Subj: Full Circle Date: 96-03-18 01:33:56 EST From: edward@genesis.org (Edward Becerra) To: dgonterman@aol.com CC: soniadah@aol.com Well, here's the full version of "Find Your Own Truth: Full Circle". I would like the two of you to read it over and tell me what you think of it. As you can see, Kickaha's life is going to change a great deal in the months ahead. I'm taking him in a new direction. I'd like your opinions. Thank you for the help with the story, Dave. The scenes you added really helped make the story fit into BAM. Sonia, please go over it, and if possible, pass it around to your friends on aol. For the both of you, the next story will be "Find Your Own Truth: Let Your Heart Decide." I think you two can guess out what it's going to be about. Looks like there's a wedding in Kickaha's future. Better buy a bridesmaid's dress, Sunny. And Dave, you'd best find yerself a tuxedo, ok? Take care, you two... Kickaha "Dreamers may die, but the dream is eternal..." Find Your Own Truth: Full Circle by Edward Becerra and David Gonterman ________________________________ Kickaha was standing in Knothole's command center, watching a monitor. Davey's hacks into the Swatbots were providing so much inside information, it was as if Snivley and Packbell were living in a goldfish bowl. He snickered. Thanks to what Davey had done, they could probably watch Snivley in the bathroom, if they were of a mind to. Since he was a night-roamer, Sally had asked him if he wouldn't mind taking the night shift, watching the monitors for any unusual activity on the part of the enemy. He didn't mind. It was quiet at night. He liked it that way. Knothole was _much_ too noisy by day. *They're good people. It's just that there's so many of them, living so baQa' close together. Once we win the war, I hope they don't ask me to come to Mobotropolis to stay. Living in a Hu'tegh _city_ would drive me crazy!* He idly brushed the fur on his arms with a currycomb. Nothing much was happening on the monitors. Looked like it was going to be another slow night. He heard a tap at the door, and turned to see Ryan Nightweaver standing there in fox-form. He's seen the shape-shifter around Knothole several times, but hadn't had the chance to talk with him before. Something he'd wanted to do for a while now. The metamorph's powers reminded him of his spirit guide, Coyote. "nuqneH, skinwalker! Greetings! What can I do for you?" "Just came to see how things were going, Kickster. Anything happening?" "So far, so _dull_, my friend. I've watched grass growing that was more exciting. Packbell appears to be dreaming up another scheme to get back at you and Davey, or so it seems. And Snivley is, well, being Snivley. Cowardly, nervous, and jumping at every shadow. That little trick that David pulled with those subliminal suggestions has him worried sick that Davey's going to try it again. He should have roboticized the tlhIb mach nuch a long time ago." "The what?" "Oh. Sorry. The incompetent little coward. Sometimes I forget, and slip into tlhIngan. Heh! I'll give Packbell this much. He may be a monster, and a mechanical monster at that, but at least he has courage of a sort. Snivley has about as much spine as a jellyfish." "Most of Knothole would agree with you, Kickaha. They'd pay to watch it on cable, live, in color." "Heh, heh! The videotape sales alone would make Dave the richest fox on Mobius...Hey! What the Qu'vatlh is that?!" One of the monitors was showing something flying over Robotropolis. It didn't look like any Hoverbot either of them had seen before. Kickaha hit the button that summoned the on-duty officer. Tonight, that was Lieutenant David Kintobor, aka Davey Crockett. "What is it, Kicker? Problems?" Davey yawned, as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "I don't know. There's something unfamiliar flying over Robotropolis. I'm not certain what it is. How do I zoom in on it?" "This control here, Kicker." Dave moved a joystick, zooming the main screen in on the unidentified flying object. "Looks like a new type of worker bot. But a flying one?" He zoomed in closer. "Looks like they've roboticized a bat. Guess they don't have enough Swats in the sky, so they're using worker bots to give the city air cover." There was a sudden crash behind Dave and Ryan. Kickaha had jumped bolt upright, knocking his chair over. He was staring at the screen in horrified