Hello, one and all! Welcome to the start of what may be a stroke of genius, or a ridiculously overthought and terrible idea. But, to err is human. This is the start of my Sonic 06 adaption, or as I like to call the game, "Shadow the Hedgehog 2: Rise of Silver"...featuring Sonic and Token Girl Princess.
Jokes aside, the reason why this is so risky is because I split the game into three separate fanfics (Sonic, Shadow, Silver, obviously), which together make a "Several Wills" trilogy. Naturally, I don't expect anyone to read and/or review all of them, especially since there's a lot of the same scenes, but I recommend at least checking out 2 out of the 3 for a fuller experience. I will say, Sonic's is naturally the canon story (it includes the Last Story, before you ask), Shadow's can be seen as a sequel to I Am All Of Me, and Silver's is for a fresh perspective that I haven't done before. So, take your pick.
If you haven't realized, this is Silver's story- Sonic's first chapter will be up Monday, and Shadow's will be up in a week or two to correspond with the order of 06's events. I know that's an erratic schedule (and will result in 1 to 3 updates a week across the three fics), but it's partly to deal with my impending college life schedule and partly corresponding with the flow of events of 06. Forgive me.
I'mma shut up now- I'll explain more as we go on, cuz I could write a whole chapter on why I did what I did. Thus, if you're interested in Silver's side of things, read on! ...He's definitely no Sonic or Shadow, I'll warn ya now.
Absolute Dreams
The world I lived in wasn't a particularly bright one; not anything like the paradise of the past. But, it wasn't so bad either. Psychic powers were the norm, and while it was quiet for the most part, we could've been so much worse off.
Oh, so much worse off.
Whenever I went to sleep at night, I had the same cycle of dreams; ones that depicted my world in a far more desolate state of affairs. Buildings were bathed in flames; streets were broken and left in ruins, signs of life were nearly nonexistent…
It was a world that was devastated before I was born.
So every night, I lay awake, to avoid these dreams…but every night, it just stays the same…
I didn't know why I had these dreams, or what they were supposed to mean…but it always felt like they were meant to happen, although something stopped that chain of events before they could occur…
…and I dreamed of an absolution.
Chapter 1: Boulevard of Broken Dreams
~This is What I Dream~
I dreamed that we lived in a harsh, bleak place, where dark clouds always marched across the sky, and we existed in eternal darkness amidst fire. A place where life was a struggle rather than a virtue, a pain rather than a pleasure, and people had no hope…I wanted to know why this had happened, but no one in my dreams ever answered me directly.
But they would always point…to the flames.
I was left to drift through the Crisis City answerless, always surveying the damage that had been done…supposedly the city had once been a central hub for a peaceful kingdom in the distant past, but that was before the flames came and brought it down from its former glory, reducing it to the hollow and empty area that it was now.
The flames always rose from the ground below where it wasn't safe to walk, rising to the sky in an attempt to wipe out any life that happened by. They were never a problem for me- I cast them away with my psychic attacks, so I suppose I was lucky- but for others…they weren't as blessed.
These flames…they burned at everything in the world, destroying everything in their path. They come from an eternal life that we could never truly defeat…
The Flames of Disaster known as Iblis.
I hated Iblis with ever fiber in my being- he wasn't real, wasn't real…but anytime he appeared in my dreams, a chill always rocketed through my spine in my sleep, and I was scared without a reason to be.
Or so I always told myself…
That fear had felt so real; so much like I had somehow experienced it before. It was a bloodcurdling fear that enveloped my entire being and haunted me even while I was awake, and it was the exact same way in my dreams. The terror of something always coming for you…something deadly always just around the corner…it made you paranoid; it made you want to find something to believe in…
But there was only one thing that ever truly qualified.
"Silver!"
Her sharp voice cut through the darkness, one of the last sources of light that didn't belong to the flames. She was a purple cat with elegant clothes and pink high heels shoes; a girl that only appeared in my dreams, for she wasn't with me in reality.
In my dreams, she was my best friend, and her name was Blaze.
Blaze darted across the ruined buildings of Crisis City, gracefully clearing the gaps that separated her from me. She moved fluently, if only because she had run across those same buildings many times before. I was prepared to greet her, like I did in every dream, but a grave look adorned her face that said she meant business.
"Blaze? What's wrong?"
With a quick point in the direction which she came, she beckoned out to me, "He's appeared again!"
Of course. That's what it always was, yet no matter how many times it happened, it was still a top priority that needed to be taken care of…but could never be put to rest.
My expression matched her own, and after mustering up all the power in my being, I flew off toward where she pointed, rocking across the sky in a beam of light. Blaze watched as I glided by, then hurried to catch up with me.
We were in for a fight of our lives…but in this world, that was all the time.
. . .
Crisis City…a place where vehicles of old were all but rusted and busted as they lay discarded and overturned on the battered highways, a place where a roofless skyscraper with scorched walls and charred floors provided shelter, and a place where the flames rose so high and created smoke so thick that it blotted out the sun…
Yep, Crisis City…this was good old home.
