Violet Dreams: Ultimate Rivalry
By Fei DMA Shanghanoo
Author's Notes: Lord knows what this would be called if I'd have kept to the series. The fact is, I managed to find every last inch of it, and am currently, piece by piece, very slowly over the course of time trying to put it back together again. I started with the latest instalment for totally unknown reasons: hell, maybe I'm trying to pull a Star Wars trip on ya'll (even though I've never watched the damn thing, I know what the movies series does in terms of time lapses) This in fact, is pretty much the fourth time that I've edited this before even getting far with it, because I'm hoping that it becomes successful. This, in fact, will be the last time. Enjoy!
Credits: A special thank you to Sarah for inspiring me with this piece, and Yasmin, who always encourages me to go on. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Rouge, Fang the Sniper, Shadow the Hedgehog and Eggman are © SEGA, Angel Phoenix is © herself, BoltStryke, Liana, Demonis the Hedgehog, Oblivion, Bubbles, Sharika, Nina, Mika, Jamie and Azure are all © 1992-2002 Me. Partial credit to the sub-creators of Liana, Bubbles, Sharika, Nina, Mika, Jamie and Azure. Story concept is © 2002 BoltStryke.
-Chapter One-
The Vision
It was an early morning like any other. The inky blue-black sky twinkled with a hundred million stars, and the moon- it's beauty shattered by the large crater that dented it- shone it's milky-white light upon the rooftops below. The streets were silent, save for a few birds twittering their sweet birdsong in the cold, December morning air. As time went on, the sky progressed from its darkness to shades of blue and washed pink and purple; the few brighter stars remaining in the sky. As each one twinkled in the beautiful morning sky, a bright pinkish-red star shot across the heavens, leaving a blazing bright purple streak as it moved, and disappeared in the twinkle of an eye, behind soft purple clouds.
At that moment, a girl not so far away awoke in a cold sweat from her bed, letting out a startled scream as she felt a sharp pain like a hot knife through her head.
As she looked around for solace, she panted heavily, trying to recollect the events in the dream that she had; it had seemed vivid to her at the time, but it seemed that trying to get her memories back was like trying to hold water cupped in her hands, for the longer that she tried to hold on to them, the more they slipped away through her fingers. Finally, as her sparkling violet eyes darted across the darkened room, all she could remember was a blazing red ball. a blazing red-hot comet, in fact.
She swung her head towards the bedroom doors as she heard muffled footsteps run across the landing, coming her way. After a few seconds, the girl looked up to see her sister, standing in the doorway. Although extremely tired, her sister's face showed great concern for her younger sibling. Her violet eyes watched her little sister breathing rather heavily still, and let out a deep sigh. This was the fifth time this week that she has seen her sister like this, and it was beginning to frighten her.
The girl, still dazed somewhat at the events that had blurred past her in her almost-forgotten dream, watched her yellow-haired sister walk up to her, and sit on the edge of the bed, her violet eyes twinkling with sadness. She raised her hand slowly, and reached out to brush away some of the bright pink hair from her little sister's eyes, and let out another sigh. A bead of sweat dripped from the pink-haired girl's nose, and finally fell onto the bed sheets, which absorbed every molecule into its depths.
"It was another vision, wasn't it, Mika?" Her bigger sister asked, still brushing the hair away from her distressed sister's eyes.
Mika gave a nod, a tore her gaze away from her sister's eyes. Her sister sighed once again, and removed her hand, and placed it on her own lap.
".I'm worried about you." Mika's sister began, looking away from her and onto her lap. "You're the only one of the three of us who has the empowerment of foreseeing the future. The things you see in those visions really shouldn't be seen by someone of your age, because of their power. it's really changed you."
The sisters, three in all, weren't like any other normal female hedgehogs. Each one of them were Elementresses- females who possess the power of a particular element. Each of the girls possessed the power of a different element, giving them different and various qualities. One possessed the power of Ice, one of Lightning and one of Fire. Mika inherited the most when she was born. Not only did she become an Elementress of Fire, she also inherited many of her mother's qualities. Like her mother, she could see many visions of the future through her dreams, and was also an empath- the ability to sense what another is feeling- although she hadn't quite mastered that technique just yet. Her sister, the Elementress of Lightning was tending to her now. The Elementress of Ice, and their brother, the Physicaté of Bug were away, and had been away for some time now.
Physicaté were usually male, incapable of possessing elemental power but held physical ones instead Their smaller brother may possess a rare physical force, but he was too young and too inexperienced to harness or understand it, hence his leave to go out into the world and learn all about his technique.
And right now, Mika was learning too. This was the first time in five years that she had felt such pain. And, as young as she was, she still remembered the flooding, waves and the destruction.
Mika glanced up at her bigger sister with watery eyes. She remembered the weeks of pain that she has before that disaster. Could it all be happening again? Mika broke her gaze again as she felt her eyes well up with tears, still completely confused. She felt her tears fall upon the sheets, one after the other.
"Nina." Mika sniffed quietly. ".I just don't know."
"Shh." Nina replied, stroking her little sister's hair soothingly. "If you don't remember, then just don't concentrate so hard on it, and it'll come flowing back."
"All I remember." She began, looking up at her sister now, her violet eyes glittering. "All I remember is this huge, blazing red comet. heading towards us and. everything was red. blood red. and then." She stopped, hanging her head and sobbing into her sister's arm.
"It's alright, Mika." Nina said, hugging her tightly. Nina sighed to herself, as deep down she knew that everything wasn't all right at all. Although not Psychic or Empath nor Visionary, Nina felt some kind of unnatural disturbance within her thoughts, and within her powers.
Being an Elementress of Lightning caused her to be a lot more in tune with nature than her sisters, and more in tune with people possessing the same type of power. On hearing what Mika had dreamed about, Nina decided it would be about time to talk with the only person she knew that had the same electrical connection that she possessed.
Nina shook her head from her train of thoughts and watched her sister crying quietly in her arms. The only way to get her sister to remember any more of her dream was to get her back into her regular lifestyle. Nina smiled slightly and stroked her sniffling sister's hair.
"Hey Mika, please don't cry." Nina said, smiling a little more as Mika looked back up at her. "I know it's hard, but you've got to try not to get too upset about this. how about." Nina paused to wipe some of Mika's tears away from her cheeks, slightly reddened from crying. "How about I make you something hot to drink and a bite to eat, hmm? Would you like that?"
Mika sniffed harder, forcing a small smile for her sister, and nodded slowly. "Uh huh." She replied quietly.
"Okay." Nina replied, kissing her sister's forehead once softly. "Now hurry up and put something warm over your nightie, I'll be downstairs in the kitchen." And with that, Nina slowly rose from the bed and made her way to the door.
"Nina."
"Yeah?"
"Thanks." Mika smiled, only this time it freely came to her lips.
"No problem sweetheart." Nina replied, beaming. With that she turned again and left the room, heading towards the kitchen.
