Chapter 22: Silver Part 5 – Twin Criminal

After Silver and Linax had patched themselves up, the two of them met with Zen in the main building of the tree to discuss what to do next.

"You said there were others who I worked with, right Silver?" Zen asked. Silver thought back to what his master had said to him when he was younger.

"You did mention two people who you always talked about. I think they were two young fighters named Yerna and Zermon" Silver said. Linax whistled at that, and Zen smirked.

"What?" Silver asked.

"The two you just described are brother and sister. The reason we know them is that they are big trouble makers in this town" Linax explained.

"Are you serious?" Silver said, astounded. He turned to Zen. "You ended up working with criminals?"

"I suppose so. But they're not criminals…well technically they are. But they're just your run of the mill, small criminals. Ya know, a missing shirt here, a rude note there, and once in a while they'll do something really nasty" the bear explained.

"I should know. One day they stole my robotic eye" Linax growled.

"Your joking" Silver said, looking at the lion.

"Do I look like I joke, son?" Linax said, a bit of malice in his voice. "Zen here is being too sentimental. Those two may do small things, but they are very active, and are quite annoying. If we're going to work with them, I don't want to be around them if they're going to act like irritating little brats" he added, with a bit of a snarl.

"Well, seeing as they become friends with you guys in the future, I'm assuming that some sort of truce was made. Or is going to be made. So let's go make it" Silver said, standing up.

"Now hold on kid" Linax said, also standing up. He walked over to a safe and punched in a code. With a loud screech, the door to the safe opened to reveal two scimitars sitting in it. Linax picked them up, and swung them around a bit.

"What in the world are those for?" Silver asked, ducking as Linax swiped over his head.

"You'll see" Linax said grimly, walking out the door. Silver looked at Zen with wide eyes.

"Are you going to tell me why Linax needs swords in a time when most of the planet has powers?" Silver asked, to which Zen snorted.

"Ya, MOST of the planet" he said, and when Silver looked at him in confusion he added "You'll see when we find them".

Soon the three of them were flying over the city, searching for anything that looked suspicious. Silver had his younger self strapped onto his chest with some rope that Linax had dug up. Silver thought it wouldn't take long to find the two of them, but after 30 minutes of searching, he was starting to wonder why they hadn't seen even a sign of the siblings.

"Why haven't we found them yet? The way you described them Linax, I thought we'd be seeing them in about 5 seconds". Linax growled a bit at this.

"Think about it for a sec kid. They do so much messing around; a regular person would think they'd be caught by now. But you don't come across as a normal person to me. So I think you know the answer to your question" the lion said. Silver felt a twinge of annoyance. Why couldn't the lion just be helpful?

"Well…if they've never been caught, that must mean they're really good at hiding. Possibly an invisibility power?" Silver guessed

"Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner! Except for the part about the invisibility power. But that's really close" Linax said, smirking slightly as Silver glared at him.

"Okay, but you guys must have looked for them before right? So what are we looking for?" Silver asked.

"They have a pattern" said Zen. "They'll always do something nasty every weekend at noon. Saturday and Sunday on the dot". Silver stopped flying suddenly, causing Zen to have to swerve to avoid him.

"Well then why are we flying around?!" Silver burst out.

"Because we never know where they're going to strike. And we would like to try and catch them in the act. It's Sunday and almost noon" Linax answered. Seeing the look Silver's face, he added "That's why we've been flying around for the past half hour. Just because they strike at noon, doesn't mean we can't spot them before they act".

Just as the words came out of his mouth, the three of them heard a loud crash come from an office building to the right of them. All three of them immediately flew over to it and peered through a window.

Inside Silver saw two weasels. The first one was the color of ivy with amber eyes. The weasel wore a pair of leather boots with a knife tucked into each one. A leather strap wrapped around its chest and back, shoulder to hip. Silver saw a long, wooden staff that was about 3 feet long on the back side. At the top of its head, Silver noticed that part of the weasels left ear seemed to have been bitten off.

