Chapter 4: Blackout
After the blackout, the entire crowd had begun to panic into nonsensical screaming. Even the announcer had begun to panic, as he started screaming and trying to find his way off the stage, only to fall flat on his face on one of the Mobians in the crowd.
"Nights, are you still there?" Nikki asked, trying to touch her face after they had been separated by the hysteric people.
"Yeah I'm here" Nights replied. Nikki heard her voice and followed it with her arms outstretched until she touched her face.
"Okay you can stop touching my face now" Nights whispered in annoyance with all the fingers covering her face. Nikki quickly removed her hands.
"Sorry….. Soooo... I guess you noticed the pink mist in the sky?" she asked.
"I think EVERYONE noticed that," Nights replied bluntly. "And from what we've seen that thing is DEFINITELY not normal. First of all it's pink and we saw it right before the lights went off. It's only reasonable to believe that the mist and the blackout are connected. " Nights whispered as Nicki nodded. Nikki herself began to wonder where that mist came from and how it got here. Not long after she tried to process the thought, both the hedgehogs heard someone screaming while there was another childish voice giggling.
"Okay we definitely need to investigate that, but I can't see with all this darkness" Nights said squinting.
"It's a good thing I bought night vision goggles" Nikki whispered, putting on the goggles to see through dark. Nights was pretty surprised.
"Where did you get them?" she asked
"They were having a sale in that store where we tried the dresses" Nikki casually replied. Before Nights could even question why Nikki would want to buy those, carry those around, or even why that store was selling them in the first place, Nikki put a spare pair of goggles into Nights' hands
She put them on and started to the see beyond the crowd until she and Nicki heard the same giggling from before, which was loud and creepy enough to cause people to panic even further. While everyone continued to blindly panic, Nikki and Nights followed the sound of the giggling and ran further down the main hallway of the mall at a quick speed, but also making sure not to run too fast so as not to crash into the currently blind Mobians. As they approached the sound they soon came to an abrupt halt. The pink mist was not only the source of the giggling , but it was holding and shaking someone at the same time.
"That mist can laugh AND grab grab solid people?! This isn't just unnatural, this is freaking insane!" said Nights. The mist seemed to notice them and tossed the Mobian it was holding into a fruit stand. Rather than try to face the two hedgehogs, Nikki noticed that it was about to take a different course of action.
"Nights it's getting thin and it looks like it's trying to get away!" Nikki said. Indeed, the pink mist had shrunk in size and floated up to the second floor, apparently trying to make it harder for the two speedy hedgehogs to chase it.
"Nikki, find an escalator and follow that mist!" Nights ordered.
(Meanwhile with Amy, Selene, and Nebula)
"Who turned out the lights" said Amy trying to adjust herself with the darkness.
"Don't worry Amy, me and Selene are prepared," Nebula said as she and her sister turned on the flashlight applications on their phones. Suddenly Selene's cell phone started to ring, she looked up the caller.
"Girls hold on I got a call from Adam," Selene said as she answered her cell phone. Amy and Nebula look at each other.
"I wonder what's gotten to Adam" Amy asked. Nebula just shrugged. After some talking, Selene looked at them.
"Girls I have to go help Adam" said Selene.
"Why?" Nebula asked
"He got into a fight with some gangsters and he says he might need my help" she replied.
"Do you want us to come?" Amy asked. Selene shook her head
"No, I got this." Selene said with a worried look on her face. She gave the two hedgehogs a hasty goodbye, in a rush to go help her boyfriend. "Have fun girls" she said, seeming to have forgotten that a blackout had just occurred. Selene waved at them and flew away with a shiny aura surrounding her. Nebula and Amy wave back saying goodbye to her.
"Looks like it's just the two of us" Amy said. Nebula nodded in a half-hearted response. Amy thought to herself. '*Sigh*. First there's a blackout in the freaking mall and now one of my friends has to go help her boyfriend with some kind of serious fight. I was really hoping this day would end up more laid back.'
Sensing Amy's depressed mood, Nebula gave her some good natured reassurance. "Don't worry Amy. I'm pretty sure this blackout won't last long. Besides, you know Adam can handle himself and with Selene with him, they're practically unstoppable." The phone that Nebula carried illuminated the confident smile that she had on her face, which in turn caused Amy to smile.
"Yeah. I guess there isn't much to be upset about," Amy replied. "Still, we should probably get out of here and keep on moving." Nebula nodded at this suggestion and calmly walked beside Amy, illuminating the way with her phone while the rest of the mall seemed to calm down as time slowly passed.
(Back to Nikki and Nights)
Nikki found a currently motionless escalator and ran up it, avoiding any Mobians that were currently stuck there. As she reached the top of the steps, she picked up the pace, jumping and flipping over any wandering pedestrians and stands. She ignored the discomfort that her new boots gave her and kept her quick pace. Though she could run in just about any kind of shoes, she was really starting to miss her old running sneakers. "Man, why is women's fashion so hard to run in?!" She asked herself.
Meanwhile, Nights searched through her bags for her chaos emerald. After a few seconds of searching through clothes and other accessories, she pulled out her green chaos emerald, dropped everything else she was holding and teleported to the top floor with chaos control. Since it was still dark and somewhat hard to get used to her night vision goggles, she didn't immediately notice that the mist was long gone from the place she teleported to. Instead, the mist was traveling further down the mall at a surprisingly quick pace. Nights looked behind her and saw that Nikki had already caught up and passed her by jumping over people at a high speed. As Nikki jumped over her in an incredible front flip, she made a face down at Nights that practically told her to move quicker. Deciding that it was best to save the chaos emerald's energy, Nights turned on her pink rocket heels and chased after Nikki and the mist the old fashioned way.
The two were now in full chase. Nights nimbly skated around any people or obstacles in her way while Nikki jumped and parkoured her way over people, railings, and shopping kiosks. In practically no time at all, they had both cornered the mist into a far off edge of the mall.
"Man that mist is fast" said Nikki taking a breath.
"You think?" Nights replied. Wiping a tiny bead of sweat off her forehead. They both look up at the mist as it starts taking shape.
"What's it doing?" Nights asked. The mist turned into a little girl. "She" had a round head with two distinct pigtails for her "hair" and her lower half was similar to a wavy dress; The whole image was basically a ghostly silhouette. She gestured them to come closer.
"I think it wants to tell us something" Nikki responded. The little girl nodded and tried to speak to them with a tiny whisper but they couldn't hear her. Just then the lights went back on and the mist disappeared, much to their shock.
"She's gone!" said Nikki.
"I see that. Where could she have run off to?" Nights asked looking around her surroundings. They both took off the goggles and placed them in their purses that they bought. Suddenly they heard an explosion outside the other edge of the mall.
AN: This chapter was written around the time I took total reign of this story. I was initially hesitant on taking on writing for future chapters, but after having re-written all of the previous chapters for my cousin, I figured "why not." From then on, I've basically done the writing while she gives me some story details or ideas. However, from here on, most of these upcoming scenes and plotlines are of my own imagination.
And sorry for that abrupt cliffhanger. I couldn't find a better place to end it. And just to clarify for a scene at the middle, from what I've gathered about GothNebula's characters, both Selene and Nebula can control energy, fly, and have super strength. I'd like to think of them as being similar to a character from DBZ before the whole Saiyan ark.
