Chapter 7: Explain

Tambourine finally caught up with Akira. For a frill necked lizard on skates, he was fast. She still didn't understand why he had to wear a strait jacket, but it was not a time or a place to ask about it. They were sharing a room, and by they I mean Tambourine, Akira, and a green hedgehog who's quills went to the small of her back. She wore a strange suit that looked similar to the Turk suits that were worn in Final Fantasy 7. The hedgehog girl was a little older than Tambourine, but had a childish charm to her face. When Tambourine entered the room with Akira, Akira said, "Hey, Ventuss, meet our new friend. Her name is Tambourine. She's one of us."

"I can see that. Hehe, hello. As he said, my name is Ventuss. I'm the Child of the Wind.", the green hedgehog said while extending a hand.

She acted so formal, but it seemed slightly forced, "Hello. I'm Tambourine. I'm a child too, I guess."

"She doesn't know, Ven. We got to explain it to her like I did for you.", Akira said, taking a seat in the dining room.

Ventuss took a seat as well, leading Tambourine with her, "Alright, we'll start from the beginning, but first, tell us about yourself."

"Well... Um... could I tell you after you introduce yourselves and talk as well?", Tambourine asked. She wasn't comfortable with this at all.

"That seems fair. Can I go first, Ven?", Akira asked while waving a sleeve covered arm in the air.

Ventuss giggled a little and nodded, "Of course."

Akira smiled greatly and then began, "Alright. You see, we're a group of young people who are called the Children of the Elements. We are kind of the world's connection to nature and Chaos."

Tambourine knew of Chaos. The god that was worshiped by many echidnas and anyone else that followed him. He was known for destruction, but the legend of his children was meant to be of the seven Chaos Emerald... right? Akira continued, "There are seven of us, like the Emeralds, and we each control an element. I am the Child of Earth. Other people can't tell who we are unless they sense our aura, which fellow children see. Now, You kind of understand?"

Tambourine nodded, but it was a little hard to take in. If they were a connection to Chaos and such, what did that have to do with her? What's her job? Would she get involved in a fight for power on this world? What was going on! She practically wanted to shout these questions because she really didn't want anything to do with this mess. She looked at Akira with some sadness and asked, "What does this have to do with me?"

"Well, we can see that you are one of us. Your aura suggests that you are the Child of Shadows.", Ventuss said, "And that means we are only missing three others. Water, Fire, and Light."

"There is six of us?", Tambourine asked.

"No. There is a seventh. He is just working for Queen Blaze. He's a knight, can you believe it? He is a Child that Awakens. In legend, known as the Binder.", Akira explained.

This might as well been a foreign thing to Tambourine because it was just confusing. Auras, elements, children, and now awakening? Tambourine held her hands up, "Slow down a little. I'm trying to think. So, we are children of elements that serve Chaos? And this guy who is a night has no element?"

"Well, no. But he is important. You see, it is with his power that we can awaken the hidden potential in us to use our powers to the full. We can use our powers to an extent, but after we awaken in the light, we can become strong. How ever... there is dark awakening...", Akira said while touching his eye patch.

Now it was getting depressing for Tambourine. Dark awakening? What in the name of Chaos was that? Ventuss put her hand on Akira's and looked at Tambourine, "Look... Dark awakening is the same as regular awakening, but it causes us to go mad... very mad... Akira was a special cae because he suffers from a syndrome that splits his good and bad personality by this eye patch. If the eye he has showing us right now is showing, he is good. But if the other is showing while the good is covered, then he becomes dark... that's his dark awakened half..."

"Ummm... how did that happen?", Tambourine asked, getting that ominous feeling again like when she bumped into Akira.

"I let my emotions get the better of me. You see, when you feel a lot of negativity, dark awakening happens and our potential unlocks itself... I did it and... I lost it...", Akira said and took in a deep breath, "She needs to see it... tie me up, Ven..."

Ventuss nodded and went to Akira, strapping the sleeves behind him. They were tight, she removed straps with hooks on them from his legs as well. When she was done, Akira closed his eye and Ventuss swapped the eye patch. Tambourine's heart sank as she saw Akira open his eye. The eye was not as gentle as the other. It was wild and looked like a snake's slit eye. A canyon of darkness and hate. She could feel it from his shadow and she wished he didn't show her this.