"I may have had something to do with that" Zen said when he noticed Silver looking at it. Silver smiled a bit, and looked at the other one.

This weasel looked very similar to the other one, with minor differences. For one, this weasel was a lime green, but its eyes were also amber. Second, it wore a pale yellow tank top and shorts. The weasel also wore a strap around itself, except that there was a long, curved blade on the back instead of a staff. Finally, its leather boots were a light, lilac color. This weasel was looking at the other one, who was searching through files in a desk drawer. Pieces of glass sat next to itsfeet.

"Dammit Zermon, be careful. We don't need the cops on us!" said the lilac weasel. The ivy one, Zermon, laughed.

"Come on Yerna, even if they did find us, do you really believe we'd be caught?" he responded. Yerna smirked at this.

"No probably not. There's no one on this planet that could catch us" she said.

"Except for me" said Silver, as he came crashing through the window. Zen and Linax quickly followed.

Quick as a flash, Yerna pulled out her blade and swung it at Silver. With a flash, Linax blocked the attack with one of his swords. Zermon was already pulling all the files from the drawer and was running for the door.

"Yerna, meet me at-" Zermon started to say, but with a flick of his wrist, Silver slammed the door shut with his powers. Zermon looked at him with wide eyes.

"Surprise" Silver said, before running right at the weasel. He saw Zermon tap the back of his hand. Then he disappeared.

"Wha-?" Silver started, looking around. He saw Linax and Yerna fighting each other, and then she disappeared as well. "Where'd they go?" Next thing he knew, he was flying across the room.

"Crap not this again!" Silver heard Zen yell. Soon the bear was also thrown randomly. Silver dug deep into his memory of when Zen told him of the siblings. He had said he needed to "contain" the two of them sometimes because they liked to sneak off. With that in mind, Silver concentrated hard.

Here goes nothing, he though as he shot out his powers. The perimeter of the room lit up with a cyan light as a telekinetic barrier formed. He heard a shout and saw the two weasels flicker into sight. The two of them had been trying to sneak out a window.

"NO!" Silver shouted at Linax, who was running at the two, his swords glinting in the sunlight. With another flick of the wrist, Silver froze the lion in his tracks. Linax growled in fury, so Silver said "Just let me talk to them, alright?"

As Silver walked forward, Yerna whipped out her curved blade and Zermon held out his staff in front of himself.

"Don't take another step bub" Zermon snarled. Silver held up his hands, but when he saw Yerna grip her sword harder, he quickly lowered them.

"Just listen to what I have to say. Have either of you heard of a guy named Scourge?" At the sound of his name, Zermon hissed and Yerna's face grew dark.

"What did I say?" Silver asked, looking at Zen and Linax for help, but both of them looked as bewildered as he felt.

"Oh yes we know about Scourge" Yerna said, with her teeth bared.

"Really?" Silver said, excitement filling him. "How?"

"What's it to ya?" Zermon said, suspiciously.

"He's in town" Zen said. Both of the weasels looked at each other.

"You sure about that?" Yerna asked, and Silver was surprised to hear a bit of fear in her voice.

"Absolutely. Zen and I fought him" Silver said, and when Yerna looked confused, Silver pointed at the bear.

"Wait, I thought your name was-" Zermon started to say, but Zen cut him off.

"I prefer not to be called that name. But you never answer the young hedgehog's question. How do you know Scourge?" the bear asked.

"When we were younger, he lived right near us. He'd come over every day just to mess with us. He loved to rub it in that we had no powers, and even used his against us. I can tell you I never can stand still, because I'm afraid he'll pop out of the floor and grab me".

"So you hate him because he was your childhood bully?" Zen asked, and Silver could hear that he was trying to conceal a snort. Zermon started forward with a snarl, but Silver snapped his fingers and a cyan barrier shot up between Zermon and Zen.

