(Realm Saga: Story Two: Recruitment) By: Chandra Rooney ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Legal junk: Sonic & Knuckles, and all related characters are copy-right of Sega and Archie comics. KTE is copy-right of KTE. Moon the Echidna, Gabriel Shadows, k.a. Echidna, David "Steel" Roswell, and all other original characters are copy-right of Chandra Rooney. My own ideas once again... yadda, yadda, yadda {I hate legal junk don't you?} ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stuff you should know: There are seven realm protectors. So far we know of one: Moon. She has the Silver Moon Crescent Wand, which will indicate when someone is a realm protector. Once they have been in contact with the wand and other protectors they will find their Master Tool. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prologue Night Realm Location: Vampire home realm "So far my search hasn't been too successful," KTE told the woman across from him. "But I assure you, Mrs. DeMount, I will see that Nadaline's killer is brought to justice." The woman smiled, but the warmth didn't thaw her golden eyes. "That's so reassuring, KTE. I'm so glad that all the stories I've heard of your skills are true." "I'll report any new findings to you," KTE replied, and stood. "I really should be going now." Mrs. DeMount shook out her burgundy hair. "And to think you're still so young." She replied oddly. "I look forward to our next visit...maybe you'll have more pleasant news." "Yeah." KTE nodded, and walked out the door. "I've got a guy to go visit...he usually can help out on leads." The woman waited till he was gone. Then she gestured to someone in the shadows. "Now that Moon the Echidna has the Indicator wand it is of the utmost importance that the stupid bounty hunter tracks them down. Watch him, Brandt. Make sure he isn't working with them." The shadowy figure nodded. "It shall be done, my Queen." The women bent down and picked up a small vial. "The fool didn't even notice when I siphoned his blood." "No, your majesty, you were very covert about it." Brandt replied. "Brandt, take this vial and see it makes it to our connection. With it, and the other, he should have all he needs to begin the process." "Yes, my queen," Brandt bowed and exited. Chapter One: Knothole: Morning Realm Location: k.a.'s home realm "Finally," Gabriel Shadows grumbled, pushing limp black hair out of his green eyes. "We're here." "Don't complain," Moon the Echidna narrowed dark blue eyes at him. "Or you'll be carrying k.a." She looked down at the sleeping five-year-old in her arms. "I swear he weights as much as a seventeen-year-old." "You're just tired," Gabriel muttered. "After all, we did travel all night." "Knothole at last," Moon gestured to the groupings of huts ahead. "Moon?" A voice called from behind them. "That you?" Both turned. A partially robotosized red echidna was running up to meet them. Moon saw his one arm, both legs, and a section of his tail were metal. "Steel! This is a surprise. How are you?" she smiled. "Enjoying life outta the Dark Legion?" The former member chuckled. "Am I ever. Does Dimitri know you're coming?" Moon blinked. "My father's here?" "Yeah, and Lara-le." Steel stopped. "Who's the human?" "Oh, Steel, this is Gabriel Shadows. Gabe this is David Roswell." Moon introduced. "Please, call me Steel," the echidna reached forward with his non-metallic hand and shook Gabe's extended one. "You can call me Gabe," Gabriel said. "So why is my father and Lara-le here?" Moon asked. "Well, no one's really saying much. They just got here yesterday...but I think it has something to do with their sentence." Steel shrugged. "Banishment would be an appropriate punishment for impersonating a guardian for over twenty years, don't ya think?" "Very funny, Steel." Moon didn't want to think about her father's past. How he'd had to pretend to be Locke...and how Knuckles Ash had never known until a few months ago who his father really was. "Isn't he Menniker's father?" Gabriel asked, peering into her thoughts. "Wouldn't that make you related to the Dark Legion?" "Menniker was adopted," Moon replied, a little too harshly. "Well, Sally and Sonic will be thrilled to see Knuckles Ash again," Steel began, after a few moments of silence passed. "Were is Knux anyway?" k.a. stirred in her arms. Steel seemed to have not noticed him. He opened large, dark twilight blue eyes, and yawned. "We there yet, Moon?" "Who's that?" Steel asked. Moon smiled. "I'll explain later. Can you take us to my father?" Chapter Two: Knothole k.a. walked along happily with them. Occasionally he asked a question, but mostly he seemed overwhelmed. "We're gonna see Daddy?" he asked for about the tenth time. "Yes," Gabe replied, annoyed. "An' Mommy too?" "Yes." k.a. looked about to ask something else, but