Chapter 4 - Standing Ground

Chapter 4:Standing Ground.[br]
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A hospital bed in the critical conditions wing was occupied with Miles Prower, an oxygen mask obscuring the face of the two tailed fox, also un-aged by the quantum aura crystals, but his arm was heavily burned, and his chest was discoloured by chaos energy. His fur, stained by his own blood from the tests that they committed for Vertigo’s test of power. Outside the cubicle, Mikey, heavily bandaged, the chest uncovered, showing the reopened scar, the fur around it, heavily stained by blood, looked through the glass panes, his face, fixed in an detached expression, his eyes static, unblinking. His right hand clasping onto his swords, looking as he was on the verge of breaking. He walked slowly towards the door of the cubicle, his left hand reached in the direction of the door handle…[br]
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“Voltage?” a voice piped up from his right. Mikey stopped millimetres from grasping the handle, and, keeping his hand outstretched, looked in the direction of the voice. A hedgehog, young in appearance and just smaller than Mikey, black spines appearing from his head in the same form as Sonics.[br]

“Dante? What the hell are you doing here?” he asked, with slight confusion.[br]

“Jericho accidentally ripped his hand up with a Jaguar engine we found on the scrapheap… more importantly…” he said to him, with a hint of perplexity, “…How come you’re standing up? I mean, the severity of that cut on your chest, for a normal being, that would at least stop you from walking for at least three months…”[br]

“Dante, shut it!” He snapped at him. Dante faltered to reply. “I’m not a normal being, am I? And besides, my little brother’s in there…” Dante tried to respond to the question, but Mikey walked in to Tails’ cubicle.[br]

“H-hey, Voltage, what are you doing?” Dante asked, frightened that he might be breaking a few rules, and dashed in behind him.[br]
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Mikey looked on, his brother in the bed, Tails’ breathing was slow, his eyes closed, his hands were relaxed. Mikey reached for his brothers hand, but…[br]

Tails’ eyes snapped open, his hand snatched a handgun from the drawer next to the bed and held it to his brothers head, his eyes fixed on his eyes, the finger on the trigger, clearly panicking. Dante practically jumped out of his skin when he saw the pistol being aimed at Mikey’s head, but Mikey never moved a muscle, and stared into Miles’ petrified eyes.[br]

“Miles,” Mikey whispered to him, nudging the gun away from his face, only for him to put it straight back to him, but he was now shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. “Miles, It’s me, Mikey” he whispered, nudging the pistol away for the second time. This time, Tails kept the gun down, but his eyes welled up with tears. Without warning, Tails sprang up and grabbed him, tears streaming down his face, hugging him as hard as he could, sending the gun flying across the room. The gun hit the flooring, firing the bullet at Dante’s head. He managed to avoid the projectile within a few millimetres, his face was a picture of hilarity, his pupils were pin-point small, and he was sweating like a pig, but neither Mikey or Miles paid any attention, because for the first time in years, this was the first time they met as brothers. Tails was crying heavily, clearly delighted to see his brother alive from all of the years.[br]

“I really missed you, Mikey,” he sobbed, “I really did.”[br]

“As did I, Miles,” Mikey said, also crying as heavily as Tails, for the first time in many years. “I’m seriously thankful that you’re alive.”[br]
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“Erm, excuse me?” a feminine voice came from the door. Dante turned around, but the tearful brothers never reacted. The female voice came from a busty eighteen year old pink hedgehog, with long, dark pink hair. She was wearing a traditional nurses outfit, and wearing a badge that said “Typhoon”. “You two aren’t supposed to be here, this patient is still in critical condition.”[br]

“Uhh… they’re brothers and they haven’t seen each other for a very long time..” Dante started to speak, but Typhoon cut him off.[br]

“But that still doesn’t mean that you can’t come in here,” she spoke in a very commanding voice, “So can you two please come out of here?”[br]

Dante faltered for the second time that day. Voltage looked behind him to see the nurse standing there. He wiped the tears from his face and turned back to Tails.[br]

“Listen, Miles,” He started, very faintly, but loud enough for Tails to hear, “I’m going to get them to put you in the other bed in my room in the hospital. There, I can keep a close eye on what’s happening to you, okay?”[br]

Tails wiped the tears from his face and nodded, still slightly sobbing from the emotion.[br]

“Brother…” Miles said while tears started to well up in his eyes again. “Don’t let him attack me again, brother… please?” With that, he burst into tears again and held onto Mikey. “Please… He’s a monster, Mikey…”[br]

“Miles,” Mikey softly said, “If he lays one finger on you, I’m going to cut him in half, I‘m not going to let him get you.”[br]

