Fan Fiction / Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ The Marines Journey - The SHODAN crisis ❯ Chapter 3: A Night out for a recluse? ( Chapter 4 )

The Marine's Journey

Chap. 3 - A Night out for a recluse?

By: Piccard

Once again I am wasting several minutes of your lives to bring you chapter 3 of my fascinating story (I'm full of myself today!) What else can I say, lets get the annoying part out of the way. I have put the rating up for the fighting scene later on.

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Disclaimer: If you really want to see this, then go to chapter 1. Incidentally, the `legions of hell' come from two games that I'm going to keep anonymous at the moment, but if I tell you that they are both property of `ID Software'. If you want to guess what they are, tell me in a review. (But I think it will be pretty damn obvious) All I own are Piccard Arrowsmith and a shopping trolley I found at the bottom of a canal.

You're all dying of boredom? Lets get moving!

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"Soon, Piccard, we shall meet again. I have been training for this day, and I assure you that this time, you shall die!"

He turned and drew a black staff "Dark Portal!" He shouted. The vortex reappeared and he walked through, while saying "Soon, Piccard, we shall meet, and it will be the true battle of Light against Dark!"

As the portal closed, he hissed the word 'SOON…'

A couple of streets away, our group were talking about this, that and the other when Piccard stopped mid-step, brandished his sword and spun round, looking everywhere with determination in his eyes.

The Doctor noticed this and put a hand on Piccard's shoulder. "You feeling alright?" he asked.

"Fine, I just thought I sensed something, something familiar…" Piccard explained, sheathing his sword and apologising to an old lady, who he had nearly slashed into two pieces.

"Perhaps I can synthesise something later?" The doc enquired, only to be answered with an "Alright."

"Hey." A certain hedgehog shouted from ahead, "Are you two coming or what?" he asked impatiently, whilst tapping his foot for emphasis on the fact that he was starting to get bored.

The group prepared to move on, when they heard footsteps coming up behind them, they turned to see a tired Antoine catching his breath. "Well, well if it isn't Napoleon himself." Piccard mused, getting a slight snigger from the Doc, Sonic gave him the confused look, "Who's Napoleon?" "A French general from our world." Came the subtle response.

"Ah can't go on. Carry me monsieur." Antoine jokingly whined.

"Fair enough!"

Piccard and Knuckles each grabbed a hold of Antoine's arms and Legs respectively, and lifted him clean off the floor. The sound of a foot tapping bought them to their senses, and they continued down the road.

5 minutes later, it appeared that they were at their destination. Piccard and the Doc appeared sceptical. "A Dance hall, this is your idea of a `club'?" Tails turned with a puzzled expression on his face and lightly responded "Yes, why, did you think we meant a night club?" Piccard and the Doc once again exchanged glances (his seems to be a regular thing for them in this story) and walked in with the group.

The place was huge, and was filled with what appeared to be anthropomorphic creatures dancing to music that neither Piccard nor the Doc were familiar with. There did not appear to be many humans present, there were some couples, but not that many.

"There they are." Sonic shouted over the music, and pointing to a nearby table, which the six promptly made their way to.

When they get there and sat down, Piccard set his backpack at his side, and noticed they were sitting with a ground squirrel, a walrus, a bat, two rabbit's, another hedgehog (only this one was black) and the pink hedgehog from earlier.

"People" Sonic, began. "This is Piccard." He motioned towards the one in green armour, who lightly waved at everyone. "And this is… erm… he doesn't have a name, but he tells me that he's called `The Doctor'." He gestured towards the man in blue and black, who was giving his brightest smile and trying to make his bald head look as attractive as possible.

Piccard noticed this, and whispered, "Don't tell me Doc, I don't think I want to know what you're trying to do."

The doctor only glared back, Sonic chose this moment to intervene by clearing his throat. "Anyway, lets introduce you to everyone else." He moved around the table, Piccard guessing he was going to introduce them all one at a time. Firstly, he went to the ground squirrel. "This is Princess Sally Acorn, she helped me defeat Robotnik." Sally glared at him "Helped YOU?" she questioned; Sonic smiled "Glad you admit it." He came out with. The doc leaned to Piccard. "Lovers tiffs." He whispered.