"Well, this is our new sister, hm? Interesting.", Akira said in a dark and sinister voice, "Can't say you are much to look at, but your aura suggests that you are strong. Pryxo must have been training you on the way here. Either way, just pray that you never see me in a fight."

"W-why?", Tambourine stuttered, gulping after asking. She wished that she didn't.

A grin of sharp teeth showed on Akira's face, "Because I'm Ankira, and unlike my good half, I will tear everything to pieces. That is the way of my dark earth. I will tear the enemy, and you to pieces and bathe in your blood."

Tambourine couldn't move or look away from this monstrous version of Akira. The dark Akira, Ankira, laughed crazily and kept his grin before Ventuss swapped the patch. The insanity was gone and replaced with a teary eyed Akira, "I'm sorry for what he said... but you needed to see why you must not dark awakened... I have to live with that in my head for ever..."

"Does that happen to all children who dark awaken?", Tambourine asked, a small tear running down her cheek.

Ventuss shook her head, "No. You would just lose it and be like that until we knock you out or pull you back to normal. Akira has two personalities, so he has to listen to that dark side scream at him in his head."

"It's a hell that can't be escaped from. In my dreams, he kills. And everyday, I hope to never use him in a fight. I'm okay at fighting, but Ankira is better.", Akira stated, "But I don't ever use him in training."

"Can't this binder come and help?", Tambourine asked.

"Jasper? Well... yeah, but he is always busy guarding the Queen. He calls once in a while and we talk. We intend to visit him one day and have him help us, but first we have to train for when there is a threat.", Ventuss explained, "When we are awakened, we can help fix this Mobius, and set things right. Or, that's what Pryxo said."

So Pryxo has something to do with this, Tambourine thought to herself. She began to wonder what else was going on, but then she shook it off. She was very tired from the days she spent meditating and traveling. Ventuss saw this and helped her into one of the beds. There were seven beds in the bedroom. While Tambourine wasn't used to being in a city hotel, even she knew that it looked strange to have so many beds in one spot. Ventuss tucked Tambourine into her bed and then before her head even hit the pillow, she was fast asleep.

Ventuss smiled and shook her head, "Pryxo, you worked her to the bone. You don't change... do you?"

Akira was in the chair asking, "Hey, could you undo my sleeves? I'm not gunna switch."

Ventuss had a minor sweat drop before going over to Akira to assist.

Meanwhile, just outside the city, the blizzard kept raging on. The snow hit the ground in with such force that it was almost hail. The bird in the storm only looked at Central City with sorry yet longing look. He felt a slight temperature change in his area and he knew who it was. Berg calmed down slightly and let the storm subside, "Good to see you again, Pryxo."

"Hello, brother. Good to see you too, though I wish it weren't under these circumstances.", Pryxo said, sitting on a rock with a flame in his hands. Even though he was a fire bird, extreme cold still got to him.

Berg formed a chunk of ice and sat on it, " We haven't spoken in such a long time."

"Rephrase that, brother. We've spoken, but fighting never counted for you, did it?", Pryxo said, making the flame smaller.

Berg sighed, knowing that part was true. He pulled up his left sleeve and showed a scare that took his entire arm to the wrist, "I guess there are some fights I can't ever forget..."

"You still have that? One would think you would just revive and come back new.", Pryxo muttered.

"I want to remember. This scar... this burn... this pain is what drives me to work for peace.", Berg said, putting his sleeve back in order.

"Peace? Is that what you call this? You are working for one of the most craziest doctors on the planet. Yes, Nega is worse as you pointed out to me before this started, but that doesn't mean you got to side with the lesser of two evils.", Pryxo began, "If his side were to conquer the world, he would enslave us all."

"If he wins, I can easily turn against him and then the world will have no threats.", Berg said, "Sonic, Shadow, Silver, who needs them."

"So that's what this is about? Glory?", Pryxo asked, he flame gone, but his heat still increasing, "I told you before, Berg. We are to protect this world, but we are not to be it's heroes. Every world has their heroes. We are just guardians."

"I can't stand it anymore. I am tired of being the wise one that is looked up to for guidance. I can't stand sitting on the side lines while every century or so, a hero is recognized for doing small tasks while you, Sunder and I get nothing for our work.", Berg said with a tinge of anger, "This world needs to recognize it's true heroes."

"And you think that will happen when we all remember you for taking sides with a threat. You aren't a hero for cleaning up a mess you made! And what's worse is you got Sunder into it!", Pryxo shouted, "He is power hungry, and you know that. You knew he'd go nuts. Now he wants this place to be ashes and corpses."

