[Prof. Faranight house]
Once Silver heard about Prof. Faranight's family background, they all hurried to his place. Their suspicions were confirmed when the door was left unlocked.
"There must have been a big fight," said Sonic looking at papers on the floor, carelessly placed furniture, dirty windows, and other stuff.
"No, no one fought here," noted Silver and headed to stairs before them, "it always looks like that."
"Shocked to see even messier room than yours?" whispered Sally jokingly to blue hero.
"My room has very sophisticated order," but he needed to note he should order it a little bit more.
"Let's look for the clues!" Sally arranged them into two cell teams.
Amy was this time with Sonic to their representative enthusiasm. The house was full of books, papers, bookcases and other boring stuff. At least Sonic thought so.
[Unknown place]
The hedgehog with bolero was sitting on a small cushion. Around him were floating dim lights illuminating only a near area. His legs were crossed and his posture shown a calm mind.
The person he had met few hours ago showed a promise. He may help him fulfill his mission he put on himself. He will indeed need a help as stay on the surface is giving him a hard time. The air there is so much different from this one, forcing him to breath a lot slowly.
Using his abilities was proven more difficult than he anticipated as well. Traveling on Chaos paths isn't exactly an easy task. It's said these paths were the first one to be filled with Chaos energy. They run across the world like an endless river without an end and a beginning. Stepping on one means turning yourself into a spiritual being. Which means you will lose your physical body.
So if you got lost on this paths, you may never return to the outer world. The fact you aren't traveling alone isn't exactly helping. Who wants to have dozens of a ghost around, right? They live there until they can proceed to the next step of their journey. Staying long on the Chaos paths isn't a good choice either.
They are filled with endless energy and calm atmosphere, unlike other places or items filled with chaos energy. So staying for a long time means a higher chance to forget your original purpose of traveling, not to mention you will lose your chance to ever return to the physical world.
On the other hand, if you let's say travel like one kilometer on the Chaos paths it is actually like tens of them on the outer world. But the risk is big. So even if S'ancer was very careful, he had to be even more to avoid all of this. He was doing it by traveling shorter distances and resting between them to ensure his full concentration.
Recovering the last book was especially tiresome. The blue person was strong and dangerous. He hoped he won't need to meet him again. Fighting him and maintaining the field wasn't easy. He always did that to ensure no one will interfere with him. For now he had to recover and next night he will visit the silver person and asks for his help.
[Dr. Eggman flying base]
Prof. Faranight looked like classic scientist, wearing a long lab coat, having a problem to remember he needs to shave more than just once per month, but on the other hand he was not even 40 years old. Making him pretty young compared to his achievements.
Now he was working in a small lab engulfed by books. He loved them since childhood. Especially the stories about ancients civilizations made him excited. And now… he felt like he is in the seventh heaven. His latest research proved to be correct, he indeed discovered a proof of the existence of flying island of Mu.
Only one thing made him depressed, that he had to help Dr. Eggman to solve the last pieces of the puzzle to find where this mysterious place rests. He looked behind himself and saw Metal Sonic watching him. He returned to his work, remembering their encounter.
[Dr. Faranight's house – some 3 days ago]
"I'm coming," he rushed to the door, "Welcome Si-!" he almost bit his tongue, when there was a blue hedgehog and he was mechanical to boot.
"Dr. Eggman requires your presence," said mechanical voice. "Resistance will be meet with a proper answer." He reached out for him.
"W-Wait a minute! I-I-I'm expecting someone!" he shouted as the robot was dragging him away. "He will discover I'm gone and he will inform the authorities!"
Robot stopped.
"That would be a problem, right? I-I can arrange it like a sudden visit… an invitation from my sister. That will give you a time, won't it?"
The robot was silent, so professor quickly continued: "And I'm sure Dr. Eggman wants my research too. I'm the only one who can bring it."
"Acknowledge," Metal Sonic let him go. "You have ten minutes."
"T-Thank you," professor returned to the house, with the robot on his tail. "Please, stop following me, it's making me nervous. Don't tell me you expect a cannon popping out of my butt, to shot me to the moon?
Even if I tried to run, you will catch me in no time." Professor was walking here and there, picking up papers and tools.
