Chapter 3
The train moved across dessert as the small city disappeared over the horizon. The two boys sat quietly in the seats of the train as the loud whistle echoed throughout the night sky. Sonic was slowly drifting off in his seat until Tails finally spoke up.
"Uh, Sonic?" Sonic sat up and wiped his eyes.
"Whats up?" he said in a sleepy tone.
"Do you think we'll ever find the chaos emerald?"
"What are you talking about?" said Sonic with a grin. "Of course we will, remember our promise?"
The green plains of Knothole were warm and conformable as the a young hedgehog missing two limbs sitting in a wheel chair and a giant suit of armor lying in the field beside each other. The hedgehog held a thick book and quoted the text.
"The legendary emerald that destroyed city Zerkseason in one night, the grand elixir sealed away by the eastern sage. It goes by different names but it's always the same thing. A object that amplifies alchemy." He looked down at Tails. "We'll find that emerald and I'll get your body back I promise."
"Don't worry Tails we'll find it and get your body back," Sonic said looking down at his glove that clinched into a fist. "if it's the last I do."
Knothole, 10 years earlier
"Sonic? Tails? Where are you guys?" Said the feminine voice inside Prower home. The young Female Fox in a purple purple dress with a white apron. She was around the age of thirty with long brown hair and green emerald eyes that he shared with his son. She searched the house until she opened the dark brown door that lead to the study.
"Oh you boys, are you in here messing up your dad study, and Sonic you know not scribble on the floor." The lime green room covered in boxes and book shelf's with a desk in middle of room was the Prower study. Books were scattered around the room while Sonic and Tails sat in the middle of it. Tails was reading a thick red book while Sonic drew a small circle with shapes like triangles and smaller circles in the larger to form a strange symbol.
"But mom," Sonic explained "this isn't just a drawing, look." He placed his hands in the circle concentrated. There was a sudden bright flash were the symbol but now in its place a wooden figure of a bird bird now lay connected to floor.
"Oh my, that's Alchemy" She said with a surprised look on her face. "Did your dad teach you that?" Sonic gave a frown and leaned back in a disappointed stance.
"How can he teach us anything if he's never here?" said Sonic with anger.
"We read about it in these books." spoke the quite two tailed fox.
"I can't believe you've done this." Said the female fox. The boys looked down in shame.
"We're sorry," said Sonic in shame. "we won't do it again."
"No, no" she said cheerfully. "this is great! My little genus's, you guys take after your father!" The boys looked up in excitement.
That was it, all the inspiration we needed to get us hooked on alchemy. But that same summer of that year a epidemic swept the country, it came and it went and along with it, it took our mom.
The grave yard was barren after the ceremony. No one was around but two boys who sat by the grave their mother. It was the twilight hour before night, it was getting cold and the silence made it colder. A bouquet of roses sat on the grave shadowed ordinary tombstone which read Trisha Prower.
"Sonic, I'm hungry, and it's cold. Can't we go home?" asked Tails timidly, Sonic didn't reply. "Once Dad gets back we can-"
"Don't even talk about him!" screamed Sonic with anger. Tails looked at him with astonishment. "He doesn't care about us, he didn't even come to her funeral. "There might be a way to bring her back, you know?"
"But I thought making people was forbidden."
"It is, that's why it will be our little secret." Said Sonic standing up. There was a voice from behind the two boys.
"I thought I find you two here." The boys turned around to find Sally Acorn, the young chimpmunk who lived next door standing at the gate of the graveyard, her hair was short and her deep blue eyes glew brightly in the dim world. She was wearing a bright red dress that commented nicely with her dark brown hair.
"What do you want Sally?" asked Sonic said with annoyance.
"You know what mamaw says, she says you shouldn't cry for loved ones who have died because it makes them feel sad in the next world."
"Heh heh," Sonic chuckled and rubbed his nose as Tails looked up in surprise. "look who's talking, every time your parents leave you cry like a little baby."
"I-I do not." stammered Sally who was no longer feeling sympathy for the boys.
"Are you sure baby!" Taunted Sonic.
"I'm going to tell Mamaw not make you any dinner." she said running off down the dirt road.
"No your not!" screamed Sonic running off after her and Tails quickly following.
The bells rang to signal three o'clock as the children laughed and played while three of them walked home from school on the dirt road.
"You guys need to pay attention in class," said Sally "you guys are reading those weird books again aren't you?"
"So what if we are?" asked Sonic.
"What are those books anyway?"
"It's a secret." said Tails with a smile. "We'll see ya later Sally." said Tails zooming after Sonic while Sally just stood their trying to remember something, her face lit up in remembrance.
"Hey, Mamaw told me to tell you that we're having stew tonight!"
"Whoever invented stew must have been a genius." said Sonic who was reading yet again an Alchemy book in the quiet Prower house. "It's got vegetables in it and it still tastes good."
"So that makes it genius?" said Tails with a smile who was lying on the floor twirling his Tails.