disbelief. Blood trickled down the side of his jaw. "Jeez, Kicker! What's the matter?" "Damn, guy, you've almost bitten your tongue off!" He didn't answer. He just stared at the screen, as though he could change what he saw by sheer willpower. Ryan shook him by the shoulder. "What is it, Kickster? What's the matter?" "Nothing. Nothing's the matter." he answered slowly. He wiped the blood from his chin. "Dave, can you get someone to cover for me? I'd better go get the bleeding stopped." David looked at him oddly. "Yeah, no problem. You get that taken care of. You can make up the rest of your shift later." Kickaha nodded. "Thank you. I'll take care of it right away." As he walked out the door, he turned back and looked at Davey. "You've been a good friend, David. It's been an honor knowing you. I want you to know that." *** Several minutes later, David and Ryan heard the whining sound of a hovercycle engine at full throttle. They rushed outside in time to see Kickaha heading towards Robotropolis as fast as the cycle could carry him with his bat'leth and shotgun strapped to his back. They looked at each other. "I've got a _real_ bad feeling about this..." said Davey. Ryan just nodded. *** Later, Sally was listening to Davey and Ryan explain what had just happened. She asked Davey to show her the recording of what they'd spotted over Robotropolis. When they reached the part where David had zoomed in close, she recognized the figure on the screen. "This isn't good, David. That looks like the bat in the painting in Kickaha's lodge. If he's gone to try and rescue her single-handed..." She remembered the last time something like this had happened. Todd Fox had tried to avenge his mother's death at the hands of Packbell. He paid for it with his life. "Davey, you'd better get a team together. From what Kickaha told me of his past, if he can't rescue her, I don't think he intends to come back alive." The two foxes thought of their own girlfriends, and nodded. Dave thought it over quickly. "Sonic, Bunnie, Ryan, MechTail and Sonia. and we'll need the Neuro-Reactivator. Kix can handle that." "Good," Sally said. "Get them and get going. We don't have much time. I don't think Kickaha is very rational, right now. He could do anything, at this point. And you better take a pulse blaster. Somehow, I think he's not going to listen much to anything we have to say. You may have to stop him ... forcefully." *********************************** "All right everybody, let's go!!" There was a sense of take-charge seriousness in his voice, it always gets this way in any mission he's in, whatever he was leading it--as in this one--or not. "He could be a great Prime Minister one day, or something," Sonia mused as she got ready. Her boyfriend was the only person she could take orders from without griping about them first. Mainly because he makes missions fun: With the multiple Fighter-Cams that can allow home audiences to ride shotgun, V-R style "Enhanced Imaging" views that gives the team an edge against the enemy, even a running score for each 'player,' Davey always buys the winner a drink for him/her over at Antoine's. Davey swiftly ducked into his hut to get his Power Rifle, two Pulse Blasters--one for each hip--and his newest addition to his "one-man-milita" arsenal: A cyan-colored Light Saber a la Kix. He never thought of trying any of that Jedi stuff outside of knowing how to use that thing, and besides, he thinks it's cool. He dashed outside for his hoverbike. . . And saw a Coyote standing beside it. "So help me, Gramps, if you as much as whizzed on it..." "Kickaha is in trouble, David." "No Snikt. I know *what's* going on with him; he must've seen what must be an old girlfriend of his roboticized, and now he's gonna take on all of Robo-phracking-tropolis all by himself. I've seen it happen before, Grandfather." "Of course you do, but there is something more. In the desperate state of mind he's in right now, he doesn't care what he takes out, even innocent roboticized people." "mmm, you're right. Even *I* take care not to tag one of those, unless I'm using Bad Karma at that time, which reminds me..." He fired up the hoverbike and floated back into his hut--at 'No Wake' speeds--and fetched a Top Secret, Never-Before-Used, Rifle-based, portable Roboticizer. This one is set for Blue, which he'll use to deroboticize Worker Bots, but it also