Zonerunner 5: Twilight Cage 1 of 3

ZONERUNNER V: TWILIGHT CAGE
PART 1 OF 3

Having freed Fiona from the influence of her vengeful counterpart, and acquired Moebius' key, the heroes now find themselves tumbling through a portal.

Sonic: Okay, we need to work on our landings whenever we land in new worlds and...whoa!

Sonic looked around to see  this world is not a planet of solid ground but several floating islands in a void.

Sally; This world is different.

Sonic: This is the Twilight Cage? What a mess, no wonder the Legion wanted to get out.

Fiona: How are we even supposed to get around this place?

Sonic: Let's look ahead and see if we can find something of use. I'll scout ahead to see if anyone hasn't left a ship for us to navigate or wants to give us a lift.

Nicole: Be careful...My readings are off the charts in this world, I can't tell what may be out there waiting for us.

Sonic: Don't worry, I'll be fine.

Sonic rushed ahead over the rocky landscape he has been stranded, looking out for anything  at all. He looked down a cliff and saw several echidnas in black uniforms, forcing several chained rock creatures to perform slave labour, and they were being whipped with electric whips.

Sonic: That certainly isn't good. Poor...whatever those rock things are. But hey...fancy ship at the edge of the island...Maybe we can use that. After we free those slaves.

Sonic rushed off to tell the news to his friends, unknowingly being watched by a figure wearing a black uniform with purple accents.

???: What have we got here?

The figure scrambles over the rocks, following Sonic.

Sally: So, what did you find, Sonic?

Sonic: Couple of jerks in black outfits who are treating some rock creatures as slaves. They had a a ship however, so we can both play hero and arrange transport. We need a plan.

Sally: Well, how well-equipped are the "Jerks"?

Sonic: I saw energy whips and energy blades, and full body suits, probably armor with perhaps some hidden gadgets. But that's all I could make out.

Fiona: Oh, that's not good.

Tails: Sonic and I can probably handle them with just our powers... Sally and Nicole have their own abilities... Fi, take this.

Tails hands Fiona the sword that Shippou gave him.

Fiona: So this is that mystic samurai sword you were talking about. Looks fancy.

Tails: It can cut through materials other weapons can't, it's useful in case we face something that can resist chaos attacks.

Nicole: We have to take them out quick and quietly. We can't risk the lives of the slaves here.

Sonic: Tails and me can handle speed, you girls can handle the stealth part. Now let's show those bullies the way out of the playground.

Fiona: Your jokes are still as corny as I remember them.

From a distance, the mysterous spy looked on.

???: They are going to fight the Nocturnus? Does that make them allies? Or just an enemy of an enemy. I better inform the rest about it.

The figure turns, and jumps away. Meanwhile, the heroes snuck around the digging site. One of the guys in black was sadistically teasing one of the rock creatures with a beverage.

Rock creature: Please...I'm so thirsty...

The guy in black took a ladle, scooped up a bit from the vat of beverage, holding it front of him, then spilling it all on the ground.

???: Whoops, tough luck, rockhead.

Rock creature: Why do you keep doing this to our people?

???: Why not? You are inferior beings. Us, the Nocturnus, we as superior beings have the right to rule over you.

A blue blur whizzed by, knocked the one who called himself the Nocturnus, off his feet, his head hitting the ground and knocking him out, as the same blue blur whizzed by, and the rock creature found his chains broken, and a beverage in his hand.

Nocturnus soldier: What the heck is going on there...Markus! You assaulted him, inferior being! You shall be punished.

Rock creature: i didn't do it, something rushed by and...

Nocturnus soldier: I see the drink in your hand, you assaulted him for it. You shall be made example of!

Sonic (whispering to himself): I am to make an example of making a fool out of him.

Sonic rushed by again, and whizzed around the soldier, tying him up in his own energy whip.

Nocturnus Soldier: How did you do that!?

Rock creature: I didn't...

Nocturnus soldier: This quarry is haunted. (spazzes in fear, loses balance and falls over) Inferior creature, please help me get up!

Rock creature (drole tone in his voice): I'm too inferior to figure out how to help you get up.