Sonic dodged a slap and moved round to the black hedgehog. "This is Shadow." He said, putting his right hand on Shadow's shoulder. "Or as I like to call him, the faker." Shadow turned and stood, face to face with Sonic, he spoke with a menacing tone "If anyone's the faker, its you, faker." Piccard raised his eyebrows, and the doc decided to interrupt. "Can we carry on please, before everyone here finds an excuse to beat you into a pulp Sonic. Because I don't know enough about you to treat your injuries."

"Yeah, yeah, sure." Sonic moved round to the walrus. "This is Rotor, he is an expert mechanic, and can repair and maintain just about anything" Rotor just gave an embarrassed smile, and met with the gaze of Piccard. "Is that true?" Piccard enquired, "To an extent yes." Rotor trailed off, "The perhaps you can take a look at my helmet" He said, taking what remained of his helmet out of his pack. "It got damaged when a loose panel flew into it, and it got damaged further when a certain someone slammed me into the floor." He glanced at the pink hedgehog, who sweatdropped.

Sonic next walked over to the bat, and was careful of where he chose to stand. "This is Rogue, make sure that you talk to her face, or you might find yourself in a daze." Rogue smiled at the two, causing Piccard to blush slightly, and the Doctor to stare. "The new ones never listen, do they Sonic?" Knuckles asked, as he noticed where the Doctor was staring. Unfortunately, Rogue noticed too, and aimed a slap at the Doctors face, but her hand went straight through him. The Doctor chose this moment to snap back to reality, and noticing Rogue's expression, raised his eyebrows and stated "Before you ask, I am a hologram, and it is nearly impossible for me to be hurt." Piccard turned to him astonished "You've been hurt before?" he asked. The Doctor simply shrugged "Yes, my pride has been wounded on occasion." He admitted.

Sonic walked up to behind the pink hedgehog "This is Amy, but you've already met her, haven't you" Amy giggled. "We -ahem- bumped into each other, didn't we?" Piccard merely grinned at her. "Literally" she added

"Lets get this over with, we've been introducing for over 10 minutes!" Sonic came out with. Standing between the two rabbits he gestured to the one on his right, Piccard noted that her left arm was robotic. "This is Bunnie, her robotic strength came in handy." She waved with her non-robotic hand.

"And this is Cream, she's very polite." Sonic gestured to the other rabbit.

"Pleased to meet you" she said and bowed slightly. "Right, now that's over lets get on with the evening" Tails announced.

Piccard merely raised his eyebrows and turned to the reader "If you're still reading, I pity you." However, to everyone else, he appeared to be muttering to a wall. "Piccard, must you always mumble?" Knuckles questioned. Piccard turned back to the table looking slightly embarrassed. "Only when I'm confiding in myself, Knuckles"

Knuckles glanced at Sonic (I might make this a contest) "Shall I get the drinks then?" Knuckles asked, only to be interrupted by Piccard "Er, allow me." Piccard said, then smiled lightly "Okay, people, this is going to sound kind of weird, but I want you to all close your eyes and think about what you want." They all gave him weird looks, but he countered with a look that said `trust me'.

Everyone except the Doctor closed their eyes and pictured what they all wanted (To make this easier on me and due to the fact that I'm to lazy, they all pictured a coke, boring or what?) The doctor watched Piccards movements, his hands started glowing a light gold again, only this time his eyes started glowing a deep blue as well. As the gold and blue became brighter, several forms started materialising on the table. There was a flash, (but not as bright as the one when Piccard healed himself) and Piccard's eyes and hands returned to normal. "Okay open your eyes." Piccard said

They were shocked at what they saw, one minute the table was empty, then in 10 seconds, each of them had a drink. They all asked how he did it. He explained in just one word "magic."

It took a while, but Piccard managed to explain the concept of his magical abilities, and how it sometimes was more of a bane than a benefit. Some looked amazed, those who already knew gave no difference of expression,

And the rest looked like they didn't really care. "So how many techniques do you have?" Rotor asked "A lot, I lost count at around 850, and the fact that I can combine my magic only makes it more difficult." Piccard replied.

