Disclaimer: I own ABSOLUTELY nothing except my OC's and the plot.

A/N: Well, like I said in my profile, I'm no longer going to be making predictions on when updates come out. It's not that I'm that busy, but I don't have the motivation to just sit down and think things through. I reread my early chapters and I wish that I could rewrite them and to make them more interesting, and I'm going to make that part of this whole process. Anyways, I'll issue another apology for this late chapter, but from here on out, I'm working on my own pace.

Anyways, I tried to put some good action into this one, and after Alice's section is done within the next two chapters, we'll move to the next fighter. So here we go…

Chapter 26

"Sonic, quick, get Doctor Quack immediately!" the king ordered, as the blue hedgehog snapped to attention.

"Not to worry," he flashed a thumbs-up and a smirk, "'quick' is my middle name." Without another word, he took off in a blur of blue, surprising Alice with his speed. Meanwhile, she watched as the chipmunk and the king, along with the two guards that brought the ambassador in, huddled around her body.

"This doesn't look good," the chipmunk said, reaching for the small handheld computer that was attached to a strap that hung from her shoulder. "Nichole, I need a diagnostic of her condition and transmit it immediately to Dr. Quack's computer systems," she instructed, as she pulled a small wire out from the side, which was attached to a miniature scanner.

"Scan initiated, Sally," the computer replied with a semi-monotone female voice. The device gave off a slight hum as a pale green light washed over the woman's body as the chipmunk slowly moved it along.

"Come on, Sonic," Alice heard her mumble as she looked over the results. "Where are you?" As if on cue, the blue blur returned, dragging a duck under one arm and a folded stretcher in the other. The duck's body was covered with yellow feathers, most of which were under a white medical jacket and large black boots that he wore. He had a black eye patch over one of his eyes and an orange bill.

Still a little disgruntled from being handled so roughly, the duck shot a quick glare at the hedgehog, who was unfolding the stretcher, before kneeling down by the body. He quickly checked her vitals, shaking his head as he performed each medical procedure he could. "We need to get her back to the ER. She's not going to last much longer otherwise."

Before anybody could make a move, though, a rumble shook throughout the castle as the roof above them collapsed. Instinct moved the hedgehog to grab the doctor and patient, trying his best not to hurt her further, and pull them out of harm's way. At the same time, the king pulled the chipmunk back, as the guards jumped back. Alice put her arms in front of her face to shield herself from the dust that was kicked up, looking towards the newly formed whole to find half a dozen blue robots peering in. They were big and bulky, almost three times as big as her, with a single ruby red visor on their dome-shaped heads, which had a small spike on top. "Do not attempt to resist. Surrender yourselves to Dr. Robotnik," the lead robot stated in a monotone voice.

Without a moment's hesitation, the blue hedgehog took to action and, using his super speed, ran straight up the wall at the group of robots. He spun into a ball, effectively becoming a buzz-saw with his sharp spines, and rammed into the lead robot. His attempt was ineffective, though, bouncing off the extremely hard metal. He was stunned for a brief second as he fell, but quickly pulled out of it, spinning his body so he landed on his feet. "What are you all waiting for?" he shouted. "Get out of here!"

"He's right," the king replied. "We need that ambassador alive. Guards, help Doctor Quack with the patient while we distract them. Sally, go call for the other Freedom Fighters!" There was a slight flash of light out of the corner of his eye, and the next thing he knew was that he was on the ground with the blue hedgehog on top of him. Where he had been standing before was a burnt hole from a laser blast.

"We have orders to terminate upon resistance," the robot droned. "Prepare to…" The robot stopped cold in its tracks as a golden beam of energy ripped through one side of its torso and out the other, causing it to explode and shower parts and metal onto the floor. A moment of dead silence and surprise fell over the battlefield. Looking to the source, everybody saw Alice, who now had her long hair up in a ponytail, with both arms outstretched and wrists connected horizontally. Without a word, she took off into the air, plowing through the torso of another robot before turning and firing a blast from both of her hands at two other robots, exploding on contact with their metallic hides and joining the explosion of the one she ripped through.

