Max the Hedgehog in: The New Force
Max the Hedgehog in:
The New Force
By Nathan Marrow
Help From Debbie Prichard
Timeline: The story picks up right where Last Battle left off.
Max walked over to Hotaru, “Welcome to Mobius. I'm Max Hedgehog and this is my wife Metalla and our boys Coll and Gene. This is my sister Sara and her husband Steve and their son Sam and daughter Ashley. That's James, Ron, Ana, Kat, Ariana, T.J., Haylie and finally Nate “Boomerang” Tails.”
“So, why did you say you were here again?” Ron asked.
“Sailor Dimetria felt that it would give Kari some peace of mind to know that her friends were being protected,” Hotaru said.
“That's silly,” Ana said.
“Yeah we're more than capable of taking care of ourselves,” Kat said.
“Now wait a minute! Dimetria did this for Kari. I personally am happy to have them here. It shows that a part of Kari will always be with us. Instead of stuck all alone in some warp between worlds,” Nate said running off.
“What's wrong with him?” Sakura asked.
“Kari's his cousin and over the last several years they had gotten close and it hit him hard when she left,” Ariana said.
“I can talk to him later if you'd like,” Austin said.
“Well now that that's settle we'd better find you guys someplace to live,” Sara said.
“Sara's right we'd better get started,” T.J. said.
“Tomorrow it's too late to start looking tonight. Besides it looks like a storm is coming,” Metalla said.
“Metalla's right why don't you guys stay at the palace till you find a place of your own,” Max said.
“Thank you, but we wouldn't won't to impose. We'll just stay at a hotel or something,” Sakura said.
“Nonsense we have plenty of room I insist you stay with us,” Metalla said walking over and taking Sakura's arm.
The next day after searching almost all day. They finally find a newly built house hid away in the trees 500 yards from the lake.
“Well this is new. I don't remember this here the last time I was through here,” T.J. said.
“That's because it was only finished a few days ago,” An old crackly voice said from behind them. They turned to see an old dragon lady.
“Huh, a dragon. I didn't think there were any in this part of the world,” T.J. said.
“Well sonny you were wrong. My husband and I moved to this part of the world last summer.”
“Look ma'am, I'm sorry my boyfriend sticks his foot his mouth a lot,” Ariana said.
“Boyfriend?!” T.J. questioned looking at Ariana.
“Looking missy, I don't talk to Overlanders.”
“Hey now, you just wait a minute my girlfriend is…” T.J. hesitated looking over at Ariana who just shrugged, “is only part Overlander. And not evil at all.”
“You mean she one of them half breeds?”
“Well technically I'm a triple breed,” Ariana said.
“What in tarnation is a triple breed?”
“Well my mother was half human and half Overlander and my father was a hedgehog,” Ariana said.
“Hedgehog? I remember reading something about one of the royal hedgehogs taking a human as a wife. Don't remember reading anything about her being a half breed, though.”
“Well from what our parents told us it wasn't till almost two years after they met Jennifer, Ariana's mother, that they learned she was what you call a half breed. They decided that it was hard enough getting people to accept her as it was and that to tell people she was related to Robotnik it would be nearly impossible to get them to accept her. So they decided to keep that a close family secret,” T.J. said.
“Yeah and what about your friends there?”
“Well their humans, we were looking for a place for them to stay. Their Sailor Scouts just like Sailor Dimension was,” T.J. said.
“Oh yes I met her once very nice. I was sorry to hear about her leaving.”
“You did?” T.J. asked.
“Um, excuse me but who is Robotnik?” Sakura asked.
“You don't know who Robotnik was?”
“No, we don't,” Hotaru said.
“Well then you're defiantly not Overlanders. All Overlanders know of Robotnik names Marthenia, Marthenia Dragoon. Come in have something to drink, I'll tell you all I know of Robotnik and then we can get into discussion of the house.”
“But you said it was just finished for you and your husband,” Sakura said. “Yes and soon to be ex-husband. The little two timer ran off with his young sweet thing secretary he hired last month,” Marthenia said.
“Oh, I'm so sorry,” Austin said.
“Don't be, are relationship was dead long before he ran off. So what do you think of the place?” Marthenia asked.
“It's a lovely place, ma'am,” Sakura said.
“Well why don't we all head inside and we can talk more there,” Marthenia said heading towards the house. Everyone started towards the house Austin stopped and turned towards the ocean.
“Austin, are you coming?” T.J. asked.
“Huh oh, yeah well you guys can handle this. I wanted to talk to what was his name Nate I think. I thought this would be a good time. So do you know where he lives,” Austin asked.
“Yeah sure,” T.J. said giving Austin instructions on how to get there before heading inside with the others.
Austin with just a little problem finally found Nate's place and knocked on the door.
“Hi I'm sorry I forgot your name,” Nate said.
“Oh, it's alright I kind of forgot yours too. I'm Austin, Austin Motamiya.”
“Nate Gage, please to meet you. Please come in, have a seat.”
“Thank you.”
“So what can I do for you?”
“Well it's about Kari.”
“What about her?”
“Well you said she was all alone.”
“Yeah so what it's true.”
“Well not exactly.”
“What are you talking about? I've been in the warp many times. It can be a dark, lonely and scary place.”
“Yes but Kari didn't want you to know this for fear you'd expect her to come back here all the time.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Kari's able to leave the warp for about an hour or two everyday to get to know the other worlds around her better. Something she was supposed to do instead of staying here all the time.”
“Oh, o.k. but other than that she's still basically alone for most of the day.”
“Well do you know what an alternate dimension is?”
“Yeah, I saw a show on it once and Kari told me that someone else guards that section of the warp. Why? What does that have to do with Kari?”
“Well a Sailor Scout called Sailor Dreamstar is the guardian of the alternate dimension. When the warp was weakened so was the barrier between the dimensions. So Kari's not alone she and Dreamstar can talk and see each other all they want. However they can't have any physical contact, if they did it could cause total chaos.”
“Well even still she's not alone, that's all that matters.”
“Um, may I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“Well they said that you and Kari are cousins. How is that possible?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well you're a fox and well Kari's human right?”
“Yeah so am I.”
“I don't understand you're a fox.”
“Oh, sorry,” Nate said rubbing his medallion and returning to his human form.
“Wha…what just happened?”
“Sara gave my medallion the power to allow me to go back and forth at will.”
“I'm confused how…how did this happen?”
“Well…” Nate started to explain everything.
Meanwhile back at Marthenia Dragoon's place the others were finishing up negotiations on the house when T.J. got a phone call.
“Hello,” T.J. said, “What?! Oh man I totally forgot. We'll be there right away.”
“Who was that?” Ariana asked.
“It was Ron we're late for training practice,” T.J. told her.
“Huh, I totally forgot about it. Thank you for everything Ms. Marthenia.”
“It was my pleasure,” Marthenia said.
“May we come? The girls could use some more training,” Hotaru said.
“Sure let's go,” T.J. said.
“Oh, before we leave when should we move in?”
“Well how would next Tuesday suit you?” Marthenia asked.
“Really I mean you're sure about this?” Sakura asked.
“Yes because I think you this place could use some joy that I think you girls could bring to it. Besides I don't need it anymore with my husband gone and all.”
“Well what about you? Where will you go?” Sakura asked.
“Yes my daughter has a small cottage on her property she's been begging me for months to move in to it. So with you girls living here I no longer have an excuse to turn her down,” Marthenia said.
“Great, well we'll see you later,” Sakura said.
