Spearhead Iron War Part 8 (Duet)

With support in the Iron Dominion crumbling away, the Republic of Acorn and the Holoskan Sovereignty  prepare to make their final move against the Iron Queen’s forces.  However, the alliance between the Dominion and the House of S’Nal continues, regardless of the fallouts with the other four clans of the Dominion.

Hoping to bring an end to his family’s involvement in the Iron Dominion, Delrock has declared the Dominion an enemy of the Edge clan.  However, Atatsu has declared autonomy for her house in rebellion of Delrock’s authority. To bring an end to Atatsu’s defiance, Delrock has dispatched Blade the Hedgehog and Ravage the Wolf to arrest Atatsu and break the Dominion-S’Nal alliance…

West Side Island
New Mobotropolis perimeter
2 days before the Liberation of New Mobotropolis.
2:00pm


Blade and Ravage appeared outside the wall of the city. The two mobians were dressed in hooded black cloaks that concealed their faces. Ravage shivered, “I’ll never get used to that.” The wolf said as he stretched out his arms. “Shouldn’t we be inside the city?”
“A miscalculation on my part.” Blade muttered as he took his hand out of his coat pocket. “I’ll need to make another attempt.”
“Don’t bother,” Ravage said as he unstrapped the war hammer on his back. “We can break through the stone base of the wall and walk in.”
“I shouldn’t need to remind you that this is a stealth mission.” Blade said, “We don’t have the luxury of the straight forward approach.” Ravage nodded and reattached the hammer to his back.
“I suggest we ditch these cloaks. Latest intelligence suggests that there are citizens on the streets at this time.”
“What kind of guard rotations should we expect?”
“Mostly S’Nal clan warriors on the streets.” Ravage said. “However, some members of the four clans have remained loyal to the Iron Queen and will be in the city as well. We also need to worry about Nicole.”
“She’ll recognize the both of us the moment we enter. She’s seen us both enough to know our faces.” Ravage pulled out a small box from his pocket.
“Echoes called this a nanite disrupter. It will cause Nicole discomfort if she comes close enough.”
“I can use my powers to keep myself hidden.” Blade envisioned an alley near the main street in his mind. “Ready for another warp?” Ravage nodded. “Alright, Chaos Shift.”

Blade and Ravage appeared inside the alleyway. Blade looked around the wall and into the street. He saw the guards watch over the mobian citizens as they went about their daily routine. “We’ll part ways, head for the council building through separate paths.” Ravage nodded and removed his cloak and removed the Spearhead insignia from his uniform. He tore the sleeves from his coat to give him a more rugged look and made other such modifications to his clothes. “I’ll move along the rooftops.”
“That cloak will make you easy to spot.”
“I’ll use my powers to bend the light around me, I’ll be invisible to the gaurds.”
“What about Nicole?”
“I’ll worry about that later. Get going, and try to look inconspicuous.” Ravage nodded and pulled a bottle of alcohol from his pocket.
“Shouldn’t be too difficult.” The wolf said as Blade rolled his eyes and took a step back. He bent the light around him until he was invisible. Ravage laughed and took a sip before walking out onto the street.


