B.C.E.

She laughed softly. "...At least there's good humor between the two of you. It's funny. I once thought the same thing about all echidnas - that they were arrogant, heartless being who cared of nothing but themselves and their precious Master Emerald... I was wrong on that, too."

"Mew?" Her ears perked. The Master Emerald... She hadn't heard anything about that in a while... "You met a nice echidna?"

Sunny's ears went flat; she didn't want to hear anything about the damn emerald...

She nodded. "Two, actually. You could say that they're atheists of sorts to the teachings of that rock." She then shook her head. "But I shouldn't talk about that. I don't want to get them into any trouble."

"Shadow and Echo hate it too!"

"Sol and I have nothing but contempt for it, as well..." She sighed, rubbing her arm gently.

"Yeah..."

Sunny sighed. "Yeah, but whatever, right? We don't have to deal with it."

"Sure hope not. It's caused enough damage as it is."

Echo grunted as the solideirs hit the deck. Shadow began to shoot volleys of tiny spears at the men in the sea.

"This is not good!"

Star yawned, leaning back in her chair. "Yeah..."

Hector growled, rallying his troops for the inevitable assault. "We can't keep this up for much longer!" He shouted to the hedgehog twins.

*

Mani blinked. "...Oh! I'm sorry. Am I disturbing your rest? I suppose I should get going."

This was not good. either they could abandon the beaches or keep fighting. Suddenly he had an idea.

"Shadow! Use chaos spear on the boats!" He did so, and began to damage the transports. They took on water.

Only for a small moment, however, as the ships repaired themselves rather quickly. Water damage was very manageable.

"By the Gods," Hector cursed. "Nobody should have that kind of control!"

"Apparently someone does!" Sol said, teeth gritted. "Archers are useless, ballistas are splinters, and the Spartans are backed by an earth-user with Olympian skills... Any suggestions?"

"Me and Sunny could overpower him." Echo said.

"Ok. Forget winning this battle. Retreat back to the secondary defences in front of the walls. But dont make it an easy retreat."

Star smiled. "No, it's okay. I just haven't been sleeping well..."

Sunny's eyes rolled. "There's an understatement for you... She hasn't been sleeping for shit."

"Well... I'm just... I'm just used to Shadow sleeping beside me."

"Understood!" Hector began to slowly guide their forces back to the city.

*

Mani nodded. "I can empathize with that. I find it hard to sleep without Sol or at least our children at my side. Sleeping alone brings up so many bad memories..."

Echo kept control of the ground as he backeed up, shadow behind him throwing spears at the enemy.

The hedgecat nodded, looking down. "So me and Sunny were just trying to take a nap. What happened, by the way?"

Sunny shrugged. "Nothin'. Don't worry about it."

[dang you always come on when i have to go to bed. XP your post in ragnarok. I thought of something to start the whole end of the world thing finally.]

"I'll close off the tunnel!" Sol said, moving back to the tunnel.

*

The hedgefox looked down at the sword in her hand, blinked. "...Guess I should clean this off." She pulled a small cloth from a pocket in her blouse, started to wipe the blade clean.

"Mew?!"

Sunny rolled her eyes. "Seriously. Everything's all right."

When it was clean, Mani stowed the sword back in its sheath. "Sorry. I should've done that earlier. I didn't mean to surprise you."

Echo nodded.

"Hurry back!"

"You guys killed people?!"

Sunny sighed. "They were stealing from us."

Once the tunnel was sealed Shadow checked the water levels. The entrie mine was flooded. Good. They wouldnt be able to use it. HE nodded to Echo who got on his horse and rode back to their house.

"The Trojan army is in full retreat!" The captain announced. "Shall we continue the assault?"

Menelaus shook his head. "Our mission was to obtain the Black Beaches. This day is done." He sighed. That took a little more than he thought.

Back at the city, Sol sighed, looking back to the beaches. "Looks like there's no way out of this..."

"Afraid not," Hector said. "The gears of war are in motion..."

*

"I'm just glad it wasn't like the last time I killed..." The hedgefox shuddered, wrapped her arms around herself.