Roleplay:Beast Legends/Episode 1

Part 1
A small crowd was gathered in front of the television in the cafe, watching the news. On it, there was a report of a massive G.U.N battleship having being downed. It was heavily implied that it was no storm that did the damage, but something else; however, no one had any leads on what could've done this. If it were a living creature...what creature could be powerful enough to topple a G.U.N battleship all by itself...?

"There's obviously some monster living in the ocean," one of the cafe patrons mumbled, sipping his coffee. "I mean, c'mon, big wide space like that? Anything could be hiding in there."

Helicopters had been deployed to the site of the attack to look for and pick up any survivors, although hopes were slim that anyone aboard could've lived through such a disaster...

Among the crowd was Alban Ainekas, also known as White the Rabbit, a white-furred rabbit with black hair in the front and bak of his head. Wearing a green shirt and camo pants, White watched the TV, interested. While at first, he didn't want to come along, he was glad Tina had picked him up to join her mission. Something was definitely up.

"...you feel it too, huh?" said a black-haired, grey-furred bat wearing green glasses, a red-and-black shirt and pink pants, with a green jacket tied around her waist. Tina Dante the Bat, "leader" of Team Watts for a bit, was determined to find out what Keira had told her about... and she was getting an eerie feeling. "So much space.... what're the chances of nothing going on there?"

"I think you guys are just paranoid," said Sephtis Briona, a purple eagle wearing a red headband around his head. He wore a red and black-striped jacket and grey shorts. He walked to the duo, sipping on a vanilla milkshake. "Accidents happen all the time! It doesn't mean that there's something weird going on."

"Something weird is definitely going on," White said, scratching his chin. "But I'm trying to find out what."

"It had to be some kind of monster," Tina said. "Nothing else could've done that kind of damage."

Sephtis shrugged and kept watching the TV, enjoying his drink. The news kept going, but eventually, patrons started to leave and go about their own business. There wasn't any update on potential survivors of the wreck yet. A male kangaroo frowned as he kept watching the television, a worried expression on his face. He finally turned away with a sigh, and went to leave the cafe, arms crossed.

Two little cats were also in the cafe watching the news, staring up at the television with wide eyes.

"Did'ya hear that, Mic?? There might be a big monster in that ocean...!" the red-clad cat squeaked, grinning. His companion frowned a bit.

"That's nice, I guess...but why does that concern us, Cal?"

"We should go look for it!"

"What?! N-No...!! No way!"

But his brother was already tugging on his sleeve.

"C'moooon, Mic! This'll be fun!" Calvin cried. Micah held his ground the best he could, shaking his head.

"No! Grampa'll be mad if he finds out we left t'go out on th'ocean...!"

"You know, that actually sounds like a good idea," Sephtis said, having heard the conversation going on near them. "Why don't we just go to the ocean? It'd be so simple, and I can create an air bubble with Kyoya so that we can breathe!"

"That doesn't sound bad," White noted.

"But how long can you keep it up for?" asked Tina. "Sephtis, you're really cool, but you're still a kid. Are you sure that you won't get tired quickly?"

"I can safely tell you I've single-handedly murdered hundreds and made it looks like an accident. Don't underestimate me!" he said, to which White and Tina nervously laughed. At this point, Calvin promptly ran up to the trio.

"Can we come too??" he asked, eyes wide with hope. "I mean, after all, I came up with th'idea of going to th'ocean...!"

Micah nervously stayed behind Calvin.

"Cal, m-maybe this isn't such a good idea..."

Tina shrugged and looked at White, who shrugged back and looked at Sephtis. The eagle pumped his fist. "Yeah, you know it! This is going to be sick!"

Calvin jumped up with excitement.

"Yeah!! This is gonna be awesome!!"

Micah, however, didn't seem as thrilled. Calvin patted his shoulder.

"C'mon bro, it'll be fun!" he chirped. "A real adventure! What's th'worst thing that could happen, anyways?"

"Do you guys have any way of getting there?" asked White. "It'd be easier if you did. I could drive us, but..."

"I-...uh..."

Calvin's ears drooped a bit, and he frowned, tapping his fingers together.

"No...we don't have a car, and our grandpa don't have one, either," he admitted, shaking his head.

"Well, it's a good thing I have space for five," White said. "But before we do, I'd like to know some more about you. First things first, what's your name?"

"My name's Calvin, and this is my brother Micah," said Calvin, smiling as he put an arm around his shy sibling.

"Why do you guys really want to find this possible monster?" piped in Tina.

"Because it'll be fun!" Calvin said, giggling. "It'll be an adventure!"

Micah nodded nervously.

"Y-Yeah, adventure...uhh, Calvin, what do we do when we find th'monster...?"

The older brother frowned, rubbing his chin.

"Uhh...I dunno."

"Well, that's all we need to know," White said, turning around and heading out. Tina followed. "Man, these guys are idiots," he whispered.

"Hey, you just met them! They may have more... um, complex goals than we think," Tina lectured.

"If their goals are more complex, they're probably agents and/or villains in disguise," White replied as they head out to White's car, a black Prius.

Sephtis, meanwhile, flew back to the cats. "You guys seem really cool! I'm Sephtis Briona the Fifth, nice to meet ya!"

Micah's ear twitched, as if he had heard White whisper about him and his brother, but in all reality, he didn't actually hear what White said. He felt rather uneasy, however; could these three really be trusted? What if they were secretly villains?

Calvin, however, smiled over at Sephtis.

"Hi, Sephtis! Hey, you're th'fifth? Where're th'other four of ya?" he asked with genuine curiosity.

"Ancestor one? Dead. Ancestor two? Dead. Ancestor three? Dead. Dad? Dead." Sephtis said. "I'm the latest edition!"

"Wow, they musta been really old, then," Calvin mused, tilting his head to the side. "Our grandpa's pretty old, but not that old."

"Ha! Grandpa! We're talking, like, one thousand years ago!" Sephtis said with a laugh. "My dad was killed by an alien, though. It was sad."

"Wow, they're even older than I thought!" Calvin said, eyes rather wide with surprise. He frowned.

"An alien...? Gosh, that's sad; I'm sorry t'hear that. Micah and I don't really remember our own parents."

"Oof, that must sting. At least I have my mom!" Sephtis said. "I come from a long line of assassins... but if you tell anyone, I'll have to shoot you. But I don't want to. You guys seem cool."

At this, Micah promptly hid behind Calvin, whimpering a bit, while the older cat giggled.

"We won't tell anyone, promise!"

"Good! Now, let's go with my buds," Sephtis said, flying out and following his fellow Team Watts members. Calvin nodded and ran after Sephtis, with Micah nervously following behind.

At the same time, a black-colored sports car drove past by a crowd, driven by none other than Razer, as he noticed a large crowd watching the news on television, the same news he was listening on the radio.

"Huh... seems I'm not the only one listening to this. I better go check up on Ajax and see what's up." Razer spoke to himself before speeding off, but maintains it as to comply with speed regulations on the street, as he soon seeks to find his friend.

Part 2
The Prius would drive to the docks, parking at the nearest parking space (which was pretty far out from the docks). Team Watts got out and started heading out - however, while White and Tina walked forward, Sephtis flew into the air. White had a confused expression on his face as Tina said "I'll find out what's up with him."

Flying beside him, she calmly asked "What are you doing, Sep?"

"I'm flying into the ocean in order to get my air bubble going early," he replied, to which Tina lightly chuckled.

"Let's take our guests' opinions into account before we go making crazy plans," she said as she flew down towards the cats. Sephtis groaned and followed.

Calvin and Micah, after getting out of the Prius as well, looked around.

"Wow...so these are th'docks," Calvin mused, looking around curiously. He walked over towards the water, peering down into it.

"I think I see some fish...!" he giggled, before Micah ended up pulling Calvin away from the water.

"D-Don't fall in...!"

"I wasn't gonna!" Calvin huffed, before looking over towards Tina. The two winged Mobians landed next to the cats.

"So, would you guys prefer to go in boat, or-"

Tina was cut off quickly by Sephtis. "-go inside an air bubble, allowing you to really experience the aquatic thrill?"

Calvin gasped a bit.

"Air bubble! Definitely an air bubble!" he cried, pumping his fist, while Micah ended up looking rather nauseated.

"Y-Y'mean...w-we'd be in th'water...? Th'really, r-really deep water...??"

"'Really deep' is an understatement! We're gonna be ultra deep!" Sephtis said, grinning wide. Micah looked like he was about to faint.

"Whoa...! That's so cool!" Calvin squeaked; in his excitement, he seemed to be oblivious to his younger brother's anxiety.

"So, that's two for air bubble!" Sephti said, pumping his fist into the air as White walked over to the group.

"Being in an air bubble would be a lot faster, so I'm all for it, too," said White.

"Being in a boat would be easier and safer, though," interjected Tina. Micah nodded weakly at Tina's suggestion, even if he wouldn't be 100% comfortable inside of a boat, either.

"But a boat would be boooring!" Calvin said, arms crossed.

"Agreed," Sephtis said before unsheathing a spear and twirling it around, levitating into the air. "Okayit'sconfirmedwe'regoinginmyairbubblelet'sgo!" Suddenly, the four would feel like they were being lifted into the air. Micah yelped and clung onto his brother, who just laughed.

"Whoa! This is so cool!" he cheered.

"You get used to it," said White, who was keeping a stoned expression. Tina was doing flips in midair as the bubble solidified and blasted itself forward before landing inside of the water.

"So, where we heading?" Sephtis asked, totally calm.

Micah held back a panicked scream the best he could as the bubble of air, now solidified, hurtled itself towards the water with a splash. Calvin looked around, before pointing out towards the ocean.

"That way! Uh, I think so, at least." Sephtis smiled, continued twirling Kyoya, and flew forwards, allowing them to move further - and deeper - into the water. Micah, needless to say, was on the verge of a panic attack, and was hugging Calvin as tight as he could, eyes squeezed shut. The older brother, meanwhile, was staring around in awe.

"Whoa...!! This is so cool...!!"

White saw Micah and arched an eyelid, curious.

"Hey, mister cat, why do you look so scared? Not a fan of water? Nothing's going to hurt you."

"D-Deep...a-and d-dark," Micah whimpered, refusing to open his eyes. Calvin frowned a bit and wrapped an arm around his brother.

"Don't worry, we're safe in here...!"

"Yeah, nothin's gonna touch you!" Sephtis said, trying to reassure him. "Unless you're a scaredy cat. Are you a scaredy cat?"

At this, Calvin glared at Sephtis, about to say something, when Micah immediately piped up.

"N-No, I'm n-not a scaredy-cat!" he cried, also glaring at Sephtis.

"Well, that's good, 'cause we're going deep! And that's probably dangerous, but who cares, right?"

"Yeah, this'll be fun!" Calvin agreed, his irritation towards Sephtis vanishing completely. Micah managed a weak little nod.

"Y-Yeah...fun..."

"We'll protect you if anything goes wrong," said Tina. Micah sniffled a bit.

"Y-Ya really will...?"

"Why wouldn't we?" White asked. "We aren't going to let someone scared stay scared. We got your back, always."

Micah sniffled again, and smiled, while Calvin patted his shoulder.

"Th-Thanks, y'guys..."

Wait, was there some dark mass approaching...?

"Ooh, noice!" Sephtis said, floating to it.

"Sephtis, what are you doing?! Give us time to-" White was cut off and Sephtis sped up, wanting to reach it. Whatever it was, it was starting to take on a more defined shape as the air bubble got closer to it; a shape eerily similar to a dragon.

"Cool!" Sephtis said. "Should we get closer? I say yes. I've never seen a dragon before! I wonder if it'd win in a fight?"

"I-I'm not sure if this is a good idea...!" Micah cried, hugging onto Calvin again. The dragon-shape was getting way too close now, and the ferocious yellow eyes were clearly visible as it opened up its huge, toothy maw and let out a watery snarl.

They'd be able to hear "clicks" as White stretched his legs and Tina reloaded her gun. "Oh, boy..." she said before looking at the cats. "Can you guys swim?"

"Uhh...I-I can kinda swim," said Calvin, while Micah just shook his head, quivering in fright. The dragon was even closer now, and...

"{GET OUT OF MY TERRITORY!!}" it screeched; it wasn't speaking English, but definitely some kind of language. Sephtis opened a small hole in the air bubble, allowing White and Tina to shoot bullets at the dragon. Sephtis created an air tunnel so that the projectiles wouldn't be affected by the water.