"Acknowledge," said robot and went outside.
Professor Faranight wasn't wasting his time. He picked one book, put a small note inside of it and write a letter to Silver.
'Dear boy, I hope you won't try to go after me on your own. Please, bring this to Freedom Fighters. I'm sure they will help.' He finished his preparations and went to meet with Metal Sonic.
[Dr. Eggman flying fortress – present]
"How it's going?" Eggman entered his small room with hands behind his back as he had a habit.
"I'm still working on it," he answered without looking at him.
"I have expected more enthusiasm from you." He stopped next to him. "Wasn't your dream to discover something so big?"
"I have always wanted to hand over my research to a mad scientist," he grumbled.
"Never mind, discovering the legendary Land of Mu will fulfill your and my dream at the same time."
Professor had no answer. He knew Eggman was right on this one. Land of Mu… The continent of Mu… Floating Island of Mu… That place had many names through many sources, but they all had something in common. They described the Mu as an all-knowing race of creatures of an unseen species.
They were supposed to have long lives, greater physical strength, being noble and peaceful. They lived eons ago before the sunrise of first more complex civilizations. Nowadays technologies would still look like a joke in comparatives with theirs.
He remembered reading about one particular "miracle" they were supposed to create. But the text was too damaged to gain any useful information. Nevertheless, it seemed this "miracle" was very dangerous. He was afraid that Dr. Eggman set his eyes on this matter.
He was determinate to discover secrets of Mu and possible stopping this mad genius on his conquest. He sighted. Hopefully, Silver will get help in a time.
[Dr. Faranight's house – after an hour]
A quick search gave them few clues.
"This is Eggman's dirty work," said Sonic and pointed at a rotten egg, that was left in the kitchen.
"No kidding," added Amy and caught her nose as the smell was terrible.
"Silver, why would he kidnaped prof. Faranight?" asked Sally. Others Freedom Fighters were still searching around the house.
"I bet it's because of this." He showed them the paper that was inside the book left by the professor. "I'm sure it's connected to his latest discovery he was so excited about."
"Let's see…" Sally read aloud.
"Guardian protects an unseen book.
Let its blank pages be closed.
Unbeknown to the guardian where the treasure is.
It sleeps hidden in an eternal darkness.
Do not disturb it as a great sin is trapped within it.
Let no pure night light falls on its face
or you shall open a door to a menace."
"Sounds creepy," noted Sonic.
"Like it describes something terrifying," added Amy. "And something Eggman wants to get his hands on!"
Silver was looking at the paper as he noticed a small symbol in its corner. It looked like a circle with a small dot inside of it and three short lines forming a triangle around it.
"Did you remember something?"
"Well," he looked at them, "I think this symbol was on the strange hedgehog's hood."
"Alright, here's the plan. Sonic, Amy and Tails will try to find Eggman's fortress."
"It's high time to crush some eggs!" shouted Sonic making Silver put despondent expression. He knew how he disliked time-puns and blue hedgehog was making most of it. Especially if it meant to make even with him for the ego-thing.
"Me, Silver, and our special secret weapon will try to make a contact with the thief. Let's hope we can convict him to cooperate with us."
"But, Sal, I'm your secret weapon," Sonic pointed at himself.
"I know, blue blur," Sally smiled, "but his special case require a special method."
Soon after that the fighter trio took the Tornado and flew to find Dr. Eggman's fortress.
[Knothole library – almost two hours to midnight]
Silver was sitting on a comfortable chair. Constantly thinking, if Sonic and co. found professor. He as well thought about the creepy poem and the symbol. What were they describing? What professor discovered? He looked at a wall clock and sighed. He hoped this plan won't be just a big disaster. Their only clue was his mentioning about a library.
Normally he would read as much as possible but not now. The waiting was daunting. He yawned and closed his eyes for a while.
Suddenly he jerked, as he felt someone's presence. He quickly opened his eyes and almost jumped out of his spikes. The book thief was standing before him. And this wasn't all, it felt like something was off.
