Yay, I am back! This time I brought the sequal to 'Once In A Liftime' with me! I highly recommend that you read Once In A Lifetime first to understand some small parts of the story. It actually took me a while to think about what was going to happen in this one, and I still am not sure how it will turn out, so the first few chapters might start out slow but will hopefully pick up soon.
I am going to stop babbling and get on with the story now.. enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own and Sonic characters, Sega and Sonic Team own them. I, however, do own my ocs' Skye and Locke, and Herald. (He probably won't appear, it will probably just be a mention of his name.)
Espio sighed. He was attempting to meditate, but had failed numerous times. He was sitting in the corner of the living room, on the ground where he usually always meditated, but he couldn't meditate, ever since Skye left.. he wasn't himself.
That was exactly four months, one week and two days ago.. not like he was counting or anything. He didn't know why, but ever since she left he couldn't keep his act straight. He couldn't meditate anymore, he would now skip some meals, he couldn't sleep either, he kept on having nightmars that she would never come back, those were the worse nightmars of all.
And what's worse is that.. if she were still here, he wouldn't be like this. Wait, no. He couldn't blame her, it really wasn't her fault. When she did come back, if she comes back, she doesn't deserve to get blamed for wanting to go look for her family.
"I miss her.."
Espio was snapped back to reality when the bright early morning light shown through the window. He covered his eyes for a moments before getting up, heading for his bedroom.
Halfway up the stairs, he felt something pushing on his forehead, preventing him for going any further. He looked up to see Vector with his peter pointer finger on his forhead.
"Turn, now." He demanded.
Espio rolled his eyes, ever since Skye left this has been happening alot too. When he would try to skip a meal, Vector and/or Charmy would try to feed him themselves.
Espio let out a deep sigh, he then hesitantly obeyed Vectors' order, turning around and slowly trotting down the stairs into the kitchen where he sat at the table. He let his arms fall to his side and looked down at his lap.
Vector looked at Espio with hurtful eyes, he couldn't stand seeing one of his team-mates like this. He turned to the cupboards and grabbed some cereal, a bowl and a spoon, he then poured the cereal into the empy bowl and them some milk.
He walked over beside Espio, setting the bowl of cereal down infront of the chameleon.
"Eat." Vector ordered.
Espio looked up a little, looking at the bowl infront of him. He didn't feel like eating, infact, since he had skipped so many meals, when he did eat.. sometimes he would just throw it back up, which made him not want to eat it more.
"I'm not hungry." He replied simply.
Vector was a little surprised to hear Espio talking, Espio didn't talk much anymore either, he barely said a word to anyone these days.
"I said eat." Vector stated.
"I don't have to." Espio replied.
"You need to." Vector said, putting a hand on Espios' shoulder.
Espio looked up a litte bit more, looking Vector in the eye.
"I can survive without one meal." He said.
"Not if you keep skipping that one meal everyday." Vector retorted.
Espio sighed, this was no use. He might aswell he something, atleast it's better then nothing. Espio picked up the spoon, dipping it into the bowl, he took it out, revealing a lump of cereal on it. He slowly but surely started to eat. Swallowing hard on every spoonful.
After about five spoonfuls, he didn't feel like eating anymore. He set the spoon back into the bowl, looking back down to his lap.
"Done?" Vector asked. Espio nodded.
Vector sighed, seeing how much he ate. It wasn't alot, but it was way better then nothing. He picked up the bowl and walked to the washroom, dumping the rest of the contents into the toilet and flushing it down. He then set the spoon and bowl in the sink.
Just then, a small buzzing sound was heard from the stairs.
"Great." Vector thought.
Just then, a small bee came into the kitchen, flying lazily. He sat down in an empty chair across from Espio, he rubbed his eyes and looked at the chameleon, his emotionless face instantly turned into a frown, he too also hated seeing Espio like this.
Espio said nothing, he just slowly got up, walking into the living room. He then sat on the couch, putting his hands on his lap, he then started to stare at the wall, emotionless.
Vector and Charmy looked at him from the kitchen with worried faces. Vector looked over at Charmy, giving him a 'look'. Charmy didn't know what was going on, or what he was going to do, but the next words Vector said made him tear up.
"I think we need to send him away."
"Send him away, but where and why?" Charmy questioned as he tried to hold back tears.
"To a special place..where he can be fixed." Vector answered, looking down.
"But he doesn't need to be fixed!" Charmy exclaimed, he couldn't hold back his tears anymore.
"Charmy, it's hard for you to understand at such a young age but.. he is a nervous wreck, we have no choice, he needs help."
"I don't get it! We can help him! I know we can!" Charmy was now sobbing.