has the Yellow mode--Robotnik-style Full Roboticization--for Snivley, and later on, even Robotnik himself. "I want him back alive, Dave," Coyote, who is morphing into Crow Mode, told Davey, as Davey was placing Bad Karma in the back trunk of his bike, "Take him down easy at all costs." "I intend to, Old Man. I'm not as psychotic as people say I am." With that he sped off, joining with the rest of the team: Sonic running alone on foot. Sonia hopped onto Davey's bike behind him. Ryan and MechTail flanked them with Hoverbikes of their own, although they're not as flashy as Davey's. But Kix and Bunnie's entrance topped the rest, flying in on Kix's X-Wing!! (Fixed up by Rotor, modified to have a back seat where the R2 unit would go--that's Bunnie's seat--and repainted so show The House of Acorn's Rebellion insignia) "Okay, you all know the rules: five points for Badniks, ten for Swats, minus fifty for Worker Bots." "We know the rules by now, Kinto! Let's start this thing!" "Yeah!!" "Command Activate Data Link; Initiate Enhanced Imagaing . . ." The heads-up displays everyone had on glowed to life, giving a Virtual Reality view in a corner of vision. Davey gunned the bike into Pursuit speed. Everybody else followed suit in tight formation. As the team headed for Robotropolis, Davey asked Kix if he could sense Kickaha ahead of them. "I can, but it won't help us spot him, Dave. He's so full of rage, he lights up the entire area! It's like a giant cloud of anger that's covering everything between here and Robotropolis. All I can tell you, is that _is_ where he's heading. And we already know that." The Jedi shook his head. "I don't think anyone's been this crazed with anger since Luke faced off with the Emperor. He's gone _way_ over the edge." "If Sally's right, that was his girlfriend on the screen. I don't think I can blame him for taking off on his own like this." said Ryan quietly. "Any of us might have done the same, for the ones we love." MechTail nodded. "I had to kill someone to protect Foxglove. I'm not proud of that, but I'd do it again to defend her." At that point, Sonic came zooming back, and paced the others on their Hovercycles. "I don't think there's gonna be a problem with spotting the Kickster, Big Guy." "Why's that, Sonic?" "All we gotta do is follow the smoke and flames, Big Daddy. If it gets in his way and it ain't a Worker Bot, the Kickster's blowing great big holes in it. He musta stolen a few lasers from the armory, to go with that shotgun he's so fond of. There's a big, wide trail of dead Swats and Hover Units starting at the edge of the city and heading straight to Packbell's place. No big surprise there." "Has he shot at any Worker Bots?" asked David. "Not that I could tell, Davey. But it looks like he's got one of the lasers set to EM pulse blasts, so he could be knocking 'em down without hurting them." "That's good. At least he hasn't gone completely berzerk. Maybe we still have a chance to catch him and bring him back." "Well, we better hurry. He was shooting his way into Pac-Man's building when I left." *** The looming gates of Robotroplis approached all-too-quickly to greet them. Nobody even thought of slowing down. The Swats on the gate detected them and readied their weapons, locking onto the leader, who cried out for all to hear the words that usually cues enough mass destruction to put WWWA trouble consultants to shame: "WHO WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER!!!!!!!!" Things got a little ugly at that point. *** The team had left the smoking wreckage of the main gate (and a few hundred dead Swatbots) behind them when a loud explosion rocked the city. They raced to Packbell's headquarters, where they found dead Swats and disabled Worker bots scattered randomly though the streets. A large crater had been blown into the pavement and through the wall of Packbell's main office. Packbell himself was missing, however. "I don't get it," said Ryan. "Kickaha's good, but he isn't that good. What happened here?" "Ah think Ah know." Davey replied. His accent was getting thicker as the situation got worse. He held up a twisted piece of metal from the crater. "This here looks like part of a Hover Cycle. Ah bet Kickaha set a couple a lasers to pulse mode, hooked 'em to the engine of his cycle, and set the whole durn thang to overload. It likely made a pulse so big, it took out everthing