As soon as Nina had left the room, Mika mustered up the strength to wipe her tears away, and jump from her bed. After smoothing over her bedsheets, she walked over to her dresser, stood by the window on the other end of the room.
As she swung open her curtains, her room was at once bathed in a golden- yellow light from the newly risen sun. She smiled a little as she looked at the pinkish-purple sky, and the same golden light which filled her room adorned the rooftops and pavement, and caused the bare tree branches to glimmer. She gave a soft sigh, and turned to face the mirror in front of her.
As she studied herself, a frown of disdain came across her face. 'I'm not like either of my sisters at all." She thought to herself.
Mika had stunning glittering purple eyes, just like her other two sisters, but had long fuchsia pink hair, which trailed all the way down past her knees. She also had a large pink fringe, which she never cut. Which meant all that hair usually fell across her eyes, but she had gotten used to it over the years. As she rubbed the sleep from her eyes with one hand, she flicked her fingers skilfully across her fringe with the other. After doing so she pulled the rest of her long tresses into a ponytail, held together by her favourite large blue scrunchie. She sighed as he gazed at herself in the mirror, letting her hands drop to her sides, as she thought to herself that only her hair and her eyes were her only real assets. As she thought of this, she smiled as she remembered her crush, who she had only seen once or twice before, but she was very taken with him. Even after seeing him a few times, Mika knew at once that he'd never fall for her. Plus, she was too young, and he'd never look at her in the way she wanted him to, and he was probably into older girls, mature girls, girls with- She blew a stray lock of hair away from her face and wrinkled her nose as she ran her hands down her sides. She was sure at even thirteen like she was, her sisters had had some semblance of a figure, And her she was, hipless, tummyless and- as she sighed and flapped the collar of her nightie- chestless. She longed to wear flattering tops like her sisters, who both sported large chests and showed them off whenever they got the chance.
"Maybe if I prayed to the stars just a little more." She muttered to herself as she took off her nightie and threw it on the floor. ".Then just maybe they'll give me a figure."
She leaned over to pull open a drawer. Inside were a range of her fleece sweaters. She took a striped white and blue one out and pulled it over her head, making sure that the straps on her training bra didn't slip out of place. This sweater was particularly long, and fell past her knees. But she didn't mind at all. She simply slipped her feet into her fluffy blue slippers and took one last gaze at herself in the mirror.
"Hmm." She thought out loud, giving a half-twirl to see herself. "Yep, warm enough. and nobody can see my knickers. okay!" And with a fleeting smile, she hurried off towards the kitchen.
The smell of frying bacon met Mika's nostrils as she pushed the kitchen door open. Nina was at the stove, spatula in hand, flicking over another rasher of bacon. Mika's ears pricked up gently as she heard the strip sizzle gently in the pan of oil. She smiled at her sister briefly, and made her way to the breakfast bar, pulling herself up onto a stool, feeling the chill against her bare legs as the cold fabric touched them. Leaning over the counter, Mika rested her hands under her chin and crossed her legs, watching her sister busying herself about the kitchen.
Nina had really big, yellow hair, which flicked up at the ends, just past her shoulders. She also had fairly large yellow, cat-like ears, which always stuck out from the top of her hair. She had big, violet eyes with big eyelashes, which glittered and flickered mysteriously as she blinked. She had a large chest, smallish hips, and really long legs. In short- as Mika could find no other words to describe her- a guy magnet. Nina's dark purple nightie swayed about her as she tended to the bacon, whilst simultaneously checking on the toast she'd recently placed in the toaster. Mika sighed, and longed once again to be like her sister. She was really popular, and had an electric personality to match her element of expertise.
During Mika's track of thoughts, Nina presented a plate, containing two sandwiches, comprising of hot buttered toast, and hot rashers of bacon doused in plenty of tomato ketchup- just the way Mika liked it. As Mika smiled, Nina placed a mug of hot chocolate in front of her, with five marshmallows bobbing on the frothy surface.
"Go on, eat up!" Nina said brightly, ruffling her sister's pink fringe as she walked away from the table.
Mika smiled as she picked up a sandwich. "Aren't you going to eat anything?" She asked before taking a large mouthful of her breakfast.
"Oh no! I couldn't!" Nina replied, walking towards the door. She smiled and elegantly placed a hand on her hip. "A girl's gotta watch her figure, you know!"
Mika smirked between chews and chortled a little.
"Besides!" Nina continued, opening the door of the kitchen. "I gotta make a call. Shall I put the radio on for you?"
Mika smiled and nodded. Nina flicked the radio on, placed on top of the cabinet by the door, and disappeared with a quick twirl out into the passageway.
Mika smiled and closed her eyes as she swallowed a bite of her sandwich and slipped at her hot chocolate. As she ate her favourite food and listened to her favourite song on the radio, the threat of impending doom seemed to be far, far away from her.
As Nina walked into the living room, her smile faded. She knew things were serious, and this time she'd have to act fast. At times like this, she needed to call on the one person who knew how to help her, of the same element; as she summoned her powers, blue sparks of electricity began to crackle from the tips of her index and forefinger on her right hand.
"BoltStryke the Hedgehog. can you hear me?"
************
The skies were a deep blue, melding into soft shades of pink and orange nearer the east, and the temperature was beginning to rise in the Desert.
The area was totally silent, and everything lay still among the dusty ground, cracked and parched from water for several years. Despite the lack of fluid, rough grasses grew here and there, and wavered ever so slightly in the semblance of breeze that blew low across the sandy floor. Small, round stones lay dotted along the entire desert, almost perfect in terms of shape.
The silence was beginning to be broken, however, and soft rumbles, like that of thunder rolling across the skies in the distance, shook the smallest particles of dust, and the smallest of pebbles on the desert floor. The sound grew closer, and the disturbance was becoming more and more clear as the sound grew increasingly louder by the nanosecond, shaking larger and larger stones and eventually the ground. Soon, and updraft blew across the field, blowing a dusty haze about the floor, and whipped the grasses into a swirling frenzy. The sound grew more intense, and, as quick as it had come, a purple and blue blur flashed across the area of the desert, and the sound grew quieter again, rolling away with the object into the distance. The trace of the object was clear, however, as the feint shimmers of heat wavered from the ground from where it had passed, and as peace was returning to that quiet spot, a loud explosion rocked the area, a dusty blast wave blowing more sand and grass into the air, which quickly lamed down into tiny wisps of dust, spiralling towards the ground, laying still once again.
The blurs continued through the desert, in a uniformly straight line, blasting through anything in their way. A giant boulder exploded into two large fragments as the blurs past, ripping through the old relic as if it were paper. It crashed to the ground, spitting up large clouds of dust into the air, and the impact echoed around the vast, empty space, devoid of most basic signs of life, apart from these supersonic blurs, it seemed.
