Every Fifty Years
It is said that every fifty years the devil comes down to Mobius.
"What are you? What do you want?" Gerald Robotnik demanded of the apparition floating before him. The aged scientist trembled in his chair, his mind burdened by months of unrelenting research and failed projects. Surely that had made him hallucinate and created this unholy image.
It is said that the devil has no tail, no ears, and no fur, and that his form was similar yet abhorrent to all races.
The creature's skin was as black as sin, its three eyes were bestial yellow, its hands were too large and too symmetrical, its robes were the color of ash and trimmed in a poisonous yellow, the metal sigils that hung from its shoulders were cosmic and arcane, its monstrous horns sprouted from the side of its head and curved towards the ground, it hung in the air as it watched Gerald because it had no legs, and it had no mouth yet it spoke.
"I am Black Doom, Lord of the Black Arms and Master of the Black Comet."
It is said the devil comes to the parents of a child with an incurable illness.
"Your grand-daughter is ill, is she not?" Black Doom said in a rasping, almost human voice.
It is said that the devil offers the ultimate temptation: to save the child's life, in exchange for making the child his servant when he returns fifty years later.
"You are working on a project to find a cure for her, but you have encountered difficulties." Gerald shook in fear as the thing calmly described things it should not know. "But if you agree for her to serve me, for her to collect a mere seven rocks when I return, I can save her life."
It is said sometimes that the parents refuse, and have their child healed by God for their faith. Others stories, however, have them accept.
"What will it take?" Gerald asked. He might be making a deal with a monster but he would do anything to save Maria.
It is said that the devil puts his very lifeblood into the child
"A small transfusion of my blood is all that it will take to heal her." Black Doom responded.
It is said that every parent is horrified by it.
"No!" Gerald exclaimed. Even if he wasn't seeing it or hearing it he could feel how wrong the thing was, as if reality itself was twisted by its presence. "I- I can't." Gerald continued, sobbing in fear of the monster. "She's too pure. I could never..." He couldn't even finish the sentence.
It is said that the devil manipulates and cajoles the parents into going along with his wishes.
"I see no other way to save her. None of your projects have succeeded, and even when given an answer you refuse it based upon some superstition." Black Doom rasped out, somehow sincere and mocking in the same sentence.
"No." Gerald whispered. "There's still one project left, a hedgehog."
"You will use him in my stead? Tell yourself that the blood he gives to her is not mine?"
"I will control the process!" Gerald hissed back, surprising the monster with his sudden aggression. "I will only give Maria a perfect cure and nothing less!"
"I offered a perfect cure." Black Doom, regaining his composure.
"You didn't know that, not for certain." Gerald barked back. Black Doom paused, his thoughts indiscernible, before continuing.
"Very well, we shall use the hedgehog, your final 'Ultimate Life-form'." It said. Somehow, Gerald wasn't sure he had won.
It is said that when the child is given the devil's blood, its fur turns as black as ash and its eyes as red as blood.
Gerald looked in shock at the now black and red hedgehog. "W-what? Something happened to his melanin levels, it's-"
"Cease your babbling, it is but a unavoidable side affect." Black Doom said, watching Gerald's creation from the other side of the artificial womb. Gerald kept his head straight but in his mind affirmed that he had made the right choice. The idea of letting those brilliant blue eyes and golden hairs be corrupted by this abomination was the most vile thing Gerald could imagine. After a few minutes the monster backed away from the artificial womb.
"What?" Gerald asked.
It is said that when he finishes his work the devil leaves the same way as he arrived, stopping once to remind the child's parents of the price they payed for their child's life:
"My part in this is over." Black Doom said. "He should finish development on his own in a short time, four months at the longest." Turning, the abomination began to leave the room. "I will return for my payment in fifty years."
"Yes, the rocks." Gerald said glad that this nightmare was almost over, and with such a light price in the end. "If you want, we have plenty of samples in the geology labs..." The monster paused and turned to look back at Gerald
"No, they're a rather... Unique set of stones, very hard to find. And my plans will go more smoothly if they are gathered all at once."
"What are they?" Gerald asked, already knowing the answer and fearing it.
"There are very few words to describe them. The name I prefer is... " Black Doom began.
The child's soul.
"Chaos Emeralds." Gerald shook with fear as the abomination said those two simple words. With the supposedly infinite power of the Chaos Emeralds, what good intent could Black Doom have?
"No!" Gerald yelled, trying to stand up against the monster. "I never agreed to such a price and you know it." Black Doom openly chuckled in his inhuman voice.
"But you agreed to my contract, and that is enough for my needs. You are bound by my blood, and when I return I will have the emeralds one way or another. Thank you, 'Gerald', for with your help I am one step closer to bringing a final judgement to this forsaken world!" Black Doom's laughter echoed throughout the chamber as he faded away, haunting Gerald until long after the alien was gone.