mechanical for blocks around." MechTail blinked. "A pulse that strong probably knocked out Packbell, too. But then, where _are_ they?" "They aren't in what's left of the building, Davey. Sonic and I searched every room. They're all empty." Sonia volunteered. David rubbed his chin. "If you want to catch a coyote, you got to think like a coyote. Balance. That's what Kickaha believed in. Balance. Hmm..." Then his eyes widened and his jaw dropped. Sonia was the second to get it. "Oh, Destiny! Davey, he's certain that Packbell roboticized his girl friend. If he believes in balancing things, he might try to put _Packbell_ in a roboticizer!" Bunnie's ears went straight up. "If'n he does that, Sunny, we're all liable to get a close-up look at a _real_ big bang. Too close foah me! Like to take out most of the city in one blast." Davey looked up, scanning the sky with his cyber-senses. He spotted what he was looking for, and turned to Kix. "Kix, take the Neuro-Reactivator and go with Sonia and Bunnie. Ah think you know what needs to be done." He pointed at the sky. "Sonic, you, Ryan and MechTail are with me. We're heading for the closest Main Roboticizer. That's where Kicker's gonna be headed for. And we gotta beat him to it." They split up, and moved out. *** But they weren't quite fast enough. Kickaha had gotten too much of a head-start, as the four of them could see from the blasted doors leading into the Main Roboticizer building. Sonic zipped in, at Sonic-Speed. And zipped right back out again, just as fast. "You'd better get in there, Davey. The Kickster don't look like he wants to listen to me. Or anyone." He looked a little shaken, but wouldn't say why. So the four entered together. The first thing they noticed was Packbell, trapped inside the chamber of the Roboticizer, hammering on the walls. But since Robotnik had ordered Packbell to design the chamber to be escape-proof (and Sonic-proof, too), he wasn't having much success in getting out. The other thing they noticed was a very unsteady Kickaha sagging against the Roboticizer's control console. His eyes held a fey look. "Hello, David." he said in a faint voice. "You shouldn't have followed me. But as long as you're here, I can use your help. Could you clear all the worker bots away from the area? I don't want the innocent caught in the explosion. But you've got to hurry. I haven't got much time left." He spoke very quietly, in the way the dying speak. The sound of it sent a shiver up their backs. "Come on, Kickaha. Come on back to Knothole with us." David told him. "We can work this out." "Too late, Dave. I'm a few quarts low, it seems. But you do good work with your Roboticizer. The improvements it made to me held up better than the real thing." He laughed weakly. With the exception of Sonic, they all looked confused. Until Kickaha hopped around the console on one leg. He was wearing a tourniquet on the other leg, above the knee. There wasn't much left below it. Just the bare metal of the bones the blue Roboticizer had rebuilt for him. The flesh had been stripped from them. He noticed their horrified gaze and looked down. "Got a little clumsy and caught a blaster shot straight on." He shrugged. "I'm not going to make it, Dave. Didn't get the tourniquet on fast enough. So get going while the going's good, okay? And with any luck, I'll get my revenge _and_ solve the problem of Packbell, Snivley and Robotropolis. Sonic and Sally can rebuild Mobotropolis after I clear the way for them." He slipped, and almost fell. "Best hurry, folks. I'm not long for this world and I plan on taking the Pac-man with me. Today is a good day to die." He grinned at them, and gave an eerie laugh. "Keep studying your lessons on spirit walking, Dave. And maybe we'll meet again on the other side, eh? Take care, cousin. Fortuna bless." "If that's the way you want it, Kicker, then that's what you'll get." Davey's words shocked the others. "Just give us a few minutes to clear the area, ok?" He started waving the others back. They couldn't understand what he was doing until they noticed his other hand ever-so-slowly creeping towards one of the pulse blasters hanging from his belt. Kickaha turned towards the console and fliped the power up switch. "I'll give you fifteen minutes, Davey. That should be enough..." KERIIIIIISHOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM! The doughnut-shaped