[TrueNight1025]: Yeah, Silver kinda does that.
Chapter 002
In an instant, Silver was flung through portal, tumbling on the ground where Mephiles threw him. Granted, 'the ground' was more of a figure of speech where Silver currently found himself, as the surface Silver was currently curled up into a ball on was a semi-transparent, semi-stable platform of swirling energy. Silver, however, couldn't pay attention to that through his agonizing pain, the hedgehog swearing he was being ripped apart. In fairness...he wasn't wrong.
Mephiles decided to throw Silver into that same chaotic pathway between dimensions he had been a disembodied soul in. The major difference between Mephiles and Silver, however, is that Mephiles has a demonic soul, whereas Silver's is in the 'Mortal' class. What does that mean? Silver is subject to forms of traveling sickness as unfamiliar cosmic forces lashes at the soul, with the more different a dimension having a greater toll. You can guess how a pathway to infinite alternatives is...severe, to say the least.
"Need...to...think…can't…."
PAIN.
Silver gathered as much of his psychic energy as he could while the weight of infinity tried to crush his body and soul.
"Can't protect...both…."
Making his choice, Silver used the strength he had gathered to muffle his somatosensory system to the point of being disabled, which in English means he forced his brain to stop telling him his body was being ripped apart and that, surprise surprise, that kind of thing HURTS.
"There...I can somewhat think. Now...energy."
Silver could tell there was energy around, including one that was at least similar to what Chaos Emeralds let him access. Not exact, but hopefully enough. He forced his psyche to rush out, following that stream back to the source. By the time his mind was in reach of said source, Silver thinking was clouding, and both of his legs up to the knees had dissolved into the ambient energy around him along with his right hand and a good chunk of that arm, too. Granted, Silver didn't know that, as he turned off his pain receptors. Probably for the best, because that probably hurts beyond belief.
By the time Silver had reached the source, his body had faded to little more than half his the upper left half of his torso, head, and left arm. Even worse, the hedgehog felt his mind weakening slowly, making his pseudo-astral projection even more difficult. Somehow though, he had traced the small stream of energy back to the 'river' it had flowed from.
Well actually, 'river' isn't too fitting a metaphor, that would honestly apply more to the energy behind the Chaos Emeralds. Here's the thing: despite the name of its conduits, the Chaos Force is…rather tame, honestly. Don't get me wrong, it's a powerful energy source that allows for some rather insane shit, but at the same time it acts predictably enough that those even slightly in tune with it can train themselves to harness it, and even those who can't can harness it by way of a machine or ingenious workaround of some kind. Only in a rare case does the energy itself corrupt a being, usually when they absorb too much at once or some other influence of bad fortune. That's why I say the 'river' metaphor is most fitting, as it is predictable in how it flows, but even the calmest river can drag the unprepared, unfortunate few to an early grave.
Now, Silver stood on a cliff overlooking something quite different. If the Chaos Force was a river, this was one long, never-ending stretch of rapids. Silver's psyche became of whirl of thought on what little he could sense about it through his haze, every part of it conflicting with another.
"I'm not strong enough..."
"Yes, I am!"
"What if I can't use the energy?"
"I won't know if I don't try!"
On a good day, the hedgehog would have tried to weigh every thought before acting. However, his emotions threatening to overwhelm what little control he had left over his psyche, and back at his body he was down to half a face, three-fourths of his last arm, and his fourth and fifth fingers weren't long for the world; In short: Silver wasn't exactly having the best day ever. So, cursing the fact he had to do so, he forced another psychic block into place, forcing his emotions to be silenced in favor of pure logic before he began to consider the situation again. Unfortunately, his 'pure logic' thoughts couldn't reason much about the situation as most of his other senses were fading fast.
"It seems at least similar, but damn its violent...the odds of coming out alive are easily one in twelve million, truly doesn't inspire confidence, does it?"
I'll give it to him, at least he grasped the concept. Still, the haze in his mind left him unable to sense things that he normally would have. If he could, he realize his chances were much lower, he had a better chance at the lottery by a long shot. His logic battled for a couple of seconds as he stared down at the rapids below him, swirling and churning in a violent rage, with a disturbing lack of a pattern...Silver knew he was missing something obvious through the haze, but he forced himself to make his decision.
"Even odds of one in a trillion chance is better than a hard zero, and I know how to survive this."
Silver searched his psyche for the most powerful memory, took one deep breath...and jumped. As he fell, he pried lose both the psychic blocks he had placed. Even knowing he had no choice, he instantly regretted it as every part of Silver screamed in agony...
SUFFER, MORTAL.
...and Silver went under.
