SATMM Ch 24

"Sonic and the Mystic Mage"


Chapter 24


"[sighs] I always knew you were bad luck, Rouge," Knuckles said sternly (and with a cruel smirk) after Rouge told him, Amy, Cream, and Tails about the accident with Sonic and the bucket of glue a few hours earlier. (They are at Tails' house at the time.)

"Look, what came out of my mouth was just nonsense, all right?" said Rouge. "But that accident was not even uncalled for."

"If Sonic were still covered in glue," Amy lamented with a sigh. "Then I'd be stuck on him, and he would be stuck on me, so that we could be together forever(!)"

"Now's not the time for that, Amy," said Knuckles, even though whenever Amy gives Sonic a tight hug, whenever Sonic arrives, destroys one of Eggman's robots who attempts to kill Amy, or even saves her, Knuckles tends to tease Sonic about it, yet he always says it's not like that between him and Amy, which wasn't a total lie (for Sonic).

"It was just an accident in general, okay??" Rouge continued in her defensive tone.

"I think she might be telling the truth," Amy said (upon reading Rouge's mind, which is somewhat accidental).

"See? Even Pinky ("Pinky" is another one of Amy's nicknames, only by Rouge) believes me," said Rouge. Then she put her gloved hand to her face and her other underneath her elbow to support it. "Though I don't know if Sonic would just believe me..."

That one made Knuckles a little jealous inside. Amy felt the jealousy and her head started throbbing because it was so strong. "Excuse me, please," the pink hedgehog said as she got up from the orange sofa (and massaging her temples) and left the living room.

Tails noticed this and followed Amy to the dining room next to the kitchen. Amy stopped at the doorway of the kitchen (from the dining room), which gave Tails some time to ask her if she is all right.

"I'm fine, thanks," Amy moaned as she continued massaging her temples. "Strong emotions are pretty much hard to block (according to Miia's research)."

"What did you feel?" the yellow-orange fox asked.

"Jealousy," Amy replied. "And it's coming from Knuckles."

"Knuckles?" This got Tails confused.

Amy leaned in and whispered the reason in Tails' ear. When she was done, she leaned away from Tails and Tails smirked. "Oh, so that's it??"

"Most likely," replied Amy, also smirking.

"Does he really??"

"Oh, yeah."

"Hey, what are you guys talking about??"

Tails and Amy turned to see who asked that question. "Oh, just a little headache," Amy replied with one of her hands behind her head. "I'm feeling a little better now."

Knuckles raised a brow. "You sure?"

"Yes."

Tails and Amy then walked back to living room when Vanilla opened the front door, arriving  to here. "I'm home," she said.

"Did your appointment with Mrs. Kyouko go well?" Cream asked her mother.

"Oh, it went fine, dear," Vanilla replied as she walked  to the kitchen. "Would any of you like some tea?" she said to the group.

"Not me, thanks," said Rouge. "Not in the mood."

"I'll go help," Amy suggested.

"Why, thank you, Amy," said Vanilla. "I would appreciate the help." She and Amy then went into the kitchen to gather the utensils and ingredients.

Awhile, Rouge got up from the orange chair and started walking for the stairs.

Knuckles noticed this and said, "Where ya goin'?"

Rouge simply didn't answer. Instead she just continued up the stairs and disappeared.

This worried Knuckles (even though she is his rival). Something tells him that those wild predictions Rouge had previously made, also the cyan orble around her neck, might be her preparation to become a mage like him, Amy, Sonic, and Miia, she just doesn't even know it yet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rouge is in her room, lying on her bed and staring at the ceiling with her arms behind her head. She was thinking about the predictions she had made previously, especially the incident with Sonic and the glue bucket.

Just then Rouge finally understood what these predictions meant, and what her cyan orble indicates, but she needs to wait until the right time to become a mage, but she decides no to tell her friends about it, because she has seen that they already are (except for Tails and Cream).

~*~*~*~*The Next Day*~*~*~*~

As I was writing some stuff down in my notebook(1), Sei walked up to me and asked. "Hey, Miia, need any help studying for the alegbra test tomorrow?"

I scoffed at him. "The real question is, Sei," I said as I turned to him. "Do you need any help studying for the algebra test tomorrow?"

Sei let out a blank face(2).

I scoffed again, this time annoyingly. "Most of the time, you always ask me to come over your place to help you study for any upcoming quiz or test(3)," I said, pointing out the obvious(4). Then I stayed silent for a moment. "But yeah, you can come over to my place to help you study."

Sei opened his mouth, but I cut in, "Do not tell anyone that you came over to my place to help you study, because everyone will think that it is a stupid idea."

"Yeah, I know, you very rarely do stupid things(5)," said Sei.

"Good," I said. "We'll meet after school, 'kay?"

"All right," Sei replied with a smile.

When he left, I sat back down on my desk to continue writing my things down(6). But then my pencil tip broke when I just remembered something: what the hell was I thinking!?! Vanilla's working as a housekeeper at my place! How will Sei react when--!?

