I made the July deadline! Lol I can't believe it. Lately I haven't been on top of it, but that's changing slowly but surely. So this is the 25th chapter! I'm excited and decided to bring a very special element into the story. I hope you all enjoy it. And there also is a bit of foreshadowing between some characters and the obvious future plot of this story.
So I'm not going to make this super long. I'll just get on with this chapter. Without further ado, I present to you, An Honestly Chaotic Birthday.
It's that special time of year again! Our birthday! But this year is a little different than last year's. Scourge is going to be celebrating with us. We all have the same birthday. So instead of Manic, Sonia, and I having our own party, we decided to do a big one with Scourge. We all made an agreement to not argue over presents like we've done in the past. We've just decided to really focus on the party part.
Our birthday was this past week so we're already eight years old. But you know how we do. We stick with our motto. Being a kid is cool. So this year, after having permission from Principal Acorn and all of our parents, we're having a good old fashioned game of hide and seek at Mobotropolis Elementary! We can use the spaces from the kindergarten hall, the first grade hall, the second grade hall, and all of the gyms that we've used. We're not allowed to go outside though. Mom and Dad said they don't want us wandering off or anyone taking us.
Unfortunately, everyone wasn't able to make it. There were sixteen of us total, so we decided to make it a team venture. There would be eight teams consisting of Tails and myself, Manic and Charmy, Sonia and Espio, Amy and Cream, Knuckles and Julie-Su, Breezie and Mina, Scourge and Rosy, and Vector and Sally.
"Let's get this started!" Scourge exclaimed as we all gathered in our group. "Any rules we should know about?"
"Well it's like any other hide and seek game. One person is the seeker while they look for everyone else," Sally explained. "We can hide anywhere that we know of. The person that is the seeker has to physically touch us in order for them to have found us."
"Are we able to use any special powers we have?" Cream asked.
"Most definitely! With my speed I know I'll win." I said.
"You sure about that, Sonic?" Espio asked as he appeared in front of me.
"Bummer majores. I forgot about your invisibility. Well as long as I make it to base I'm good." I told him.
"Whoever is last to base is the loser though." Knuckles added.
"Now as the birthday boys and girl, Manic, Scourge, Sonic, and I are automatically not it!" Sonia yelled as we ran off.
"Which automatically makes us not it since we're their partners!" Rosy yelled running right behind us with Charmy, Espio, and Tails.
I heard some bickering as we ran out the door and as I looked back to see what was going on, I could see all of the kids running off and hiding except for Vector and Sally.
"Don't worry. I'm a detective remember. We'll find everyone in no time." Vector assured Sally.
"We better. I don't like losing." Sally told him.
"Oh Cream, this is going to be such fun. We're going to be just like sisters." Amy said as they ran past Tails and myself.
"Where is my Scourgey at?!" Rosy yelled running toward the first grade gym.
"Where we hide is up to you, m'lady." Espio said as he bowed to Sonia.
"Oh, Espio stand up straight," Sonia giggled as they began to walk towards Ms. Rosie's room. "I know the perfect place.
"Where are we going to hide, Sonic?" Tails asked.
"Somewhere nobody will ever find us. Especially Vector and Sally because they don't know about it," I answered as we began running to the indoor swimming pool. "We're going to hide in HydroCity."
"Really?!" Tails exclaimed, excitement obvious in his voice. "Can we explore some down there?"
"Sure can lil bro. Besides, I'm hoping to find that Warp Ring that Knuckles said he saw when we were here a few weeks ago." I said as we finally made it to the pool.
We immediately jumped in the pool and made out way to the deep end and in that same door that pulled us in last time. It was a lot easier to navigate this time since we knew what was coming up. The weird thing was that the same rods that had broken apart the last time had somehow been restructured. Tails and I grabbed them the same as last time as we shimmied up and down them, but they broke apart again.
We made it past those and blasted off towards the fans that would push us up and out of the water. As soon as we made it to the fans we heard that dun-dun music again. Thankfully, we had enough time to jump and make it out of the water before the music began to get too fast.
"Tails, what do you think that music is when we're in the water?" I asked as we finally made it onto dry land.
"Well after that day that we discovered HydroCity, I went home and researched everything I could about it. Apparently that music is letting the people in the water know that their air is about to be gone completely and that they need to either find the air bubbles or get out of the water." Tails explained.
"Oh, okay. Well that makes sense," I said as we began walking towards that big loop.