Sonic raised an eyebrow "What do you mean `more difficult'?" Piccard's face suddenly fell. "When casting a spell, I have to channel the right kind of energy, or the spell can easily backfire and hurt me instead. That's why I need to take longer if I use a more powerful technique." Piccard then looked to the Doctor "Every time he came to me, I knew it was magic that was the cause of his injury, so I could use this" He said, holding up a hypo-spray "To treat him, and help him restore his power level. It took me ages to get the dosage right. Anywhere else would have got me an award, but on that station, it was just another day in the life of an under appreciated E.M.H."

"What do you mean `under appreciated'?" Rogue asked, the Doc was about to answer when Piccard intervened.

"Doctor, have you ever wondered what your holo-matrix looks like?" Piccard enquired while grinning evilly. "Occasionally, why?" A Holo-dagger met with the doctors neck. "Then I'll be perfectly happy to satisfy your curiosity, unless you save that talk for later." The doctor turned white, just managing to say "okay."

At that moment, a slowish song came on, "Oh, my favourite. Excuse us." Sally grabbed an unwilling Sonic and pulled him off to the dance floor, partially because she fancied him, and partially because she didn't want Amy getting her hands on him. Sally was unaware that said hedgehog was glaring at her from behind. "May I have this dance?" Knuckles asked Rogue, as gentlemanly as he could "You get more gentlemanly than that you'll be wearing a top hat and using a cane." Rogue responded as she got up, Knuckles simply grinned as he led her off. "Anyone wants me, I'll be confiding in myself." Shadow said as he got up and walked off. "We're gonna mingle with the crowd." Bunnie announced as she, Rotor, Antoine and Cream got up and left. This left Piccard, The Doctor, Tails and Amy.

`Well, if Sally claims Sonikku, then I'll get her with her own medicine.' Amy thought to herself, and she glanced round the table. There was Tails, she saw him as a friend, nothing more, nothing less. There was the Doctor; she liked the way the light reflected off his head. (What? - Doctor: Please state the nature of the medical emergency. Me: Amy's a flippin' basketcase.) But as he was a hologram it would be impossible for the slow dance, and embarrassing if he danced through anyone. Then, there was Piccard; there was something mysterious about him. Amy didn't know what it was, but she liked it.

"Piccard" She started, and was greeted by a grunt "Can you dance?" Piccard turned to her. "When it comes to dancing, I'm about as good as a hippopotamus in iron boots." Was his response. Before Piccard could react, she grabbed his arm and literally dragged him "Don't worry, I'll teach you." She said gleefully. Piccard looked to the doc for help, but all he got from him was two thumbs up, before he turned back to Tails to talk more about Holo-technology and emitters. Piccard was mortified, he couldn't dance if his life depended on it. Amy noticed his face, "Just follow my footsteps." She told him. Cautiously, he did. After fifteen minutes of this, it was apparent that he was getting it, so he decided to loosen up and enjoy it.

Watching from afar was a certain figure in black armour, smirking at Piccard "Well, well, seems like you can have fun after all. To bad I have to be the party pooper!" He turned to a small group standing behind him "It's time to make our presence known to the citizens of Station Square." He drew his staff "Dark Portal!" echoed as the vortex appeared. A white figure emerged "We know what to do." "Great, remember, Just terrorise, the only ones I want you to attack are Arrowsmith and The Doctor."

At the dance, everyone was starting to get into the slowness, even Sonic. Tails and the Doc were still talking, now about the Borg and their cybernetic systems. Bunnie and Antoine had started dancing, whilst receiving the odd glance from Rotor. Cream was still in the crowd somewhere and Knuckles and Rogue had just gone back to their seats. Amy's head was resting on Piccards chest armour as they danced, both with their eyes shut. Amy looked up at Piccard's face and whispered "Having fun?" He just looked down to her, making eye contact and somehow avoiding going red "More than I've ever had, thanks for getting me up here." She blushed (Obviously she wasn't as good as Piccard was.)

