Fan Fiction / Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ The Marines Journey - The SHODAN crisis ❯ Chapter 8: Visions, An apparent lack of fighting and the origin of Dark Piccard, as told by the Doct ( Chapter 9 )

The Marine's Journey

Chap. 8 - Visions, An apparent lack of fighting and the origin of Dark Piccard, as told by the Doctor.

By: Piccard

I appear to have some trouble logging on to fanfiction.net at the moment, so updates may waiver slightly in the future. I also managed to retain the `No Glancing' award, and I have the privilege to have been dubbed `Strange' by my newest reviewer, The Mouse of Anon. I feel honoured! This writing lark is getting better and better! (And no, I wasn't on anything when I got the idea for this fic, But I'm sure you'll agree, I must have been on something when I typed this chapter!)

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Disclaimer: Chap 1 again; I'm too tired to think of a witty remark this chapter. All I own are Piccard Arrowsmith, Anaetheron the Hell Knight and a 56k modem. (Perhaps that's why I'm having trouble?)

To arms! To the Fic!

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Piccard, on the other hand, was in bad shape; he was lying on the floor practically unconscious, covered in blood, and with his armour completely destroyed. They noticed several bullet wounds in him as he opened his eyes. "Doctor…" The Doctor came running and kneeled by him. "I know I won't die, but it's too dangerous to move me, I'll have to be treated here, Just, get me onto a clean surface." He looked upwards, "I want to thank you all for helping me before." Geoffrey and Antoine spoke up "Don' worry mate, you'll be alright in a bit." "Ah am sure you will survive monsieur." Piccard smiled. "Thanks for your support guys." Piccard winced a bit as Anaetheron picked him up and laid him out on a table. "Piccard?" He turned his head to the right to see Amy. "Erm," It was obvious that something was on her mind, but she couldn't say it. "How long might it take?" "Normally one week with these injuries, but I will use magic to help the Doctor, so I should be alright in about an hour or three."

And those were his last words before he slipped into unconsciousness, only pausing to mutter, "I'll get you, Dark Piccard, you see if I don't!"

Meanwhile, Dark Piccard was back in his chair, repairing his armour and putting his chaingun to rest. "Nice fight Dark." He turned to see the figure from the chair with a few papers in his hand. "Thanks, I really." "Your orders clearly stated that you were to immobilise Piccard by relieving him of his weapons in secret, not take him on in a head to head fight!" Dark Piccard spun round, brandishing his staff. "You'd better not tell the boss!" "I don't have to, she's the one who told me!" The figure held up the papers for Dark Piccard to see, "These papers warrant your arrest and trail for acting on initiative rather than orders! But as your friend, I will not turn you in, at least not yet for I know the reason why you did it! I managed to buy you some time, as soon as you've repaired your armour; I recommend you get as far away from here as you can ASAP!" Dark Piccard felt worried about this turn of events, and wondered how he would cope. "Go to your quarters and do your armour, if you're seen here. Well, I dread to think."

The Doctor was standing over Piccard's body with a laser scalpel in one hand and a tri-corder in the other. He had already cut Piccard open, and was scanning the injuries. "Hmm, major organ damage, skeletal fractures, aortic rupture." The list just kept on and on. "How about telling us what's not damaged Doc?" Shadow shouted. The Doctor glared at him and folded his tri-corder, "Okay, His brains not damaged, neither are his heart, his nervous system, his spinal cord or his genitals." This got a slight laugh. The Doctor just sighed and picked up a hypo-spray. "This should help control the bleeding." He thought as he injected it. He could see the magic beginning to work on Piccard's legs and arms at this point. "I hope this works Piccard, we all do."

Piccard meanwhile, was in another place. The walls are all white, as is the floor and the ceiling. "What is this place?" He shouted to no one in particular. He was shocked to hear a voice answer him. "Sorry it's so white Piccard, it's the only way we could get in contact with you." He spun round to see who was talking, and nearly had a heart attack when he saw, "Tom?" The figure in red smiled, "Yup, that's me. Looks like your memory wasn't damaged when that panel hit you!" "Is this heaven?" Before Tom could answer, a third voice spoke up, "Of course not you silly bugger! You're alive still, just, not here." Said a figure in white armour, he carried a sword and a shield, each with a dragon emblem on them. "Jon!" "Yup, that's me. Looks like your." He was stopped by a look from Tom that said, "I've already done that one!" Piccard merely turned to them both, "What is this place?" John turned to him, "When the station exploded and all of our spirits were transferred to this realm, both of ours were stopped, we asked why, but we can't remember anything after that, except waking up here and being able to watch you." "Watch me? How?" They gestured to a screen behind him, he turned to see that it had his unconscious body on it, with the Doctor over it and various gold forms wavering over various injuries. "You should be alright within an hour if your Dark Side doesn't attack again." Piccard clenched his fists and teeth at the mention of his Dark side. "The next time we meet, I am personally going to make sure his head leaves down a different portal to the rest of his body!" They all laughed at this and continued to talk.