As the blurs raced across the desert at a tremendous speed, one broke from high-speed, and leapt into the air, swerving his weight around instantaneously so that he flipped upside down in the air, running through a trail of golden rings that he had narrowly spotted. As he returned from his airborne state, he quickly returned his weight to his feet again, and skidded to a swift halt on the ground, his red and white shoes kicking up large amounts of dust as he did so. The other blur promptly skidded to a halt too, only taking a lot more time to stop than the first did, as he was moving a lot faster. Having stopped at quite a distance from his friend, he didn't move. He simply turned his head to glance back as the blue creature he was with stood still, examining a Gold ring which he was holding tightly in his right hand.
It was almost apparent who it was; his bright green eyes shimmered in the low light, glinting slightly as the gold ring he was holding in his hand tilted to catch what light there was; red sneakers with the world-famous white stripe, with white trimmings, with gold and silver-plated grinding plates, wide, curious eyes, white gloves and the unmistakable swept-back, supersonic blue spikes which were growing longer and longer with age. This blue creature was the world-renowned hero, Sonic the Hedgehog.
He examined the ring further as a small smile crept its way across his face. "Hmmm. I've collected heaps of these over the years. and yet, I've never looked into why and how they hold the powers they do."
His friend nodded, acknowledging his comment, then folded his arms tightly and looked over to the mountainous region, which hid the slowly rising sun, in the eastern part of the desert. Sonic spun the ring on his finger, and then looked over curiously in his friend's direction.
"Hey, is something troubling you, buddy?" he asked, walking a little closer. His friend glanced over his shoulder for a split second, and then looked away again. "Well." He began. His voice was much deeper than Sonic's, more mature, almost. "It feels as if someone is trying to get in contact with me. but the signal's weak."
Sonic tilted his head to one side and raised an eyebrow, as if he was not sure that he quite understood what his friend meant. "Get in contact with you? How?"
Sonic's purple friend glanced over his shoulder again, and then turned to face him. "For years I've possessed an almost psychic power, due to my connection with the element of electricity. It enables me to get in contact with others who possess the same power as I do. It was something I was born with. something I can't explain." He looked from the floor to Sonic, who nodded sympathetically.
"Heh. I guess that's what being BoltStryke the Hedgehog is all about. There are lots of things about me that I don't know. Stuff I wish I knew."
The purple Hedgehog unfolded his arms and clenched his fists tightly, which were adorned with fingerless black leather gloves, which had a circular yellow gem on the back of each glove, with a lightning Bolt carved into it. Around each wrist was a blue bracelet, and a green bracelet, called Dynamis rings. These rings helped BoltStryke to harness his powers and keep them from overpowering his, causing him to overload.
His eyes were a mysterious colour; almost golden in colour, but melded into almost brown near the tops of his eyes, rendering his eye colour near impossible to describe. His eyes always sparkled intensely, glittering with mystery; Even more so when he was smaller, but the twinkle had diminished in his later years.
Three locks of purple hair, which grew in the middle of his forehead, fell across his eyes. He also had two longer locks of hair on the left side of his face, covering just a small portion of his left eye. His spikes weren't like Sonic's; Only in the likeness that he had two down turned spikes down the middle-back oh his head, but the two on either side of his head grew upright, a lot like Shadow's, only BoltStryke's were slightly shorter and a more free-flowing in shape. His tail was a lot more differently shaped too, and had now curled and tightened itself into a Lightning bolt shape. He wore electric blue Air sneakers on his feet, lined with a Bolt gem on the sole and hell of each foot. His shoes also came equipped with rocket boosters, which his close friend, Denise the Fox had developed for him. On each shoe, a golden lightning bolt motif had carefully been embroidered on, and the air bubbles on his shoes were a bright, electric yellow. BoltStryke did indeed look like the sheer electrical and Chaos power that he possessed. Outgoing and friendly-sounded when need be, but also one formidable Hedgehog.
BoltStryke was a year younger than Sonic, but when it came to things such as battle; BoltStryke was a lot more experienced. How BoltStryke emerged from the Master Emerald is a mystery, but that's how it happened, and in being born in this way, the sheer powers of Chaos energy were instilled within him, making him a near-unstoppable power. BoltStryke could transform into many more powerful forms, and use a lot more Chaos-fuelled attacks than Sonic could.
BoltStryke decided to help out Sonic by helping his to learn more Chaos attacks, but in order to do so, Sonic needed to train hard in his spare time. And now it seemed that vacation time was no more, as it had become training time. Sonic didn't mind however, as growing older had made him more serious in becoming more powerful than he was now in his current state. His change in attitude came out after the recent disaster, when Shadow, a Hedgehog they all barely got to know, died trying to save Earth. Since then Sonic was determined on becoming powerful, striving to become 'The Ultimate Lifeform' Like Shadow had mentioned.
".I need to concentrate in order to receive the telepathic message that someone is trying to give to me." BoltStryke paused as he looked around, and spotted the dark shapes of large rocks not so far from them. "I'll be over there." He said finally, gesturing to the rocks on his right side. "If Tails comes this way, be sure to notify me." Sonic nodded, and with that, BoltStryke walked slowly over to the large rocks, about fifteen to twenty feet in height. He looked up to the very summit of the rocks, watching the dark blue skies also, the bright stars twinkling in their depths. Looking past the summit, he noticed the sky getting lighter, melding gently into a brighter shade of blue.
He looked down once again, and bent his knees, looking down at the floor. And in a split second, he placed enough power in his legs to spring up past the summit of the rock, and landed neatly on the very top of the largest one. He sighed a little as he eased himself down to sit on the rocky surface, and watched the sky over the horizon in the east, a thin line of gold appearing just over the rocky mountains, melding into brighter shades of pink, orange and yellow.
He blocked the imagery from his mind as he closed his eyes, and began to think deeply, trying to pinpoint the location in his head where he had felt the strange sensation coming from. He urged his thinking track deeper in his mind, wanting to find it fast, before it slipped away from him.
Suddenly, it came to him like a rush of heat, which startled him slightly, but he kept his eyes closed nonetheless. The heat seemed to swirl about his head to the very top of his brain, and it wasn't before long that he could begin to see the swirling, mysterious mass of red and orange liquid spiralling to the very hilt of his brain. Soon the swirling mass ebbed away slowly back into the depths of his mind to form a glittering blob, which soon rose up and melded into shape, beginning to form a three-dimensional face. The liquid began to change colour slowly, slowly fading into shades that made up features of a suddenly familiar face. BoltStryke raised his eyebrows in surprise as the face had finished forming and had opened its eyes, looking right at him.
The face at once twitched into a slightly annoyed expression. "BoltStryke, what took you so long?" The voice echoed about his head, and BoltStryke shuddered slightly. It was such a weird sensation to behold, but he had to get to grips with the situation, and fast.