The flame tornado in the central square was looking fetching today, along with the burned pieces of concrete that added that homely touch to the streets. I looked on with my depressed gaze and took a deep breath- I needed all my focus whenever I confronted Iblis.
"Just another day in the life," I heard Blaze murmur behind me, leaping down from higher ground to join me. She was always poised in everything she did; always calm and collected, and never let our circumstances bring her down. She was headstrong, and strived every day to find a solution to our problems…
She was the complete opposite of me.
Blaze was graceful and acrobatic, while I only had the bare minimum of fighting skills thanks to my powers, and aside from flying around, moving stuff, and oppressing Iblis, it wasn't really all that impressive. And unlike Blaze, I tended to be a complete klutz, I freaked out a lot, I panicked often, I was over the top, and I had given up on saving our world long ago because there was just nothing we could do…!
Not to mention Blaze always insisted that I was naïve…
So yes, I have many redeeming qualities.
Anyway, it was particularly hot in the city that day, though it was scorching every day; I assumed that the recent return of Iblis was the cause for the skyrocketing temperatures. And also because Iblis had returned, his minions and monsters were on the rise as well. They rampaged through the streets like they were throwing a party, finding new things to scorch and destroy, though they pretty much had that covered already.
"Don't they know when to quit?!" I demanded to know in a rage, raising my hands up.
Calling upon my psychic abilities, the designs on my gloves and my glove cuffs started to glow that familiar sea green glow, and the nearest objects began to shine with the same aura. I lifted the random scraps of debris up off of the ground with my mind, then hurled them at the nearest monster.
I merely got a roar of annoyance out of it, only serving to make it mad and cause it to run at us. Blaze didn't seem the least bit impressed.
"We've been doing this our whole lives, Silver; how can you still be so…sloppy with fighting?" she asked, and I had to admit, it stung a bit, but it didn't bother me because firstly, Blaze was blunt and direct like that without ever meaning to; she simply spoke her mind and I respected her for it. And second, I already knew that was true.
You try mastering control over random objects for them to do your fighting for you!
With the monster coming at us, and me feeling a bit bad on my lack of ability, Blaze gained a grim look and darted into the fray herself, her own flames dancing at her fingertips and eager to scorch. I simply shuffled toward the sidelines and watched intently.
Blaze herself also had psychic powers, but she had control just over flames, not any object. A pryokinetic, if you will. Problem was, she thought the flames were a curse; a wall that prevented her from getting close to anyone. I'd always been fascinated with her powers, but I could never get her to see it my way.
Like a fiery ballerina, she jumped onto the hood of a long forgotten taxi and created a ball of fire in her hand, hurling it down at Iblis' creatures. Three of them were struck and instantly turned to Blaze, but she remained as stoic and steady as ever as she beckoned them to come at her. Her flames managed to hurt the creatures because they represented energy and life, while anything born of Iblis' hellfire was only destined for destruction.
She destroyed the monsters in seconds, and I couldn't help but gape in awe at how effortlessly she'd managed to do it. Blaze spun around and dusted herself off like it was nothing, but then saw me wide eyed and seemed to soften a bit.
"Silver, you've managed to bring down Iblis many times before; his mooks shouldn't be too much to handle now."
"I've never brought down Iblis," I stated with downcast eyes. "And it's more like I've gotten lucky enough to not die while chasing him away for the time being."
She put a hand on my shoulder and gave me a serious look. "You're always so hard on yourself. You're perfectly capable of many great things if you put your mind to it."
"I could tell you the same thing."
Blaze looked amused if anything, pulling away from me and dashing down the remains of the street.
"Well, words aren't going to do us any good. Let's pick up the pace and maybe we can talk later."
"Wait, you know I can't move that fast…!" I cried, watching as she launched straight into the inferno. I sluggishly trudged after her; I was never very good at running.
It didn't help that there were so many discarded cars dispersed all over the street, making it really difficult for me to maneuver through them. Scowling, I raised my hands again and focused my energy at the vehicles, managing to pick them up one at a time and toss them out of my way. Grabbing multiple objects at once always put a strain on me, so I tried to only do it when it was absolutely necessary.
Rocks, rubble, and shrapnel were also plentiful on the way forward, but seeing as Iblis' monsters were crawling out of the cracks and crevices of the city, I found a much better use for all that disregarded shrapnel. Taking a psychic hold on a large boulder, I spun around and brought it down on a monster, smoldering its flames right on the spot. The quick defeat gave me a brief boost of confidence, and I wasted no time in reaching for a taxi and running forward with it.
More of Iblis' minions dared to trifle with me, and they were quickly met with the dented car falling on top of them and sending them straight back where they came from. But they were everywhere, emerging from the ground as worm-like creatures, taking to the air as birds, or jumping out of ruined windows as big, burly thugs with a thirst for devastation. I was dangerously outnumbered and outmatched, even with Blaze's fire power.