Meanwhile as the boys were running from shop to shop to fetch the Doctor some `basic' (As he called them! Doctor - Hey!) medical supplies. The girls were generally helping out at what was now dubbed the `medical centre' namely doing things like keeping the press away. Rogue noticed that Amy was looking more and more upset as time passed, and decided to see what the problem was. "Hey Amy, worried about Piccard?" "This is all going to fast, one minute you're talking with him, the next he's undergoing a medical procedure that he might not survive." Rogue turned to get her a tissue. "Calm down Amy, he said he'd be alright." She handed Amy the tissue, which was used and promptly thrown in the bin that she was conveniently sat next to. "What if he isn't going to be alright though?" Rogue turned for another tissue. "Honestly, he's going to be alright. With all this fuss, people would think you fell for him!" This got her, and Rogue noticed that Amy was now a shade of red. "You didn't really?" "Alright I did." Rogue raised her eyelids, "You've only known him a couple of days." "I know, there's just something about him, and after all he's been through." Rogue looked her in the eye, "What do you mean?" Amy told Rogue about the pictures she saw in the album after the point where the Doctor left off and Rogue's face appeared shocked "Are those true?" "Sadly yes!" They kept talking about various things for 10 minutes before Amy finally said "Don't tell anyone, I want to tell him myself when the time's right."

The boys had returned with all the supplies that they could find, or carry in Anaetheron's case. "Eez he any bettair Docteur?" "His legs and arms have healed nicely and his body itself should heal in around half an hour. I recommend you all find something to get on with in the meantime." Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Shadow went over to where the girls were sat, and Geoffery put his hand on Piccard's forehead "You're gonna be alright mate!" Anaetheron turned to him, "What's with all this `Mate' stuff?" "Just a greeting among friends." They walked over to where everyone else was, and the Doctor turned to Julian, "I overheard them call you `Dr. Robotnik' when you were dealing with the force field. Are you a real doctor, or is it only a title?"

Julian looked at the Doc "I'm more of a technician than a doctor, but I do have a limited medical knowledge" "Great, then can you deal with bandages for me? I can't pick them up."

Piccard's spirit meanwhile had just finished catching up with his friends in the white room and had started asking them a few questions. "Next, will I be able to resurrect you both anytime soon?" They seemed to sadden when the heard this. "Not at first, but haven't you used your summoning techniques lately?" "Not especially." Tom and Jon groaned at hearing this. "Well the next time you meet your dark side, put them to use." Piccard agreed to this and leaned against a wall. Tom appeared to be looking into the middle of nowhere, he then looked back to Piccard, "We only have around 5 minutes left, so we each have some advice for you." "Oh?" this got Piccard's attention again. Jon spoke up first "My advice concerns your ability to use dilithium to power your magic, you already know of it's dangers, and what you need is a stable source of dilithium, and there are 15 of these on Mobius, some more concentrated then others, where they are is unknown. My advice is get out there and find one pronto!" "Yes sah, weapons - technician sah!" This got a few laughs from the three of them. Tom then spoke up "My advice concerns those that you are fighting, I did a bit of research after we got here and I found something rather disturbing. You aren't only fighting the legions of hell, you'll be fighting creatures that have only been conceived in nightmares, and those old times back when creatures really scared the unprepared traveller." "Figures!"

Suddenly Piccard felt lighter. "What's happening?" "You're waking up, remember that this was not a dream, and that our advice and appearance are not only very real, but may come in handy for the fights in the future. Remember also that we can also contact each other via your sub-consciousness." They both stood up as Piccard vanished. "Farewell Piccard." "Good luck, Marine Commander!"