Blade jumped from roof to roof, his cloak billowing like a cape in the wind behind him. The reinforced power in his legs made jumping from roof to roof simple. He caught sight of the government building he was looking for. He noticed several gaurds posted at the main entrance and a few gaurds on the roof. None of them carried firearms, which was almost a relief to Blade. Then Ravage approached the main gate. “What are you doing” Blade muttered to himself. He watched as Ravage pulled a slip of paper from his pocket and presented it to the guard. The guard nodded and allowed him to walk inside. Blade stood there for a while, stunned that Ravage had somehow just talked his way past the gaurds. He shook the feeling off and jumped to the top of the government building.
He navigated his way past the gaurds and towards the skylight of the council chambers. He looked inside to see Atatsu, Snivley, The Iron Queen, and Nicole around a map of Mobius. It appeared to be a tactical display of the region, showing the position of their forces and the position of their enemies. He watched as they pointed to different points on the map. Blade drew his sword and prepared to drop down when the building shook slightly. Blade watched as the side of the council room broke, Ravage walked through the hole, his warhammer on his shoulders. Atatsu drew her swords and chased after Ravage as he fled from the room. “Ravage….” Blade growled as he moved away from the skylight.
Blade tracked Ravage and Atatsu through the building. Ravage was leading Atatsu through the building, engaging her in quick bouts whenever she got close. Finally, Ravage was cornered in a small room. Ravage turned as Atatsu walked into the room and locked the door. Blade made his way over to the exterior surface closest to the room and used his powers to push himself against the wall in order to walk along the vertical surface. He waited until Atatsu was far enough away from the door before breaking his way inside. Atatsu turned but saw nothing. Blade removed his cloak and smiled. “How nice to see you again lady Atatsu.” Atatsu smirked.
“I should have known that you’d be behind an operation like this.” Atatsu said in a condescending tone. “It was so poorly planned and executed that no one else could have created it.”
“I will admit, I may have put my trust in the wrong person.” Blade said, glaring at Ravage.
“You wound me Commander,” Ravage mocked. “But if I recall correctly, her fighting style is rather weak in closed spaces.” Atatsu’s expression changed at the comment.
“Very true,” Blade said taking an offensive posture. “Surrender Atatsu, you’re no match for us.”
“Hardly true, I’m no match for the two of you. As you should know, I have backup that can easily bypass locked doors, NICOLE!” The holographic lynx appeared inside the room.
“Well, this is quite cramped.” Ravage joked. He didn’t have a chance to respond before Nicole blasted him through the wall with a nanite powered energy blast. Nicole chased after Ravage while Atatsu stayed to fight Blade. The flight went the same way the last one did, but this time, Atatsu’s counters were answered by Blade’s own counters. While their previous encounters was obviously a fight between a master swordswoman and an average swordsmen, this fight was between equals. Atatsu’s style was graceful and ergonomic while Blade’s was stiff and calculated. She could deflect his power attacks while he flat out reflected her own power back against her.
“Looks like you’ve adopted a new style.” Atatsu said, “Couldn’t perfect the one you were using?”
“Didn’t need to,” Blade said as he pushed Atatsu away. “Just needed to tailor it to the weaknesses of yours.”
“Your arrogance is quite insulting.”


Ravage dodged another nanite blast and landed on his hands. The wolf twisted his body to dodge another attack while closing the distance between him and the holographic lynx. The lynx smirked as Ravage tried to strike her, only to be struck across the face by Ravage’s right paw leaving claw marks along her check. Nicole backed up stunned and felt the wound on her face. “Surprised?” Ravage asked mockingly, “Echoes suspected a fight with you and gave me this.” Ravage held out the box in his pocket. “It makes it impossible for you to phase shift when I’m a meter away.” Ravage picked up his hammer. “I’m disappointed that you don’t bleed, I was looking forward to seeing what holographic blood looked like.”
“Barbarian,” Nicole spat. Ravage made a horizontal swing at Nicole’s midsection, only to be struck from behind when Nicole dodged and countered with a spin kick. Ravage recovered and tried another strike, only to miss again.
“You’re a nimble little lynx.” Ravage said, “Guess the hammer approach won’t do.” Ravage strapped the hammer to his back and got ready to attack with his claws.


