Book Three: The Invasion/Chapter Fourteen

The fourteenth chapter of Book Three: The Invasion by Flashfire212
==Chapter Fourteen: Council of War==
Knuckles looked around the amphitheater, the middle of what appeared to be the strangest war council he’d ever been part of. Will lay across three seats up the back, still unconscious. Maddy sat beside him, her hand upon his shoulder, a look of worry on her peach muzzle. Sonic and Shadow were pacing incessantly, not stopping once as they passed each other, while Silver and Blaze relaxed nearby, watching. Statyx and Echo sat together in front of Rouge, Omega and the rest of the GUN officers, hand in hand. The Mercian royal family was clumped together with Amy, Sonia and Manic, holding a small family reunion. Eggman had almost three seats to himself, which he happily expanded over. The other Freedom Fighters and members of the Chaotix were spread around the entire room, with Ronan’s visage watching every member carefully from a screen on the wall behind Tails at the podium, bandages reapplied on his body after his stint as tactical advisory reopened the wounds Scourge and Miles had opened. The strange wolf was sitting towards the front of the room, his eyes watching keenly, while the purple cat he’d arrived with spoke with Albus and Shanoa. Shima and Hali were as far from the group of GUN members as possible, nervously talking to each other. Finally, Blood and the Editors were lounging around, not seeming to take this meeting seriously.
“You know why you all are here.” Tails started.
“Yeah, because the toilets are backed up. Some of us still need to pee, you know.” Blood quipped dryly. Most of the others glared at him, to which he shrugged, a smirk on his face. 
“You are all here, because a recent invasion of Moebians caused countless damage and ended with the theft of countless items of power from about three or four worlds,” the injured fox continued, ignoring Blood. “The main reason that you are here, though, is to plan the next step against Scourge, who is likely to attempt to use all of these items to transform simultaneously, to create a form of immense power.”
“Simple! Send Vic at him, in his Cykoric form! They didn’t take any of the Cykoric Emeralds, so that’d work!” Blood grinned sarcastically.
“You’re an idiot. I don’t know how your Anti got so powerful.” Statyx sighed, annoyed. With the look of surprise on the ancient hedgehog’s face shutting him up, Tails continued, nodding his thanks to the Ultimate Guardian. 
“Any ideas? Sonic? Shadow? You two seem deep in thought.” Sonic pursed his lips, while Shadow just scowled.
“Well, you could just release the two of us into Moebius, then we’ll go to our highest forms, fuse, and kick his ass from here back to the No Zone.” Shadow nodded in agreement to Sonic’s proposal, but Statyx, Blood, Knuckles and the wolf were all rising in protest.
“There’s no way you could equal the power of a being with all those items of power on your own, fused or not! It would take a full squad of fully-realized Guardians to do that.” Knuckles countered.
“Besides, he has all of the army we saw, plus who knows how many more reinforcements as well. There’s no way to tell how many people you’d have to fight through, and besides, your fusion might run out on the way, and then we’d all be sunk,” the wolf said, not looking as stressed as he sounded. 
“We’d need a team to go. Sonic and Shadow are pretty much confirmed already, considering their power, skill and experience in Moebius. Who else? Lets see…Knuckles, Statyx, Vic, Comet, Joineth, Amy, Rouge, Shade, Jon, Shima, me, we’re all possibilities to go as well. The team shouldn’t be too big, but not too small as well.” Blood proposed, to the raising of many eyebrows. “What, just because I’m random doesn’t mean I can’t also be smart!” 
“Blood’s right, we need a team. I volunteer.” Statyx raised his hand. A few others looked around, and Echo grabbed onto him, a look of shock and worry on her face. Blood scratched his head.
“Hey, Statyx, how did you beat Anti-me anyway? He’s insane, but he knows how to get into your head. Uses things that you fear or your attachment against you, distract you to the point where he can finish you with ease. That, and he’s more powerful than you think.” Echo and Statyx blushed, and Shima immediately picked the point Blood was making.