Nocturnus Soldier 2: What the heck is going on there?

Nocturnus Soldier 3: I'll check it out.

Sonic charges down again, knocking both of the soldiers over. Another soldier moves towards his unconsious henchman. Sonic readied himself for a quick knockout, but as he was close, the Nocturnus teleported away, and right behind Sonic, and hit him with one of his energy swords, barely scratching him. But oddly enough, the scratch still felt incredibly draining.

Sonic: Argh! Didn't see that coming.

Nocturnus soldier 4: Teleport belts and Leechblades, a Nocturnus' best friend, and you'll find this out the hard way.

Tails then swooped in and knocked the Nocturnus soldier down from behind.

Nocturnus soldier 4: Did that fox just fly? (faints)

Tails: You okay, Sonic?

Sonic: I'll live. Warning to everyone: they teleport and their weapons drain health. Be careful.

Tails: We better inform the girls about it. They may not be able to take these guys out if they manage to surprise them like they did with you.

Sonic: Be right back.

Sonic rushed off to check on the girls. That brings us to the other side of the quarry.

Little Rock creature: Father!

Rock creature: Please, not my son!

Nocturnus Foreman: You get him back once you have dug up your quota of the day.

Rock Creature: This part of the quarry is exhausted, believe me, us Kron know these parts, I can't get any more riches out of this.

Nocturnus Foreman: I don't believe you, and if you don't get digging now, I'll have your son grinded into building materials!

Fiona: Okay, I've heard enough!

Fiona rushed from behind her hiding space, then at the Foreman, who only had enough time to turn around before Fiona kicked him hard in his sensitive parts.

Fiona: I knew. No stones at all. No offense, rocky creatures.

Rock creature: None taken.

Kron child: Father! (runs to father Kron)

Kron father: Cassius! Thank you otherworldy furry girl.

Foreman (high pitched voice) Get her!

Several Nocturnus run towards Fiona, drawing their blades. Fiona drew her own blade, as Sally and Nicole rushed at her side.

Sally: You gave us away.

Fiona: I couldn't watch on...a child being ripped from his family...like I was. I just couldn't.

Nicole: Never mind that now, let's focus on staying alive.

Fiona draws her sword, and leaps at the nearest warrior. One struck its blade at her, but bounced of the durable sword of Shippou and Fiona delivered a horizontal slash, shattering the armor, leaving its host in its underwear.

Fiona: Echidnas?

Sally: Legion, you suppose?

Foreman: The Dark Legion? Those fools with their inferior tech? No, we are Nocturnus, we are the superior race, amongst echidnas and amongst all. Our tech makes the Legion's look like mere toys.

Nicole: You still are much like them: warmongers, conquerors, jerks who think they are big shots just because they have bigger arsenal just to compensate for the fact you are all a big bunch of bullies.

Fiona: Couldn't have said it better myself.

Foreman: We'll teach you little girls how to respect your elders!

The Foreman pulled out a huge Leech-Axe and rushed at the trio of girls, his soldiers in hot pursuit.

Sally: Careful, guys.

Several Nocturni advanced on Fiona, swiping their blades, but Fiona blocks it with her own sword, then swipes it to knock the blades out of the Nocturnus' hands and then did a sweep kick to knock them over. One of them got back up and rushed at her. Fiona did another sweep kick but the Nocturnus teleported, making Fiona miss and lose balance, only for the Nocturnus to reappear and kick her in the stomach and knock her back.

Fiona: Oof!

Nicole jumps in, and kicks the echidna in the head, knocking him off-balance. Two more jump in to pounce on her, but she morphed her arms into stun guns and fired at them, knocking them down. She then let two cables with plugs spout form her hair, and then uses them to shock some Nocturni, knocking them down and out.

Sally was surrounded by several Nocturni. She proceeded to draw her own sword, and cut two of them down. One of them teleports behind Sally, who slashes and saps her strenght. At the same time Sonic arrives.

Sonic: Sal, no!

Sonic wanted to rush to Sally to save her, but the Foreman blocked his path and lashed with his axe. Sally seemed at the mercy of the Nocturni, until out of nowhere, the stranger teleported in and knocked them down.