Outside Hotaru turned to Sakura, “Contact Austin and have her to meet us there.”
“How will she know where to get there?” Sakura asked.
“Oh, Nate can take bring her he's obviously forgotten about training practice too,” T.J. said.
Back at Nate's place an image of Sakura appeared in front of them.
“Austin, T.J. and Ariana have a training day that they're late for and Hotaru wants us to train with them,” Sakura said as she disappeared.
“How did she do that?” Nate asked.
“Sakura has the ability to astral project her image to anywhere. When she's a scout she can use certain powers, like wind, rain and water. So where is this training place?” Austin asked.
“Well I forgot about it being today so I have to go to so we can go together.”
“Great let's go.”
At the training camp.
“Well I guess we need to get Started. Saturn Crystal Power!”
“Silver Power!” Sakura yelled.
“Fox Power!” Austin yelled.
“Right so Fox let's start with yours,” Saturn said.
“I don't know.”
“Fox!”
“All right birds of the forest hear my plea…come to me. See I knew it wouldn't work,” Sailor Fox said.
“Well of course not. Not with that attitude! Now try again!” Sailor Silver order.
“Fine, I'll start smaller. Creatures of the underground hear my plea…come to me NOW! See it still didn't work,” Sailor Fox said.
“I wouldn't be so sure of that. Look down.”
Fox looked down and on the ground below her feet were all different kinds of bugs and insects. She bent down and picked up a caterpillar, “Thank you for coming here I was only practicing today but I hope I can count on you if I ever really need your help,” Sailor Fox said letting the caterpillar go.
“What did it say?” Nate asked changing back to a fox.
“What do you mean, what did it say?” Sailor Fox asked.
“Can't you hear what it says? You know like a movie I saw once the Beast Master,” Nate said.
“Oh yeah, I remember a series on that once,” Sailor Silver said.
“I didn't know there was a series on it,” Nate said.
“I remember that series. What about it?” Sailor Fox said.
“Well he could hear the animals and see what they see. Can you do that or have you tried?” Nate asked.
“Well no, I haven't tried it,” Sailor Fox said.
“Silver is a lot more advanced than Fox. We've tried to help her advance but it's not easy,” Sailor Saturn said, “Perhaps you'll have better luck.”
“What do you mean?” Max asked.
“I'm only expecting to stay a couple of months. So I'll depend on all of you help train her,” Sailor Saturn said.
“We'll I'm not sure how but we'll do the best we can,” Ron said.
“I appreciate that. Now let's try again,” Sailor Saturn said, “Let's try something a little harder this time. Something we've not had much success at. Now Fox call a bird to help us in this.”
“Oh, mighty bird of wings come to me NOW!” Sailor Fox said as a mighty eagle like bird appeared and landed in front of Sailor Fox.
“Now ask her to fly over something and well try out your powers,” Sailor Saturn said as Sailor Fox sent the bird on its way, “Now into position hands outreached and together Silver one hand straight out in front of you, Fox concentrate on the bird.” As hard as they tried they couldn't do it.
“How exactly was that supposed to work?” Max asked.
“Well it's a trick we've been working for a while. Fox, when she tries, can see what the bird sees. Silver can project her own image but when connected to Fox she can project what Fox sees,” Sailor Saturn said.
“That's weird,” Ana said.
“Yeah but it could be very useful,” Ron said.
“All right everyone let's get to training,” Max said.
Over the next several years they all continued their training and the girls to try to adjust. Hotaru stayed longer than she had expected due to the fact that she felt the girls needed her. Then 4 years later a week before Coll's 13th birthday they were at the training camp again when James came running up.
“Guys, guys,” James came running up yelling.
“James, James calm down. Now what's the problem?” Max asked.
“Yeah what's wrong James, Coll find out about the surprise party we're planning,” Nate asked.
Trying to catch his breath James held up a small radio, “If…if it was only that. You see I was testing a new radio transmitter when I bounced it off a satellite and then tried to tap into the dimensional warp I got this. It's got a lot of static so some words may be missing, `We're under attack. Return to __ Palace. I repeat und atta hurry retu to Crystal Tok palace in danger.' That's the best I could get. I cleaned it up so it's better than it was.”
“Well what's it mean? Who's it from?” Metalla asked.
“I think I know. Play it again,” Sailor Saturn said.
James played the tape again.
“I see what you mean Saturn. I hear it too,” Sailor Silver said.
“Hear what?” Nate asked.
“Didn't you hear it say Crystal Tok?” Sailor Fox asked.
“Yeah I heard it why?” Nate asked.
“It must mean that the palace in Crystal Tokyo is under attack. The scouts can't hang on forever they need my help,” Sailor Saturn said.
“Well they've go Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask to defend it,” Nate said.
“No, they don't. Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask have grown up and now rule earth and The Crystal Palace as Neo-Queen Serenity and King Endymion. There is only one Silver Imperium Crystal. That crystal is now with Princess Rini,” Sailor Saturn said.
“I must return. You girls take care,” Sailor Saturn said.
“What? We want to go too!” Sailor Silver said.
“Yeah that's our home too,” Sailor Fox said.
“We'll help out too, Saturn just tell us what you need and we'll do what we can,” Ron said.
“I agree with Ron, anything we can do to help we'll do,” Max said.
“Thank you I appreciate it. But I think we can handle it. Silver, Fox you two will remain here,” Sailor Saturn said.
“But why?” Sailor Silver asked
“That's the way it was meant to be from the beginning. You two were supposed to stay here that's the way it was meant to be from the beginning,” Sailor Saturn said.
“You can't just expect us to stay here while you go off and join the others in defending Crystal Tokyo,” Sailor Silver said.
“Silvers right Crystal Tokyo's our home as much as it is yours you can't just expect us to just stay and do nothing while our home is under attack,” Sailor Fox said.
“Girls look I understand your frustration but I'll call if I need you,” Sailor Saturn said.
“Here take this,” James said handing Saturn a transmitter I made this especially in case of something like this. Since I was able to receive messages from there I figured I could transmit too. So if you ever need us just call.”
“Thank you, I will. Goodbye everyone,” Sailor Saturn said taking the transmitter and leaving.
A few months had passed and things had quieted down for everyone. Things returned to normal and everyone had returned to their daily routines.
“Get out of here now!” a voice shouted. It belong to Star Galaxy, and it was easily seen that he was extremely upset at something. Up ahead of him were four figures, each of them had broken into the dimensional gateway and were interfering with Sailor D.
“Awe, both Star Galaxy, what's wrong, can't keep up?” one of the voices chuckled, it belong to Sonic.
Along with him were Tails, Knuckles, and Nathan. The four of them had broken into the gateway and were having their fun.
“I order you to stop now!” Star Galaxy shouted.
The four of them decided to have some fun and stopped in their tracks, they turned around and faced Star Galaxy.
“What do you want?” Nathan asked, irritated with Star.
“I should be asking you that, you have no right to be in here, the dimensional gateway is sealed off from you people,” Star Galaxy said.
“Oh, did you hear that guys, it's suppose to be off limits to us,” Tails said as the four of them snickered.
“What's so funny?” Star demanded, looking at each of them.
“Just who are you to stop us?” Knuckles said.
“I am Star Galaxy, leader of the sailor scouts,” Star Galaxy said, putting on a pose.
“Guys, do we look like sailor scouts?” Nathan asked to each of them.
“I'm a hedgehog last time I checked,” Sonic said.
Star Galaxy let out a growl, suddenly there was a bright flash behind him.
“Hi Kari!” Tails said waving.