"No, Charmy. Professional help." Vector replied.
Charmy just stood there, his hands balled up into fists and against his face as he continued to sob. Vector got down on his one knee, trying to level himself to Charmy.
"Do you understand?" He asked. Charmy spoke inbetween sobs.
"What I understand is.. that you don't want to help a friend." Charmy sobbed.
Vector put a hand on Charmys' shoulder, who just shoved it off and began to run out of the kitchen, past Espio, and up the stairs. Vector cringed as he heard the loud thud of Charmys' door slamming.
Vector then looked at Espio, he was still staring at the wall, like nothing had even happened, he didn't even notice Charmy and Vector or Charmys' loud sobs and screaming.
Vector sighed.
"This is going to be a long day."
Locke smiled at his work. He took a couple more steps back to take in the whole thing, he smiled even wider. Hen then noticed a spot blank. He walked up to the large canvas, dipping his paint into the blue and filling in the space.
He then looked over his work once again, admiring it. It was a large body of water, with a mountain of rocks in the background, the way the different shades of blue swayed through the picture made it even more fantastic.
Locke had taken up being an artist, he was actually quite good. He had became an artist ever since he moved into an apartment, probably about a month after Skye had left.
The whole apartment was a two bedroom with a kitchen, decent size living room, one bathroom and a big window for amazing views of Station Square. All of the apartment walls were covered with a yellow-ish color, all the doors were white. The living room had a couch, love seat, coffee table and a flat screen mounted on the wall.
One bedroom was his, it had a single bed, laptop in the corner on a table and bookcase and a large walk in closet there was a medium sized window across the room. Beside his bed stood a chestnut brown drawer, on it was a couple of sketch books full of drawings and scrabbles. There was multiple things on the ground from sketch books, to papers, to pencils and to paint.
The second bedroom was a geust bedroom, it contained the same things his did, except it was spotless, and there wasn't any sketch books or things like that.
The kitchen was like any other apartment kitchen, it has a stove, oven, microwave, some cupboards and he even managed to fit a small dining table that can fit four people in the middle of all of it.
Locke sighed, he wondered what the Chaotix were up to, ever since Skye left.. Espio hadn't been himself, well, that is what Vector and Charmy told him considering he didn't know Espio very well, but he had gotten to know him a little, they actually became pretty good friends.
As if on cue, there was a knock at the door. Locke set down his paint brush into a glass of water, he then walked over to the door. He didn't even bother to look through the eye hole to see who it was, he was too lazy.
He opened the door to see Vector standing there with a worried look, Locke quickly let the crocodile in. They both sat down at the couch.
"What is it?" Locke asked.
He knew it couldn't be anything good by the look on Vectors' face. Vector visibly tensed a little.
"It's Espio..somethings wrong." Vector finally said.
"What do you mean somethings wrong?" He asked.
"Something is..wrong." Vector repeated, he couldn't find the right words.
"Something has been wrong with him ever since Skye left." Locke said.
"I mean..something is really wrong.." Vector trailed off.
Locke was beginning to get a tad bit worried. He nodded his head, letting Vector continue.
"After eating a little, he sat on the couch just staring at the wall, Charmy ran upstairs crying after I told him we might have to send Espio away, to you know. Anyways, after he ran upstairs I went to go check on Espio.. he was still staring at the wall like nothing had happened, but.. he looked different..." Vector trailed off.
"What do you mean..different?" Locke asked.
"Well..he looked so spaced out, and his eyes..they were dull, it was like there was no life left in him.."
Locke nodded his head slowly.
"Wait, send him away? Like.." He trailed off as Vector nodded.
"I tried waving a hand infront of his face, talking to him, shaking him. He just wont.. move or blink, nothing." Vector said, worried.
Locke slowly nodded, trying to process everything that he had just been told, he then quicky stood up.
"Come on, I think I might know what's wrong." He stated.
Vector nodded as the two walked out of the apartment, Locke locked the doors and then went infront of Vector, running down the stairs. Vector quickly followed behind him.
After about a five minute run, they had finally arrived at the agency. When they opened the door they were met with Charmy.
Vector didn't really know what to say.
"Charmy I-" He was cut off by a big hug by the small bee.
"It's okay I forgive you. Just please help Espio! I'm scared!" The young bee exlaimed, pleading for help.
Vector put his hands on Charmys' shoulders in an attempt to calm him down.
"It will be okay Charmy." He spoke reassuringly.
Charmy nodded, but he still had a couple of tears going down his face, ignoring them he ran over to the chair, sitting on it and watched as Locke ran up to Espio, examining him.