"Sorry, I'm just not used to this. I've only done it once before, Nina." He spoke aloud, not quite remembering how it was done the first time around. He had clearly got it right though, as Nina's facial expression changed to a more understanding look. Comfortable that Nina could hear him clearly, BoltStryke spoke again. "Long time no see, by the way."
"Yeah, it's been a while." Nina said, chuckling slightly. "Anyways, I can't talk for too long, as Mika will become suspicious as to why I'm here for so long, and might hear us talking. I bring news, BoltStryke."
The purple hedgehog's ears pricked up at those words, and furrowed his eyebrows. "News? What kind of news?"
"It's my sister." Nina began, her face saddening as she remembered the events that had happened over fifteen minutes ago. "She's had another vision."
BoltStryke's eyebrows furrowed further, and tilted his head to one side slightly. "What kind of vision, Nina? A bad one?"
Nina nodded slowly, biting her lower lip gently as she gazed at the floor. "Afraid so. she talks of a giant red comet, blazing red in colour and heading towards Earth, and everything around her was red." She trailed off again, looking back at BoltStryke. ".That look in her eyes, Bolt. I can't forget that look, it was that fearful look that she had the last time she had a vision when-"
"Station Square.?" BoltStryke said softly, breaking in. Nina nodded solemnly. BoltStryke relaxed a little and sighed, thinking of some sort of an answer. After a long pause, he spoke. "I don't know what to make of all this. Surely something can't be coming our way again? First Chaos, then the ARK and now. this?"
Nina sighed too, and looked up at the ceiling (And in Bolt's mind, this was just darkness) "Exactly. we need to keep our guard up, BoltStryke. we don't know what might happen."
BoltStryke nodded. "Yeah. I'm still not sure what to do, but I'm going to try to pop around soon so that I can see Mika myself. I need her to describe to me what she's seen, so I can better see how I can go about setting things right before they go horribly, horribly wrong." BoltStryke let out a long sigh and looked at his friend. "In the meantime, just keep her happy. Try to keep her mind off her vision until I get there."
Nina smiled, encouraged by her friend's reassurance. "Okay. Well, I'll be seeing you then."
BoltStryke nodded and smiled slightly. "Okay. See you soon. Take care of yourself, okay?"
Nina nodded. "You too. See you." And with that, her face faded into the fiery ball of liquid, and swirled away and out of sight. As it gushed away from his mind, the heat slowly drifted away too. With that, BoltStryke opened his eyes, squinting just a little as the light flooded into them. He could see that most of the dark blues of the night were fading away fast, and it's only remains were midnight blue clouds against a golden-yellow sky, fading into pastel shades of pink.
His expression remained serious as he tucked his feet underneath him and gently eased himself up onto his feet. As he looked around, he noticed Sonic stretching his leg muscles, pulling the tip of his foot toward him with his hand, his leg outstretched, alternating between each foot. BoltStryke leapt from the rock quickly, letting himself fall to the floor, and braced his impact by bending his knees as his feet hit the floor.
At the sound of his feet falling on the hard earth, Sonic stopped what he was doing, and looked around. "So, what was it?" he asked fairly brightly, shaking his legs from his exercise.
BoltStryke raised his hands in order to crack his knuckles, walking towards his blue friend. "Nina. She had news. not very good news, in fact."
Sonic stopped all activity and watched his friend's solemn face. "What's wrong, dude?" He asked softly, walking closer.
BoltStryke let his hands drop to his sides and looked into Sonic's green eyes. "A vision. And we may be in danger." He paused. "What was that?" BoltStryke looked up into the air and around him, and Sonic followed suit.
The air slowly became filled with a soft, mechanical whirring sound, which reverberated around the rocks and within each blemish and crack on each inch of ground and rock. As BoltStryke looked directly above him, he noticed a dark silhouette, which was barely visible against the dark blue clouds that surrounded it. It was coming closer, and as it did, two small, bright blue twinkles appear, looking like afterburners somewhat. And, as it descended upon them, BoltStryke and Sonic realised that's exactly what they were.
As the clouds in the sky shifted, a ray of rising sunlight caught the mysterious shape, and at once the ray reflected the detail of the craft for all to see.
The craft was now no more than thirty feet from the ground now; supersonic blue in colour, blue afterburners blazing away beneath each foot of it. The blue craft was trimmed with yellow, and on the side, a drawing of two orange tails with white tips, and the name 'Tornado III' painted in white on the side. Not particularly in a professional style, but more in the style of a thirteen year old.
As the sun glittered off the seemingly newly polished craft, its afterburners blew stray particles of dust into clouds that just drifted off the surface of the hard plain, and billowed outwards as the Tornado III began landed rather clumsily on the hard earth. The fox removed his goggles, gently sliding then on top of his head, and glanced at both hedgehogs, before giving a brief salute. BoltStryke stepped back as the orange two-tailed fox clambered out of his machine, and smiled up at BoltStryke. Sonic walked around the Tornado to join them.
"I take it you didn't find anything?" The purple hedgehog said after a long silence. The fox shook his head, and gave a slight sigh.
"I've been scanning a wide area for hours, and there's still no sign of the Chaos Emeralds. Though I have a strange feeling that we might have to search farther than these islands."
"How come, Tails?" Sonic asked, scratching his chin.
"Well." Tails began, kicking against the ground gently "When the reaction happened in the chamber of the ARK, the Chaos Emeralds must have dispelled over a wide area. Some of them may even be in outer space. Just floating around. I figure that we might have to perform a worldwide search rather than just a regional one, to ensure that the emeralds are still around."
BoltStryke nodded approvingly, and glanced over in Sonic's direction, who gave a slight shrug "Well, whatever's necessary. As long as we can retrieve some of the Chaos emeralds, not that much harm can come to the world again, right?"
"Right." BoltStryke agreed, walking away from the two as he thought deeply, looking down at the dusty earth as he paced slowly. "And who knows, what with the news that I just received, it's just as well that we're looking for them. We don't know what's out there to harm us at the moment." The hedgehog stopped and glanced back at Tails, who looked back at him curiously. "Tails, Sonic, we need to get back to the base. I have to explain to the gang just exactly what I was told just now." The fox blinked, slightly confused. "What were you told.?"
BoltStryke bit his lip gently, and then shrugged a little. "I guess it's easier for me to explain to you all at once when we get there." he stopped as he stretched his arms over his head, interlocking his fingers as he cracked his knuckles, then hopped on the spot. "I don't know about you, Sonic, but I'm up for a little more exercise." He smirked over at him. "Up for it?"
The Blue hedgehog nodded and smiled in return. "Sure! I'm ready!" Tails took this as a signal to jump back into the Tornado III, and at once fired up its thrusters, ready to take off. As the fox warmed up his machine, the two had already darted off into the distance, trails of swirling dust clouds behind them. The ground seemed to tremble slightly as the raced away, and in the distance, the shattering echoes of a double sonic boom could be heard, reverberating around every canyon for miles around.
