Hey everyone who's still waiting for me to update, I actually have been writing stories since the last time I updated, I just haven't had a whole lot of time. Anyway, the idea for this fic has been percolating in my head for quite sometime, and I figured it's about time I get it out here. Disclaimer* I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of Sega's characters; I do own the plot to this story and my own characters. Enough author notes, enjoy!
The Difference Between Light and Dark
Chapter 1: Look Up to the Sky
"Oh, Robert, he's beautiful," a light orange cat with dark green eyes lying in a hospital bed said as she was handed her baby.
"He certainly is, Elizabeth." A taller, darker orange cat with dark blue eyes agreed with a warm smile. The crying baby cat had fur that was an orange between his two parents' fur colors and a lighter blue eye color. He stopped crying when he opened his eyes and saw his mother smiling and cooing at him. Then he looked past her and out of the window nearby. His eyes widened as he saw the blue and white marvel known as the sky.
His mother noticed him looking outside, and she said softly to him, "Yes, that's the sky, my little baby, yes it is." The baby made a noise, and moved his arms in a way that made them look like he was reaching for the window. His father looked thoughtful for a moment, and then his face lit up, "We'll name him Sky! Sky the Cat!"
An older looking orange cat appeared in the room with blinding speed. "I think we should name him Pharaoh!" said the old cat.
"Dad!" Robert shouted, "Just because you have super speed doesn't mean you can show up whenever you want! You missed the delivery! And you probably scared little Sky!" completely ignoring his father's name suggestion. At the mention of the baby, everybody looked at him. He was looking at the newest arrival of the group with curiosity, and then turned back to the window, his mom stroking his fur.
"Scared? Please, my little Pharaoh isn't scared o' nothin'!" Robert's father stated.
"Pharaoh? Dad, you can't keep naming things after stuff you learn on your trips, especially children!" Robert retorted, "His name is Sky."
"There ain't nothin' wrong with the name Pharaoh! Why, in the ancient Mobian hieroglyphs at the pyramids, it means king!" Robert's father argued back, "And Sky? What kind of a name is that? He'll spend his entire life looking up!" Robert and his father proceeded to argue about this, voices slowly getting louder. Elizabeth sweat-dropped as she shyly tried to get their attention.
"Um, Robert? George?" she said quietly, but they couldn't hear her, and they continued to argue. Suddenly a red vein pulsated on her head as her son looked up at her. "ROBERT! GEORGE! QUIET DOWN NOW!" If the baby could sweat-drop, he would've done it then.
They stopped and instantly stood straight up with their left hand up in a salutatory fashion. "Yes ma'am!" they shouted in unison.
"Good." Elizabeth said, the baby looking at the window again, "Now that I have your attention, I believe I have a solution to this situation." Robert and George listened intently to her words, each hoping that the compromise would lean toward their own suggestion. They stared at each other, angrily, arguing to each other in their heads. "We'll name him Skyraoh, combining the two names."
The two male cats' expressions didn't change and they continued to stare at each other. They simultaneously said "Fine," and turned away from each other, folding their arms. "But his nickname will be Sky." Robert triumphantly stated. George anime fell at this.
He got up and said, "Why you…" but Elizabeth and Robert started laughing, which eventually caused George to laugh at himself also. The baby Skyraoh gave a tiny smile as well.
There were three other significant events in Skyraoh's life, after he was born, that lead up to his current situation. He's collecting gems known as the Element Emeralds right now, but you'll learn about those soon enough. The next event is short, but nonetheless important. It occurred when he was about 5 years old…
Outside a modest pale yellow house, two orange cats were playing catch. The younger one missed a throw his father threw. It landed a few feet away. "Oh! That's alright Sky, you'll get the next one!" his father said encouragingly. Sky went over to the ball and grabbed it. He had his own pair of white gloves, and dark yellow shoes with a white stripe going across. He turned to face his father. "Alright, son, now throw it as hard as you can!"
Sky closed his eyes tightly as he wound up for a throw. He let go of the ball, sending it soaring into the air, and landed neatly in his father's glove. "Nice throw son!" Robert said, "Now get ready, this next one's my famous fastball!"
"Pssh, famous?" George interjected, standing in the back doorway, "The tip of my tail is more famous than your fastball."