"Someone thought of mixing lots different things to make an awesome piece of work, and that's a leap of imagination the kind that a scientist needs too."
"I guess your right."
"Of course I am. Just one leap that's all it takes, and its the same for human transmutation!"
So we began searching for the key for human transmutation to bring our mom back to life. We trained with an alchemy teacher to prepare our body's and our mind's. It took years of constant effort, but we just wanted to see our mom smile again. We wanted our lives to go back the way it used to be, that's what drove us, day and night until the date March 7.
Four years earlier
It rained on and on over the small village of Knothole, and everything was peaceful, if you would call that peaceful. The green meadows seemed to droop over the drops of rain, which was strange. There was the smell of freshly cooked stew that went throughout the valley and lead to the top of the hill where two cottages stood. Sally's door shot open to reveal herself in the midst of the storm. She glanced around the drowned meadow before screaming.
"Sonic! Tails! Dinners ready!" She yelled into the rain. She leaned out the door to peak around the corners then came back up. Her face was puzzled now, her finger was up to her chin then mumbled to herself. "Where are those two, they always come for dinner?"
"Shut the door!" yelled the voice from inside. "If there not coming, they can eat later. Now eat yours before it gets cold!" She quickly spun around with her face lighting in a instant.
"Alright," She said cheerfully. "just have a bad feeling that's all." The door shut and all was silent, but everything is never as it seems. In the upper floor of the prower house were two boys who were drawing something on the floor. There were large bottles of strange elements, water, salt and other things.
"You ready Tails?" Said the hedgehog looking at his little brother. Tails sat there in silence. "Come on, we're finally going to get her back." Tails' worried faced gave a little bit more confidence but he still really never understood alchemy. Tails finally gave the nod as Sonic finished drawing the circle. The circle was filled with strange shapes and lines that all connected to be one congruent circle.
"Okay then, here we go." said Sonic placing his hands on the circle quickly followed by Tails. The middle of the circle lit up into a bright golden portal, colorful patterns swirled around them as the process began. The two big smiles from the boy quickly vanished to see the changing of the colors. They went from soft yellow and greens to a dark purples and reds as there very life force was getting sucked out of them.
"Wait, this isn't right." Sonic said mumbling to himself. Suddenly black streams clay looking substances formed out of the portal and with lightning speed the substances grabbed Tails and lifted him into the air while he screamed in fear, another black substance reached out and ripped Sonic left leg off. "It can't be," Sonic said in Pain. "A rebound?" Then Tails quickly began to disintegrate before Sonic eyes as he screamed and reached for his dying brother. Then a bright flash.
Sonic found himself in a white plain that seem to go on forever with nothing in sight but a very large metal door with a strange diagram of a tree type thing. No sky, no walls, it was blank like an empty canvas. Sonic looked around in confusion.
"Wait, Tails?" he asked calmly. "What was going on? What was I doing I w-"
"Hello." said a deep voice that came from behind him. Sonic turned around to see a tall man in a black trench coat who's face was covered by the hood of his coat. He wore black gloves and large black boots to go with his attire. A shock trembled down Sonic's spine.
"W-who are you?" Sonic stammered. The man chuckled for moment before his introduction.
"I am called by many names, I am the world, I am the universe, I am god, I am truth, I am all, I am one, and I am also" he said extending his arm toward the hedgehog. "you." Sonic stood in silence, for a moment trying unravel the words he had just told him. Suddenly the large door from behind him swung open that opened into a black void. Sonic spun around to look at the void. "You have dared to knock on the door, now the door is open." Suddenly millions of the black substances he saw earlier came from the void and latched onto him pulling him into the door as he struggled to fight and screamed trying to get away. Over loudness of his own screaming he heard the man say before getting sucked in. "I will show you the truth." Sonic was pulled into void and the door slowly sealed shut.
It was like the all of the information of the world was being pored into my head at once. My head felt into was going to burst from all of the knowledge. But throughout the chaos it all became clear for an instant, the truth of everything.
Suddenly Sonic found himself back in the white plain where he was before. The man in the black coat stood watching the boy who nearly trembled.
"How was it?" asked the man. Sonic walked to the door and studied it closely.
"My theory of human transmutation wasn't wrong. It can be done, it's possible. It's still just missing something. All of the answers are right here in this door." Sonic quickly spun around. " You have to show to me again."
"I am afraid I've showed you all I can for the price you've paid." Sonic's look changed into a puzzled frown.
"What price?" he asked as he suddenly felt a shot of pain in his lower left leg.
"Surely you knew..." said the man as Sonic's leg formed in the man's hand as it began to disintegrate from Sonic's body. Sonic fell in pain as he realized his mistake. "It's the law of equivalent exchange right young alchemist?" Sonic awoke in his father's study, clenching his leg in pain.