The dragon snarled as the bullets hit her; the water around the air bubble was now beginning to churn violently as the dragon got closer.

"{LEAVE!}" she roared, attempting to push the air bubble up to the surface of the sea by manipulating the water around it. White looked to Sephtis and nodded as Sephtis created another hole, allowing White to jump out and swim to Tiamat. Then, he released an electrical charge from his legs, which would affect the water (but the group would be safe inside the bubble).

The sea dragon roared in pain and started to convulse; she outstretched her claws and swiped with shocking speed at White, eyes bright with fury and pain.

"{Insufferable...intruder...!!}"

All the fish in the vicinity were likely killed by the electricity White had released, as well.

White was slammed in the water, and Sephtis put an air bubble around White's head so he could breathe, not worrying about her, he decided to release the electricity again.

After striking at him, she made an attempt to swim closer to him when the electricity hit. This could be a problem; her massive, convulsing body could very easily slam into him. Despite the pain, however, she managed to use her hydromancy to churn up the water around White, a bit like an underwater cyclone. White was taken by it, but he quickly kicked his legs, trying to escape and even firing flares behind him.

The roaring water was powerful, holding White in roughly the place like a vacuum and likely tossing him around, like a ship in a bad storm.

"{I'll teach you mortals to stay out of my h-}"

A flare ended up hitting her near her left eye, and she let out a screech, writhing around and churning up bubbles in her wake; the vortex lessened, if temporarily.

Meanwhile, Razer arrives at a large, open field, greeted by the large, tilt-rotor aircraft with Ajax waving for him to enter inside; the ramp was already opened up. He soon drives inside, with other gunners seated as well.

"Heh, right on cue, then." Razer smiled, the ramp behind him closed as Ajax enters inside. Once it takes off, Ajax approached Razer and tapped on the glass window. He gets out of the vehicle to see him. "Heh, was wondering when you'd show up, Ajax."

"Well, I brought a few buddies with me so one flies this bad boy, the others manning the turrets. We figured we'd head to the ferry to monitor just in case, but we also don't want to raise any suspicion so we'll have to be at a higher altitude so we won't be noticed too much." Ajax explained the current objective to him.

In return, Razer nodded and crossed his arms. "Fair enough. We don't want them to think we work for G.U.N. anyway."

Ajax patted a hand to his shoulder. "Yeah. But for now, let's go and check out the monitors."

The aircraft soon takes off, as to fly over to the docks, but also gaining altitude as to avoid being noticed by the public. They ensured they had enough altitude before it switches to flight mode and flies off to the destination.

"Looks like we missed the party; there's a massive sea dragon trying to attack those civilians in that air bubble!" One of the pilots shouted.

"Oh no... switch to VTOL mode; we need to distract that creature if we're to rescue civilians!" Ajax shouted, Razer looked at the monitor, seeing what appears to be Tiamat and other Mobians.

The aircraft's rotors had soon switched to VTOL mode by the pilot under Ajax's command.

"Looks like they picked a bad place to be sightseeing the ocean." Razer spoke, having a concerned expression. Two of the pilots manned the turrets and began firing around the ocean, as to create a distraction to Tiamat but doing what they can to not harm the creature. Meanwhile, a small squadron were getting ready to deploy and rescue the Mobians.

And now the bullets darting into the water around Tiamat got her attention. With a snarl, she rose up to the surface with startling speed, breaching the water below the aircraft. Opening her mouth, she spat a flurry of icicles from her mouth at the aircraft.

Alarms rung out inside the aircraft, doing its best to hold its own from the barrage of attacks, as the squadron immediately deployed ropes as to rappel them down to reach the air bubble.

"Gah! Seems we'll be the ones in need of rescue soon if we don't make it fast!" Razer told Ajax.

"At least they fitted my car with a large parachute in case things go south!"

The duo held on, the turrets were soon disabled when one of the icicles pierced through them. And soon enough, the right side of the rotor had started to billow smoke.

"Squadron team, better make it fast and rescue civilians; we're taking heavy fire and this big bird can only take so much punishment before we go down!" Ajax shouted, the pilot trying to keep it steady.

"We're trying to hold on, but the turrets are gone! And it seems one of the rotors are starting to fail!" The pilot warned them.

Angry yellow eyes watched as the squadron rappelled down from the damaged aircraft and towards the air bubble, and she swam after them, keeping her gaze on the squadron. Inside the air bubble, which had been forced to the surface by Tiamat's hydromancy, Micah squeaked in fright and hugged onto Calvin, who stared at the scene in fascination.

"Whoooaaa...!! It's a dragon...!! A real dragon!!"

Inside the aircraft, Ajax hurriedly took Razer back inside his vehicle.

"Razer, you get on out of here while you still can! We don't know how long this baby will last, but I assure you, we'll meet again." Ajax ordered his friend as Razer got inside, starting up his car.

"Stay safe out there..." Razer spoke back before buckling himself up.

"Open the ramp door!" Ajax shouted, one of the flight crew opening up the ramp door, with Razer quickly driving back and off of the aircraft. The large parachute quickly deploys, soon gliding and retreating away from danger and back towards civilization.

Meanwhile, one of the rescue members reach inside the air bubble in front of the two brothers.

"We're here to rescue you! Now come on before that dragon gets us and we'd all be in trouble!"

"We're can't put all of these people in danger! Let's go!" said Tina, reaching out to the rescue member. White did the same, while Sephtis crossed his arms and groaned. "I can fly, I don't need rescuing."

Calvin was too focused on the approaching dragon, although luckily she herself was paying attention to the rescue squadron instead of the group in the bubble.

"{Good! Get out of here, and don't ever let me see you in my territory again!}" she snarled, circling the scene threateningly, her body painfully spasming every now and then from the two electrical attacks White had inflicted on her, and her left eye was closed where the flare had almost hit it; there was a small scorch mark directly beneath it.

"C-Calvin, c'mon, we gotta get outta here!" Micah squeaked, tugging on Calvin's sleeve.

Apart from Sephtis, the gang were soon extracted into the aircraft. Although, the damage was already done; as they take off with the others inside, one of the rotors had started to fail and billow smoke outside.

"Boss, we can't switch to flight mode, this baby's taken too much damage!" One of the pilots informed Ajax.

"Just try and hold on and get us out of here!" Ajax shouted in response. They fly off from the ocean and back to the city, but with so much damage, it was struggling to maintain altitude. As for Razer, he's already drifted away from the others, perhaps drifting away too much and away from the city.

Tiamat watched as the damaged aircraft attempted to fly back towards the city, and let out a snort, before diving back below the depths of the ocean. Before she could rest, however, she'd feel an electric shock. With an angry, pained roar, she flailed around, eyes wide and furious as she looked around.

"{WHO DID THAT?!}" she screeched.

Above water, White, Sephtis, and Tina were all hovering, with White ejecting fire from his legs to stay afloat. "So, have any other strategies than shocking it?" asked Tina.

"I'll stab it! Just weaken its skin, White!" said Sephtis. With a snarl, Tiamat breached the surface again, this time spewing a clear substance from her mouth that began to steam slightly on contact with the air towards the trio. Tina and White weren't fast enough to get out of the way, so Sephtis blasted a wave of violent wind at it.

While the wind dispersed most of the liquid, droplets of the dangerously cold substance still splattered at them, although they wouldn't be too dangerous unless they hit unprotected flesh; this was followed up by an Ice Beam from the dragon's mouth.

"{LEAVE ME ALONE!}" she roared. By this point, White and Tina had moved away, but Sephtis was blasted higher into the air.

"Why did you attack the G.U.N ship?" asked Tina, trying to reason with her. The old dragon growled, and, surprisingly...

"They were in my territory!" she hissed; she could speak English after all, it seemed.

"And I know their types; wreaking havoc upon the land, destroying everything that seems even the least bit 'monstrous' to them...!"

"Why didn't you talk to them? You weren't reasonable," added White.

"They would've opened fire on me as soon as I appeared," she hissed, narrowing her eyes at White. "And why should I be reasonable to them, anyways? With them dumping their pollution into the ocean, choking out my people and forcing my brother Ryujin to run himself ragged just to clean up their messes...!"

"Who's Ryujin? Is he some type of fighting game character? The type that never gets use-" Sephtis was elbowed by White.

"Why didn't you call them out, then? Talk with some non-dangerous people. I mean, we're not freaking out about you, why would others?"

"Don't act like you didn't try to kill me earlier, rabbit," Tiamat growled, a claw reaching up to point at the scorch mark below her eye; she had ignored Sephtis' comment.

"That and the electricity...! And yes, let me just wander out onto land in full view of others; that certainly wouldn't cause a mass panic, hmm?"

"I wasn't trying to kill you. You should stop making assumptions so quickly," White replied. "I was trying to calm you. I knew you were going to attack me so aggressively. You took down a G.U.N battleship - imagine what you could've done to me!"

"Yeah, don't play victim!" Sephtis said, pointing at her.

"And we didn't imply that - why don't you ever try to reason with anyone? Even if you are targeted, there'll be people out there who will want to help you-" Tina started.

"-and might want to break you out!" Sephtis finished.

"Oh really? Loosing electricity into a massive body of water wasn't you trying to kill me?!" she snarled. "Because you certainly killed a lot of fish with that!"

She ignored Sephtis again; the jab at her brother must've annoyed her enough.

"And you're so adamant about 'talking things out', why didn't you do that as soon as you saw me, hmm?" she asked White. "Maybe I would've listened to you."

"You sure seemed like you wanted to reason with that battleship," White said with a shrug.

"Yes, let me just pop up and say 'hi' to armed soldiers and ship-mounted turrets," she huffed, rolling her eyes. "Very smart. Besides, this isn't the first time they've come sniffing around here; they probably wanted to attack my people!"

"Well, let's imagine this - you don't attack them, and everything stays the same. You were blatantly looking for attention - what did you think was gonna happen? Either you wanted this to happen, or-"

"Your foresight really sucks," Sephtis finished again.

"You really need to stop interrupting," said Tina.

"Yes, please shut up," Tiamat hissed at Sephtis, before turning her glare to White again. "Had I left that ship alone, they would've tried to send submarines down below to search for my people, and I will not let the likes of G.U.N attack them...! They are my responsibility, and I will keep them safe!"

"Wait until they do attack, then," White said. "Don't 'predict' what you don't know. That's unnecessary."

"By then it could be too late!" she growled in response.

"Well, you made an honestly foolish move, and here you are. More people are probably checking this area out, and I'm going to rat you out unless you want to make a deal," said White.

"Are you honest-to-Ka blackmailing me??" she cried, eyes widening. "Insufferable little... fine! What kind of deal are you proposing?"

"You are going to not attack any Mobians unless they show any sign of hostility. And no, flying over an area that you happen to be nearby is not hostility. Also, you will actually try to talk with the attackers before, well, attacking them. If all else fails, do your thing." White kept a sturdy glare. "If I hear about any more accidents like this on the news without just reasoning, then you're toast."

She met his glare with equal intensity, an obvious hatred burning in her eyes, but she finally nodded stiffly.

"Fine," she hissed. "But if they attempt to harass my people, they're open to my wrath."

"Precisely. Nice doing business with you," White said before turning around and flying away, with Tina and Sephtis following. With a low growl, the dragoness dove back beneath the waves, swimming away.

Part 3
Back in Station Square, onlookers spot a heavily-damaged, tilt-rotor aircraft billowing smoke as it had begun losing altitude once the right propeller had stopped functioning due to the damage sustained earlier, with the other rotor just barely functional. And it was struggling to maintain altitude as its engines were starting to fail. It was also unable to switch to flight mode due to having sustained considerable damage.

The pedestrians could only look on with worry while watching its dangerous descent.

Inside the aircraft, alarms rung out, sirens blaring inside the aircraft.

Ajax took a seat and buckled himself up, with at least five more vacant to take the seat and buckle up, while the other pilots held on to their equipment, some grasping on the grate wall.

"Hold on, guys! This is gonna get bumpy!" Ajax warned, while the pilot sends out a mayday via radio communication.

"Mayday! Mayday! This is AVG-246 requesting emergency landing! We've sustained heavy damage and we're losing altitude fast!"

Micah was hugging onto Calvin tightly, on the verge of another panic attack, while Calvin hugged him back.