he simply uttered a little a cry of joy and ran off towards a red female echidna, with light green eyes, dressed in a yellow robe-dress. "Mommy!" he cried when he reached her. The woman turned, and smiled as she picked him up. "Hello, dear. What a pleasant surprise!" "Missed ya, Mommy!" k.a. cried happily. "Mommy?" Steel blinked. "But isn't Lara-le Knuckles' mom...?" "Uh...Steel," Moon pulled him aside. "k.a. is Knuckles Ash." "What? C'mon Moon! That kid can't be older than six!" Steel snorted. "Actually, he's five. He underwent the reversal process and it reduced his age. He's got over five months left." "That's his sentence, isn't it?" Steel asked. "Yeah." Moon nodded. "Moon," Lara-le smiled as the three walked over to her. "I didn't realize you were coming..." "It was a spur-of-the-moment-thing," Moon smiled. "Well, Dimitri is just inside the hut. I suppose you came here to see him." "Yes, I did." "Can I see Daddy too?" k.a. asked. "Can I Mommy?" "I think we need to talk about some adult things, k.a," Lara-le patted his head. "Why don't you go and play for a little while first?" "Okay, Mommy." k.a. replied happily. Lara-le set him down and he took off towards the forest. "Stay close!" Lara-le called after him. "And don't get in trouble!" Moon added. "Come into the hut, and tell us what you've been up to, dear," Lara-le smiled. "Then there are a few things we have to tell you..." k.a. run off into the trees. It was darker there, and cooler. He cleared the trees, chasing some shadow in front of him. When he almost caught it, a little tinkling laugh reached his ears. He spun and a little purple hedgehog was giggling at him. Her short, spiky hair made her look older...but she couldn't be more than five or six. She looked up through long bangs with blue-green eyes. "Hee, hee." k.a. took in her black shorts and green shirt. A girl...just great. Yuck. "Whatcha laughin at?" he asked. "You," she giggled. "I'm Ember. What's your name?" "k.a.," he replied. "Wanna play with me?" Ember asked. "Play what?" k.a. asked. "My friend Kit an' I were playing hide-n-go-seek, but now we gotta go home." Ember twirled a bang absently. "So...ya wanna come to my house and play?" k.a. thought for a minute. "Where do ya live?" "Over there a way," Ember pointed. "Kit's already there. See, my Mommy and Daddy are gone...and so are Kit's. We live with a guy who takes care of us." "Cool. Let's go play." k.a. replied. Ember giggled and took his hand. "C'mon, it's this way." "Moon," Dimitri looked up and smiled when she entered the hut. "It's good to see you." "Hey, Dad," Moon replied, as the two embraced quickly. It seemed hard to believe that just over a month ago they had been strangers. "Is it true?" he asked, gesturing for her to sit. Lara-le and Gabriel also sat. Moon paused, scanning. "About the Master Tools and the protectors? Yes." Dimitri leaned back. "Well, times are chaotic enough now...signs of the Great Powers return have been chronicled for decades." "He's one too, Dad. We both are. Mom...told me so." "I would imagine so. You both have direct human ancestry." "What do you mean?" Gabriel asked, confused. "As this planet grew older, and evolved, the first Mobians began to appear. Of course, that was eons ago. To think, humans still cling to the evolutionary ladder. What a terribly hardy race they must be." Dimitri muttered off-handily. "But...direct human ancestry?" Gabriel regarded Dimitri oddly. "Not me, m'boy. But I am a descendant of an echidna-human half-breed. Who happened to have been one of the first set of Realm Protectors." "There were Realm Protectors before?" "Yes. Back when the realm passage-ways first started appearing. I imagine that their descendants are this group of Protectors." Dimitri paused. "Tell me everything that you know." Briefly Moon described how Gabriel had appeared in her house, and how they had set off to find the Indicator wand. Then she related what had happened in the Sailor Scout Realm, how they'd learned that all the realm protectors had human forms, how they all would find their own Master Tool once they had come into contact with the Indicator wand. She briefly told of how she, with the help of Sailor Astra, Sailor Lynx, Sailor Vega H, and Sailor Shadow had fought Sailor Evil and Wrong Sailor Lynx. She didn't mention that Gabriel had been "helping" Hecate-Chaos as Tuxedo Mischief. Then, she finished by explaining how they planned to go on searching for the others. "But, we have to be careful," Moon said. "Because Hecate-Chaos has started making deals with other villains. She's planning to create a team of 'realm destroyers'." "And there's a bounty hunter out to get me," Gabriel added. "A fellow by the name of KTE." "Why?" Lara-le asked. "I was framed for the murder of girl I was living with, ma'am," Gabriel answered