Tales of Mysterra I

Chapter 21-The Essences

"How long do I have to stay in bed...?"

"Until you can move again," Chopper responded haughtily, currently hunched over Victor's body as he lay in bed, covered in bandages. "After that reckless use of magic, your body is trying to replace all of the energy you expended...and it's doing that fairly slowly. It's kinda obvious you don't dabble in magic very often."

"I do it never," Victor scowled in irritation. "Too complex."

"Sooooo, it's 'cause you're stupid?" Don Patch chimed in, now hanging from the ceiling with a hysterical laugh. "I thought as much!"

Victor glared at the orange blob with a growl. "That's not the reason at all!" With one swift motion, he had smashed a fist into Don Patch's body from below, knocking him into the ceiling and partially embedding him there.

Chopper looked up at the orange blob, then glared at Victor. "Don't do that! You're injured, we don't want to keep you here longer!"

"Ahem." Both slowly glanced at Tails on the other side of the room, who stood up. "Captain, didn't you JUST say Victor couldn't move...?"

The reindeer nodded. "Yeah, why?"

This time, it was the fox's turn to sigh in exasperation, facepalming. "...and yet he just uppercutted Don Patch into the ceiling, disproving you."

It took Chopper a few moments to realize this before blinking in shock. He looked up at Don Patch, then at Victor, who had, by this point, been flexing his fingers about. "...huh. The nerd is right."

Tails hung his head with a sigh as Chopper began looking over a few screens nearby, blinking. "That's odd...your body's refilled itself of the lost energy."

Victor smirked at this and hopped to his feet, ripping off the bandages around his body. "That's more like it!"

Don Patch abruptly fell from the ceiling during this time, landing with a thunk on the bed and pointing forward. "LET'S GET BUSY! TO THE TRAINING GROUNDS!"

-Meanwhile-

"Well, I must admit, that was an interesting match."

Kokira rubbed the back of her head as Sonic followed her through the courtyard. "Yeah, I'll admit that much..." Something was, however, nagging at the back of her head. Victor's sudden spike in energy...where did it come from? Why was it so familiar? It couldn't possibly have been what she thought it was...that was plain impossible.

Her train of thought was cut off when the duo arrived at the door leading to their quarters. Kokira knocked on it, murmuring, "Captain, it's us." They entered, finding Sakura knelt on the floor, her hands pressed together and forming some sort of sign. Her eyes were closed.

Sonic blinked slightly as the two of them came on either side. "Well? Find anything?"

A few moments passed in silence. Before Sonic could ask anything else, Sakura's eyes abruptly snapped open. "Found her. Outside the eastern gates."

Kokira and Sonic both blinked. "How'd she get all the way over there?" the hedgehog murmured in curiosity.

Sakura shook her head. "Not sure, but you should make your way over there to ensure everything's alright."

Sonic smirked and rubbed his nose. "You can count on us!" With this comment, he rocketed out of the door, Kokira sighing and chasing after him, shouting for him to slow down.

-Meanwhile-

Victor, Don Patch, Tails, and Chopper now stood amongst a more open portion of the courtyard, the reindeer pacing about slightly. "Alright...after watching Victor and Kokira's battle, it's kinda come to my attention we need to be prepared for opponents that rely heavily on magic."

Chopper glanced at the other three; Victor had his hands folded behind his head and was looking away uninterestedly, while Don Patch was picking his nose with a pinky. Tails, on the other hand, was staring ahead and listening intently. The reindeer fell silent, and sighed. "Since I know Victor and Don Patch aren't listening...Tails?"

Said fox nodded slightly. "Yeah, um...I've never really worked with magic...I'm more of a man of science."

"You mean boy of science," Victor responded bluntly, earning an exasperated stare from Tails.

"...anyway...the closest I've come to are these relics known as the Chaos Emeralds. Seven gems with unimagineable power," the fox continued. "I'm sure they'd work somewhat similar...given a few differences in mechanics."

Chopper nodded slightly. "And these seven are the only of their kind?" The fox nodded, prompting Chopper to rub his chin in thought. "Reminds me of the Essences..."

"That reminds me..." Victor suddenly mumbled, lowering his gaze and frowning. "What are these 'Essences' everyone keeps talking about? That overgrown turtle that kidnapped us talked about 'em..."

The reindeer fell silent; Tails now had his gaze on Chopper curiously, inaudibly begging for information. He finally sighed, murmuring, "The Essences are the cornerstone of the Celestial Alliance's power. They're gems with an immense amount of power within them...rumor has it that they were created when the Celestial Alliance was first established to drive back a demon of unbelievable danger."

