Returning Home

She shrugs, before turning to face the others.
"Cause I'd need to ask mom first at least, and I'm not good with pets. Plus, when we were living on the road, life wasnt so easy so neither of us were willing to have a pet then." She explains, looking around the area.
It was like a little dog park for chao.
"Maybe if mom allows it, I'll get Julie a chao. I'm sure she'd love it."

"Aw, I'm sure you'd be fine at it, and hey, maybe I could help, I used to take care of these all the time when I was a kid!"

Clash takes a look at the machine.

"Had to stop when I started doing sports though, gotta make the money 'n all."

Screech continued sitting, admiring the area that seemed to be designed for these little fairy-like creatures.

"I wonder who these chao belong to? If they all belong to the same person, different people, or anyone at all!"

Screech pondered this question, sitting in silence for a few moments.

Pyra seemed quite relaxed and happy here, all things considered. She wanders over to Clash to look at the machine they are inspecting.
"Thanks for the offer, I'll think about it." Raising a chao... together? Odd for someone she just met.
That's sweet though.

Pyra heard Screech's question and simply guessed an answer.
"If I understood what Clash said right, I'm pretty sure all of these are owned by different people. Probably people raising them seriously, like as a job or whatever."

Clash sighed after looking at the machine for so long, and looked toward the pool, now sitting down, and closing his eyes.

"Yeah, best not to mess with them too much..."

Meditation tiiiime

Screech had decided that now would be a good time to get some rest. She layed down on the soft grass, putting her hands underneath her head.

'Ahhh. I haven't had a good nap in quite a while.' Screech thought as she sighed.

Just then, some chao came running out of a nearby bush that seemed to be frightened by something.

"Huh? What's going on?" Screech said as she looked towards the commotion. The bush was still shaking and ruffling. Screech got up and summoned her spear, as she started slowly tiptoeing towards the bush.

Pyra saw Clash and Screech both about to relax out here, but she didn't feel like sleeping in any park, even one for raising mystical creatures, so she was ready to explore.
Then she heard the Chao running from a rustling bush, and she was immediately on guard.
"Who's there?!"

Clash's concentration was broken when he heard the sounds of scared chao, causing him to get up and turn around.

"What's happening?"

The closer Screech got to the bush, the more her ears started to ring.

'Whatever is in that bush is something dangerous.'

Suddenly, an insectoid robot, a Metarex Trooper, jumped out of the bush and swung a giant clawed hand at Screech.

"WHOAH!!!" Screech shouted as she swung her spear at the hand in defense. She wasn't hurt, but the force of the strike sent her flying into a nearby pond.

The metarex then noticed Clash and Pyra. It lifted an arm up towards them. A missile then fired from it's forearm, whistling through the air as it made it's way towards it's target.

"Holy shi-" Pyra caws before interupting herself to get on the move. She was gonna get into the fight, but she wasn't about to let a bunch of people's chao be casualties.
Pyra rushes around, picking up as many chao as she could, hoping to get them away from the fight.

Clash flicked his hand, turning it into a Chaos Saber and sliced the missile down the middle, afterwards he immediately rushes towards it to do a double slash.

"What even is this?!"

Screech got up out of the pond, dizzied from the attack.

"Ugh. Wh-what just happened?" She said as she rubbed her head and looked around.

Chao were flying away in fear, and this robot, whatever it was, was slowly approaching Clash as it made an ear-chilling, metallic sounding scream.

"Time to give this robot some payback." Screech growled.  

Screech threw her spear towards the robot's back, then used her sonic scream ability to increase the speed of the projectile.

Gladly, the Metarex wasn't bothering with her yet.
With all the poor little Chao she grabbed, she dropped them in tne minecart, opened the gate, and pushed it on through.
Then she turned to face the fight. Screech and Clash were already on the attack. Using them as a distraction, she got ready to do some serious damage.

Pyra runs up to the Metarex from the side, and threw herself at them.
And then-
"PYROBOOM!"
Everything in a range of three yards engulfed in an explosive ember launching out from her body like a small Sun going supernova, a warm breeze causing grass the flames didn't lick to sway ever so slightly as the sudden, drastic temperature change caused the wind to pick up.

Clash was about to go again before Pyra started approaching with a large amount of heat.

"Oh- W- Shiiit!"

He didn't really have time to dodge so he quickly raises his Chaos Barrier, it barely able to form when Pyra used her Pyroboom.

The resulting explosion broke the barrier, sending him flying back, tumbling on the ground but hey, at least he didn't get 1st degree burns.

"That was... TOO close!"

When Pyra shouted, the Metarex turned towards her. It held up both its arms to protect itself. 

The energy spear Screech had thrown was still on it's way towards the Metarex, but then Screech heard Pyra yell,


"PYROBOOM!"

Her ears started to ring. Screech saw her spear, along with the Metarex, get engulfed in a large explosion that was quickly approaching her.

'Oooooooh crap!' Screech thought to herself. She jumped back into the pond that she had previously climbed out of.


After the smoke cleared, the group would see the Metarex was still standing, however, the heat of Pyra's attack damaged some internal components of the robot, causing it to twitch and spark in some places.

Pyra was quite furious. After landing, she huffed, puffed, and panted softly, before looking up at the damaged robot.

"How are you still standing?!"

She hadn't yet realized the danger she put Clash and Screech in, nor the danger she was in just standing there screaming with all her remaining breath at an alien, robotic warlord.