“What are you guys doing in here?” Kari asked, in her sailor form.
“That's what I wanted to know,” Star said.
“We're not happy about the way Star is treating his scouts, especially you,” Sonic said.
“And we are extremely displeased with the way he treated our children,” Nathan said.
“So we decided to pay a visit and smooth out the bumps,” Tails said.
“And here we are,” Knuckles said finishing things up.
“Why you! I'll give all of you the beatings of your lives!” Star shouted in rage.
The four of them stood there, each of them doing a demented snicker.
“Oh, that's rich,” Sonic said.
“I've heard that so many times I need scientific notation to write it,” Nathan said as all four of them burst out laughing.
“Star, calm down, you're not scaring them,” Sailor D said.
“Shut up, I know what I'm doing,” Star Galaxy shouted, “You four either leave or I will personally put an end to your lives.”
Upon hearing that, the four of them laughed even harder, rolling on the floor they couldn't control themselves.
“Did you hear that guys, he wants to put an end to our lives?” Sonic said between his chuckles.
“Oh that's rich,” Tails said laughing.
“Huh?” Star Galaxy said in complete awe.
“Star, they're already dead,” Sailor D said.
The four of them got control of themselves and stood back up and looked at Star.
“I order you to leave,” Star shouted.
“I'm sorry, but we don't take orders from you,” Sonic said.
“And we don't like your attitude,” Tails replied.
“We're going back to Mobius and we're going to remove your little spell from my amulet and allow our children to visit,” Nathan said.
“Why you!” Star shouted as he charged at the four of them. Before he was even halfway there, he felt himself trapped in some kind of wires. He looked up to see Nathan with his arms outstretched.
“Oops, I meant to blast you,” Nathan said, “Oh well.”
“Here I'll take care of him,” Knuckles said as he ran up to Star.
“Knuckles, don't!” Sailor D shouted.
“Too late,” Knuckles said as he wound up and gave Star a solid punch to the stomach. He let out a moan as Nathan let the force disappear and the five of them watched him fall to the ground.
“That should teach him,” Nathan said.
“We're sorry you had to see that Kari, but we did not approve of the way he treated you or our kids,” Sonic said.
“It's all right,” Kari said.
“Hopefully he learned his lesson, if not, we have all of time to make him,” Nathan said as the four of them began walking.
“Wait, where are you guys going?” Kari asked.
“Like we said, we're heading to Mobius, we've got some things to do there,” Sonic said, “You can come if you want, if not we'll give them a message you're doing just fine.”
“I'd love to come Sonic, but I have things I have to take care of,” Sailor D said.
“All right, we'll tell the others you're doing just fine,” Tails said as he watched Nathan open a gate. The four of them walked into it and then a second later it disappeared leaving Sailor D standing alone with Star Galaxy.
In the mountain region, there was heavy noise going on. Inside of a mountain there was machines continually moving, assembling various pieces of machinery. The inside of the mountain had been completely carved out and a huge base had been built inside of it.
“I've gotten everything going, but I still need parts not anywhere on the planet,” Splimy said walking through the plant, “I can't leave the base unguarded.”
He walked through looking at the amount of weapons he had stock piled and the two creations sitting on steel flatbeds.
“If only I had the parts I could release these right now,” Splimy said as he continued walking into the control room. He sat down in his chair and began to think of possible solutions, “I've got it!”
Typing on his computer, he waited a few seconds and then smiled as a face came up on the screen.
“Splimy, long time no see, what can I do for you?” the man asked.
“I'm glad I caught you Jim,” Splimy said, “I need you to come to Mobius, I have a little problem I need you to take care of.”
“What kind of problem?” Jim asked.
“There's some heroes on this planet that are going to stop my plans if I leave my base unguarded,” Splimy said, “I stumbled across some blue prints for two robots. I need you to come here and watch over the base, while I gather the parts I need to complete them.”
“What's in if for me?” Jim asked with a smile on his face.
“I'll pay you five times your normal rate and you will have full access to my stock pike of weapons,” Splimy said.
Jim sat there silently for a few minutes and then looked at Splimy, “You got yourself a deal, I'm on my way now.”
“Excellent, be careful though, the inhabitants of this planet have a space station,” Splimy said.
“No problem, I know how to get around that,” Jim said with a smile.
“Great, I'll be waiting for you,” Splimy said as he cut the transmission. He sat back in his seat and started laughing.
“I'm pretty bored,” Coll said walking around the palace.
“Hey Coll! Coll!” Gene shouted running up to his brother.
“What do you want?” Coll said turning around.
“I wanted to know if you wanted to come with me and Sam and play some ball,” Gene said.
“No I don't want to play ball with you, bother someone else,” Coll said as he continued walking off.
“He's grumpy today,” Gene said as he watched his brother turn down a hallway, “Maybe Ashley wants to play with us.” Gene walked off outside to see Sam waiting for him.
“Well?” Sam asked.
“Coll is really touchy today, maybe your little sister wants to play,” Gene said.
“Maybe, let's go see if Boomerang wants to play too,” Sam said.
“Right,” Gene said as both hedgehogs took off towards where they knew Boomerang stayed.
“We're home!” Sonic shouted as a bright flash erupted in the throne room. The four of them looked around and saw that no one was there to greet them.
“Oh sure, we come all this way and you can't even get us to where people are,” Tails said looking over at Nathan.
“Well sorry, so my aim is getting a little off,” Nathan said rubbing his arm, it had mysteriously returned to flesh, “I'm still getting use to this flesh arm again.”
“Sure,” Knuckles said rolling his eyes.
“Come on, let's see if anyone is around doing something,” Sonic said as the group of four left the throne room and started walking through the palace.
“I can't believe this, you think with the number of people allowed in the palace with restrictions, there would be someone around,” Tails said.
“I wouldn't get too upset about it Tails, I mean it looks like such a nice day,” Nathan said.
“Let's head outside and see if they are out there,” Sonic said.
The group of four made their way outside, but before they left, they bumped into Coll who was still walking around the palace.
“Grandpa,” Coll said looking up at them.
“Hey Coll, what are you doing?” Sonic asked.
“I'm just walking around the palace,” Coll replied, holding his head down a bit.
“What's wrong?” Nathan asked, seeing that Coll was a little upset.
“I'm trying to find my dad, but I can't find him,” Coll said, “Gene is showing his power now and it seems that all dad wants to do is be with him.”
“I thought we told him to cut that out,” Nathan said.
“I guess the kid needs a few more knocks around the head,” Sonic said, “Come on, let's go pay him a visit.”
“Coll, you going to come with us?” Knuckles asked.
“Sure,” Coll said as he followed Sonic and the others outside.
Their trip was short as they found Max and the others outside in a field playing games.
“Max!” Sonic shouted. Max instantly stood up in fear.
“Yeah dad?” Max asked turning around.
“Coll here seems to be telling me you're still neglecting him,” Sonic said as he walked up to his son. Nathan meanwhile had walked over to Ron.
While Max and Sonic started arguing, Ron looked strangely at his dad.
“What's wrong?” Nathan asked.
“Your arm, it's back to normal,” Ron said, “How?”
“We used the same technology on my arm that we used to make Metal flesh,” Nathan said showing his arm off, “Let me see your amulet.”
“Sure,” Ron said as he handed it to him, “Why do you need it?”
“A few hours ago we kicked Star Galaxy's rear end,” Nathan said as he placed his hand over the amulet and it started to glow, “He has no right to interfere with this object, so I'm removing the locks he placed on it.”
