Sonic X: Fractured Chaos
By AbeSedecim
1. The Price of Passage
It's been 3 years, since Chris Thorndyke disappeared. He traveled through the portal into another dimension to see his long lost friend Sonic the Hedgehog. Taking only the cloths on his back he left a note to comfort his friends and family. Everyone agreed to respect his wishes, watching over his lab and his equipment these past years. It was a big decision not knowing his ultimate fate, but still they watched and waited for his return.
The lab had not been altered for fear of hindering Chris' return. The great golden circle gate was cold, the computers still on standby, and with the occasion dusting, nothing was moved out of place. There was one new addition, a table set for 3 for when his friends came over to watch over his things. Only 2 were seated though, a woman in red and a man in green. They played checkers on the table, while the third friend watched silently staring out the window.
"I won again," cheered the woman. She slammed the black tile on the last square and the man bowed down in humiliating defeat. She was not afraid to gloat over her 10 win victory.
"Fran, can we play another game?" The man slumped in his chair with his hands on his head in frustration at his losses.
"Don't be such a sore loser Danny," she joked. "You know I'd beat you at any game." Danny sighed knowing her gaming skills were superior to his own.
"Fine, I'll reset the board," he reluctantly complied. As he set the pieces, Fran couldn't help but notice the third member of their group sitting alone by the opened window. In her mechanized chair she basked in sunlight in solitary. Her eyes never left the horizon like a lovebird who awaited his arrival. She longed for the day Chris returned, more so than either Fran or Danny could fathom.
"Maybe Helen can play next round," Fran suggested.
"You know she hasn't been in the mood for games lately," he took his first move. While they played their game, their minds diverted. "And we both know why. She really misses him."
"Well, don't you?" she said.
"That's a silly question," he refuted. "Why else would be waiting all this time, it wasn't just for watching his stuff? I know he'll return though, and we'll be waiting for him."
"Don't you ever wonder why it's taken so long? Almost 3 years we've waited and."
"Chris is one of the smartest guys I know," he confirmed. "Even if all else seems lost, he'll find a way to get back home, with or without the gate. You shouldn't doubt him, I don't, okay?" He looked out with those sympathetic eyes that made her smile right back at him.
"Yeah, you're right," she agreed full heartedly.
"Ha, king me!" Before she knew it, he had distracted her long enough to turn the tide of the game in his favor. Needless to say, he smile turned to a frown at his deceit.
"Cheater!" she called him.
While they laughed and argue, Helen didn't even turn her head to watch her friends have fun. Instead she let her mind wandered to the people on the ground, the flowers on the field, thinking about promises yet to keep. She'd been tempted these past years to break her promise and open they gate by herself, Chris' grandfather had made it perfectly clear that any tampering could lead to drastic consequences. As time passed, watching was not enough for her. She knew why he'd left, and why he didn't say a word. The only question she would wonder everyday was.
'Why didn't you bring us with you?' she thought. 'All of us were suppose to go, then you left thinking we'd wait forever. Not even a word these past 3 years, I wonder will you ever…"
BEEP, BEEP, BEEP! A ring came from Chris' computer awakening from its silent sleep for seemingly no reason. The screen was bursting with activity, letters, and numbers flooded to form graphs and charters creating unknown shapes and areas. The room was breathless, everyone took notice, and even Helen who had broke from her solitude. Fran and Danny dropped their game and ran for the computer with Helen right beside them. They looked at the screen, trying careful not to touch anything, mere observers trying to decipher its meaning.
"What's going on?" asked Fran. "Has it blown a gasket or something?"
"It could be anything," Danny suggested. "We better get the experts on-"
"Wait, do you see what I see," Helen pointed to the screen.
A completed image appeared from the numbers and graphs. It looked like a vessel amongst the see of lines and pulses. The vessel appeared like an oval shape, fainted but familiar to everyone in that room. The 3D pod looked much like an oval, or an egg to be more precise.
"We better get everyone here," said Danny. He knew nobody was going to believe this.
*
In cosmic ether where light and energy are born, lies the turbulence between worlds. In this infinite finite to cross is uncertainty, but one pod dared to travel. Through the flares of light and sonic speed, the egg shaped pod flew with the shadow its passenger still inside. He sat alone in the shades of his seat, contemplating his fate. He remembered his past, not so long ago. Tears still ran from his eyes from the few moments that passed in that far off world.