"Don't stop now, Silver!" she called to me, luring a large group of them over to her before incinerating them all in a funnel of fire. I couldn't let her take the brunt of the attacks –though she really did have everything under control- so I jumped to her side and let out a vibrant cry, my whole body glowing green as I took control of three fire birds swooping about our heads, prepared to dive bomb us. They were rendered immobile in the air, struggling to fight against the grip of my powers.
That's how I felt with Iblis, trapped within his eternal hold…
Disgusted, I cast my hand down and hurled my foes at the ground, dispatching them instantly.
This was what my life was like every day in these dreams; facing monsters, fighting fire, fending off foes… any traces of peace and happiness had disappeared centuries ago; I had been born too late to experience any goodness that remained in the world, and tales of that all but forgotten time were starting to run thin, and soon a generation would be where all they would know was the devastation that Iblis wrought.
There might not have been a next generation at all. I had been alone since my earliest days, and I had been lucky to even meet Blaze, and other living beings that weren't made of fire were few and far between, and not only was it depressing, it was also lonely. It was also for that reason that I might've relied on Blaze TOO much, because she was really the only person I could turn to and trust. There literally was no one else to serve as an alternative…which only stood as a testament to how much life Iblis truly stole from the world.
"I swear more debris is created every day…as if there's anything left to burn," Blaze mused, flipping over a chunk of crumbled building. I glided behind her, surveying the damage myself.
"Careful Blaze; the road ahead doesn't look too solid…"
Blaze stopped on a dime, then gently tapped the tip of her shoe on the area ahead of her. She recoiled instantly when a decent section of the road crumbled and fell into the sea of lava below. I felt my quills stand on end and I glanced over the edge; the chunks of pavement were claimed by the lava in seconds.
"At this rate the whole city is going to split apart," I murmured, taking control of Blaze and flying us both across the gap. A few monsters greeted us on the other side, but Blaze blasted them away with a nasty fire uppercut while I tossed some of them off the side to join the broken road in the lava below. Blaze nodded at the notion, then turned to look into the distance.
"Ugh…we're heading straight for that tornado," she sighed, looking none too pleased. Pressing my lips into a thin line, I stepped next to her.
"Yes…because that's the direction Iblis is in."
Blaze seemed to utter something, but I had missed it, and I couldn't ask because she flashed forward with that agile speed of hers and transformed into a tornado that resembled the one ahead of us. She twirled with an angelic grace that decomposed any monsters that touched her fire, bringing them to their knees with nothing more than a simple touch.
All right, I was probably exaggerating, but I couldn't really tell what was going on between how fast she moved and all the flames everywhere.
When the way forward ended once again, I took a deep breath, and my entire body started to glow green. Blaze wasn't really sure what was going on, but she noticed that a car and a chunk of road suddenly started rumbling. They became enveloped in a green aura before floating in front of me, creating a path to a higher area.
"Hurry and dart up!" I told Blaze, but telling her to hurry was unnecessary; she had dashed up the stairs in record time, landing in the area above. I withdrew my hold on the debris path, panting a bit but using my powers to carry myself up next to Blaze. It was pathetic that I had already reached my limits and we were hardly there…
"Are you all right?" Blaze asked, and I tried not to slouch and look so sluggish.
"Perfectly fine," I assured, holding up my glowing hands to confirm it. Blaze scanned me skeptically.
"I don't know; you're looking a little pale."
"I should hope so- my fur is white, you know."
"That's not what I mean," she deadpanned, and I bit my lip.
Sheesh, couldn't get anything by her…
Before she could question me anymore, I glided over a gap and started to make my way down a knocked over building. Monsters were crawling on it from all sides, and I used any and all debris I could to knock them out of the way. When the debris ran out, I simply took hold of the monsters themselves.
But I really hated doing that.
It was one thing to flip and fling inanimate objects around; it was another to take hold of a living being and manipulate them to your advantage. Yes, the monsters were evil in my eyes, and it shouldn't have mattered, but knowing that I could do that very same thing to anyone; temporarily stripping them of their freedom to move and restricting their will…
It was terrifying!
Blaze thought she had it bad, claiming that she burned everything she touched…but I thought I was on pretty even ground with the potential my powers possessed. I supposed that the grass was always greener –not that grass existed anymore- but I couldn't help but have my thoughts.
"There are more of them up ahead!" Blaze suddenly yelled, snapping me out of my thoughts. When I turned in her direction, I witness her attempt to throw a ball of fire at one of the monsters, but the brute had grabbed her wrist and effortlessly tossed her into the air, sending her tumbling. Yelping, I scrambled forward and thrust my hands forward, managing to catch Blaze before she hit the ground. She let a startled sort of shriek when she stopped, only for me to calmly place her back down on the ground. As she gathered her bearings, she turned back to me, eyes growing wide as I stomped by with two cars in my possession.
Iblis' creatures were growling to themselves until I marched up onto the scene, and they didn't appear to be the least bit deterred as I waltzed over to them. Thus, I clapped my hands together, slamming the two cars together, and sandwiched all the monsters in between, giving them something to be worried about…but I suppose it didn't matter now.
