Chapter 23, Black Conquest

BLACK CONQUEST

Sailor Moon © Naoko Takeuchi
Wrath the Tiger © Emily Blue Paw

Chapter 23: The Day Off

- Station Square -

The scene shifts towards the city of Station Square. The damage that the city had suffered a few days ago was slowly starting to rebuild itself. The people in the city were either making their way towards the beach, or walking through the city, just to enjoy this nice day.

We scan towards our heroes that consisted of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Serena, Ami, Raye, Lita, and Mina. Seeing as it was a beautiful day today, they decided to take a break after the events of the Extreme Gear Mini-Tournament that took place last night at Twinkle Park and enjoy themselves.

"So, where are we going?" Serena asked.

"I was thinking we should go to the hotel." Sonic replied.

"Really? Why?" Ami asked.

"Well, I was hoping we can go and visit the Chao Garden so that you girls can see the Chao's." Sonic replied with a smile.

"Uh...what's a Chao?" Mina scratched her head.

Sonic was trying to come up with a way on how to explain what a Chao is. "You'll just have to wait and see."

Mina tilted her head in confusion. She wondered what these Chao looked like. Were they something scary? Weird? She would just have to find out for herself.


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- Station Square Hotel -

A couple of minutes later, our heroes entered the hotel. It wasn't too busy today. The only thing that ever went on here were either people checking into a room or just decided to look around the place.

"So, the Chao Garden is here at this hotel?" Lita asked.

"Yeah." Tails nodded. "Follow us, it's over here."

The group followed Tails, as they made their way down the hallway. As they were walking, Sonic saw what was up ahead. He then dashed forward right in front of the door, that had a sign that read 'Chao Garden'.

"Come on, slowpokes!" Sonic called out to them.

"Is that really the way?" Raye asked.

"Trust me. It is."

Seeing no other choice, the others quickly made their way towards the door where Sonic was standing. Once they made it, they stared at the door.

"You girls ready to meet the Chao?" Sonic asked with a grin.

"Uh...these Chao aren't scary looking, are they?" Mina asked nervously again.

"Nah, you'll like them." Sonic replied as he turned the knob and opened the door. The girls were amazed at what they saw.

The Chao Garden was a lively place. The grass was green, there were a couple of trees filled with fruit. And there was a waterfall that lead to a pool filled with fresh water. We also see the Chao. They were small creatures, but were different in all designs.

"Oh wow...this place is beautiful." Ami gazed at the waterfall.

Suddenly, we see one regular looking Chao slowly crawling towards our heroes. Sonic smiled as the Chao got up to it's feet and raised it's hand at him.

"Hey, little buddy." Sonic smiled. "How are you?"

"Chao! Chao!" The Chao replied happily.

Serena's eyes flashed. "AW! That thing is so adorable!" She leaned down and slowly picked the Chao up in her hands. "Hey, little guy. What's your name?"

The Chao only smiled. "Chao!"

"Uh..." Serena sweat-dropped.

"I forgot to mention." Knuckles added. "These Chao only say their names. They don't speak like us."

"You could have mentioned that before we got here." Serena's brow narrowed.

Knuckles shrugged. "Don't blame me. Blame Sonic for not telling you what a Chao is."

"Knuckles!" Sonic narrowed his eyes at him.

"It's the truth." Knuckles replied.

"Come on, guys." Tails stepped in. "Let's just drop the subject and have a good time, okay?"

Deciding that was the best course of action, Serena continued to play with the Chao in her hands. More Chao continued to crawl towards the newcomers as well. All were different from the others and they all were happy to see the Sonic Heroes and their female friends with them as well.

Mina got on her knees as two Chao approached them. One of them had a small ball in it's hands.

"You want me to play catch with you?" She asked.

The Chao nodded happily. "Chao!"

Meanwhile, Lita looked around the Chao Garden. Knuckles looked up at her.

"What is it?" Knuckles asked.

"Nothing. I'm just wondering who's in charge of this place." Lita wondered.

"Hey, get back here with my bubble gum!" A scratchy voice shouted.

The heroes turned to see a Chao fluttering with it's wings as it was being chased by three new figures.