A red vein pulsed on Robert's head, "I'll show you, old cat!" Robert shouted. He wound up fiercely, as he said to Sky with fire in his eyes, "Get ready son, this will be the fastest fastball you've ever seen!" Sky sweat-dropped as his father yelled at the top of lungs, throwing the ball right at him. Sky ducked with his hands in front of his face. The ball whizzed over his head and landed a couple hundred feet away in a grassy field.
Sky got up, and looked behind him. Robert said, "Sorry son!" then turned to face his father, "How was that, for fast, dad?"
George didn't look all that impressed. "Not bad." Robert anime fell. Then got up and turned toward his son.
"I got it, dad!" Sky said, as he prepared to run. He took one step, and in a blur, had grabbed the ball and reappeared right where he had been standing just a second ago. Robert and George stared wide-eyed at him. "How was that, for fast, dad?" Sky grinned.
So Skyraoh got his grandfather's genes. Since that day, his grandfather helped him learn how to control his super speed. There were a few trips and falls, but Skyraoh kept pushing through. By the time he was ten, he had gained pretty good control over it. It was also by age ten that he learned he wasn't the only being his age with super speed.
Word of a speedy blue hedgehog, that had stopped an evil genius, spread pretty fast. They said his name was Sonic the Hedgehog, and the evil genius was Dr. Robotnik. They said the hedgehog could turn himself into a ball to attack Robotnik's creations, and when Skyraoh heard about that, well, he wanted to learn how to do it, too.
Skyraoh had also made a few new friends, all who were basically adopted by an old tortoise by the name of Fredrick. Among those he cared for were Simon the Sloth, Sling the Mink, Forest the Groundhog, and Skyraoh's best friend Bronze the Dog. They all encouraged Skyraoh when he was learning how to attack foes like Sonic the Hedgehog, or Spin Dash, as it was called.
Bronze in particular liked to spar with Skyraoh, with Fredrick giving tips here and there. Skyraoh's mother didn't really like the idea of him learning to fight, but his father and grandfather thought it would be good for him, especially under Fredrick, who happened to be an old friend of George's. The two of them grew to be best friends, hanging out and sparring for roughly two years until they had a big fight about who liked Sling the most, and it was at this time that the second most important event in Sky's life occurred…
Sky ran as fast as he could through the woods. He wasn't going to deal with Bronze right now. How could Sling go for a hothead like him? He thought. Couldn't she see how much I liked her? I had given her flowers and compliments galore, and what had Bronze given her? A smooth pick-up line and a showing off of his strength. Whatever. Who needs them? Right now, it's me and my speed; just the way I like it.
"Oof!" Sky cried as he ran into something and fell. He looked up and saw a purple bird get up and brush herself off. He looked around and saw a magenta gem lying on the ground. It was shaped like an eight-sided tetrahedron. He picked it up, planning on giving it to the bird, but the gem glowed with intense light.
"Oh, my," the bird said. Sky could feel something flow into him; it felt like energy, almost revitalizing, making him feel, powerful. His fur shined along with the gem, even more so when the sun hit it. Then the gem stopped glowing, as did his fur, and Sky just stared at the gem, trying to digest what just happened. "Um, excuse me," the bird said, "but can I have my gem back please?"
Sky snapped out of it. "What? Oh, sure, here you go," he handed it over to her. "What was that?" he asked her.
"I'm not sure," she said, but she looked like she knew more than she let on, "What's your name?" she asked after looking thoughtful.
"Uh, Sky the Cat," he answered, "What's yours?"
"I'm Starr the Swallow," she replied, "Now, I should be going, good-bye!" and she ran away into the woods.
"Huh, that was weird," Sky said to himself. He felt like he had some extra energy to burn now, so he started running in the same direction he was, only this time a little faster. He strayed from the natural trail and ran through the trees, practicing dodging them at the last minute, feeling incredibly confident in himself.
He was enjoying himself dodging trees when he spun around and jumped pass the last one, going into a clearing, and slammed into something else. I really need to watch where I'm going, he thought, as he sat up and held his head. He looked around, but didn't see anyone this time, but he did see a completely black jewel lying next to him. It looked like a traditionally cut diamond, only oversized. He'd never seen a black jewel before, so he reached for it.
