The Battle Kukku Armada were if anything sky pirates, terrifying the world from the skies in their hunt for treasure. It was hard to believe that they could be anything but rowdy, thieving militants, yet the scene that played out among their fleet said otherwise.

     Nestled in the massive crater of its own making, the artificial floating island of the Battle Kukku Armada had switched over from being the center of the fleet to the main base of operation for what could best be described as a mining and excavation operation. Hundreds of uniformed soldiers of the armada scurried about collecting Rings from where they appeared wherever the ruins crushed beneath their island crumbled away on their own. Those who did not partake in the collecting of Ring either scurried about in search of loot or focused on the last of the golems that still survived. Most were crushed and beyond functionality due to the devastation, but regardless of their condition the gems in their bodies were the focus of these teams.

     Brought into the chemical labs of Doctor Fukurokov the gems were used to grind each other down, a process that released not only the flowers that powered the golems, but several rings per gem. Under Doctor Fukurokov’s supervision the Rings they needed to maintain their fleet were easily acquired. They barely had any reason to send any teams down to the exposed lava beds below where Rings seemed to appear more regularly as though unaffected by the phenomena of the prairie above that limited their appearances. Doctor Fukurokov would not be so careless though and assured he had teams delving to the lava beds to collect the precious loops of gold. From his vantage point upon a ledge looking over the whole scene beneath the floating island he was soon joined by a nuisance that he wished to be rid of almost as soon as Tails.

     “You know, I’ve been thinking maybe you aren’t so keen on our little agreement,” Fang contested the owl as he rode down from above on his air bike. “You nearly took me out along with the blue pincushion hero!”

     “Yet here you are treasure hunter,” Fukurokov sneered contemptuously. “Can you not see that I am quite busy.”

     “Not busy enough to send me away so easily.” Fang countered, fingering his holstered pop gun.

     Eyeing Fang’s trusty sidearm Fukurokov rubbed the bottom of his beak and smiled sinisterly. “You may be a treasure hunter, but you could very well make a fine pirate as well. If you had feathers instead of that mangy hide, I might have even offered you a position among my glorious armada.”

     “An armada that you stole before your old bosses even grew cold.” Fang smirked as he called out the cutthroat pirate. His words seemed to amuse Fukurokov all the more though so he kept talking hoping he could get what he wanted easily. “Seeing as you’re in a good mood though, maybe you might honor a part of our agreement and tell me where my treasure tracker is.”

     “Ready to run already treasure hunter? I can’t possibly blame you when faced with the mightiest pirates to rule the skies,” Fukurokov mocked Fang and erased his smirk. “I’m fairly certain our little agreement must fall apart though should you retrieve your prize. Are you really sure that’s what you want?”

     “I’m only here to get her back,” Fang sneered. “Our little deal has been lucrative, but I’m not seeing much reason to keep it with the do-gooder finally out of the picture. I can hardly believe you dropped a whole island on him.”

     “And yet it wasn’t enough,” Fukurokov surprised Fang.

     “You have to be yanking my tail you old bird. There isn’t anything that could have survived that!”

     “I believe you are forgetting that our troublesome common foe is a part of a certain adventurer support company.