G.U.N. responds to a mayday call from the control tower, just by their sub-headquarters. "This is G.U.N. control tower, responding to your mayday call. You have permission to make emergency landing, just try to hang in there, AVG-246. Personnel are already deployed and on their way to the tarmac."

The pilot tried to activate the landing gears, but it seems the damage was catastrophic enough for the doors to fail, rendering the landing gear nonfunctional. All the pilot can do was try and land the aircraft without killing everyone inside. He propelled it forward as it kept descending towards the runway. Soon enough, the aircraft lands belly-first onto the tarmac, causing it to dangerously scrape along as it precariously tilts to the side, nearly turning over but held back by its tilt-rotor feature that was stuck on hover mode.

Micah started to scream in terror over this, still hugging onto his brother as tightly as he could.

Eventually, the aircraft came to a screeching halt, the alarms having stopped blaring inside. Outside, sirens had quickly approached the aircraft, with fire trucks unleashing a stream of water to douse the smoke to prevent possible fire breaking out. The rear door was open as a result of the hard landing, but also allowing G.U.N. rescue team to rush inside and rescue the crew, along the two brothers, as they were taken outside of the damaged aircraft and towards the medical vehicles.

Ajax let out a sigh of relief, but still visibly shaken from this, as he was checked by doctors.

"Sir, are you alright? You look like you had a nasty ride. Medics are checking up on your friends too. What happened out there?" He asked while checking for any visible injuries Ajax had.

"Ugh... long story." Ajax only told, still shaken which prevented him from remembering.

"Seems the budget's down the drain for this poor lass."

The G.U.N. doctor looked on to the aircraft, which had already been doused from possible fire before G.U.N. members began surveying the damage.

"Well, we'll see what we can do about this. Looks highly valuable too, but definitely not G.U.N. material. Still, let's get you inside the base."

Ajax simply nodded, as he and the crew members, save for the two brothers, were hauled away to the base.

Micah seemed to be in a state of shock, still hugging onto Calvin as if his life depended on it, eyes squeezed shut and body trembling violently as he practically hyperventilated. Calvin was doing his best to try and calm his brother, not really paying attention to much else around him.

A G.U.N. doctor approached the two brothers, looking at Calvin. "We'll need to take you two to the medical facility to check you out. It's not safe out here, especially with the salvage team surveying the damage."

Micah heard that and promptly started to mumble the word 'no' over and over, burying his face against his brother's shoulder. Calvin frowned, but nodded hesitantly, still hugging Micah; he was worried that his baby brother had gotten hurt...and it would've been all his fault, too.

He nodded back and carefully led the two brothers inside for them to be checked for any injuries they received from the crash. Micah whined and refused to let go of his brother, his left foot dragging on the way, as if he couldn't put any pressure on it.

The doctor had entered the room with the duo, for him to usher them inside the scanning room. "Go on inside the scanning room and we'll scan you to check your overall condition."

Micah just shook his head and refused to go any further, still hugging onto Calvin tightly. The older brother frowned.

"Uhh...d-do we hafta...?"

"It's just a scanning procedure, nothing else. We have to be sure you two are perfectly okay and without any injuries from that incident." The G.U.N. doctor assures them.

"...I'll go first, then," said Calvin. "To make sure it really is safe."

Once Calvin enters inside, the doctor turns on the scanning procedure, as it scans Calvin's body. After just ten seconds, the results are shown in front of him.

Condition: PERFECT

Injuries: NONE

The screen even shows Calvin's body, which shows no signs of physical trauma either.

"Huh, that wasn't so bad," said Calvin, stepping out of the room, now. "Okay, uhh...guess it's your turn, Micah."

Micah shook his head, shivering a bit.

Upon closer inspection, the doc noticed that Micah's ankle was injured.

"Hmm. It seems you have a slight injury from your ankle. Go and have a seat, I will administer first aid for you."

Micah shook his head, not keen on letting the doctor touch him; Calvin had to help him over to the seat due to his injured ankle.

To circumvent this, the doctor opens up a drawer and retrieves both nutritional chocolate bars covered in wrap as to cheer them up a little and gave them to the two brothers while he grabs a first aid kit. He opens up and retrieves both a painkiller spray and bandages along with a cast.

He first sprays the ankle area from Micah; cold at first, but quickly becomes warm as to nullify the pain and wrapped a bandage around it. Afterwards, he puts on a cast around Micah's ankle for it to heal.

"There we go." He said, having finished treating Micah. Micah had squeaked and squirmed a bit when the doctor started treating his injury, but thankfully he didn't fight back.

"...th-thanks," he mumbled. Calvin smiled when he was offered the chocolate.

"Thanks...! See, that wasn't so bad, was it, Micah?"

"I-I guess not..."

Outside, a few soldiers were inspecting the damaged aircraft.

"Significant ice damage to the turrets and rotor," one of them mused. "What could've done something like this...?"

"Let's get it inside," said another. "We might be able to salvage something here."

The aircraft was soon hauled inside the hangar, which took roughly 45 minutes to an hour. It seems some of the ice had embedded into the craft, which was anything but an ordinary cryokinetic attack.

"Something powerful did this," one of the soldiers mused. "I don't believe a regular ice-wielder could've done this."

Leon, who also happened to be in the hangar, chipped off a piece of the ice from the broken turret, inspecting it.

"Where did the attack take place?" he asked.

"It seems this craft met a similar fate from that battleship not too long ago from the news. Although this one is not affiliated with the G.U.N., we believe this happened in the same area the battleship was in." Another G.U.N. soldier informed Leon.

Leon's eyes widened a bit, before turning towards the soldier that spoke.

"Is there anyone here who was aboard this air craft during the attack?" he asked.

"We tried to ask the two pilots, but they both lost consciousness before we could get any answer. There's also another crew who was shaken up from the accident, but is alright. The rest, however, were being treated for their injuries. As for this craft, judging by the damage it sustained, seems we're gonna have our hands full in repairing this thing before it can be up and running again." The soldier answered Leon.

"I want to know who or what did this," said Leon, tossing away the piece of ice he had pulled off the turret. "WE might be able to find out what happened to that battleship; can you take me to the crew member who's still conscious?"

The soldier nodded to Leon.

"Yes sir. He's at the nearest medical room inside and waiting. Follow me."

He led Leon inside the facility from the hangar, as to lead him to one of the crew members still conscious. Having followed the soldier, Leon walked over to the crew member.

"Hey," he said. "You doing okay?"

Ajax, one of the survivors, spotted Leon approaching him inside. He nodded at his question.

"Had seen better days, but least I'm still standing."

The soldier left Leon be for the time being, as to let him ask questions while he goes to do his usual duties.

"That's good," said Leon, nodding. "You don't mind if I ask a few questions, do you...?"

"Go on ahead. Most of my crew members are too hurt or out cold. Not sure about the two survivors since I was immediately taken to here to be checked." Ajax spoke, before allowing Leon to ask him some questions.

"Did you get a look at whatever it was that destroyed the aircraft?"

Ajax nodded. "Yeah. Moments before we were attacked while rescuing Mobians, it appeared to a large, mythical creature of the sort... a sea dragon, to be specific. Of course, the turret cameras were destroyed, but at least I took a good look at the monitor before it happened."

"...you don't have any surviving footage of it, do you?"

"I dunno. I was shaken up from the crash, I didn't have time to recollect myself. If you want to check what's left of that aircraft, you're more than welcome to." Ajax told Leon. He wasn't sure if he had any footage especially given the condition it went through.

"You may want to go with Leon, since you did survive and your overall condition is stable now. As for the other two survivors, they had just left and are already on their way back home." The doctor suggested.

Leon nodded, already turning and heading towards the door; he was keen on checking out any possible footage that the aircraft may have recorded.

"I have a feeling that the dragon that attacked the aircraft was responsible for destroying the G.U.N battleship...question is, what else is lurking in that water?"

"Heck if I know. Leon, is it? Doc mentioned your name." Ajax asked to Leon as he walked with him, just to be sure as they returned back to the hangar, along with the aircraft that's already been righted by the salvage team, and repairs were already underway.

"Yep, Leon's my name," he said as he walked towards the salvaged aircraft. "Yours?"

"Ajax. The entrance's in the back." He said after introducing himself, heading inside the aircraft where a few technicians were working on repairing the turret controls.

"Good to meet you, Ajax," said Leon as he stepped into the aircraft, heading for the front of it.

The technician saluted to Leon, upon seeing him enter with Ajax. "Sir. I only managed to get the screen working, though everything else are still under lengthy repairs. When I overheard the conversation regarding the creature that took out the battleship, this is what appeared on the screen."

The screen itself showed to be the same sea dragon Ajax mentioned about. It was frozen due to hardware problems from the damage it took from the attack, but the image itself was clear enough for both Leon and Ajax to see before the attack. The kangaroo whistled a bit.

"Well, I'll be. That's a real damn dragon you got footage of," he said, arms crossed. "And that thing possibly took down a battleship all by itself...that's a problem..."

"Yeah... of course, with my crew members still out, nothing I can do about it. All we had to do was rescue some of the Mobians by distracting it, yet it seems we were the ones who barely made it out alive until this happened." Ajax replied. The technician soon got back to work in restoring the aircraft.

"And judging by the size of it, it could be months, maybe a year and a half if we're lucky, before this baby can fly again." Another G.U.N. technician spoke out.

"I'm more concerned about what that thing can do to people instead," Leon admitted, frowning as he crossed his arms. "If it can destroy an aircraft like this, and capsize an entire battleship...I don't want to think about how badly it could injure a human or Mobian...or a bunch of them at once."

"{Damned rabbit thinks he can hold that over my head,}" Tiamat hissed to herself as she dove deeper into the water. "{Treating me like a child...!}"

A furious bellow escaped her as she slammed her claw into an underwater stalagmite, breaking it in half.

"{Doesn't he understand that I'm doing what I need to do to protect my people...?!}"

In her rage, she didn't notice the equally massive dark shape approaching her, until it spoke in a deep, raspy rumble.

"{Tiamat.}"

She froze and looked around, eyes widening.

"{Ryujin...?}"

The eel-like Primordial frowned as he floated in the deep with his sister.

"{Tiamat, what are you doing? You don't usually throw tantrums like this}," he rumbled. She huffed and crossed her arms.

"{I wasn't throwing a tantrum...}"

Ryujin frowned again, before pointing to the destroyed stalagmite.

"{Then what's that?}"

Looking towards the remains of the stalagmite, Tiamat growled a bit before turning back to her brother.

"{Heard you destroyed one of the big land-dweller ships}," Ryujin continued, scratching idly at his neck. "{Impressive...'course, won't be long until more of them start sniffing around here.}"

"{I've already had that happen}," she huffed. "{Some Mobians showed up in an air bubble of all things, and one of them had electric powers...he 'made a deal with me', saying I can't attack any more land-dwellers unless they're hostile, or else he'll rat me out. Irritating little whelp...}"

"{He has a point; you don't want to end up being a captive to the land-dwellers, do you?}" asked Ryujin, to which Tiamat just sighed.

"{No, I do not.}"

"{Didn't think so. We're not supposed to be showing ourselves to them so readily, anyways Things could end up bad... for both sides.}"

The other Primordial looked up towards the surface of the ocean; enough sunlight was still filtering down to not make things entirely dark, not that it mattered to the pair of ancients.

"{But if they overstep their boundaries, they'll understand what a mistake that can be, yes?}"

Tiamat nodded, a grim smile crossing her snout.

"{Yes. They will understand...}"

Part 4
Meanwhile, Razer, still in his vehicle, was still floating from the parachute after the escape, but was out of city limits as it gradually descended itself back down.

"Hopefully I don't land myself into the ocean. Or I'm gonna be dealing with one incident to the next." Razer spoke to himself. It seems he was heading towards the dunes, glances the window to see that he's not in Station Square anymore.

"Oh. Great. I'm not in the city anymore. Least no one's here to watch, I bet." He spoke to himself again, in an unamused manner. The prairie that stretched past the southern area of Station Square seemed to be relatively quiet for now...save for a Mobian-sized figure down below, traveling on foot.

The vehicle eventually lands onto the dunes, only for it to be stuck deep in the sands, much to Razer's frustration.

"Oh joy. I get stuck in the sands, and now my only way out, is this."

Out of frustration, he kicks the windshield open, causing it to break open for him to crawl out and resurface himself as he looks around.

