Timeskip/Party Crashers

Included Characters

 * Lee Prower
 * Link Prower
 * Amber the Razor-Fox
 * Cassie Prower
 * Dee
 * Forge
 * Flyby Prower
 * Nicole the Lynx

Story
Amber laid her head on the table in slight boredom, releasing a frustrated huff. "Where are they?!" She whined. The usual jacket and jeans were replaced by a blue-green dress with her bronze Dragon necklace tied around her neck. Amber was still relatively short, a few inches shorter than her brother, Link.

"Hey, I haven't seen my brother in two years, he can take as long he wants. I just want him to show up." Link said. He'd swapped his lengthy red scarf and tan gloves and boots for a black tie, white tuxedo and light grey shoes. The Hedgelynx still had his moderate height, somewhere around 4’1, and his extremely agile and muscular build.

"I'm with Link, I've missed him... You said he's given up his powers?" The oldest sibling, Cassie, said, sitting in a crimson dress and heels. At the moment, she was an inch or so above Link. But her true height was a humongous 4’8, six inches taller than either of her parents.

"That's what he said," Amber answered.

Bright Horizon Labs was having its annual gala, with Flyby Prower, the CEO of Bright Horizon, having invited several entrepreneurs and fellow businessmen. The main building of Bright Horizon's headquarters was the location of the party, its spacious auditorium allowing many to attend.

Flyby, along with his wife, stood in front of the podium.

Nicole had a grin on her face. "You definitely did something with this place, Mr Prower."

"Hey, don't give me all the credit." He smiled, putting an arm around her. "I am curious what the surprise is our children were talking about…" She straightened his tie and he kissed her once she’d finished.

A doorman looked up from his guest list to see three figures.

Lee, Dee and Forge walked up to the well dressed man. "We were told to show you this?" Lee asked, holding up a note from Amber.

"Hmm?" The black cat wondered while taking the note. "Ah, yes sir, come right in."

"Thanks! Ace, huh?" The Hybrid pointed out a card jutting from the doorman's pocket.

"Yes sir, it's a lucky charm."

"Nice," Lee finished, leading his children inside. Lee himself had a red bowtie on, a pearl gray jacket, black pants and ...sneakers?

Dee, the second figure, hid behind Lee. She had on a long blue dress with black and gray lining, a diamond necklace finishing the outfit. She was using her Mobian disguise in place of her robot form, resembling her father greatly with orange fur and blue eyes. “I-I don’t like crowds… wh-who’s gonna be here?”

‘Everyone! It’s gonna be great!” Forge, the third figure in the brigade simply had on a dark gray button-up shirt, since he was a robot and didn’t feel like wearing much. He stood taller than Dee, being around the height of a nineteen-year-old.

“Forge, don’t tease your sister.” Lee said, pushing the doors open to the auditorium.

Forge ran over to the table the other Prowers were at and plopped down into a seat. "Uncle Link!" The robot grinned, reaching to shake the Hedgelynx's hand.

"Forge, right?" Link asked, looking at the newly upgraded robot.

"Oh, yeah sorry, my dad gave me some new gear," Forge answered. "How are you? How's Jewel?" He then asked. The truth was that Forge, while originally designed to hold shards of the Master Emerald, was now more a rescue and recover robot. He now had flight capabilities, a large arsenal of various retardants, fuel and super-strength to name a few.

“Jewel? Eh, haven’t seen her in a few weeks. She’s helping her parents with something… or something like that,”

"Oh… I'm sorry?" Forge muttered.

"Don't be,"

Lee finally walked up. "Link!"

Link and Cassie jumped up. "Lee!!!!!!" The four siblings found themselves in a surprisingly awkward group hug, with Cassie's tails wrapped around all of them.

"Guys, I can't breathe." The Flynx said quickly, slowly turning red either from blushing… or actually not being able to breathe. "Off. Please."

The group separated, a fit of giggles and laughs ringing through the ex-team. "So…. Ready to… uh, meet dad again? I think," Amber asked Lee.