The first figure was a large green crocodile, with a yellow-ish scaly body. It had a golden chain around it's neck, had headphones on his head, black tennis shoes, and white gloves on it's hands.

The second figure behind him was a purple chameleon. It was wearing white gloves, purples shoes, and it had a yellow horn on it's head. The chameleon sighed, seeing as the crocodile was chasing after a Chao just because it took it's bubble gum.

The third figure was a yellow bee. It had goggles on it's head, whilte gloves, and orange tennis shoes. The bee was flying quickly, just so it can keep up with the chameleon and the crocodile.

The Chao that the crocodile was chasing after had a pack of bubble gum in it's hands. "Chao! Chao!"

The heroes were puzzled at what was going on. Sonic sighed as he dashed towards the crocodile and stopped right in front of him.

The crocodile's eyes widened as he quickly skidded to a halt, which made the purple chameleon crashed into him, followed by the bee who crashed into him as well. This made the crocodile fall onto it's stomach.

The females were confused by this.

"What just happened?" Ami asked.

"Better yet, who are those guys?" Raye added.

Knuckles slapped his head. "Not these clowns, again."

"Again?" Lita scratched her head.

The crocodile groaned as he slowly got back to his feet. He rubbed his head, trying to regain his senses. "Oh man, that hurt."

The other two figures got up as well as they shook off their blurry vision.

"It would've been better if you hadn't chased after that Chao just because it took your bubble gum." The chameleon grumbled.

"But Espio, that was my special bubble-gum!" The crocodile shouted at him.

"Which you haven't chewed for six months." The chameleon, now identified as Espio, added.

"Hey! No fair!"

"Uh, guys." The bee butted in. "We got company."

"Huh?" The crocodile turned to see Sonic standing there with his arms crossed. "Uh, hey, Sonic! It's good to see you, buddy!"

"Vector, what are you guys doing here?" Sonic asked.

"Oh, uh..." Vector scratched his head. He then turned to Espio. "Uh...Espio, what are we doing here again?"

Espio sighed. "We're here, because we've been put in charge of taking care of the Chao in the Chao Garden."

"What for?"

"I heard that the person who hired us for this job said that we would get paid big time if we took care of these little guys for two weeks." Vector said with money signs in his eyes.

"And how long have you been here?" Sonic asked.

"Uh...this is only our second day on the job." Vector rubbed his head nervously. "You see, taking care of these Chao is no easy job."

"I can see that." Sonic sighed.

Charmy looked behind Sonic. His eyes widened when he saw Knuckles. "Hey, Knuckles!"

Knuckles crossed his arms. "Hey." He greeted flatly.

Vector looked to see the five female humans with them as well. "Who are your friends, Sonic?"

"Oh. These are, believe it or not, the Sailor Scouts. The famous female heroes from Tokyo!" Sonic introduced.

"I'm Serena Tsukino." She smiled.

"I'm Ami Mizuno." She waved politely.

"Raye Hino." She bowed.

"Lita Kino." She greeted with a smile.

"And I'm Mina Aino." She waved as well.

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you." Vector grinned. "Now allow us to introduce ourselves."

Soon, the three figures each got into a pose.

"I'm known as Vector the Crocodile."

Espio got into a ninja pose. "The name is Espio. I'm quiet as a rock and swift as the wind."

The bee sat on Vector's head. "And I'm Charmy! Nice to meet ya!"

"And together, we are known as the Chaotix Detective Agency!" Vector announced as he posed in victory.

Our heroes sweat-dropped again.

"It's...a pleasure to meet you, too." Ami smiled.

"You guys are a Detective Agency?" Raye wondered.

"That's right, sister." Vector nodded. "And if there's trouble, you can count on us to be on the case."

"So, you guys are here to take care of these Chao?" Tails asked.

"Yeah. And like we said, it's not as easy as it sounds." Charmy scratched his head.

Then, an idea got into Lita. "How about we help you play with these Chao for a while?"

Charmy's eyes flashed. "Really? You'll help us?"

"Sure." Lita nodded. "There's not much else going on."

Charmy zoomed over to Lita and hugged her tightly. "Thank you, thank you!" Charmy repeated frantically.

"Well, what are we waiting for? I think these Chao deserve some play time." Sonic smirked.