"Well. Looks like I'm not in Station Square anymore. I'll just leave a flare here for my team to extract it back. I'm sure the insurance wouldn't mind..." He grabbed a flare from his jacket and sets it alight, placing it onto its roof before walking off as to regain his thoughts. Up ahead the other person, a ferret, didn't seem to notice the car that had come drifting down from the sky to land in the sand, nor the driver having kicked the windshield out in order to escape.

Shortly after, his visor goggles let out a notification, as if scanning the location he's in. "Hmm... nothing interesting, I bet. Can't believe Ajax inadvertently dumped me here."

Indeed, there didn't seem to be much of anything of interest around Razer, save for the ferret.

He turns around, only to spot a ferret. Of course, this particular ferret caused him to widen his eyes in surprise.

"Wait a minute..." Razer spoke to himself, starting to have a brief flashback upon spotting him. He soon ran towards the ferret. The ferret didn't yet hear Razer running towards him.

Razer ran a bit quicker, closing in on the ferret. He stops halfway, hoping the ferret will notice him. The ferret's ears perked a bit, and he looked over his shoulder.

"Hm? Who's-"

He stopped, staring at Razer; something was very, very familiar about him...but he couldn't quite place his finger on it.

He slowly approached the ferret.

"...Linebeck?" Razer's voice may have sounded different, including his appearance, but it seems he recognizes a familiar face.

"Johnny?"

The word fell out of his mouth before he could stop it, and the ferret shook his head.

"Sorry, I...thought you were...someone else...?"

But he looked so familiar...!

"How'd ya know my name?"

"Was Johnny before, yes. Let's just say I look... well, different. Not just my looks, but how I sound too." Razer pulled down his hoodie.

"I'm now known as Razer. But, I'm fine with either or. Somehow, I still remember some of the familiar faces before..." He trails off a bit before resuming. "It's a long story, I know."

Linebeck blinked, before his eyes widened a bit.

"So it is you, Johnny! Holy hell, ho long has it been, man??" he asked, looking rather excited, now.

Razer smiled widely, seeing Linebeck having remembered him. "Been gone through a huge amount of changes, made me look and feel different, but, I can never forget familiar faces, no matter what."

He also opened his arms to Linebeck. "So, bro-hug for your old friend, no matter how different I look and sound now?"

"Hell yeah, bro!" Linebeck cheered, promptly opening up his arms and hugging Razer tightly.

Razer hugged Linebeck back, happy to see that he's recognized an old face. He lets go of him before looking at him.

"So, you up for adventure? I'll tell you everything on what I've gone through for who knows how long."

"My guy, when am I not up for adventure?" Linbeck chuckled, letting go of Razer as well. "Yeah, fill me in! I wanna now what you've been up to for so long!"

Razer motioned his head as for Linebeck to join him as he walks towards the desert area with him.

"A lot has been going on, such as me being taken by some unknown organization to have me undergo radical changes, especially my appearance. They're not exactly G.U.N., of course; all of them are Mobians. Somehow I volunteered to become different, genetics-wise. They did a number in my head by accident, though I was luckily alive and pretty much my past memories were left unchanged. Sure it was scary, but least I was alive and well. And surprisingly enough, they did kept my old name in their data files, as a memento for when I spot a familiar face, especially you, Linebeck."

Linebeck blinked, tilting his head to the side.

"Why, though? I mean, what was wrong with the way ya were before? Not trying to be rude or anything," he said, shrugging. "Seems kinda silly to go through the risk of genetic alterations, to me."

Razer simply shrugged. "I guess they wanted me to look better. Unless they tried to make me become perfect, which didn't ended well. Good thing I still have these babies with me."

He opened his hands, showing off the same pyrokinesis from flames emitting from his hands.

"You looked fine the way you were, though," Linebeck said, frowning; he soon smiled when he noticed the fire from Razer's hands.

"Nice."

Razer closed his hands and the flames cease. "Yeah. But hey, least I'm still my same self. Now, as for what we're doing, we're discovering those things, legendary beasts, to be specific. Heard it on the news earlier today too."

"Really? On the news?" Linebeck asked. "What'd it say about these legendary beasts?"

"One of them happened to be a sea dragon that capsized a G.U.N. battleship whole." Razer responded to his question.

"Ohh damn," Linebeck chuckled. "That sure is something, alright; did you happen to see it at all? The dragon, I mean?"

Razer nodded. "Yeah. Though we got attacked and I had to make myself scarce before things would've gotten worse. And it was while trying to rescue others who were being attacked too."

"Huh...I wonder how many other creatures like that are on Mobius," Linebeck mused, rubbing his chin. "I mean, Chaos was a thing, and now this dragon, so it can't be that unlikely that there's more, right?"

"Only one way to find out. If there's more than one, then we have ourselves one, challenging adventure we've ever faced." Razer responds to his question.

"Hah, sounds like a plan to me; let's go for it, c'mon!"

"Right!" Razer soon heads to the specified area, mostly arid, with Linebeck, just like old times.

"Hell yeah! It's about time we had a real adventure!" Linebeck cheered.

All the way over in Northamer, a squadron of Egg Pawns armed with axes, flanked by some Egg Fighters (Knight models), were making their way through the Great Forest, on a mission to clear out an area of the woods so that their master could build there. The first axe came down, thwacking against the closest tree, the noise seeming to ring out through the forest. Birds squawked and flew out from the struck tree, and the Egg Pawns got to work, hacking methodically at the surrounding foliage.

There was a distant thud, almost like a heavy footstep.

"...was that an earthquake?!" Cubot shouted in panic, leaving Orbot to facepalm.

"No, you just happen to have a mainframe problem as always, Cubot." Orbot responds with an unamused tone. Some of the Egg Pawns seemed to notice the faint vibration, but continued working. There was another distant thud...and then another. It sounded like it was getting slightly closer.

"Uhh... dude? The earthquake's getting closer to us." Cubot was already nervous as he huddled close to Orbot. Orbot himself immediately moved away from his dimwitted friend.

"Don't get all touchy-feely with me, you overzealous dolt! We were brought here by Eggman to assist Egg Pawns with forestry, not be concerned about the damages to nature. Now, wait here while I inspect the ongoing process."

Orbot merely overs away from Cubot and looks at the Egg Pawns. "Mmhm. So far, so good..."

The strange tremors had finally gotten the attention of the Egg Fighters, who turned and looked towards where the noise seemed to be coming from.

"We may have company, Orbot," one of them said.

Cubot stood there in fear, watching something unseen approaching towards them.

Orbot noticed this after one of the Egg Pawns informed him. "Cubot? What... do you see...?"

He obviously looked uneasy, even after he initially believed that Cubot was interfering. The footsteps were now close enough to start shaking the earth slightly, and, in the distance, a terrifyingly tall silhouette could be seen among the trees, with glowing golden eyes.

Cubot froze in terror, looking up to a tall silhouette, obviously shaking in fear. Orbot looked over and took a careful approach behind him. He whispers to him carefully. "Try not to make sudden movements..."

The Egg Pawns still continued to chop away at the trees, oblivious to the massive silhouette, until it took another thunderous step forward. A deep, rumbling growl could be heard coming from it.

Apart from the minions, save for one who had already informed Orbot, the duo are the only ones who are watching a tall, intimidating figure approaching them. And the two froze in terror, obviously not wanting to make any sudden movements.

With one last lurching, earth-shaking step, the figure had emerged into full view; a massive, thirty-foot tall treant, its golden eyes glaring down at the robots. The Egg Pawns nearly dropped their axes in fright, while the Egg Fighters turned their weapons on the beast, swords and shields at the ready.

"{Cease your attack on this forest}," the hulking ancient growled in an unnatural tongue; a language older than the soil of Mobius.

Although the Egg Pawns were ready to face a massive treant, Cubot was obviously the first to run away in fear, upon taking a look at the hulking figure, screams of terror were heard inside the forest.

"No, wait--!" Orbot reached his hand out, but it was already too late. Unlike the Egg Pawns, it seems Cubot knew that he dared not to fight against it. Orbot had soon hesitantly turned his attention to a massive treant.

"U-Uhh... hello!" He hesitantly waved a hand up to it. Even if Orbot was armed, he'd rather much avoid it at all costs, even if it means getting Eggman angry that Orbot and Cubot failed to contain it.

"{Leave this forest!}" the treant roared, but the Egg Knights held their ground. "{Before I crush all of you into nothing!}"

"What is it saying?" one of the Egg Knights asked.

"RUN!" Orbot yelled out as he quickly escapes from the treant's wrath. The Egg Pawns may stand and fight, though it seems Orbot has followed suit afterwards. Cubot may be a dimwit, but even he isn't that stupid to go up against it head-on, and it seems Orbot had came to a realization as well! The Egg Knights stayed behind, starting to advance towards the treant; one of them was sent flying by a single kick from the creature, while another was smashed into the earth by its huge fist. The Egg Pawns dropped their axes and fled as well.

"Where's Cubot?! We need to inform Eggman about this pronto!" Orbot asked one of the Egg Pawns while running for his life, looking back to see the Egg Knights being no match for the treant as they were getting destroyed single-handedly.

"I don't know!" the Egg Pawn cried, just as panicked as Orbot. "Get Eggman on the horn already, before that thing comes and squashes us!"

Orbot soon activated the call inside his mainframe as to contact Eggman. "Eggman, come in! Get us back to the Egg Fleet, fast! We're being chased by a-a... a massive behemoth!"

A somewhat disgruntled Eggman picked up the call, grumbling a bit.

"What?? Stop gibbering, Orbot, what's going on out there??"

"We're being chased by this... giant earth-thing! It took out the Egg Knights and we believe its chasing us!" Orbot responded in a panic, though Eggman himself finds it hard to believe at first.

"You were supposed to be clearing out some of the Great Forest so I can build there, Orbot," Eggman grumbled, not sounding pleased at all.

"You may have a valid point, oh great leader, but one slight problem; the Great Forest happens to belong to some kind of deity!" Orbot explained, still in a panicked state while trying to escape.

"...a deity, you say?" Eggman asked, sounding intrigued, now. In the distance, there was a roar.

"Yes, yes! Now get us out of here before we become scrap heap, and I'll show you when you take us there!" Orbot seemed shaken from the sound of a roar, grabs ahold of one of the Egg Pawns once they've seemingly reached a dead-end. Cubot, however, is nowhere to be found.

"Alright, hold your gears! I'll be there shortly!"

The thundering footsteps were getting closer.

All Orbot could do was clutch the Egg Pawn around, trembling in fear as the menacing footsteps came closer.

"A-Anything you wish to say, just in case we... get pummeled?" Orbot asks the Egg Pawn minion.

"Uhh...can't really think of anything, too scared," the Egg Pawn gulped, hugging Orbot back. The treant was soon looming over the two, growling.

With nowhere else to run, Orbot took a clear look at it before closing his eyes, holding onto the Egg Pawn in fear, and getting ready for a seemingly inevitable moment. A huge shadow then fell over the forest, much, much bigger than the treant, and he looked up with a confused snort. It was the Egg Carrier Mk. III!

"Well, well, well," Eggman chuckled from inside of the massive airship. "Orbot certainly wasn't joking when he said there was a deity after him..."

A tractor beam appeared from below the ship to beam up Orbot and the Egg Pawn, and the beast stepped back away from it.

"Oh thank heavens, we're saved" Orbot said with joy, as he and the Egg Pawn were soon transported back into the Egg Carrier Mk. III, having successfully avoided the beast. With a growl, he glared at the retreating Egg Carrier Mk. III

"{I will destroy you if you ever come back!}" he roared.

Inside the Egg Carrier Mk. III, Orbot collapsed as he planted his hands onto the floor, catching his breath from having escaped the treant's wrath.

"Thank you for saving us, oh great leader! Had you not been here, we would've been buried deep into the ground!"

Eggman just waved a hand dismissively.

"Yeah, yeah, save the groveling, Orbot," he huffed. "Firstly, where's Cubot?"

Orbot seemed uneasy when Eggman asked him about his companion, but still answers nevertheless.

"Well, you see ah... Cubot ran off in a seriously panicked moment when we first saw that forest deity having arrived and... well, he hightailed it out of here. But don't fret, I'll try and contact Cubot right away."

Orbot soon tries to send a signal to try and search for Cubot from his voice call feature.

"Cubot, come in. Do you copy?"

There was no answer, Orbot tries again.

"Cubot, come in. Do you copy?"