By Fei DMA Shanghanoo
Author's Notes: Lord knows what this would be called if I'd have kept to the series. The fact is, I managed to find every last inch of it, and am currently, piece by piece, very slowly over the course of time trying to put it back together again. I started with the latest instalment for totally unknown reasons: hell, maybe I'm trying to pull a Star Wars trip on ya'll (even though I've never watched the damn thing, I know what the movies series does in terms of time lapses) This in fact, is pretty much the fourth time that I've edited this before even getting far with it, because I'm hoping that it becomes successful. This, in fact, will be the last time. Enjoy!
Credits: A special thank you to Sarah for inspiring me with this piece, and Yasmin, who always encourages me to go on. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Rouge, Fang the Sniper, Shadow the Hedgehog and Eggman are © SEGA, Angel Phoenix is © herself, BoltStryke, Liana, Demonis the Hedgehog, Oblivion, Bubbles, Sharika, Nina, Mika, Jamie and Azure are all © 1992-2002 Me. Partial credit to the sub-creators of Liana, Bubbles, Sharika, Nina, Mika, Jamie and Azure. Story concept is © 2002 BoltStryke.
-Chapter One-
The Vision
It was an early morning like any other. The inky blue-black sky twinkled with a hundred million stars, and the moon- it's beauty shattered by the large crater that dented it- shone it's milky-white light upon the rooftops below. The streets were silent, save for a few birds twittering their sweet birdsong in the cold, December morning air. As time went on, the sky progressed from its darkness to shades of blue and washed pink and purple; the few brighter stars remaining in the sky. As each one twinkled in the beautiful morning sky, a bright pinkish-red star shot across the heavens, leaving a blazing bright purple streak as it moved, and disappeared in the twinkle of an eye, behind soft purple clouds.
At that moment, a girl not so far away awoke in a cold sweat from her bed, letting out a startled scream as she felt a sharp pain like a hot knife through her head.
As she looked around for solace, she panted heavily, trying to recollect the events in the dream that she had; it had seemed vivid to her at the time, but it seemed that trying to get her memories back was like trying to hold water cupped in her hands, for the longer that she tried to hold on to them, the more they slipped away through her fingers. Finally, as her sparkling violet eyes darted across the darkened room, all she could remember was a blazing red ball. a blazing red-hot comet, in fact.
She swung her head towards the bedroom doors as she heard muffled footsteps run across the landing, coming her way. After a few seconds, the girl looked up to see her sister, standing in the doorway. Although extremely tired, her sister's face showed great concern for her younger sibling. Her violet eyes watched her little sister breathing rather heavily still, and let out a deep sigh. This was the fifth time this week that she has seen her sister like this, and it was beginning to frighten her.
The girl, still dazed somewhat at the events that had blurred past her in her almost-forgotten dream, watched her yellow-haired sister walk up to her, and sit on the edge of the bed, her violet eyes twinkling with sadness. She raised her hand slowly, and reached out to brush away some of the bright pink hair from her little sister's eyes, and let out another sigh. A bead of sweat dripped from the pink-haired girl's nose, and finally fell onto the bed sheets, which absorbed every molecule into its depths.
"It was another vision, wasn't it, Mika?" Her bigger sister asked, still brushing the hair away from her distressed sister's eyes.
Mika gave a nod, a tore her gaze away from her sister's eyes. Her sister sighed once again, and removed her hand, and placed it on her own lap.
".I'm worried about you." Mika's sister began, looking away from her and onto her lap. "You're the only one of the three of us who has the empowerment of foreseeing the future. The things you see in those visions really shouldn't be seen by someone of your age, because of their power. it's really changed you."
The sisters, three in all, weren't like any other normal female hedgehogs. Each one of them were Elementresses- females who possess the power of a particular element. Each of the girls possessed the power of a different element, giving them different and various qualities. One possessed the power of Ice, one of Lightning and one of Fire. Mika inherited the most when she was born. Not only did she become an Elementress of Fire, she also inherited many of her mother's qualities. Like her mother, she could see many visions of the future through her dreams, and was also an empath- the ability to sense what another is feeling- although she hadn't quite mastered that technique just yet. Her sister, the Elementress of Lightning was tending to her now. The Elementress of Ice, and their brother, the Physicaté of Bug were away, and had been away for some time now.
Physicaté were usually male, incapable of possessing elemental power but held physical ones instead Their smaller brother may possess a rare physical force, but he was too young and too inexperienced to harness or understand it, hence his leave to go out into the world and learn all about his technique.
And right now, Mika was learning too. This was the first time in five years that she had felt such pain. And, as young as she was, she still remembered the flooding, waves and the destruction.
Mika glanced up at her bigger sister with watery eyes. She remembered the weeks of pain that she has before that disaster. Could it all be happening again? Mika broke her gaze again as she felt her eyes well up with tears, still completely confused. She felt her tears fall upon the sheets, one after the other.
"Nina." Mika sniffed quietly. ".I just don't know."
"Shh." Nina replied, stroking her little sister's hair soothingly. "If you don't remember, then just don't concentrate so hard on it, and it'll come flowing back."
"All I remember." She began, looking up at her sister now, her violet eyes glittering. "All I remember is this huge, blazing red comet. heading towards us and. everything was red. blood red. and then." She stopped, hanging her head and sobbing into her sister's arm.
"It's alright, Mika." Nina said, hugging her tightly. Nina sighed to herself, as deep down she knew that everything wasn't all right at all. Although not Psychic or Empath nor Visionary, Nina felt some kind of unnatural disturbance within her thoughts, and within her powers.
Being an Elementress of Lightning caused her to be a lot more in tune with nature than her sisters, and more in tune with people possessing the same type of power. On hearing what Mika had dreamed about, Nina decided it would be about time to talk with the only person she knew that had the same electrical connection that she possessed.
Nina shook her head from her train of thoughts and watched her sister crying quietly in her arms. The only way to get her sister to remember any more of her dream was to get her back into her regular lifestyle. Nina smiled slightly and stroked her sniffling sister's hair.
"Hey Mika, please don't cry." Nina said, smiling a little more as Mika looked back up at her. "I know it's hard, but you've got to try not to get too upset about this. how about." Nina paused to wipe some of Mika's tears away from her cheeks, slightly reddened from crying. "How about I make you something hot to drink and a bite to eat, hmm? Would you like that?"
Mika sniffed harder, forcing a small smile for her sister, and nodded slowly. "Uh huh." She replied quietly.
"Okay." Nina replied, kissing her sister's forehead once softly. "Now hurry up and put something warm over your nightie, I'll be downstairs in the kitchen." And with that, Nina slowly rose from the bed and made her way to the door.
"Nina."
"Yeah?"
"Thanks." Mika smiled, only this time it freely came to her lips.
"No problem sweetheart." Nina replied, beaming. With that she turned again and left the room, heading towards the kitchen.