She took a moment and surveyed the surrounding area. All around her was chaos, as there were a couple hundred capturing the populace and destroying the village. After her display, though, all eyes had turned to her, and she swore she could almost hear the robots scanners designating her as an immense threat. 'They should,' she thought with a smirk, but it quickly turned into a frown. 'I want to use the move I've had in store for awhile now, but I don't have enough control of it yet to make sure I don't harm anybody.' She growled in frustration, "Guess I'll have to do this the hard way."

She vaguely heard the animals in the castle try to warn her as the two remaining robots had gotten on either side of her and fired off their lasers. As the lasers were about to strike, though, they only hit an illusion and went on to pierce each other. Within only a span of a few seconds, she appeared within the midst of a cluster of about a dozen, slicing cleaning through one with a roundhouse kick while blowing two apart with energy attacks from her hand. She nimbly evaded a punch from another, while aiming another energy attack at the ground to push herself upward and using another kick to remove the head of the attacking robot. As she came back down, she used the same foot to make a clean slice vertically. Landing on hands and knees, she instantly rebounded off the ground with a kick and slammed her shoulder into a sixth one, causing to slam into the two behind it as she finished all three off with another energy blast. In rapid succession, she let loose with four energy balls, ending the quick skirmish.

"I'll give you one chance to leave these people in peace!" she said to the rest of them. "Or else you'll end up like your companions here. Either way, I have no problem dismantling each and every one of you!" Actually that was a lie, though she wasn't going to admit that. She didn't feel like expending the energy to waste pathetic opponents like this, but if she had to…

It looked like they weren't going to let her get her wish, though, as another group tried to attack her while those who were carrying civilians tried to flee. "Oh, no you don't!" she shouted, phasing in front of the fleeing group and taking each one out quickly and cleanly. As each dropped their cargo, she would catch them and place them gently on the ground. As the battle wore on, they would get further and further away from the village, and each fight she would make sure that the focus remained on her actions and not those of the freed villagers returning to their homes. After the course of fifteen minutes or so, though, of punching, kicking, dodging, blasting, and plowing through the ranks, the group of robots had dwindled to only about the last half dozen. "I don't suppose you guys would just consider giving up and going home, would you?" she asked with a smirk. They remained silent, but raised their laser weapons at her. She heaved a sigh as she said, "Didn't think so." With a flash of light and a shout, her white aura flared around her and then outward, the sheer power of it overloading their circuits and blowing them apart. She released a breath of air as the aura vanished and she floated to the ground.

"Ugh, I'll never get this stuff out of my clothing," she said to herself in disgust, looking down at her oil-soaked clothes. She was glad that she had put her backpack down before she started the fight, but she still wasn't happy to be covered in the slick liquid. Suddenly, she looked up and turned around to see that the king, chipmunk, and hedgehog who had been in the throne room had made their way to the battlefield and was looking at her. "I…suppose I have a lot of explaining to do, huh?" she asked sheepishly, scratching the back of her head like Noel always would do if he was ever in an embarrassing bind. She didn't have time to dwell on him, however, as the king nodded. "Er…hold that thought," she said suddenly, turning just in time to catch a medium size energy ball. She struggled with it for a moment before deflecting it straight up into the sky.

"Well, you're everything I was told you'd be," a voice said, as she turned to where the blast had come from. Standing on a tree branch a few feet away was a teenage girl. She wore khaki-colored sweat pants with a light green T-shirt, both which went well with her thin figure. Her black hair was slightly frizzy, but pulled up into a ponytail. What was most disturbing, though, was the evil smirk on her face, particularly the way her deep green eyes were arched down in a gaze at her. "I thought for sure you wouldn't be able to deflect that at that range," she said casually, floating down to the ground and walking towards her. Alice barely registered the group behind her tensing for combat, but most of her focus was on the extreme power this individual was emitting.

"Who are you?" she growled, tensing for an attack.