Locke walked in front of Espio, waving a hand infront of his face. When Espio didn't respond in any way, Locke flicked him on the shoulder, still, no respond. He then walked over to Charmy and Vector.
"What's wrong with him?" Charmy questioned.
"Nothing really, he's just deep in thought. I mean really deep, I heard that when people or in this case, mobians go through a tragic incident or something that had a huge impact on them, they could go into this state of deep thinking, they don't blink, move, nothing. They can't even hear or see anyone around them." Locke stated.
Vector nodded his head slightly, Charmy just looked confused. A silence lingered the air until Vector spoke.
"How long does this last?" He asked. Locke shrugged.
"Could take hours, days, weeks, I even heard of someone stuck in it for over four months, they either come out of it themselves, or they have to have something or someone who was responsible or a part of the cause of it in order to snap them out of it." Locke said.
"So when do you think he will snap out of it?" Vector asked.
"I don't know..doesn't seem like anytime soon though, maybe about five hours, or one or two days." Locke replied.
"ONE OR TWO DAYS?" Vector exclaimed which made everyone minus Espio jump.
Locke nodded.
"It won't be that bad. You will just need someone to watch over him, and I am sure you could do it since you guys have no cases for the next month" He stated.
Vector nodded.
"We'll do our best." He said as he patted Charmy on the head.
"Good, you should probably leave him where he is for now." Locke said as he walked halfway across the room.
He then turned back around.
"I better be going now, I will come back to check up on him soon, if anything strange happens come and get me." He said.
"Okay, see you." Vector and Charmy waved as the cat left the agency.
Locke sighed as he walked through the streets of Station Square, he looked at the time on the big clock. Four in the afternoon already..time flys by pretty quick.
He decided to take the long way home, through a couple of alleys, around the block and a then take left down the last street. He was walking slowly for some reason, he turned into the second alley, walking down it.
As he walked he heard a footstep from behind him, his ear twitched, he then turned around prepared to fight. He saw nothing, nothing but the busy road he had just came from, he sighed, thinking he was just hearing things.
He then turned around and began walking again, trying to ignore everything around him. Although, he let his right hand drop a little more then his left, closer to his boot..just incase.
Honestly, he doesn't really know why he carries a gun around, he just felt it was useful and needed, so he had one custom made. He didn't think it was necassary to go over the top with it since it was just used for protection, and he didn't use it much so it was just a ordinary black shot gun.
Now, his bullets were a different story. All of his bullets were black, but he had a grey stripe on all of them.. he painted it himself, he would use other bullets if he had to, but if he had a choice, he'd be using his.
He turned left down the street his apartment building was on. Walking into the doors, he walking over to the elevator, when he got there he noticed a sign reading 'Out of order'.
"Damn..geuss I'll take the stairs." Locke muttered under his breath as he made his way to the staircase.
Now, he didn't mind stairs, it's just that.. he lived on the twenty-third floor and he didn't enjoy going up stairs if he didn't have to.
He slowly trotted up the stairs, just then, he heard a thumb from behind him. He quickly spun around, he saw nothing. He walked up to the railing and looked down, he could have sworn he seen a shadow from one of the lower stairs, but ignored it.
"I'm hearing things today." He mutted as he got to his floor.
He opened to door, walking down the hall to his apartment door, he took out his key and unlocked it, walking in. He sighed heavily as he walked over to the couch and sitting down on it.
He looked over at his clock, it was already almost five.. it took him that long just to walk home? Wow, he better start working out soon. He got up, picking up a canvas that he was working on earlier and walked into his bedroom, setting it down against a wall.
He then heard a knock at the door, he walked over to it, not bothering to look through the eye whole he swung it opened, what he saw shocked him completely.
"Skye!" He exclaimed as he gave her a quick, light hug.
Indeed it was Skye, she looked the same except her hair was a little bit longer, and she wasn't wearing a jacket this time, just black jeans, blue flats and a black tube top. She giggled and returned the hug.
"Locke, it's good to see you again!" She said with happiness in her voice.
"It's good to see you too, how did you know I lived here?" He asked.
Skye giggled before speaking. "I followed you, you heard me a couple times but ignored it, am I correct?" She asked.
"Oh, good. So I am not losing it." He said with a laugh. Skye giggled.
"So what are you doing here?" He asked, before she could respond he continued.
"Have you seen Espio yet?" He asked. She shook her head.
"Actually, I came here because I need to talk to you."
Well, It's one thiry a.m. so I think I should rap it up right about here.
CHAPTER ONE OF MY VERY FIRST SEQUAL YAY!
ANYWAYS, R&R or else how would I know if you liked it?