There was still no answer, Orbot had another uneasy expression on his face.

"Well ah... it seems Cubot's having a glitch as always, Dr. Eggman..."

Eggman groaned and rubbed at his forehead.

"Of course that idiot ran off," he grumbled, crossing his arms. "But enough about that...where exactly did that creature show up, Orbot?"

Orbot displays a holographic image of the same treant moments before it tried to attack them, in the same area Eggman ordered them to be in before he was extracted into the carrier ship.

"So...it came after you once you started clearing out the forest?" Eggman asked.

"It seems so, I'm afraid. It didn't took kindly to us cutting down some trees and wiped out all of the Egg Knights, including all but one Egg Pawns. And it was close to tearing us into pieces as well." Orbot answered, having witnessed the ordeal firsthand. Eggman frowned rubbing his chin.

"Interesting...clearly it's trying to protect the forest," he said. "And if it could wipe out a squadron of my robots without breaking a sweat...hmm, yes, I think I'd like to have such a creature for myself, hehehe..."

Orbot nodded before muttering to himself. "Cubot, where in the faulty circuits have you run off to..."

"Orbot, we're going to try and capture that beast," said Eggman, grinning deviously.

"Ooohh... sounds like a marvelous idea!" Orbot agreed to his leader.

"Question is...how do we catch this thing, hmm?"

"Even though it's a deity, it shouldn't be entirely unstoppable. Even deities like this one have weaknesses." Orbot suggested.

"Yes... I was able to get Chaos under my control, so this creature should be no different," Eggman agreed, pacing a bit as he thought. "What if I... was able to Cyberize something of that scale? Not only that, but be able to mind control it via the Cyberization?"

"That sounds like a great idea! Though, of course, we'd have to weaken it first before it could be yours for the taking, oh great leader." Orbot responded to Eggman.

"Naturally, yes," Eggman nodded. "I imagine a giant tree-thing like that would be weak to fire... ohohoho!"

"So, shall we give this forest deity our own version of greetings, Dr. Eggman?" Orbot asks; and by 'greeting' the treant, he meant attacking it and subduing it for Eggman to capture it. Eggman cackled cruelly.

"Yes, certainly! We'll show this old monster not to mess with the great Dr. Eggman!"

Orbot clapped his hands together with excitement, eager to exact revenge on the treant, especially with Eggman's help.

"Now then, let's get to it, shall we? The sooner the better, after all!"

Orbot nodded in agreement. "Agreed, oh glorious leader!"

Part 5
Back in the G.U.N base...

The G.U.N workers were still making lengthy repairs on the tilt-rotor aircraft, whilst Ajax was still waiting to be released inside the waiting area. He was still shaken from the attack while trying to rescue others. Calvin and Micah were currently in the medical bay while Micah's ankle healed. The younger brother seemed to be quite nervous.

"Cal," he mumbled. "Grampa's gonna be real sore when he finds out about this..."

Calvin, who had been idly swinging his legs while sitting down due to boredom, froze up, eyes widening.

"...we can't let him find out about this!" he squeaked, his gaze snapping towards Micah. "He's gonna be real sore if he does!"

"That's what I just s-"

"We gotta get back home before he finds out where we've been!" Calvin interrupted, jumping off the chair and running towards his brother. "C'mon!"

"But, my ankle...!" Micah whined a bit, looking just as antsy as the other cat.

Ajax had arrived back, being sent to the medical bay again by one of the G.U.N. officials, with a bag of ice placed on his head to reduce the chance of the headache and looks at the two brothers. "You too, huh?"

The two looked over at the hawk as he entered the room.

"Yeah," Micah mumbled, looking down at his ankle. He sighed.

"This stinks..."

"Tell me about it. And it looks like you two didn't had serious injuries. My crew are down, and my pilots were out cold, so I'm just back here until I'm needed again." Ajax responded, sitting himself back with a sigh.

"This day just gets better and better..."

"D'ya think they're gonna tell Grampa where we are?" Micah asked, more to Calvin than to Ajax. Calvin buried his face into his hands.

"We are so grounded...!!"

Micah sighed and leaned back, before looking at Ajax.

"Thanks for rescuing us, by the way," he said, smiling a bit.

All Ajax could do is grin and give the two brothers a thumbs up, all while holding a bag of ice onto his head in place.

Meanwhile, back in the Great Forest, Cubot had barely managed to escape from the treant's wrath for now, soon grinding himself to a halt from running precariously, but it seems he's gotten himself completely lost. The forest was incredibly dense and thick, it seems he can't manage a way out as he was all by himself, without Cubot or the Egg Pawns or Egg Knights.

He looked around in confusion, "Uhhh... dudes? Orbot? Where is everyone?!"

Cubot then realized something, "Oh, wait! I got it!"

He tried to call up Cubot and Eggman from his mainframe, as if trying to contact the two. "Uhhh Orbot? Eggman? Can the both of you hear me?"

There was no response. The dense forest is obviously causing signal interference, preventing the call from getting through. "Orbot? Can you hear me, dude?! I'm lost and scared of that giant tree-monster thing and I'm wondering if ya got any spare parts left unless he turned you into a makeshift toaster! C'mon, this isn't funny, dude!"

And Cubot was seriously unaware that the treant is still around... in fact, the sound of its thunderous footsteps could be heard once more!

Cubot immediately froze in fear, upon hearing the thunderous footsteps taking a dangerous approach. All he could say was, "Uh... oh..."

"{I TOLD YOU TO BEGONE!!}" came a ferocious roar, as the treant stormed into view once more, like an avalanche of furious foliage about to crash down upon Cubot. And yet he did not break any of the trees in his path, somehow; it was as if they bent to make way for him, before moving back into position as normal. The treant scowled down at the hapless robot, snarling.

All Cubot could was turn around and scream in obvious terror, even stepping back several feet from the angry treant!

He held his arms up as to try and reason with the treant, "T-Take it easy there, b-buddy! I-I'm just looking for my uhh... my compadres is all! S-Surely we can work this out with you helping my dudes, r-right buddy?"

He even held out a hand up to the treant, as to offer a handshake, his hand obviously trembling about. Of course, that'd be THE foolish thing to do to even try and reason with an angry treant, even for him.

The behemoth leaned down towards Cubot, his golden eyes blazing in anger.

"You wretches attacked this forest! Why should I work out anything with you?!" he roared; surprisingly, he was speaking English this time.

Cubot was aghast at this, "Wait, you can talk?!" This was indeed the first time he's heard an angry treant talk; it seems the translation module he had with him, and maybe Orbot, didn't function properly.

"I could always talk," the treant huffed. "My primary language may be one older than this very planet, but I've had plenty of time to learn the language of today..."

The treant growled again. "But that's besides the point! I told you to leave this forest or else I would destroy you!"

"W-Well I could except I'm ah... lost and scared, dude!" Cubot admitted, even if the Egg Pawns were doing all the work. Still, he was legitimately terrified at the intimidating size of the treant.

"You don't suppose I'd... run away and scream in sheer terror again, w-would you?"

The ancient one scratched at his chin, as if thinking this over.

"Hmm... no! I'm not feeling particularly merciful right now!"

With a grunt, he swung his massive fist at Cubot.

"No wait--!" Cubot quickly stepped back, just barely missing the attack, but he impact was enough to hurl Cubot back, landing roughly onto the ground. "Ack!"

He shakily gets himself back up, backpedaling from the merciless treant, shaking his hands as if trying to get him to back away, which doesn't seem to work, "C-C'mon, dude! Can't we work something out?! Like, maybe a friendly handshake or something, or maybe even a bro-on-bro talk?!"

He looked around desperately, seemingly defenseless at the treant's impending wrath. Even with weapons in his arsenal, they'll simply prove to be extremely useless against a deity like this one!

"I will not suffer a desecrator of nature to live!" the ancient beast roared. "I know what your kind is capable of!"

Luckily for Cubot, the treant wasn't very fast-moving; Cubot might be able to evade his attacks if he started running. Like, now. Because another fist was bearing down upon him.

Cubot looked up, seeing another fist about to crash down. "Yep. Run away and scream in terror that is, all while flailing my arms helplessly too."

Cubot screamed again and ran away from the treant before feeling the ground shake from the fist crash, his arms flailing around in a comical fashion, but enough to prompt the treant to start a relentless chase!

"GET BACK HERE SO I CAN CRUSH YOU!" the treant roared, lumbering after Cubot.

Cubot was still running away, trying his best to escape from the treant once while still screaming in sheer terror, "Where's Eggman when I need him most?! I don't wanna be turned into a metallic flapjack!"

Vines burst up from the ground in front of Cubot, lashing at him in an attempt to slow him down.

"Gah! Vines?! This forest doesn't get any crazier than this! I wish I could wake up from this crazy dream without a giant tree-monster chasing me all the time!"

Cubot shouted, all while taking a different path in an effort to try and escape the treant before he can catch up to him again! But more vines appeared, striking violently at Cubot. The treant was still pursuing, as well.

Cubot was trying to shield himself with his arms, grunting in pain from the vines lashing at him, even slowing him down in the process. The treant really doesn't take any prisoners, not even in letting Cubot escape!

"Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow, cut it out!"

Meanwhile, the Egg Carrier Mk. III was still hovering about the Great Forest, with Eggman having pulled up his radar in an attempt to locate Cubot.

"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, I hope Cubot's doing alright...! He's like a brother to me!" Orbot worriedly paced himself, with the Egg Pawn doing his best to comfort him.

"I'm sure Cubot's all right...! He's tough!" the Egg Pawn tried to reassure Orbot. Eggman, however, just huffed.

"I can rebuild him easily if he gets squashed," he said, not having much compassion or empathy at the moment. The radar blipped.

"There he is! And oh look; seems he has company, hehehe...!"

The screen of the radar was showing Eggman energy readings; ones that exactly matched the treant from earlier.

Cubot was surrounded and relentlessly attacked by the vines, leaving him no other means of escaping and the treant already closing in.

As for Orbot, he gasped in surprise, "Cubot?! He's still alive!"

Orbot jumped for joy, but is still worried on how Cubot's enduring from being repeatedly attacked with no means of defending himself. Eggman didn't seem to care that Cubot was under attack; he was mostly trying to figure out just he was going to Cyberize the treant so he could control it.

Orbot could only watch with worry as Cubot was still being mercilessly attacked by the vines whilst Eggman was figuring something out. Sure he could rebuild Cubot, or repair him, but all he could do was watch without interrupting Eggman.

"There has to be some way to subdue it," Eggman muttered to himself while the vines continued to attack Cubot, allowing the treant to get closer to attack.

Orbot covered his eyes with his hands, unable to bear to watch Cubot getting repeatedly attacked like this. Cubot was barely holding his own, looking quite damaged from the repeated attacks from the vines; some of them even left a small tear on his back, followed by series of scratches and parts being torn apart as well.

"Aha! I got it!" Eggman cackled, and started typing deftly upon the keyboard. Two cannons emerged from the bottom of the Egg Carrier Mk. III, aiming down towards the treant, and started to charge up.

"There's more than way to cut down a tree, hehe!"

Cubot was still being relentlessly attacked, looking as if pleading for mercy to the treant, "C-Cut it out already, dude! I only have so much spare parts left in me! Can't we just be friends already?!"

"FIRE!" Eggman cried, laughing as he pressed the button; the charging cannons finally fired at the treant with scorching hot beams of energy. The twin beams pierced into the ancient, causing it to roar in agony and stagger back.

The vines were no longer attacking Cubot, watching the cannons fire at the treant. He turns around and looks up, seeing the Egg Carrier Mk. III floating above. "Yeah! I'm saved! Eggman, you da man!"

"YOU!! I TOLD YOU TO LEAVE!!" the treant roared up at the Egg Carrier Mk. III, his wooden hide and iced foliage smoking somewhat; he was hurt, but not down for the count yet. Opening his mouth, a rapid-fire spray of large icicles was launched towards the airship; while it's armored hull wasn't even scratched by the icicles, some of them slammed into one of the cannons, damaging it. Eggman growled.

"Miserable tree! I spent a lot of time building that!"

Down below, Cubot was aghast that one of the cannons were damaged beyond use. "Oh... well, that went well. Hope Egg-dude has plan B... like getting me out of here and back inside in the meantime!"

The treant was irritated that he had no way of reaching the airship so he could properly destroy it; it was far above his head, and no vines could extend far enough to reach it, either. Plus, the ice attacks weren't doing any damage to the airship...

