Sonic awoke lying face down in the middle of a cobblestone alley.
"Oh man, I feel like I got hit by one of Eggman's hammer bots!" He brushed off his jacket and jeans and looked around. The surrounding buildings were all the same, stone and thatched roofs. Sonic had been to many places in his life, but he didn't recognize this place at all. It was like some town out of old England, but without the people. In fact, there was absolutely no one to be seen. "What's going on? I thought I was in station square." Of all the buildings in the area, only one had any forms of light coming from it. Sonic decided to ask the owner what was going on.
The door chimed as he entered. A raccoon was standing behind the desk. He was older with dark brown fur. He was wearing blue pants, a white T-shirt, welder's goggles and a scowl. He was chewing a toothpick.
"We're closed, what you want?" the raccoon said gruffly. He had a heavy American accent. Sonic smiled cockily.
"Surprised anyone comes into this dump, grandpa!" The shop actually wasn't that bad; it had a good stock, central heating and even some valuable stuff.
"You here to insult me or do you want something, hotshot?"
"Yeah, can you tell me where I am?" the raccoon laughed openly.
"You know what? You're the third guy to come in here and ask me that. At least the other two had better manners."
"Whatever, just tell me what this town's called."
"This here's Traverse Town, last safe place from the heartless. Ain't no better place on Earth." Sonic began laughing.
"Heartless! What the hell are they supposed to be?" The raccoons scowl deepened.
"Where you been for the last three weeks? These things have been swarming all over the globe! What's your name boy?"
"I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog!" Sonic said with his trademark grin. The raccoon looked at him skeptically.
"You're the famed protector of Station Square? Somehow I imagined you taller," the raccoon chuckled. "Name's Cid, owner of this dump."
"Well Cid, what's the date?" again Cid gave him a strange look, but checked his watch anyway.
"25th of September." Sonic looked at him in horror.
"25th! But it was the 4th?! That means that I've been knocked out for three weeks!" suddenly he remembered something Cid had said. "You said I was the third person to ask you where I was. What did the other two look like?"
"The first one was a black hedgehog with a leather jacket and lots of chest hair. Red highlights on his quills and red eyes."
"Was he, like, scary?"
"Kinda," Cid mused.
"What about the other guy?" Sonic pushed.
"Another hedgehog. Really albino with these strange glowing tattoos. Nearly mistook him for one of them, 'cept he's the wrong colour. Had these strange clothes as well. Long white cloak, really long pants and these big high tech boots and rings."
'Shadow and Silver!' Sonic thought joyfully. At least he wasn't here alone. "Did you see which way they went?"
"I think they both went towards the bell tower."
"Thanks gramps," Sonic called as he sped out the door. Then he sped back in, nearly breaking the door's bell. "Err, which way the bell tower?" Cid sighed.
"Turn right and then go through the big oak barrier. Can't miss it."
"Thanks," Sonic raced out again. The bell fell off the door.
Crash!
"Damn teenagers!"
Sonic was putting every ounce of speed into getting towards the area Cid had directed him to. In seconds he saw a danger sign with barricades marked Bell tower. As he sped past the barrier, he felt his whole body begin to lose speed.
"What the�" Sonic tripped over an uneven cobblestone and face planted. When he got up, he found himself once again surrounded by the strange shadow beasts. "Thanks for the warning old man," Sonic cursed Cid in his head. He tried to spin dash, but his body didn't want to do the action. What was going on?! The shadows came closer, moving in an unnatural jerky fashion, like a rubber machine. Sonic jumped and tried to do a homing attack, but once again his hedgehog body refused to obey. "Oh come on, give me a break already!"
He was trapped in a corner, surrounded by the black shapes. His legs weren't giving him the power they usually did and he wasn't able to use any of his usual tricks. As a last resort, he pulled the Chaos emerald from his jeans pocket. "Let's hope this works," he prayed. "Chaos Control!" As it had before, the emerald released a massive energy wave and transformed into the giant key again. Sonic smirked as the things visibly cowered before the blade. "Oh yeah!"
Shadow wasn't having a good day, even by his standards. First he'd been forced against his will to go to the beach. Horrible place, freezing water and burning hot sand. He saw no reason why a sane person would commit himself to spend an entire day under those conditions, but then again, who is truly sane. Once he'd actually started to forget his bad mood, Sonic had pulled them out of the water and insisted that he'd been attacked by living shadows with yellow eyes. Honestly, who would believe that? Of course then they were attacked by the same sort of shadow. Trust Sonic to make the impossible possible. On top to that, the thing was invulnerable to any of his attacks. After the battle had ended, he'd been knocked out and dumped here, in some strange city he didn't recognize. The only good thing had to be that he'd found Silver in the same predicament. They'd met up in the Bell Tower courtyard, but neither of them had any clue what was going on. And then, once again, the shadows had come.
