"Today we shall talk about urban legend. Can anyone tell me what that is?"
A hand went up.
"Yes, Ishmael."
"A fairytale people say in the city."
He was very sure, very certain, but one girl sniggered, crushing him, breeding hatred in his little mind. The rest offered vacant stares, hoping their show of apathy and ignorance would not draw teacher's attention.
"What's so funny, Martha?"
"It doesn't have to be in a city. It's just to show how it's different from stories from long ago."
"Very good, I see you did your homework. Now you're going to hear one," teacher said, and sat on his desk. The whole class leaned forward. Teacher always said something important when he sat on the desk, like the time when Fred was run over by a car and had to stay in hospital. Fred, with pieces of his ears missing, leaned forward the most.
"The harlequin was making mischief on Mobius. Not like the harlequin you saw in the play, but one who dressed as if he had taken the night sky and wrapped it around him."
Total unobtrusive silence was his reward. Teacher breathed and continued.
"The harlequin was tricking people into giving him their minds. He would promise them gold, and when they said yes he would reach through their eyes quick as lightning and take their minds."
"Where did he put them?" Fred blurted, as children tend to do.
"He ate them. He only took off his mask when he was eating."
Fred felt sick and wished he hadn't asked.
"Now, while the harlequin was eating people's minds, an angel was watching him from heaven. The angel said to herself, I will trick the harlequin, like he tricked everybody else. So the angel came down from heaven, riding a sunbeam. The harlequin saw her, so he ran! He hid in the shadows, but the stars he stole from the night sky kept shining from his clothes, so the angel saw him."
Teacher paused, shifting on his desk, letting the tension rise.
"Listen, said the angel, I will sing for you, and you won't feel hungry anymore. But what the angel really wanted to do was sing the harlequin to sleep, and make him sleep forever! So the angel sang," teacher actually sang in a low, soothing tone, "Ever and always, always and ever… and the harlequin swayed side to side," teacher mimicked the motion, "and fell asleep. The angel picked up the sleeping harlequin and dug down into the earth to bury him forever. But just as the angel was putting him in the hole, the harlequin woke up! How did you stay awake? The angel asked. Simple, said the harlequin, I was singing to myself. And it was true, because the harlequin has all these voices in his head from all the minds he ate. The angel tried to get away, but then the harlequin started to sing! And it sounded like this: Forever, never and ever. You shall for always dream of eternity."
Wide gaping eyes were locked onto him. Teacher enjoyed a smile at their expense.
"And that is how the harlequin tricked the angel, and took her mind. He buried her in the earth, but not forever, because her mind belonged to him, and she could not hurt him anymore."
Teacher basked in the afterglow for a bit before declaring, "Class dismissed, and remember, no straying to the west side."
It was standard procedure in all institutions of learning. Mercia was at war over some silly wedding ring decorations. There was no understanding humans, but be damned if Mobians allowed them to take their minerals. Teacher stood on the stairs of the school compound, ignoring the intermittent vibrations underfoot that came from bombing runs in the west. The children had grown up with them, and had formed their own notions of what caused the tiny earthquakes. Some said there were dwarves underground. Some said there were machines. A few of them knew the truth, usually those who had lost their relatives in the fighting. To the rest, the idea of war was childish; it was a silly game adults played when they had an argument.
Hell, the war seemed childish to teacher, and he had fought in it until he lost his left arm. That's why he was here now, and not on the front lines. He walked down the street, back home, back to the TV and the news channel that always had the same news. Mother, father, brother, sister, cousin, nephew… what Mercians were not involved in the war had felt its loss. He popped a beer, thought things over, forgot about them as the chemicals soothed his headache and the ache of his phantom left arm.
888
The echidna scientist thought he was in the wrong place until the edge of a shadow in the corner of his eye moved. He turned and called out, "Hey! You, with the mask! I want a floating island, so that I can rule the skies!"
The white mask paused. It was visible, though there was no light in the room.
"Why?"
The echidna scientist broke out into a nervous sweat.
"Because it will be grand, and people will remember me!"
The white mask tilted to one side.