“You guys were in the dimensional gateway? How?” Ron asked astonished.
“We're dead Ron, we can move anywhere we want and nothing can stop us,” Nathan said as he handed the amulet back to Ron, “There you go, it's now back to normal and Star shouldn't bother you guys.”
“Awesome, how is Kari doing?” Ron asked. Boomerang over heard them and came walking over. Ron quickly told him what was going on and a big smile came over Boomerang's face.
“Kari is doing perfectly fine,” Nathan said as he looked behind him at Sonic and Max, “I swear, that relationship just fell apart.”
“Max is happy that Gene is showing the kind of power he has,” Ron said, “So he's been training Gene personally.”
“What about Coll's power?” Nathan asked.
“From what I can tell, his power has grown amazingly and I know that he's been training himself,” Ron said.
“Good, he needs some attention though, do you think you guys could help him out there?” Nathan asked, “He needs to have some people that really care about him.”
“Sure thing, Metalla already cares a great deal for him, and we all do to,” Boomerang said.
“Good, what happened to those sailor scouts that came here?” Tails asked walking over, “We knew that they had come here to take Kari's place.”
“They were called back to their own planet and we haven't heard from them since,” T.J. said walking over.
“That's too bad, they seemed like such nice people,” Tails said.
Sonic and Max had finished arguing, and without any exchange of fists.
Suddenly the radio that T.J. was carrying went off.
“T.J., are you there?” Otto's voice shouted over the radio. T.J. quickly grabbed his radio.
“What is it Otto?” T.J. asked worried by the sudden contact.
“Our radar picked up a ship heading this way, just outside of Freedom's orbit, but it suddenly disappeared before we could get any contact,” Otto said.
“Are you sure it didn't just enter some kind of warp?” T.J. asked.
“There's no traces of any kind of warp,” Otto said, “We're worried it may have found a way to cloak our radar and is planning on attacking the planet.”
“I'll be up there as soon as possible,” T.J. said over the radio.
“Grab my hand T.J.,” Nathan said.
“Huh?” T.J. asked in surprise.
“Just take it,” Nathan said as he put his arm out. T.J. grabbed it and in a flash they were gone.
“I hope he gets his landing right,” Tails said.
“What are you talking about?” Ron asked.
“When we came here, we landed in the throne room, way off target from where we wanted,” Tails said.
“Why would my dad do something like that?” Ron asked.
“I think he's not use to have a real arm yet,” Tails said, “It's been so long.”
“How did you guys do that anyway?” Boomerang asked, “Make Metal flesh and return Nathan's arm?”
“I have no idea, he keeps talking about some new technology, but no one has ever seen it,” Tails said.
“So he did all that and no one knows how?” Ron asked.
“Ron, you're dad is known for keeping his secrets from people,” Tails said, “And it looks like he's still hiding some.”
“Why would he do that? We're all his friends,” Boomerang said.
“I don't know, that just Nathan, he's always done that,” Tails said.
“Well someone has to know what's going on with him,” Ron said.
“Metallic and Metal are the only ones that really know what's really going on with him,” Tails said.
“I'll get his story one day,” Ron said.
“We've all tried Ron, no one has had any luck,” Tails said.
“That was quick,” Otto said as he saw T.J. appear on the station.
“Yeah, how did you do that Nathan?” T.J. asked turning around.
“It's a trick of mine, don't concern yourself with it,” Nathan said.
“So what's going on Otto?” T.J. asked.
“Take a look at this, it's from a few hours ago,” Otto said as he pushed some buttons on the control panel.
T.J. watched as he saw a replay of the radar. He saw the large object moving from the direction of Freedom towards Mobius, then all of a sudden it disappeared and the replay ended.
“We have no idea what happened to it, but we know it was some kind of ship,” Otto said.
“You tried the sub space scanner and found nothing?” T.J. asked.
“Yeah, we tried everything and couldn't find a single trace of it,” Otto said, “We're sure it's put up some kind cloak and is heading here.”
“Let me try some things,” T.J. said as he sat down at one of the terminals and began typing rapidly.
Nathan had been standing quietly off to the side watching the radar readings from all over the planet. The one from the mountains puzzled him.
“Otto, is this normal?” Nathan asked pointing to the radar from the mountains. Otto walked over and began studying the radar.
“Yeah, we get this all the time, it's perfectly normal,” Otto said.
“All right,” Nathan said as he continued to watch it.
A few hours passed by and T.J. continued to type away on the computer. After every few minutes he would pound his fist on the control board and try something else.
“What are you doing T.J.?” Otto asked.
“I'm trying certain programs to see if the scanners can get through the cloak, but it's taking so long because the system hasn't been upgraded,” T.J. said, “I thought I asked it to be last time I was up here.”
“Sorry T.J., but the engineers found glitches in the program and are suppose to be getting them out,” Otto said.
“I see, nice work Otto,” T.J. said as he finished typing, “I think I may have something.”
He pushed the enter button and after a stream of code cam up, the monitor flickered and faint traces of light could be seen on the monitor. One of them was moving towards the station.
“What did you do?” Otto asked.
“I ran a program to track the heat in space,” T.J. said, “It's not accurate, but at least we know something is on its way.”
“Not good,” Otto said.
“Keep an eye on the radar, it's not great, but at least we can keep an eye,” T.J. said, “Nathan can you take me back down?”
“Sure thing,” Nathan said as T.J. grabbed his hand, they disappeared in a flash and found themselves down on the planet in the field again. Everyone was still there having fun.
“T.J., you're back, what's going on? Ron and Boomerang told me that Otto called you,” Max said.
“Yeah, we've got bad news. We've detected an unknown force coming towards Mobius,” T.J. said, “The system we're using isn't accurate so we're really worried that were in trouble.”
“Any idea were it's heading?” Steve asked walking over.
“Not a clue, I have Otto working on it,” T.J. said.
“Come on, let's go inside, it looks like it's going to rain,” Metalla said looking up at the sky.
“Ron, can I see you inside in private?” Ana said walking over to Ron.
“Sure thing,” Ron said.
The group of them walked into the palace and quickly split into their own little groups.
“What do you want Ana?” Ron asked as they walked into one of the private den rooms.
“I've been thinking about you and me,” Ana said.
“Again? What's it now Ana?” Ron asked as he sat down in one of the chairs.
“Ron, I know you're acting a lot like your dad because you don't want to show your feelings,” Ana said as she sat down next to him and looked him straight in the eyes, “But I like you, I like you a lot.”
“Ana, I don't know if I'm ready for this kind of relationship,” Ron said as he put his head down.
“Come on Ron, you're thirty-four years old,” Ana said, “Don't you want to settle down? Look at your sister and your sister-in law, both of them have settled down and even already have kids.”
“I know, I guess I never gave it much thought, I've always been training or fighting that I've never had any chance to even think about settling down,” Ron said as he looked up at Ana.
“Why don't you give it a try?” Ana said as she gave Ron a kiss. Ron instantly start blushing and sat there stunned, “What do you say?”
Ron stumbled for words; secretly he had feelings for Ana and now he knew she had real feelings for him. Ron decided that he would go for it, “Sure Ana, I would be honored to have you for my girlfriend.”
Ana had a big smile on her face, “Come on, let's go tell everyone.”
She grabbed Ron's arm and pulled him through the palace trying to find where everyone had ended up.
After a couple minutes of running around, they found everyone in the main family room relaxing. They saw T.J. over on the computer talking to Fists and Otto at the same time. Next to him was Steve, but neither of them saw Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, or Nathan, but figured they had just decided to leave.