As soon as Nina had left the room, Mika mustered up the strength to wipe her tears away, and jump from her bed. After smoothing over her bedsheets, she walked over to her dresser, stood by the window on the other end of the room.
As she swung open her curtains, her room was at once bathed in a golden- yellow light from the newly risen sun. She smiled a little as she looked at the pinkish-purple sky, and the same golden light which filled her room adorned the rooftops and pavement, and caused the bare tree branches to glimmer. She gave a soft sigh, and turned to face the mirror in front of her.
As she studied herself, a frown of disdain came across her face. 'I'm not like either of my sisters at all." She thought to herself.
Mika had stunning glittering purple eyes, just like her other two sisters, but had long fuchsia pink hair, which trailed all the way down past her knees. She also had a large pink fringe, which she never cut. Which meant all that hair usually fell across her eyes, but she had gotten used to it over the years. As she rubbed the sleep from her eyes with one hand, she flicked her fingers skilfully across her fringe with the other. After doing so she pulled the rest of her long tresses into a ponytail, held together by her favourite large blue scrunchie. She sighed as he gazed at herself in the mirror, letting her hands drop to her sides, as she thought to herself that only her hair and her eyes were her only real assets. As she thought of this, she smiled as she remembered her crush, who she had only seen once or twice before, but she was very taken with him. Even after seeing him a few times, Mika knew at once that he'd never fall for her. Plus, she was too young, and he'd never look at her in the way she wanted him to, and he was probably into older girls, mature girls, girls with- She blew a stray lock of hair away from her face and wrinkled her nose as she ran her hands down her sides. She was sure at even thirteen like she was, her sisters had had some semblance of a figure, And her she was, hipless, tummyless and- as she sighed and flapped the collar of her nightie- chestless. She longed to wear flattering tops like her sisters, who both sported large chests and showed them off whenever they got the chance.
"Maybe if I prayed to the stars just a little more." She muttered to herself as she took off her nightie and threw it on the floor. ".Then just maybe they'll give me a figure."
She leaned over to pull open a drawer. Inside were a range of her fleece sweaters. She took a striped white and blue one out and pulled it over her head, making sure that the straps on her training bra didn't slip out of place. This sweater was particularly long, and fell past her knees. But she didn't mind at all. She simply slipped her feet into her fluffy blue slippers and took one last gaze at herself in the mirror.
"Hmm." She thought out loud, giving a half-twirl to see herself. "Yep, warm enough. and nobody can see my knickers. okay!" And with a fleeting smile, she hurried off towards the kitchen.
The smell of frying bacon met Mika's nostrils as she pushed the kitchen door open. Nina was at the stove, spatula in hand, flicking over another rasher of bacon. Mika's ears pricked up gently as she heard the strip sizzle gently in the pan of oil. She smiled at her sister briefly, and made her way to the breakfast bar, pulling herself up onto a stool, feeling the chill against her bare legs as the cold fabric touched them. Leaning over the counter, Mika rested her hands under her chin and crossed her legs, watching her sister busying herself about the kitchen.
Nina had really big, yellow hair, which flicked up at the ends, just past her shoulders. She also had fairly large yellow, cat-like ears, which always stuck out from the top of her hair. She had big, violet eyes with big eyelashes, which glittered and flickered mysteriously as she blinked. She had a large chest, smallish hips, and really long legs. In short- as Mika could find no other words to describe her- a guy magnet. Nina's dark purple nightie swayed about her as she tended to the bacon, whilst simultaneously checking on the toast she'd recently placed in the toaster. Mika sighed, and longed once again to be like her sister. She was really popular, and had an electric personality to match her element of expertise.
During Mika's track of thoughts, Nina presented a plate, containing two sandwiches, comprising of hot buttered toast, and hot rashers of bacon doused in plenty of tomato ketchup- just the way Mika liked it. As Mika smiled, Nina placed a mug of hot chocolate in front of her, with five marshmallows bobbing on the frothy surface.
"Go on, eat up!" Nina said brightly, ruffling her sister's pink fringe as she walked away from the table.
Mika smiled as she picked up a sandwich. "Aren't you going to eat anything?" She asked before taking a large mouthful of her breakfast.
"Oh no! I couldn't!" Nina replied, walking towards the door. She smiled and elegantly placed a hand on her hip. "A girl's gotta watch her figure, you know!"
Mika smirked between chews and chortled a little.
"Besides!" Nina continued, opening the door of the kitchen. "I gotta make a call. Shall I put the radio on for you?"
Mika smiled and nodded. Nina flicked the radio on, placed on top of the cabinet by the door, and disappeared with a quick twirl out into the passageway.
Mika smiled and closed her eyes as she swallowed a bite of her sandwich and slipped at her hot chocolate. As she ate her favourite food and listened to her favourite song on the radio, the threat of impending doom seemed to be far, far away from her.
As Nina walked into the living room, her smile faded. She knew things were serious, and this time she'd have to act fast. At times like this, she needed to call on the one person who knew how to help her, of the same element; as she summoned her powers, blue sparks of electricity began to crackle from the tips of her index and forefinger on her right hand.
"BoltStryke the Hedgehog. can you hear me?"
************
The skies were a deep blue, melding into soft shades of pink and orange nearer the east, and the temperature was beginning to rise in the Desert.
The area was totally silent, and everything lay still among the dusty ground, cracked and parched from water for several years. Despite the lack of fluid, rough grasses grew here and there, and wavered ever so slightly in the semblance of breeze that blew low across the sandy floor. Small, round stones lay dotted along the entire desert, almost perfect in terms of shape.
The silence was beginning to be broken, however, and soft rumbles, like that of thunder rolling across the skies in the distance, shook the smallest particles of dust, and the smallest of pebbles on the desert floor. The sound grew closer, and the disturbance was becoming more and more clear as the sound grew increasingly louder by the nanosecond, shaking larger and larger stones and eventually the ground. Soon, and updraft blew across the field, blowing a dusty haze about the floor, and whipped the grasses into a swirling frenzy. The sound grew more intense, and, as quick as it had come, a purple and blue blur flashed across the area of the desert, and the sound grew quieter again, rolling away with the object into the distance. The trace of the object was clear, however, as the feint shimmers of heat wavered from the ground from where it had passed, and as peace was returning to that quiet spot, a loud explosion rocked the area, a dusty blast wave blowing more sand and grass into the air, which quickly lamed down into tiny wisps of dust, spiralling towards the ground, laying still once again.
The blurs continued through the desert, in a uniformly straight line, blasting through anything in their way. A giant boulder exploded into two large fragments as the blurs past, ripping through the old relic as if it were paper. It crashed to the ground, spitting up large clouds of dust into the air, and the impact echoed around the vast, empty space, devoid of most basic signs of life, apart from these supersonic blurs, it seemed.