"Don't worry, dear, it cannot be that bad once you get used to it." Those are the words Vanilla had said to me when she visited Mom. Hearing these in my head once again flushed away my panic(7). I guess, as Vanilla would put it, wont' be that bad... at least I think it won't(8)... Oh, well. How bad can that be??

********6 Hours Later************

Chime, chime, chime! Well, at least school ended with such a beautiful bell sound(9), as usual, even on weekends. As we (and the other students) were going out of the building, Karin caught up with Sei and I and said, "Hey, Miia, wanna go to my place to study with me?"

"Sorry, Karin," I replied. "But I invited Sei over to my place to help me study for an algebra test."

"Aww, man," Karin whined slightly.

"Listen, whenever a test of any subject is coming up, I'll come over to your place to help you study," I was trying to cheer her up(10).

"Aww, that would mean so much to me," Karin cooed(11). "Thank you!"

"Uh, you're welcome... as always..." I said, while scratching the back of my head.

Just then I heard Sonic's whistle, though I grabbed Sei's hand (with Sei yelping(12)) and darted off to the bench. "Hi, Sonic!"

"Hey, Miia!" Sonic said as he got off the bench.

"Miia, would you please--" Sei started to say,but I let go of his hand(13). "Sei's coming over to help me study for a test tomorrow."

Sonic smiled. "Well, it's alright, I won't bother ya. And I wish ya luck for tomorrow!" He finished his sentence with a thumbs-up.

"Thanks, Sonic," I said.

"My pleasure always," Sonic replied when he darted off in a blue blur. Why in the heck do I get the feeling that he's being totally... respective of my privacy?? Either that, or he's being somewhat lenient, one of the two.

Sei elbowed me in the arm. "Why did he run off like that?"

I answered, "Because he didn't want to... disturb us while we're studying."

"Oh. Well, that makes more sense."

" 'Course it does, now let's go." I walked a couple of steps as Sei caught up with me.

A while later, and as we were walking down the street, which is the direction to my house, Sei and I said nothing almost the whole time(14, 15). At last, I said, "Um, uh, Sei?"

"Yeah?" Sei responded(16).

"Well, umm..." I swallowed a large lump in my throat. "When you... come over to my house... well, my mom hired her as a housekeeper, and..."

"Because of your insecurities?" Sei inquired.

"Most likely, though that's what Mom told me," I answered.

"So, what about this housekeeper? Could you tell me a little about her?"

Oh, geez. He's digging deeper(17). "Well, she's nice, disciplinary..." I stopped for a second. "When you get to see her in person... you won't... freak out, will you?"

Sei scoffed. "Of course I won't, Miia. It's not like your housekeeper is rude, cold, ugly... you know. Just a normal human being, right?"

"Um, I guess so..." I said slowly.

"Guess so?"

I sighed. "Just wait until we get to my home, okay?"

"All right, all right, I will," said Sei.

At least I didn't tell him that my housekeeper is actually Vanilla The Rabbit, mother of Cream The Rabbit. Wait, why the heck am I getting panicky in my thoughts?? How bad can that be?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sei and I arrived at my house finally. As I walked up to the door, I turned to him, "Please, do not freak out when you enter my house, or else you're gonna regret it." That was in a paranoid, not threatening, tone.

"I promised I won't," said Sei as he shrugged. "There's really no need to tell me twice."

I faced the door again and took a deep breath to get all the panicky feelings out of my brain. Then I got a hold of the silver knob, turned it, opened it, stepped in and said "Vanilla, I'm home." I left the door open so that Sei could come in and I closed the door.

I then glanced at Vanilla at the kitchen sink, washing some dishes. She turned to me and Sei and said with a kind smile, "Welcome home Miia." She then brought her eyes(18) to Sei, "Who is your friend?"(19)

"Sei Moroko," I answered. "He's one of my school friends, and he came over to study with me for an upcoming test."

"So I'm told," said Vanilla. I can easily guess that Mom told her that I sometimes invite my friends over to study with me.

"Do I smell cookies?" asked Sei after I heard him sniff(20).

"Oh, I was about to tell you," said Vanilla as she was rinsing off a mixing bowel. "That I had made some sugar cookies while you were at school, Miia.

I glanced at the dining table, and in the center of it lies a small plate of three or four sugar cookies neatly piled. Next to the plate is a small pile of paper napkins. "The rest of the cookies are in the cookie tin in the pantry," Vanilla informed me. So she's told, huh? I'd really rather not think too hard about it. "There are also some napkins next to it."

"Thanks..." I said. "But you really didn't..."

"Oh, I am sure it's no trouble at all, sweetheart," Vanilla replied.

I walked up to the table and took a cookie and two napkins as Sei did the same. I stared at the last cookie for around ten seconds when Vanilla said, "The last cookie is for Sonic when he comes back, so please do not eat it."

"Uh, it's all right, I won't," I said in an understanding tone. Then I turned to Sei, "Let's go to the living room and study."