'It must be his zone-ability,' he thought. G.U.N. scientists were able to discover a source of such strange occurrences during his appearances. It looked like he was able to create a special force-field that blocked any electronic signals and took the affected place from space continuum. They as well suspected that his powers in such zone are limitless giving him a pretty sharp edge.
"Um… Good evening," said Silver, "my name is Silver the hedgehog and I have waited here to talk with you."
]I have wanted to meet you as well,[ the stranger said.
Silver quickly glimpsed behind himself as Sally wasn't coming.
]I have put the intruders to sleep.[
"You did what? They are my friends!" Silver was furious.
]They are not like you.[ He reached his hand toward him.
"Guess what? Everybody is different!" He run toward Sally, finding her laying on the floor in next room.
"Ah-Ah! I didn't fall asleep!" cried Cream as she showed up completely confused. She ran to the thief. "Please, Mr. Thief, don't take my book!" She almost shoved him it to the face. "I really love this fairy book! My mom often read it to me as a bedtime story."
The dark purple hedgehog stepped back. How did she appear? She was put to sleep… unless… she was already sleeping, making her immune to his power!
"What happened?" Sally muttered as she was rubbing her eyes.
"The thief came, but Cream has the situation under control," replied Silver with a big smile.
"One day I will be a mother and I want to read my children this book too. I want to share with them the happiness it brought to me. But not if you take it away!" Cream almost cried and sleepy Chao flew to her.
"Mr. Silver said you are trying to protect the books from bad people by taking them away. But lots of people are good people, not like mean Dr. Eggman! They will be sad if you take them."
The thief looked to the side from where Sally came.
"We want to talk with you," she said.
The thief watched her.
[Dr. Eggman's flying fortress – few hours earlier]
Professor and doctor were now a closer to discovering the location of Mu. Together they were making a remarkable progress. Metal Sonic approached them.
"Dr. Eggman, what are your next orders?"
"Can't you see I'm busy!" yelled the doctor, "Find something!"
"Affirmed!" There was sinister shine in his red eyes and he went away.
[At the board of Tornado – an hour earlier]
Sonic shivered. The sun almost set.
"Are you cold?" asked him Tails.
"Who me? I'm too cool for that!" He showed thumb up. 'Let's hope it didn't mean anything bad.'
"Something is flying toward us!" Amy shouted and covered her eyes as sunshine blinded her for a bit. "That's… Metal Sonic!"
The blue robot was getting near at incredible speed.
"Oh, man, what a good timing!" Sonic smiled.
"What's so good about that?!" Amy prepared her Piko Piko hammer.
"Where's tin can there's Eggman. I'll drop here, you keep flying." Sonic jumped toward the forest and robot went straight after him.
"Long time no see, huh?" Sonic greeted him with a smirk as he was now flying alongside with him. "Not that I missed your ugly mutt face."
Metal robot slashed him, but Sonic avoided the attack.
"Sorry, tin can, I'm kinda in a hurry, so let's cut this short!" He spin-dashed him, but Metal Sonic wasn't Sonic's copy for nothing.
"Good move! But you are not as cool as me!"
For a while, they were attacking each other but without any progress.
'Sheesh, this is starting to take too long. I've gotta do something fast.' He sped up. "Taste my dust, slowpoke!"
Metal went straight after him, dodging any natural obstacle he faced. Sonic stuck out tongue. Metal sped up too. His engine sounded like the roaring of a thunder.
'Just what I need!' Sonic smiled and jumped to the laying tree trunk using it as a swing. Metal Sonic was catapulted with the opposing end to the air.
"And now is the time for everybody's favorite sonic spin das-Huh?"
"Hiyaah!" shouted Amy and hammered the robot back to the ground severely damaging him. Sonic finished him with his spin dash.
"I told you to continue flying!" he angrily said at Amy.
"We did." Amy smiled. She knew, Sonic wasn't really angry. "It just happened you were in our direction."
"I would handle him alone."
"I know you would."
Together they returned to Tornado. The night was upon them.
[The Knothole library – still two hours to midnight]
No one said anything for a while like they were measuring each other.
"We have a right to suspect you aren't just a thief, that you are trying to do something good. It's just your method isn't the right one." Sally started to talk. "We have many questions, but they will have to wait for now. There is a bigger problem and we hope you could help us."
