Chapter One: Nothing

Darkness. That was all. Darkness. Where am I? Who am I? What's going on? Am I dead? What's that? A flash? Light? Wait, what is light? So foggy. Drifting away. What's that? A voice? What's it saying? I can't hear. So tired, oh so tired. What? A word. John. Is that my name? Name. That's good. Sleep…Sleep…Sleeeeeeep…No, something's wrong…oh no…wake up…wake up…WAKE UP!!

He sat up and looked around himself. He was…floating, floating above nothing. "My name's John," he said forcefully. "But that's all…why can't I remember?" He put a hand to his head.

Suddenly a voice boomed out. "Good, you have remembered," the voice was gentle. "Good. Now sleep. Sleep is good for you. Rest. Others will take care of everything. Don't be troubled by the things of this world. Sleep."

"Yes, sleep, that's good," John began to feel drowsy again. "Sleep…good…NO!" he sat up. "Sleep is not good. I can't sleep there's something I must do I…" he frowned. "What must I do? Why can't I remember?"

"To remember would bring only pain," the voice continued. "You should rest while you can. To wake up would only hurt you even more."

"No," John said more forcibly this time. "I won't sleep. I can't." He stood up and looked around again. It was like he had noticed before. He was standing on nothing. He stood in a block of light surrounded by mist. He looked up where he imagined the voice came from. "Let me out. I don't want to stay here."

"You want to leave?" the voice sounded amused. "You're ordering me to let you go? That's the spirit. That's the boy I remember." A glow filled the room and a ball of light appeared in front of John. "You asked yourself who you are. I would answer that but you already have. You are John. That is all I can tell you right now. You must discover the rest on your own."

John nodded. "Right, let me out."

"If you insist," the voice sounded amused again. There was a flash and the ball of light turned into a door. John stepped towards it eagerly but it faded out slightly and he passed right through.

He frowned. "What's going on? You said I could go."

"Just a simple reminder," the voice said. It sounded serious. "If you leave, you can never return to this slumber of safety I offer you. Your life will always be in danger. Do you choose this path?"

"I do," John said, sounding stronger by the minute. "Anything's better then this place, right?"

The voice laughed. "I would have thought much less of you if you had not went on. Go then. Be safe."

John nodded. Finally, he could leave. He stepped through the doorway, which had reappeared, and fell into the light. He fell for minutes, hours, days, it did not matter, his senses were returning the whole way and it felt right that he should be there for so long. Finally, an opening appeared in front of him and he fell through it, face first into a patch of warm sand. He rolled over. Far above him, the sun beat down. He lay there for several moments basking in it for the first time in a long time. Then he stood and looked around himself. He was lying on a beach that stretched off into the distance. Behind him was a jungle. Good thing he hadn't landed in there. If he had he might have landed on something much harder. He was pondering where to go next when he heard a noise to his left. A humming noise.

His eyes widened as a plane, with a smoking trail behind it, dove overhead. He jumped out of the way leaving it to crash and roll across the beach. He stood and walked to the vehicle to check if the occupants were all right. How anyone could survive such a landing was beyond him. He was surprised to a yellowish-orange colored fox crawl out. It stood on its hind legs and stared at its ship critically.

"Hmmm, it will definitely need work." John was taken aback. The fox had spoken! Then the creature noticed him. "Who are you?"

"I-I'm John," he stammered. What was this place?

The fox smiled. (Can foxes smile?) "My name is Miles Prower. My friends call me Tails. How did you get here? You look kind of weird, but no more then Eggman."

"I don't really know," John realized. "I was in this weird place and then I came here. Before that I don't remember…" he looked at the ground. Was it true what the voice had said? Should he have stayed in that place? At least he wouldn't have to deal with talking animals.

"Okay," Tails thought for a moment. "I can't think of where you could have come from. People don't just drop out of nowhere, unless, maybe you came from the same place as them. The heartless. They're the reason I'm stuck on this beach with a ruined plane, and Sonic was counting on me." The fox looked sad. "I failed him."

"Hey don't take it so badly," John said. "I'm sure this Sonic guy would understand."

"You don't get it," Tails looked miserable. "It wasn't just Sonic. A lot of other creatures were counting on me to. You see, all I had to do was find Eggman but then the heartless…no, their here!"