"Well, that was impressive," Blaze commented, strutting up to me with a ghost of a smile on her face. I wanted to return the favor, but I was really wearing myself out…
"Thanks, Blaze," I finally uttered, wiping some sweat off my forehead. "I appreciate the appreciation."
Her thin smile vanished and was replaced with a concern expression. She stepped over to me with her arms folded and a disbelieving look on her face.
"Silver…you're not overdoing it, with your powers, are you?"
"No," I lied, tossing a crate at a monster I missed. "I'm just wondering what direction we should take next…"
She didn't believe me for a second, and that knowing stare of hers broke me instantly...!
"Fine, fine; I can't lie," I huffed, defeated. "But come on Blaze; how am I supposed to help this world if I'm already at my limit? It's pitiful…!"
"I know you want to do what you can, but you're wearing yourself down too quickly," Blaze explained. "We can't have you panting and wheezing when we finally reach Iblis, so maybe I should take over for a while."
"No," I insisted, shaking my head. "You were almost tossed off a building not even three minutes ago…!"
"And you look like you're about to pass out," Blaze retorted. "Just leave this area to me; I can handle it myself."
I couldn't come up with a reasonable argument quickly enough, yet I could only wonder what was running though her head as she spun away from to continue onward, unwavering and strong in every move she made.
S-B
Silver always put me on too high of a pedestal and himself on too low of one. He never gave himself enough credit, and he gave me too much, no matter how much he insisted that I deserved every bit of praise that he gave me.
But I hadn't done much more to contribute to the salvation of the world than he did.
With Silver, the daily ins and day outs of constantly struggling and failing in our battle against the Flames of Disaster drove him to believe that nothing could truly be done. He felt that if nothing had been done in the past two hundred years, why could something change now? He'd once been as committed as I was, and even on the days that we failed, we'd find a relatively scorched place and look up at the sky, vowing to do better next time.
Alas, after so many consistent losses, Silver gave up.
He only quelled Iblis to provide temporary bouts of peace, only to have it ruined by knowing that Iblis would return, again…and again…and again, rising from his own ashes like a phoenix. As the days ticked by, his smile slowly but surely faded away, bit by bit until it was a perpetual frown. He'd lost any reason to hope for happiness, for faith in joy, or a belief in anything…and eventually it started rubbing off on me too.
I couldn't blame Silver for being so downtrodden; many others had given into the despair that the Flames of Disaster wrought, and it wasn't about being strong enough to oppress; it was about knowing when you realized you've done all you could. I just believed that Silver realized that too early.
I, on the other hand, had been steadfast and dedicated to ridding our world of flames from the very first day the thought had crossed my mind. With the curse of fire spread through me just like the world, I had more than enough of a drive to quell the flames…for if I could not rid myself of them, then I would use that power to quench the world.
Having the ability to burn all you touched…it isolated me from anyone I happened across, for they feared Iblis' fire, and therefore they feared what I possessed. I became somewhat withdrawn and far too independent for my own good…but that was all before I met Silver, who managed to take some of the weight of the world off my shoulders.
So I kept up his resolve, and he kept me company.
Silver didn't need any of this either; even with his powers, I could always tell that he genuinely hated fighting, but it was integral to our survival. And when he did fight, he oversold himself and burned himself out quickly. I liked to see him try so hard, but doing so would also cost him in the end.
He was obediently gliding behind me as I worked my way through the buildings of Crisis City, and I could tell he was trying to keep his power usage down to a minimum so as to let himself recharge for the impending battle with Iblis. I knew very well that relying too much on our psychic abilities was dangerous, as it put a strain on our minds…but I was more experienced with mine, because instead of going all out with my attacks like Silver tended to do, I remained balanced, attacking in small doses.
Even so, I didn't really like fighting either…I much preferred to run, though not in the way you'd think.
We both knew that I was the fastest out of the two of us, and while I always just assumed my speed was a side effect of my powers, I took much more pride in knowing I had it. I could outmaneuver my enemies, crossing great distances in short amounts of time, and if I ever needed to, I could just run away from this city of travesty and hurry somewhere else…I don't know where I would go –the rest of the world was said to be just as bad- but knowing that there was possibly solace over the horizon somewhere…it gave me some much deserved peace.
I just wished Silver could understand that small dose of hope I got as I ran down what I could of the streets of Crisis City. Sure, they were broken and they even looped back upon themselves in some areas, but they had led somewhere once, and knowing I could possibly reach that destination someday gave me a bright thought to hold onto, because aside from those accursed flames, the world we lived in was dark. The smoke from Iblis' flames created large, billowing black clouds that blocked out the sky and blotted out the sun.
Some believed that the sun didn't even exist, for no one had seen it in over two hundred years. I didn't even think Silver believed in it.
But I knew it had to be real. Whenever I called upon my powers of fire, I would think of the sun's rays beaming down on me and giving me strength; the power of sol filling my entire being and gifting me with the ability to keep going. It led me to believe that I was destined for something greater, somewhere with better circumstances than I had now, and that the hidden light of the sun would reveal itself to me when the time was right.