"My, you must be feeling awfully dirty because of all that oil," she stated, ignoring her question. "I tried to persuade Robotnik that I could handle this on my own, but he just wouldn't listen to me. He just had to send out his little robots!" she proclaimed dramatically.

"So you're working for Robotnik?" came another voice, which Alice attributed to the female chipmunk.

"At the moment," she said, briefly glancing at her with a smirk before turning back to Alice. "It's getting awfully crowded, isn't it? Why don't we take this somewhere a little more…open?" Without warning, a powerful gust of wind lifted her off her feet and into the air. It took her a moment, but she finally was able to use her energy to stabilize herself.

"Who are you?" Alice asked again, as the mystery girl rose up to her level.

"You have a one-track mind, you know that?" she replied snidely, before resuming her smirk, though a little more casually than before. "You need to loosen up, relax, fly like a bird on the currents of the wind," she said, floating around freely in the air as she said it. Alice didn't loosen up, though, and the girl stopped and heaved an exaggerated sigh. "Oh, fine, you can call me Bree, and I'm a Dark Elemental."

"Of Wind, I'm assuming," Alice stated. "And I bet you're actually working for Ganondorf. This was all a trap by him, wasn't it?"

"Well, nobody can call you stupid. It's no wonder Noel loves you so much," she said, noticing Alice twitch out of the corner of her eye. "I wonder how we'd look together…of course, once you're out of the picture." Alice was about to attack, but then backed off and laughed, which confused the girl.

"Heh…ha, ha, ha, ha! I bet Ganondorf promised Noel to you if you defeated me, right?" For once, Bree was silent, and Alice became serious again. "You're a fool. Ganondorf will kill you as soon as you do his dirty work. And even if he did allow Noel to live, he wouldn't accept a shallow airhead like you." Strangely, Bree smirked. Only this time, it was that evil smirk again.

"I guess we'll just have to wait and see who's right, won't we? And don't forget that I'm a Dark Elemental, which means I love to destroy things. Once I've had my fun with your boyfriend, I'll just kill him myself…" Before she could finish her taunt, this time she did find Alice's fist in her face, knocking her back a few feet. "Seems I hit a nerve that time," Bree taunted, wiping blood from her lip.

"You talk too much," Alice retorted, charging in for another blow. However, Bree was one step ahead of her and delivered a knee to her gut, doubling her over before executing a hammer punch to her back, sending her plummeting to the ground and crashing back into the forest.

'Okay, yeah, that hurt,' she groaned, shaking the spots from her vision and pulling herself out of the large pile of trees and shrubbery. A sudden surge of power drew her attention back to the sky where Bree had a spinning ball of transparent energy in her hand.

"Here! I'm sure this will 'blow' you away!" Bree shouted, tossing it at her. Alice tried to match energy for energy, but was horrified to find that her attack was caught by Bree's and continued on back to her, causing a massive explosion that propelled her several yards back. She skipped along the forest floor a couple times before landing facedown in the dirt. She vaguely registered that the girl landed a few feet away from her as she tried to roll over on her back. "Heh, if you're this weak, then this battle will be a breeze," she mocked.

"Not before you run out of those stupid puns!" Alice retorted, suddenly rolling to her feet and releasing another energy blast, this time connecting squarely into Bree's chest and sliding her back several feet before it dissipated.

"Come on! Is that all you got?" she taunted back, shaking it off like it had been nothing. "Here's a real attack. Gale Force!" She put her wrists together horizontally and a tornado of energy and air rushed at Alice.

Before it could reach her, though, a voice called out, "Shadow Gate!" A black hole opened just inches in front of Alice, as Bree's attack was sucked into it.

"I was wondering when you'd show yourself!" Bree shouted into the air, not looking the least bit shaken. "I picked up your presence through the wind before I even started this battle. Show yourself, Sage of Shadows!"

"Impa?" Alice whispered hesitantly, not daring to hope for relief.

"I'm here, child," a voice softly said, materializing in front of her and in a battle position with her dagger held out in front for defense.