The Doctor had just injected Piccard with a hypo-spray when he saw Piccard start to stir. "He's waking up!" The two doctors shouted, and everyone there ran over as fast as they could. Piccard opened his eyes and found himself looking up into the eyes of the Sonic team. He looked to his right and saw the Doctor packing his equipment and turning around. "You're alright now, the procedure went quicker than I thought." The Doctor said as Piccard tried to stand up, and realised he couldn't. "What's with all the bandages, doc?" "Well, I didn't apply them." "Well who did?" Julian stepped forward "I did, name's Julian Robotnik, but just call me Julian." Piccard tried to extend an arm, but found them both bandaged to the table. "I'm Piccard Arrowsmith, but you can just call me `The Cripple', okay?" Piccard sat up this time, learning from trying to stand. He looked at the others and smiled. "You stayed the whole time?" "Well we did go on errands for the doc." Sonic said, "And we also kept the press away." Sally added.

Suddenly, a pair of hands wrapped round Piccard from behind `Wondered how long she'd take!' he thought as he could hear Amy's voice going ten to the dozen again. "Roughly translated then, you're extremely happy to see me back up then are you?" He asked her as he swung her around, noticing she was bright red, "Of course I am, you had us all worried." She gave him a peck on the cheek as she got off him, and it was his turn to go bright red. Piccard looked forward to see Sonic and Shadow making kissing noises and going `aww' for added effect. Amy noticed them too, and pulled her hammer out of nowhere and proceeded to chase them out of sight. "Amy's hammer will have a similar effect to the wine." Geoffery turned "What d'ya mean?" "Both'll leave Sonic extremely hammered!" He laughed at his own joke as everyone else groaned.

At this point, the tall figure was sitting in Dark Piccard's chair, receiving a mouthful off their boss over a computer connection. "Look, unlike you I want a fair fight. And to be honest, attacking an unconscious marine on the verge of death is not my idea of fair!" The female voice seemed garbled and warped over the transmitter. "You were the best Cyberdemon that existed after that terran marine stopped your invasion of Earth all that time ago. I will not tolerate ethnics here. In future, attack when he's weak, or I'll decorate my domain with your cybernetic carcass!" The connection went dead after this and the Cyberdemon could easily be heard sighing. `Boss, sometimes I wish that Arrowsmith would hurry up and kill you!' He thought to himself as he resumed watching Piccard.

Meanwhile several Sabreclaw were patrolling a corridor three floors down, they had heard of the warrant on Dark Piccard and were determined to bring him in. "Wonder where he is?" A figure sprang from the shadows behind them, holding a rocket launcher. "I'm right here!" He fired and all the Sabreclaw were blown to smithereens. `I bring them to this dimension and this is how they repay me?' He thought as he ran down the corridor. Turrets fired at him, but he easily dodged them all. After about 15 minutes of running, he came to the transporter room. Tapping in a destination on the console he jumped into the blue light. "I just hope I'm left alone." He thought as he vanished.

Back at the mall, Piccard was now standing thanks to Antoine cutting the bandages, and Amy had finished chasing Sonic and Shadow. Piccard clapped his hands and turned to the others. "So, where shall we go now?" Everyone groaned. "Perhaps it would be best if we went back to the mansion now?" Sonic suggested. Piccard smiled, grabbed his staff and waved it "Teleport!" He muttered as they were engulfed by the familiar blue light.

When they re-materialised, they were in the mansions front room, but Piccard and the Doctor was not with them. "Where are they?" Knuckles sighed. At that point the Doctor came through the door, "Piccard's asleep, I think he should steer clear of magic for tomorrow." Cream looked up at the clock "It's gone 9pm!" Amy turned to the Doctor. "Doctor, can you tell us who that person in black was, I would ask Piccard but he's out of it." The Doctor tried to get out of it, but after 5 minutes he submitted and told them all to sit down. "This was about nine months ago, and Piccard was fed up with being treated like a freak." He was interrupted by Geoffery, "Why was he called a freak?" "That's something that he is going to have to tell you, but we won't be to pleased about it! Anyway, he got so fed up of this that his frustration was starting to show, swearing at the lower ranks, barging past people and fire bolting anyone that got in his way." "This eez the same Piccard zat eez upstairs?" "Correct, and it wasn't until after he nearly killed another crewmember that he realised that he was going to far."

"He booked the Medi-bay for the afternoon of May 3rd, and called Tom and Jon down to assist if anything went wrong." "Did anything go wrong?" "Oh yes, VERY wrong!, Piccard asked me to seal him behind a force field as a first defence, and Tom and Jon were issued phasers. Piccard drew his staff and jammed it into the ground, what was it he yelled, `Form Split' I think it was. For a minute, nothing happened, then it got a bit freaky." "How so?" "I don't like to say Tails, perhaps if I link my emitter to the T.V. I can show you."