"It will be so grand that your name will be forgotten – faded by the island itself."
The echidna scientist bared his short, pointy teeth.
"Yeah, whatever. Can you help me?"
The white mask tilted upright again and a small glow seemed to come from the single eyehole.
"Sure, but it's going to cost you."
888
Angel Island took up a good chunk of Mobius' landmass, although not belonging to the earthbound continents. Upon this floating fortress was the most powerful artifact on the planet, namely, the Master Emerald. In dire times Mobians looked to it for salvation. Sonic and Robotnik had meddled with it the most; usually when Robotnik built an ultra-weapon from it and Sonic became an ultra-weapon to counteract it.
A curious thing about chaos emeralds is that they reflect spirit as well as they reflect light, and Sonic had exploited this fact several times to 'save the world'. Another curious thing about these gems is that they are all connected, and the Master is, of course, their source. Mercia, that city whose size matched its unhappiness, sat beside a lake so large and so full of chaos emeralds that it was called the Emerald Sea. Now, chaos emeralds rarely have a chance to be exposed constantly to that many people, but the Emerald Sea was the exception. The spirit of Mercia cried out for a saviour, someone or something to end this endless war against humanity. The Emerald Sea absorbed their pain.
And the Master Emerald felt it.
Unlike most sentient beings, the Master Emerald did something about its pain. There were two entities capable of ending the war decisively in Mercia's favour, but only one was under the influence of the Master. So, the Master, connected to the veins of Angel Island, sought out the entity that lay asleep somewhere within the floating continent.
888
Teacher was on his seventh beer when the apartment building shook. He shot to his feet, dropped the can and picked up the handgun between the TV remote and bag of chips. Outside, now, on ground level, he began to ask questions of other Mercians as worried and up in arms as he.
"No artillery can fire this far from the front. No bombing raid ever made it past the antiaircraft battery," a raccoon with a rocket launcher reasoned, "So what was it?"
"Think a tank broke through?" a bunny with a bazooka wondered.
"There's a rocket site on every corner," teacher countered. People were looking up, so he did. Something was wrong with the sky. Half of it was smoky with war, and the other half a cloudless blue, but a green light overlapped both.
"That's no weapon I've ever seen. If it was nuclear we would have felt the shockwave by now."
"They're not stupid enough to go nuclear," the raccoon growled, "They can only insert a bomb like that with ground troops because a missile would be shot down. Even if they did, they'd kill their army and ours, and have nothing to assault the defenses around the lake."
"Well, I have nothing better to do, so I'm going to check the front," teacher determined. He went to one of the taxi drivers who were staring at the green sky.
"Take me to the front."
"Now? You don't know what they're using out there to do that!"
"I'm not waiting for the evening news to find out if I'm going to live or die."
"Fine, but you know it's fifty credits extra."
888
The echidna shook earth off his shoulders. He was old, tired, but not worn out, not at all. Just as he was about to go, he recognized Knuckles, who was blocking the entrance, fists ready.
"Why are you awake?" the Guardian demanded.
"Because," the old man replied, "I have stuff to do."
"What would this 'stuff' be? Trapping me on the moon again?"
"No, not you," the old man yawned, stretching muscles that hadn't been used for a few centuries, "Mercia needs correction."
"You're not yourself, Dimitri. What happened to the megalomaniac we all knew and loved?"
Dimitri shrugged, shaking off a bit more rubble.
"He served his purpose. I'm serving mine."
Dimitri walked forward. Knuckles swung, but the fist passed through the old man's jaw and the Guardian staggered. Outside, Dimitri stretched again, showing a broad smile at the green, green hills around the temple.
"I missed life."
Knuckles came running after. He reached out, expecting emptiness, but touched a bare shoulder that felt leathery, warm and alive. The old man wasn't wearing clothes, not even shoes.
"Take care of my island."
And just like that, he popped out of existence. The sky was still green, though. Knuckles kicked the ground where the old man had been standing and swore. Sonic arrived a few seconds later, screeching to a halt.
"I followed the lights in the sky. Where is he?"