A shrill scream filled the air, Piccard look around worried "That sounded like Cream" Amy said. Piccard looked at her, "That nice rabbit?" "Yes." The crowd had withdrawn to the edges and were disgusted by what they saw. There were two brown creatures that looked slightly human, a pink thing that looked like a shaved gorilla, two red things flying in the air, something that appeared to be a skeletal knight wielding an axe, and they were being led by a white figure with horns on its head, which was also wearing trousers. All were terrorising the young rabbit. "Amy, go back to the table, this is gonna get ugly fast." Amy didn't have to be told twice, she ran back to the table.

Piccard turned back to the interlopers, "Hey, looking for something?" he questioned with dripping sarcasm. All seven turned and glared at Piccard. Cream saw this as her window of opportunity and escaped back to the table.

They made no sound, the tall white one pointed to the brown creatures and pointed towards Piccard, one advanced, whilst the other stayed back. "So, you wanna fight punk?" was heard as Piccard drew his sword. The creature tried to scratch Piccards face, but Piccard managed to jump over it, and delivered a hefty kick to the back of its head causing him to reel and collapse.

Piccard then bought his sword down into the creatures back, causing some of the crowd to wince. Piccard spun round and just managed to dodge a fireball from the other creature. He held his sword level, and closed his eyes. "Light, guide my path!" he said to himself, the sword glowed bright gold. Piccard then threw his sword with all his might, the sword managed to lodge himself into the creatures chest, resulting in blood splatters on the floor.

The white figure looked mivved. He pointed to the flying creatures, which then advanced on Piccard. Without a second thought, he knew he couldn't reach his sword, so he reached behind his back and pulled out something golden, the shotgun. It got a few `ooh's' and `ahh's', until Piccard shouted "Fire in the Hall!" He would have to be quick, these creatures were fast and he would have to aim while moving. "Try me you buggers." He shouted to them, trying to make them angry so they would make a mistake and falter. Ironically, they did, Piccard took aim and fired. He downed one, and the other realised what Piccard was trying to do and lunged, screeching like a banshee. Piccard dropped the gun and readied his fist. As the creature closed in, he bought his fist forward, and just before impact his eyes glowed red. "Flame fist!" His hand glowed red as it impacted, the creature screamed in pain as it slowly burnt to ashes.

The white figure looked seriously pissed. He pointed to both the pink thing and the knight. They both moved forward fast to try and catch Piccard off guard (Wahey a rhyme! - Doctor: Okay now, shut up!) Piccard reached for his staff and used it to vault over the pink thing, and to deliver a double foot drop kick to the knight, sending him reeling back into a wall and causing him to shatter, "Easier than I thought. The bastards seem weaker than last time." Piccard muttered. Concentrating on his staff, he began to glow a light shade of grey, concentrating all the energy into his fist. The pink thing gave him a questioning look, but didn't have time to react as Piccard shouted "Iron Fist!"

Bringing his fist down, and smashing the poor unfortunate into six pieces getting blood everywhere. Piccard looked angry "What have you done? I just had this armour cleaned, this will never come off!"

The white figure was now alone, looking seriously pissed off "That's it, prepare to die Piccard!" It lunged, and Piccard strafed, delivering a kick to the things gut, winding it. He slid across the floor and picked up his sword, looking back he saw a pair of red eyes bearing on him. "Hang on, they don't normally have red eyes." Then he noticed a small metal device on its left horn. "Perhaps if I can hit that." He bought his sword up to counter an attack, swung round and stabbed at the creatures back, not damaging it greatly, but dealing a substantial amount of pain. It bought a foot back but Piccard jumped high and angled his sword as he fell. A shatter was heard when he landed, and metal could be seen. The device had been shattered. The creature's eyes started to flicker from red to green. When the eyes stopped flickering, it looked around in confusion, and then noticing Piccard immediately started talking "I didn't mean to, we were ordered to, by a marine. He never told us his I.D. he just wanted us to neutralise you.