"So since it's your birthday let's find that Warp Ring for you. I'm almost as excited as you are to find out where it leads to." Tails said as he began messing with the wristband he had on.
"What's that on your wrist?" I asked him.
"Oh this? I call it the Prower Hour 1.0. It's a watch, but it also does a number of other things like display maps, calculate numbers, and even let me talk into it so I can take notes. It's also waterproof which is how it's still working down here."
"Wow Tails, you're seriously amazing. You know that?"
"Heh, thanks Sonic. Look there's the big loop that'll give us full access into the city. Let's go!" He exclaimed as he flew through the opening.
I instantly revved my feet up and took off. This was going to be great. I had a feeling when I first woke up that today would be one of the best days of my life. And once I find that Warp Ring and win hide and seek, today will be perfect.
"Okay Tails, where to?" I asked as I looked around. It seemed a lot lighter this time around and we were able to see things more clearly than last time. I saw a lot of paths and cylinders working in sync with each other. There were air bubbles coming up in more places than I thought under the water and more, smaller, loops.
"It looks like we'll have to go the same way we did last time. Through the water and up that big slope. But this time instead of running straight down that walkway we'll have to take a right at the second intersection. Then once we take that right it'll look like it's a dead end. There's going to be what looks like a bottomless pit, but those floating cylinders will be in that pit and will take us to the next level where the Warp Ring should be. You can see it as we're running, but that's the only way to get to it." Tails explained as we took off towards the big water slides.
This time the water wasn't running along the slides so I immediately spin dashed and shot down the slides. It was a Sonic Blast going down that way, speeding around the twists and turns. Once I made it to the bottom I turned around to see Tails blasting towards me in a ball also.
"Tails, since when could you spin dash?" I asked, surprised to see what I did.
"Well, after seeing you and Scourge do it so many times, I decided to try and do it myself since I'm able to keep up with you more than anybody else," Tails said as we kept walking to get where we needed to be. "I didn't know if I'd be able to do it for sure, but today seemed as good a day as any to fully test it out and it worked!"
"That's great little buddy! You and I can show it off to Scourge after hide and seek." I laughed.
We finally made it to the section with all the floating cylinders. They seemed to moving at a steady enough pace that we were able to easily jump onto them and move along. Tails and I were making good time. Already at the big slope and that creepy music hadn't even started. Dun-dun dun-dun dun-dun dun-dun. I spoke too soon.
Tails and I looked at each other and we both knew what to do. Tails started spin dashing and I immediately started charging up my super peel out move. After a few short seconds, we both let go and blasted out of the water.
"That was close. I hate that sound!" I said as we moved down the hall.
"You and me both," Tails responded. "Look there's the intersection. We're almost there!"
I grabbed Tails hand and took off to that dead end that he talked about. I was so excited. We were almost to the Warp Ring and I had the biggest feeling that it was going to warp us somewhere way past cool.
Tails grabbed both of my hands and began to spin his namesakes to slowly lower us down into the pit. Once my feet finally touched the platform Tails let go of my hands and landed beside me. The cylinder finally started moving up and we went up past the floor we were just on. The cylinder then slowed to a halt at a long blue and white hallway.
Tails and I stepped off and looked in front of us at the long hallway. I could see it at the end. A golden Warp Ring just spinning slowly in place waiting for anyone to come and warp through it. Well that was going to be us.
"You ready?" Tails asked me.
"You bet!" I exclaimed as I started revving up. "Here we go!" And with that we took off. As we got closer and closer I kept pushing myself to go faster. Once we finally made it I jumped through the ring with Tails right behind me and in a flash of white we were transported to another zone.
Once the flash was gone, we looked around and saw that we were in some kind of open space with a light and dark brown tiled floor. The floor was filled with red and blue balls of some sort.
"Sonic, where are we?" Tails asked, a little frightened at the thought of being lost.
"I have no idea. Let's take a look around and see if we're able to find out." I answered.
Just as we were about to take a step forward, a giant sign began to lower itself in front of us. We looked at it and it read 'Get Blue Spheres'. Then all of a sudden we were moving forward.
"What's going on?" Tails exclaimed in surprise.
"I guess we're being forced into this game," I answered as we came up on the first square of blue spheres. "Let's do what that sign said and get all of the blue spheres lying around here."
"I'm stuck behind you! You'll have to lead the way!" Tails yelled as I touched the first sphere. The spheres seemed to give me a sort of energy boost as I touched each one and I began to run a little faster.