({[-]})
"Seems we're a few minutes too late, Master." Alexis said, turning her head from what little was left of light gray anthropomorphic hedgehog, to her hooded travel companion.
"Yes, it does appear that way..." He said, trailing off.
Alexis rose to a standing position, trying to discern what was going through the hooded man's mind, a rather tall order she found herself having to do too often. She at least knew he was in some form of deep thought from the simple fact he didn't acknowledge the blonde-haired youth calling him 'Master.' It wasn't much information, but in her defense, it wasn't easy with him, especially with as little as she knew about him, despite the ten years she had been traveling with him.
By his accounts, he has told her as much as he himself knew: he was an Outcast, an entity that once held great power fallen from grace. He had been stripped of much of his strength and, by extension, much of his former self, and whether that was a gift or curse may never be known to either of them, and frankly Alexis had only willingly spent ten years with due to her fascination with what he is rather than was anyways.
Alexis finally found her answer in the slight twitching in the fabric over the Outcast's right arm and hand. She felt a comforting smile slide onto her face as she walked over and wrapped her arms around her friend.
"We tried. Come on, let's go." Alexis said.
He said nothing, simply nodding slightly. Alexis released him from her hug, and patted him a few times on the shoulder before he turned to walk from the scene. Alexis followed behind, focusing on wondering where they'd wind up next instead of the soul behind them slowly being smothered…
No.
Alexis gasped slightly, for once not needing the Outcast's innate knowledge of the universe to know she needed to stop and spin on her heels. She wasn't too great at understanding the Flows of the Universe, but it was clear to even her that something just came out of line, and she was willing to bet that this hedgehog was the source.
What a shock.
({[-]})
"Silver...SILVER!"
Silver jolted to his senses, looking around and quickly noticing a few things, the first being he was being called by Lyle. The second was that both of them were floating in a black void.
"Oh boy, MORE unknown voids of nothing..."
Third was the fact that Lyle was accompanied by what appeared to be a female jester, clad in a mostly purple ensemble.
"Lyle, what is going on?" Silver called out to the kitsune, who let out a sigh of relief.
"Silver, thank the gods, we finally got through to ya, wherever Mephiles threw you has interference out the ass!"
"Actually, Lyle..." An unfamiliar voice started in, "Now that we've made contact, I don't think your friend's location is blocking us, it kinda seems that he's a few more dimensions away than you thought..."
"Yeah, I'm getting that feeling too, NiGHTS...nothing's gonna be easy about this, is it?" Lyle said, scowling.
"Lyle, explanation please?!" Silver shouted at the kitsune, who shook his head.
"Silver, NiGHTS and I are struggling to maintain this connection as is, and I know we can't hold it long enough to explain even a fourth of the problems to you. Just stay alive until I can try again, okay? Sorry, S-"
Lyle was abruptly cut off by a blinding flash and a piercing sound that Silver could only describe as a thundering sonic boom and a million windows and mirrors being shattered at once.
({[-]})
Silver was jolted back to consciousness, his eyes flying wide open...which was a terrible thing as the sudden light shift did not sit well with his already ringing head, which he immediately clutched in silent agony.
"Migraines. Migraines are the devil."
Silver hated migraines, and why shouldn't he? On top of the obvious related issues, a migraine completely crippled all his psychic abilities. For joy.
"Ah...you're finally awake." An unknown female voice said, the relief in her voice obvious.
Silver allowed himself to raise himself to a sitting position and glare daggers through barely opened eyes at the source of the new unknown voice. She seemed to be a Devil Chao, granted she was extremely different in appearance from any Devil Chao Silver had seen. The chao's body had none of the usual markings on the torso, the horns were almost non-existent, and no flame floated above her head. Her body was a reddish-pink color, a rather extreme shift from a Devil Chao's usual black, one that almost made the flame pattern on her body impossible to see. Even her eyes seemed a little off, more close to amber than the usual golden-brown...Silver felt a tinge of something familiar in the chao's eyes, but his head was still pounding too much to fully piece it together. Seeing that Silver had at least sat up, she spoke up again.
"Good, I was getting a little worried...tell me: Do you seek the power to escape your fate?" The chao said again.
"Look, I know my first three concerns should be about who you are, where I am, and whatever the hell you mean by escape my fate, but my head is pounding so bad the only 'power' I can agree to seeking is the power of aspirin." Silver said bitterly, still clutching his head with his right hand.
"...Sorry..." The chao said, her head drooping as she trailed off for a few seconds before pounding one of her little arms into the other, "Wait, I got it!"
