The Curse of Day/Part6D

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4th Day, 10:00 PM
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Somewhere in Starlight City, a GUN agent was standing near a holding cell and looking into it occasionally at its contents: the block of ice containing vigilante Mackenzie Hartley. The agent had specifically been informed that keeping Mac imprisoned was of the utmost priority, so the agent had taken along his folding tank with him, just in case. However, this did not stop the agent from looking at his mug of coffee at the vital moment when all of the cameras suddenly went offline. It also did not stop him from looking at his mug again when a large metal plate moved over his face and stretched to tie him to his chair. In this position, he was helpless to inform anyone of or even notice the fact that the wall of the holding cell abruptly slid outwards, grabbed the Mac-popsicle, deposited him on the opposite side of the wall from where the agent was, and slid neatly into place, leaving Mac outside the prison, while the agent was on the inside of the prison.
Outside the building, a hedgehog wearing a three-piece suit, shoes, and a samurai helmet carefully moved a blowtorch near Mac, attempting to defrost him without hurting him. As soon as his legs were free, Mac bolted into one of the outside walls as a lightning bolt, as he was about to do before being frozen. He staggered backwards and held his head, groaning. "Ow... what the-" Mac looked around. A prison? I haven't been in one of these in, like, two years. This is gonna be fun. Mac looked at the agent through the cell's window. What happened? Maybe Kennedy froze time and took me here? Maybe Aqua froze me, or maybe the chick knocked me out while I was distracted. Mac looked at his belt in happiness. Fortunately, they hadn't taken Angel and his guns yet.
Before Mac could make any more moves, the hedgehog cleared his throat quietly, also sealing over the window with another piece of metal that the hedgehog pulled out of the wall. "Hey, aren't you going to thank me for getting you out of there before you shoot and run?" he said.
Mac looked at his nails before holding up his hand. It glowed blue, and a blue ball formed in it. "Just wondering, bub, do you work for the peeps who got me here in the first place? 'Cuz if so, shooting and running doesn't sound like all too bad of an idea."
The hedgehog waved his hands as if to dispel the idea. "I don't work for them," he said. "The police generally hate me, so I couldn't join them if I wanted. In fact, I just came to ask you to consider working with me to get the Emeralds instead of facing off against all of me, my robots, and the large team of assorted teenagers who are all trying to get the Emeralds. I think we both have better odds if we work together."
"You think a few robots and those guys could beat me? I'm offended," Mac said jokingly. "Kennedy's not that much of a threat, Alexia just needs to be removed from the battle, and the chick? I can take her. And I'm not sure if you understand, but I really need those Emeralds for myself. So..." Mac said, whipping out his guns and crossing them, aimed at the hedgehog. "What's stopping me from beating the life out of ya before you can even try to get 'em first?"
"What's stopping you," the hedgehog—Sinjoro—said slowly and carefully, "is that I have implanted a tracking device on your person. It is undetectable by any means, indestructible, and utterly inescapable, but I will be able to use it to track you should you escape, which I can then use to inform your other enemies of your location." While the hedgehog said this, he moved some metal out from the walls, moving it to a more convenient position for enclosing Mac should he have to. "There's also the fact that I could stick you in a box and then hand you over."
"You'd have to catch me first, bud," Mac said, bursting forward in speed to lean on Sinjoro's shoulder. "And did you see the guy at the station? He didn't do anything! My enemies at this point are Ken and his gang, and you can probably tell that I don't think they're a threat."
"All right," said Sinjoro, "let me try a different tack. How are you going to get off this island to find the Emeralds?" The metal box slowly moved closer to Mac as the hedgehog waited for Mac's response.
"Um... swimming?" Mac said, slowly walking backwards to avoid the metal box. "And if you send any of those bots after me, I'll electrocute 'em. And then there's your niece and nephew... hmm. If you got in my way, I'd hafta hurt the whole family, and that wouldn't be fun now, would it?"
"I wouldn't worry about that," Sinjoro said, pivoting the metal box around to behind Mac to try to close off his backwards escape. "However, if you feel like getting the Emeralds on your own, that's your call. I'd certainly prefer that to you shooting me first and then doing it," Sinjoro said, shrugging.
I don't like this guy, Mac thought. "You're just so, what should I say, nonchalant about this whole thing?" Mac pulled out his guns with a shrug. "I just wanna get the Emeralds for a friend, so I think I'm gonna go. But if you think that you're gonna be thwartin' my plans, there's no way that I'm letting you go. Unless... you really do have a way to make this easier, and without those stupid robots!"
"Well," Sinjoro said mildly, "I do know where all of the relevant Sol Emeralds are."
Mac stood in silence for a few seconds before smiling. I forgot...I can't sense all of them if they might be so far away, Mac thought. "Fine then. I'm in if I can get three of them, plus I get to bring a...friend of mine."
"All right then," Sinjoro said, inclining his head slightly in a movement akin to a shrug. The movement caused his helmet to knock against his suit arm, jostling the helmet to the other side. Unfazed, Sinjoro fixed his helmet as he said, "I suggest we go to Wing Fortress first. It's closest and we'll be least likely to be spotted. Besides, I'm sure that your ergokinesis/electrokinesis/etceterakinesis will be very useful for flight."
"We can do that easy," Mac said with a smile. "Just...gimme a minute. I need to give my friend a call." Whipping out his expensive-looking phone, Mac asked, "Can you give me a minute?"
Sinjoro gave Mac a minute, quietly using his metallokinesis to assemble a plane from some random bits of the wall of the nearby holding cell. If Mac noticed the plane, he might notice that it had a very similar design to the one that Taglumo had built a couple of days earlier, just large enough to fit two people. The one difference was that this plane had a fairly simple tube-like mechanism to allow Mac to channel his power directly through the plane to propel it along at high speeds.
Mac waited to get out of Sinjoro's line of sight before pulling out an orange circle that began to radiate. Then, he was able to see a red fox - one of his good buds, Scarlet. Thanks for the machine, Schnee! Mac said, grasping it tightly and putting it to his ear so he could hear.
"Oh, so you're finally using this thingamajig," replied Scarlet with a moderately surprised face. "I was waiting for you to call. What's up?"
"Do you want some cool Emeralds as a present for Kennedy?" Mac said. "Though it's not gonna be too easy, we'll be able to take out the opposition easy." I hope she says yes - without her, this could be... difficult.
Scarlet smirked and sighed before nodding. "Yeah, I guess I'm in. I'll bring the Scarlet Cycle over later. Where are you, anyway? Ah, whatever, see ya."
She hang up, and Mac smiled at Sinjoro. "Well, I'm set!"
Category:The Curse of Day