All I wanted was to save the world, and finally see the sun shine over this suffering world.
The roar of Iblis' monsters pulled me out of my thoughts, so I brought my leg around and clonked one with my heel, before setting my hand ablaze and thrusting it into the creature's torso. This forced it off the edge of the building we were on, but its friends were still lingering around in a variety of shapes and sizes. Sighing, I lit up both my hands and turned to face them.
"I will do what I must cleanse the world of this hellfire!"
Whirling into them, I shoved them over the edge as I did with their companion mere seconds earlier, then jumped onto some scaffolding and grinded my way to a new area. With Silver silently gliding behind me, I rushed through the halls of the latest deserted building, working my way down the floors by ricocheting from spring to spring. It was starting to get increasingly warmer, so I knew were getting increasing closer to Iblis…
"This is nowhere near over!" I called out, braking to a stop upon seeing some fiery brutes in my way. They sneered at me and tried to send some fire my way; I canceled it out, jumping through the flames and delivering some devastating kicks to each of their torsos. They all stumbled back and thudded into the walls, with Silver taking a psychic hold on them and tossing them out of my way. When they were gone, I glanced over my shoulder at him, and he cautiously stared at the ground.
"…sorry," he utterly quietly.
"There's no need to apologize; I was just wondering why you're suddenly so quiet."
"We'll, we've kinda said all we need to say."
It strung that he was right.
"Well…we're getting close to Iblis' location," I began, scrapped for a different topic as he claimed. "Would you like to take over again?"
"Yes," Silver stated seriously, stepping forward with a serious look in his eyes. "I would."
B-S
Blaze had cleared several buildings and covered far more ground in a faster amount of time than I had, and it was in that moment that I wanted to work harder so I wouldn't be as much of a burden to her. She had better control over her powers, and with enough dedication, I could do the same…and perhaps, if I just became strong enough, maybe I could defeat Iblis once and for all.
Farfetched thoughts, but I could dream.
I threw myself forward, flinging over the remains of a broken boulevard and advancing toward the fire tornado that now towered over our heads and dragged everything in its path into its unforgiving funnel…I wished it would pull Iblis' monsters into its inferno and take everything away…
"Hopeful thinking again," I muttered, placing my hand on the ground and moving more objects to create a path for Blaze and I. I darted across the debris, breathing in the ash-filled air as I worked toward the center of destruction, and in the distance I could hear Iblis' roar.
A sound that pierced me to the core.
"This is no time lose my nerve!" I grunted, though a shudder rocketed through my being when two large fiery brutes emerged from the tornado, standing at two and half times my size with twice the muscles to match. Instinctively, I levitated a nearby blue truck and threw it at the two of them, but the vehicle seemed to simply dent upon making impact. They went to swing at me, and I tripped out of the way, stumbling to the ground and almost completely at their mercy. They thundered over to me with their fists raised, but at the last second I gained control of a slab on concrete and threw it at them, managing to get them to stagger away.
"Silver!" Blaze cried, trying to get over to me, but she was busy dealing with two lava lizards of her own. The brutes I was facing had heard her cry, and they weren't too quick to go after me once I hit them in the face with pavement.
I jumped to my feet and charged my psychic power, glowering at those ruthless beasts…!
"Stay away from us!" I shouted, creating a psychic wave of pure energy that I cast forward like a knife. The monsters only had a second to look before my attack sliced through them, bringing them down on the spot. The lizard creatures caught sight of it all and had started to run, but Blaze had grabbed them by the tail and hurled them over the edge.
"Serves you right!" she hissed at them, dusting her hands off of soot afterward. I then rushed by and grabbed her hand, pulling her forward.
"Come on; we're almost there!"
We stood on the edge of a metal beam, and I reached down and used my powers to bend it down. When I released, we were flung onto a completely different building, one that was overturned and ran parallel to the tornado. We wasted no time in running the length of it, dodging debris and avoiding monsters whenever we could.
"Let's do this quickly!"
"Look out!" Blaze yelled, yanking me away from the massive variety of things that were being hurled out of the tornado. I ducked under a wall from a building and another car; Iblis could throw whatever he wanted at me, and take away everything in my life before I even had a chance to have it, but I would keep pushing on…
It's all I could do at this point.
Standing at the edge of that broken building, we stared straight into the heart of the tornado, where Iblis emerged out of his hellish flames. He glowered at us with his beady green eyes before letting out a horrendous roar of heat; one so strong that it send Blaze and I recoiling.
"Come on, you monster!" I shouted, challenging it with a fearless façade. It growled again and raised its four arms intimidatingly. He was so large that when he stretched, he completely blocked my view of the smoke-streaked sky, rising as higher than me as he could as if to prove the dominance he had over me. He was silently taunting me, letting me know that no matter how many times I opposed him, he would always be stronger, and that he would be there, swallowing the lands in flames until the very end of time.