"Any ideas?" Silver whispered. Shadow raised his hand in a fist.
"Chaos Spear!"
Nothing happened. There was no blinding flash of light and no striking flare of chaos energy. Shadow stared at his hand in shock. Never in his entire existence had he not been able to use chaos.
"Oh this is brilliant!" Silver cursed. One of the things jumped at him and he put up his hand to blast it with psychokenisis. It just kept coming and nearly knocked him down. Silver swung his arm again, trying hard to concentrate his powers. But there was no telltale aqua light and no kinetic energy appeared. "Shadow, please tell me you have a plan B!" The dark creatures moved ever closer.
"We stand and fight!" Shadow told him firmly.
"And here I thought you were sensible!" Silver said sarcastically. He tried to punch one of the creatures, but it moved to quickly and struck back, knocking him off balance. They were screwed as hell and they both knew it. "Shadow, just so you know there's only one person I'd rather die fighting with."
'Gee thanks buddy!' Shadow thought. He felt his back hit the wall. Only a miracle was going to save them now.
"Hey guys!" they both looked up to see the familiar blue spines, red shoes and jacket of the speed demon. He was also holding some ridicules sword of some sort.
"Oh this day just keeps getting better and better!"
"Use the Chaos Emeralds!" Shadow dodged a strike by one of the dark forms.
"Oh yeah, cause that worked really well last time!" Sonic shrugged.
"It's either that or you let those heartless swallow you up." Shadow gave an animal like growl, but pulled out his Chaos Emerald with Silver.
"Chaos Control!" There was the usual flash of light. But when it cleared, Silver and Shadow were holding weapons similar to Sonic's.
Shadows looked like it came straight from the Devil himself. It was midnight black, with bat wings for a hand guard. Along the length of the blade ran a wicked looking chain and the teeth at the end resembled the kanji for 'darkness.'
Silver's was the polar opposite. It was made of what appeared to be bright silver, thin and light. The guard appeared to be angel wings and the stem was separated into two parallel lengths of metal. The final contrast to Shadow's sword was the key's teeth; they were in the shape of the kanji of light.
"Finally," Shadow muttered. "Some luck!"
The strange appearance raised many questions, but the hedgehogs decided to leave them till later. Now armed, Shadow and Silver charged their opponents. Unlike Sonic, the black and white hedgehogs used the weapons with precision and skill. Shadow used the key like a long sword, swinging it in large arcs through as many monsters as possible. Silver's stabbed, swished and twirled through his opponents with the elegance of a dance, only using the energy he needed but still making it into a show. Sonic jumped down to join then, swing the weapon like a baseball bat, no skill but still effective.
For twenty minutes the three of them fought like this. The weapons had the advantage over the strange 'heartless', but the numbers were beginning to tell. For every one they cut down, another appeared from nothing. There was no stopping them! Eventually, Silver began to falter and tried to fall back. Sonic followed him.
"We used one miracle finding Sonic," Silver said. "I don't suppose we could get another?" The creatures came closer as Shadow retreated into the wall with the other hedgehogs. "Guess not." The creatures leapt at the unprotected animals.
Bang!
The first few creatures were blown back by a fireball coming from the left. Sonic, Silver and Shadow looked round. So did the unusual creatures. A tall lion, taller than Shadow, was standing with what looked like a cross between a revolver and a sword held in his hand. His mane identified him as male, as did his choice of clothing: black jeans, white shirt and small black jacket. His fur was dark brown, offset by his white mane. A scar crossed over his face from his forehead over his nose and just past his blue eyes. He pointed the weapon and fired again. Flames leapt up the length of the blade, coming off in a fireball that took out another four dark creatures.
"Come on heartless!" he called viciously. "Come and get me!" The creatures complied, forgetting about their previous prey completely and moving towards the new adversary. The lion lowered his sword into a ready stance, pointing the blade at his enemies. The shadows ran across the square towards him. He stood the, completely calm, waiting. The creatures came closer. "Come on, come on!" he silently urged. A few meters before they reached him, the first few creatures stopped dead, if they could be described as alive before. Their bodies eroded into dark muck as two more figures appeared from nothing.
The first Shadow didn't recognize. It was a mouse, female, with a short black sleeveless top and vest, short shorts, a black headband and knee length boots. Her fur was an even darker black than her clothes, seeming to absorb the light. Probably how she managed to disappear, Shadow thought. Her large ears were pricked in anticipation. She was holding a large shrunken, as was her companion, who Shadow recognized immediately.
"Espio?!"
OK, just because I know someone won't understand my description Shadow has the Oblivion keyblade and Silver has Oathkeeper. I thought they suited the best. Hope you enjoy.