Berg shook his head, "You don't get it. When you grow tired and bored of these trivial matters, you'll understand where I'm coning from in all this."

"I don't ever want to. I have been here for as long as you and Sunder. I have had no problems. Yes, I hate the wars that are fought. I hate not taking sides sometimes. But Chaos chooses it's heroes, and we aren't them!", Pryxo said, standing on his rock.

"I knew you would get difficult. Oh well. I guess you really won't join me then. I'll just have to settle for making you get out of my way and you joining Sonic and Shadow in Eggman's trophy pods.", Berg said before tossing an icicle spear at Pryxo.

Pryxo didn't miss a beat and just increased his outer heat, making the spear shrink into nothing more than a little ice cube, "You really ought to know by now that I will not be taken down."

Berg growled, "I greatly... despise... fire!", he then started up the blizzard again, but the hail was hitting in greater intensity.

Pryxo was hit by the hail, but he kept his flames on so as to reduce the pain of getting his by the chunks of ice. Berg had disappeared and started to reappear to toss a couple of punches and kicks before disappearing in the storm again. Pryxo had forgotten that even though Berg's body was old, he was still strong. The fire bird felt a kick to his face and was knocked down, "You're faster. That's good."

"You really think that I wasn't going to learn a thing or two from our last encounter?", Berg asked before disappearing in the blizzard again.

"I was counting on you learning a new trick or two. Instead, you got faster.", Pryxo said before ducking from another kick and grabbing the leg, "Now, take this!", he then tossed Berg in the air and tossed a fire orb at him. Berg as hit with the full force of the fire on his back and he yelled in pain.

Berg was thankful that it was cold enough for him not have scaring on his back. When he landed on his feet the storm subsided quickly. The two birds looked at each other with anger and confusion. One wanted to remain neutral and keep the world in order. The other wanted peace and to be recognized. Both were strong and ready to fight. Berg assumed a fighting stance with an icicle sword in his hands while Pryxo assumed a fighting stance with his hands in front of him at the center of his body and his feet separated slightly for balance.

"Wing Chun?", Berg asked.

Pryxo nodded with out smiling, "I learned this a while back. Berg wanted boxing and working with a javelin, you wanted that sword and karate. I chose to take up Wing Chun."

Berg rolled his eyes and came close to Pryxo to jab his sword into him, only to get the sword redirected to the side and missing completely while Pryxo gave a series of quick punches to Berg's chest. Berg had forgotten how fast Wing Chun had to be, and the fact that Pryxo was the few to be considered a master of it only added to the problem. He charged to Pryxo with the side of his blade in the hopes of tripping him and sending him to the ground. Instead, Pryxo side stepped and pinned Berg's arm to the side long enough to get a few quick jabs into the side of Berg's face. This sent him staggering slightly, and Berg made his sword go forward to stab again, only to have the process repeated.

"You can't hope to win, Berg. When it gets to it, fire beats ice every time. No ifs ands or whats about it.", Pryxo said before making his body light on fire.

Berg jumped back, rubbing his face and watching his sword melt slightly, "I will beat you. I will make this world peaceful, even if it means getting rid of you permanently."

Pryxo let the flames go more until the flames on concentrated around his wrists, ankles, torso, and part of his head. It looked like a flame armor. When he looked at the now trembling Berg, he said, "This is precisely one form below Rising Sun mode. If you don't leave, I will unleash my full flame on you. Now go!"

Berg remembered the Rising Sun mode. It was what gave him the scar on his arm. Pryxo let his body into a full flame back then and his feathers became a multitude of colors for the different types of flames. They were hotter than normal and could be compared to the sun in such a close area. Berg hated Pryxo's form and would have done anything to use his own power, but he could only do so much in his current body. Berg turned and disappeared in a gust of the now reforming blizzard.

Pryxo watched the blizzard leave as his own flame died down. He was not angry as he was saddened that his own brother would be so ambitious, "Brother... I see your wisdom of wanting peace... but why so ambitious? Why do you want to change the order of things?"

The question just hung in the air, not getting any answer with in the near future. Not even in the far future. With his sad look on his face, he turned to Central City with a heavy sigh and walked towards his allies. He needed them now more than ever.

