Chapter 2
Tails and Cosmo walked over to the park together after they were done at the museum. It was now 5:00pm and the sun was now hanging low in the sky. Sonic and Amy had joined Tails and Cosmo and everyone decided to play a game of hide and seek.
"45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50 ready or not here I come" Amy yelled so everyone who was hiding could hear. She ran over to a large tree and looked around the base of it but there was no one there. She looked up at the branches but couldn't see any one. Little did she know Cosmo was hiding in the tree, camouflage against the green leaves. Amy next looked over at the play park. She looked over at the fence and saw a big yellow tail on the ground.
"Found you Tails" Amy yelled as she pointed at the fence posts. Tails stood up in view and walked over to Amy
"Yeah I guess you did" he said a little ashamed to be the first one caught. They ran all over the park but could not see Sonic or Cosmo anywhere they looked. Cosmo was constantly moving from one place to another and hiding herself where they were looking for the fun of it. Sonic was just running around behind them and staying out of sight. This went for about an hour before Sonic and Cosmo finally got bored and let them selves get caught. They all walked over to the hill side and lied down. Sonic looked over at Tails and gave him a nod. Tails knew exactly what he meant by this and pulled out a small black box from where he had been concealing it. The box had a golden necklace with a green gem stone in it, Tails with Sonic help did some jobs for private companies to get the money to by it. Tails stood up and walked over to Cosmo with the box in his hand. He stood over her and held the box out in his hands.
"Here Cosmo hope you like it" Tails said as he gave Cosmo the box. Cosmo had a puzzled look on her face. But that look turned in to one of pure joy as she opened the box and saw the flawless green gem.
"Oh thank you tails" Cosmo said as he hugged him as tight as she could.
"No problem, it's the least I could do for you" Tails said. Cosmo was about to put the necklace on when a hooded man ran straight through the Group. As he ran through he grabbed the necklace and ran off.
"No he took the necklace!" Cosmo said. Tails sprung in to life running after him followed shortly after by Sonic.
"Sonic I'll chase him down you head him of" Tails Explained as he ran after the hooded man.
"Ok" Sonic replied as he ran of round the buildings. Tails followed the man in to an alley blocked off by a wire fence.
"Your trapped, now give me back that necklace!!" Tails yelled in anger. But before Tails could say another word the hooded man pulled a gun on Tails. Tails was frozen with fear he tried to back away but as soon as he took one step the man fired.
Cosmo's blood ran cold when she heard the sound of the gun shot come from where Tails had run off to.
"NO! Pleases no!" Cosmo yelled as she began to cry. She ran down to the alley and saw Tails down on one knee, with blood leaking out of his shoulder. Cosmo grabbed hold of Tails putting herself in front of him to protect him as she stared down the barrel of the gun.
BANG!!
Cosmo looked up and saw a tall man in front of her. He was wearing a full black over coat and was holding a huge sword. The hooded man fell to his knees as the bullet recoiled of the sword and back at him, hitting him in the stomach.
"Brimstone?" Cosmo asked.
"In the flesh" Brimstone replied as he turned around and began to heal Tails wound. Cosmo and Tails hugged each other, relieved that they had made it through this. Brimstone walked over to the hooded man and began healing his injury while he made sure to restrain him.
"But why are you here? We all thought you were looking for Aleerea?" Tails asked
"That's why I'm here. I need your help to get Aleerea back" Brimstone replied
It was now 7:30 and everyone had gone back to Tail's house so Brimstone could explain what was going on.
"So you're saying that you need to travel through time to twelve different places collecting the fragments of Aleerea's soul, so you can merge them together to bring her back." Tails said as he ran over what he had just been told in his mind.
"Yes and that's where you come in. I need you to build a time machine, and I need it to be built before the next Cosmic Shift." Brimstone explained
"What's a Cosmic Shift?" Cosmo asked
"It's like a planetary alignment but instead of planets, it's is an alignment of different realities. Twelve different realities to be exact and it happens only once every 120 years."
"So when's the next Cosmic Shift" Sonic asked.
"It's two weeks from now at exactly 12:00pm."
"Waite a minuet how am I supposed to build a fully working time machine that can also cross realities in two weeks?"
"Don't worry I have it all worked out, I have what is called a time hole crystal. With that I will be able to create a hole in time and space which will allow me to travel to where I need to go. The only problem with this is that I can't control it. That's why I need you to build a machine that can create a sonic sound wave. The portal's destination is determined by a special wavelength it gives off. To control that wavelength you need to introduce a sonic sound wave of the desired wavelength" Brimstone explained.
"That seems do-able" Tails said as he thought it through.
"So will you help me?" Brimstone asked hoping Tails would say yes.
"Of course I will help; I mean you helped me and Cosmo so much back when we needed it. So it seems only natural that I should repay the favour" Tails said with a happy tone in his voice "anyway it seems like fun."
"Thanks Tails this means a lot to me."
"Glad to help."