The Doctor moved to the T.V., pulled the lead out of the back of it and plugged it into his emitter. "Play video file `0_3558ASA' The television flickered to life. Piccard could be seen behind a translucent orange barrier and two other figures standing outside with small gadgets pointed towards him, "The camera is my eyesight." The Doctor explained. The two nodded to Piccard, who nodded back, and then nodded to the camera, which moved up and down. Piccard plunged his staff and yelled "Form Split!" At first, nothing happened, then it started getting hairy. Piccard appeared to keel over in pain as an explosion occurred inside the force field. Gold and black light emminated from his body as he screamed. Jon ran to the force field controls, and a hand shot forward from the camera. "Lemme go Doc, he needs help!" "Jon, he told us not to intervene." A powerful explosion was heard and the area behind the field was filled with smoke, Tom could be seen pointing his phaser at the force field. "Lower it!" Jon turned back to the panel and started pressing buttons. The force field came down and two figures could be seen, one lying on the floor, and one standing above him. The camera moved forward, and the Doctor's voice could be heard, "Are you alright?" The figure turned, and it's red eyes glared at the Doctor, before turning and running. "Shoot him!" Orange beams crossed the room as the figure expertly dodged them and ran out of the door. They heard coughing from behind them, and saw the real Piccard rising from the floor. "The Bastard! He was only supposed to house my anger, but he got some spells and my agility copied!" Just then doors could be heard opening. "What are you doing here freak?" The camera turned to see a fat man walk in. "Governor sir, we were." "Save it hologram, Computer, deactivate EMH!"

The T.V. went black and the onlookers were shocked. "What happened after that?" "I have no idea, he won't tell me." The clock now read 11:30. "I'm gonna call it a night." "Hang on, where are we gonna sleep?" Tails turned to face the skunk, "I'll see what I can do." Everyone said their respective goodbyes as Robotnik left the mansion and the Knothole crew settled in the front room.

Meanwhile, Piccard's spirit was with Jon and Tom in the white room again. "Let me get this straight, you guys can see me at any time with this screen?" "Mm-hmm!" "Who else can you watch?" Jon and Tom both grinned and pressed a button. Knuckles and Rogue can be seen, and all three males turn a shade of red. "You can't watch this now!" They both looked at Piccard, "Why not?" "Because I, erm, the author wants to keep this PG-13 at the moment, but, can you record this?" "Gladly!" They hit a button. "Anyone else? "You bet." Their screen turned to the Kitchen, where Antoine was helping himself to the fridge. "Looks like Napoleon needs a snack." They sniggered at this, and flicked back to the main screen. "Let's see you at the moment!" Jon said as he pressed a button. Piccard's sleeping form appeared on the screen. "Ahh, you look so cute." "Shut up, Andrews!" The door started to open after this was said. "It's Amy." Tom said, as he was the only one really watching the screen.

The other two started watching as she sat on her bed, facing Piccard. "You should have told us about him at the start, we might have been better prepared." They heard her say. "I have my reasons." "Well, yes." They stopped when she continued, "You've been through so much pain and sorrow, it's a miracle how you cope." "I've often wondered how myself." Jon turned, "You had us to help out" "Of course." Tom waved his hand to shut them up as they noticed her walk into the bathroom.

She came out a minute later in her nightclothes. "You have us by your side now, and I couldn't bear it if anything terrible happened to you again, earlier you had me in a panic! Just be more careful in future, for me." She leaned down and kissed him on the cheek before climbing into her own bed. Jon and Tom both turned to see a bright red Piccard, and they both started laughing. "Oh come on guys!" He shouted.

And so everyone was asleep now, Piccard was being teased all night by his spirit friends and Dark Piccard was stalking around looking for a place to stay, not only to be able to battle Piccard, but also to dodge the hellspawn out for his arrest. He had many different plans formed in his head, many of them he considered, and then he came up with one that caused him to stop and laugh. "How can I even consider that?" He walked down the street muttering, "I'm pretty sure that teaming with my Light side is the last thing either of us wants!" as he disappeared into the night.

Slightly longer than usual. Was it good, bad, worse than a Jeffrey Archer novel? Please review.

Piccard, signing off!