Blade launched Atatsu through the wall with a telekinetic blast, sending her outside the building and into a nearby tree. Blade jumped down and made a vertical slice. Atatsu jumped from the tree as Blade cut the trunk in half. Atatsu sighed with relief, Blade was now on her ideal battlefield. “Big mistake Noctous, you’ve lost your core advantage.”
“I thought I’d even the playing field for you.” Blade said not losing his smug composure. He knew that it was aggravating her which ultimately made the taunting worth it. “No honor in winning an unfair battle.”
“You’ll regret that statement.” Atatsu said. She took advantage of the open space to dodge Blade’s strikes. Blade compensated by using his telekinetic abilities to stumble and bash Atatsu, preventing her from making effective dodges.
“You were saying something about losing my core advantage?” Blade said as he forced Atatsu into a sword lock. “Perhaps you forgot that I always have the advantage over inferior creatures like you?” Atatsu yelled as she pushed Blade away. Guards from the street came over and surrounded Blade.
“No! Leave him to me!” Atatsu yelled as she rushed Blade. Blade stonewalled Atatsu’s barrage of sword strikes, even when she amped up the speed and directions of her attacks. Blade landed a kick on Atatsu’s chest, the reinforced strength from his chaos energy sending her into the air. Atatsu landed on her back a few meters away, panting as she tried to get air back into her lungs. Blade remained where he was, patiently waiting for her to recover.
“Save yourself from further humiliation Atatsu. Surrender, order your men to leave the city and fall back to Chun’nun.”
“I don’t take orders from you!” Atatsu yelled as she got to her feet. “I don’t take orders from the weak!”
“The Iron Dominion has lost its support in the Dragon Kingdom. Eggman has escaped to his stronghold. The Republic of Acorn is ready to launch a final strike against the Iron Queen. You already take orders from the weak. The Iron Dominion’s defeat is inevitable and you know it!”
“No, the Dominion will prevail!” Atatsu yelled as she rushed Blade. “The Eggman Empire fell to us! The Federation is unable to fight back against us! It will take more than a rag tag team of mobians and your delusional government to stop us!” Blade defended against Atatsu’s increasingly frantic and careless attacks. Blade had succeeded in forcing Atatsu to fight two battles, the one against him and the one against the facts she knew to be true. Her desperate attacks were easy to deflect. Eventually, her stamina was depleted. Atatsu dropped to her knees, panting heavily. Blade telekinetically lifted the Chaos Emeralds from his coat pocket.
“I’m giving you one last chance. Order your troops to retreat from the city and back to Chun’nun.” Atatsu said nothing. Blade looked over at one of the S’Nal gaurds. “You there, help her to her feet.” The hedgehog guard nodded and walked over to help Atatsu. “You will tell your kinsmen that you will retreat to Chun’nun.”
“On whose authority?” The guard spat.
“By order of his majesty King Delrock.” The guard thought for a moment and nodded. “I’ll be taking her back to Holoska for trial.” Blade reached into his pocket and pulled out a radio. “Ravage, this is Blade, mission accomplished.”


“Ah, that’s a shame.” Ravage said into the radio. He looked down at Nicole who was on her knees in a similar exhausted state as Atatsu. “I was just getting to the fun part.”
“You can sate your predatory blood lust some other time.” Blade said through the radio. “We have Atatsu and the S’Nal warriors are pulling out of the city. Return to the evac point for extraction.”
“Understood, Ravage out.” Ravage said as he stuffed the radio back into his pocket. Ravage looked down at Nicole. “Some other time cat. I found you to be amusing prey.” Ravage exited the building through the hole he created.


Blue Ridge Zone
2 Hours later

Blade and Ravage stood near the area Rouge said the Chaotix would meet him. Blade wasn’t surprised when Rouge stepped out from behind a crate at the shipping dock. “I’m glad to see you here fluffy.” The bat said as she leaned up against the crate. “And you too Ravage.”
“What, no cute nickname for me?” Ravage said in a disappointed tone. “I’m hurt, I truly am.”
“You don’t bring one to mind.” The bat said walking over to Blade and Ravage. “I assume you have the chaos Emeralds?”
“Unlike Towers, I do keep my promises.” Blade said opening the brief case. “I hope he doesn’t mind if I give the real emerald back along with the fake.”
“I’m sure he won’t read too much into it.” Rouge said. “Are you going to let me come over and take it? Or are you going to hand it to me at gun point again?”
“No, but I will if Shadow comes out from that crate.” Rouge’s eyes went wide as Blade said this. “You should tell him to work on concealing his chaos energy output, it makes it easy to sense him.”
“I’m sure he appreciates the pointer.” Rouge said taking the case. “Thank you for your honesty, I hope to work with you again in the future.”
“The sentiment is not shared.” Blade said turning around. “I don’t have the patience for Towers’ paranoia. The next time I ask the President for help, I expect to be dealing with the Chaotix, not one of Towers’ drones.” Blade pulled the red emerald from his pocket and warped him and Ravage away. Shadow stepped out from the crate.
“He’s gotten better.” Rouge said as she looked the three jewels over. “Even you must see it.”
“He’s still the enemy.” Shadow said crossing his arms. “We shouldn’t be helping him fight this war.”
“We can’t go against the decisions of the President and the Congress. He isn’t our enemy until they say so.”
“I’ll defer to the Commander’s superior opinion when it comes to matters of war, not the President’s.” Shadow said as he walked towards the shipyard.