As the blurs raced across the desert at a tremendous speed, one broke from high-speed, and leapt into the air, swerving his weight around instantaneously so that he flipped upside down in the air, running through a trail of golden rings that he had narrowly spotted. As he returned from his airborne state, he quickly returned his weight to his feet again, and skidded to a swift halt on the ground, his red and white shoes kicking up large amounts of dust as he did so. The other blur promptly skidded to a halt too, only taking a lot more time to stop than the first did, as he was moving a lot faster. Having stopped at quite a distance from his friend, he didn't move. He simply turned his head to glance back as the blue creature he was with stood still, examining a Gold ring which he was holding tightly in his right hand.
It was almost apparent who it was; his bright green eyes shimmered in the low light, glinting slightly as the gold ring he was holding in his hand tilted to catch what light there was; red sneakers with the world-famous white stripe, with white trimmings, with gold and silver-plated grinding plates, wide, curious eyes, white gloves and the unmistakable swept-back, supersonic blue spikes which were growing longer and longer with age. This blue creature was the world-renowned hero, Sonic the Hedgehog.
He examined the ring further as a small smile crept its way across his face. "Hmmm. I've collected heaps of these over the years. and yet, I've never looked into why and how they hold the powers they do."
His friend nodded, acknowledging his comment, then folded his arms tightly and looked over to the mountainous region, which hid the slowly rising sun, in the eastern part of the desert. Sonic spun the ring on his finger, and then looked over curiously in his friend's direction.
"Hey, is something troubling you, buddy?" he asked, walking a little closer. His friend glanced over his shoulder for a split second, and then looked away again. "Well." He began. His voice was much deeper than Sonic's, more mature, almost. "It feels as if someone is trying to get in contact with me. but the signal's weak."
Sonic tilted his head to one side and raised an eyebrow, as if he was not sure that he quite understood what his friend meant. "Get in contact with you? How?"
Sonic's purple friend glanced over his shoulder again, and then turned to face him. "For years I've possessed an almost psychic power, due to my connection with the element of electricity. It enables me to get in contact with others who possess the same power as I do. It was something I was born with. something I can't explain." He looked from the floor to Sonic, who nodded sympathetically.
"Heh. I guess that's what being BoltStryke the Hedgehog is all about. There are lots of things about me that I don't know. Stuff I wish I knew."
The purple Hedgehog unfolded his arms and clenched his fists tightly, which were adorned with fingerless black leather gloves, which had a circular yellow gem on the back of each glove, with a lightning Bolt carved into it. Around each wrist was a blue bracelet, and a green bracelet, called Dynamis rings. These rings helped BoltStryke to harness his powers and keep them from overpowering his, causing him to overload.
His eyes were a mysterious colour; almost golden in colour, but melded into almost brown near the tops of his eyes, rendering his eye colour near impossible to describe. His eyes always sparkled intensely, glittering with mystery; Even more so when he was smaller, but the twinkle had diminished in his later years.
Three locks of purple hair, which grew in the middle of his forehead, fell across his eyes. He also had two longer locks of hair on the left side of his face, covering just a small portion of his left eye. His spikes weren't like Sonic's; Only in the likeness that he had two down turned spikes down the middle-back oh his head, but the two on either side of his head grew upright, a lot like Shadow's, only BoltStryke's were slightly shorter and a more free-flowing in shape. His tail was a lot more differently shaped too, and had now curled and tightened itself into a Lightning bolt shape. He wore electric blue Air sneakers on his feet, lined with a Bolt gem on the sole and hell of each foot. His shoes also came equipped with rocket boosters, which his close friend, Denise the Fox had developed for him. On each shoe, a golden lightning bolt motif had carefully been embroidered on, and the air bubbles on his shoes were a bright, electric yellow. BoltStryke did indeed look like the sheer electrical and Chaos power that he possessed. Outgoing and friendly-sounded when need be, but also one formidable Hedgehog.
BoltStryke was a year younger than Sonic, but when it came to things such as battle; BoltStryke was a lot more experienced. How BoltStryke emerged from the Master Emerald is a mystery, but that's how it happened, and in being born in this way, the sheer powers of Chaos energy were instilled within him, making him a near-unstoppable power. BoltStryke could transform into many more powerful forms, and use a lot more Chaos-fuelled attacks than Sonic could.
BoltStryke decided to help out Sonic by helping his to learn more Chaos attacks, but in order to do so, Sonic needed to train hard in his spare time. And now it seemed that vacation time was no more, as it had become training time. Sonic didn't mind however, as growing older had made him more serious in becoming more powerful than he was now in his current state. His change in attitude came out after the recent disaster, when Shadow, a Hedgehog they all barely got to know, died trying to save Earth. Since then Sonic was determined on becoming powerful, striving to become 'The Ultimate Lifeform' Like Shadow had mentioned.
".I need to concentrate in order to receive the telepathic message that someone is trying to give to me." BoltStryke paused as he looked around, and spotted the dark shapes of large rocks not so far from them. "I'll be over there." He said finally, gesturing to the rocks on his right side. "If Tails comes this way, be sure to notify me." Sonic nodded, and with that, BoltStryke walked slowly over to the large rocks, about fifteen to twenty feet in height. He looked up to the very summit of the rocks, watching the dark blue skies also, the bright stars twinkling in their depths. Looking past the summit, he noticed the sky getting lighter, melding gently into a brighter shade of blue.
He looked down once again, and bent his knees, looking down at the floor. And in a split second, he placed enough power in his legs to spring up past the summit of the rock, and landed neatly on the very top of the largest one. He sighed a little as he eased himself down to sit on the rocky surface, and watched the sky over the horizon in the east, a thin line of gold appearing just over the rocky mountains, melding into brighter shades of pink, orange and yellow.
He blocked the imagery from his mind as he closed his eyes, and began to think deeply, trying to pinpoint the location in his head where he had felt the strange sensation coming from. He urged his thinking track deeper in his mind, wanting to find it fast, before it slipped away from him.
Suddenly, it came to him like a rush of heat, which startled him slightly, but he kept his eyes closed nonetheless. The heat seemed to swirl about his head to the very top of his brain, and it wasn't before long that he could begin to see the swirling, mysterious mass of red and orange liquid spiralling to the very hilt of his brain. Soon the swirling mass ebbed away slowly back into the depths of his mind to form a glittering blob, which soon rose up and melded into shape, beginning to form a three-dimensional face. The liquid began to change colour slowly, slowly fading into shades that made up features of a suddenly familiar face. BoltStryke raised his eyebrows in surprise as the face had finished forming and had opened its eyes, looking right at him.
The face at once twitched into a slightly annoyed expression. "BoltStryke, what took you so long?" The voice echoed about his head, and BoltStryke shuddered slightly. It was such a weird sensation to behold, but he had to get to grips with the situation, and fast.