"NOOO!" a voice shouted as he grabbed it, and it started to glow an eerie dark light. He then felt a pulsation so strong; it felt like his body was splitting in two. He was suddenly surrounded by darkness, feeling like he was floating. Then a window appeared in the darkness, and he saw what looked like a white wolf yelling at him. He couldn't quite make out the words, but he could tell the wolf was angry. Suddenly a white-gloved right fist with an orange-furred arm slammed into the wolf's face, knocking the wolf to the ground. Sky felt something on his right knuckles.
"I don't like you," he heard a voice say from the window. It echoed in the darkness. Sky's lips tingled when the voice spoke. A left gloved hand grabbed the wolf by the chest and lifted him off of the ground. Then the background in the window became a blur, as the left hand dragged the wolf on the ground. The hand dragged the wolf down a hill and finally smashed him into a white metal wall of some sort.
The wolf lifted his head and Sky gasped when he saw how bloodied it was. "You're going to wish you were never born," he heard the same voice say. The wolf had an expression of pure fear; it almost looked like this was the first time in a long time that he'd been afraid. The voice laughed maniacally. "So, you're not used to fear, are you?" the voice said to the wolf, "Well, it's going to be the last emotion you'll ever feel! Unless, of course, you count pain!" the voice laughed again.
The hand threw the wolf through the wall into the building and wailed on him; throwing pieces of what looked like lab equipment at him and beating him with estranged metal objects. Sky tried to look away, but for some reason, he physically could not look away from the window. He started to cry and beg for the hands to stop, but they kept going; Sky's hands tingling all over with each blow. After what felt like hours of blood and gore, Sky felt a pull on his entire body. The hands stopped, and the background turned blurry until the window showed the clearing again.
The window closed, and Sky slowly felt like he was being laid down on his back. Sky closed his teary eyes. When he reopened them, he saw a bright blue sky, but in his mind's eye all he saw was the final image of the wolf; too horrible to describe. He ran home with tears in his eyes, forgetting all about the black jewel, which had fallen out of his grasp when he woke up.
When Sky came home that day, he hugged his parents like there was no tomorrow, but he didn't tell them anything about the horrors he'd seen, or the swallow he met. He definitely didn't tell Bronze either; but he did finally confront Bronze about Sling, only to find out that Bronze had dumped Sling, because she only liked him for his strength, he said. The two of them were back to being best friends after that, and continued to spar and train with each other.
Almost a year had passed since the dark gem incident, and Sky had pretty much forgotten about it. But someone else hadn't forgotten about it; in fact, this person had been thinking about it for almost a year, now…
"That miserable cat is going to pay dearly for this," A silhouetted figure in a liquid-filled canister said through a breathing tube.
"Restoration complete." a female monotonic voice said, "Now beginning draining process." The green liquid in the canister flowed into a now unplugged drain at the bottom, "Draining complete. Now beginning drying process," Two large vents connected to the canister poured a white foggy gas that absorbed the remaining liquid on the silhouetted figure. "Drying complete." A red eye glowed on the figure.
"Finally," the figure said as the canister opened and he stepped out while the white gas rolled out. The light of the lab revealed a bulky white wolf, or what used to be a wolf. Now this wolf had massive cybernetic attachments all over his body: the left half of his head was now robotic, one side having a piercing pure red eye; both of his hands and part of his right arm as well as his entire left arm were made of black metal; his hands had sharp silver claws on the tips of his fingers; both of his legs from his feet to just past his knees were the same material as his arms, and his feet had two black clawed toes each. The left half of his tail was also mechanical. The most prominent metallic feature on him, though, was four silver tubes connecting from his metallic back to a glass container in the center of his chest, and in the container was a slot for a perfectly cut oversized diamond.
"22!" the wolf shouted. A wide, black cylindrical robot with two long tubes as arms with red pincers at the end turned to face him. The robot had I-22 in a blocky white font written on his front. "Go out there and fetch me that emerald!" The robot bowed slightly, and on his six wheels, took off out of the lab.
It wheeled out into a clearing and found the black gem in the grass. It picked it up and brought it back to its creator.
"Excellent, 22, now place it in this container," the wolf said, indicating his chest. I-22 did so. The gem radiated its infamous dark light and emitted a surge of energy. The wolf concentrated, and held the surge in place. He grunted from the struggle, but managed to pull the surge back into the emerald, which dispersed the power into his own body.
