Lauren the Echidna Volume 2
Chapter 9
A Water Droplet’s Grace

   The flames of disaster had become stronger after the half hour of fighting. Frank was still bringing up metal and shooting as much as he could to slow Iblis down from attacking anymore. I was doing the same but it seems that nothing was harming this monster. We didn’t have the right elements on our side. Mine alone was just energy and Frank’s was just metal able to be formed into anything as mine would be. Iblis roared again, finally having slowed us down in the process and a giant red orb was forming to his mouth. As I rode on the piece of metal with my father attempting another attack or two, Iblis only stood there swallowing them up like he did before.
   “It’s no good! Now what?!” I shouted.
   “I don’t know! We can’t give it up here, Lauren. Give your attack everything you have!” Frank shouted back, his bangs falling in front of his green eyes and smirking at me. I blinked and smirked back, bringing as much energy to my hands as I could, as my dad’s hands glowed blue once again, forming as many spears as he could into one spear above us. That piece of metal was getting hotter and hotter by the second. I stood to my feet as well as my father and we both combined our attack into one. That giant spear of metal was covered in all that red energy that I fixed up and we both threw our hands forward, chucking it at the very heart of Iblis.
   What we didn’t know was that Iblis was prepared for this. Its two extended arms rose up and clamped together, stopping the attack in its tracks. My father’s eyes and mine both widened to seeing what just happened and we finally fell from the great height after the metal had melted away. Frank grabbed onto my hand and pulled me close, knowing that neither me or him could survive this fall. I grunted and held him close, until the next thing happened.
   We had stopped falling, but we had become...wet. Mine and Frank's breath were held as we had fallen into a giant orb of water that slowly moved to the ground and splattered, leaving us landing on our feet and letting our breath out after the water had vanished into thin air. I looked over to Iblis and he as well was beginning to vanish. I squinted to seeing a small figure above Iblis' head pouring a massive amount of water on top of it. That was when I looked toward my father, who was just standing there smirking.
   "Well Lauren...looks like she made it after all." He kept that smirk on his face as then we both jumped up onto a building from a sudden attack of flames from Iblis. It roared again loudly in pain as the figure finally spun around and wrapping its entire body with nothing but a giant lasso of water, shining brightly like crystals in an illuminated cave, then squeezing tightly, taking out every last bit of fire that was around Iblis' body. The flames finally died down and Iblis was now nothing but a pile of ash. That same figure had landed on another strand of water that led down to the building that me and Frank were on and then landed softly on her feet.
   Sonic was watching the entire thing as well as Shadow, Tails, and Knuckles who had just awoken from their unconsciousness.
   This hedgehog was indeed female, light green colored fur with light blue stripes on each quill. Her outlook was that of a summer loving style. Light yellow t-shirt was placed over a white tanktop, her pants nothing but short blue jeans that reached a little above her knees and a pair of light yellow sandals with a blue gem on the sides of them. Upon her forehead was her four long bangs with the same blue stripes, her light blue eyes being covered by them and a small blue gem on her forehead. She had turned around and looked to me and my father with a big smile on her face. My eyes had widened with glee and I stared for a second.
   "Hey there, Lauren. Have you been doing okay?" She asked as she usually would and I smiled wide, quickly gripping her in a hug.
   "Mama...I'm so glad you made it." I said holding her close. She smiled back at me and then looked to Frank who was just standing there enjoying the scene. She let me go and smiled a bit to Frank and I did as well.
   "Good to have you back here, Elaine." That was when Sonic and the others had jumped onto the same roof and were all smiling too see that I was okay. Elaine looked to them and blinked, haven't seeing them in quite sometime either. Shadow stood there with Knuckles as Tails ran up to me, also hugging me happily. I laughed and hugged back, then let go to smile at the others, happy to see that they were okay as well. Shadow nodded to my parents then told them all he would be back later, and left right then in a flash of Chaos Control. I looked to Sonic and he smirked, giving me and my parents a thumbs up for a job well done.
   I chuckled and hugged my mother again, then found myself staring into the eyes of my beloved Knuckles. My attention quickly turned away toward my mother again and I sighed, looking at the ground. Knuckles knew he was being ignored by me, but refused to ask if I was okay. It didn't stop Sonic though, he quickly brought up the spirits of all the heroes and smirked.
   "Cmon! We need to get things straightened up around here."
   "And by we you mean you." Said my dad with a slight snicker.
   "Yeah pretty much. Hehehe." Sonic smirked and was then gone in a flash, cleaning up every ounce of ash and rubble that was left behind in the rampage. As he sped around, I looked to my parents and 'hmm'ed. My mother looked to me and blinked.
   "Something wrong?"
   "Uh...heh. Nah, I'm okay. Just thinking. Why don't we get out of here and let Sonic do his thing. I know he doesn't mind it." I let my mother go and walked off with them all back to Cedar Grove. As I stood next to my parents, wondering where they obtained all that power, they had found out for themselves that they had their own special gifts that were trained under control. That way they would be able to take care of themselves with no problem. They then asked me why I had become an echidna again and of course I explained why, but found myself sighing at the thought of not wanting to be this way...for their sake.
   Elaine and Frank glanced at each other and Frank shrugged, Knuckles slowly walking beside Tails and up behind them both. Knuckles was still utterly quiet, until Frank looked back and asked,
   "Hey buddy, you okay back there?"
   "Hm? ...Yeah. I'm fine." Knuckles replied as they walked down Road 86 and back to that old house.
   With my mother's help, we were able to defeat Iblis and stop his rampage. And now that everyone is pretty much here, there was only one thing we could do to keep the peace around the planet. But there's another evil out there somewhere...one that has plagued me before, but has also plagued the universe for quite sometime...