“...Are.........Are you an assassin?” the dragon stammered.

“Who are you???” Espio demanded aggressively, ignoring her question.

The dragon winced as the shuriken was pressed deeper into her neck. She tried to resist simply for the sake that she may be protecting herself, though it was convincing enough that she wasn't doing very well with that.

“Damn it! Just tell me!”

The dragon finally gave in, “M...My name is Star...please...forgive me, I do not know much; but I am afraid, and I don't know where I am. I am just a princess...whatever you do, please, don't harm me!”

Espio immediately released her by those words, shocked by what she just said. He watched as Star smoothed her neck with her hand to assure herself of no scratch. A Princess??? Espio thought. What the hell is going on? Is she giving me something to distract my train of thought?

When she returned her gaze to him, she strayed away in fear of him, looking him down with faint-hearted eyes. Seeing the expression in her eyes, Espio was already beginning to see that she was just as innocent as she appeared to be, but he still refused to let his guard down. Within a few minutes, He withdrew his shuriken.

“No, I'm not an assassin,” he finally said. “Assassins kill without honor...I would never disgrace my name to devote myself in anything of the sort...you dare accuse me of being one?”

Relief swept over Star, and she eased up a little, though she was still plenty scared of Espio and remained distant from him. For another moment, she was obediently silent and awaiting Espio to speak.

“But I can't let you off loose...” Espio continued. “I need to know you, before I might consider trusting you.”

Star became flustered, “L...let's see what I can remember...” She felt a little rushed, and so she tried to seat herself on the sofa to try and relax, however, being held in the same room by someone who nearly slit her throat wasn't exactly soothing. She kept alternating between panicked glances at Espio and averting her eyes from him. “I was...at least, I think I was, I was aboard my private Starsweep Cruiser...”

“It was well-damaged when we found it,” Espio told her. “You came straight into our atmosphere, and it hit the concrete ground outside hard enough to shake our building. You happened to appear right at our front steps.”

“What??”

She jumped onto her feet right away and took off out the door. Espio was quick to follow behind and stay near her, as she was running down the hall to the front door. Throwing the doors open with fragile strength, Star was outside in the cold of the night. Her eyes instantly fell upon the wreckage in the small crater out in the dirt. She masked her mouth with her hand in a gesture of shock.

“It’s….it’s terrible!” she stammered

She was horrified by the fact that she may be stranded here around an unknown place. Most of her feelings were strong; confusion, fear, loneliness, and helplessness. Some of them were pushing her to think in terms of survival when she was still staring upon the ruin of her vehicle.

“I told you…” Espio said.

Her eyes widened, but she didn’t look back at him. She was stuck alone with someone she didn’t know, and someone that threatened her. This made her think about more…

“I don’t believe that I could simply have crashed at your front…” she said.

“I’m telling you the honest truth,” swore Espio impatiently. “Now you need to tell me what you know!”

Star turned to him with frightened tears, “I know you kidnapped me! What do you want with me???”

“Wha??? Nothing, except just to know where you’re from, or what happened that sent you here!!!”

“Stop lying to me!!!”

“I’m NOT lying!!! I just want information!!!”

“No!!! Leave me alone!!!”

Star began darting away in a frantic run, blowing the skit of her dress behind her. She wanted to get away from him so badly, she didn’t know what to do but run. Right now, she wanted help, so she was heading anywhere into the dark forest in the hopes of just that.

Espio knew for certain that someone like her who had never been here would get lost in woods like this, and the roads of a forest are unexpectedly dangerous. If he wanted to know what she knew, he would have to gain her trust, as well as keep her alive.

“I can't believe I'm wasting my time like this...” he said, vanishing into invisibility to follow her more easily.


~Later~


She ran for as long as her energy endured, taking the paths to hopefully shake off her so-called “kidnapper.” Stopping to take a breath, she found herself lost within an even darker area of the woods, where the moonlight was blocked by the towering heads of the trees. Though she knew she would be unfortunately lost, the natural environment comforted her. It was what she favored, which brought her about to think more clearly.