Soon, the group split up to play with each Chao that wanted attention.


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- Tails Workshop -

The scene shifts towards Tails Workshop. We see Amy Rose heading towards the place so that she could ask Sonic out on a date.

Once she got to the door, she knocked on it. "Sonic! Are you in there? It's me, your darling Amy Rose!"

She waited for a moment, but there was no response. She knocked again. "Sonic! Tails! Somebody open the door!"

Suddenly, the door slowly opened. Amy looked around to see who opened the door.

"Is anyone here?" Amy called.

"Down here." A female voice called.

Amy looked down to see Luna, the black cat staring up at her.

"Excuse me, miss uh..." Amy paused in mid-sentence.

"My name is Luna." She greeted. "And over there is Artemis."

She peeked her head inside to see Artemis, the white cat lying down on a couch, sleeping.

"Is there something I can help you with?" Luna questioned.

"Yeah. Where is everybody?"

"You mean Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and the Sailor Scouts?"

"Uh-huh." Amy nodded.

"Well, they all went out of town today to have relax themselves after winning the Chaos Emerald at that tournament they won at Twinkle Park." Luna replied.

"Do you know when they will be back?" Amy asked.

"Not for another few hours."

"Hmm..." Amy hummed.

"Are you looking for someone?" Luna asked.

"Yeah. Sonic."

"Why him?"

"Because I wanted to ask him out on date today. I didn't think he would do something like this." Amy rubbed her chin.

"Ah yes." Luna chuckled. "Sonic has told me a lot about you."

Amy narrowed her eyes. "What about?"

"Nothing much. Just about the way you demand him to marry you so that Sonic will have no choice but to give in to your demands." Luna replied softly.

"What? Sonic said that?" Amy shouted.

"That's what he told me."

Amy fumed angrily. "That Sonic..."

"If you want, you can stay here until he and his friends get back." Luna suggested.

"I would like that very much." Amy noted as she stepped inside and headed towards the kitchen to make herself a snack.

Artemis opened his eyes as Luna jumped on the couch.

"Why did you do that?" Artemis asked.

"What choice did I have? If I said no, I know that she would refuse, regardless." Luna replied.

"Well, there goes another quiet day." Artemis sighed before resting again.


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- Black Comet -

The scene shifts towards the inside of the Black Comet. Inside, we see Rothion, Eve, and Cesare begin confronted by their leader, Black Doom. The Black Arms leader was furious after what happened in the Extreme Gear Mini-Tournament.

"My lord, we are deeply sorry! Please, forgive us!" Rothion begged.

"Silence!" Black Doom roared. "You have failed in winning the Chaos Emerald. And because of your actions, those heroes now have another Chaos Emerald in their possession."

"It wouldn't have happened if someone hadn't tried to sneak off after we had lost." Eve eyed Cesare, who only crossed his arms.

"Don't look at me like that." Cesare argued. "It's not my fault that we had lost the race."

"Oh really?" Eve grinned. "Then tell me; who was the one in front of the race with that green bird and had come short when he out-raced you?"

Cesare was beginning to lose his patience. "Shut up. I just didn't think he could beat me with such under-handed tactics."

"Uh-huh, sure." Eve snorted.

"It doesn't matter who's fault it was." Black Doom said. "The fact of the matter is that you all failed. And because of your failure, I have already decided to send Wrath down to Earth to retrieve the Chaos Emerald for us."

"All by himself?" Rothion wondered.

"Do not worry. Mephiles has him under control. And I can assure you that he will make up for what you three failed to do." Black Doom chuckled.

"What about Maiza?" Eve asked.

"I have more important matters with her to discuss with. Now, get out of my sight." Black Doom noted as he turned and floated the other way until he was fully gone.

"Well, that went well. I thought he was gonna kill us off." Eve sighed.

"Let's just hope Wrath knows what he is doing." Rothion said. "Otherwise, Black Doom will get very angry at all of us."


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- Tails Workshop -

Inside Tails Workshop, we see Amy Rose sitting on the couch as she finished the last bite of her sandwich. After she was done Amy closed her eyes and crossed her arms quietly. Luna and Artemis looked on to see that Amy was still waiting for Sonic and his friends to get back.

"How much longer do you think they will be?" Artemis whispered.

