Fragile Fates: Chapter 9

Ch. 9: Discovery

Back at the Rebel HQ, Rio continued to watch the radar.  "I'm still tracking it, sir!" Rio shouted.  "It's moving west, towards the mountains!"

"Alex, Rose, starting heading west," Aust commanded.  "I want to find out just what the hell is going on!"

Over government tracking, all the Imperial agents had already picked up a message from their own superiors.  Well, all the agents except Digs, however.  Immediately Digs ran ahead, going after the ferret's captor.  He was determined to be the one to rescue her.  Absolutely determined.

Meanwhile, on the edge of a plateau, a red fox and two of his comrades waited in anticipation.

"He's back," one of them stated calmly as a cloud of dust appeared in the distance.  The blur quickly made its way over to the group of three, stopping only a few paces from the red fox.  As the smoke cleared, the shadowy figure inside was revealed to be none other than the legendary Metal Sonic.  It placed the ferret on the ground before joining the group of three.

"I thank you, Metal," the red fox stated with a sly smile.  "Couldn't have pulled this off without you."  He then turned to face his newly acquired hostage, who was looking around in confusion.  This certainly was different to how she had been briefed.

"You look confused, miss Tyrantess," he said, still smiling.  "Allow me to help you understand your current situation.  You are currently in the possession of the freelance group called "The Catchers".  We're mostly a group of treasure hunters, living on the outskirts of what you would call your civilized world, taking things, 'catch as catch can', as one might say."

He paused for a moment to let that sink in before continuing, smirking a bit at his own witty statement.

"Rarely do we ever deem it necessary to make any sort of intentional contact with those who live the city.  However, something has come up after we made our recent acquisition."  He motioned to the metallic figure standing to his left.

"In a sense, Metal here has "told" us of a great treasure," the fox stated.  "A treasure that was once used to wield a great deal power.  It was long ago, before this place became a wasteland, and before you were even thinking about becoming ruler.  We feel that it's a treasure that you ought to be familiar with.  That's why we've brought you here. We wanted to ask you..."

His voice trailed off for a moment as he paused again, this time for dramatic effect.  Then, suddenly, he reached forward and grabbed the Ferret by the scruff of her neck, saying, "Where are the Chaos Emeralds!? You KNOW where they are, don't you!?"

"No!  I don't, I swear!  This is all a big misunderstanding!"  She shouted back.

He released her, roughly throwing her to the ground as he did, turned away from her, and laughed.

"Don't be so foolish, your highness!" He said, still chuckling a bit.  "We're not the ordinary dimwits that you're so used to dealing with here.  You certainly won't escape from us by playing dumb.  That'd be too easy!  You know something, and we're going to get it from you, whether you want to tell us or not."

He turned back to face the ferret, however, when he did, the ferret was gone.  All that was there was a young looking rabbit, shaking in fear.

"...What the hell happened?" the red fox asked, turning to his comrades. But before they could answer, the rabbit spoke up.

"I-I'm the decoy!" She yelled in fright.  "I was supposed to be the bait for the trap we set up for the Rebels!  I don't know anything, honest!"

"Well this figures," he said to himself, shaking his head in disgust and throwing his hands up in the air.  "I just knew it was too good to be true.  Phaze was right after all."

Though he wanted to blame someone for this mistake, he knew better.  Something that could fool even the Rebels wasn't to be taken lightly.  He wondered for a moment just what the exactly the trap was.

"Well, we're far, far away from the city, little one," he told the little rabbit.  "I'm not a completely heartless dastard, so from here, I'll at least give you two choices.  Either you can stay out here and die, or you can try to tag along with us.  It's your choice, and I imagine it's an obvious one.  Either way, we're heading back to our hideout, whether you come with us or not."

"B-but you don't understand, mister!"  The rabbit shouted.  "The necklace is a bomb!"  She pointed to the jeweled item wrapped somewhat tightly around her neck.

"A wha...?" the red fox went to question before he noticed a soft ticking noise.  That girl wasn't kidding.

"Aw, jeez.  Everyone, take a step back."  He ordered, surprisingly calm considering the situation.  "Hal, could you take care of this for me please?"

Halbert Foster, mostly known to his friends as Hal, was a friendly bucktooth beaver with slightly dark tan fur, medium length brown hair, brown eyes, and a ratty pair of cargo shorts and t-shirt.  He was the resident technician of the group and the engineer behind everything the group had done in the past.  If there was anyone who could figure out how to get rid of this particular problem, it was him.