John looked around to see several small black creatures appear around him and Tails. The creatures crouched low to the ground and had antennae sticking from their heads. They looked kind of like ants.

"Watch out John!" it was the voice, and it was in his head! "These are the heartless. These ones specifically are called shadows. You need to fight them."

"But how?" John asked. "How do I fight them?" Tails looked at him quizzically, but John ignored him.

"There's no need to speak out loud," the voice said. "He can't hear me but I can hear your thoughts. Now, about beating these creatures, simply use the techniques I taught you."

"What techniques?" John replied. "You never taught me how to fight!"

"Not out loud!" the voice hissed. "Think, you can remember this. I taught you how to fight while you slept so you should be able to remember."

John concentrated hard. His right hand moved above his head and suddenly he held a giant key-shaped blade. He swung it experimentally. It almost weightless and was easy to hold. Suddenly, one of shadows leapt at him. He stepped out of the way instinctively and swung the key. It hit the creature and the shadow exploded into a series of black bubbles and a heart floated away from it, up into the distance.

John stared at the key in amazement. A voice broke through his thoughts. "Behind you!" it was Tails. John spun around to see another of the creatures moving towards him. He swung at it but it seemed to flatten into the ground and move out of the way. He followed its path with his eyes. Then he struck at it but the key passed right through it.

"Watch its movements," the voice in his mind said. "While it is 'under' the ground it can't be hurt. I would advise you to pay attention to the others until it comes out again. Watch your back boy."

John saw the movement of his opponent out of the corner of his eye. He rotated on the spot and slashed the creature with the key. The creature disappeared and John continued past it to destroy two more of the creatures. Only two left. He saw the one that had flattened itself to the ground come back up and it leapt at him. He spun out of the way and slammed his key into the creature. Suddenly something hit him in the back, hard. He toppled to the ground and rolled over. The last of the shadows was moving towards him. He stood up and hurled himself at it and dispatched it with a single slice. He then proceeded to fall on his back and stare at the sky. "So…tired."

Tails walked over to him and stared down at him with an amazed look on his face. "That was great! You easily destroyed those creatures!"

"To tell the truth," John sighed. "It wasn't hard. I can't remember much of my past but I think I would have remembered those guys if I had seen them before. And yet I knew just how to fight them. What's up with that, Miles?"

Tails considered this for a moment. "I don't know what to tell you. There is someone who might be able to explain it though. Come on. I'll take you to him. Oh and why did you call me Miles?"

John stood up and brushed himself off. "Your real name suits you better, that's what I think. Who is this person exactly?"

Tails frowned. "Doctor Eggman."

John raised an eyebrow questioningly. "You mentioned him before. Who is this 'Eggman'?"

Tails started off down the beach. "I'll explain on the way. We have a long way to go."

Meanwhile

A shadowed figure stared out of a window. There came a knock on his door and he turned around. A young girl walked into his room.

"We've located the renegade sir," the girl said. "He's on Mobius. Do you want us to go pick him up?"

The man thought for a moment then shook his head. "No, leave him be."

The girl was surprised. "W-what? Why would you just let him go?"

The man turned back to his window. "This could get interesting. I want to see how it turns out. A human from another world appears out of nowhere on Mobius. This should bring out some fun results, don't you think?" The girl did not respond. "Well? What do you think about all of this?"

The girl was hesitant. "I…reports are coming in that the boy has some sort of power. This means we need to go get him to make sure he can't stir up trouble, right? We can't let him just run around. But even if he didn't have any power I think that we need to deal with him now. It's ridiculous to me that you would just let him go. We need him."

The man was silent for a moment. "He has power? That just makes this whole thing even more interesting. My final decision is this: we will not interfere. Not yet. It's not like he can go anywhere else. We had something like this happen before, remember? He is not leaving that planet anytime soon. Besides, the heartless will deal with him for us or have you forgotten that we sent some of them over there? We just pick up the heartless that he becomes and we do our thing."

The girl was uncertain. "I don't know, but I guess you know what's best. Alright, I'll tell the others to stand down. We can wait a little while." She left the room.

Behind her the shadowed man smiled. "Yesssssss, this should be very interesting."

EN

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