"They will be out for a while." Luna replied. "We'll just have to wait for them to return."

"I'm going to be by the window, just to see when they do." Artemis said, as he jumped off the couch and skidded towards the window. But when he got to the window, his eyes widened.

"What is it, Artemis?" Luna asked.

"We got somebody coming. And it's not Sonic." Artemis replied.

Amy and Luna got up from the couch to see who was coming towards the workshop.

Outside the workshop, we could see Wrath the Tiger and Mephiles the Dark making their way towards the Tails Workshop. Their mission was to get the Chaos Emerald back from the heroes.

"Okay Wrath, you know what to do." Mephiles told him. "If anybody gets in your way, kill them.

"Yes, master." Wrath simply replied.


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Inside the workshop, Luna's eyes widened.

"It's Mephiles and that tiger from the news!" She screeched.

"They must be here for the Chaos Emerald that Sonic and his friends won from the race." Artemis thought.

"If that's true, then we have to stop them from getting to it." Luna told him.

"But how? We can't fight those guys." Artemis reminded her.

"But I can." Amy Rose said with determination.

"How?" Luna asked her.

From out of nowhere, Amy pulled out a large yellow hammer that she always carried with her. This was the Piko Piko Hammer. "With this."

"Are you sure about this?" Artemis asked her. "I don't think it will be enough to stop those guys!"

"With the power of Sonic's love in my heart, nothing is impossible." Amy Rose told him. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a couple of bad guys to knock out." She raised her hammer into the air headed towards the door.

Artemis sighed. "I just hope this doesn't go too much into her head."


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Outside the Workshop, Wrath and Mephiles were confronted by Amy Rose, who had her Piko Piko Hammer at the ready.

"All right, you creeps! If your here to take the Chaos Emerald, then you've got another thing coming." Amy smirked.

Mephiles chuckled. "Is that right, hedgehog?"

"That's right. So if you want some, come and get it!" Amy said as she raised her hammer in the air.

"Wrath. Kill her." Mephiles ordered.

"Yes, master." Wrath growled as he charged after Amy with his claws.

Amy gripped her hammer tightly as she waited for Wrath to get as close has he could. Once he was close enough, Amy swinged her hammer and connected it against Wrath's stomach. The blow sent Wrath flying backwards and landed hard on his back.

"All right!" Amy shouted with a smirk. "Take that!"

Wrath slowly got back to his feet as he glared at Amy with hatred in his eyes. "So you can fight, huh? Very well. It looks like I'll have to get more aggressive then."

The grey tiger charged after Amy again. The pink hedgehog did the same with her hammer gripped tightly. Both made contact at the same time, but Amy had the advantage again as her hammer smashed the claws away from Wrath. The grey tiger was taken off guard as Amy continued the assault. The Piko Piko Hammer kept smashing Wrath's mid-section as he was being pushed back again and again. With one more blow, Amy smashed her hammer into Wrath's stomach one more time sending the grey tiger flying backwards a few feet before falling towards the ground. He did not move.

Amy smirked in triumph. "That takes care of that. Now, to take care of Mephiles. And once I do that, Sonic will have no choice but to marry me."

Luna and Artemis sighed in relief.

"Thank goodness. At least she didn't need any help." Luna said.

"Yeah. For a minute there, I was worried." Artemis nodded.

Luna looked again to see Wrath getting back to his feet. Her eyes widened in horror as she saw his body changing black and his eyes turning pure white. "Oh no! He's back up!"

Artemis looked to see Wrath heading towards Amy, who had her back turned at him. "What's that black energy coming from his body?"

"I don't know, but I have a really bad feeling about this." Luna said with worry.

Meanwhile, we see Mephiles searching for the Chaos Emerald around the workshop. But before he could do that, he was confronted by Amy Rose.

"Mephiles!"

Mephiles turned to see Amy standing there with her Piko Piko Hammer gripped her hand. "Well, someone looks fiesty as usual."

"Can it!" Amy fired at him. "Your friend received a hard lesson in pain, and now, your about to get the same thing from me!"

Mephiles looked behind her before laughing. "Really? He looks just fine, to me."

Amy raised an eyebrow before turning around. Her eyes widened in horror as the black energy-colored. Wrath looked down at her with hatred in his eyes.