Over in another corner, Max was playing video games with his two sons and Metalla sat nearby smiling.
“Hey guys,” Boomerang said coming up to them, he had gone back to his fox form.
“Hey,” Ron said as the two made their way to one of the tables.
“Looks like someone finally decided to go to the next level,” T.J. said as Ron and Ana sat down at the same table that T.J. and Arian were sitting at. T.J. had given the computer over to Steve and had gone to relax.
“Look who's talking,” Ron replied sarcastically.
“What!” Steve suddenly shouted through the room. Everyone instantly stopped what they were doing and looked at Steve.
“Steve, what's wrong?” Max asked getting up.
“Sonic, I've just spotted a ship heading through the skies,” Fists said over the monitor.
“Where is heading to?” Max asked quickly.
“As far as I can, it's going to the north,” Fists said.
“All right, stay there, we're assemble there and see what we can come up with,” Max said as he cut the transmission.
“Who's going to watch the kids?” Sara asked.
“I will,” James said walking into the room.
“James where have you been?” T.J. asked.
“I've been working on the weapon improvements to the station as I was ordered to do,” James said looking over at Max.
“All right, are you sure?” Max asked.
“Coll is thirteen and the others are almost ten, I think I can handle them Max,” James said.
“All right, come on guys, let's get going,” Max said.
The group of ten made their way out of the castle. Waiting done in the hanger working on things was Ariana's twin sister, Kat.
“Hey guys, what's going on?” Kat asked.
“We've got a slight problem, seems someone sneaked passed the security and decided to pay a visit to the mountain region to the north,” Sara said.
“The mountains again? How come no one has ever checked that place out?” Kat asked.
“Because things quieted down to nothing so we stopped,” T.J. said.
“Come one, we're take the shuttle up there,” Max said. The others followed him and a few seconds later the ship blasted off headings towards the Floating Island.
T.J. sat down at the communications terminal and quickly brought up both Fists and Otto, “Anything to report guys?”
“Radar isn't picking up anything up here T.J.,” Otto said.
“I haven't seen anything yet,” Fists commented.
“All right, this worries me a lot, for something to take such high precautions to avoid us, means we've got something big,” T.J. said.
“Yeah, we've got most of the crew working on possible locations,” Otto said.
“Fists, can you set up a feed to relay the information to the Command Base?” T.J. said.
“Yeah, it won't take much,” Fists said.
“You're really going at it aren't you T.J.?” Metalla asked walking over.
“We need to stop this before we end up with big problems,” T.J. said.
“How much longer until we reach the Command Base?” Ron asked looking over to Max.
“We've got about ten or so minutes,” Max said.
“Otto, keep using the heat radar, if there's anything up in the mountains, that will pick it up,” T.J. said.
“Sure thing, it's going to take a bit though, but of the program went down so we're working on getting it up,” Otto said.
“All right, let Fists have a link, but keep it on security connection in case something goes wrong,” T.J. said.
“Already planning on it,” Otto said.
Meanwhile up in the mountains, Splimy was waiting for a ship to arrive. He was standing outside in his winter coat and watched as a small shuttle appeared in the sky and landed down in front of him. A few seconds later a much taller man stepped out with a blank look on his face.
“It's been a long time Splimy,” he said.
“So it has Jim, are you ready?” Splimy asked.
“I'm ready for anything, what do you need me to do?” Jim asked.
“The hedgehog and his friends managed to notice your ship and I'm sure they are using their station to try and find this base. I have sent a program up there that will render their systems useless for a while. I need you to take one of the small ships here and led the hedgehog away from the base. If you encounter them, tell them you have killed me and destroyed the base, I can't have my creations being destroyed this early on,” Splimy said, “You have access to all the weapons, but leave the two robots alone.”
“Sure thing, and what about my ship?” Jim asked.
“I was thinking of borrowing it, the quicker I can get my parts and get back, the quicker you can get paid,” Splimy said.
“I like that idea,” Jim said.
“Right, if it comes down to it, kill the hedgehog and his friends, but be careful they can use energy and the ones called Max and Sara are extremely powerful,” Splimy said.
“No problem, I can take care of that,” Jim said smiling.
“Excellent, there are all kinds of terran on this planet, my computer has been compiling them, have your choice,” Splimy said as he began walking towards Jim's ship.
“Sure thing, you can count on me,” Jim said as he started walking into the base.
“That's what I'm hoping,” Splimy said as he walked into the ship and made his way to the front. A few seconds later it lifted off taking a completely different course, “Right about now, the program should start.”
On the shuttle heading to the Command Base, the screen that had Otto on it suddenly disappeared.
“T.J., what happened?” Metalla asked.
“I don't know, Fists do you still have feed?” T.J. asked.
“Sorry, there's nothing,” Fists said.
A few seconds later, Otto came back, but the screen was dark and the transmission was unstable.
“Otto what's going on?” T.J. asked.
“Something has hit our systems, we're running on impulse power and cannot support any systems,” Otto said in a distorted voice, “We will contact when systems come back on-line.”
The picture disappeared and T.J. sat back in his chair, obviously extremely worried.
“There has to be something we can do,” Kat said looking over at T.J.
“Fists, do you have anything there can help us?” T.J. asked.
“My scanners only cover the surface of the planet,” Fists said, “The feed was allowing the space scan.”
“Darn, all right, I'll see what I can do when we get there, out,” T.J. said as he cut the transmission and sat back in his chair.
“T.J., what's wrong?” Steve asked coming over.
“I should have been up there, Otto is the only one that really knows how to do anything,” T.J. said.
“That's not true, you know the station only takes on people with experience,” Steve said.
“Max, you'd better speed up,” Ron said walking up to Max.
“No problem,” Max said as he increased the output on the engines.
“T.J., calm down,” Ariana said walking over to him.
“Ariana, things could have been prevented if I had been doing my job and was making sure things on the station were going as planned,” T.J. said.
“Even if you were T.J., no one knows if this could have been prevented,” Ariana said.
“I need to get working on something to get the station back on-line,” T.J. said.
“T.J., give it a rest and let Otto take care of it, you are too stressed,” Sara said.
“I have to get this done or it won't be done correctly,” T.J. said as he started typing on the computer. The screen began to flash and fizzle as a picture of Tails appeared.
“Miles Prower Junior, calm down and relax,” Tails said over the screen.
Shocked by being called his full name, T.J. sat back in shock, “Dad!”
“T.J. listen I will not have my son acting like this, the people on the station are very capable of doing their job and you need to sit back and relax.”
“But dad, things have to be done,” T.J. said.
“Really?” Tails replied sarcastically, “I didn't know you were put in command of every last operation on the face of Mobius.”
“Well, I, uh…” T.J. said trying to find an answer.
“Let people do their jobs, its good to take command when it's needed, but you mustn't control everything or else people will start to dislike you,” Tails said.
“He's speaking from experience T.J.,” Nate's voice came from off screen.
“This is my call not yours,” Tails said turning to his right, “I thought you said you had to go fix that generator.”
T.J. sat there stunned at what his dad had told him and thought about it.
“Think about what I've said and good luck,” Tails said as he cut the transmission.
A few minutes later the shuttle landed on the Floating Island and the group of ten made their way into the base.
“So what do you have for us Fists?” Max asked as they sat down.
“Well a few minutes ago I found some interesting activity up around the mountains,” Fists said as he put up a graph, “I was able to use the weather satellites and I found a huge source of heat up there.”
Steve was looking at the map, “This amount of heat looks like from some kind of explosion.”