Tails looked down in thought. "Hm...it makes sense that Bowser guy would've wanted them, then..."

"There are three Essences, one for each arm of the Celestial Alliance," Chopper continued. "The Lunar Essence, Twilight Essence, and Solar Essence. There really isn't too much of a difference between each one aside from their name and owners, but...combined, the possibilities are endless."

Don Patch continued to pick his nose blankly, Victor adopting a serious expression as Tails shivered. "That sounds dangerous..."

Chopper nodded and turned towards the trio again. "It's part of our job to make sure the Essences aren't used for evil. To that end, lots of bad guys have their eyes on 'em."

Victor and Tails nodded in understanding; before anything else could be said, a resounding screech was heard, accompanied by a cloud of dust as the familiar blue blur came to a halt a short distance away. "Sonic?" Tails murmured with a blink.

Said hedgehog trotted back to them, smirking slightly. "Heya, Tails and co." He glanced at Victor with a blink. "Huh, you sure got fixed up fast."

"I helped!" Don Patch shouted, hopping up slightly, only to be slammed back into the ground with a downwards thunk from Victor's fist.

During this time, Kokira had also arrived with a slight pant, nodding. "Hey guys..."

"Where're you going in such a hurry?" Victor asked, blinking.

Sonic folded his arms. "Yeeeaaahhh, see, one of our teammates went missing earlier today, so we've been trying to find her. We think we might know where she is..."

"...but given that she hasn't returned yet, we think something might've happened," Kokira finished, turning to walk off. "Now we've got to hurry up and find her before-"

"One of your teammates might be in trouble...?" Victor murmured, furrowing his brow slightly and earning a nod from Kokira.

"Maybe we could be of some help?" Tails chimied in, prompting a glance from Sonic and Kokira.

Said hedgehog turned to his partner with a smirk and shrug. "Hey, I've got no qualms with it; I can attest Tails'll be a help to us."

Don Patch stomped forward and jerked a thumb towards himself. "Hey! I'm a help too!"

Kokira furrowed her brow slightly, then sighed with a slight nod. "Alright, I suppose you guys could come along in case there's any danger."

Victor smirked in response as Tails and Chopper gave a nod. "There won't be any as long as you've got us with ya."

Kokira couldn't help but chuckle and roll her eyes. "Alright, if ya say so..."

-Later-

It didn't take very long for the group to arrive at the gates, exitting the enclosed walls and finding them just barely outside of the castle. Before them was nothing but plains, gnarled trees, and boulders. All six looked around slightly, only to be interrupted when Sonic pointed to the side, shouting, "There!"

Everyone turned around, noticing a small, white figure laying nearby. It looked to be a little cat with white fur, long pointy ears, some fairly bulky yellow gloves with claws extending from them, and a fairly long tail with a ring wrapped around the end. "Gatomon!" Kokira called, herself and Sonic rushing towards her.

Victor and the others approached slower, though Tails paused and looked down slightly, soon noticing something that the others hadn't; what looked to be a ring of metallic spikes sticking out of the ground around Gatomon. "Look out, it's a trap!"

Kokira and Sonic looked around a little too late, as the ground underneath them seemingly erupted, several bars extending outwards and ensnaring together, forming a cage-like dome over the duo and Gatomon. "Sonic!"

Victor growled lowly, Chopper looking around in a panic and shouting, "It was a trap! But who set it up?"

Kokira and Sonic both looked around, the hedgehog freezing upon noticing that one of the bars had a specific symbol on it; a circle with a much smaller one in the middle, from which two pointed extensions protruded outwards, forming what could have been interpreted as a moustache. On the top portion was two circles that resembled blank eyes, and the lower half had several vertical-facing lines that resembled teeth. Sonic's eyes widened. "Oh, you've GOT to be kidding me..."

Tails seemed to notice the symbol as well, his eyes widening as a rather loud, hoarse laugh echoed from above. Everyone looked up, soon noticing a circular, metallic-looking object descending from above. It was what looked to be an upside down dome-like hovercraft; sitting inside of it was a rather rotund human figure, with a very long, spiked brown moustache, a pair of goggles over his bald head and tinted glasses on his face. He wore a red labcoat with white gloves; his arms were quite wiry and skinny when compared to his round, egg-shaped torso. "Well well well, if it isn't my two favorite pain in the necks!"

Sonic and Tails both responded with a growl, stepping back slightly. "Why'm I not surprised...Eggman!"