"Right," Sei replied as he wrapped his cookie in his napkin (and I did the same) and we went into the living room and sat on the couch.

************45 minutes later(21)**************

"All right, so 'x' squared times five cubed, we got that covered,"(22) said Sei as he and I wrote down the answer, divided by "xy" to the fourth(23) in our notebooks.

"All right, so now we have '5x' to the fifth(24)..." I bit my lip. "Should we turn it into, like, '15,625x'(25), or should we just keep it?"

"I think we should keep it the way it is," Sei replied.

"Oh, just making sure. What about the 'xy' to the fourth?"

Sei bit his lip and looked near the ceiling. "Hmmmmmmm..." Then he looked straight at me and answered, "I think we should make it into a '5x' squared times 'y' to the ninth. What do you think?"

I lifted my head slightly and looked up to the ceiling. "I think that's the answer, but I really don't know for sure. I could just say for now until the test that it is the best answer and we will find out whether it's right or wrong."

"I'm with you," Sei replied as he got up and crumbled the napkin, most likely with cookie crumbs, and tried to throw it in the trash can, but it missed. "Aww, shoot!"

I just simply shrugged then walked up to the crumpled napkin and dropped it in the can and I did the same with mine(26). I then turned back to Sei and said with a friendly grin, "Well, it is nice studying with ya."

"Always my pleasure," replied Sei. Then he packed away his things he used to study with me and headed out the front door. I followed him to say, "Thank you for not overreacting when you saw that Vanilla The Rabbit is my mom's housekeeper."

"That's alright, I didn't actually overreact," said Sei as he put his hand behind his head. "Actually... I was a bit surprised that Mrs. Kyouko's housekeeper is an... adult anthropomorphic rabbit..."

I noticed that Vanilla might be overhearing our conversation and I said quickly, "Uh, Sei has no offense towards you, Vanilla." I ended it with a nervous laugh.

"Oh, none taken, dear," said Vanilla. I also noticed that she was sweeping the kitchen and dining room floor as well.

"Uh, right," I said as I cleared my throat, then turned to Sei, "See you tomorrow, Sei?

"You know it, Mii-chan," Sei said with a wink. Mii-chan(27). I haven't heard that nickname in years! It is really nice to hear it again. I guess Sei really missed calling me Mii-chan (Karin called me Mii-chan too, but Hiryu actually didn't). Then he opened the door, but then yelped when he saw something. I peeked behind him, and would you look who's here: Sonic The Hedgehog! "Oh, hi, Sonic," I said. "So how's your run?"

"It went fine," replied Sonic with a smile.

"Sorry, I didn't notice that you were on the doorstep," said Sei.

"It's no biggie," said Sonic.

"I really should get going now, so see ya," Sei said as he carefully stepped out of the door so that Sonic could enter.

I then closed the door and said to Sonic, "I need to go to my room for the time being."

"Okay," said Sonic.

Then I went upstairs to my bedroom and closed my door. Then I took my brown Mary Jane shoes off, walked up to my bed and plopped on it back-first. I then let out a long sigh. It's not the studying that exhausted me, 'cause clearly I don't get exhausted while studying. Okay, granted, that I often make digital arts on my computer, play video games, watch TV, even eat a little bit of junk food, though very rarely, I am under-motivated, not lazy, and I often get my schoolwork done on time, get good grades, figure-skate and roller-blade and play field hockey, even I do my chores when Mom and Dad are at work. Maybe... it's not just my insecurities. Maybe I'm sometimes exhausted too, even though I do not show it because I have a strong sense of duty. I guess my exhaustion gives me another reason why Mom hired Vanilla as her housekeeper, though I'll just have to promise not to take advantage of her(28).

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Going to the Darkus Realm, Eggman and his robots, Bocoe, Decoe, and Bokkun, are putting some finishing touches on a cybernetic dragon, with the help of the were-animals, that is.

"How much longer until this is finished, Doctor?" asked Bocoe, with slight whining tone.

"I'm getting impatient already," Decoe said as well.

"Just a few minor adjustments, and then we will be done," Eggman reminded.

"Just remember, Doc," said Mei Ling, who is hiding halfway behind the shadows. "You need to give us half the credit for offering you the organic tech."

"I haven't forgotten, Mei Ling," said Eggman.

A few moments passed when Eggman finally declared, "Haha! Now it is complete!"

"Let us see it, Eggman," said Decoe and Bocoe altogether.

"Me too! I wanna see it!" said Bokkun excitedly as he flew around rapidly with full eagerness.

Eggman pushed one of the buttons in the control panel, causing the glossy dark wire frames to slowly spread out. Though it is hard to see, it seems to be a cybernetic Mirror Beast.

Eggman chuckled evilly. "Now you won't be able to escape this time, you mangy little hedgehog! Neither will your female human friend. Even your new magic powers will not be able to stop us!" He ended his saying with an evil laugh; also with that, the cybernetic Mirror Beast dragon's eyes flashed open with a gloomy, evil purple glow.




T.B.C.