“Thank you, Mikey!” Tails cried out. With that, Mikey walked out, holding on to his chest in great pain.[br]
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Dante and Typhoon was waiting outside, talking to each other, holding each others hand. Mikey silently closed the door behind him, looked at them without them noticing, and cleared his throat to catch their interest. Both of them turned their heads towards Mikey, and Typhoon broke off from holding each others hands.[br]

“About time you came out, you aren’t supposed to be out of your room at this moment in time,” she explained to him.[br]

“Listen, my little brother is very distraught, and he wants to go into the same room as mine, okay?”[br]

“Sir, I don’t think that’ll be possible…”[br]

“JUST DO IT, NOW!!!” He shouted, making a few patients to raise their heads and look in their direction.[br]

Typhoon was lost for words, temporarily. “Okay, I’ll get the staff to move him there.” She eventually said.[br]

“Thank you,” Mikey replied.[br]
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About half an hour later, Tails was moved into the same room as Mikey, and for the first time, Miles managed to relax.[br]

“Without the threat of Vertigo,” Miles thought to himself, “I should be safe.”[br]

Jericho, a grey hedgehog, with the same chest as Shadow’s and wearing green sneakers, and his left hand heavily bandaged, occupied the third bed in the room, leaving Dante to have the last one in the room. They were just about to start a game of Texas Hold’em with a set of cards that Dante brought in, but Vertigo barged in without notice, looking around for something, or someone. He ignored Dante and Jericho and looked directly at Miles, who instantly shrank away, cowering behind his cards, trying desperately to ignore him. Vertigo smirked, with a twisted look, then turned to Mikey. His twisted smirk turned to a twisted smile.[br]

“Why, if it isn’t the Prower brothers,” Vertigo scoffed. Dante and Jericho looked on, confused by what was happening in front of them. “I can’t wait for the next test, you two tailed freak!” he shouted at Miles, who teared up in fright of what would happen to him if it was him to be the target in a test.[br]

“You’ll shut the hell up!” Mikey snapped at him, and stood directly in front of him, clearly ticked off with him.[br]

“Heh, you couldn’t even fight me earlier on in the week, what are you gonna do?”[br]

“I’m not going to let you harm a hair on him,” he replied, breathing heavily.[br]

Vertigo smiled, turned and sniggered for a few seconds. Then, without warning, lashed out onto Mikey’s open wound, covering his fist in blood. Unbelievably, Mikey didn’t move a muscle, and looked on. Vertigo was dumbfounded by his resiliency. Mikey shook his head and threw a lightning right hook, connecting with Vertigo’s cheek, shedding blood on his face. Vertigo reeled the tiniest bit, but recovered and wiped his cheek from his blood. Seeing his blood infuriated him. As he wound up for a knock out punch, a bat grabbed his fist and stopped him from swinging at Mikey’s temples. The bat was a dark grey colour, wearing a leather sleeveless jacket, and very baggy jeans. His eyes were a very deep amber colour.[br]

“Vertigo, what the hell you doing?” he said eventually.[br]

“Scarce, I don’t want you in my “conversations”, especially when it’s with these two.” he replied, with a tone of voice that neither Mikey or Miles liked the sounds of.[br]

“Well, have it later,” Scarce spoke to him, “and see to that cheek. Nurse?” Typhoon walked into the room.[br]

“Yes sir?” she asked.[br]

“See to my comrade here, please,” with that, he walked out.[br]

“Okay, sir,” she said, as she started to lead Vertigo out of the room. Vertigo’s eyes was still fixed on Mikey’s unchanged face. He then made an execution gesture to both Mikey and Miles, by running his thumb across his throat, then stormed out. Typhoon waved to Dante before she walked out as well, and he waved back. As soon as the door closed, Jericho looked at Dante with a smile.[br]

“I can’t believe you actually got a girlfriend before me,” Jericho laughed.[br]

“What? Wait, she isn’t my girlfriend,” Dante replied instantly, trying hard not to blush, but failing miserably.[br]

“Sure she isn’t,” Jericho laughed. Then he glanced at Mikey, who was checking the damage to the scar on his chest, which covered his palm of his hand in his own blood. “Voltage, you alright?” he eventually asked.[br]

“I’m fine,” he responded, as he sat down, his face showing pain.[br]

“What are we going to do, Mikey?” Tails asked, with great dread in his voice. The room fell silent. Not a sound was made as they all looked to Mikey.[br]

“This is where we start,” he finally answered.[br]

“Start what?” Dante questioned him. Mikey turned around to him, with a burning flame in his eye.[br]

“This is where we start standing our ground.”

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