“That's what I'm thinking, the ship that may have gone by was on a course up there must have destroyed the base,” Fists said.
“What's this small object coming off here?” Metalla asked pointing to the picture.
“The computer has been tracking it, it's the same ship that broke through the security, it's leaving the planet apparently,” Fists said.
“Strange, maybe we should go and investigate,” Max said.
“Yeah, we should maybe we can dig up something,” Ron said.
“So are we all going?” Ana asked.
“Yes, what did you think?” Ron asked, “We work as a team.”
“Well let's get going, we can take the shuttle there,” Kat said.
“Wow Kat, you started speaking up all of a sudden,” Boomerang said.
“Ok,” Fists said taking out a disk, “We can put this in the shuttle and it will take us to the exact location of the base.”
“Great,” Max said as they made their way out of the Command Base and into the shuttle. After installing the disk they started up the engines and took off towards the mountain region.
Up in the mountains, Jim was standing outside smiling, “Those programs come in handy, surely they say the fake heat, as they get closer I'll led them away.”
He walked over to another ship that was sitting in the snow, the snow around it was slowly melting away indicating that Jim was running the engines to keep the ship from freezing.
The group made their way towards the mountains, keeping a close eye on the radar.
“Hey Steve, doesn't this look a little strange to you?” T.J. asked pointing to the radar.
“Yeah, why is there a source of heat this far away from the mountain?” Steve asked as he walked over.
“You guys come up with something?” Metalla asked leaning back.
“Yeah, something isn't right and we're detecting a strange source of heat,” T.J. said, “It could be a second space ship.”
“Do you mean that the base wasn't really destroyed?” Metalla asked.
“Maybe, the base could have really been destroyed, the ship that left was obvious so it could have been a decoy, this heat that we're detecting could be the real ship,” Steve said.
“We'll have to check it out,” Max said as he pushed the throttle on the ship even further.
The ship sped up through the air and continued on its course towards the mountains at high speeds, while Steve and T.J. kept messing with the radar.
At the palace, Coll had found his way into the throne room, where Gene, Sam, Ashley, James, and Haylie were playing a game.
“Hey Coll, nice of you to finally join us,” James said as he noticed Coll.
“I'm only in here by accident,” Coll said.
“Come on Coll, what's with the attitude all of a sudden?” Haylie asked.
“Him,” Coll said as he narrowed his eyes and pointed right at Gene.
“What has Gene done to you?” James asked as he took control of the situation, being the oldest one there.
“Him and his blasted powers, even after grandpa yelled at him, I know dad is still going to want to spend time with him,” Coll said as he stormed out of room.
“Ok, that's it,” James said as he got up.
“James, what are you going to do?” Haylie asked.
“I'm going to find him and give him a peace of my mind,” James said as he walked out of the room, “Keep an eye on them.”
“No problem,” Haylie said.
James started to follow the sound of Coll's heavy footsteps as he made his way through the palace. He was getting worried as he followed Coll deeper into the closed down sections of the palace.
“He should know better than to be down here, this place has been closed down for years,” James said.
James continued to walk down the dark hallways, a service light only lighted most of them here and there. As he walked down another flight of stairs he caught a glimpse of a sign that read “Sub Basement Six: Laboratories”. James continued to follow the faint footsteps of Coll until he made a turn and found Coll standing there in front of a sealed door.
“Coll, what are you doing down here? It's dangerous to be down here,” James said as he walked up to Coll.
“I've been looking at the old layout maps of the palace, and I've found out that behind this door there is a laboratory that might have some really cool things,” Coll said.
“I don't know, if its sealed then that means there are some dangerous things in there that no one wants,” James said.
“Do you know what's behind the door?” Coll asked.
“Sorry Coll, I don't, the only ones that would know where the people that originally had the lab sealed,” James said, “Now for my question, why did you storm off?”
“Because I'm sick of dad always giving attention to Gene,” Coll said.
“Have you ever tried being nice to your dad and Gene and maybe they would start paying more attention to you?” James said looking down at Coll.
“Why, all dad cares about is power,” Coll said.
“Yes your dad does seem to think a lot about being able to use magic,” James said.
“Magic?” Coll asked stunned.
“Yes, what you thought they were something else?” James said.
“Well yeah, it doesn't look like magic,” Coll said.
“It's not what you think magic is, you father and all of them are a type of elementalist know as energy users,” James said, “They aren't many of them around so to them it's a big honor to have a lot.”
“What else do you know?” Coll asked, now extremely interested in what James was talking about.
“Well I know that it is possible to gain and lose the power no matter what, but beyond that, there are only a handful of magic users that know the secrets of all of it,” James said.
“Like who?” Coll asked.
“I know the Oracles know the secrets and I know some of my elders may know the secrets,” James said.
“Like who?” Coll asked.
“Boy you are full of questions, the only one that I know that would have any deep knowledge on the subject would be Nathan himself,” James said, “And it's not likely you will get anything out of him regarding magic.”
“So I'd be better off teaching myself,” Coll said.
“Pretty much, but if you're going to teach yourself it's going to take a lot of work, I know of your gift to sense out evil, maybe you can use that and train yourself,” James said.
“If you have to train to get magic, then how come Gene is naturally getting it?” Coll asked.
“I guess that's the way things work, some people just get the gift while others work towards it,” James said, “Come on let's get back up top, this place down here isn't the best place to be.”
“All right,” Coll said as he began to follow James out of basements and back up the main floor.
“Approaching Northern Mountains,” Ron said.
“Freedom Space Station on-line,” Otto said as he came back up on the screen.
“Otto, great, we've got some problems,” Steve said.
“Guys, you've got to turn around now,” Otto said suddenly.
“What? Why?” T.J. asked.
“There's a space ship sitting on the perimeter of it, it looks ready to attack,” Otto said.
“How can you be so sure?” Steve asked.
At that moment a small ship appeared and attacked the shuttle, causing it to shake violently.
“Ok, we see your point, over and out Otto,” T.J. said as he cut the transmission.
“It's heading towards the forests,” Boomerang said as he watched the ship take off.
“Do we follow it or do we search the mountains?” Max asked.
“Follow it,” Ron said, everyone else agreed and Max changed the course of the shuttle and started to follow Jim.
“Excellent, they are heading away from the base and following me,” Jim said, “I'll led them as far away as possible and then take care of them.”
“T.J., can this shuttle go faster?” Max asked looking behind him.
“I don't know, I haven't done anything with this class of ship,” T.J. said.
“It's possible, but it's really dangerous,” Steve said speaking up.
“How dangerous?” Sara asked.
“We risk the generator overheating or exploding,” Steve said.
“We should take the chance, that small ship is faster than us, and the radar is picking up a lot of interference,” Ron said.
“But we risk being killed,” Fists said.
“We've had worse and came out just fine,” Sara said.
“Do it,” Max said.
“Sure thing,” Steve said as he began typing on the computer.
“What exactly are you doing?” T.J. asked.
“This model of ship has restrictions on the output of the generator,” Steve said.
“And I'm guessing you're removing those,” T.J. said.
“Yeah, the only reason its dangerous is because the engines weren't designed for this high of output, but my research has suggested that they can withstand the stress for about half an hour,” Steve said.
“What happens after that?” T.J. asked.
“There's two possibilities, one the generator uses the fail safe and shuts down, or it blows up,” Steve said.
“Oh great, so we're going to have to monitor the time aren't we,” T.J. said.
“Yeah, Max, push the thruster now, you will have more speed,” Steve shouted.