her. "The family hired him to come after me." "Moon, isn't KTE your friend?" Dimitri asked. "Yes, Dad...but I can't go to him and tell him to leave Gabriel alone...I lied to KTE. I told him I didn't know where Gabe was, and when he finds out..." Moon trailed off, thinking about KTE's temper. Dimitri sat back, frowning. His large dark blue eyes looked thoughtful. He rubbed at his knuclaws, and then seemed to have had come to a conclusion. "Well, you're here now, and KTE isn't. Neither is this Hecate witch. Why don't you two relax and still here a while?" he asked. He was watching Gabriel oddly. "Funny. I don't think I've ever meet a human with such an odd energy pattern before." "I'm a vampire," Gabriel shrugged, as if that explained everything. "I realize that. I was talking about how you seem to radiate at an echidna energy level." "I'm half-echidna." Gabriel shrugged again. Moon didn't say anything. But this act of his...seeming so indifferent. What was it for? "Lara-le said you had something to tell me," Moon said to her father, tearing her thoughts away from concern for Gabriel. "Yes." Dimitri sat up. He reached for Lara-le's hand. "Does it involve your sentence?" Moon asked. "Yes." Dimitri nodded. "Lara-le and I have been banished from the Floating Island for an undetermined amount of time." "But Princess Sally has been kind enough to welcome us here," Lara-le replied. "Yet, that isn't really what we wanted to say." "Moon," Dimitri paused, thought for a moment, then shrugged and just asked. "How would you feel if I told you that Lara-le and I were considering getting married?" Moon swallowed. She certainly hadn't seen that one coming. Though Knuckles Ash had been broadcasting thoughts about it during the trial. "I'd say that I was very happy for you both," Moon settled finally. "But I thought you were already married to Wynmacher, Lara-le." "Well...we're in the process of a divorce," Lara-le spoke quietly. "He didn't understand how I could be loyal to Dimitri, and I told him if he couldn't understand my values then perhaps he wasn't fit to be my husband, nor I his wife." "It isn't any secret that we still have very strong feelings for each other...not anymore that is." Dimitri chuckled. "Now, where is that boy of ours, Lara?" "Off playing." Lara-le replied. "But we should call him back." "I'll go find him," Gabriel said, standing. "I could use a walk." He turned and left. "I think he's out for more than a walk," Moon muttered. She turned back to her father and soon-to-be-stepmother. "So, have you picked a date?" Chapter Three: A cabin in the woods Ember led k.a. to the little cabin. "I live there." k.a. looked at it. "It's big, Em." "Yep." Ember nodded, her purple spines bounced up and down. "C'mon in. You can meet Kit, and Mr. Yadot." "Who's dat?" k.a. asked. "Mr. Yadot? He's the guy that takes care of us. He's really smart. He makes stuff in with his computers and junk." Ember giggled. "C'mon in." The inside of the cabin was a mass of high-tech steel and glass. A green fox was waiting inside. He looked about eleven. "Hey, Ember, who ya got there?" "Kit, this is k.a. He came to play." Ember smiled. "k.a. this is Kit." "Play, huh?" Kit shook his head. "Mr. Yadot says we got to do some chores now." "I can help, then we can play," k.a. said. "No, we got to do these chores!" Kit said. "Only me and Ember can do 'em right!" Just as he spoke a tall man with a sharp, funny-looking black mustache came into the room. His hair curled and stuck up, and he looked old. He narrowed his gray, colorless eyes, and dug in the pockets of his lab coat. "Ember, Kit, come on now...time for your medicine. You wouldn't want to get sick. You take this and then you can get those errands run for me. I'm working on a very important project for a colleague. I can't afford to be running behind schedule." He said. Then he found a pair of thick glasses in his pocket and put them on. He saw k.a. "Ho now, what have we here? A little spy?" "Nuh huh, Mr. Yadot," Ember protested. "This is my new friend k.a. He's gonna play with Kit and me." "Now Ember what did I tell you? You have Kit for a friend. You don't need anyone else. Now, shoo, run back to your mother...little red thing..." Yadot made some waving motions with his hands. "Ember is sick and she can't play with you." "She don't look sick to me." k.a. protested. "Nonsense. Of course she doesn't. You're a stupid little furry. You can't tell when someone is sick. Now run along back to the trees." Yadot grabbed Ember and pulled her away. "Told ya so," Kit hissed. "Come along, children. Sick little boys and girls shouldn't be out in the sun." He jabbed a needle into Ember's arm. "Now take your medicine." He put another needle in Kit's arm. "What they got? I can't get very many sickies. My daddy says I'm inmune." k.a. told