"Hold still," The beaver said, calmly kneeling down beside the shaking rabbit.  She flinched at the words.

"Mister, if you take it off, it'll---"

"C'mon, you don't think I realize that?"  Hal responded quickly, cutting her off.  "Sheesh, it's not like I've never had experience with this kind of thing before.  Cut me a break."

Examining the necklace, it was clear that that this was no simple explosive.  It had both the properties of a proximity mine and a remote bomb, set to explode with violent movement, removal, or a by a remote.  It was a miracle that Metal hadn't caused it to explode while he was carrying her.

In the city, a certain Ferret waited by a computer console in the government HQ, wanting to know what happened before she blew up her shapeshifter and whoever took her.  Unbeknownst to even Hal, there was an audio device attached to the necklace as well.

While this disarmament might be tricky for the average technician, it was certainly no problem for the skillful little beaver.  After some quick snaps of several wires, the deactivation of the remote sensor, and the blocking of any outgoing signals, the bomb completely was neutralized.

In that same room, the same particular Ferret swore as she lost her audio feed.

As Hal attempted to remove the necklace, the rabbit held it down.  She obviously did not trust Hal's ability, and rightfully so at the moment.  He removed his hands, but still knelt down next to the rabbit, rubbed her back as he gave her his most convincing looking face of concern.

"Please, you've got to trust me," Hal said.  "I promise, I've dealt with this before.  She won't be bothering you anymore.  On my honour."  He then smiled at her as he put his right hand over his heart, trying his best to comfort her.  Her continually shaking body was becoming a bit disconcerting.

"C'mon, Hal, just leave her if she doesn't trust us," The gray wolf with them said, motioning to go back to the hideout.  "Just forget about her."

Hal, however, remained behind as his fellow group members continued to motion for him to start walking.  Leaving this little girl to die was definitely something that would weigh heavily on his conscience, unlike the rest of his teammates, it seemed.

Knowing that death would await her if she didn't try, the rabbit slowly, carefully removed her hands from the necklace, scrunching her eyes as Hal placed his hands on the necklace.  As Hal began to remove it, she waited to be blown to smithereens.  And yet nothing happened.

"See? I told ya so," Hal stated, giving her another big grin.  No chance that anyone's mechanical prowess could outmatch his.

"Alright, now let's go," the red fox said.  "Sheesh, I just wanna get the hell back already.  I hate dwelling on failures like this."

Kaleb Auran, as was his name, went over to the satchel he had placed on the ground several moments before Metal Sonic's arrival.  The red fox was dressed in old fashioned cowboy-type attire, wearing an old fashioned cowboy hat over dirty blonde hair, and a rusty looking duster over soft, dark brown leather pants, a light colored long sleeve button-down shirt, and a light brown leather vest.  After adjusting the black cloth wrapped around his neck and picking up his satchel, he turned to the group and addressed them as a whole.

"Alright, guys.  Let's head out."

The group headed off, with the rabbit hiding behind Hal, squeezing his arm tightly.



Meanwhile, not too long after they began the chase, the Rebel group had tapped into the Imperial communication lines and learned the same thing that most every Imperial agent already knew.  At least every agent except for Digs, who was only just receiving the message.

"Target was a decoy.  Return to base."

The purple echidna had already gotten a fair distance, but he immediately stopped in his tracks, turned around, and slowly began returning to headquarters, muttering and swearing to himself as he did.  The main thought that crossed his mind now was one of worry.  "Does she not even trust me anymore?" he wondered.



Diamond, who had been in the restroom for the majority of the raid, emerged from the restroom once again, only to find the place trashed and empty.

"What the..." she stated, as she looked around in horror at the destruction.

She began picking her way through the rubble, a very difficult task while in high heels, even if one was used to that kind of shoe.  Eventually, she tripped, stumbled, and fell face first on top of something soft, much softer than the ground.  Looking down, she found herself on a dead resistance member.  She screamed and backed off, not noticing the ear piece and tracking device she had hooked on her tail.

To Rio, it would seem as if agent Johnson had started moving again. Or rather, he was still moving, since due to the drama of the capture, she hadn't been paying attention to the ballroom hall at all.

"Just what is he doing?"  Rio asked herself.  "Looks like I'm gonna have to go get him."

"Rio, wait," Aust stated, holding her back.  "We just had a really rough time.  At least wait until he gets a chance to come back.  If he doesn't return, you can go after him."

"Roger that, sir," She stated, sitting back in her seat.