"I can tell you're not done so continue" Silver said, like nothing had just occurred. Zermon glared at him, but continued.

"One day we started to fight back. He used his phasing to pop out of the ground to scare us, and I lost it. I grabbed it head, wrenched him out of the ground, and threw him at a tree. After that, things got ugly between us. Whenever we'd meet up it would usually end with us fighting. We knew all of his tricks but he still had powers, so we were evenly matched. But eventually, he took it too far". At this point, Silver noticed Yerna stiffen, and as Zermon continued, his voice shook slightly.

"We had just finished school. We were home and heard him call out from our front step. We came outside and he was waiting for us. Something was off I could just tell. He grabbed something from his back pocket, and threw it through the open door. I understood what it was right away, and I managed to grab Yerna and pull her away just before the bomb went off". Silver could tell right away why this memory was painful for the two of them, and felt dread fill his stomach.

"Our mother was sick in bed, and dad was looking after her. They had no warning" Silver heard Zermon's words from what sounded like a mile away. Images came racing back to him.

He was sitting watching Sonic, who was much smaller, run around a table. He was being picked up. The person holding him was running. He heard a laugh that Silver knew belonged to Eggman. He looked up and saw the doctor with a hand outstretched. Then Silver was moving again, and everything was a blur of green. He was set down on a platform next to a large object. A hedgehog was crying, saying goodbye to him. His mother…

"Silver?" the white hedgehog herd. Silver blinked and looked around. Everyone was staring at him. Linax was unfrozen, and Silver realized that the force field he had conjured up was also gone. But no one attacked each other.

"You just zoned out" Yerna said, giving Silver a puzzled look.

"Just remembered something" Silver mumbled. "Sorry. So, what happened after he blew up your house?"

"We attacked of course!" Zermon continued. "We were furious, and he wasn't expecting us to fight back. I guess he assumed killing our family would break us and he could just go back to picking on us. He thought wrong. He beat his up and took him to the police". Zen eyes light up.

"I remember hearing about that!" the bear exclaimed. "It was in the news. 'Maniac Porcupine Destroys House'. And then about a week later-"

"The son of a gun broke out" Yerna finished, and she growled. "Disappeared. Vanished. Gone. No idea where he went. We were both eleven when that happened. That was 7 years ago. And you're telling me he's back" Silver nodded.

"I grew up in the future, and I heard from Zen here that you guys worked with him. You see this kid right here?" Silver said, pointing to his younger self on his chest.

"Yea. What about him?" Zermon asked.

"He's my younger self. Scourge wants him, because in the future, I become his mortal enemy, and basically am a pain in the butt to him. If he kills me, that all goes away. Eventually, he'll find us, but I can't do it without you guys. So I'm asking you two, will you help us fight him off?" The two weasels looked at each other, then got together and started talking to each other quietly. They glanced at Linax, and then at Zen. Finally, they stopped talking and turned to face Silver.

"I think we can do that" Yerna said. Silver sighed with relief, but she then added "On two conditions". Linax snorted and Zen's eyes narrowed. Silver gave both of them a quick glance and then said, "Go on".

"One: None of you will turn us in to the cops" she said.

"Impossible. Why would we agree to that after all the ruckus you caused this city?" Linax spat.

"It's either that or have fun fighting Scourge without us" Zermon snarled.

"Okay, what's the second one?" Silver said quickly, before Linax could open his mouth. Yerna's voice lowered to a deadly tone.

"If we do find Scourge and somehow manage to defeat him, one of us gets the final blow" she said. Silver knew his answer before she finished her sentence. Zen and Linax would just have to suck it up.

"Deal" said Silver. He held his hand, even as Linax growled in fury, and Zen gave Silver an unreadable look. Zermon walk forward, took Silver's hand, and they shook.

Holy Crap this chapter is longest one I've written. Hope none of you fell asleep reading this.

Temporary Update: Please go and read the update to New Year, New Hedgehog. It concerns this story.