“Yeah, you said Echo was your girlfriend…but that doesn’t make sense, because…”
“I guess there’s no point hiding it here, amongst friends.” Statyx sighed. “Echo and I are married. Have a son too, but that’s not here or there.” Ronan made an impatient gesture.
“Look, this isn’t getting us anywhere! Make your minds up who’s going, and then we’ll work from there. Sonic, Shadow, Statyx, who else?”
“Make that four ‘S’s in the team, Ronan. I’m going.” Silver stood, joining the others. 
“That’d be five. Count me in.” Shima waved, to a chorus of looks shared between the others. 
“Blood?” Ronan prompted, but Blood waved it off.
“What, you want ME to go? Sorry, my Anti’s already in pieces, so there’s no need for me there. I nominate Vic, Knight, Sora or SSX to go.” Following that, three hedgehogs and an echidna all punched Blood. “Oww…quit it!” 
“I…I failed…” a voice rung out from the back of the room, just as Knuckles opened his mouth to volunteer. Everyone turned to see Will sit up, a pained expression on his face as he did so.
“Huh? You stopped them from taking the Master Emerald! How is that failure?” Sonic challenged. Will’s face remained pained as he responded.
“I failed to beat Striker. I failed to get revenge for Kyle. I failed to save my best friend from my counterpart. That’s how I failed.” Sonic simply scratched his head, confusion evident. Blood and the others just shared looks.
“Will, I don’t think you’re all together in the head. Just saying, you don’t seem right. You’re dad had more place on this mission than you. He’s got more strength to him, and his Chaos form should give Scourge something to think about.” Shadow prattled. Suddenly, the black hedgehog was thrown away by an invisible fist, getting slammed into the wall by a single invisible punch as the powerful young echidna launched himself from his seat and landed in front of the massed team. 
“I think you misunderstood. I’m going on that mission. I’m the only one who can beat Striker. I know where I went wrong, and I can fix it!” Two more people, Cookies Prower and Manic, stood and walked over to join the rest of the team, making it a team of seven fully trained fighters. 
“Will, look, you’re angry, and I understand, but you’re not in any state to do this attack run!” Knuckles reasoned, offering his hand to his furious son.
“Listen to your old man. You obviously can’t beat me anyway, too much emotion to think clearly. How about I take away something…” Will’s face contorted into a dark mask of itself as he spun to face Striker, now unarmored, standing on the seats he’d just abandoned, Maddy in his arms with two sharpened knuckleblades hovering mere centimeters from her temples. Her pale face was almost as white as the gloves held steady close to her head. Will growled, a low, beastial sound, before lashing out a kick, throwing an invisible kick of energy at Striker, only for the Moebian to Chaos Control away, taking Maddy with him. Will collapsed in rage, and within seconds, Blood and Knuckles were there.
“Will? You ok, dude?” Blood asked, with Knuckles giving the traditional parental look of concern. Suddenly, both of them went flying as Will, or rather, the air around him, exploded with energy as he opened all eight gates in rapid succession, the red flaming cloak forming as it did last time. However, as it formed, Will’s pupils disappeared, followed by his irises. His fur became more waxy and rough, turning the same color as his streaks. Sonic leapt at him with a Spin Jump, only to be tackled in midair by the enraged echidna. Tails brought his namesakes down on Will, but the flames solidified underneath them, shielding the teen as he dashed out of the room, directly through the wall, towards the Master Emerald.
“Wow, a dark form with a flaming cloak. Don’t see that every day.” Blood groaned, as Sonic got back up.
“Moebius Infiltration Team, go after him, calm him down, and take him with you.” Tails requested. Most of them eyed him like he was crazy, before turning to Knuckles, who gave a resigned sigh.
“He’s more likely to go anyway now that his girl’s been kidnapped. I’ll give my place up for him.” Shadow nodded; fitting a radio mouthpiece to his muzzle, before leading the team out in pursuit of Will and his Overdriven Dark form.
==Dramatis Persona==
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