The sounds of the crackling flames within the tornado were almost deafening, and the heat from that and the rushing lava was completely unbearable. But it was in these hot and miserable conditions that Iblis thrived, and the rest of us were just supposed to contend with that.
It scared me to know that I was going up against this infernal monster with no chance of victory at all; going in knowing that it's fruitless and that one wrong move could cost me my own life-!
"Silver, focus!" Blaze yelled at me, already dodging the first of many attacks. "I'll try to keep it distracted, but you've got to subdue him…!"
"I know…" I cringed, gritting my teeth and facing the demon once more. "Iblis! Today…it will be finished!"
And I so wanted to believe that.
"His weak spot is the armored head! Aim for that!" Blaze reminded me. "I can't get close enough to hit him personally, so be careful!"
I took in a deep breath and assumed a fighting pose; Iblis simply threw his head back and launched a storm of flaming rocks from his torso, showering the building with an assault. Blaze pirouetted out of the way of each of them, while I held my hand above my head and stopped some in midair.
"Throw at me whatever you want!" I yelled, running forward with the rocks. "Just know that I'll throw it BACK!"
I hurled the rocks right back at Iblis, each of them glancing off his head but also doing accumulated damage. I knew it wasn't much, but it was better than nothing. Still, Iblis was undeterred, reaching behind him and tearing an entire skyscraper right off its foundation. My pupils shank as I watched him swing it with no hesitation, bringing it down right on top of us.
He never did THAT before…!
"Aaaaaaaah!"
I scrambled in front of Blaze, threw out my arms, and closed my eyes; there was no way I could take control of the entire building in time, so I was hoping that the shield I formed around us would hold out.
Even in that veil of protection I bestowed upon us, I still felt like I was being utterly crushed beneath the weight of the building, only saved by the fact that the building had completely shattered upon impact with the one we were standing on, giving us a bit of breathing room. That scene of the building coming down at us was still vivid in my mind; still making my heart race…
"He's getting craftier," Blaze realized with wide eyes, on her knees and watching Iblis distastefully.
"Craftier?! You give him a compliment when we almost got crushed to death!?"
"We'll discuss this when we get out of this," Blaze stated, using her fire spin to send a chunk of debris back at Iblis. I fumed and picked up a metal object, shaking my head.
"That's IF we get out of this…"
Crashing my object against Iblis' head, I found myself empty handed as Iblis prepared his next attack, and I was really hoping that it wasn't another building. Instead, it was huge chunks of some forgotten road, and I gulped, stood my ground, and held out my hands.
"Silver, don't try to-!" Blaze had started to warn me, but it was too late; it was already in motion.
"Come on," I grunted to myself, straining hard and pushing myself to the limit. "Don't be weak…don't be useless."
My chest started heaving up and down, trying to take in as much air as possible as I perform the mentally taxing act of halting all four chunks at once. The first one had been easy, and the second one wasn't so bad, but after that, it was hard to keep those two in the air while reaching for two more. Iblis stared down at me in an almost condescending fashion, and it caused a growl to build up in my throat.
"Argh…!"
Panting and gasping, I hurled the two I'd already claimed at Iblis, knocking him hard enough in the jaw to make him bend back. I then attacked double time with the other two chunks, smashing them so hard into Iblis that they completely shattered. I landed back on the ground, sweaty and tired, but aside from Iblis losing some of his armor in a fiery blaze, he didn't seem that worn out.
Blaze stared at me with worried eyed, but I tried to avert my gaze as I levitated any and all odds and ends of the world that I could and chucked them at Iblis, lost in a blind and exhausted fury that I couldn't break out from. Half the things I threw didn't even hit Iblis, and some that did didn't even hit him in the head.
"Die, you fiend…and stay down!" I yelled, hovering in the air, ripping several bricks off of our platform skyscraper and flinging them all at Iblis. Each one was just a little bit to snuff his flames inch by inch, and while it was baby steps, it was still satisfying. "You've ruined this world, and I was destined for a life of depression before I even existed! It's not fair that you took that away from me, and all of the other people that this world once house…it's not fair that you stole the lives of so many people; stole the life of the planet itself!"
I was a hot mess at this point, my head quills even drooping down into my face. I irritatedly brushed them out of my face and kept snarling at Iblis, anticipating his next attack with a look that I knew was crazed on my face. Iblis simply threw his head back and roared, tearing up another building and locking onto me.
"Bring it on!" I shouted, standing my ground and spreading out my arms. "I said I could take anything you threw!"
"Stop it, Silver!" Blaze yelled, running for me. "Don't let him get the best of you!"
"Get out of the way, Blaze!" I retorted, using my powers to toss her to safety.
She let out a stunned scream, hitting the ground rather harshly and rolling rather close to the edge. She manage to stop herself by wedging her claws into the wall….only to look up and see Iblis break a whole building over my head. Blaze wanted to scream again, but instinct took over, and she turned away shielding her face from the aftermath debris. When she turned back around, her eyes instantly scanned around for me, and thankfully I had managed to form a shield at the last possible moment, but as I writhed on the ground in pain, I knew I wasn't in good shape.