Piccard raised both eyebrows "Is your name `Anaetheron' by any chance?" The creature looked up from the floor "Yes it is, why?" "On the station, I overheard some demons talking about the hell knight called Anaetheron who hated to fight, and was fitted with a transmitter that overrode all higher brain functions and allowed the operator complete control." "I heard a lot about you, Piccard, during the war against Earth some time back, I wanted to be like you from the start, I heard about your disdain for fighting and I felt the same, but the higher circle found out and fitted me with this device. Now I have nowhere to go, if I go back, I will be killed, let me stay with you, please?"

Piccard was overwhelmed with info here, A good demon? That idolised him? And wanted to stay with him? It amused him to see the demon on his knees pleading. Piccard turned, "Well, it's not up to me, what do you say Sonic?" He shouted over the crowd, "Just as long as he doesn't try killing anyone else, I don't see why not." The demon turned and ran towards Sonic, getting him in a bear hug and repeatedly saying "Thank you" over and over again. People watching just laughed, as did Piccard.

Just then, a pink blur smashed into Piccards front, hard, knocking him to the floor. "Ah, my arse!" was all he could say, as a pair of arms had wrapped around him and cut off his air supply. The pink blur started talking about as fast as Sonic runs, but Piccard could make out `…you were very brave…', `…That was incredible…', and `…Could you teach me?' Piccard wheezed, managing to utter "Need… oxygen… Let go…" Amy blushed and removed her arms, Piccard sat up and looked at her, grinning with an eyebrow raised "You need to warn me whenever you come running." Standing up, he noticed the bodies on the floor.

"Anaetheron, can you confirm my suspicions and tell me what each of these things are before I remove them?" Anaetheron moved up to Piccard, letting go of Sonic, who admitted to Knuckles that he preferred Amy grabbing him like that, as she wasn't as strong. Anaetheron pointed to the brown creatures "These are imps." He turned to the red things "These are gargoyles." He turned again "The pink thing is a Demon, and the pile of bones by the wall is an undead knight." The doctor looked up, "And what are you?" "I am perhaps the only Hell Knight that exists that does not like to fight."

Piccard chuckled and drew his staff "Cleanup." He said, and all the bodies and blood splatters were engulfed by a white light. Three seconds later, there was a blinding flash, and nothing remained. He returned to the table. "Sorry to spoil it, but we need to end the night there. I have a suspicion that, no, I know that this is not the last time we will see these creatures, or other types."

As they proceeded to leave, several creatures asked Piccard for his autograph. Amazed that people would want HIS autograph, he was a bright red when he signed his name out for all the young ones. Antoine started to seethe when Piccard returned to the group, but quickly calmed when Bunnie held his hand, earning them an `unknown to them' glare from Rotor. The Doctor noticed the look on Piccards face "Why the long face, Piccard?" "I get the feeling that there was an ulterior motive behind the attack, they had the opportunity to kill a good few people there before we noticed them, but they didn't." Anaetheron turned, "We weren't ordered to, we were only told to attack `Arrowsmith and The Doctor.'" At hearing this Piccard stopped, "There were only a few people who called me by my last name. Hmm, this just keeps getting weirder and weirder." They could hear a familiar foot tapping, "Ah, his lordship awaits." Piccard muttered as he walked off.

They noticed the Doctor was also looking a bit down. Tails noticed this and asked him what was wrong. "I was expecting Karaoke, but no, I didn't get the chance to sing." Tails noticed that Piccard sweatdropped. "I'll see what we can arrange when we get back."

As they walked off, they were being watched by the familiar figure in black. "He knows that we know where he is, and I know how he's going to act." He turned to another figure, which was very tall, sitting in a chair, who was shaded from view. " I knew that Anaetheron would escape us, it was just a question of time." The figure spoke up, polishing his right arm, which looked more like a cannon.

Our group were oblivious to all this, and walked down the road. Piccard stopped and looked back "Ever had the feeling that you're being watched?" He said to no-one in particular.

"We can discuss everything when we get back." Sonic shouted, annoyed at another delay. Piccard only shook his head, as the smallish group carried on down the road.

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Well, I think I've wasted more time. How was it, Good, Bad, as likable as Tony Blair? Please review with your thoughts.

Piccard, ending this thing!