Part 6
Meanwhile, a figure in a hooded trenchcoat walks through the Thunder Plains Zone. His coat is ripped and there's a deep scar in his chest, yet the figure didn't seem to mind. Not so long ago, he'd been in the cold depths of space having been defeated by his arch nemesis. He'd somehow managed to make his way here, and had heard something about legendary beasts roaming the world that had intrigued him.

The weather at the Thunder Plains Zone was normally nothing but thunderstorms, as its name implied. Today the storms seemed to be especially violent... oddly enough, however, this increased intensity didn't seem to be the case for the entire Zone, only a relatively small area. The being was aiming to reach this area, the eye of the storm so to speak. He had a feeling that his objective may be there.

Lightning struck the ground below the fiercest storm, briefly illuminating the silhouette of something huge in the distance... the dark gray skies here made the place almost as dark as nighttime. The figure is unfazed and just keeps walking towards it. He knows he could get there faster by flying or teleporting, but he simply doesn't want to. He just wants to walk: it gave him more time to think. Eventually, he reached his destination.

The Ancient Elemental loomed over the hooded figure as he approached, entirely unfazed by the ferocious thunderstorms raging around it; it was hard to tell if the thunderstorms were caused by its presence, or it was here to absorb the excess lightning in order to prevent it from scorching the earth to cinders. Icy blue eyes shifted their gaze towards the stranger, and the beast spoke in a growl of a voice.

"{Who goes there?}"

The figure looks up the Ancient Elemental.

”My name is Tel-Eth.”

The old one let out a faint rumbling growl, leaning forward towards Tel-Eth.

"I am Xevioso," the beast said, in English this time. "And for what reason does Tel-Eth bring his presence here?"

”I hear there are creatures of power roaming this world. Am I right?”

"This world is rife with ancient beings of great power," Xevioso frowned. "Your query is suspicious, Tel-Eth; what do you want?"

”Your great power,” Tel-Eth continued, seemingly ignoring the question. “What do you use it for?”

"That is none of your business," Xevioso growled, a spark of electricity running through his mane.

”What do you wish to come of this world? Do you want it to live, or to turn it to dust?”

Xevioso let out a snarl at that.

"What a foolish question! Why would I want this world to perish??"

”Of course you wouldn’t. You seem reasonable enough. Yet not reasonable enough to do anything about the state of this world.”

The Beast's eyes narrowed at this.

"What do you mean, exactly?"

”This world is filled with oppressors, tyrants and destroyers. Willing to kill anyone or anything that gets in their way, or worse. Maybe one day they’ll kill you too. You could destroy them with a click of your fingers and begin to make this world paradise. Why do you stay your hand?”

This question seemed to catch Xevioso off-guard. He frowned.

"My kind usually keep to themselves," he admitted. "I do not know how appropriate it is for me to interfere to heavily with the lives of this world's inhabitants... The Grand Starwheel made a promise to the creator of this world that life would be allowed to progress naturally, without outside interference, but..."

But the idea of striking down the oppressors of Mobius seemed to appeal to the Ancient Beast.

”I believe some people have already broken that natural progression,” Tel-Eth continued “I am not suggesting that we kill everyone on this planet, but there are some monsters in this world who deserve to be burned.”

''Funny. ''Tel-Eth thought to himself. For so long I was trying to break the natural order for the greater good and now I’m doing the opposite.

"...go on," Xevioso rumbled, now laying down in front of Tel-Eth.

"So why don't we burn them together?" Tel-Eth said. "Save the heroes of this world and destroy the villains. Keep your natural progression going."

"...hmm... yes," Xevioso seemed to purr. "I enjoy this idea a lot! Even this planet's heroes could use a little bit of help now and then, no?"

"Of course. Although that does beg the question of who to target first. I am not extremely familiar with the tyrants of this planet."

Almost immediately, Xevioso started to growl.

"The one who calls himself Dr. Eggman...! He might just be the worst!" the Ancient Beast barked. "He has his eyes and ears all over Mobius..."

"Doctor Eggman?" Tel-Eth repeats "An interesting name... maybe we should pay him a visit?"

"If only I knew where he lived," Xevioso grumbled. "My siblings of the air have told me they've seen a massive, flying craft of some sort, before; it just might belong to him."

"And did they say where this aircraft would be?" Tel-Eth replied. As he says this, his coat begins knitting itself back together and the scar across his chest began to heal.

"It travels all across the planet, apparently," Xevioso sighed. "None can say where it might be right now..."

"Well, I suppose it can't be too hard to find. This world isn't too large after all, and it must be within a certain altitude." Tel-Eth looks up, as if expecting to see the ship fly directly above him.

There was no sign of the airship, however. Xevioso frowned.

"Well... you're not wrong about that; we certainly won't be able to miss it once we do see it."

The great beast got up, stretching in a catlike manner.

"All we can do is look."

After the Tiamat incident, Team Watts was still flying in the city, wandering around. Tina was trying to use echolocation to find it. ''Hm... I think I'm getting something...''

White's legs stated to sputter after having used them for so long, and Tina, annoyed by the distracting noise, asked them all to start walking. All three of them fell to the floor and continued. With a sigh, Sephtis asked, "So, what's the game plan? I mean, flying and walking is great and all, but don't we need an actual mission if we're gonna stay here?"

"We're trying to find the GUN base," said White with crossed arms. "They probably want to know more about the ordeal at the ocean, and we can't leave them with nothing. Though I find they're pretty unreliable, they are a big deal, and we're obligated to give them some help."

"Wait, we're going to rat the dragon lady out?!" Sephtis said, jumping back a little. "I mean, yeah, she wasn't the nicest, but we can't betray her so quickly. As far as we know, she's been keeping her promise, because I haven't heard any screams of terror or explosions yet."

"We're not telling them everything," replied Tina with closed eyes. "We'll mostly just tell them what happened while the aircraft was there with us." They all walked forward in silence for a bit before Tina opened her eyes. "Bingo. Got the GUN base!" Tina flew forwards, and White and Sephtis followed after her.

There was a soldier stationed outside of the base, and he held up his hand as Tina and the other two approached the building.

"Do you three have an appointment?" he asked.

"Well, I mean... technically?" Sephtis replied, scratching the back of his head. "We're the group that was with the aircraft, if they work for GUN. We were there during the second disturbance, you could say, in the ocean. We want to share some info with them."

The man's eyes widened a bit, and he nodded briefly.

"Hurry inside, then," he said, opening up the doors for the group. "After that disaster on the Northern Great Sea, we need all the information we can get..."

Inside, Ajax and the two brothers were still in the waiting room, with Ajax having a chat with the two brothers. His head was already covered in bandages by the doctor.

"...lucky enough for all of us to survive. Had we not rescued you two, things would've gotten much worse. Most of my crew and the pilots were still injured. And the doc can't tell when those pilots will regain their consciousness." Ajax said to the two brothers.

"Heyo!" Sephtis said with a smile, flying in and waving his hands. "We have returned!"

"We learned some important things about Tiamat, but you have to make sure it stays relatively secret," continued White. Calvin blinked.

"Wait, who's Tiamat?" he asked. "Is it that huge dragon we saw...?"

"Seems like it. And we were attacked while rescuing the two, already explained Leon about it." Ajax answered for him.

"I'm just sitting here until Leon or other soldiers return to inform me."

"Well, the only reason she attacked is because she believes that the infamous battleship was sent to attack her land," Tina explained. "She doesn't have too much against us Mobians, we just have to make sure we stay away from her territory."

"She's also really self-righteous about her people," White continued with crossed arms. "She is going to be really mad if you guys show any intention of harming her homelands." ''There's also the fact that she's weak to electricity, but... just to be nice to her, I won't tell them that. You're welcome, Tiamat.'' "Also, just a warning... if you guys really do go down there to try a search for her kind..."

White chuckled a little, and Tina finished with "You can't expect us to sit back and watch. You guys stay over here, or we will stop you." ''Though she was a little crazy, she just cares about helping her people. We can't let GUN take that away from her.''

Calvin frowned.

"We didn't wanna hurt her or her people...! Honest!" he said, shaking his head with wide eyes.

Ajax nodded in agreement, "And we just barely survived the attack too, all while we were doing a rescue mission... yet we had to be the ones to be rescued."

He couldn't remember too much, due to still recovering from a concussion.

"Yeah, we told her that she couldn't act so hastily again, but... I just had to make sure," White said with a sigh. "It's good to know we're all on the same side here."

Ajax simply nodded with a sigh, still holding his head with his hand as to try and get himself some bearings.

"So whadda we do now?" Calvin asked.

"We'll probably have to wait until Leon returns and give us the word. My crew members are still out so I'll have to be here for awhile until they're better. And until the aircraft's up and running again." Ajax replied.

At that point, Leon walked into the room, looking at Ajax.

"I don't know how long it'll take for them to repair that aircraft," he said. "But your crewmen are recovering in the medical bay."

Ajax glanced at Leon and gave a nod before given another bag of ice by the GUN doctor, resting it onto his head. "At least it's some good news, Leon. As for the AVG-246, well... it's a big one, and I wouldn't be surprised if it'll take a year or two until it's ready to fly again."

Leon shrugged.

"I'm no mechanic," he said.

"I know. Anyways, these are the two young brothers I had rescued." Ajax pointed at both Calvin and Micah.

Leon quirked an eyebrow at that.

"They look pretty young to be away from their guardian," he mused. "Where exactly did you find them?"

"The same area where that... thing attacked while they were floating int he air inside a bubble. The others chose to stay behind so I had to rescue only two before... well, you get the rest." Ajax responded, unable to give a clear description to Leon due to still recovering from his concussion.

"Hmm..."

Leon looked over at White and his group.

"Did you three happen to be there as well?" he asked them.

"Yeah, we watched the whole thing!" Sephtis said. "It was awesome! White kicked butt!"

"Kicked butt?" Leon asked, looking curious. "Did he actually fight that dragon, then?"

"Yeppers!" Sephtis said, flying up a little bit and freeing his wings. "He was really cool!"

"Huh, impressive," Leon smiled, nodding a bit. "Hopefully that dragon won't be a problem anymore, then."

"Yeah, I'm sure of it," said White, fingers crossed behind his back.

"So... whadda we do now?" asked Calvin, looking rather bored.

Ajax shrugged. "We sit and wait, I suppose."

He mumbled softly. "Wonder how Razer's doing..."

The sun was starting to set in the desert now; Linebeck stopped, frowning.

"Looks like it's starting to get dark... you brought a flashlight, right?"

Razer simply smirked and holds up a finger, which emits a small flame. Even though it's indeed small, it was enough to increase visibility from the darkness around them, and it basically acts like a flashlight, or a torchlight.

"Who needs a flashlight when you have this from yours truly?"

Linebeck rolled his eyes a bit.

"Showoff," he chuckled, shaking his head. "Still, might not be a bad idea to find a place to set up ca-"

He was interrupted by a sort of whooshing noise, and looked up at the sky; flying above the two, far enough away to not be able to discern the shape but close enough for it to be clearly visible, was what looked like some sort of strange, bright comet.

"WHOA! WHOA, LOOK!!" he cried, pointing up.

Razer quickly jumped out of the way, just as the comet flew right above them.

"Ack! What the--?!" He quickly got up to his feet, looking towards the direction where the comet flew by. "Supposed we should take a look, don't you think?"

The 'comet' was too high above to be a real threat, but the two could feel the rush of wind and the heat coming off of it all the same.

"Hell yeah we should take a look; let's go!" Linebeck, already running ahead in his excitement.

Razer followed Linebeck as to head towards the source of the 'comet'. He made sure to not let his guard down as to ready himself for the coming danger. It was still hard to tell exactly what it was... however, it did seem to be trying to touch down, towards some nearby cliffs.

"Is it landing...?" Linebeck wondered aloud.

"Seems like it." Razer responded, his visor goggles scanning the figure, with the text displaying as:

UNKNOWN

It seems it can't determine to what it is and took a careful approach, but ensuring not to get too close to it. "Let's not get too close to it, we don't know what it is, Linebeck."

The ferret nodded.

"Right..."

His curiosity was definitely amped up, however, as he continued to jog towards the cliffs, where the comet seemed to be landing. Surprisingly, the shape seemed to expand... almost as if it were growing massive wings?