"I-Iblis…" I moaned, crawling along the ground in an attempt to stand back up. He threw another rock at me; I went to defend, but my powers puttered out, and the boulder sent my flying across the area.
"Noooooo…!"
The crapsack world around me blurred into one hideous shade of orange-brown as I tumbled through the air, not knowing what was going on until my back slammed into something hard and firm. I fell forward, weakened beyond belief, and landed face first on the ground, my eyesight hazy…everything blending into one…except for that spot of lavender…
"Nrgh…"
I don't what it was that made me get up again, but I did finally get back on my feet, though my balance was shot and I was stumbling everywhere. Iblis was readying another attack, and with as much remaining power that I had, I grabbed a nearby car and threw it upwards, hoping to make it connect even with my terrible aim.
I must've struck him, because he cried out in recoil, and I heard more of his protection explode off. I was nearly ready to collapse after that, but Blaze was suddenly at my side, trying to shake me out of it.
"Keep it together! He's almost down!"
Easy for her to say- she wasn't chucked into the wall of a building at top speed.
"Your glow is fading…you overdid it again!" she suddenly exasperated, and I only huffed and shrugged.
"He deserved it…"
"But you don't!" Blaze insisted. "What's the good in bringing Iblis down if you're only bringing yourself down along with him?!"
"Well, for one, you'd be safe from him," I pointed out. She was struck speechless, but before she could find any words I yanked her behind me and cast a psychic knife, slicing a huge slab of concrete coming our way right in half. "…guess we all still have some fight left in us."
Iblis more so than me, though.
He cast more of his tiny flaming rocks at us, and we both ran from them. I was trying to conserve my powers as much as possible now, since I went crazy and overspent myself like a fool. Seeing as his attack had failed, Iblis resorted to heaving fire over the area. Blaze stepped in harm's way, casting her hands forward with a vibrant cry and utilizing the flames for herself. She then condensed them into a single ball of fire and sent it back. Unfortunately, Iblis simply opened his mouth and swallowed the attack whole.
"Of all the insulting…!" she hissed, clenching her fists. "Don't let your guard down, Silver!"
Iblis was completely armor free now, though if I didn't strike him quickly and precisely, he'd just keeping on attacking relentlessly… this lava-ridden monster had to be stopped at all costs!
The demon brought up another chunk of building, roaring loud enough to rattle the whole city as he pared to snuff our lights out. Blaze and I ran as far away as we could from the impending doom, and we had just barely managed to get out of its range. The force of impact of the crash was enough to send us flying, along with the shrapnel of the destroyed building, but this was also my chance to finally do away with this creature…for now, at the very least.
I did a backflip, landed on my feet, and charged forward, palms glowing with recharged energy and a resolve that I wasn't sure I had.
"Take this…!" I cried, gathering several large remaining pieces of the building, holding them high over my head. I then lifted myself into the air and stared dead on at Iblis. Iblis snarled back, and I wanted to freeze right then and there…but somewhere in me I found the resolve to bring those remaining building chunks down onto Iblis, casting him back into the flames he crawled out from. He sank into the lava with a defeated breath, going lower and lower until all but one arm was submerged…and eventually, that succumbed too.
It was another victory for me…yet there was no celebration for it.
"Looks like we stopped it for now," Blaze said after a suffocating silence, with me feeling completely spent. I had given as much as could against that thing…and knowing I hadn't entirely earned the victory was an awful feeling.
If I was forced to keep fighting him like this, I'd die!
"It'll just rise up from its ashes again…!" I hissed out in spiteful anger, slamming my fists against the nearest solid object. "What's the point of all this? It'll never end! You can't kill it; I can't kill it… are we just going to spend every waking moment of our lives condemning ourselves to failure?!"
"It's not like that, and you know it-" Blaze had started to intervene, but I shook my head.
"No, please…let me be. Just for a moment."
Quietly, Blaze recoiled, and I thunked my head against the wall that I'd hit. I wanted to save the world more than anything, but it was so hard, and so impossible, and I couldn't find any other possible solution to really take down Iblis…yet if I didn't, all was lost ages ago.
"Arrrgh-!"
"Calm down, Silver!" Blaze exclaimed harshly. Heaving hot and heavy breaths, I felt my fists clench tighter.
"…then tell me what we should do," I inquired, shooting a look straight at her. "How can we completely destroy Iblis?!"
The question echoed off the remains of the city and vaporized into the hot and humid air, vanishing without an answer. For once, Blaze didn't have a response, although that only served to make me feel lousier.
"…by knowing the truth, of course."
The deep voice that echoed out of the darkness to reply to me definitely didn't belong to Blaze, and upon realizing that another being was in our present, I nearly had a heart attack. Blaze and I glanced toward the direction the sound came from, only to find a dark hedgehog standing on higher ground and looking down at us.
He had teal-streaked fur, metallic rings around his wrists and ankles, a patch of white fur on his chest, eerie green eyes with slits for pupils, and a mouthless face, one that provided no expression. He cast his hand over us, speaking lowly yet firmly.