She let him think about it. The fact he didn't run away gave her an exception he is listening.
"Guardian protects an unseen book.
Let its blank pages be closed.
Unbeknown to the guardian where the treasure is.
It sleeps hidden in an eternal darkness.
Do not disturb it as a great sin is trapped within it.
Let no pure night light falls on its face
or you shall open a door to a menace."
She recited the poem with a clear voice. Purple hedgehog slightly lifted the head. It felt like he recognized the words. Sally used the chance and showed him the paper.
"This poem was fo- Ah!"
The thief snatched the paper and pressed it against his chest hugging it tightly. Silver reached his hand and caught his sleeve. The hedgehog dragged him along. Silver was about to use his power when the thief was engulfed by darkness in the corner and pulled him too.
Sally jumped after them, but she only hit a wall.
"Are you alright?" Cream rushed to her.
"Yes, just a minor bump on the head," she stood up holding her head. With hands, she inspected the wall and Cream and Cheese helped too. But nothing showed up.
"Do you think Mr. Silver will be alright?"
"I'm sure of it. This isn't the first time he met an unknown," she smiled and added to herself, let's hope it isn't the last time.
[Unknown place – less than two hours to midnight]
"Cough… Huff…" Silver gasped. He was on all four catching his breath. "Where am I?" He looked around getting up. He rubbed his eyes as he was getting used to the dim light. "Are these… books?" He touched few of them. The lettering was in an unknown language, making him even more excited.
His ears went down. "Crud, I have found a place like Book's Heaven and I have absolutely no time to read anything." His time-traveling pun didn't add to his already gloomy mood. "Guess I should concentrate first on finding him…" he looked toward the endless darkness, he gulped, "… or find for a start a better-lit place."
[Dr. Eggman flying fortress – less than two hours to midnight]
"We did it!" shouted Prof. Faranight overcomes by a joy. He was so excited he even hugged with Dr. Eggman, thankfully not for long.
"Ehm… Good job from me as always," said the doctor. "Who would have thought it is hidden on such place." He left the room.
Professors joy was quickly extinguished. He realized he helped this madman to find something very terrifying. But his clenched fist were shaking. This was the greatest moment of his entire life.
"Metal Sonic! Metal Sonic!" the doctor shouted, but the robot didn't show up. "Useless piece of junk! Whatever, I don't need him anyway. Let's go to the Land of Mu!"
[Unknown place – an hour and a half to midnight]
Silver already explored like miles of this place, but he didn't find anything than books and books. He always considered himself a book lover, but this was maddening. The atmosphere around him was creepy and spooky, but nothing happened to him… for now.
He did make small discoveries. The intersections had the same symbol as the thief on his hood on the floor. There were as well more floating lights. Unfortunately, that was all. He wished there was some kind of a map.
[Sky Patrol – an hour and a half to midnight]
"Did you find anything, Nicole?"
"Nothing, Sally," A.I. program sighted. "I have run all the scans I could on that library wall… to no avail."
"It's alright," Sally put her hand on lynx's shoulder. "You did everything, now rest a bit."
Sonic's team sent a report about Metal Sonic, so they now concentrated on finding Eggman's fortress.
[Dr. Eggman flying fortress – an hour to midnight]
"Do you know what's the same between an apple and a book?" asked Cubot. Orbot only looked pessimistic.
"They are both from the tree?" red robot tried the most logical answer he could come up with.
"No!" Yellow cubic robot cast his arms. "Both of them have their worms!" He laughed. The red round robot only sighted. His CPU was already overheating from listening to his bad jokes. Dr. Eggman wasn't any better. His mustache was down for like ten minutes already.
"Are we there yet, Doc?" asked Cubot for twelve times already.
"No, dear college, and it's rude to ask the same question over and over again."
"O'rlly. So… Where will we arrive, Doc?"
Orbot facepalmed himself.
"What?" Other one shrugged his shoulders. "That's a different question."
"There it is!" shouted Eggman and stood up in his seat of the captain. Before them was a relatively small island with one high volcano. Dr. Eggman grinned. There was his ultimate weapon. His doorway to the Eggman's empire!