~Two weeks later~
Cosmo yawned as she slowly opened her eyes. It took her eyes some time to adjust to the level of light, but they soon did and she could see everything around here. She was lying in a large desert brown tent on what felt like an old steel framed bed. She slowly sat up and took a good look at the room she was in. The bed was at the wall furthest from the door, and there was a small metal footlocker at the base of the bed. The whole room was square in shape, about 15 by 15 feet with four metal poles, one at each corner, holding up the tent. A small metal lamp hung loosely from the roof with a wire running down the wall and under the tent. The floor was just a bed of sand; the door was just a sheet hanging in front of the gap in the tent. For the last two weeks this had been Cosmo's home. Ever since Tails had decided to build the time machine way out in the desert, about 100 miles from the city, just in case something went wrong. Cosmo didn't mind she knew that Tails was only doing this to make sure everyone was safe. Cosmo thought of this as more like a camping trip. There was her, Tails, Brimstone and eight others who were there to help with the construction and operation of the time machine. She slowly moved out of the bed and stood up on the sand floor. She was wearing a long sky blue night dress which came down to her knees. She could feel the cool sand on her bare feet as she walked over to the metal footlocker to get her clothes. It took Cosmo about 10 minutes to get fully changed and ready to leave. She walked over to the door and pulled back the sheet to reveal the outside world. She stepped forward outside her tent, and almost instantly was hit by a wall of heat. The sun was bearing down with all its force. Even with her shoes on, Cosmo's feet were burning from the feel of the sand that was baking in the sun. She had to use her hand to shield her eyes from the sun's rays. There was a whole group of tents all set out in a special way. They were all set out in a big square surrounding four large antenna which were all built leaning in towards each other. To one of the sides of the square was a large rectangular tent with an open front. This tent was filled with computers and mechanical equipment. On the opposite side there was another large rectangular tent which was also open at the front. This one was filled with four rows of tables. Three had benches set out beside them and the other had four sets of gas rings. This was the mess tent where everyone ate. The other two sides had four identical tents. All square and two to each side. The one to the left nearest the mess tent was Cosmo's room. Next to that was Tails and Brimstones room. And the other two opposite were for the other eight people. Tails always said that he gave Cosmo her own room because she was the only girl there, but everyone knew that he just wanted to give her the biggest room. There was also a set of showers and toilets outside behind the mess. It was now 8:30 and Brimstone was cooking breakfast with the help of two other people. Cosmo walked over to where Tails was sitting and sat down next to him. Tails didn't notice Cosmo, he was completely focused on the laptop he had in front of him.
"Hello Tails" Cosmo said right in his ear. This made Tails jump and almost spill his drink on the laptop he was working on.
"O hi Cosmo ready for breakfast?" Tails asked as he moved the laptop out of the way.
"Yep, what are we having?" Cosmo asked
"I don't know let's see what there is" Tails suggested. They both stood up and walked over to the serving table where the three cooks were serving out the food.
"What's on the menu chef Brimstone" Tails said in a slightly sarcastic voice which made Cosmo giggle a bit.
"I know its not a healthy option but we are serving knuckle sandwiches to all wise crackers if you like" Brimstone remarked in a sarcastic tone of his own.
"No I'm good what else is there?" Tails asked in a more serious tone.
"All we have at the moment is Ramen if you like"
"I don't know what that is but it sounds good"
"It's a Japanese noodle dish" Brimstone said as he pored out two bowls. Tails and Cosmo took a bowl each and walked back to the table where they were sitting. Tails pulled out two sets of chopstick and gave one to Cosmo.
"Er Tails how do I use these?" Cosmo asked as she looked puzzled at the chopsticks.
"Here I'll show you" Tails said as he helped Cosmo to use here sticks. The rest of the morning went smoothly as Tails made the final checks to the machine. Brimstone got the crystal ready and put it on a tripod about three feet tall in the centre of the four antennas. Cosmo found herself as always running the little jobs that everyone needed her to do. Stuff like fetching the tea or getting the part someone needed or just holding something in place. It didn't bother her, she was just glad to be able to help and not just sit out while everyone else was working. It was now 11:50 and everyone was ready to fire up the machine. The crystal was in place and Tails and Brimstone were just looking over the final calculations for the machine. Once every thing was set Tails pulled down on a small lever and the machine came to life.
"Bring it up to twelve hundred mega hertz" Brimstone said. Tails did this without saying a word. As he pulled down on the lever a number began to rise on the computer screens.
"We're at twelve hundred MHz now" Tails said
"Right" Brimstone said as he walked over to the crystal. He put both his hands over the top and began focusing his energy. Nothing happened for about 10 seconds, but then without warning there was a big explosion which sent Brimstone flying back on to the sand.
"That was fun" Brimstone said as he got up and dusted himself off. Once the smoke cleared everyone could see a large black oval in the centre of the machine. A portal into another world.
"We did it!" Tails yelled in excitement as the clock turned to 12:00.
"Here we go" Brimstone said as the portal began to change colour to reveal a very old looking street. "What have we got Tails" Tails began to press some buttons on the keyboard in front of him.
"Looks like its France, 1916" Tails read off the screen. "Be careful Brimstone that's during the First World War." Brimstone just smiles and turned to face the portal.
"Here I come Aleerea" Brimstone said as he ran forward and dived in to the other world.