Sonic: What the...

Sally: Wait...aren't you one of them?

The stranger that had followed Sonic indeed wore something similar to the Nocturnus armor, only her accents were pink compared to the blue markings of the other Nocturnus.

Stranger: I'm not...not anymore. Listen, their belts allow them to teleport, and their leechblades only drain mana, life energy, your robotic friend should be immune.

Nicole: Good to know...

With that, now with their mysterious ally in tow, the heroes charged again. Sally and Fiona started swiping their blades to cut the belts off, preventing teleportation. Nicole would block incoming attacks from the Leechblades for the others, since she was the only one unaffected. This allowed Sonic to finish off the disabled Nocturnus with his superspeed.

Foreman: Not looking good...I better run.

The Foreman tried to run, but one of the Kron stuck out his foot, tripping him.

Kron (drole tone in his voice) Whoops.

The mysterious stranger cuffs the foreman, then hauls him to his feet.

???: And that's the end of you.

Foreman: You think you've won, traitor, well let me tell you something. (stranger shoves rock up his mouth, shutting him up).

???: Don't!

Tails (just flying in): I got held up, what did I miss?

Sonic: One of these Nocturni turned on his kind and helped us save these rock creatures.

Sally: We are grateful for you help, but who are you and why are you turning against the other Nocturnus?

???: For starters, I'm not turning. I already turned. Secondly...

The lights on the figure's mask fade, and it retracts, revealing the wearer's face.

???: I'm not a "He" either.

The turncoat Nocturnus revealed itself to be a female echidna. She has orange fur, a peach muzzle, and lilac eyes rimmed by a patch of much lighter (almost white) fur, each with a single, short eyelash which curves off to the side.

She has seven dreadlocks with a lighter zigzag pattern near the ends hanging from around her head, noticeably shorter than Knuckles', which may be caused by her headband, and a small, black nose and zigzag tail.

???: I am former Procurator Shade of the Nocturnus. Now, I am in service to the Brotherhood.

Sonic: The Brotherhood is alive?

Shade: You know them? I thought they were the secretive sort...

Nicole: We are good friends with thier offspring, Knuckles the echidna. Current guardian of Angel Island. Point is, an enemy experimented on them and tossed them in here...can you bring us to them? We would like to reunite them with their family.

Shade: I'll bring you to them. We'll also reunite the Kron slaves with the fugitive relatives the Brotherhood has given shelter.

Sonic: Nice!

Sally: Let's go, everyone.

Kron father: Thank you, non-Nocturnus dreadheaded one, for helping save our people.

Shade: Don't thank me...I'm no hero.

Shade had led the heroes ad the Kron to a secret underground passage. Several of the rocky Kron happily reunited with their families, as Shade led them to the inner chambers, where the old echidna Brohterhood waited for them.

Thunderhawk: Well if it isn't the princess of Knothole, the Chosen One and the Hero of Mobius. Can't say I can recall your robotic friend...

Nicole: My name is Nicole, I am Sally's assistant.

Sonic: Glad to see you are still alive...if a bit damaged.

Some scars were visible on the Brotherhood.

Saber: Courtesy of Finitevus, dissected us like frogs then tossed us aside once he had no more use for us. Luckily these friendy Kron found us and helped us to heal.

Sally: What is it with these Nocturnus people?

Spectre: They were old rivals of both Dimitri's line, and our own. Even more advanced than the legion, they saw themselves as conquerors, and to that end, they built legion upon legion of advanced battle android. Each had no power of its own, but copied the abilities of others. These were called Gizoids. Which is ancient echidna language for 'guardian', though they are more akin to footsoldiers.

Tails: How come they hadn't defeated the other tribes long ago? Come to think of it, how did they ended up in here?

Sojourner: The Argus event...each of the races in the cage were once part of another world, until something dragged them in. Something unnatural and unknown, it is only known as the Argus event because the word that went through the minds of those abducted in the cage was 'Argus'.

Sonic: So it is picking off random races for a collection, whatever 'it' is...I wonder why.

Sally; It seems they are stuck but hadn't given up their conquest, they have enslaved the Kron. Probably others too.