Razer's alert was heightened, prompting him to approach next to Linebeck and get himself ready should the danger arises. He took a defensive stance, keeping his guard up in case Linebeck gets carried away. The great light and flames surrounding the shape started to disperse, eventually revealing the form of a massive wyvern, landing on the top of the cliff.

"Whoa...!!"

"What is that...?" Razer asked in awe. The visor goggles scanning it again, but the text was still displayed as 'UNKNOWN'. This resulted him to get confused by this.

"'Unknown'? Ugh, must be a fault in those goggles..."

"Should we go check it out?" Linebeck asked. The wyvern didn't seem to notice them, resting quietly on top of the cliff. The sun was nearly down now, but a faint glow was still coming from the creature.

"...we could try. Just stay behind me in case things go wrong." Razer instructed. Sure Linebeck can handle himself, though he'd rather not see his friend get hurt if they were to inadvertently provoke the wyvern-like figure. He took a careful approach towards it before stopping mid-way.

He cleared his throat for him to speak, in hopes of getting its attention.

"Hey!!" he called out as loud as he could. The beast let out a startled snort, jolting in place before looking around for the source of the yell. The setting sun shimmered warmly off of its beautiful feathers.

Razer had a quick idea; he opened up his hand which emits a ball of fire and hurls it up into the air, acting as a flare in hopes that the wyvern can notice it. The beast let out a snarl, backing up when the flare rose up into the air; did it see the signal as a threat? This time, it looked down towards the ground, and saw Razer and Linebeck.

Razer waved to the wyvern. "Hey! Can you see us! And before you do anything, we're not threats and we do not intend to inflict harm! We only wanted your attention!"

It was much bigger than the two Mobians, so if Razer were to talk normally, it wouldn't be able to hear him. With a hiss, it started to climb down the cliff, clearly not interested in a friendly discussion.

He stood his ground as he watched it approach, keeping himself on alert. "May we ask who and what you are?"

"That... is none of your business!" it, or rather she, hissed. "I do not take kindly to stalkers...!"

She seemed quite agitated.

He stood back a bit, still keeping his defensive stance up. "We weren't stalking. If any, you flew right from the sky and saw you just land over that cliff. We thought you were a comet, but upon closer look you're... a wyvern...?!"

Razer was quite surprised at this; he has clearly never seen anything like this before. Even the visor goggles had locked onto it, or her, with the text flashing 'ALERT!' in front of him. He whispered to Linebeck while keeping his eyes on the wyvern, "You seeing what I'm seeing, Linebeck...?"

"I sure do," he whispered back. The wyvern snorted a bit, eyes narrowing.

"I am not just 'a wyvern', I am Saranyu," she said, putting a claw to her chest. "And I do not have time to chit-chat."

She lifted her head, as if looking out for something... something after her?

Razer noticed her expression, realizing something is up. "...is someone after you? If there's any consolation, we were never after you, nor did we led any foe to you. It may be none of our business, but if something is after you, we can try and provide assistance for you. You might still think of us as stalkers, but we're not a threat to you."

"....."

The great beast's expression softened somewhat, but she didn't seem willing to let down her guard just yet.

"You would be willing to help me?" she asked, tilting her head to the side. "Hmmmh..."

Razer nodded.

"Yes. I'll show you a demonstration of my own powers. Don't freak out or anything."

He was indeed telling the truth, especially by opening up two balls of fire and combining them into one, larger fireball, right in front of her. After a couple of seconds, he clasps the fireball together, which emits nothing but smoke. He moved his hands apart, with smoke coming out of his hands.

Saranyu watched as Razer showed off his pyrokinetic abilities... and she didn't exactly seem impressed.

"So you're one of those Element-wielding Mobians," she said, nodding a bit.

Razer nodded back. "You bet. I didn't want to show off too much. Now, will you let us fend off a threat that's been targeting you?"

Before he can get an answer, he did introduced himself and to Linebeck as well. "I'm Razer. And this here's Linebeck."

Linebeck waved at the wyvern.

"Heya!"

The beast frowned and scratched lightly at her neck.

"Hmm... I suppose. If only because this threat is... well, actually a threat to me..."

Razer cocked a brow. "Could you describe of what that threat looks like?"

"...a massive flying... thing," she mumbled. "Armed with powerful and uncountable weapons..."

"'Flying thing'...? That could only mean one thing..." Razer soon came to realization about this.

"You know what this thing is?" she asked, her head moving down to get closer to Razer, as if listening intently to him.

"Not a thing... even if it is, it's controlled by Doctor Eggman..." Razer came to realization to this. "If this is true, then we must protect you at any cost, to ensure he doesn't come after you."

Part 7
Eggman was slowly but surely wearing down the treant; the being, despite his great power, simply couldn't stand up to the mad doctor's vast technology. He started to sink to his knees under a hail of super-heated shrapnel shots and laser blasts, a rumbling roar of pain escaping him. The grass around him shriveled up from the heat, and some shots gouged into the bark of nearby trees.

"Marvelous, oh great leader! It's only a matter of time!" Orbot jumped up with joy along with the Egg Pawn. At this point, Eggman fired some kind of other beam at the beast, that enshrouded it in a translucent blue glow of some kind; this glow seemed to start to solidify, and the treant roared, trying to break free.

Cubot watched in awe, watching the treant helplessly trying to break to no avail. Orbot, inside the Egg Carrier, watched with eagerness as Eggman was close to getting to his first prize.

Slowly, the treant started to freeze, although the beam was in no way cold; then, the beam started to lift the helpless being up into the Carrier.

Cubot had hitched a ride as well as he was lifted up into the beam. Orbot was eagerly waiting for his damaged friend to return inside the carrier. "Oh boy! We have our first prize coming up!"

Finally, the creature was one of the containment bays of the Carrier, still sealed up by the strange beam.

"Whew! Thank heavens that's over!" Cubot said, having looked obviously damaged from a skirmish against the treant.

Orbot ran over to Cubot with excitement. "Oh thank heavens, you're alive, Cubot!"

Just when Orbot was going to hug Cubot, he instead slapped him across his square-headed face!

"Ow! Dude, what was that for?!" Cubot exclaimed.

"How dare you run off from us like that?! Look at you, you could've been a metallic swiss cheese! You're lucky Eggman's in a great mood or he'd have you decommissioned!"

"To be fair, Cubot did serve as fantastic bait," Eggman chuckled as he walked up, looking towards the treant. He grinned.

"Hmm... yes, just as impressive as I thought it would be! Ohoho!"

Cubot was taken by the Egg Knights to have him repaired while Orbot approached Eggman.

"Suppose we can have more, don't you agree? It seems the next map has shown us the next target for capture! As the saying goes, the more the merrier!" Orbot suggested, as to further boost Eggman's optimism.

"Excellent, excellent! Let's get on that right away, yes?"

He started walking away to the main control room.

Orbot eagerly awaits for Eggman to set up coordinates while his friend Cubot was undergoing repairs. Soon, the Egg Carrier Mk. III was headed off again, towards a desert...

"Linebeck, do you have your knife with you?" Razer asked. Linebeck nodded and pulled out his Swiss Army Knife.

Razer nodded and took an approach. "Alright. Watch this."

He opened up his hand, the heat focusing on the blade of the Swiss Army Knife. Normally, it would've started to melt it, but instead, Linebeck's Swiss Army Knife was enhanced with fire! And the handle was safe as to not risk burning Linebeck's hand by accident. The blade itself was glowing hot, which is more than enough to slice any metal object like butter.

"There we go..."

Linebeck watched with interest as Razer imbued the tool with his fire, causing the blade of the knife to become glowing hot.

"Whoa...! That's pretty nifty!" he chuckled.

Razer gave him a thumbs up with a brief smile before turning his attention back to Saranyu. "We better get ourselves ready. And I'm pretty sure running away isn't an option. Not when Eggman will just keep follow around."

She nodded, although it was clear that she was still uneasy.

Soon, deep, rumbling sounds are heard from high above the skies, and Razer darted his head up to the direction; it's the Egg Carrier Mk. III!

"It's just as I feared...!" Razer exclaimed. "Get ready!"

The Egg Carrier soon fires off a beam cannon at the trio! Linebeck and Razer leaped out of the way as fast as he could.

"Jeez! He sure likes his aggressive entrances, doesn't he??"

Saranyu flapped her wings and lifted up into the air before the beam hit, opening her mouth and spewing a big stream of fire at the Carrier.

"Yeah, no kidding! We'd attack, but it's too high up; even my pyrokinesis can't reach it!" Razer exclaimed; as he's ground-bound, he's unable to do much, and as the Egg Carrier Mk. III is too high up, he's unable to do anything about it. And even if he could fly, the Egg Carrier is near-impenetrable. Saranyu's fire was more than capable of reaching the Egg Carrier Mk. III. Unfortunately, Eggman was prepared; he already had a heat-resistant shield up around the aircraft, and her fire barely did anything.

"FIRE!" Eggman yelled out inside the Egg Carrier, firing off the beam cannon at Saranyu. She had opened her mouth to try another fireball, and the beam ended up hitting her in the chest, sending her slamming into the side of the cliff with a roar; a great cloud of dust and smoke rose up from the impact.

"Oh no! C'mon Linebeck!" Razer ran towards Saranyu. Having been weakened by the beam cannon, Eggman had prepared to fire a tractor beam as to extract the wounded wyvern after weakening her. Razer, seeing the tractor beam about to take Sanaryu from the smoke.

His eyes widened by this. "No!"

Linebeck was bolting after Razer as fast as he could, and Saranyu struggled to free herself from the wreckage; a good amount of rubble had fallen onto her when she smashed into the cliff, and she roared in pain, writhing in a desperate attempt to escape.

As the tractor beam nears in, Razer opened up his hands, releasing a jet of flames as to propel forward at an increased speed due to adrenaline rush. "I won't let you, Eggman... I won't let you!"

Linebeck skid to a halt when he saw Razer jump into the tractor beam.

"Razer, no!!"

Razer had soon entered into smoke and dust, basically vanishing himself. The tractor beam soon catches its target and was pulling straight inside. And inside the carrier, it seems Eggman's obvious optimism was showing as he cheered on, with Orbot clapping his hands together.

"Bravo, Dr. Eggman, bravo! You're on a winning streak!" Orbot said, just dancing around with joy. Unbeknownst to them whilst celebrating,t he monitor shows that something else is being taken into the Carrier, and it wasn't Saranyu from all the dust and smoke...

Razer was far too small for Eggman to even notice that he had shown up. He laughed and turned towards the holding bay, where the treant was being kept.

"Two down, who knows how many to go, hehehe. I need to get to work on trying to figure out how to Cyberize something so large..."

He then walked away, chuckling to himself, unaware of his folly.

Outside of the Carrier, the dust and smoke had cleared up, which showed Saranyu having barely survived. Of course, once that clears up... something was amiss. The badly wounded beast didn't have the strength to pull herself from the rubble right now, and Linebeck couldn't see any sign of Razer...

"Razer...?? RAZER?! RAZER, WHERE ARE YA?!" he called out.

It soon became evident that Saranyu was spared, but in return, Razer was instead captured by Eggman when he used himself as a shield to protect her!

"Oh... this isn't good," Linebeck mumbled to himself.

Back inside the Egg Carrier Mk. III's loading bay, Eggman eagerly awaits the 'creature' he had captured, even after eyeing the treant he had captured.

"As soon as I figure out how to Cyberize these beasts... ohoho...!"

Unfortunately, his glee turned to confusion... and then anger.

"What-...what is the meaning of this?!"

Orbot was aghast at this. "What the--? We captured a Mobian?!"

Razer was quick to charge towards the two, his fists coated with blaze. "Graaa--"

Unfortunately, Eggman's Egg Forces stop Razer's attack, by deploying retractable claws and restrain his arms and pulling him back from both Eggman and Cubot. "What the--! Let go!"

He tried to pry himself free, even using his pyrokinesis as to try and burn them to no avail. These types of Egg Army are resistant to pyrokinesis.

"No way! I can't believe this!" Eggman cried, looking quite furious as he glared at the restrained Razer.

"Yeah, well believe this, Egg-head!" Razer shouted as he soon began to take a deep breath, as to unleash a flamethrower. Of course, a third Egg Army clasps its claws around his mouth, nullifying the effects of his flamethrower attack, and only a puff of smoke was emitted.

Orbot then had a thought. "I have a suggestion! Why don't we use him as a living weapon for our next target? One that dwells in the sea?"

