Chapter 2: November 21, 2011

     A loud horn woke me up seemingly early in the morning. It felt like it was about five o'clock in the morning. My eyes felt like they weighed a ton. I slowly leaned to sit up and groaned. Everyone else was already wide awake.
    Ren looked at me and said, "Took you long enough to wake up."
    Out of confusion, I asked him, "What time is it?"
    "It's three minutes until noon."
    Then, I grew perplexed. In a very peculiar tone—half-mad, half-bewildered—I told him, "Ren, you know I usually sleep until around this time."
    "Well then you must've been extra tired," he said coldly, giving me a spiteful look.
    He hurt my feelings, but this time—instead of feeling forlorn—I felt antagonized. With a look of hatred on my face and in my tone, I said, "You have no right to talk to me in such a vile tone, Höek! I was expecting some respect from you, especially since my best friends are dead!"
    Ren then grew furious. He pulled out his pistol, aimed it at my chest, and stepped closer to me. "Never call me Höek!" he said in a threatening tone. "Make that kind of mistake again and I will make sure a bullet goes through your heart! Do you understand?!"
    I nodded, now beginning to repent my actions. I never truly meant to yell at him, but the surge of anger came from completely out of nowhere. But now a surge of fear ran through my body and made my blood run cold. I shakily said, "I understand. Just please don't kill me." Ren gave a smirk. He always loved knowing that some people were very scared of him. His insane personality and diabolical laughter added a lot to it.
    All five of us headed out of our tent. We hadn't a clue what was going on. That's when Michael showed up out of nowhere right behind us and said, cheerfully, "Good morning, soldiers!" We all turned to look behind us out of surprise. The mood instantly became very awkward.
    "You guys really woke up late today."
    Sonic told him, "Actually, Gil just now woke up."
    Michael looked at me with a creepy smile on his face and stared me down. I began to feel as uneasy as I did when I arrived on Mobius. There was a long silence.
    Finally, I said, in an inept tone, "Um...I think we should get some lunch."
    Tails said, "Yeah, that's a good idea. I'm starving."
    We all headed to the food tent, as Michael kept staring at us intently.


    After we finished our meal, we decided to look for more enemies. We headed deep into the broad forest. We looked back and forth to check for any snipers or surprise attackers. The whole time I thought, Where's Dmitry when you need him?
    That's when we all witnessed a sudden blade of light chop the top half of a tree clean off. We were startled. After a gasp made by everyone, I said, now tense, "Alright everyone, arm yourselves!" We then armed ourselves with our rifles and checked for any signs of a second attack. Sweat dripped down my forehead. I thought furiously, Come on, you damn sadist. We're right here! There was another long silence. Our hearts pounded in our chests. Then, I saw a flash of light coming from one of the trees; someone was about to try to chop one of us in half. I yelled, "Look out!" Everyone gasped and immediately ducked. I then aimed my rifle at the sniper and fired when he was just about to release the blade of light on me. He was dead before he could pull the trigger. Then, more and more flashes of light gleamed on me. I shot at each and every one of them. I then found myself yelling, "Come out and fight like a real man, you damn coward!!!"
    That's when twenty-five thousand of the green humanoids showed themselves. My heart almost stopped dead. I almost wanted to retreat with my allies, but I knew that this was for the greater cause. To me, fleeing from the enemy was the greater of two evils.
    I then shouted, "Get up! All of you! We've got an entire squadron to deal with!"     Everyone immediately stood up and aimed their rifles.
    Sonic then shouted at me, "Gil! Are you crazy?! We're outnumbered, and you could be killed!"
    With a stern look on my face, I said, "Do you want this Ivan to take over your world? If you ask me, I'd rather die fighting to keep one's land than to not fight at all!"
    Sonic then nodded out of sympathy and then aimed his rifle at one of the enemy humanoids.
    That's when Michael and his troops came in.
    His army increased ours to twenty-two thousand soldiers. Now, we began to stand a chance against this squadron. Then, both sides opened fire at each other. A battle for conquest had begun.


    After many shots were fired, the enemies and fifteen allies killed, as well as the five of us wounded, we immediately headed for the campsite. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Ren, and I needed medical attention. We were thankful that Michael's army was also a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, or M.A.S.H. We got our wounds taken care of in a very short amount of time.
    When Michael was off his guard, I decided to interrogate him. I wanted some answers from him, because he seemed very suspicious. It happened around ten o'clock at night, when everyone else was asleep.
    I entered his tent with an irate look on my face. Michael jumped.
    "Gil!" he said. "What's this all about?"
    "I'll be asking the questions," I snarled, "and I have a lot to ask you!"
    Michael looked very befuddled.
    "You've been acting very suspicious lately, and I'm tired of holding back what I want to hear from you!"
    "What are you talking about?"
    "Tell me the truth...are you or are you not a green humanoid in disguise?!"
    Michael became horrified. He said, barely able to speak, "How did you know?"
    "You've been faking a normal accent this whole time! Whenever you slip up at some point, I notice it becomes Russian for a brief moment!"
    Then, Michael began talking softly, "My own accent gave me away...and you knew this whole time..."
    Now becoming less hostile, I asked, "Are you against Ivan's plan to take over Mobius? And if so, why?"
    Michael looked down and then said, in his normal accent, "It is true. Me and my comrades are against the madman known as Ivan. He has enslaved many of the people whose worlds he has conquered. That is why I formed our army. We want Ivan to change his mind about total conquest and give back the lands of the people that he has taken away. I am truly sorry for any suspicious behavior."
    I then became benevolent and gave a smile. "It's okay. I understand."
    Michael then looked up at me with a normal smile on his face. It explained why his smile was creepy and unsettling before; he was trying to look like someone he wasn't. Now that he had nothing to hide, he gave the smile of a Russian. It looked completely normal on him.
    "Come on," I said in a reassuring tone, "we've got a madman to stop."
    After Michael and I shook hands, we decided to head to bed. If we wanted to stand even a small chance against Ivan, we'd need all the energy as we could possibly acquire. And so, the long night was over before we knew it.