The wolf laughed maniacally, "Now that I have the power of the Dark Emerald under my control, that cat will know the true meaning of fear and pain; he will know the name, Ivolt the Wolf!"
At the Cat household, Sky was eating breakfast with his mom and dad, enjoying some quality family time.
"How are your eggs, son?" Robert asked.
"They're delicious, dad!" Sky replied. He finished eating and stood up. "Well, I gotta go train with Bronze, see you, dad!"
"Bye, son!" Robert and Elizabeth said together, as Sky sped out the door. Robert put his arm around his wife.
Up in the sky above their house, Ivolt the Wolf was hovering in a small bowl-shaped hovercraft.
"So, this is where that cat lives," he said to himself after seeing Sky run out. He gave a sinister grin, and pointed his arm at the house. A launcher loaded with spheres transformed out of his forearm, and started heating up. "Now you will know a fraction of what I felt, through emotional pain!" He fired it, shooting a fireball the size of a baseball at the house.
The fireball shot through the roof of the house, landing in the kitchen. Sky's parents just barely turned around before the ball exploded. The explosion blew the house apart with a flash of blinding white light, followed by a large pillar of smoke.
Ivolt laughed maniacally at the growing fire as he pulled out a metallic red and yellow orb. "I'll give him something to play with when he gets back," he said. He tossed it into the fire that was now starting to catch onto the grass around the house. He flew back to his lab, laughing.
In a different clearing in the forest, Frederick and the others were watching Bronze and Sky spar with each other when they heard a loud noise. They stopped and turned toward the noise.
"What was that?" Frederick asked.
"Beats me," Bronze replied.
"That's the same direction as my house," Sky noted. His face turned serious with worry, and he bolted back to his house. Bronze looked at Frederick, and then ran after his best friend.
"Should we go, too?" Forest the Groundhog asked.
"No," replied Frederick, "Whatever caused that noise could still be there, and you three aren't ready to fight yet. We'll just have to hope that it wasn't anything to be concerned with." But even as he said that, Frederick had a feeling that something was very wrong.
Sky saw smoke heading to the clouds as he was coming upon his house, or rather, what was left of it. He stopped.
"No…" he gasped. In the space where his house once stood, there now lay a large pile of burning wood and furniture. "Mom! Dad!" Sky shouted, but to no avail. He wanted to jump into the fire, to look under the rubble, he didn't care about being burnt as long as he found them, but something told him they were already gone. Tears formed in his eyes, and he fell to his knees. Bronze had caught up, and saw the fire, and Sky doubled over crying his eyes out.
Then some of the burning wood shifted. Sky and Bronze looked over at the noise, and from under a pile of roof tiles, came a spherical robotic creature; the top half of it was red, the bottom half was yellow that merged with the red in the middle looking like the flames it was standing in. It had two sinister white eyes on a dome-shaped head and a circular jaw structure in the middle of its body with multiple sharp, pointed teeth. It stood on rectangular legs of the same color scheme, raised its two arms that ended in three claws each that looked just like its teeth, and shrieked.
The noise was awful, it sounded like nails on a chalkboard amplified through a badly working microphone. Sky and Bronze grimaced and covered their ears until the robot finally stopped its screaming. It charged toward the two of them, smoke streaming from its mouth. Sky and Bronze dodged and now had their full attention on this mystery robot. Bronze looked closer at it and saw that above its jaw was written I-03 in blocky white letters. Wonder what that means, he thought.
"Hey Sky!" Bronze shouted over the crackling fire. Sky looked at Bronze. "See that label above its jaw?" Sky saw the label, and his eyes widened. He had seen something like that before! He thought about it, and realized that it was in the window in that darkness he had seen something like that; the arms beating the wolf had thrown something with I-04 written on it. "I bet there's someone who makes robots like this one, and for some reason they have a huge grudge against you!"
Realization hit Sky as he put the pieces together. That black gem, the darkness, the window viewing of arms that looked like his, beating a white wolf inside of what looked a lab, the similar blocky white labels on machines; I had done it; I was the one who—"Sky, look out!" Bronze tackled Sky out of the way of a line of flames shooting from the robot's jaw. "What are you doing, dude?" Bronze demanded of Sky, "Pay attention, we're in a fight, here!"