"Sorry, I'm just not used to this. I've only done it once before, Nina." He spoke aloud, not quite remembering how it was done the first time around. He had clearly got it right though, as Nina's facial expression changed to a more understanding look. Comfortable that Nina could hear him clearly, BoltStryke spoke again. "Long time no see, by the way."
"Yeah, it's been a while." Nina said, chuckling slightly. "Anyways, I can't talk for too long, as Mika will become suspicious as to why I'm here for so long, and might hear us talking. I bring news, BoltStryke."
The purple hedgehog's ears pricked up at those words, and furrowed his eyebrows. "News? What kind of news?"
"It's my sister." Nina began, her face saddening as she remembered the events that had happened over fifteen minutes ago. "She's had another vision."
BoltStryke's eyebrows furrowed further, and tilted his head to one side slightly. "What kind of vision, Nina? A bad one?"
Nina nodded slowly, biting her lower lip gently as she gazed at the floor. "Afraid so. she talks of a giant red comet, blazing red in colour and heading towards Earth, and everything around her was red." She trailed off again, looking back at BoltStryke. ".That look in her eyes, Bolt. I can't forget that look, it was that fearful look that she had the last time she had a vision when-"
"Station Square.?" BoltStryke said softly, breaking in. Nina nodded solemnly. BoltStryke relaxed a little and sighed, thinking of some sort of an answer. After a long pause, he spoke. "I don't know what to make of all this. Surely something can't be coming our way again? First Chaos, then the ARK and now. this?"
Nina sighed too, and looked up at the ceiling (And in Bolt's mind, this was just darkness) "Exactly. we need to keep our guard up, BoltStryke. we don't know what might happen."
BoltStryke nodded. "Yeah. I'm still not sure what to do, but I'm going to try to pop around soon so that I can see Mika myself. I need her to describe to me what she's seen, so I can better see how I can go about setting things right before they go horribly, horribly wrong." BoltStryke let out a long sigh and looked at his friend. "In the meantime, just keep her happy. Try to keep her mind off her vision until I get there."
Nina smiled, encouraged by her friend's reassurance. "Okay. Well, I'll be seeing you then."
BoltStryke nodded and smiled slightly. "Okay. See you soon. Take care of yourself, okay?"
Nina nodded. "You too. See you." And with that, her face faded into the fiery ball of liquid, and swirled away and out of sight. As it gushed away from his mind, the heat slowly drifted away too. With that, BoltStryke opened his eyes, squinting just a little as the light flooded into them. He could see that most of the dark blues of the night were fading away fast, and it's only remains were midnight blue clouds against a golden-yellow sky, fading into pastel shades of pink.
His expression remained serious as he tucked his feet underneath him and gently eased himself up onto his feet. As he looked around, he noticed Sonic stretching his leg muscles, pulling the tip of his foot toward him with his hand, his leg outstretched, alternating between each foot. BoltStryke leapt from the rock quickly, letting himself fall to the floor, and braced his impact by bending his knees as his feet hit the floor.
At the sound of his feet falling on the hard earth, Sonic stopped what he was doing, and looked around. "So, what was it?" he asked fairly brightly, shaking his legs from his exercise.
BoltStryke raised his hands in order to crack his knuckles, walking towards his blue friend. "Nina. She had news. not very good news, in fact."
Sonic stopped all activity and watched his friend's solemn face. "What's wrong, dude?" He asked softly, walking closer.
BoltStryke let his hands drop to his sides and looked into Sonic's green eyes. "A vision. And we may be in danger." He paused. "What was that?" BoltStryke looked up into the air and around him, and Sonic followed suit.
The air slowly became filled with a soft, mechanical whirring sound, which reverberated around the rocks and within each blemish and crack on each inch of ground and rock. As BoltStryke looked directly above him, he noticed a dark silhouette, which was barely visible against the dark blue clouds that surrounded it. It was coming closer, and as it did, two small, bright blue twinkles appear, looking like afterburners somewhat. And, as it descended upon them, BoltStryke and Sonic realised that's exactly what they were.
As the clouds in the sky shifted, a ray of rising sunlight caught the mysterious shape, and at once the ray reflected the detail of the craft for all to see.
The craft was now no more than thirty feet from the ground now; supersonic blue in colour, blue afterburners blazing away beneath each foot of it. The blue craft was trimmed with yellow, and on the side, a drawing of two orange tails with white tips, and the name 'Tornado III' painted in white on the side. Not particularly in a professional style, but more in the style of a thirteen year old.
As the sun glittered off the seemingly newly polished craft, its afterburners blew stray particles of dust into clouds that just drifted off the surface of the hard plain, and billowed outwards as the Tornado III began landed rather clumsily on the hard earth. The fox removed his goggles, gently sliding then on top of his head, and glanced at both hedgehogs, before giving a brief salute. BoltStryke stepped back as the orange two-tailed fox clambered out of his machine, and smiled up at BoltStryke. Sonic walked around the Tornado to join them.
"I take it you didn't find anything?" The purple hedgehog said after a long silence. The fox shook his head, and gave a slight sigh.
"I've been scanning a wide area for hours, and there's still no sign of the Chaos Emeralds. Though I have a strange feeling that we might have to search farther than these islands."
"How come, Tails?" Sonic asked, scratching his chin.
"Well." Tails began, kicking against the ground gently "When the reaction happened in the chamber of the ARK, the Chaos Emeralds must have dispelled over a wide area. Some of them may even be in outer space. Just floating around. I figure that we might have to perform a worldwide search rather than just a regional one, to ensure that the emeralds are still around."
BoltStryke nodded approvingly, and glanced over in Sonic's direction, who gave a slight shrug "Well, whatever's necessary. As long as we can retrieve some of the Chaos emeralds, not that much harm can come to the world again, right?"
"Right." BoltStryke agreed, walking away from the two as he thought deeply, looking down at the dusty earth as he paced slowly. "And who knows, what with the news that I just received, it's just as well that we're looking for them. We don't know what's out there to harm us at the moment." The hedgehog stopped and glanced back at Tails, who looked back at him curiously. "Tails, Sonic, we need to get back to the base. I have to explain to the gang just exactly what I was told just now." The fox blinked, slightly confused. "What were you told.?"
BoltStryke bit his lip gently, and then shrugged a little. "I guess it's easier for me to explain to you all at once when we get there." he stopped as he stretched his arms over his head, interlocking his fingers as he cracked his knuckles, then hopped on the spot. "I don't know about you, Sonic, but I'm up for a little more exercise." He smirked over at him. "Up for it?"
The Blue hedgehog nodded and smiled in return. "Sure! I'm ready!" Tails took this as a signal to jump back into the Tornado III, and at once fired up its thrusters, ready to take off. As the fox warmed up his machine, the two had already darted off into the distance, trails of swirling dust clouds behind them. The ground seemed to tremble slightly as the raced away, and in the distance, the shattering echoes of a double sonic boom could be heard, reverberating around every canyon for miles around.