Clash stands back up, seeing the anger on Pyra's face, he'd better calm her down, but right now it was time to finish this!
Clash flicks both of his wrists again, creating a Chaos Saber over each hand, and then shouts:

"Chaos Punishment!"

Causing him to teleport right in front of the Metarex and slash with great force, speed, and precision multiple times, each slash causing the air to ring from it.

Screech peeked her head out of the pond to check the aftermath of the explosion. 

Embers of fire flickered on the grass and nearby trees. The Metarex was still standing, though barley. Clash seemed to have been almost hit by the blast, and was now getting right back into the fight as he teleported close to the robot with two energy sabers over his hands. Pyra seemed to be frustrated that this thing wasn't defeated yet.


'What did Pyra just do that caused so much damage?' She thought as she jumped out of the water.

Screech decided to try again with the spear, but differently this time. As she ran towards the Metarex, she activated her spear, then pole-vaulted upwards. She landed on the sparking shoulder of the alien, then climbed to the top of it's head.

"Time to finish this!" Screech said as she thrust her spear towards the head of the robot. Once it reached the metallic skin of the Metarex though, It just bounced right off, sparking like if you struck a match.

"What?! What is this thing even made of?!" Yelled Screech.

The Metarex was too focused on Clash to notice Screech so it left her alone. When Clash teleported close, the Metarex wasn't expecting such a lightning fast attack. Since it didn't have much time to react, it took some major damage from Clash. It fell over head first, Screech jumping off before it hit the ground. But it wasn't finished yet. The Metarex' insectoid eyes started flashing red. If it was going down, then it's opponents were going down with it.

"Ah! I think this thing has a self-destruct feature! We have to get ourselves, and the rest of these Chao out of here!" Screech said as she scrambled to gather as many chaos together as she could.

Gladly, while she was seeing red the robot went down.
Then she heard "Chao" and immediately knew to get back to work, trying to force herself to calm down so she could get some business done.
She was still clearly quite frustrated, but she used it to fuel her determination as she can around grabbing Chao.
This place was going down, and if they didn't leave so would they.

Clash saw that the Metarex was about to blow, panicking because he didn't want the garden to be harmed.
Instinctively, he outstretched his arms towards the robot, launching a large purple pulse that would send the Metarex flying far out to sea.

"H-Huh? That worked?" "Guys! I took care of it!"

The Metarex flew threw the air, it's limbs flailing around like a ragdoll. It landed in the ocean nearby with a large splash of water.

"Oh! Great job Clash!" Screech said as she walked over to the hedgehog and gave him a pat on his shoulder.

A few moments later, a massive explosion sent a water geyser up from the sea. Water started dropping from the sky as if it was raining. The chao jumped and fluttered around playfully in the drizzling water.

Then some other chao came over to hug Screech, Clash and Pyra. Thanking the three of them for protecting them, and their home.

"Aw! We were glad to help little guys!" Screech said as she was surrounded by the thankful creatures.

It wasn't long until she heard some kind of blast, and Pyra instinctively flinched as she expected the force to blast her away- but there was nothing.
Screech was praising Clash, and at first Pyra was confused.
Then she heard yet another explosion, this one drowned out, and she turned to face the pool of water.

The Chao she was holding noticed the other Chao thanking the heroes and celebrating and wanted to join, so Pyra set them all gently on the ground, but Pyra wasn't too happy. Even after saving the Chao, her previous frustration bled into this, and she took deep breaths, trying to relax- but the water hurt.
It stopped after a short while, but her body was still steaming. Her body heat had evaporated the water that touched her.
Her face was dead, tired looking, as if she'd stopped caring. She'd seem to twitch from the stinging the water caused her to feel.
She turns around, seeing the others have fun with the Chao, and just sighed.
"You're welcome little dudes," she began as she started walking to the mineshaft, "but I think I need to get going."
She stopped herself, then turned to face Clash and Screech. "Do either of you have a phone?" She was gonna ask for Clash's phone number, at least, before she left.

Clash smiled at the chao who were thanking them, but his expression transitioned into a sad one as he saw Pyra get pelted with water, realizing that this may have been hurting her.
He focuses his energy, but while he does that, Pyra had stated that she was going to leave.

This disappointed Clash, but he went and did his thing anyway, which was making an umbrella shaped minor barrier over Pyra to block the rain, as well as have Kane heat up the area below her.

"Hope this helps a bit..."

When Pyra asked for a phone number, he felt some relief, at least this'd make sure they meet each other again.

"Oh, sure!"
Clash would respond, pulling out his phone and proceeding to recite the number.

"How about yours?"

"Oh, sure! I'd love to be able to stay in contact with both of you." Screech said to Pyra.

She then recited her number after pulling her phone out of her pocket and entered Clash's number. She then waited for Pyra to tell hers.

Their kindness did almost bring a smile to the exhausted phoenix's face.
"Thanks, guys, this was fun." She says begore pulling out her phone from a side pocket, turning it on, and adding their numbers before telling them her number.
She was definitely gonna take Clash up on his offer to raise a Chao together. Not sure when, but soon.
"It was nice to meet you both. See ya' later, guys." She then gives her lazy salute, then steps backward into the mine.

A few seconds after she was no longer visible, the Chao she pushed into a minecart were pushed back all of a sudden. Good idea to make sure they were back in the garden before anyone left, anyway. They could get hurt just roaming around the Mystic Ruins.