"Mmph?!" Razer let out a muffled gasp.

Eggman frowned a bit as he rubbed his chin.

"Hmm.. an interesting proposal, Orbot," he said. "Might as well get some use out of this meddlesome pest after he denied me the chance to capture that other beast."

He then grinned; that couldn't mean good news for Razer...

Meanwhile, the faction of the Artika Egg Army stationed in the Frozen Plateau Zone was about to get a nasty surprise...

As were Eggman's orders, mining operations within the Shiverstone Caves continued like normal, with the Egg Soldiers getting slightly deeper into the icy maze every day. It was impossible to tell just how far down they truly went, however... and Sub-Boss Ivory was getting more and more reports from her men about suspiciously animalistic noises coming from deep within the caves.

"There's no way something that big can live in here, there's no food or water for it," she had told them over and over again. "It's probably just the ice settling and cracking."

Outside of the cave, meanwhile, a seemingly peculiar fox was merely wandering around the snowy environment, glancing to see what's going on. There were a few Badniks patrolling the mouth of the cave, but none of them seemed to notice the fox in the distance. Other than that, things were silent and cold.

He soon looked towards the Shiverstone Caves. Unlike his normal counterpart, he doesn't hate or like Eggman. He's just himself. And he soon took an approach to the area, throwing caution to the wind, but is always wise to not attack them. All he could do was smirk with interest.

"Well, this is interesting."

The Badniks stationed outside, a Hoverby and three Buzzbombers, turned towards him, eyes glowing as they focused on him.

"Halt! State your business!" the Hoverby demanded in a robotic voice.

He looks up at the Hoverby, doesn't seem at all surprised by this. "Just thought I'd check things out is all. And before you'd ask, no, I'm not one of those good guys around here."

"This region is owned by the Eggman Empire," said the Hoverby. "You are trespassing!"

Crytus cocked a brow at this. "Really? Don't suppose you can hire me, right? I'm a free agent."

Even if he was trespassing, he doesn't show much of a threat. He merely considers himself a freelancer. The Hoverby seemed to be intrigued by this.

"Hire? Hmm... an interesting prospect; this will have to be discussed with Ivory, however."

"Works for me." Crytus shrugged. He basically has no affiliation with anyone, neither on heroes nor villains.

"Follow me," said the Hoverby, flying into the cave. Crytus didn't said much, and simply followed Hoverby without a word. Inside, a sort of lobby had been carved out from the permafrost and ice, lit up with wall-mounted lights. Some Badniks and Egg Soldiers could be seen, and the Hoverby led Crytus over to a female leopard.

Crytus whistles in admiration once he was inside. "Nice décor. Sure looks well-organized."

"Thank you," said the leopard, looking over at Crytus. "You are...?"

"Crytus." He simply said. She nodded.

"Ivory," she replied. "It's not often an outsider wanders directly into Eggman Empire territory; what exactly brings you here?"

"Well, I couldn't help but be curious about this place, and figured I can possibly provide assistance. Of course, my appearance comes off as a surprise." Crytus admits, turns himself around to see he's anything but a regular Mobian... or Moebian, in this case. Most notably his arms that are completely made of ice. Ivory seemed fairly interested in his physical appearance, but said nothing about it.

"You wish to help us? Even more unexpected," she hummed, tilting her head to the side. "But... I suppose more help is always appreciated here."

At that, a male fox came running up.

"Wait, boss! How do we know we can trust this guy...??"

Crytus simply smirked. "I'm neither good nor bad. Though truth to be told, I'm not exactly a Moebian you'd expect. Wanna know something about me?"

"Uhh... you're a stranger with ice all over your arms?" the fox asked, pointing at Crytus' arms.

"That's besides the obvious. You see, I'm actually a living elemental. As crazy as it sounds, I really am a living elemental." Crytus truthfully admitted the duo. Artyom rubbed his chin.

"Huh... interesting," he nodded. Just then, another Egg Soldier came running up.

"Ivory...! We found something deeper in the mine...!" she cried. The leopard frowned.

"Like what?"

"Like... claw-marks! Big ones!"

Crytus turned around to face the Egg Soldier before looking back to Ivory. "Sounds like there's some action going on, I presume?"

"Well... supposedly," Ivory frowned. "But I don't understand how something could live in here, when there's no plants. No plants, no animals to feed on them."

"You have to check this out, Ivory!" the ptarmigan pleaded. "Something had to make those claw-marks...!"

The leopard sighed a bit.

"Alright... alright, I'll go take a look," she said. "Show me where they are."

Crytus had soon followed Ivory, not saying a word. He's always willing to follow the leader, after all. The source of the claw-marks was located quite deep into the mine, in an area barely touched by the Egg Soldiers or the Badniks. The ptarmigan wasn't lying about them, either; they were huge and deep, and Ivory was quite speechless.

"How...what...?"

"Hmm. Think there are massive beasts somewhere inside?" Crytus asked. He wasn't really fazed, but the claw marks did caught his interest.

"It has to be the same thing that's been making all those growls and roars!" said the ptarmigan. "There has to be some kind of monster in here... but Eggman won't let us halt mining operations in this cave..."

"If we can get concrete proof of this possible monster, he might allow us to pull out," Ivory said, arms crossed. "Then again... it's not like he cares about his troops all that much..."

"I don't think I want to go monster hunting," the ptarmigan mumbled.

"...suppose Eggman gets all the glory? Don't you think he's supposed to give you a fair slice, Ivory? No offense and all." Crytus curiously asked. The leopard frowned.

"We do as he tells us," she said. "It's not like we really have a choice in the matter..."

"If we disappoint him... he might activate the fail-safe in our Cybernetics," the arctic fox frowned.

Crytus was surprised at this. "Seriously? You work for him yet Eggman doesn't give rewards, much less give you guys gratitude? I get paid in full for my successful work from various bosses, and this is coming from me, a mercenary/freelancer."

He seethed at this. "If my bosses never paid me for all the hard work I've done, I'd freeze them solid..."

"Our reward is not getting paralyzed and locked away in a dark room," the fox shrugged. The leopard waved a hand dismissively.

"Enough speaking of this; we need to find proof of this supposed cave monster."

Crytus gave a nod, glances around inside the cave before getting an idea. "I have an idea."

"Do tell," said Ivory, looking over at Crytus.

Crytus raises his arms up, which soon hundreds of spider-like creatures, all made of ice, emerge around him from the icy ground. They all look at him, awaiting his command.

"Spread out and search for that beast inside the caves!" Crytus instructed. The ice-lings, following his command, had soon spread out and skittered away as to search around within the caves.

"Fascinating," Ivory hummed, watching the mass of small, icy 'spiders' start to spread out deeper into the cave, unintentionally spooking a few of the Egg Soldiers along the way.

Crytus simply chuckled upon hearing their reaction."Unless I tell them otherwise, they're basically harmless. They don't contain venom, but they do explode which freezes non-ice users solid, especially if their numbers are quite great. Sure they're weak, but it's large numbers are what matters most."

"I see," Ivory nodded. "I suppose we just wait, now."

The spider-like ice creatures continue to search around for the beast. Unlike Mobians, these creatures do not tire out very easily and they never stop until they find it. The caves extended down deep, deep into the frozen earth, where the Egg Soldiers had not yet explored... there seemed to be more claw-marks in the walls and floor, now.

They take notice of the claw marks and venture deeper inside as to find the source, hoping to find the beast in question. It was quite a long trek for the little spiders, but, at last, they found a massive chamber, the walls and ceiling glittering a myriad of beautiful blues, thanks to all the Algidite embedded in them. And sleeping in the center of the chamber was what appeared to be a massive ice dragon, albeit without wings.

Once of the spider-like ice creatures had soon returned to the group, making chittering sounds to Crytus.

"You found something? Alright, lead the way." Crytus motioned his head to Ivory as to follow it. She nodded, and followed after Crytus and the ice spiderlings.

Eventually, they arrive deep inside the cave where the ice dragon was dwelling in. Ivory stared at it in shock.

"I don't believe this... not only is there actually something living in this cave... i-it's huge...!"

She kept her voice low, not wanting to wake the slumbering beast.

Crytus whispered to Ivory as to give her a suggestion. "Best to not disturb it, lest you'd end up unleashing its wrath. Even if Eggman would want it, you wouldn't want your pals to get hurt, or worse."

He also lowered his arm, as to call off the spiderlings. They follow his command and they bury themselves into the snow, vanishing altogether.

"I... don't even know if I should tell him about this," she whispered. "Knowing what he did concerning Chaos... I don't doubt he'd try to capture this creature, or demand that we attempt such a task."

She paced a bit, frowning.

"But we can't halt mining operations without his approval, and I can't think of any other way to convince him to let us stop... this place is dangerous enough as it is, we don't need to deal with a giant monster on top of it."

"Do you really think mining is worth it, even if means losing those you care about deeply? Sure Eggman would like fortune... but think carefully; are resources really worth more than your colleagues? And if it happens, do you honestly think Eggman would feel sorry for your friends becoming victims?" Crytus also whispered, voicing concern to Ivory.

"......"

She sighed heavily, turning away from the dragon, and from Crytus.

"I ask myself that same question many times," she admitted. "But you don't seem to realize how dangerous it is to defy Lord Eggman's will..."

There was no threatening tone in her voice; she simply sounded tired, almost defeated.

"In other words, you're in a no-win situation. If you'd continue to mine, that dragon's wrath will be unleashed, and your friends will perish as a result. And if you stopped mining without informing him before, then Eggman will likely cause all of you to become permanently paralyzed." Crytus responded, in an honest manner as well.

"You basically hit the nail on the head," Ivory nodded, frowning. The dragon shifted in its sleep, a low growl escaping it.

Part 8
At the Great Northern Sea, the Egg Carrier Mk III was making its way to where Tiamat dwells. And Razer was completely bound within the core of the cannon, unable to break himself free, with a metal clamp around his mouth to prevent him from unleashing his fire breath. He struggles to escape, to absolutely no avail. He was a living weapon for Eggman, whether he liked it or not.

The oceanic dragoness did not seem to currently be in sight... Eggman rubbed his chin.

"That beast should be around here somewhere... might want to give it a wake-up call, hehehe..."

"Maybe we can fire off smaller, explosive rounds in order to get the beast's attention?" Orbot suggested. Eggman laughed.

"I like it! Gives us a chance to test out my new weapon!"

Razer was letting out muffled noises, with an obviously angered sound to it. He tries to burn through the clamp, but said clamp was entirely fireproof, even shooting an angry glare at the two, yet he's unable to do anything at all, he was helpless.

"Shall we?" Orbot asked gleefully. Eggman cackled now.

"Fire, I say! Ohoho!"

Razer struggled and thrashed as hard as he could, but it was only a matter of time as his pyrokinesis was fed into the cannon, soon letting out pained yet muffled screams as a result of this, which are barely even heard. A barrage of explosive, fiery rounds were launched into the ocean below, where they exploded violently, causing great waves to form. So far, no reaction... and then, a massive shape started to appear from below the churning waves.

Razer was greatly injured as a result of his pyrokinesis being siphoned from his body. He was still standing and still struggling, but for how long is anyone's guess. And it didn't take long for Tiamat to emerge from the waves!

"Ooohh! There it is, Eggman! Our second prize for the taking!" Orgot spoke with excitement. Normally he'd be afraid of Razer, but since being bound to the cannon and being used as a weapon, he's never felt this relaxed and excited.

"{FOOL!! PERISH FOR YOUR INSOLENCE!!}" she roared at them, opening her mouth and spewing a great torrent of water at the Egg Carrier Mk. III.

Orbot braces himself, but knows that Eggman was well-prepared for this. The blast of water didn't do anything to the Carrier itself, but they intercepted the other explosive rounds that the cannon fired, making them explode in midair.

The explosive rounds made contact to Tiamat, inflicting damage to her. Razer was still holding on, but with each rounds fired means his pyrokinesis is being used up even more, much to his increased pain.

The dragon growled and dove back underneath the waves, eventually resurfacing near the back of the Carrier, where she then fired a wave of icicles from her mouth at it.

Eggman was prepared to launch a counterattack, with Razer inside the core of the cannon. "FIRE!"

Inside the core cannon, Razer was in serious pain as his pyrokinesis was fed right into the core as the mad scientist fire off another round at Tiamat, burning right through the iciciles as they evaporate into nothing.