[Tornado – a little less than an hour to midnight]
"Tails, look!" Amy shouted.
"Eggman's flying fortress!" added Tails.
"Tell me something I don't already see," noted Sonic sarcastically. "Let's inform Sally!"
"Don't tell me to do the obvious," returned his sarcasm Tails. Sonic only smirked. Finally some proper action. Playing with Metal Sonic was getting boring. He hoped he won't see him for a long time. Speaking of time, how's Silver doing?
[Unknown place – a little less than an hour to midnight]
Silver finally found some sort of path. Stairs were running along big pillar. From the heights, he could see… no end to the library labyrinth. He shivered. From his place, he could see only small dots of light. The pillar was decorated with many strange symbols.
Finally, he got at the top that led to a different floor… cavern. The whole library was built in a huge cave with more than one floor. This one was full of rooms, like there were many people. He move aside a cloth door and peeked inside.
All the rooms looked the same simply furnished. Round chair, some bed or just a pile of something that used to be a bed and table or sometimes even a cabinet. He was proceeding very carefully. Finally, he found something as an exit.
'Where am I?' he looked around. Everywhere was grass, trees, and bushes. The world around him looked peaceful… but as well death. There was no sound, no wind, only the moonlight coming from a big hole above him. It was directly above step-pyramid like structure covered by moss and with a few medium sized trees growing from it.
He looked around and soon he made an unpleasant discovery. Not far from the building was a huge cemetery. The gravestones were like centuries old. They had no writing.
'Could this be… his job? Could he live here for many years in complete solitude?' It sent chills down his spine. 'But where I could find him?' He used his psychic ability to fly up. He looked around the moon's light didn't help him much, but he did see a figure on top of a small hill with a tree.
He slowly approached it. It was the thief and he was sitting before a gravestone. This one was decorated giving an important feel.
Silver cleared his throat and said: "May I talk with you?" There was no response. "I don't wish to fight you." Again nothing. So he came closer and put a hand on his shoulder. "I only want to know why-" He looked at his face, noticing closed eyes.
Suddenly the dark purple hedgehog jerked as he woke up. He turned and fell on his back. He was widely kicking around himself. ]No! Go away![
"I'm sorry! I didn't know you were sleeping! Please, calm down!" Silver reached for him. "Please, I only want to talk." Silver sat down and widened his eyes. "Wait a minute…"
He looked at him. "You are blind." The hood earlier fell back and as he still didn't open his eyes it got obvious. "And you are not talking, that's telepathy!" The dark purple hedgehog tried stood up. "No, wait!" Silver caught him with his ability. ]I'm psychic too.[
Other hedgehog calmed down a bit looking at Silver with an honest shock. ]I do admit I'll get a headache when I use it for too long.[ He let him down. "I'm not your enemy."
]It's not disguising you?[
"Like what? Em… You mean your telepathy and the fact you are reading while you are blind?"
He nodded.
"Actually… no. I think it's awesome! Can you teach me? That way I would be able to read many books at once." He thought for a while. "Wait a minute, wouldn't I get a headache? And how would I enjoy the books? Nah, I guess I'll stick to a good old reading method." He showed thumb up.
]As I thought, you are very strange.[
"I'll take that as a compliment. So let's reintroduce, my name is Silver the hedgehog. And who are you?"
]S'ancer, I was created and named S'ancer.[
"Created?"
]I was created by high priests to be a protector of their knowledge.[
"Ah, I see and why are you stealing the books?"
]I'm not stealing them![ he angrily shouted.
"Chill out," Silver put hands before him.
]I'm saving them! They are destroyed and used for evil! Here they will be appreciated and protected![
"Can't say you are wrong," Silver picked in his ear, "but what about Cream?"
]Cream?[
"That's the small rabbit girl you met in the library."
]She?[
"Are you going to take her book too?"
]That's… In hers there aren't knowledge so it isn't necessary.[
"Necessary? Hey, look, I get you love books and you want to protect them, but stealing won't solve anything. And on top of it, you think you can judge the book based on its content?
That's stupid! So what that Cream's book isn't an encyclopedia! Its value is still the same as the others."