I am all alone, she thought. I am somewhere I don't recognize, and my cruiser is nearly obliterated. What planet could I be on??? I can't even remember if there were any attackers the last time I remember being on Twila'....Could they have possibly been the galactic pirates I have heard about on Twila'? They may not even have their own planet, but they could be hiding away in another...

Star became paranoid of her surroundings, peering around again. “I hope that they...didn't really kidnap me...”

“Assassins kill without honor...”

The quote crossed her mind. She began thinking again about the mysterious chameleon that was willing to threaten her life, but had spared it. “They must want something from me, keeping me alive...” she said to herself. “But...when he said it like that, he made it seem like he was actually...no, he couldn't really.”

She turned up to the clouded overhang of the trees. “Without honor? He must be a ninja...they speak of honor...but what honor could he possibly hope for? He did not acknowledge me kindly...he even held that shuriken to my neck.” She started rubbing the spot just thinking about it. She didn't fell a scar, or even any blood. She was left untouched, thankfully. “But ninja have a way I simply do not understand...perhaps I misjudged him?”

But she couldn't help it, the thought of him sent chills down her spine. Star didn't know who he was, and he was someone who was about to harm her. She was terrified of him, and what he might want with her. She was a Princess, a royal blood line who could be worth anything, who might have possessions worth anything, or simply...a sick-minded game of kidnapping maidens...Stories like this had worried her so, and she never expected to find herself into one.

“Hey...”

Star jumped, and she turned around. It wasn't that chameleon, but an older aged teenage boy. He wore torn clothes, and looked like he hadn't bathed since the beginning of time, with lots of hair hanging from his chin, his head, and hair sticking out of the pits just barely. He was holding a pocket knife in his hand.

“Eh, looks like another one of those weird animals!” the boy said, revealing his raspy voice. “First come that blue hedgehog with his buddies, then the whole town just goes to 'em!”

“Hedgehog?” Star responded familiarly to the word. However, the boy approached menacingly, tossing the pocket knife back and forth between his hands. Star began backing away in fear.

“C'mon lady, all I want is a little one of those animals for myself! Imagine what kind of money I could make off of you; a freak like you would be worth millions!”

“No...” Star gasped, beginning to feel helpless again.

“Maybe I'll let you live! All you do is what you're told to do! A lotta people'll come to see a dragon like you!”

“Help!!!” Star screamed, starting off again.

The boy was persistent, chasing off after her. “C'mon guys! Lets get 'er!”

Star glanced behind her hearing the sounds coming from nearby bushes. The boy rounded up more men, a lot older than he was, a looked to be a lot stronger too. Three or Four of them had reared up behind him, following the boy. Realizing she was in greater trouble, she turned back forward and an adrenaline coursed through her. She picked up her skirt and began flapping her wings, something she wished she would have thought of earlier.

“Quick, before she flies away! Shoot the little bitch down!” ordered the boy.

Star dreaded a saying like that, and before she knew it, she heard a fierce shot through the air. About six followed after, but as she tried to evade her way, the bullets had unfortunately riddled through the skin of her right wing. Big gapping bloody holes ripped right out. Her balance was thrown way off; she cried out in the pain that came from it. She swayed back and forth in the air, but came incoming towards the ground fast. In a matter of seconds, she had landed back onto the grass collapsing weakly.

Barely lifting her head up, she could see the feet of the men that circled around her.

“Heheheheh...what d'ya think boys? We'd make some pretty sweet dough off of a pretty thing like her...” she heard the boy chuckle. “Teach her how to beg for food, maybe a few tap-dancing lessons too! That'll get us off these streets and good for life!”

Star buried her face into the grass and tears squeezed out of her eyes, “P...please, anything but this possible life of torture...I would have been willing to let him take my life if it ever came to this...someone, please her my plea...save me...”

She heard a whistling, and then something planted itself in front of her. She took a quick peek, and saw it was a star-shaped shuriken. Star looked up in hope, but the men turned in disdain. Espio stood there, holding a couple more of the shuriken between his fingers.