Yadot. "Are you still here?" Yadot glared at k.a. Then he seemed stopped, and smiled oddly. "You wouldn't be an echidna, would you boy?" "Yep," k.a. replied proudly. "I sure am." "Well, maybe you can stay and play with Ember..." Yadot smiled. "You stay right there; I just need to get something." He disappeared into a room, and came back with a vial of red stuff, that shimmered green. He put an empty needle into the vial and began to draw the thick liquid into the syringe. "Now, you can play with Ember and Kit...maybe even help them with their chores. Would you like that, boy?" "Yep, I wanna play with Ember." k.a. nodded. "I could help 'em too, I guess." "But first," Yadot reached for his arm. "You need to take some medicine so you don't get sick. You wouldn't want to be sick, now would you?" "Nope." k.a. shook his head. But his eyes narrowed on the needle. "I don't like shots..." "Now, it won't hurt a bit," Yadot jabbed the needle into k.a.'s arm and pushed the liquid into his blood stream. "OW!!!!" k.a. yelled. He started to pull away. "YOU HURT ME!!" "Where do you think you're going?" Yadot demanded. "You belong to me now!" k.a. kicked the man in the shin, and scratched up the hand holding him with little knuclaws. "Why you little beast..." Yadot snapped. "You won't be so willful after I put you through the submission treatment!" He was pulling out another vial. "Now come here and drink this. Her majesty Queen Hecate-Chaos is waiting for her guardian look-alike. The one you'll be once the effects of my genetic alterations kick in!" "SHE'S A BAD LADY!!" k.a. yelled. "AND YOU'RE A BAD MAN!!" "Maybe so, you little beast, but you still belong to her...next time be more careful who you go home with..." Yadot started walking towards k.a. k.a. looked behind Yadot. A seventeen-year-old purple hedgehog, and a twenty-two-year-old green fox were sneering at him. "What did you do to Ember an' Kit?" k.a. asked, a cold fire in his eyes...eyes that looked too hard and full of deadly fury to belong to a seven-year-old. "Why the same thing I did to you," Yadot smiled. "Enhanced you. Soon you'll possess all the powers and abilities of the guardian Knuckles Ash. Oh, you should feel honored. You'll be a strong addition to Hecate-Chaos' realm destroyers. And can you can play with Ember anytime you like." k.a. stepped back, eyes narrowed. Trying to look as fierce as a nine-year-old can. "See?" Yadot pointed to a mirror. "You're changing already. Growing older. You'll be seventeen years in no time at all. And then you'll take your submission treatment and serve Queen Hecate-Chaos just like Ember and Kit." Yadot smiled. "And then, very soon, Kit will bring that bounty hunter KTE to undergo the submission treatment. After we send his clone off, he will stay here and serve Hecate-Chaos too. You'd like that, wouldn't you boy? Another echidna to play with? You two could be like brothers..." He reached for k.a. The eleven-year-old snapped his teeth at him. "Ho now, biting is not allowed." Yadot frowned. "Now you come here. Without me to give you your medicine you'll be trapped in a seventeen-year-old's body forever. I can be fair. For several hours a day, I'll bring you back to your natural age, then you can play. Just like Kit and Ember. I know the three of you will be such good friends." "I don't have friends that work for people like you," the now thirteen-year-old k.a. hissed. "Come any closer and I'll beat the tar outta ya." "I don't have to," Yadot smiled. "In a matter of minutes the change will be complete." Yadot waved the vial. "Without this submission concoction, your five-year-old mind won't be able to adjust to your seventeen-year-old body. But if you take this...you won't remember anything about your previous life. You can completely devote yourself to the noble service of Hecate-Chaos." "You're a psycho," k.a. snapped. The fifteen-year-old glanced at the door behind Yadot. He could make a run for it... "Do you realize without me you won't be able to control your changes? You'll fluctuate between five and seventeen. And there won't be anything you can do about it. The guardian's blood in your system will see to that. Not to mention that it will no doubt be very painful, and drive you completely insane. "There," Yadot smiled. "The change is done. I've done a marvelous job, as per usual. Why, you look just like Knuckles Ash." The seventeen-year-old echidna growled, and rushed Yadot. He slammed into him, knocking him aside, and made a clean break to the door. "Ember!" Yadot roared from on the floor. "After him! Kit! You go and meet up with that bounty hunter! You bring him here!" "Yes sir." The hedgehog and the fox replied and took off in opposite directions. "You'll pay for this defiance," Yadot muttered to the renegade echidna he'd created. "No one