]But there is no knowledge inside. It's useless.[
Silver frowned and shake his head. "So what? It's useless for you but priceless for her. I know her smile will be as bright as ever when she will read her favorite story to her children. Filling her with memories of her own happy times and giving her children a piece of her own heritage. And that's good enough for me."
]Happy times?[ he thought for himself, 'Like with her?' The image of some girl quickly disappeared. He was silent for a quite some time before he spoke again: ]Then… how can I protect the books? So many of them have been destroyed already! I can't stand it![
"I… I don't know. I wish I could help you."
]I thought… with your love to books… You would understand my intentions.[
"It's not like I don't under-Huh!" Silver shouted as big explosion interrupted them. "What was that?!"
]The books… The books are crying![ S'ancer passed him as he was running toward his home. Silver went after him.
[Dr. Eggman flying fortress – less than an hour to midnight]
"That's it?" professor was looking at a relatively small island with one big dormant volcano.
"Ah, my sensors are showing an underground city, through the picture is noised. I guess there is some kind field that messes with electronic. That could explain why it doesn't show on radar or satellite."
"So the Land of Mu is just a few steps before us?" Professor clenched his fists.
"What are you doing Cubot?" asked Eggman when he saw him in Hawaii t-shirt, straw hat and with a bucket and shovel.
"What? You need this when you go to a beach."
"We are not here for relaxation!" shouted doctor.
"Man, I wanted to do a sand castle."
"Sir, someone is approaching us," informed him Orbot.
"Don't tell me…. Sonic!" His plane was getting closer. "Annoying rodent!"
"Em… I heard you are a genius with 300 IQ, right?"
"But of course, professor, and?"
"Then I can't imagine how you can call a hedgehog a rodent. Their teeth structure is complete-"
"Enough! I don't care! This will be the last time he crossed my path!" He stood up like some general.
"I stopped counting that sentence when it reached 150th jubilee," noted Cubot making Eggman's mustache go down. "The only sentence I have counted past 500 was 'I hate that hedgehog!' Man, the time sure flies."
"Q-Quite!" Eggman pushed a big red button and released hundreds of his robots.
[Tornado – less than an hour to midnight]
"We've got a company!" shouted Tails.
"What's the plan?" asked Amy.
"What's up with you guys today? Asking and pointing out the obvious things. It's the same plan as ever – Smash'n'trash plan!" Sonic jumped to meet with few flying bots and turned them to scraps.
Amy called her Piko Piko hammer and followed his example. Tails was shooting them from his plane. Soon the air looked like during big fireworks.
"That big one is mine!" shouted Sonic and approached it with a help of few bots and his homing attack. He hit it dead on but was bounced back. "Talk about tough skin."
"I've got you!" Tails caught him on his plane.
"Nice action."
"It seems its chest plate is a lot thicker than normally."
"My spines are still hurting a bit from it. Gotta hands it down to the Doc, he does improve. But not enough!" Sonic spin on a place for a while, before he used plane's wing as a ramp to launch himself toward the robot. His spinning was this time a lot faster making him at first to push robot back before he made a hole in it. The explosion was pretty big.
"Cool number for blue hedgehog, zero for loser-bots!" And the fight went on.
[Dr. Eggman – inside of volcano – less than a half hour to midnight]
Doctor used a fight as a cover to descend to the hidden city. Doctor was in his eggmobile together with his lackeys and professor. He was looking around himself in a daze. This was Mu!
Amazing land with advanced technology and knowledge beyond anyone's imaginations. The buildings reminded him some very old architecture meaning the known ancient civilization learned from Mu! Such amazing discovery.
"What you are looking at?" he asked the doctor.
"Old papers describing a treasure of Mu. A book capable of rewriting reality," he mumbled in response.
Professor Faranight did something unimaginable. He snatched the paper and jumped out.
"Egad!" gasped Eggman in surprise.
"Man overboard!" shouted Cubot and watched him fell on the ground. "That must have hurt."
"Fool, I have already memorized the paper. Let's go."
[OFF Panel]
"Do you know, why no one should take children against their wills?" asked Cubot.
"No."
"'Cause they would need kid-nap then!" Cubot was laughing almost crying out an oil.