“Right,” Max said as he pushed the throttle more, and the ship instantly increased dramatically in speed.
“Great, they're going faster now, I'll just have to be sneaky,” Jim said as he began to increase his speed.
“He wants to play a game of chase doesn't he,” Max said as he continued to push the shuttle.
“Max, you've got to be careful, the generator can only take so much strain with the restrictions off,” Steve said.
“Sure thing Steve, but we've got to keep close until the radar can get back to normal,” Max said.
“I think I can help,” Boomerang said as he made his way to the back.
“What's he going to do?” Kat asked.
“I don't know.” T.J. said.
Metalla looked down at the computer that was in front of her when she heard a noise, “Weapon systems activated?”
“What?” Ron asked turning around.
“Boomerang must have turned on the weapons,” Sara said.
“Good, that gives us a bit of an advantage,” Max said.
Fists stood up and ran into the back of the ship; he could see a ladder going up to another deck of the shuttle. He quickly climbed up it and saw Boomerang sitting in one of the chairs.
“Good thing you cam back, I need someone else to man the other gun,” Boomerang said.
“Do you know how to work this?” Fists said.
“Do you know?” Boomerang asked back.
“No,” Fists said.
“Good, then we can both screw up,” Boomerang said, “Take a seat.”
Fists sat down and activated the other gun, both of them began to target Jim's ship.
“So, they're trying to shot me out of the sky?” Jim said looking down at his radar, “Let's see what this can do.”
Jim started to make strange moves in the sky, which caused Boomerang and Fists to hesitate before firing.
“How come those two aren't firing?” Ana asked.
“Jim is making quick maneuvers and we have a limited amount of fire power in those cannons,” Max said.
“Hey Steve, don't those cannons run off of heat?” T.J. asked.
“I think there's a system that does that,” Steve said.
“What if we run the excess heat from the generator to the guns, wouldn't that give them more firepower?” T.J. asked.
“It's possible, we can try it,” Steve said.
“I'll reroute the wires, you take care of the program,” T.J. said as he walked back to the generator. Steve turned his chair and began typing on the computer at extreme speeds.
As T.J. walked past the ladder he shouted up, “Guys, hold off on the firing, we're going to try something to get you more rounds.”
“Right,” Fists shouted back down.
T.J. opened the door the generator and felt the heat from the generator, “Steve was right, that thing does produce a lot of heat.”
T.J. walked back to one of the panels and ripped it off; he found a box of tools and began to work on the wiring. The sweat was pouring off of his fur as he continued to reroute wires and release pressure on some of the pipes.
A few minutes later Steve's voice came over the intercom, “The program is ready T.J., just give me the ok when you get the wires done.”
“It should be ready now,” T.J. said as he put the panel back on the wall and walked out of the room.
“Right,” Steve said as he started up the program, “Fists, Boomerang, the program is running, blast him out of the sky!”
“Right,” Boomerang said as he started firing off the cannon. There beams were huge and Jim was having a tough time dodging the rapid blasts. Steve watched as the generator temperature began to fall and the stress on the engines was reduces.
“Max, you can push the ship faster,” T.J. said, “The faster, the more powerful those guns become.”
“Right,” Max said as he pushed the throttle to the max on the plane.
Jim was watching his radar as he began to come over the fields; it wasn't an area he wanted to be in because of the lost cover. He knew he wasn't going to last long against the increase in firepower, “I'm going to have to try and shoot them down.” He pushed a few buttons and waited.
“I'm detecting activity outside of the ship,” Ron said.
“He's going to fire on us,” Sara said.
“Boomerang, Fists, shoot him down before he shoots us down,” Steve shouted.
“Ok,” Boomerang shouted down the ship. Both of them began to fire as fast as they could, but Jim continued to evade them without too much of a problem.
“He's good,” Fists said as he continued to fire without really aiming.
“I can see energy building up on the outside of the ship,” Boomerang said.
“That means the gun is about ready to fire,” Fists said as he fired even faster.
“Max, look out, he's going to fire on us,” Ariana shouted.
“I know, I don't want to make any sudden movements so Boomerang and Fists aren't thrown out of their chairs,” Max said.
“And…now,” Jim said as he hit the button again on the control panel. The gun on top of the ship spun around quickly and fired a massive beam at the shuttle.
“Oh crud!” Max said as he pulled the control stick to a hard right. Up top Boomerang and Fists were thrown right out of their seats and everyone else had to brace themselves on the control panel they were in front of. The beam clipped the shuttle on the left side and smoke started to pour out.
“T.J., what happened?” Ron asked.
“The beam clipped the cables for the generator, we've lost engine power,” T.J. shouted.
“Ok everyone, get ready for an emergency landing,” Max said as he cut the power to the generator and switched to full manual control.
“Good, they're going down and we're coming into a good field for an attack,” Jim said as he landed his plane. He grabbed what he needed and walked out of the ship.
“Here we go guys,” Max said as the ship crash-landed in the field. The group quickly braces themselves as the ship hit trees before crashing into a rock. Everyone got up moaning and made their way out of the shuttle.
“Well?” Ron asked looking over to T.J. and Steve.
“Well what?” T.J. asked looking over to Ron.
“What can you do with it?” Ron asked.
“Melt it down and use it to build the pool I always wanted,” T.J. said.
“You can't fix it?” Max asked.
“We couldn't fix that thing in a million years, everything is shot,” Steve said, “Plus there's no way to launch it, there's no vertical thrust on this model.”
“All right, let's just find that other ship, I know it landed,” Max said as the group began walking into the forest.
“I wonder what happened,” Ron said as they continued walking.
“What do you mean?” Metalla asked.
“I mean that I didn't see anything on fire,” Ron said.
“It might not have destroyed the mountain, it could have been inside,” T.J. said.
“All that I know is that I hope that Splimy is gone,” Ron said.
“You may want to rethink that,” a voice said suddenly before a beam blasted Ron, sending him into a tree.
“Ron!” Ana shouted a she ran over to him and held him up, “Are you ok?”
“Yeah, I'm fine,” Ron said as he got up.
“Who's there?” Max shouted. No one answered and the group started to run in the direction that the cannon fired.
As they entered a clearing they saw someone standing there holding a large gun at his side.
“Who are you?” Max shouted.
“I am Jim Anderson, a famous throughout the galaxy for being one of the best bounty hunters ever,” Jim said.
“What did you do to Splimy?” Max shouted.
“Splimy is dead, I had a contract to carry out and my partner is already on his way to collect the payment,” Jim said, “But I also have another contract to eliminate all of you.” He brought his gun up and fired it, hitting Fists dead on. He was blown back, but Max quickly caught him.
“Fists, you ok?” Max asked looking down at him.
“Yeah, I'm fine, let's just take him down quick,” Fists said.
“Ana, be careful, this might get a little dangerous,” Ron said.
“I have no problem with danger,” Ana said.
Jim brought his gun up again to blast Metalla, but she dodged it and before Jim could react, Sara has blasted his gun.
“Don't count your luck yet,” Jim said as he pulled out the handle to a sword.
“And just what are you going to do with that?” Max asked.
“This is my best weapon, it's a light sword,” Jim said as an energy blade blasted out of the handle, it took the form of samurai sword.
“Just great,” Max said as he watched Jim spin it around with extreme speed.
Jim let out a smile as he did a horizontal crescent in front of them. There was a huge energy beam that came out of the sword and towards the entire group. Everyone managed to dodge it and they watched as a ton of trees were cut down.