makes a fool of me. No one." Chapter Four: The woods Gabriel looked up from the furry neck of the cat. He tensed. Was someone coming? If so, it could be hard to explain why this unconscious female feline had two puncture wounds in her neck. And why he had blood trailing down from his mouth. He licked his mouth, and felt his fangs retract. After being blood-starved for nearly a week, this feeding had been all the more satisfying. He brushed his lips across the puncture wounds, and watched them heal. Then he lay female back on her couch, and left her small dwelling. He started back towards Knothole in the shadows. He hadn't seen k.a., but the little one wouldn't venture off too far. He'd probably found his way back on his own. Just as he was thinking this hands grabbed him and pulled him aside. He found himself face to face with a red echidna. What the hell? Gabriel wondered. Was it KTE? "Where's Moon?" the echidna demanded. No not KTE. Wrong voice, too old, and his eyes... "Holy Goddess, Mother of us all!" Gabriel hissed. "k.a....is that you?" "Wha...huh..?" the echidna's face lost it's savageness. "Yeah...yeah, it is, Gabe." "What in Darkness' Blackest Pit happened to you? You're...seventeen again!" "Look...that isn't important. It's nothing. Someone just unintentionally undid the reversal process' effects. We need to find Moon, Hecate-Chaos has a 'friend' here. And two realm destroyers." Knuckles Ash paused. "Plus...they've gone after KTE. The guy's got plans to put him through some sort of submission treatment. Where's Moon?" "Back at Knothole with Dimitri and Lara-le. Look, don't you think we should just leave KTE to care for himself? He's a big boy...and besides...if he finds out I'm here..." "No, you're coming with me and Moon. We're going to tell KTE what really happened." Gabriel was silent for a minute. Then very slowly he replied. "If you think that will make that psycho hunter believe us, you're nuts." "How do you know that?" Knuckles Ash paused. "Look, I just have a feeling that we have to join up with KTE. If Hecate-Chaos wants him..." he shook his head, and held Gabe's eyes. "You and I both know why she ever wants anyone." "I'll go back to Knothole and get Moon." Gabe said. "Happy?" "Don't bother. I've already called for her." Knuckles Ash looked behind him. "That purple hedgehog should be getting close." KTE looked at his watched again. He was just thinking about leaving when the green fox entered the bar. He sat down. "Sorry I had some trouble finding the place." KTE shrugged, and went back to sipping the water. "That the heaviest you're goin' tonight, KTE? You call yourself a man? A real man doesn't drink water." The green fox signaled to the bartender. "A beer, my good man." The bartender nodded, and put a brown bottle down on the counter. "Won't do me any good to be drunk." KTE replied calmly. "Do you know where this Shadows is or not?" "Of course, I know." The green fox took a swig of his beer. "I can show you where he is." KTE looked at him. "And are you going to?" "Why, sure. Just as soon as I'm done my beer." Moon felt the psychic cry. She quickly looked up. If her father had sensed it, he showed no reaction. "You know," Moon stood calmly. "Gabe's been gone an awful long time. I'm gonna go check on him." She grabbed the wand from her pack and rushed off to the trees. The green fox set down the bottle. He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. "Okay," he stood. "Let's go." KTE grabbed his hat and put it on. "Finally." Moon reached the clearing. Gabriel was sitting on the ground. And a red echidna was leaning against the tree. "Knuckles Ash? How?" "Moon, hey. Hurry up, we've got to get a move on, KTE's in trouble -eh?" he paused. "What's that?" A muffled beeping was going off. Moon looked down at the gold wand in her hand. The crescent wand that topped, and the silver gem that rested in the curve of it was glowing. The beeping was coming from it. Moon raised the wand and moved it towards Knuckles Ash. The glow and beeping became more intense. "It's going off..." she said. "Knuckles, you set it off." "So...?" Knuckles Ash raised an eyebrow. "Is it going do anything...or is it just gonna beep?" Moon opened her mouth to answer, but the wand blasted out a beam of silver energy, which slammed into Knuckles Ash. He fell backwards into the trees. "Ash?" Moon asked. "Ash!" to be continued.... ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Cast: k.a.: What has the wand done to him? Is he all right? Moon: How will she explain why she helped Gabe to KTE? Gabe: Will he really risk himself to help KTE? KTE: What kind of danger is he in? Kit (the green fox): Why does he work for Yadot, and where is he taking KTE? Ember (the purple echidna): What will she do if she finds k.a.? Yadot: Who is he? Why does he want KTE?