"Just as a flower comes from a seed, or a chicken comes from an egg…everything has an origin."
We hadn't had flowers or chickens in decades…many, many decades.
"You need to find the being responsible for this catastrophe," he continued, casting his hand upward. I stepped forward, intrigued by this proposition of an option.
"Is that really the answer to our problem?" I asked. I had to know more… "Tell me, do you know who it is?"
Finally, there was something we could do…! After years of pointless fighting, we were finally on our way to the true destruction of Iblis. This stranger, who appeared from out of thin air to answer my prayers…in nothing but a few mere words, he'd given me exactly what I wanted.
Blaze wasn't nearly as excited as I was though, instead warily watching this strange newcomer glance down at us with the soulless look in his eyes…I could tell he rubbed her the wrong way, but when he made a motion with his hand for us to follow him, I was quick to do so.
Even if Blaze was skeptical about it…what other choice did we have?
. . .
The strange shadowy character led us halfway across the city, descending into what appeared to be the remains of a base of some sort. It was dark and abandoned, like every other place in the world, but miraculously the lights still worked; the place still had power.
"To fix this present timeline, you need to change the past," the mystery figure explained, leading us deeper into a room filled with broken technology, tattered chairs, and destroyed foundation.
"But that's impossible, as much as I'd love to believe that to be true," I replied, looking around the weird room and wondering what it had in store for us. The hedgehog chuckled under his breath before turning to look at us, spreading out his arms.
"With my help you can, because I have the power to travel through time!"
My eyes nearly popped out of my head; controlling time? What I wouldn't give for abilities like that! "No way!"
"In order to change the past, you must eliminate the individual who awakened Iblis…the Iblis Trigger."
"Could it be true? If I eliminate that guy, will our world be saved?" I wondered out loud, and to my surprise, the hedgehog had nodded slowly.
There was my answer.
Blaze stepped closer more out of curiosity than anything, and I had to take a moment to process it all.
The Flames of Disaster…according to this time travelling hedgehog, there was one person who was responsible for letting Iblis run free; for letting him destroy the world, and he was known as an Iblis Trigger. In all fourteen years of my life, I never knew that the Flames of Disaster were the direct result one of person…
…but now that I knew…
…I could eliminate them, and therefore eliminate Iblis.
My world, my time; it would no longer be plagued by the threat of flame and fire! No longer would it have fallen to the powers of incendium! Over two hundred years of pain, suffering, death, loss, depression, and hopelessness would be snapped right out of time…and Blaze and I...
We could live again.
We could live free.
"The Day of Disaster…" the hedgehog murmured, turning to the large screen at the back of the room. "Here are my records of this event. This is when Iblis was freed, and his flames were released into the world."
He hit a button on the keyboard, and screen lit up instantly, displaying a ton of information of the past…words that had documented the last time the world was livable; the last time the lands were fire free…
"All this chaos and destruction began on this day…and you have this person to blame."
He pulled out a mystical purple gem that had an unearthly glow to it, and he offered it to me to hold. Hesitantly, I held out my hand for it, and he placed it into my palm. A surge of power that I've never experienced rocketed up my arm, and I nearly dropped it just because of that.
But my mind was so focused on wanting to know the identity of the Iblis Trigger -the one I could blame for ruining the world- that it seemed like the emerald had heard my heart calling out, turning my thoughts into power and showing me just what I wanted to see.
I found myself lost in that emerald's purple haze, though what I saw in it I didn't entirely expect…
It was a blue hedgehog, one that didn't look too much older than me, with bright green eyes, cobalt blue fur, red sneakers, and a pristine and genuine smile on his face.
And he was surrounded by furious flames as far as the eye could see.
I nearly yelped and hurled the gem across the room, but I caught myself at the last moment, gaping into the emerald uncontrollably.
"I see it!" I exclaimed, now looking forward with a look of determination. "So that blue hedgehog is the Iblis Trigger?!"
Blaze suddenly froze, stepped over to me curiously. "Blue hedgehog…?"
"Hm? Did you say something, Blaze?"
Blaze was almost looking into the emerald too, but I pulled her out of her thoughts and snapped her back into reality.
"No, no…it's just…something about that is kinda surprising, that's all," she murmured, but she said nothing more beyond that. Dismissing it as nothing, I passed the gem back to our mysterious benefactor, and he nodded intently.
"I'll send us back in time to the point when the Iblis Trigger was still alive…"
A purple ball of energy sparked to life between the palms of his hands, growing increasingly bigger by the second. When it was larger than himself, he turned to face Blaze and I, the energy filling the whole room and enveloping all of us in its glow. I had no idea what to expect- up to five minutes ago, I didn't even know time travel was possible!
And right now, as we vanished right out of the room, I was about to find out for sure.
Going back in time to rid the world of the Iblis Trigger…for many years, I'd lost faith that the circumstances for our world could be changed, but today, after being told that killing the Iblis Trigger could save us all…
I had something to believe in.