“Let's finish this up quick,” Max said as he powered up, “I'm not sensing any power off of this guy.”
“Not so fast hedgehog,” Jim said with a smile as he did two fast swings of his blade.
Everyone managed to dodge the first crescent, but as the second one came through at a different angle and extremely fast. Everyone but Ana managed to dodge it. She was blown right back into one of the remaining stumps and knocked out cold.
“Ana!” Ron shouted as he ran over to her, he picked her up and shook her lightly, “Speak to me Ana! Speak to me!” He put his head over her chest and began to sob.
“That's one down, who's next?” Jim smiled as he jumped back.
Ron brought his head up and set Ana down. He got up and looked up at Jim with pure rage in his eyes. Clenching his hands, there was a bright glow and the familiar twin swords appeared in his hands.
“Ron, your swords,” Metalla shouted.
“You're going to pay Jim!” Ron shouted as he rushed forward using his tails to propel him at extreme speeds.
Jim was taken by surprise by the sheer force Ron was using on his blades. Max had powered down and everyone stood back in awe as they watched Ron attack Jim with speed.
“T.J., Steve, do you think you two could fly Ana back?” Max asked.
“I still have my radio, maybe Otto can use the teleportation on the station,” T.J. said.
“It's experimental still though,” Steve said.
“Best time to test it,” T.J. said.
“Give it a shot, she needs medical attention right away,” Max said.
“Otto, are you there, this is an emergency,” T.J. said as he grabbed his radio and turned it on.
“Otto here, T.J. what's wrong?” Otto asked.
“Lock onto my coordinates and beam me, Steve, and Ana to Mobotropolis using the teleporter,” T.J. said.
“T.J. are you sure? It's still experimental,” Otto said.
“Ana is in serious need of medical attention, in case we land somewhere other than Mobotropolis, Steve and I can fly her,” T.J. said.
“Right, location locked, using teleporter now,” Otto said over the radio.
There was a bright beam that came down from the sky and picked up Steve, T.J., and Ana. They disappeared leaving the others standing there watching as Ron continued to assault Jim.
“Who are you?” Jim asked as he continued to try and block Ron's assaults.
“I am Ron Kitmyth, son of Nathan Kitmyth and I will not allow you to harm the people I care about!” Ron said as he knocked Jim's sword out of his hand.
“Kitmyth?” Max said stunned.
“Just great,” Metalla said shaking her head.
“What's wrong?” Sara asked.
“Dad asked never to tell anyone our last name, something about security features,” Metalla said.
“So, Kitmyth is your family's last name?” Fists asked.
“Yes it is,” Metalla said.
“I've seen that somewhere before, but I can't remember,” Kat said.
“Well this battle is about ready to end,” Max said he looked at Ron.
“Shouldn't we stop him, he's going to kill him?” Ariana said.
“We should, but I'm not even going to try and stop him,” Max said, “If there's one thing I've seen with Ron's family it's that when they are mad do not try and stop them.”
“We have more problems to worry about anyway,” Metalla said.
“Geeze,” Jim said as he continued to dodge Ron's attacks, he tried to get near his sword, but Ron continually stopped him. Finally Jim was up against a rock, “Go ahead and kill me.”
Ron was just about to put the twin swords together when they disappeared. Stunned by what just happened, Jim saw his moment and kicked Ron away. He jumped towards his sword and grabbed it.
“Ron!” Metalla shouted.
“Sara, now,” Max said as he powered up.
“Right,” Sara said as she used her power.
“What the?” Jim said as he swung his sword at them. Max and Sara blocked the crescent and continued towards Jim. Jim stepped back and was stunned.
“By order of the planet Mobius we hereby order you to surrender and come with us,” Max said.
“I never surrender, ever,” Jim said as he held up his sword.
“Then by no choice, we have to destroy you,” Max said as he held up his hands. He and Sara charged up an energy blast and fired at Jim. There was a massive explosion, and Jim's sword dropped to the ground, the blade fizzled out and Jim was no where in sight.
“Mission accomplished, let's use Jim's ship and head back to the city,” Fists said.
“Right,” Max said as he and Sara powered down. The group quickly found the ship and took off at full speed towards the city.
“Otto, did the teleportation work ok?” Ron asked over the communicator.
“Yes, the teleportation was successful, I got a report on Ana, the doctors say that she will be fine in a couple of days,” Otto said. Ron let out a smile at the news.
“So Ron, I can see that smile on your face, are you and Ana really an item?” Metalla asked.
“Yes, I've loved her since we've met, and she allowed me to live by my feelings,” Ron said turning towards Metalla.
“Sounds like there's going to be a new Kitmyth in the family,” Max said.
Ron started to blush and everyone could see it through his fur.
As the ship returned to the city, another one was coming in undetected from space, as it landed in front of the mountains. Splimy stepped out carrying a large package, “Looks like Jim failed me. Oh well now I don't have to pay him and my base is still in tact. Soon my creations will rise and I will begin my takeover of the universe." He walked into the mountain laughing.
Max and the others returned to the city and were greeted by T.J. and Steve. The group made their way into the palace and found James and Haylie playing with the kids. Ron however, went into hospital wing and found Ana. She was awake and coherent.
“Hey Ron,” Ana said with a gleam in her eyes.
“I'm glad to see you're doing well,” Ron said as he sat down next to her bed.
“Why did you come and see me?” Ana asked.
“You know why I came to see you, I love you,” Ron said.
“Oh Ron,” Ana said. Ron stood up and kissed Ana, “I don't want to leave your side.”
“You're going to have to for the moment,” a familiar voice said from behind Ron.
“Dad!” Ron shouted as he spun around.
“Sorry for ruining such a romantic moment, but you and I need to talk,” Nathan said.
“What is it?” Ron asked.
“You gave out our last name, something I've hid from these people from years,” Nathan said.
“Why would you hide your last name?” Ron asked, “It's nothing to be ashamed of.”
“You have no idea,” Nathan said, “But I kept my name hidden because no there's a chance of complete chaos.”
“Why?” Ron asked, “How could Kitmyth cause problems?”
“Because, hidden deep in the palace is my laboratory, in there is technology that I have developed over the years,” Nathan said, “It is sealed because the things I have developed can cause major problems if the lab is ever opened. To open it you have to know our last name!”
“Well, it's not like anyone ever goes down there, everyone below the basement is off limits to everyone and as far as I know there are security doors down there,” Ron said.
“Make sure that no one ever gets down there,” Nathan said as he put his hand on Ron's shoulder, “There is more than just technology down there.”
“What do you mean?” Ron asked.
“One day you will know my story,” Nathan said as he disappeared.
Ron turned back towards Ana who was lying on the bed, “Now where were we?”
A couple of weeks passed by and life returned to normal in the palace. Later in the week there was a triple wedding between Ron and Ana, Steve and Sara, and T.J. and Ariana. All three of the couples went on their honeymoons and everyone was happy with what they were doing. Coll and Max managed to strengthen their bonds and both of them became really happy that they had broken the barrier between them.
Fists quickly went back to his island, but not alone, he brought someone called Rose with him. Kat moved in with Boomerang to share a three-bedroom apartment. Max and Metalla continued to raise Coll and Gene in the ways of ruling. Ron and Ana moved back to Fox City and took care of the club. Steve and Sara stayed in Mobotropolis and built a huge mansion just outside of the city limits. T.J. and Ariana moved to Forest City and began their lives there.
“Soon,” Splimy said up in his workshop, my creations will rise and I will be victorious. All that is left is to run practice tests.”
The End.