"He's gone to Mercia."
"I thought he was on a temple orbiting Mobius!"
"Meteor fixed that a while back, and he crashed here."
Knuckles rubbed his head which ached with fresh frustration.
"I guess he wanted to be closer to home."
888
Teacher, and the opposing armies, stared. Strategies were delayed. Guns were lowered. Tanks were forgotten, left idling in the streets. Even the snipers dropped their scopes and gaped.
Nobody recognized him. Dimitri raised an eyebrow, floating as he was about twenty feet off the ground, surrounded by coruscating green energies which trembled with his every movement.
"Forgot me that quickly, huh? I guess I had armour on back then…"
Someone found a loudspeaker.
"Lower your energy field and come down."
Dimitri smiled.
"I make the demands."
He raised one hand, and every handheld weapon and every armoured vehicle showed signs of extreme age. Metal rusted, plastic and wood rotted. A stiff breeze blew, and both armies were rendered unarmed.
"Stop fighting over the chaos emeralds," Dimitri wagged a finger, "They do not belong to either of you."
Of course, the humans did not listen to common sense. Their commanders ordered them to charge, and charge they did, right into the bare hands of the Mobians. Both sides had been reduced to the most basic and brutal form of savagery, but the Mobians were better equipped with teeth and claws and tribal instinct. Dimitri sighed as human blood peppered the air.
"I'm not going to say it twice."
He lifted his other hand, and people started catching fire. The flames spread, jumping from Mobian to human and from human to Mobian. It was an unnatural fire, because after two minutes of screaming and smoke there was silence and ashes. Dimitri nodded.
"Ending the war – success."
Teacher was left standing in the soot as Dimitri moved into the city.
888
"What's she doing here?" Knuckles growled. He was in a growling mood in light of recent events (pun intended) as broadcast by the Master Emerald, sitting in majesty within its archaic and arcane chamber. Sonic lifted his hand from the young rabbit's shoulder.
"Everyone gets one wish, right? Well, we've both used up ours, so it's her turn."
Cream stood before the Master Emerald, waving away the vision of Mercia in flames.
"Alright you fat stone, how do we stop him?"
The Master thought it over in every dimension available.
"He is a god, therefore, you cannot."
"You're not answering the question."
"Find the one thing gods fear and loathe."
"What would that be?"
The Master Emerald was silent. Cream kicked it.
"There goes my wish! And I wanted to ask where Tails had gone."
Sonic growled this time.
"What gods 'fear and loathe the most'? The hell kind of riddle is that?"
"A mask," Knuckles said matter-of-factly. Sonic looked surprised, but Cream did not, because Knuckles was looking at her. Sonic looked between the two and then ventured, "What…"
Cream mercifully interjected, "The mask owes me a favour."
Sonic folded his arms and tapped his foot.
"Explain."
Knuckles shook his head.
"The harlequin owed Tails a favour, but since he's gone, the favour was passed on to her."
"Just because Tails adopted her?"
"Next of kin, if you will."
"Peachy. So this mask guy's gonna stop Enerjak, right? Do you know where he is?"
"Follow the sound of the violin," Cream replied, "He's there."
"I don't hear any…"
But then he could. In the highly fortified Master Chamber, there were low, sad notes trilling through the air. They sounded so far away.
"There's no one else in this room," Knuckles affirmed, "He must be outside."
Cream smiled.
"He's closer than you think."
Knuckles raised an eyebrow, and then asked for another broadcast of Mercia. The fat stone obliged, and there, in the midst of all the burning buildings and blackened corpses, was a man dressed half in black and half in white, wearing a white mask, and playing a violin. Sonic swore.
"What? Is he playing a lullaby to put Enerjak to sleep? I'm not wasting any more time!"
Barging past Cream and Knuckles, Sonic laid hands upon the Master.
"Give me the power… the power to defeat him!"
888
The harlequin played his violin while Mercia burned. He was singing in a low, soothing voice.
"Once you had gems, once you had armies. Then came the flames, out of the blue…"
A building collapsed, spitting bricks and dust that passed right through him.
