Author's Notes:
I'm kind of intimidated by the thought of writing this. One of my greatest fears when doing any sort of fiction is that I won't be able to finish what I begin. The ambition I'm taking with turning the Strings of Time into the start of a series makes me wonder if, even when I finish one book, will I ever complete the full set?
Know that what motivates me to write is Passion. There's of course you, the readers, and your longer comments often get me eager to jump back into writing the next chapter. Keep talking, just knowing I have fans gets me in the authoring mood. I was also passionate about Tails x Cosmo shipping, which caused me to start this entire thing, but writing the first book has relieved a great deal of that tension. Now I want to move on, but there's still some loose ends that need tying up: namely, Mephiles. That's the new goal with this set of short novels/stories/fanfics: to turn those loose ends into their own series of stories. But while I find Mephiles to be a fascinating mastermind and chessmaster, will I really maintain that fascination for multiple stories?
Guess we'll find out.
Something that bears mentioning before we jump in: This is not just about Tails x Cosmo anymore. Oh sure, I'm definitely going to keep them in the story, and they'll have their moments along with the rest (It'll also keep ME interested… hopefully). But the spotlight of the story is getting focused to a more general focus and theme, with highlights on suspense and mystery (And of course little sprinkles of my desert-dry humor here and there). P:
Bloodlines Saga:
1. [The Strings of Time]
2. [Ghost ARK]
3. [Project Gateway]
4. ?
Ghost ARK
The sky was filled with jewels, pinpricks of light that poked holes in the deep blue canopy that covered their world of Mobius. Dusk was ending, and as the dark shades of azure continued to darken into the shadow of night, more and more of the sparks lit up until it seemed a black sea of candles swam above their heads.
Amy carefully rolled out the checkered blanket on the hilltop, the bright squares maroon and mustard in the dark. "It's so lovely out tonight," she mused as Cream and Cheese sat down on it with her. "I wish Sonic would stop standing us up at Stargazing."
"It wouldn't be like Sonic to stay in any single place for more than a minute," said Tails, who was trying to set up a telescope with Cosmo's help. "Short of him sleeping there, anyway. Though the thought of a sleep-running hedgehog is something I wouldn't push out of my mind…"
"Next time I won't give him a choice then," said the pink hedgehog, sternly folding her arms. "I'll skip asking and just tie him to a tree."
"I don't think the tree would like that…" said Cosmo hesitantly. "Tails, where does this piece go?" she then asked, pointing to one of the tripod legs in her hand.
Cream blinked once and turned her head to the seedrian. "Since when did you start calling him just 'Tails', Cosmo-san?"
"Uh… Er…" Cosmo turned a little pink under the eyes, taking a step away from the blanket out of reflex.
Amy smiled evilly. "Don't be shy about it, Cosmo. I've noticed. It's not quite 'honey', but I can understand you taking baby steps."
The seedrian turned scarlet. Tails remained oblivious as he finished the last of the calibrations. "Alright, that should be everything. You want to try it first, flower?"
Amy's sinister grin only cracked wider as Cosmo eagerly agreed, shy of sharing her feelings as ever and trying oh so hard to avoid talking about them. Tails' own term of endearment hadn't escaped her notice either, he had on and off been using 'Flower' as much as her real name for the past nine months since they'd gotten back from the battles with the Metarex. She was happy for them, yes, but she was also jealous they'd gotten so far ahead in less than a year than what she'd been trying for multiple.
"All I see is a lot of brown, Tails" said the seedrian as she stared down the scope. The kitsune looked over her shoulder and stifled a snicker as he saw her line of sight point straight into a thicket of trees at the base of the hill. Instead, he gentle tilted it up until it again aligned with the heavens. A gleeful squee escaped the plant girl's lips, as she began to swivel the telescope around and take in all the different views. "I saw a lot of these in space, but they're all so prett-"
Her sudden stop gave Tails pause. "What's wrong Cosmo? Is there something on the lens?"
The girl raised her head from the optics and stared at the place in the sky she had been gazing. "Tails…" she asked coldly calm while raising a finger to point, "What is that?"
The kitsune, hedgehog, and rabbit all followed the directions and stared into the night sky. There, in a dark patch between the stars, was another light. Unlike the others, though, it was a deep shade of blue barely visible against the darkness, and pulsed as if it were alive.
"I… don't know." He answered honestly, folding his arms and tilting his head at the anomaly.
The four mobians weren't the only ones noticing the foreign body in the night sky. Several miles away at his "secret" base, Doctor Eggman was just as perplexed about the strange energy source his sensors were screaming klaxons at him about.
"Eggman-sama!" yelled Bokkun as loud as the little android could over sirens (which wasn't very much), his hands clamped over his oversized ears. "Can we please turn off the alarms?"
"My receivers are burning out!" shrieked Bocoe as he aimlessly ran by, smoke trailing from his head.
The self-proclaimed genius snorted and mumbled something about "updated assistants" before flipping a pair of toggles, the sirens going silent less than a second afterwards. He briefly indulged vanity from the praise of his mechanical minions before turning back to the monitor and the odd readings. There was a large amount of irregular gravity going on up in orbit above them; like some sort of singularity was pulling things toward it where there was nothing.
His curiosity piqued, Eggman swung around his chair and pointed and finger up in the air, shouting "Activate the Egg-o-scope!"
"Yes, Eggman-sama!" shouted Decoe, Bocoe, and Bokkun all at once and snapping a salute before frantically scurrying off to their stations. The mechanical minions ran into one another more than once during this attempt, sparking insults that they continued to yell at each other even while working their respective controls. The Doctor ignored them, jogging with a wide berth over to another console as a periscope dropped over said station. Grabbing the fold-out handles, he shoved his Lens-covered eyes into the scope and started panning around, his wide mustache tickling the bottom of the observatory device.
"Eggman-sama!" shouted Decoe from over at his own console. "Gravity fluctuations are leveling off! The anomaly appears to have stabilized into a single mass!
Ivo acknowledged his assistant's report, finally locating the space the gravity well had been emanating from… and gasped.
Back on the hilltop; the four friends watched for a few more seconds as the azure pulse began to slow. With one, last, dark flare, it then faded completely, leaving something behind that they couldn't make out even while squinting.
"Let me have a look," said Tails to his love, pulling the optic up to his eyes after Cosmo had made room. He had to swivel around a bit like she had before bringing the object into view. His hands reached out and twisted a set of knobs on the side of the telescope until the zoomed in entity came into focus, a half-sphere of shattered asteroid drifting in a new orbit in the dark heavens above.
"What is it, Tails-san?" asked Cream innocently from the checkered blanket.
The kitsune blinked a few times to make sure he was seeing things, then slowly pulled away and stared up in surpise, shock, and a bit foreboding.
"It's… The ARK."
ALTERNATE SCENE:
Amy smiled evilly. "Don't be shy about it, Cosmo. I've noticed. It's not quite 'honey', but I can understand you taking baby steps."
Cream snickered. "Heh… Baby…"