The moment was fresh in his heart, even through the effects that time and space had altered his body to that a 12-year-old. With the Master Emerald destroyed there seemed no way to get home, until Dr. Eggman of all people offered a solution. It was a gamble to get into the untested craft, even if he made it back there was no telling how many years would be lost or gained. Yet, with only minutes remaining, Chris felt he had no choice then to trust his former foe. Whatever the Doctors true intentions, he got inside that Egg-pod lifted into the deep blue sky. He departed not knowing when or if he would ever return or without even saying goodbye. With teary eyes he wondered what his friends would say when they found out about his hasty decision to leave. All he could say to comfort himself was.
"Goodbye everyone…" When he looked outside one last time thru the window of his craft, he saw a very special friend running fast to say farewell. A small blue blur at super speeds tried desperately to keep up with the accelerating ship. Chris recognized his spiky blue friend as, Sonic the Hedgehog who in his own way was trying to say goodbye. They looked at each other and saw the message in each others eyes. With crocodile tears he said out loud to his friend who seemed to slow down compared to his speed in the fraction of a second.
"Goodbye…Sonic!"
The internal timer had reached its final count, the engines were fully charged. The ship broke lights speeds ahead of Sonic. The ship sped off at full capacity into the sky and disappearing in a flash of cosmic light with Chris inside.
His tears had disappeared, he would soon reach home. He didn't know if he would ever see Sonic or his friends again and future seemed uncertain. He took comfort in the fact that he would return to his friends and family, the faces of his mom, dad, and dear friends. He knew things had changed and he wonder if they would still recognized him when he returned.
*
Two men had been busy in Chris' lab, his Grandpa Chuck and his father Nelson Thorndyke. Helen and Danny watched as they worked carefully trying to analyze the computer without compromising its integrity. The 2 Thorndykes were experts in the field science and they tried to decipher what was the meaning on the screen. A woman came barging in, accompanied by Fran was a beautiful starlet who was wife and mother to Chris. Linsey Thonrdyke was her name, Fran had brought her up to speed and still she was frantic about the whole situation.
"Where is he, what's going on, where's my Chris?" she cried. "Is it an emergency, tell me?" She grabbed Grandpa Chuck's lab coat and shook him until his head rattled and rolled.
"Calm down Linsey," Mr. Thorndyke pulled her away. "We've been working on the problem and day and I have devised a theory to what this all means."
"Ahem, as I was about to say," Grandpa Chuck straightened his wrinkled coat from her vice grip. "This is just an initial assessment, but we believe this program was designed by Chris as an early warning system."
"A warning for what?" asked Mrs. Thorndyke.
Everyone surrounded the computer as they explained what they were seeing. The complex illustration was broken down into a model of the egg-pod in the ethereal void.
"It's a monitoring program, meant to track any matter traveling through the gate. It's the same one we used when we sent Chris supplies that first time. It seems to have a secondary function of alerting when mattering is also traveling from the other side as well."
"Could it be Chris?" asked Fran.
"Yeah, only he can travel through the gate right?" added Danny.
"That much is true, but there is possibly that someone else has figured out how to use this technology," said Grandpa Chuck. "It is trickier from this side, but it still stands as probable."
"We've examined the data," said Mr. Thorndyke. "It seems to be a vehicle of sorts, but with a familiar design we can't ignore. You may recognize whose hand is at work here." It wasn't hard to notice the egocentric pattern.
"You don't mean?" Mrs. Thorndyke tried to perish the thought.
"Dr. Eggman," Helen said it, but she still couldn't believe it.
"Besides Chris, who else would have the knowledge and ingenuity?" The next words came with a sigh. "It's clearly Dr. Eggman at work here, but we don't know how he found out about the gate or a way to utilize it for this vehicle to travel. And given our history with Eggman there is a strong possibility of a major threat on the rise. We can only fear the worst."
Mrs. Thorndyke nearly fainted at the thought of what could have happened to her son. And everyone else could barely stand to think of it as well.
"Although the pod stands no immediate threat, we don't know could happen when it reaches our world," said Mr. Thorndyke. "It's quite possible it could contain a full invasion force or some other worldly threat and that's a chance that we dare not ignore."
"Which brings a very difficult decision we must seriously consider," said Grandpa Chuck. "We have to shut down the gate, permanently."
It was a plan that made everyone lean back in shock for fear of one person.
"What about Chris?" Helen asked. "He may never return."