"Ever and always. Always and ever. Time gave both chaos and dreams to you."
Teacher was watching him from under the cover of a statue. He thought he could salvage food and water from his apartment, but he had just watched his apartment building crumble. And now there was some masked violinist singing creepy lullabies, but teacher heard his voice clear as crystal despite the screams rending the air.
888
Dimitri, from his vantage point in the sky, had purified the Emerald Sea with fire. No more forest, no more walls, no more gates, no more soldiers or robots to guard it. Just still, green water, and the promise of what lay beneath. As he extended a hand to the sea, golden lightning flashed by. Dimitri looked up, and there was Super Sonic of the golden quills.
"Mmm, delicious chaos energy. Come to papa."
"You're going down, Enerjak!"
"Quite right. All the way down, where my lovelies await."
With an enormous energy burst Super Sonic tackled Dimitri, forcing him to the ground. A few city blocks suffered damage where they landed, and Super Sonic laid down a barrage of punches on the old man, each blow pushing him deeper into the ground. Super Sonic stopped when the old man was completely buried. He stood up.
"And stay there."
The ground behind Super Sonic erupted with Enerjak.
"I remember this!"
One knee to the back, and six condominiums broke Super Sonic's momentum.
"This is the part where you defeat me, right? Go ahead; use your clichés and your fists. You haven't grown up, at all."
By the time Super Sonic recovered, Enerjak had already submerged. Super Sonic flew through the buildings he had just been sent flying through and dove into the lake. Moments later, he and the lake's water were flung several thousand feet into the air. A green pillar of energy reached for the heavens, burning away the land. Out of the lake there arose a very large, very green and very shiny Emerald Enerjak, dreadlocks clinking in the wind. Dimitri, at the core, had gathered all the emeralds in the lake – a few billion of them – and formed a colossus around his body using the gems. Super Sonic, looking down from somewhere in the stratosphere, could see Emerald Enerjak climb out of the now empty lake and step onto Mercia, crushing about ten city blocks at a time under his glittering feet.
"Ancient Walkers, if you're watching, I need the help."
He fell from heaven, gathering speed. Flames and chaos energy roared around him until Super Sonic was a golden comet, shattering every sound barrier, knocking away entire cloudbanks in his descent. Emerald Enerjak sensed his chaos energy, and turned to watch. Super Sonic cleared the atmosphere in under a second, smashing with such force into Emerald Enerjak that the gleaming colossus was knocked off its feet, landing on its back and devastating more of Mercia.
"You're trapped."
Super Sonic had, indeed, penetrated to the core, but that had been his fatal error: Dimitri had both hands at Super Sonic's throat, throttling the chaos energy out of him. The gold faded from Sonic's quills, and Dimitri tossed him out of the hole Super Sonic had made in the colossus, which closed just as quickly.
Sonic landed on Emerald Enerjak's chest, but before he could get to his feet the giant got up, and Sonic fell off the shining green.
Down, down, down. Landing on concrete and bouncing off it because he had hit so hard. But he didn't die; Dimitri had purposefully left some chaos energy in him so that Sonic could witness his rise to power.
"Well, that was fun," Emerald Enerjak rumbled, "But you can't kill a god."
888
The masked violinist played on. Teacher was coughing blood, sheltering under the now headless statue. Silently he thought of the children.
"Now you can see, life becomes painful. Heroes in gold, falling from view. Ever and always. Always and ever. No-one can promise a dream for you. Time gave both memories and dreams to you."
888
The emerald titan stomped about Mercia until he neared the place teacher and the violinist was.
"Why are you doing this?" teacher shouted above the loud city-stomping to the player. The masked man in black and white stopped playing, looking at teacher for the first time.
"You imply that I should be doing something else."
"You're the harlequin, aren't you? The one from the stories. Can't you trick him?"
Teacher sounded ridiculous to his own ears, but certain doom overrides sensibility.
"Very well."
He pointed the bow at Dimitri.
"You who feed on the souls of others, I command you to look upon that hill. DISAPPEAR!"
Emerald shattered.