Nicole: When did Shade turn on her people? What part of the picture does she fit in?

Shade: I was once the right-hand woman of the Nocturnus' leader. He had told me that we were going to leave the Cage, and return, and everything we did was in aid of that, regardless of the consequences. I wanted to go home, so I went along for the moment. But I was hoping that after we were home, we would abandon our plans of conquest and instead just live in rest and peace. Our Lord Imperator Ix, had other plans.

Sonic: Didn't dissuade from the conquest, did he?

Shade: No. The Brotherhood came along. I was scouting the Kron territory. I was supposed to capture any outsider, but I wanted to know what happened during our absence...time in the twilight cage ran differently. Thousands of years have passed on Mobius. All the friends I had outside of the Nocturnus. All dead. Service in the brotherhood had cost me everything I held dear. So when the Brotherhood explained who they were...I didn't hesitate to join them.

Thunderhawk: Her knowledge of the Nocturnus has saved us many times. however, we are vastly outnumbered and we have little weapons. We have one trump card, but it is unoperational for the moment. Luckily we have a tech whiz, and a robot girl on our side now...

Tails: You want me and Nicole to help you finish a weapon?

Saber: We need you to repair a Gizoid.

Fiona: I mean no disrespect, sir, but isn't repairing one of their death machines a really bad idea?

Sojourner: Could the same not be said of your robot friend? If she got in the wrong hands? Yet she is turned out totally fine.

Nicole: I got Mobian brain patterns, I can tell right from wrong. Maybe we should give our Gizoid the same train of thought. Make him a person, not a tool.

Spectre: That's all well and good... but we doubt that the Gizoid will survive the war.

Tails: Then why even bother repairing him if you are sure of that?

Spectre: Because it's the prototype of the smartest, most powerful Gizoid drone that has ever been created. It could destroy Ix, the leader of the Nocturnus, once and for all. Ix, however, is powerful. The drone may need to employ a self-destruct to kill him.

Nicole: For a fellow machine like me, that sounds horrible. I've helped slay mindless drones like Swatbots and eggpawns. They were meant to be nothing but goons. But this...Gizoid is not a weak design, it's not cannonfodder, it has the potential to be something great.

Tails: If we can help, we might not need to sacrifice the Gizoid.

Fiona: If you are going to put brain patterns in it, whose are we going to give?

Nicole: Sonic's.

Sonic: Me? Why me? I admit I have one heck of an amazing personality but should a smarter person not be the donor?

Nicole: We need someone who thinks fast, and combined with a computer brain, it will have one heck of an overdrive. Not to mention, you are a survivor, it may help keep the Gizoid in one piece.

Sonic: I'm a donor because I'm too stubborn to die?

Tails: when you put it like that...kind of.

Nicole: Just take us to the Gizoid.

Thunderhawk: Fine. Follow us.

The Freedom Fighters follow the Guardians deeper in the caves, to an inner sanctum. In there, they saw what a Gizoid truely looked like. This model was yellow and orange, blue optics, a horn-like portrusion on his head on which it seemed to house a third 'eye' of sorts.

Specter: Here it is. It already is repaired, and it has a power source, an Emerald shard.

Sonic: Emerald...Emer...Emerl! That's what we shoudl call it!

Tails: All it needs is some programming. But how are we going to get Sonic's brain patterns into it. Did you pack a tool like that when constructing that body, Nicole?

Nicole: Actually, it should pick them up when Sonic charges it with Chaos energy. It'll be like using the energy to have his brainwaves be transmitted at the same frequency which allows...

Sonic: You kind of lost me.

Nicole: Just charge up his power core, I'll do the rest.

Sonic: Okay, open him up.

Nicole let out a cable from her hand, which attaches to the side of his head, which opens up his chest. Sonic touches the emerald shard and started concentrating, the shard and his body both glowing, as the optics of the Gizoid flickered. Nicole's eyes flashed, and the Gizoid's third eye opened, and a small beam shot from its head, and hit Sonic between the eyes, though it didn't seem to cause him any arm.

Nicole: That should be enough.