"Wait a bit, Amber… I don't want him to skedaddle yet." Link said, sliding back into his seat. Cassie plopped down into a seat on the far side of the table, Amber sat next to Link and Dee and Forge sat on either side of Lee. This left two seats for Flyby and Nicole to sit with their children. “I want to talk about your powers, if it’s isn’t a touchy subject.”

Lee nodded. “It’s cool, ask me anything you want.”

“When you say your powers are gone, what does that mean?”

The Flynx shrugged. “It means all that crazy stuff I could do with the arrows, and the explosives… I can’t do it anymore. I can still breathe anywhere, stuff like that. But my heavy offense is toast.”

Link made a thinking face.

“Speaking of my … hiatus, who’s been keeping an eye on my lab?” Lee asked.

Amber raised her hand and Link pointed at her. “I did nothing but teleport bread for three days!” The giddy android exclaimed.

Lee smiled, ignoring his sister’s weirdness. “Thanks, I’m gonna need that when I start looking for work again.”

Cassie got up and put her hand on Lee’s shoulder. “Come with me for a second,” The two walked away, with a few hushed whispers.

Amber watched them. “Welp, I might as well strike up conversation to break up the scenes. Who’s this bean that we haven’t mentioned yet?” She asked, pointing to Dee.

“O-oh… I’m Dee… just disguised.”

Link looked at her. “Dang… not bad. I didn’t mean that the way it came out. I just meant you kinda look like him,”

Dee giggled and began to elaborate. “Being a robot… that looks like a robot, I… didn’t think I was ready when dad started settling down….. So I took this form.”

"I think it's stupid, why wouldn't you want to be different?" Forge asked. "We're robots and it's awesome! I don't get it,"

Amber glared at him. "Some of us are built like this, Forge. Dee can look however she wants to. It doesn't affect you." She said sternly.

"Y-yes ma'am." The android muttered.

Link slid over to him. “She’s scary when she’s ticked.”

“Yeah, no kidding.” Forger whispered back.

“But she does have a point, we’re all different… you can’t judge your sis for trying her best to be ‘normal’, whatever that is anymore.” The Hedgelynx said. “It won’t help anyone.”

The silver-gray robot shrugged.

Cassie pulled Lee away from the others, into a corner out of earshot. “You mentioned work, right?”

The Flynx scratched the back of his head. “Yeah… I’m running low on cash, I got some ideas for what to d--”

“I can get you a job.”

Lee looked to her. “You can?”

“It won’t last long, but it’ll keep you from starving.” She told him, smiling lightly.

“What is it… not that I’ll turn it down, just wanna know what I’ll be doing.” He said.

“I’m working on some sci-fi show… figured they’d use a meta instead of special effects, I guess. They wanted me to play a hero, but I won’t have to use my powers for a while.”

Lee snapped his fingers. “You’re drifting, Cass.”

“Right, right… they need a hand with some mechanical aspects, asked me if I knew anyone.” She stated.

“And you suggested me,”

“I told them you were handy… didn’t want to go into anything you’d built.” Lee’s older sister said, looking at the ground.

“Yeah, like… those two.” He replied, turning to look at Dee and Forge. “But, tell your employer they’ve got a guy.”

Cassie smiled, hugging her brother. “Got it, Leaf.”

“Leaf?” He asked.

“Don’t worry about it, dad’s starting his speech anyhow.” She informed him while looking at the podium in the center of the room.

Flyby stood up to the small podium, tapping the microphone. “Heyo, heyo… this thing on? Guess it is.” He said, glancing around. “Alright, I’m gonna get through this quick as I can… because I really hate speeches.”

Cassie and Lee returned, taking their seats to listen.

“Basically, I couldn’t have done this by myself, from my beautiful wife Nicole to my shy brother Skye. We all have a team backing us; when we’re down, they pick us up. When we get lost, they help us find the way. When we lose purpose, they show us the light. They become essential to us, and show us that strength isn’t something you gain by standing alone: It’s something you get from being there for someone else.”

Lee looked at the other Mobians sitting at the table. Then something caught his eye, small black packages on each support beam.. “What the… oh crud.” His storm blue eyes widened.