Bronze is right, Sky thought, My top priority right now is dealing with this fire-breathing machine. The robot roared and blew more fire in their direction. They dodged, and the flames devoured a tree instead. Sky ran behind the robot, jumped up into a ball and slammed his heel on the robot's forehead, knocking it backwards and onto the ground.
"Nice one, Sky!" Bronze shouted. The robot got up and its eyes flashed red. It then pointed its claws at the two of them and fired its claws, like missiles. Sky easily dodged them by running, and Bronze jumped out of the way. Sky ran super-fast circles around the robot. The robot tried to breathe fire, but its flame was too small from the lack of oxygen caused by Sky's whirlwind.
While Sky was doing that, Bronze found a good-sized rock. Sky noticed and caught on to Bronze's plan when the dog started charging toward the robot. Sky's running had distracted the robot long enough for Bronze to get close and smash the rock with one hand right through the robot's circular teeth and into its gas tank at the back of its mouth.
Bronze quickly withdrew his hand when the robot's eyes started flashing red and it shrieked even worse than before. "IT'S GONNA BLOW!" Bronze shouted. Sky grabbed Bronze and ran away as fast as he could. The robot then exploded in a massive fireball, starting fires on even more parts of the grass and trees surrounding Sky's home.
Sky stopped when he saw Frederick and the others heading toward them. "Frederick!" Sky shouted.
"Skyraoh! Bronze! Thank goodness you're both alright," Frederick said, as a large tree fell from the fire, "We can chat later, right now we have to stop this forest fire!"
"Alright," Sky said, "Bronze, you and Forest dig a trench around the fire to stop it from spreading while throwing dirt on it at the same time; I'll run to the lake and get some water; Frederick, Simon and Sling, help out in any way you can!" and he bolted to the lake. Bronze and Forest burrowed into the ground and headed toward the edge of the fire; Sky knew he could count on them because they were incredibly fast diggers.
Sky reached the lake and ran across the water and started running in circles, creating a vortex that gathered up more and more water. Once Sky thought he had enough, he carried the vortex toward the fire, and threw it on the flames, only managing to put a dent in the forest fire. Bronze and Forest and finished the trench which the fire couldn't spread over, and started throwing dirt at the flames; Frederick and the others helped with this too.
Eventually they all stopped fire together, but leaving that part of the woods in shambles. "At least it didn't spread any farther," Frederick noted, "Thanks to Bronze and Forest, and especially to Sky, who, despite the circumstances, put together a plan that eventually quelled the fire," Sky knew he wasn't talking just about overcoming the shock of the fire, "and speaking of Sky," he looked at the orange cat, "You're more than welcome to stay with us as long as you need to," the tortoise offered a consoling smile. Sky smiled weakly back.
"Thanks Frederick," Sky replied, "I'm so glad to have you as a friend, as well as Bronze, and Simon, and Sling, and For—" he stopped, "Where is Forest?" The groundhog was nowhere to be seen. Then suddenly, a dirt trail was making its way toward the group with speed. It stopped in front of the group and from it popped up Forest holding something mysterious.
"Hey guys, check what I found!" Forest held up a light gray gem, which looked very similar to—
"Where did you find that?" Sky demanded, suddenly in Forest's face.
"Uh, I found it while digging the trench, but I left it where I found it to finish the trench, but now that the fire's gone I went back to get it and found it!" he rambled, "Pretty cool, huh?" The gem started glowing, and everyone looked at it with awe. The gem freed itself from Forest's grasp and floated over to Sky. It spun around him and then put itself in his hand; it then glowed even brighter.
"Whoa…" Forest said in amazement. The gem stopped glowing.
"What are these?" Sky wondered out loud. Bronze raised an eyebrow.
"These? Forest only found one," the dog replied, skeptically.
"Oh, uh, well, I guess now is as good of a time as any to tell you all what I've figured out about everything that happened today…" Sky said. He proceeded to tell them all about how he ran into a purple swallow who had a magenta gem shaped just like the gray one Forest found and about the wolf he had seen when he found the black gem. He told them about the window in the darkness, the wolf's lab, the arms that looked like Sky's beating him up, the robot they found in the remains of Sky's old house, and how the wolf must be connected. "…but what I really want to know now is, what is the connection between these gems?"