Nicole disconnected and Sonic let go. The chest and the third eye of the Gizoid closed up. The Gizoid's optics stopped flickering and lit up, indicating it had sprung to life. It looked around in the crowd of people before him.

Nicole: Hello there.

Emerl: Hello gorgeous!

Fiona: What.

The Gizoid started stretching itself.

Emerl: I've been inoperational for some time, and the first thing I see upon being activated is this cute femmebot, expect a bit of bluntness. It doesn't help with the kind of donor I had.

Tails: Er...Hi, I'm...

Emerl: I know kiddo. I got Sonic's memories. (starts pointing at people one by one) Tails Prower, Fiona Fox, Princess Sally Acorn, Shade and the Brotherhood. Last but certainly not least, the lovely Nicole.

Nicole: U-um...

Sally: Nicole, are you blushing?

Fiona: I didn't even know she had a 'blush' function.

Nicole: I...Don't be ridiculous, I'm not blushing. I'm just leaking something down in my cheek region.

Fiona: I dunno, you have Sally's brain patterns, Emerl has Sonic's, so maybe...

Nicole: Oh, look at the time, time to device a battle plan against the Nocturnus.

Emerl: She digs me.

Sonic: Say, they say Gizoids can copy abilities, can you show off a few moves?

Emerl: That's not how it works. You have to demonstrate it first.

Sonic: Okay, pay attention Junior!

Emerl's third optic opened as it looked how Sonic showed off superspeed, vibrating his molecules through a rock, use and axe kick to shatter one, a spin dash and a homing attack. Emerl's optic closed and Emerl started showing off the copies attacks.

Tails: Fascinating technology...how is someone even able to build something like that?

Emerl: Don't ask me. I just got activated.

Specter: This is a step in the right direction. But to make sure we'll be able to defeat Ix we may need to get our hands on some Chaos Emeralds.

Tails: That's going to be a problem, all Chaos emeralds on Mobius have been merged into seven.

Thunderhawk: Not the ones that were with the Nocturnus at the time they were dragged in the Twilight cage. These still exist seperately. Ix had them, but he has lent them to some allies he made, a telepathic race called the Voxai.

Sally: Didn't the Nocturnus consider others inferior.

Sojourner: They do, but that doesn't mean they can't exploit other races for nefarious purposes, an uneasy alliance if you will. Thing is if we can get those emeralds Ix is short a weapon and we have two forces to be reckoned with.

Fiona: What can they do?

Sojourner: They're hive-minded and the small ones aren't that bad, but their leaders the Overmind are insanely powerful, mind-reading, mind-control, altering perception, illusions, typical psychic stuff. I'm not sure if they can tap into the Chaos emeralds' power, but we don't want to find out.

Fiona: And just when I'd had enough of mind control...

Thunderhawk: Nicole and Emerl are machines, and we're sure the Overmind can only enter organic minds. For the rest, Shade has obtained something to help against the Overmind. Ix wanted some contingencies, just in case after all.

Shade pulled out some ear pieces.

Shade: Put these in your ears. It translates Overmind thoughts, as well as block their influence.

Fiona: Oh, that's perfect!

Sonic: Then why are we still here? Let's go get some emeralds!

At the Nocturnus citadel.

Nocturnus soldier: Lord Ix. I'm here to bring horrible news. The Kron slaves have been freed. It was former Precursor Shade, and she had allies.

A white-furred echidna sitting on a hovering throne, tents his fingers.

Lord Ix: I see...So they are finally making a move towards me. Tell our scientists to speed up the new prototype Gizoids' developments, and warn the Overmind, I have a feeling they may be the next target. Make sure no one gets those emeralds.

Nocturnus soldier: At once, my liege.

The soldier turns and leaves. Ix's eyes glowed a dark green as he started to mutter in a deeper, more hollow voice.

Ix: Soon...

At the other side of the Twilight Cage, another portal opens. Theta, patched up but still quite worn from his last battle scanned his surroundings.

Theta: This will be the perfect place to acquire a new body...and as a nice bonus, I can sense the next key. I'll kill two birds with one stone, and in the process, hopefully those meddling Prime Zoners. Nothing must go wrong this time.

TO BE CONTINUED