"So, shall we move on to round two?" Bree laughed tauntingly. "I'm so glad that I can take both of you down right here and now!" As she was about to attack, though, a chiming sound filled the air and she pulled a small device out of the pocket of her sweats. "Oh, give me a break! What does he want now?" she asked in an exasperated tone, tossing the small device on the ground.

Out of it arose a holographic image of a man. He seemed rather tall, if his long slender legs were any indication, but also rather round around his midsection. He wore a black jumpsuit that was underneath a large, long-sleeve, red pullover jacket that had a couple of white stripes that went horizontally along the back and stopped at golden buttons. Running vertically down the sleeves were also white stripes that ended at the golden cuffs, which were rolled up once. He was completely bald except for his large, wild, red mustache, and a pair of gray goggles rested atop his head. His eyebrows arched menacingly and stopped at the blue rimless glasses he was wearing, which rested on his big pink nose and hid his eyes. At the moment his white-gloved hands were balled into fists, and an impatient look plastered on his round face. "What is taking so long, Bree? A.D.A.M told me that the squadron I sent out had been destroyed almost fifteen minutes ago! What on Mobius is going on there?" he shouted roughly.

"I had a bit of…trouble…that I'm cleaning up. Don't worry, though, once I'm through here I'll head back," she replied tensely.

"Forget that," he commanded. "We're moving onto the next phase. Return to Station Square immediately."

Alice and Impa almost thought the girl was going to explode, but she heaved a forced sigh and calmly replied, "Yes, Dr. Robotnik. As you wish." Discreetly, she tossed a small ball of energy, causing the device to explode before turning back to them. "Don't get the wrong idea; this isn't over," she said threateningly. "I only follow him because Master Ganondorf commanded me to, but once I get a chance I will be back for you!" Without another word, she took off into the air. Alice was about to give chase, but Impa held her back.

"That wouldn't be the wisest move you've ever made," she replied. "You and I both know that she's too powerful for the both of us. Luck was the only thing that saved us today."

Alice didn't say anything, but it was clear that she was upset because of her weakness. She had trained so hard and yet she still couldn't measure up. What would Noel say? 'He'd probably tell me not to worry about it, first,' she thought. 'And then he'd remind me that he didn't want me fighting in the first place.' Thinking about it didn't lighten her mood any, and when she finally did snap out of her thoughts she noticed Impa had vanished into the shadows and the three animals had caught up with her again.

She was about to open her mouth to speak, but the king cut her off. "Despite the million questions I have right now, they can wait until later, after you've cleaned yourself up. We'll have a few servants set up a bath for you and show you your room," he said.

"Wait…you're still going to trust me?" she asked, perplexed. He simply turned and nodded, looking her eye to eye.

"Truth be told, you never lied to us to begin with, and I understand why you would want to keep your…abilities…secret, otherwise we might suspect you as an enemy. I would still suspect you, but you did save our kingdom after all, so this is the least I can do in thanks. I will want to know what's going on, though," he replied. "In the meantime, though, we haven't fully introduced ourselves. I am King Elias Acorn, son of Max and Alicia Acorn, and this is my sister…"

"Sally," the female chipmunk said. "And the blue hedgehog with the too-cool-for-my-own-good attitude here is Sonic."

"Are you able to get back to the castle on your own?" Elias asked. She nodded as she took a step forward, only to fall to her knees in dizziness. Though the battle hadn't been long and the wounds minor, her clothes were charred because of the flammable oil and the adrenaline had left her body, leaving her drained of energy more than usual. She tried to keep her eyes open, but eventually she succumbed to the darkness.

A/N: Well, I don't have too much to say. I'm sort of satisfied with the action, but it was mainly a group fight and it's hard to write those; I'm saving the major fight until later. Please leave me a review on the way out, whether you liked it or not. I'd really like to hear how I'm doing on this and how I can improve.

I'm currently revising my older chapters and will post the changes once I'm done, along with a note telling what changes I made. That won't be finished for awhile, though, and each new chapter I release gives me more work to do. Anyways, catch ya all next chapter!