The boy placed himself in plain view for Espio, with a big old smirk on his face, “well if it ain't that ninja-wannabe detective!”

“Detective...?” Star wondered. “You mean....he was actually.......?”

“Say, where's the rest of your gay group?” teased the boy. “That big ol' gangster gator and the stupid bee? They don't like the dark, OR do you actually think your a loner and you don't need 'em anymore?”

“You really should know who you're talking to,” said Espio very calmly. “A big mouth like yours might cause more trouble than you're asking for.”

The boy snorted and laughed. “Oh what? A little ol' lizard like you against my boys?”

“Are you afraid?” Espio asked, almost holding back a smile.

The boy blew up on him, “No I ain't afraid of a stupid reptile! I'll take you on!”

Star pushed herself to get up, but one of the men used a baseball bat and slammed it against her back. She shrieked out, echoing through the park. Her back was in so much pain, and she was just a girl. She wasn't prepared for something like this; she was too fragile, even as a dragon. Her exo-skeleton couldn't take it.


Espio was taken by surprise, and he actually began losing his cool. “Hey! You can't just attack a defenseless victim on the ground!”

“I do what I want, she belongs to me now!” the boy smirked. “She does what I tell her, and she doesn't move unless I say she can!”

Espio was pissed. “You disgust me with your disgrace...”

In a snap, Espio had practically warped right into the boys face and slammed his foot into his cheek. His spit, and maybe a tooth, came flying out from his mouth. The boy flipped out in the air, and face-planted into the grass. The men jumped, seeing their leader fall. Espio grounded very gracefully, and his eyes turned to his men. They all were a little intimidated, but sure enough, they were stupid enough to charge after him. One had a pistol that had shot Star's wings, one had the baseball bat that nearly broke her back, and one just had his fists.

The one with his fist threw a punch at Espio. He simply cloaked himself with invisibility and dodged the attack, leaving the men perplexed. They looked all about for him. “Hey!!! Where'd that coward go???” one of the men roared.

“I'm over here!”

They turned around but none of them saw Espio. The one holding the pistol felt his hand twisted brutally, and he howled as he dropped the pistol to the grass. The two men nearly stumbled, reaching for the gun, but Espio reappeared in between them, and topped it with a round-house kick. He knocked the two of them next to their young leader, still helplessly down. The last one was the one with the busted hand, which trembled tremendously while looking at Espio. Once Espio had turned to him, he only turned off and ran away cowardly.

“Good riddance...” grunted Espio.

Star now hardly could breath, but she wept for the pain she felt. Now she had been disabled of flying, and she probably couldn't even move. Espio hurried to her side, and tried to figure out how to get her up without hurting her. He reached for her, but Star cringed and hid her face. Though she was saved, she as still afraid of him. Espio saw it was useless to make it completely painless for her.

“Try and get up...” he said.

Star wanted to obey him, and make sure she didn't force him to try anything. Slowly, she pushed herself up with her hands. Blood from her wing drizzled down her dress and began soaking in. Her back had to remain a certain position in order to keep from causing more pain. Halfway up, Star felt a sharp strike on her, and she yelped out. Star began falling back down.

Before she fell to the ground, Espio caught her. “Well, you made it up anyway...you're in no condition to be up and about on your own, and it looks like you won't be for awhile.”

“P....please....please don't hurt me...” Star begged.

“I wouldn't hurt anyone in your condition, it would disgrace my name...” Espio replied coldly. He reached over and swept her off her feet. Star cried out once more, since the sudden movement brought some more pain, but she swallowed it, and just shut her eyes tightly. She didn't like being in her position, Espio could feel her shivering from fright, and cold. “We've got to get you some help,” he said.

He took one last look onto part of the gang that was sprawled out unconscious on the grass, giving a glare of pity at them. “Better not do anything stupid again, you hear me?” he called. Of course they didn't; they were unconscious.

Espio had nothing else left to do. He turned in the direction he believed was were he came from the Detective Agency office, and bolted away in a hurry to get Star back to safety.