Silver watched as the she vanished into a small vent in the wall, just big enough for her to fit through. After a few seconds, Silver heard the muffled sounds of someone digging and rustling through varied items, which fell silent as quickly as they started, replaced with the noise of something being dragged through the vent. Finally, the Chao emerged once more, almost dropping to the ground when the weight of the canvas sack she was dragging shifted from the vent to her, but after a slight struggle, she was able to fly the bag over and drop it next to Silver on the bed he was on.
"Here ya go!." She said, flying back a little. Giving the Devil Chao an absent-minded thank you, Silver opened the bag and peered inside.
The bag contained an off-brand protein bar, a bottle of Holy Summit Spring Water. I'll save you the trouble of guessing and confirm that yes, the punchline on Holy Summit Spring Water is the motto printed below the brand name in gold: Spring Water with a Divine Taste!
"Well, thanks for the food and drink at least."
"Oh, that's not what I went through for, I just happened to see them and figured I'd bring 'em back. One more second." With that, she quickly darted back in the vent, reappearing in seconds with a medicine bottle that she threw towards Silver. Silver spun the bottle to read the label...
"There's actually an aspirin brand called The Power of Aspirin, I'll be damned."
Silver wasted no time in using the Power of Aspirin, downing the capsules with a swig of water. Placing the bottle back in the canvas sack, he ripped into the protein bar and took a bite.
"Yep, stale. In fairness, I don't think a fresh one would be any better ...oh well."
When you've lost all sense of your location in time and space in relation to your last meal, you'll put up with quite a lot, folks. Silver gulped down the last chunk of protein bar down with a swig of water.
"Okay, little food and water in me and my headache's slowly fading...now let's get this show on the road. Introductions first, I suppose: Hi, I'm Silver. You are?" The hedgehog asked the chao.
"...I was slightly hoping YOU knew…" The chao said, sighing.
"...I've woken up in unfamiliar places twice in recent memory, and now we have an amnesiac. Any other tropes to get outta the way?"
The chao said nothing in response to Silver, merely tilting its head and starring at him, almost as if it couldn't understand why one of the obviously loose springs in Silver's head hadn't gone flying out yet.
"...Well, I'm gonna have to call you something...female Devil Chao...how about Pyra?"
"Pyra is...better than nothing, I suppose."
"That it is. So, Pyra, what exactly did you mean with the whole 'escape your fate' thing?"
"I dunno, it was written on the front of this envelope." Pyra said, flying over and grabbing a sealed envelope that she had hidden under some random papers on a nearby desk, bringing it to Silver without hesitation.
Sure enough, on the front of the envelope was the question: Do you seek the power to change your fate? A rather eerily phrased question, made unnerving by the fact that the writer was damned good at calligraphy! Silver flipped the envelope and ripped it open, pulling out the paper and reading it, Pyra peering at it as she floated near his left shoulder.
({[-]})
Hello there, Silver.
To answer a question I am sure is already brewing in your head, you and I have never had the fortune to meet, despite the fact you were physically in my arms only hours ago as I write and, with any luck, as you read this. Hopefully you get to read this...I regret I was unable to be near as you healed, but I do suppose that is a rather common occurrence for a bystander who saves the life of another.
I must confess I do hold assumption you will not fully remember the circumstances under which you almost lost your life, leaving you in the comatose state I worked to heal you from. Should that prove to be reality, chances are high you think these words of sincere truth I currently write are leaving you with the impression of beautiful lies, and I admit I would be more concerned and upset if you would believe ink on paper over your own instincts. Still, I need to write this, even if you decide to discard it without a second thought.
I know you would like nothing more than to get your rest and confront Mephiles, but I urge you to avoid him as long as possible, train as much as you possibly can. Whether you believe me or not, the fact is despite being easily more gifted than the average mortal, you are still in the 'Mortal' range of power, a level Mephiles has long since abandoned, to the extent nearly no Mortal soul can compete, fewer can kill, and none can survive.
You however, are no longer Mortal, your soul is something more. However, this does not mean you have the power to match your foe, merely that you can earn the power you need. Train yourself, learn your new limits, and stay true to yourself.
- A Friend
({[-]})
"Huh..." Silver said, trailing into thought.
"Um...care to fill in the peanut gallery?" Pyra asked, the letter confusing her.
In fairness, the damned thing didn't give Silver many answers, either. Nodding, Silver began to catch Pyra up to speed, if for no other reason than needing to run it all over again himself. After Silver finished, Pyra shared what little she could remember. One thing was evident to them both by the end of their conversation…
"This is gonna be a LONG story..." Silver said as he sighed and his head instinctively buried itself in his hands.
...I was going to say that their situations were likely intertwined so it would make sense to travel together as they looked for answers, but in fairness, Silver probably wasn't wrong with his statement, either.