Ch26: Gaige's Story
"I-I don't understand!" I exclaimed when Gaige revealed himself. "H-How can both of us be here?!" "I know... I couldn't believe it either when Cream mentioned your name to me five months ago..." Gaige admitted. "B-But how? How did you get here?" I gulped. "Um... excuse me?" Princess Elise asked me with a tap on the shoulder. "O-Oh right... ahem... Gaige... we need to know... do you know any kind of helpful info about Iblis or Mephiles from your time here?" I asked. "Thank you for reminding her!" Chaos said in my head. Oi... now I know how I sound like sometimes...
"Well, I do know a whole lot of stuff about Iblis... not so much on Mephiles, though," Gaige admitted. "W-Well good! We need to get to the Data Archives though... do you know where they are, Elise?" I asked her. "Of course! Let's go then and you guys can talk along the way," she smiled as we began to follow the now disguised princess.
"Wait a second... you're the princess?" Gaige asked in a very hushed tone as we were getting near locals. "Teehee! Just don't go blowing my cover, Goldilocks," Elise giggled. HOW COME SHE WAS SO UPBEAT IN TIMES LIKE THIS?! "Um... My name is Gaige and it's good to see you're safe... nut about Mephiles... there is something you need to know..." Gaige sighed. "Let me guess... he escaped confinement?" "That's right... and Shadow and Rouge weren't sent to the future. Just teleported away to the Soleanna river system. They were just lucky enough to have me walking near their location at the time. Otherwise, they'd have drowned."
"Well. Sounds like this Mephiles character is a real prick," Elise sighed. "He's the conscious mind of Solaris, bent on wickedness and destruction because he was forced to be tested on heavily along with Iblis. Now he wants Iblis for himself and that means he needs you to cry... cry even once and Iblis will come out of you," Gaige frowned. "Solaris... the very being we worship... my dad did that to him?" "He only did it because he wanted to have your mother resurrected. Either way, his actions were still the cause of all this mess happening right now," I groaned.
"Okay... so how did you get here Sapphire?" Gaige asked when Elise got us through a secret entrance of the castle's laboratory room. "I stayed behind for a hurricane of the century, my television made a bright flash of light, and poof! I'm in Seaside Hill!" "Seaside Hill? That's pretty good... as for me, I got here around the events of Chaos and Station Square..." "Sonic Adventure?" "Yep."
"What the hell are you two talking about?" Elise asked us when we were finally in the Data Archives and no one was around us. "Oh? Um... oi... me and my big mouth..." I groaned, not realizing that I said the title of the first 3D Sonic Game aloud. "What's Sonic Adventure? And why are you talking like you were somehow not of this world?" Elise kept going.
Gaige sighed heavily and looked at Elise as I began to look into the Archives. "See, we're kinda not really from this world... and we know everything that is to happen in this world..." Gaige groaned. "How can that possibly be true?" Elise gasped. "Well... we know all this because... in the world where we come from, we were not only humans instead of hedgehogs, but we know all the things that will happen because... this world is nothing but a series of video games in our world..."
"Y-You can't be serious... how am I supposed to believe that?" Elise gulped. "You're asking this to two talking Hedgehogs that pretty much have told off everything about anything that's going to happen? And who could outrun a whole gang of robots? Really?" I asked. "I... I guess you're right... I'll believe you for now, so long as you can lift me of this burden..." Elise sighed. "Hey, no crying," I warned her.
Elise gasped when I said this, mostly out of surprise. "Don't you remember what we said. Shedding even a single tear can release Iblis and spell apocalypse for the world. That is until we can get Iblis out of you..." I said as I clicked on the most promising data entry entitled "The Dark Powers of Mephiles." When I did, the screen popped up on multiple articles detailing not only Mephiles's abilities on his own and with the Chaos Emeralds, but detailed instructions on how to defeat him should he ever resurface.
"Okay! Here. It says that Mephiles in his Shadow form is easily sealed in the Scepter of Darkness. BUT should he ever take the form of someone's shadow, then only one with the power of all seven Chaos Emeralds can seal him away inside their own body as a vessel. If this happens, Mephiles will most likely try to take over, but, should the willpower be strong enough of the vessel's owner, Mephiles will be purified within the course of 1 hour..."
"Wow... and hour of torture just to purify his darkness... and I thought that Chaos was hard to change his ways..." Gaige groaned. Is that true Chaos? Were you a jerk to my cousin? I thought. "I told you I didn't want to do any evil again and I have Gaige to thank for that!... But I won't deny that I did try to kill him a couple times..." "Heh... SHE just said she has you to thank for changing her ways, Gaige," I smirked at him.
"Wait... what do you mean "she?" Do you mean that Chaos turned into something else?" Gaige asked. "And furthermore, how do you know what Chaos is even saying?" "Because, during my battles against Metal Sonic, Chaos actually merged into my body in an attempt to dislodge herself from Metal's programming. Needless to say, HER teachings of the Chaos Emeralds were a huge asset in both Heroes and Rush."
"Rush? So that explained the strange sky those couple months ago... I didn't expect that one to be canon..." Gaige smirked. "Heh. Either way, we know how to defeat Mephiles now... the only problem is that we have no knowledge of where he even is..." Elise groaned. "If I know Mephiles, he's probably either toying with Shadow and Rouge, or he's trying to locate some Chaos Emeralds. Shame that, through Chaos's aquakinesis, that I have them safely in my body, lodged in my hair and not to be coming out anytime soon."
"No way! You have all seven Chaos Emeralds and they haven't left your body once?!" Elise gasped. "Oh yeah! And you definitely should see my Super Form! Seven Ponytails are better than three, right?" I bragged. "Oh? Can you let move at the speeds that rival the speed of light?" Gaige smirked. "Because my Super Form, which I dubbed as Glowing Gaige, can not only move at 280 million miles a second, but I can use that blinding fast speed in short bursts to disable even the sturdiest of armor, destroy Perfect Chaos in one hit, and even obliterate the Egg Carrier in one punch!"
"Sounds like both of your Super Forms are in the Overpower range now doesn't it?" Elise smirked. "Well duh! They are the Chaos Emeralds, giving the power of the four life elements and the three emotion elements!" I smirked. "Well, now that we know what to do for now, the next step is getting back to our base and forming a plan," Elise said. "Right behind ya!" Gaige smirked as we left the Archives and immediately into the most dangerous adventure our team will ever be on.