     As recognition set in Fang gritted his teeth tightly and snarled. “So even he uses those troublesome Ring Gates those cowards rely on. Just my rotten luck!”

~~~~~

     A short while later found Fang riding the Marvelous Queen at full speed across the prairie and straight for the Skyskipper. He had the destination he was looking for, but he still had orders to worry about as well. “Thinking you can keep yanking my chain you nincompoops. Just you wait. I’ll have the last laugh soon enough!”

     Shouting out his frustrations and vain promises of retribution did nothing to erase Fukurokov’s face from his mind and Fang gnashed his teeth angrily. The sound his teeth gnashing made almost being enough to drown out the owl’s voice. Not quite however and the mocking words of Doctor Fukurokov still echoed in his skull intrusively.

     -Should the hedgehog have survived, seeing our operations here would normally be meaningless to him. But that knowledge in the hands of the fox… If the fox should know then our advantage will be gone and neither of us will soon acquire our ultimate goals. So I’ll give you leave treasure hunter to find your prize, but I’m sure if you see the hedgehog you’ll come crawling back with your tail between your legs begging me to let you back into our care.-

     “Just who does that old owl think he is!” Fang shouted to the open sky and shook his fist at it. “Making a fool outta me– Why I outta–!”

     Fang stopped short from expressing his ire aloud as he crested a hill and found the Skyskipper resting on the ground before him. “Well hello my pretty! Looks like the old bird actually kept his end of the agreement. And what have we here?”

     As he rode closer, slowing out of an ingrained sense of caution, Fang spotted Rosy on the vessel’s main deck situated between its tail and main body. She was oddly alone and even more uncharacteristically seeming lost in thought, her cheeks puffed up as though she was more than a little fed up with something.

     It was the perfect opportunity for Fang, and he could hardly believe it.

     “Ooh! I get the boys being happy to fight, but I can’t believe Zooey is going along with it.”

     Rosy huffed out her complaints with a force meant to drive her less desirable feelings away. It was doing her little good as she was genuinely upset. As Fukurokov had feared they had discovered even before Sonic arrived that the collapse of the ruins after initial contact, and even from the gem lasers of the golems released Rings beyond what they could have imagined. But when Sonic arrived via his emergency Ring Gate, the direness of the situation led them to believe they were going to have to act immediately. Rosy disagreed and believed that they could simply gather as many Rings as they could and escape via Ring Gate, but she was not getting through to anyone and even Gill decided that was finally enough and took his leave. The situation was looking hopeless and Rosy needed some time to clear her head to think of something to stop them from being so reckless.

     “Why can’t we just keep running like we have been? Every time we bump into them something bad happens,” Rosy sighed finally letting go of enough of her anger to relax. She turned her eyes towards the sky hoping to find inspiration, but it was an unexpected and familiar voice from below that changed her focus.

     “Now that isn’t the face of the girl I took to calling Rosy,” Fang smirked letting the sunlight glint off his massive fang which was nearly too big for his head.

     “Fang!” Rosy shouted with surprise and glee and went from leaning against the deck railing to tumbling over it and into Fang’s waiting arms. She squeezed him with more force than he was prepared for and squealed in delight. “I can’t believe it’s really you! It’s been so long, and I have so many stories to tell and, and…”

     Rosy’s excitement petered out as the thought of stories to tell brought her right back to reality and she looked at Fang with genuine concern. “Oh no… I’m so happy to see you, but if you’re here… If you’re here, then does that mean–?”

     “That I’m stuck,” Fang finished the question. He did not seem crestfallen in the least though and smirked confidently as he continued. “Same as you. But what do I have to worry about? With your knack for finding treasure I’m sure we’ll be out of here in no time.”

     “Hehehe,” Rosy laughed as Fang put his trust in her, something her other friends were failing to do as they contemplated what needed to be done to be rid of the Battle Kukku Armada. She still was not confident though and looked at Fang with a look that said she was trying to chase away her doubts by being humble. “I haven’t really been having a lot of success though until recently.”

     “Well that’s perfect,” Fang encouraged her as he attempted to manipulate her into agreeing to go with him of her own free will. “That just means my timing couldn’t have been better. How about it? Want to go for a ride to clear your head? I’m sure it’ll help you figure out what you need to do.”

     Rosy tilted her head and looked at Fang curiously. It was taking him every ounce of willpower he could summon to not swallow and give away his ploy. He nearly had her and just needed one last push before she could come up with an excuse or one of her friends came out to check on her. “Come on, it’ll be just like old times and you’ll be thinking clearly again in no time.”

     “Hmm, alright. But just for a little bit, I’m sure Mighty will come check on me before anyone else. He worries a lot that way.”

     ‘YES!’ Fang completely missed Rosy’s comment on Mighty and was simply cheering too much internally. He finally had her after so long. He finally had her in clutches again.

Scene 10 · CLEARED

A Bounty Found, End