"It's a big risk, but it might be the best for all our sakes."
They knew that shutting it down would strand the very person they were waiting for. If they only knew the true potential for disaster on rise and what the Egg-pod truly carried the very person they'd been waiting for. Helen of all people had a feeling in her heart, but she could only watch as the others began to work on permanently disable the gate forever.
*
Back in the ether of space-time, things we getting rough. The flow of energy grew more rapid as turbulence began to shake the egg-pod to its every molecule. The passenger tried to remain calm but began to shake like a yoke. The vibrations stabilized if only for a moment when he heard the sound like a doorbell. A familiar void sounded a message on the intercom.
"Attention passenger," Dr. Eggman sounded like a flight attendant in the face of disaster. "What you are experiencing is momentary occurrence brought on by the natural flow of quantum space and has almost nothing to do with any unexpected miscalculations in the space-time continuum. Should you or your ship not make it back in one piece, I guess this would be a good time to say…so long sucker!"
He couldn't help but smile at Eggman's unique style of breaking terrible news. The turbulence started once more, and the he held tight to whatever he could as the ship began shaking. Every molecule seemed to shift in a crucible of light and sound. All around blazing light consumed him as he disappeared from this limbo of the cosmos.
*
The gate started itself with a portal of many colors spiraling at its center. The controls had automatically guided, it the gate was reaching the point beyond shutting down. Grandpa Chuck and Mr. Thorndyke were done halting the whole operation once and for all.
"Just a few more adjustments," said Grandpa Chuck. "Then we can pull the power without having to worry about blowing up the lab or the city power grid."
"Must we do this?" questioned Helen. "We don't even know if it's a real threat we're dealing with. Eggman's has proven benign before."
"It's a hard decision we know," Mr. Thorndyke confessed. "Knowing that he is involved does not guarantee the safety of this planet. We can't leave anything to risk at this point."
"The final sequence is ready, let's finish it," Grandpa Chuck finished typing.
With only one button to press, he looked to everyone's silent approval. Reluctantly they all agreed it was for the best, only Helen was hesitant. It was good enough for Grandpa Chuck to press that button. It was only a nanosecond before the computer went still. The gate's light collapsed, the room was dark as night…no for very long.
"Ah!" Shocked and amazed everyone saw the gate spring back into a life in a explosive torrent of light fury. The computer awakened moving fast than it processor could keep up and it seemed complex equations could just jump from the screen. The gate seemed alive like some giant gelatinous creature trying to pull it way passed the golden barrier.
"Stay back," cried Grandpa Chuck and Mr. Thorndyke. Their plan had backfired, not knowing what was happening their alternative was to evacuate. They had nearly got everyone out of the lab, except for Helen who Grandpa Chuck notice was mesmerized by the strange light and sounds. He cried for her to come with him, he tried to reach out and pull her, but something prevented him for getting near. Helen simply sat in her chair staring directly into that light like a capture soul, but in that light she thought she saw an image that no one else could see.
"…Chris?" she whispered. It looked like a shadow of him in great pain at the center of the lights. It twitched and turned compelling her to come, blinded by her love she felt compelled to do something. While the others fled, she moved forward enough to reach her hand out to touch the horizon of the gate. The instant she did the shadow seemed to smile, with wicked glee. In the second of doubt an eerie laugh erupted and a dark hand reached out and grabbed hers. In a flash the lab was consumed by every particle of light, and the 2 were taken by shadows.
When the light had vanished, the lab was in shambles. All that was left were dim lit lights, the rubble of what remained of the lab equipment burned beyond repair. The computer friend, sparks flashing all around as everyone entered back into the room to see the damage done. Mr. Thorndyke looked around with everyone for any sign of those left behind.
"Dad, Helen!" he called.
"…uh," a weak cry went out. Mr. Thorndyke and Danny worked to pull out the rubble. They pulled out Grandpa Chuck bruised but otherwise okay. Fran and Mrs. Thorndyke were in awe as to what had just happened and why it did. More importantly, they wanted to know.
"Where's Helen?"
"…I'm sorry…" Grandpa Chuck meekly shook his head. He turned his eyes toward the rubble of the gate and everyone followed his view. What they saw was a sign of uncertainty toppled in the golden debris. It was wheelchair tipped over with the wheel spinning in the dust. Helen was nowhere to be found and all that lingered was the few sparks of light remained.