I went down each row of blue spheres, each sphere turning red after I passed through them. I finally finished through the first square and was pulled to the right to another square of blue spheres. The rows were really close in this square so I just simply decided to go around the outside of the square. That seemed to work a lot better than getting each blue sphere individually. Whenever I turned all of the outside spheres red it made the ones inside turn into rings, making the job a lot easier.
A few paces in front of me were two more squares of blue spheres then ahead of those squares one giant square.
"Looks like we're almost to the end little buddy," I told Tails as we began going around one of the smaller squares. "Let's do it to it!"
We quickly gathered all of the blue spheres in both sets of squares and made sure to turn the inside spheres into rings as well. Then came the biggest square of all. The only thing was that it wasn't really a square. It looked like it was more in the shape of a plus sign that was filled with blue spheres.
Tails and I were running incredibly fast at this point. Faster than I've ever run in my life. The great thing about it though was that we were still able to be in control of our movements. I kept running around the edges of the giant plus sign, unsure of how to approach this.
"What's wrong Sonic?" Tails asked.
"I don't know what to do in this situation," I answered. "There's a giant plus sign. I know that when we went around all of the edges of the squares, that got rid of all the blue spheres inside and turned them into rings, but I don't know if it will work since this isn't a full square."
"I don't see why it shouldn't. It's still the edge of the shape. I say try and we'll see what happens."
"Alright little bro. Time to juice and jam!" I exclaimed as I turned and we rocketed towards the blue spheres.
Our turns had to be quick and perfect so that we didn't make a mistake. I didn't want to know what would happen if we were to touch one of the red spheres. We were halfway across and moving faster and faster. Just as I was about to turn we sped up a bit more and that ended up pushing us out into the open space. I quickly turned around and headed back, making sure to time my turn just right.
"Alright, Tails, it's the final stretch. Let's show them what Sonic the Hedgehog and Tails can do!" I said excitedly as I turned down the last path of blue spheres.
"I thought your middle name was Maurice." Tails responded.
"That's not important right now!" I said. We were almost to the end when I noticed it. "Tails, there's a red sphere at the end of the path! We're going way too fast for me to turn and miss it."
"Right when you touch the last blue sphere just jump over the red sphere. That should work." Tails instructed.
I did as Tails suggested and jumped over that red sphere before I hit it and messed everything up. Once I did, all of the blue spheres turned into rings like the other squares and then all of the spheres, both blue and red, flew into the air and disappeared. We were forced to run straight and came up to a green gem floating in the air. As we made it to the gem, we were able to finally stop and Tails was able to move from behind me.
"Sonic, do you know what this is?" Tails asked, eyes as big as saucers.
"It looks a lot like the Master Emerald." I answered as I reached out and grabbed it.
"This is one of the seven Chaos Emeralds. Nobody has been able to find them for a couple of decades now, but we found one!" Tails exclaimed.
"Wouldn't Knuckles have known about them being here? His family does guard the Master Emerald and all. And I thought he said that the Chaos Emeralds were in the Hidden Palace."
"Yeah, he did. I guess we can't do anything about it though," Tails said. "Hey, Sonic, the Chaos Emerald seems to be reacting to being held by you. Look at how it's pulsating when you hold it close to your heart."
I looked down and saw what Tails was talking about. Every time I put the Chaos Emerald next to my heart they would both have the same rhythm of beats. It was like they were one and the same. It felt great. I loved the feeling.
"I wonder why it's reacting like that." I said.
"I honestly don't know, but we can figure that out another time. We've been down here a long time. And frankly I don't know how to get back to HydroCity from this Special Zone." Tails said.
"Special Zone?"
"Well it is pretty special since it had a Chaos Emerald and it's a random zone. Seems suitable to me. But I just don't know how we're going to get back home."
"Hey, no worries. Everything is going to be alright. It always is, right? We'll find a way out. I know we will." I said putting a hand on Tails shoulder. Just then another bright flash was shone in front of us and when it finally went away we were back in HydroCity.
"Looks Tails! There's the geyser we need to get home." I said, running to our exit.
"But how did we get back here? What was that flash? Was it something that happened because of the Chaos Emerald?" Tails asked all at once.
"We'll figure it out later. Right now we need to get back to the party. I'm sure everyone is wondering where we are."
We quickly jumped into the geyser and were shot back up above ground and in the fields outside of Mobotropolis Elementary. Wasting no time, we ran as fast as we could to the cafeteria to see all of our friends and family in a state of panic.