With in Blaze's castle, a certain two tailed fox came walking into the thrown room. He took a deep breath, thankful for the time off he was given by Nocturn to have a word with the Queen. More information was received in Station Square. According to Midnight, there was a Chaos energy source that was in the area. There were even reports of two hedgehogs, one of them injured, and a feline. Tails wanted to give the news to Blaze quickly. Though, the fact that Noctun had taken his bike and went to Station Square himself was a little unsettling. He said he wanted to investigate, but Tails wasn't sure. Either way, he walked to Blaze's thrown and said, "Good afternoon. I have some news."

"What is it, Tails?", Blaze asked, looking rather sleepy. She clearly didn't have a good night sleep.

Tails cleared his throat as he said, "There was another sighting. Midnight saw detected various Chaos Energy sources there, and eye witnesses say there were hedgehogs and a feline just like in the last area."

Blaze looked like she was given some coffee to wake herself up when she asked, "Are they still in that area?"

"No... those same witnesses had a close call with Sunder. Turns out, he went after those hedgehogs. Other witnesses said they found him carrying the trio to Nega's base.", Tails said with his ears drooping.

This got Blaze concerned, "Would it be possible for us to infiltrate the base and free them? Or to even find..."

"I don't know, Blaze. I think we can do it, but it all depends on if our men are strong enough. Nega, as you know, is more efficient than Eggman in a lot of ways. So he is more dangerous. Sonic wouldn't risk lives, and neither would I.", Tails said while shaking slightly.

Blaze thought this over and smiled to herself, "Alright, then Tails, when we can, you and I will save them."

Tails blinked several times. He loved an adventure, especially with Sonic, but he worried about what would happen if he were to oppose Nega. Ever since he shot Tails out of the sky with his air fleet, he has been afraid to test the Tornado. Now, Blaze is offering to save the trio, but could they do it? He looked to the queen and said, "Blaze, I know we can do it... but we need more help. I can call on Knuckles and see if he can take time away from the Chaotix to assist. But that is about it. Plus, I'll need time to make gadgets."

Blaze nodded, "I'll give you as many resources as you need, Tails. I just want to save them... and maybe find Silver..."

Tails understood and looked to the door out of the thrown room before taking a quick bow, "I'll get started. Bye."

Blaze waved to Tails as he ran off. She then quickly got up and looked behind the thrown to see a hiding little female hedgehog. Her fur was grayish and she wore a blue dress with boots of the same color. The golden eyes were what made it all stunning. Blaze picked up the little hedgehog and asked, "Are you okay, sweetie?"

The hedgehog girl nodded as she said, "Mother... will you be okay when you go with uncle Tails?"

"Yes, Venice. I will. I promise that we will find daddy and you will meet him.", Blaze said, rubbing her nose on the little hedgehog's nose. This made Venice giggle and she hugged her mother.

Blaze kept holding on to her daughter and thought of Silver before he had disappeared, "Silver... when I bring you back, you and I are going to have a long conversation."

"Can I lecture him too, mommy?", Venice asked with a small smile.

Blaze giggled silently, "Of course you can, Venice."

The two of them laughed happily together before they walked themselves to their room, where they had a window to look over the base from the castle. Venice always looked out the window to see if her father would ever come. Her mother had told her stories of her father and how he was a hero in their world before she was born on Mobius. She pictured her father as a great hero, and that was what she wanted to see. She wanted to see her father just like in the pictures that her mother showed her. A hero that would fight to ensure a bright future.

"Mommy, will daddy be with the other heroes?", Venice asked as she also remembered Shadow and Sonic from the stories.

"I hope so, sweetie. We need them... and who ever Nocturn is looking for...", Blaze said while keeping Venice close to her.

Venice began to shake, "Mommy... I had a bad dream that Mr. Nocturn got into a fight with someone... should I be scared?"

Blaze found that piece of news a little disturbing. She couldn't really say much for Nocturn, but the most she could tell Venice was this, "Honey, we can only pray that Chaos will protect them."

"I'll pray tonight.", Venice said before looking out the window a little more and thinking about her father again.

Somewhere else, Aero was waking from a harsh and forced sleep. His eyes didn't take long to adjust to the low lighting, but there was one source of light just in front of him. It was that bird that shot lightning at them in Station Square. Aero growled weakly, "Who the hell are you?"

"It's Sunder the Thunderbird. And you need to show a little respect!", he said before punching Aero in the gut.

Aero coughed violently and growled still, "Where's Shine and Fuego?"