"W-what happened to you?" Amy asked frighteningly.

Wrath didn't say a word. He just swiped his claws Amy, sending sliding across the ground on her mid-section. Scratches appeared on Amy's face as they started to draw blood.

Mephiles chuckled evilly. "Excellent. Now, finish her off."

Wrath dashed towards Amy within a split second just as soon as she got back up on her feet. The grey tiger wrapped his huge arm around her neck as he lifted her into the air. He glared at her for a moment before throwing her through a glass window of the workshop, which shattered into pieces. Amy crashed, headfirst, into a wall before falling towards the ground. She was not moving.

"Amy!" Luna and Artemis cried.

Amy was in worse condition than before. Her dress was partly torn, her head was bruised badly, and the bloodied scratch marks on her face were starting to poor down her face.

Wrath glared at her down body as he was about to head inside and finish the job.

"Neptune Deep Submerge!"

"Uranus World Shaking!"

Wrath stopped to turn around, only to see two glowing spheres making contact with his body. The sent Wrath crashing his back on the outside of Tails Workshop before slowly slumping towards the ground.

"What was that?" Artemis asked.

Luna looked to see where the direction of the spheres came from. "It's Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus!"

That's right. The two Sailor Scouts were standing there as Wrath slowly made it back to his feet. The glowing black aura that came from his body was gone.

"You...who are you?" Wrath demanded with anger.

"I am Sailor Neptune." Michelle, AKA Sailor Neptune, announced.

"And I am Sailor Uranus, Amara, AKA Sailor Uranus, added.

"And in the name of Neptune and Uranus, we will punish the evil that tries to harm good." The two Sailor Scouts said at the same time.

Wrath growled angrily at them. Before he was going to attack them, Mephiles stopped him.

"Enough." Mephiles told him as he held the silver Chaos Emerald in his hand. "We got what we came for. Let us take our leave."

Wrath continued to growl before calming down. "Yes, master."

Mephiles created a dark purple orb in his hands. The orb managed to expand itself before shrinking until both Wrath and Mephiles were out of sight.

Once they were gone, Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus quickly made their way towards Luna and Artemis.

"Oh, thank goodness! You two got here just in time!" Luna exclaimed happily.

"Quickly! We need get Amy to a hospital!" Artemis added.

"Where is she?" Sailor Uranus asked.

The two cats led them towards the fallen Amy, whom was still unconscious, and was still very hurt. Thinking quickly, Michelle called the Station Square Emergency Hospital, while Amara tried to get rid of the blood that was dripping down her face.


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- Station Square -

Meanwhile, back at Station Square, we see our heroes walking down the sidewalk. After about an hour and a half of helping Chaotix with baby-sitting the Chao, they decided to get some lunch.

"Man, I'm hungry." Serena sighed as her stomach grumbled. "I could go for a cheese-burger."

"Me too." Mina added with a sigh of her own. "All of that Chao-sitting made me really hungry."

"Don't worry about it, girls." Sonic smiled at them. "We can go anywhere where you want."

Just then, the group heard sirens from a close distance. They looked to see an ambulance van pulling up next to the Station Square Emergency Hospital.

The doors of the van bursted open as they carried an injured hedgehog on the stretcher. She was accompanied by Amara, Michelle, Luna, and Artemis, who had decided to come with her just to see how she was doing.

Sonic's eyes widened. "What's Amy doing on a stretcher?"

"Something must have happened to her!" Tails thought.

"Let's go see what happened." Knuckles said.

"Right." The eight heroes nodded as they ran towards the moving stretcher.

Luna turned to see Sonic and his friends heading towards them. "Sonic!"

Amara, Michelle, and Artemis turned to see them running towards them.

Once they made it, Serena spoke first. "Amara? Michelle? What are you two doing here?"

"We could ask you the same thing." Amara replied.

"What happened to Amy?" Sonic exclaimed.

"It's kind of a long story. We'll explain it to you later." Michelle explained. "Right now, let's just go and see if your friend will be okay."

Seeing that was the best idea. The Sonic Heroes and the Sailor Scouts, along with Luna and Artemis, made their way inside the Hospital, hoping to see if Amy was okay.