"Sonic! Tails! You're back!" Cream exclaimed, running over to Tails. "I was so worried about you, but Amy kept telling me everything was going to be alright."
"Where were you guys?" Knuckles asked, walking up.
I guess we couldn't hide it for much longer. I ended up telling our parents and friends everything about HydroCity. How we found it, what we did while we were down there, about the Warp Ring and the Special Zone, everything.
"What did you guys find in the Special Zone?" Julie-Su asked, excited to finally find out.
"Nothing big. Only this." I said as I pulled out the Chaos Emerald.
Coach Locke, Knuckles, Julie-Su, and Uncle Chuck all gasped, surprised to see a Chaos Emerald in my possession.
"That's impossible. The Chaos Emeralds are locked away in the Hidden Palace." Knuckles said, looking at his dad in disbelief.
"No, son, they're not. The Emeralds that are locked away in the Hidden Palace are the Super Emeralds. We've been over this." Coach Locke corrected Knuckles.
"So after touching and getting rid of all those blue spheres in the Special Zone you were able to get a Chaos Emerald as a reward?" Julie-Su asked.
"Yeah. And the feeling that I have while holding it is great. It's like the Chaos Emerald responds to me in the most heartwarming way. It was even matching the pulse of my heart." I told everyone.
"Well, I was hoping to wait until you got a little older before I had this conversation with you, but looks like we're going to have it sooner than later." Uncle Chuck said.
"What conversation?" I asked.
"Knuckles, are you familiar with the Chaos Force?" Uncle Chuck asked.
"Chuck, this isn't the time or the place." Coach Locke warned.
"On the contrary. This is the absolute right time and place. Had Sonic and Tails not stumbled upon that Chaos Emerald then maybe we could have held off on this, but the kids need to know what's going on."
"What are you going on about, Chuck?" Dad asked.
"Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Scourge, Amy, Rosy, and Cream. This concerns you all." Coach Locke said.
"Why only them?" Charmy asked.
"Because these seven are connected to the Chaos Force." Uncle Chuck answered.
"Just what is this so called Chaos Force and why am I just now hearing about it?" Knuckles asked, voice getting a bit on edge.
"The Chaos Force is the embodiment of all Chaos energy, the mystical power wielded by many inhabitants of Mobius and the all-encompassing energy of the universe," Uncle Chuck began to explain. "Sonic and Scourge, have you ever wondered where you got your speed from? And your strength, Knuckles? And your two tails that give you the ability to fly, Tails? Your hammers, Amy and Rosy? And your ears that give you the ability to fly, Cream? You have these special abilities that were bestowed upon you by Chaos. Some of you are more closely connected to it, but you seven have been connected to the Chaos Force since birth."
"So why are we just now hearing about this?" I asked.
"You honestly can't expect us to think that you would understand this at such a young age." Coach Locke said.
"I'm sorry Chuck and Locke, but I really don't think that we should be doing this now. This is a birthday party for Manic and Sonia as well as Sonic and Scourge. We'll talk about this later." Dad said.
"Dad's right. We have the rest of the week to talk about this. And please never assume that just because we're at such a young age that we won't understand a few things." Sonia said.
"I agree. One thing though. I'm keeping this Chaos Emerald. It wants me." I said.
Mom and Dad looked at each other, worry evident in their eyes.
"I think that'd be a fine idea. And it would make this birthday so much more memorable." Uncle Chuck said. Mom and Dad nodded.
"Way past cool!" I yelled out, jumping in the air. I felt a slight flash run along my body as I landed.
"You guys ready to finish this party?" Breezie asked.
"You bet!" Sonia exclaimed.
"Good, cause Sonic and Tails are it!" Mina yelled as all of the kids ran out of the room.
"This should be fun." I told Tails.
"What? Finding out about our connection to the Chaos Force or finding everyone in hide and seek?" Tails asked.
"I think both." I said with a smirk, looking at the Chaos Emerald.
Alright you guys! We're finally getting to the good stuff. The Chaos Emeralds and the Special Zone have made their appearance in the story, along with a hint about how Sonic and a few of his friends have their special abilities. This is getting good! No worries, it's still going to be a really fun story. I don't plan to change things just yet, but you'll know when I do. One more chapter until they're in third grade! And I guarantee you that year will change a lot of things.
Y'all already know what I need you all to do. Read, review, share, favorite, follow. Show me the love! It keeps me going. Thank you all for sticking with me this far. There's so much more in store! I'll catch y'all next time. Be breezy! CHAOS CONTROL!