"Hmm…" Frederick started, "I've heard tale of seven powerful gems known as Chaos Emeralds, but they aren't shaped like that; although, the shape you described of the black gem seems to fit the bill of a Chaos Emerald; but then again, I've never heard of a black one." Sky seemed disappointed at this. "But I do remember stories about seven other gems, each with unique abilities of their own. I've heard they were shaped something like this gem, called the Element Emeralds, but there's no guarantee-"
"That settles it, then!" Sky interrupted, "I'm going to find all of these gems, or at least the keepers of these gems," he added remembering how seemingly nice the swallow was, "This gem chose me for some reason, and I want to find out why."
"Um, but Sky," Bronze stated, "Where would you even start looking?" Sky opened his mouth to answer, and sweat-dropped. As if on cue, the gray gem flew into the air at about chest level for Sky and rested horizontally, one tip of it glowing, seeming to point in that direction.
"Well, Bronze," Sky replied with a smirk, "I think that answers your question."
"That's north, where the Ice Cap Mountains are," Frederick pointed out, "It'll be chilly if you plan on going."
"Of course I'm going!" Sky said, "And it can't be that chilly, I heard Sonic the Hedgehog ran through part of those mountains and was fine, besides, the excitement of this adventure should keep me fired up!"
"Don't think you're going to hog all of the adventure; I'm coming, too," Bronze stated with his arms folded. Sky looked at his other friends.
"You guys can have this one," Forest said.
"I'll stay here, too," Sling said, looking at Forest.
"I'm too lazy," Simon bluntly put.
"You two have fun," Frederick said, "Just be careful, and no matter what happens, stick together!"
"No problem!" Sky said with confidence as he gave a thumbs-up to Frederick, "See you guys later!" and with that, he and Bronze took off toward the Ice Cap Mountains.
That puts us in Sky's current situation: his search for the Element Emeralds. However, he wasn't the only one who had decided to search for them…
"Master Ivolt," a female monotonic voice said, "More data regarding the cat's DNA has been analyzed."
"Well, tell me, Computer!" Ivolt demanded of a large monitor in the center of his lab. In the top right corner of the screen was written I-02.
"Traces of solar energy have been found on this strand of fur." Computer stated.
"Traces of solar energy? What does that mean, exactly?" the cybernetic wolf asked.
"Yes, it is an unnatural amount, meaning it came from an external source, of which I have discovered to be from the Solar Emerald." Computer showed a picture of a magenta gem shaped like a tetrahedron, only with sixteen faces instead of eight.
"The Solar Emerald? Elaborate." Ivolt commanded.
"The Solar Emerald is one of the seven Element Emeralds," Computer replied, showing seven different colored gems spinning slowly in a circle, "Each emerald has its own unique element of nature. There is the Heat Emerald; also referred to as the Fire Emerald," Computer showed a red gem, "It grants the user the ability to control thermal energy, taking away or giving heat to any object. There is the Electric or Lightning Emerald," Computer brought up a picture of a yellow gem, "It grants the user control of the flow of electricity. There is the Air or Wind Emerald," Computer showed a green gem, "Granting the user control over the gaseous molecules in the air, aside from water. There is the Water Emerald," a picture of a blue gem, "that grants the user control over the liquid and gaseous forms of water. There is the Ice emerald," a picture of a sky blue gem," that grants the user control over all types of solid water. There is the Earth or Ground Emerald," a picture of a gray gem, "that grants the user control over solid minerals in the ground. And lastly, there is the Solar or Light Emerald," a picture of a magenta gem, "that grants the user control of the sun's rays."
"Intriguing," Ivolt spoke to himself, "And if I collect them all, I shall have total control over this entire world! I'll be unstoppable! And no nuisance, like that cat, will ever trifle with me again!" he laughed maniacally. "Computer! Where is the closest emerald?"
"Searching…" Computer replied, "The closest Element Emerald is the Water Emerald, located in the Great Mobian Bay."
"Excellent, I shall construct a submarine and go alone," he stated. I-22 came over to him and made some beeping noises. "No, 22, you nor any other robot is coming; none of your designs have a water mode, and besides, if there's anyone guarding that jewel, I doubt they can stand up to the power of the Dark Emerald." He grinned menacingly as he said that last part.