Sonic Boom shot across the room and slammed into Kickaha's back, throwing him over the console and knocking him unconscious. MechTail ran over to him and checked him out. "He's still alive, Davey. But we better get him back to Knothole and some medical care as soon as possible. He's pretty bad off." "Right. But first..." Dave walked over to the chamber. "You know, Packbell, the _only_ reason I stopped Kickaha is 'cause I don't want him to wake up a murderer. Besides, if it weren't for the explosion, I'd have pushed the button _myself_. As it is..." He turned towards the controls and blew them into scrap with his Power Rifle, trapping Packbell in the sealed chamber. "Enjoy your stay, tin man." The rage in Packbell's face warmed Dave's heart. *********************************** Some hours later, in the Knothole infirmary... "... he ... all right, Sasha?" "So far ... can tell ... leg has ... off." *Uhhhhnnn... What... Who... Where ... am I? Everything ... hurts.* "Look! His eyes fluttered. I think he's waking up!" "'oy'jIh. chay' qaSta'? chay'? jlwuQ. jIQong vIneH." "Kickaha, can you hear me? Can you open your eyes?" "ghobe'. naDev vo' ylghos. jIQong vIneH." "In Mobian, Kickaha. We can't understand you." "... go away ... hurts ... wanna' sleep ..." "Let him sleep. It'll do him good. He needs all the rest he can get." "But what about..." "It can wait. It's been years for them. What's a day or two more?" *** "Good morning, sleepyhead!" "Davey! Oh man, Dave, you wouldn't believe the crazy dream I just had...?" Kickaha looked around, noticing that he was in the infirmary. Again. He looked at Dave. "It ... wasn't a dream, was it." Dave shook his head. "No. It wasn't." Kickaha hung his head in shame. "I endangered all of Knothole and the rebellion with my foolish actions. I have dishonored myself, and shamed my liege, Princess Sally. I must atone for this." David had no idea what Kickaha was talking about, until he saw Kickaha trying to reach for a scalpel that Sasha had left on a nearby table. He quickly knocked it away. "Ah, ah, ah! You don't want to do that!" "I must, David. I must pay for the damage I have caused." He stared at Dave. "It is a matter of honor." "Well, maybe, but there are two people who'd like to talk to you about that first. Sally's one. And the other is right outside." He turned towards the door. "Come on in. He's awake now." A winged shape entered the hut. Kickaha forgot about the night before. He forgot Davey's presence. He forgot everything but the person who stood next to his bed. "Ram'chal! Oh, bangoywI' SuSlIghwI'!" "" "" "" "" "" "" "" Kickaha tried to leave the bed and hug her. He fell to the floor. "" he moaned. "" "" The bat giggled. She waved at Davey, who was lifting him back into the bed. "" Kickaha's eyes widened enormously. "" "" "" "" "" He yawned. "" *I lost a leg, and re-found the most important person in my life.* he thought, as he drifted back to sleep. *A fair trade. Yes. A very fair trade, indeed. And more than worth the price.* * * * ----------------------------------- Now for the legal stuff. Sonic the Hedgehog, Princess Sally, Knothole, et cetera, (c) by Sega of America Davey Crockett, Blood and Metal, and The Wild Pack (c) 1995 David Gonterman [DGONTERMAN@aol.com] Ryan Nightweaver (c) by Ryan Huber Sonia Hedgehog (c) by Emily S. Smith [SoniadaH@aol.com] MechTail (c) by Paul Lapensee [butcher@iaw.on.ca] Kix by (c) by Brandon Stewart Sasha Prower by RottinKid Packbell (c) David Pistone Todd Fox (c) Kris Kelley Kickaha and Nightsky Windrider (c) by Edward Becerra Coyote is a spirit of the native peoples of the Americas. Please respect him as you would your own beliefs. ----------------------- Headers -------------------------------- From edward@genesis.org Mon Mar 18 01:33:37 1996 Return-Path: edward@genesis.org Received: from shadow.genesis.org (genesis.org.131.204.in-addr.arpa [204.131.80.65]) by emin04.mail.aol.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) with ESMTP id BAA27266; Mon, 18 Mar 1996 01:33:14 -0500 Received: (from edward@localhost) by shadow.genesis.org (8.6.11/8.6.9) id UAA02050; Sun, 17 Mar 1996 20:02:27 -0700 Date: Sun, 17 Mar 1996 20:02:26 -0700 (MST) From: Edward Becerra To: dgonterman@aol.com cc: soniadah@aol.com Subject: Full Circle Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: MULTIPART/MIXED; BOUNDARY="466354643-788518209-827118146=:2041"