"Tails, Tails!" he cried while painful tears dripped from his face. He scanned the smoke filled room and looked over beside him where his brother once was, now a unfilled socks and red and white sneakers. "No, come on Tails, stay with me!" He pleaded from the pool of blood which pored out of his lower left side where his leg used be. "Damn it! This wasn't supposed to happen! He's gone…" Then he saw something moving around on the other side of the room. He started to smile. "Mom?" he said trying to relax. What he saw wasn't his mother. The beast with a misformed shape looked at him with strange breathing patterns and the purple eyes that pierced his soul as he screamed into the darkness.
Sonic had no time to think he had to get Tails back, he knocked down a suit of robotized armor his father brought home from the war, with the last of his strength he drew a circle with what looked like a question mark in the circle on the neck of inner armor drawn with his blood.
"Take my arm! Take my leg!" Sonic screamed with tears poring down even more now. "Take my heart! Take anything just give me back my little brother! He's the only thing I have left!" He clapped his hands then a bright flash light filled the room.
The man stood inside the door to the study used several weeks before for the devils, he had only heard about how human transmutation made terrible beasts but had never see a site of one. The transmutation circle was complex it must have taken at least three days just to get all of the symbols down, and in the middle of the circle was a pool of blood and splatters of it everywhere. The man wore a blue uniform with seams of gold he wore white gloves with red emblems on them. He was filled with anger now, who would be stupid enough to even think about doing a human transmutation. A women who was in identical uniform came up from behind him, the darkness shrouded their faces.
"Lieutenant colonel Knuckles," she said with emergency. "they're not in the back either." she looked down at the floor at the blood splattered mess. "What happened in here?" she asked in disgust.
"Where are they Julie-Su?" he asked in anger nearly screaming. "Where are the Prower brothers? I want them now!" At Acorn home the man knocked on the dark green door as a barked in the background.
"Shut up you, don't bark at our guests!" he heard behind assumably an old lady. At short older chipmunk in her sixties wearing coveralls opened the door to see the "Dogs of the military" at her door. The man barged his way inside house, the women quickly following, as the old lady cursed them. "What is this? You have no reason to be in here!" The man barged his way over to the corner of the room where a small hedgehog missing two limbs sat in a wheel chair looking depressed a man in suit of armor towered over him in silence. Their long red and pink dreadlocks shimmered in the light blaring through the windows. The man violently picked up the boy up to his eye level.
"We went to you house and saw that room! What was that?" he screamed. Sonic said nothing. "What did you do?" Sonic looked down in shame. The man in the armor extended his arm a gently grabbed the man arm.
"We didn't mean it." said the man who had the voice of a small boy. "We're sorry, we're sorry," he reaped as he shook with fear and sadness. The man finally understood.
"This a surprise to say the least." said the man who sat across the dining table from the young hedgehog while Tails stood behind him and Ms. Acorn across from them. "When I heard about a skilled Alchemist in this town, I never expected a boy, but that's not the part that surprises me. He was skilled enough to preform a human transmutation and even to bond a soul to a suit of armor. I say he is more than qualified to become a state alchemist." Then the old woman slammed her fist into the table.
"After they came to me half-dead and covered in blood, I went over to the house to see what they had done." She said in a gruff voice. "Whatever it was, it wasn't human. These boys have been to hell and back and now you want them to go through that again?"
The woman sat on the orange couch patiently waiting for the 'meeting' to be over. She sat quietly, focused on something that probably no could figure out. Sally timidly entered the room at sat beside the woman in silence.
"Um... Lieutenant?" Sally asked shyly
"Please, call me Julie, it's Julie-Su." she said friendly who extended her hand for welcoming. "Nice to meet you." she said with a smile. Their was a brief moment of silence before anyone talked again.
" Lieutenant Su?" spoke Sally softly declining the handshake. "Have you ever had to shoot anyone?" the woman was shocked by the question, but she couldn't lie to the child.
"Yes, I have."
"I hate what you soldiers do. Soldier like you are the reason my parents left and died during the war. Now," she paused sniffed and reached up to dry a tear." and now your here to take Sonic and Tails away too." her voice was calm and collected.
"If they go it will be their decision alone." Sally looked up in surprise. "It's up to them now."
"I'm not forcing you," said the man "I'm just giving you the opportunity."
"Whether to move forward or to stay still."
"Will you sit in that chair rolling around in self pity, or will you stand up and take the chance the military can give you?"
"It's their choice. They'll choose their own path."
"If believe the possibility to get your body's back exist then you should seek it out and keep moving forward." Sonic sat starring in silence, the same sad, shy look he had earlier.
"Ms. Su?" asked Sally looking down at her hands. "Why did you join the military?" Julie chucked for a second.
"Because there is someone I need to protect." Suddenly the man opened the door, as if on cue.
"Come on we're leaving."
"Yes sir."
"Will they be coming?" asked Juile-Su walking to the car.
"They'll come" answered the man.
"That boy, I've never seen anyone so defeated."
"You thought that was defeat? No, there was Fire in those eyes."
It's going to be a while until the next chapter, moving to freaking Canada. Don't ask why. It will at least be a month. Sorry.