverse "Man, that felt good!"
It didn't take the others long to drive the other members of the Suppression Squad through the portal as well before shutting it down on their side, though Naruto noticed that Fiona had been looking at him rather strangely since that strange reaction involving his foxfire before snapping back into focus when Knuckles and the Chaotix entered the HQ.
"Whoa, what could have happened to make such a mess in here?" asked Knuckles confusedly.
"Oh nothing much, besides an invasion from the Antiverse but we were able to drive them back in the end," said Sonic with a shrug of his shoulders.
"Are you all okay?" asked Julie-Su with concern.
"Jus a bit of rest and we'll be right as rain," said Bunnie assuredly.
Amy scowled "Still can't believe that Fiona would go this far,"
"Care to tell us exactly what happened?" asked Mighty.
"I can do one better, we could show you," said Naruto with a smirk.
"You mean you were recording the fight?" asked Rotor.
"I have certain reasons for recording the fight which I'll discuss with you guys at a later time," Naruto explained.
"I'm going to get the popcorn!" said Charmy excitedly flying to the kitchen.
"Wait for me, Charmy!" Saffron Bee flew after him.
Naruto glanced at Julie-Su who noticed and saw him gesture towards Knuckles and understood the message; time to talk Knuckles out of his self-loathing and convince him to visit his family at Albion.
"I doubt that this will be the last we see of them, best be on your guard," said Kurama.
"It goes without saying, better stay frosty about this," thought Naruto as he sat amongst everyone and prepared to play the recording which will no doubt put smiles on their faces.
This is Hussbek online with the latest, Naruto and Sonic join Knuckles and the Chaotix as they launched an assault on Eggman's forces residing in Megaopolis. Apparently, a faction of Knuckles' people allied with the mad after what happened to them because of Enerjak taking away their cybernetics. The speed duo suddenly received an SOS from the Freedom Fighters HQ and rushed back only to encounter Scourge and his Suppression Squad then learn that he became a tyrant king and ruled the Antiverse with an iron fist.
Arriving to help fight back against the invasion, Naruto had a strange reaction with Fiona and his foxfire which leaves a certain form of resonance to awaken something in her, the question is what happens next.
This is Hussbek from Ghana
Signing out and staying alive.