Each package had a timer attached to the side. A timer with just a few seconds left. Flyby kept speaking. “And so it is with grea--”

“Guys..!” Lee barely had time to utter the words before a thunderous noise was heard and debris went flying. The areas of the packages were cracking as the roof began to break under the loss of support beams. Within minutes, the building would collapse with everyone inside it.

The Prowers went to work, standing up and prepping. Link pulled his red scarf from inside his jacket and threw it around his neck. Lee took off his jacket, displaying the silver left arm he hid. Dee changed into her true form and a set of wings slid out from Forge’s back.

“Forge, Dee, Cassie, manage the crisis. Amber, Link, make sure there’s exits.” Lee told everyone.

Cassie ran to the center and the room, near Flyby and Nicole and lit up with a sky blue glow. The Fox began growing larger, shredding her dress to reveal her size-shifting street clothes in the change. “HhhhhGGGGGG!” She shouted Hitting somewhere around sixty feet, bracing her back against the crumbling roof with her back-spines jutting through the ceiling.

Dee flew up to help Cassie, switching to strength mode and gripping an unheld area. Cassie looked at her. “Thanks, Dee.”

“Hang on, guys!” Forge’s arms turned into a pair of large cannons and he thrusted upwards. Various canisters hidden in his form began mixing, resulting in a liquid to gather in his cannons. Taking aim around the two females, Forge shot out a quick hardening concrete at the cracks he could hit.

Link, at super speed, was removing the debris from the doorways as quick as he could in an effort to open every exit there was. “Amber! I can’t move the bigger pieces, can you?”

The Razor-Fox had her blade out, slicing through the larger pieces Link had mentioned. “On it! Where’s Lee?”

“I don’t know!” Link shouted back, Flyby beginning to help in the effort of clearing the doorways.

Lee stood at the table, watching a group of six hooded figures rush around the second story of the structure. After doing a few rotations, the group backflipped, hopped or jumped over the railing and bolted for a cleared door.

“Gotcha,” The Flynx said, giving chase to them.

They noticed, the tallest member pulling a small gray device out of their belt and lobbing it towards a screaming wolf girl. The orb landed at her feet and started beeping rapidly, causing the girl to scream louder. “EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKK!!!”

Lee looked at the door, then at the girl. “You gotta be kidding me.” He took off towards her, his arm shifting and sliding to pop out a glowing turquoise shield. Standing in front of her, he raised the shield. ''“This is gonna hurt. Onyx, wake up, I need you.”''

The blast of the small grenade threw the two of them into a table, cracking it in half. After checking herself, the wolf giggled nervously. “G-guess I owe you one, I’m Mal--”

He’d run off again after the group. “O-oh… see you later, I guess.”

The hooded figures were outside, running across the parking lot when Lee emerged from the building. They turned to look at him, their eyes widening in recognition. The six looked at each other and began rushing back towards him.

The one who had thrown the grenade moments before pulled out a slim canister and tossed it at the ground, causing a cloud to form.

Gray smoke flooded the area, blinding Lee. ''“Onyx? I really need you right now.”'' He stepped forward, hearing footsteps behind him. “Like, really need you.” He heard running footsteps and curled up, waiting for the impact.

Shield left, kick right, A voice Lee was happy to hear said. Following what Onyx told him to do, he felt his foot connect with someone’s rib cage and his shield shudder from impact.

“What are we dealing with?”

'''There’s five ready for combat, one’s just standing out of reach. One in front of us, two to our left, one on our right and one behind us.'''

Lee threw a punch at the one who’d hit his shield, gripping their cloak and pulling them over as a living shield to the second figure on the left, Onyx guiding his every move. He dropped the figure when his partner sensed the one on the right attacking, moving to the side and causing them to plow into the left team.

“That leaves two, right?” He asked mentally.

Yes, but AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHH!!!!, Onyx screamed, being hit by telepathic static.

The Flynx screamed as well, doubling over. His hearing was being tortured, but he managed to hear some words said by the group.

“It’s him… The Dryden,”

“I thought he was gone."

“Apparently not, anyways, it’s time to run.”

Lee went unconscious as something hit him over the head.