S: I've updated on time?! Surely it is a mistake! The end of the world must be coming!

...wow, it isn't. Cool!

Well, there's a reason why this one's here so soon, but I'll leave you to figure it out. I quite like this chapter actually.

Please, enjoy.

He put his feet onto the desk with a clunk. As he leant back, his chair squeaked, and he let his body relax. Sighing, he reached into his pocket, bringing out a pack of cigarettes, and using his teeth, extracted one. A lighter clicked, and within a few moments, he was quite contently breathing smoke into the room.

The air conditioning came on as it detected the smoke, filling the room with a low hum. He amused himself for a moment by watching his smoke rings be devoured by the suction, the thin constructions falling apart easily. The smoke had no chance to thicken in the air to provide a smell, despite its attempts to cling to his unkempt brown hair.

These things have a lot of flavour. Shame they're in such short supply.

Usually the supply division was efficient enough so that it was rare when a shortage occurred. Even out-of-the-way bases in the remotest parts of the world were well supplied, much to the pride of the division.

He smirked, letting the cigarette balance expertly between his lips. He scratched at his face, morning stubble invading his chin with alarming speed.

I wonder if this place counts as out-of-the-way. On one hand, it's right next door. On the other, it's more than a million miles.

He'd been assigned to this base months ago as its commander, and if he hadn't already been sworn to secrecy through previous missions, this would definitely have qualified. A small outpost, thoroughly locked down and heavily disguised, so that none of the locals would even know it was there. That was of high importance, apparently. There was to be no contact of any kind, observation only.

That kind of irked him in the beginning. If the job was babysitting scientists who were researching the things, then he still wouldn't like it, but at least there'd be some guy in a white coat that would know what was going on.

He was a soldier, a fighter. He was trained to devise battle tactics and hold his own against a dozen lesser men.

He was not trained to watch talking animals.

He readjusted his feet on annoyed impulse, crossing his legs the other way round. His uniform rustled slightly as he moved, the black-blue combination quite at odds with the light grey desk. He exhaled again, the smoke being whipped up by the air currents and quickly disappearing into the depths of the vent.

Sure, the previous team had made it as comfortable and homely as possible. Even this office furniture he was using now would not look out of place in a normal building, and it's not like there was any reason to disguise the interior of the base. It all seemed quite normal and placid until you realised there were no windows.

I've forgotten what the wind is like. Fresh air always has a particular flavour you can smell as well as taste. Irreplaceable.

At least it was relatively simple work. The crazy little animals (he could never remember the proper term for them) paid little if any attention to the world around them, their tight-knit villages unconcerned with the trifles of others, unless it was for trading purposes.

He stretched his arms. Sometimes he thought the dull, dull things deserved having a maniacal descendant of a traitor amongst them.

For that was their real mission. Watching the cute critters was inevitably what they mostly did, but with the technology at their disposal, they were to watch the movements of a certain Ivo Robotnik.

At this he clenched his fist, crushing the now-finished cigarette. The name 'Robotnik' was still spat out among the military to this day, despite how many decades it had been. Abusing the trust of the government to create armies of vile mutants, as well as experimentation on defenceless animals –even humans too, some whispered – stuck in the memory.

But even as they destroyed his abominations and wrecked his treasonous plans, the mad scientist had already completed and put into action his worst scheme. Rumour had it that Robotnik had succeeded in creating a creature so powerful it could wipe out armies, and indeed, the casualties of the attack on the ARK had been enormous.

If only GUN Command had realised sooner about the CC technology…

Anyone who knew anything about the CC had been forced to figure out what they could about Robotnik's toy, but with the man himself unavailable, it took years before they could accurately reproduce its effects.

And when they had finally figured it out, and came here to catch his last descendant… they were too late. Ivo had already had years to build up, and without any competition or restriction, had a powerful stranglehold on the continent. The CC could not provide GUN with enough firepower or resources to take down Ivo, so they were forced to sit and watch him, waiting for their moment.

And that's where we came in.

A previous commander of this outpost had the good sense to use his surroundings to his advantage. After studying the animals and their ways, he learned that they were surprisingly vicious, and even if they had no hope of deposing Robotnik from his robotic throne, they would prove a valuable thorn in his side.

It only partially worked.

For that had inadvertently led Robotnik to build his own version of the ARK, complete with a copy of the Eclipse Cannon. It was only fortunate that the space station had no way of threatening GUN. Ivo appeared to have no idea of his grandfather's CC tech, which in any case could only work on human-sized objects. The mere thought that he could transport that leviathan to his place of origin was completely laughable to GUN's scientific division.

The commander leaned back further with a creak from the chair, to make his pocket accessible again. He took out a second cigarette, the air con almost sighing in resignation, and clicked the lighter. Before he could light up, there was a knock at the door.

"Come," he said, his deep voice carrying over the space. The door opened silently, and in stepped one of the younger soldiers, worry written all over his face.

"What is it?" He had tactfully hidden his cigarette by letting his arm fall behind his desk.

The young man hesitated, his brown hair ruffled and messy, and his collar undone. Unlike his superior, relaxed and generally lenient, he had kept himself to the high standard as was expected of a GUN soldier. Among the men of the obscure outpost, this made him stand out, and so the fact that he looked quite untidy now was cause for concern.

"Spit it out, lad."

The soldier told him. The commander fell out of his chair.

The forest was peaceful. Sunlight gently stroked the greenery, shining through gaps in the foliage and creating small pillars of light everywhere. Brown trunks were healthy and tall, reaching up to the blue sky, and melodic birdsong accompanied the soft, rustling wind through the branches and leaves.

It wasn't about to be peaceful for much longer though. Two sets of footsteps crunched through the undergrowth, with a buzzing noise around them.

"Yeah, there's like this guy totally lying there, and I saw him, and he wouldn't say anything, so I thought I'd show you guys 'cos you can get anyone to talk. I'd like to see him try not talking with you guys asking him and-"

"Where is he?" A second voice subtly cut through the yammering like scissors in silk. It was done with great precision, as much practice had already been obtained in previous discussions with the much younger first speaker.

"Oh yeah! I left him on this tree, but I didn't really leave him there 'cos I didn't want to move him but he's still there anyway."

"…Right." The second voice was level and calm, the only indication of emotion being the pause. Considering his usual demeanour of silence, you could suspect that the pause was intentional, but of course, his face would betray nothing.

A third person, louder even than the first, if that was possible, spoke up. "This better be worth it! We've got work to do, you know!" His manner was one of impatient exasperation, and he towered over his companions in stature as well as with his relative older age.

"I promise this won't take long and he's sooo weird and cool and stuff you should totally see him and I think he's hurt!"

"What? Hurt! Why didn't you say so?!"

"I... didn't?"

"No!"

"Oh…" There was silence for a moment. "Well yeah so I saw him and he's all burned and stuff and his face looks really nasty, so I wanted you guys to see!"

The three of them stopped. They saw the person lying with his back against a tree, oblivious to them. He looked oblivious to everything in fact, and with good reason.

"That looks quite serious…!"

"Yeah, he looks pretty bad. We'd better take him back."

"Oh, cool, we're keeping him?!"

S: Credits time. As in, 'The End'. Yup, no more chapters, it ends like this.

I think I'll take the opportunity to thank you all for reading and reviewing, as without your help, this would be very different.

...I'm sure there's more stuff I could say, maybe something profound and wise, remembered throughout centuries...

Ah screw it. (insert wise words here)

See ya later! :)