"The two you were with? You need not worry of them. Nega will take care of them.", "Sunder said while pacing around the cell that Aero was in.

Aero wanted to swing at him, but he saw that there was a strange red beam that formed around his wrists from the walls. The energy from them seemed to hold Aero back. If he had his mobility, he would have sent a good Chaos Spear into the bird's face and see if he got back up. Instead, he just kept growling, "Where are they? Leave them alone."

"I can't do that. You see, we have been looking for them for a while. Who'd have thought that they were Children of the Elements? But you are certainly special.", Sunder began, "Within you, I sense different auras. Tell me, were you created or born?"

Aero glared at Sunder, "That's none of your business, bird!"

"That hurt. It really did. Now, I'll take that as created. Why? Because there is no way that you have the power of wind, fire, and darkness all at once. Simply no way.", Sunder said while pointing his javelin to the hedgehog's head, "What and who are you?"

"It's Aero. Aero the Hedgehog.", Aero said while looking directly into Sunder's eyes.

Sunder looked back and grinned, "Hmmm... Nega will figure something out about you based on that. And why you look like Shadow."

Sunder then snapped his fingers and the walls to the room rose into the air, revealing a quickly typing Eggman-Nega on a super computer. Aero looked around and found that Shine and Fuego were on the wall with similar cuffs around their wrists and were knocked out cold. Aero sighed a quiet breath of relief to see that they were still alive though.

"You got it, right, Nega?", Sunder asked.

Nega kept typing and grunted in frustration, "There isn't a file on Aero the Hedgehog. Not in the G.U.N. data bases or in any other. When I type that in, Shadow the Hedgehog shows up and the Bio Lizard. Finally, there is just a picture of Maria Robotnik."

Sunder tilted his head and just started pacing around the room. Aero just chuckled from their frustration. But Nega kept looking at the files, reading them quickly. Shadow's file was nothing, and the Bio Lizard showed absolutely nothing and provoked questions. Then, Nega looked at the picture of Maria Robotnik. Why would the cousin of Robotnik show up in the search result on the database. Nega kept staring at it and moving his mouse over it until the mouse changed from an arrow to a finger. It was a little weird because is only happened over Maria's left eye. Nega got curious and started taking the picture and dropping it into his zip file extraction program. With in seconds, an entire file came up.

"Shadow two?", Nega asked himself before looking further. After taking a few minutes to read, he laughed hard at himself.

"What is it, Nega?", Sunder asked.

Nega turned in his seat to face Aero, "So, Shadow two? Bio Lizard was the prototype and you were version two of the prototype. When they experimented on you, they created a near perfect ultimate life form. You immune to most diseases that were lethal. To ad on top of it, they used the DNA of different Children of the Elements because the Black Arms weren't there at the time."

Aero looked Nega with a confused look on his face. He knew not of anything called the Black Arms. Before he could say anything, Nega continued, "You are the prototype to the World's Ultimate Life form. You named yourself Aero after you were created, and what's worse is that it is your fault that G.U.N came in to the station."

"What are you talking about?", Aero asked.

"You, when you killed those scientists, G.U.N came in a few years later to investigate, and the incident was blamed on the true Ultimate Life Form. Shadow.", Nega said with a small chuckle.

Aero looked down on the ground, not because of the guilt of causing the deaths, but because there was a continued project after him. Shadow. So this Final Product is somewhere on the planet, and they think it's his fault that things got out of hand. The past is the past, and all he can do is try to get out of this mess, "Well, this is nice and all, but I'll take the kids with me and go."

"Oh, I think not. You see, I need them. You don't want to see these kids hurt, do you?", Nega asked when he snapped his fingers.

Sunder pointed his javelin at Shine's throat while it was sparking with electricity. Aero's eyes widened slightly and he glared at Nega. With great hesitation, he asked, "What do you want?"

"To make an offer of which you will never refuse.", Nega said while chuckling.

Author's Note

I apologize for the late update. School got in the way and I am looking for a job to occupy my time when I am not writing. Strange for someone as young as I am to be looking for a job, but I can't be relying on parent forever. Now if only other people back home could stop doing that. I digress. I'm back and am hoping to keep on writing. Things seem to get pretty interesting, but there is a lot of scenes to cover. Don't worry. Things will be separated soon. Just consider these chapters the Eggmen saga. Trust me, if you think this will all end when these guys fall, you are sadly mistaken.