Chapter 26
Me: It's time to close this part of the saga and open the next part. And what better way to do it than have Nazo mess up the whole world…again!
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The day had been long, but the airship finally arrived at the Prower family's private island. They had been informed by the crocodile shaman that the bodies were somehow spirited away by benevolent forces, and that no evildoers could abuse their bodies, so they decided to set out to get Icarus and Nadja help.
The island was more like a pinnacle that rose straight out of the ocean…in fact, that's what it was. The visible part of the island was covered in grass, and dotted with several exotic trees, mostly coconut and date palms. While it was a beautiful, somewhat tranquil place on the surface: underneath, Miles knew, was a veritable fortress, complete with a dock for submarines and a hangar for new prototypes. It was here, underneath this otherwise quiet island, that ProwerCorp tested its newest inventions.
It was also one of the homes for the Prower family doctor, Dr. Lupin. He was there to greet the group as they disembarked the airship. Icarus was carried out by Violet and JJ on a stretcher. His condition was stable, but Dr. Lupin needed only take a quick look at the arm to decide the possible treatments, though he would have to examine Nadja more closely. To everyone's surprise, Icarus was finally beginning to stir.
"D-dad…" he said weakly as he tried to sit up.
"Take it easy, Icarus…" Miles told him with a worried tone in his voice as he gently laid his son back down. "You're in no condition to do much."
"Locke…where's Locke?" he asked, with a bit more strength. The entire group was silent. But in his sickened state, Icarus was unable to understand what their silence meant. Finally, he slumped back and closed his eyes again.
"We'll talk inside about the girl," the wolf doctor said grimly, and led everyone into his office. "Icarus seems stable enough. We'll see what we can do for Nadja."
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"Hello," the wolf said to Nadja, speaking to her as he would a young child. He and Miles were in a private office, and the doctor was attempting to perform a psychological diagnosis on her through simple conversation. "My name is Niles. What's yours?" He opted to address her by his first name, to make it seem less formal.
"I'm Nadja…Nadja Robotnik," the hedgehog girl replied.
"It's nice to meet you," the doctor replied. "How old are you, Nadja?" The girl started counting on her fingers, then showed her left hand, and the index finger of her right, for a total of five fingers.
"I'm five," she replied confidently.The wolf quickly took some notes before he made his reply.
"You sure don't look like it," Niles replied. You already look like a grown-up." Nadja giggled again and reaffirmed that she was five. But the wolf already knew that she was fourteen. He went up to his desk, opened a drawer and brought out a shiny brass pendulum. He was obviously going to try some hypnosis. He sat back down and showed the pendulum to his patient.
"Nadja, can you do something for me?"
"Okay!" she chirped.
"Just keep your eyes on this, okay?" Nadja nodded, clueless to what was happening. The wolf started to sway the pendulum back and forth, and the girl's eyes started following it. It didn't take long for her to go into a trance.
"Nadja, listen to the sound of my voice. When I count to three and snap my fingers, you will show me the real you." The wolf counted to three and snapped his fingers. To his surprise, Nadja dropped out of the trance, and looked at Niles with a scolding look on her face.
"…She really shouldn't come out," she replied. Niles scribbled down some more notes.
"There is someone who I think can help," Miles replied. He left the room, and returned a minute later with Elias. He had explained the situation to him on the way, and Elias then asked Nadja to cooperate with Dr. Lupin. The next time it was tried, it seemed to work. The brightness returned to the girl's eyes, but she quickly started screaming and crying her head off. She got up and began to pull books off the large bookshelf near the doctor's desk and started throwing them around. The projectiles shattered Lupin's windows and various collectables in his office. The echidna had to restrain her physically to keep her from doing worse damage. Quickly, Dr. Lupin snapped his fingers, bringing back the child-like Nadja, who suddenly looked very ashamed as she wiped the tears from her face.
"I told you not to let her out…" she scolded.
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"So, we have to drag her along with us?" Scarlet asked Dr. Lupin when he came back with Nadja. He nodded solemnly. Scarlet sighed. She really didn't want to drag the basket case that was Janus' little sister around, but it seemed she had no choice.
"Icarus is going to have to remain here," the doctor replied as he adjusted his spectacles. "We don't know how long it will be, so I suggest you hurry and stop the menace that threatens our world. Miles will have to remain her, but his pilots will surely be of use to you."
"Thanks…" Scarlet replied as she took hold of Nadja's hand. With that, Dr. Lupin bade the group farewell, and the airship took off. As he watched them leave, he suddenly felt the island shake. A terrible dread set over him…
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"At last, everything is set…" Nazo said with excitement as he hovered at the place where the Mobius' equator and prime meridian met, a few dozen miles off the coast of what was once Africa. He created a crystal platform for himself, as well as Vahtri, was unconscious. When he had gone to Angel Island to take the Master Emerald, he had dealt a devastating blow to Knuckles, knocking him out. He was about to kill him when Vahtri stepped in and pleaded for him to spare her husband's life, and that she would do anything to save him. Nazo agreed, and took her with him. She would be witness to an event unlike anything else ever done.
"Now, ancient gems who gave birth to me," Nazo began to chant as the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald began to hover around him. "Answer my desire…let the world be divided, remolded and rearranged…let the land and sea rework themselves to MY desire…" Vahtri was slowly beginning to wake up at this point.
"Chaos Emeralds…" Nazo concluded. "Reshape this world, in MY IMAGE!"
The emeralds began to glow brightly and suddenly shot beams of light into the planet's crust. The beams began to move about, pulling the continents apart. The face of the planet was indeed being reshaped…new mountains were being formed in mere minutes, causing titanic earthquakes to rock the planet. The oceans were being changed as well, and huge gashes formed on the sea floor, causing eruptions of magma, and massive tsunamis. Even the weather was disrupted, causing immense storms, ranging from massive thunderstorms to tornados to hurricanes and typhoons, to suddenly form and strike the landscape. The sudden catastrophe proved devastating to the world at large. Entire nations were shattered…their cities were leveled, their infrastructure torn to bits. But it proved to be an oddity that the massive fortress that now surrounded New Sylvania remained perfectly intact.
Vahtri could only stare on in horror as this all happened. She could hear the planet crying in pain, but sat helplessly, powerless to stop this devastation. But what should have taken millions of years was all over in the span of ten minutes. The surface of the planet was now arranged into six distinct regions, and a few miscellaneous islands.
"Well, that's done," Nazo chuckled. "And now for the second phase of my plan…" He once again called to the Chaos Emeralds.
"Instruments of my birth, grant me my second desire…open a portal to the Nightmare Cleft, and let monsters once again thrive on Mobius!" Again the Chaos Emeralds glowed, and a massive rift in time and space suddenly ripped open, causing a rushing out, like a suddenly un-dammed river, of all sorts of malevolent spirits, who poured out across Mobius.
But Nazo was waiting for one particular entity…he saw a pair of pincer jaws start to exit the portal. But to his dismay, the portal suddenly closed. The jaws were stuck in space for a moment, but then formed into what appeared to be a black Chaos Emerald, and Nazo watched as it plummeted into the sea below. He looked down to see Vahtri now in control of the Chaos Emeralds.
"I won't let you bring him back…" she growled. "Nor will I let you tamper with this world further!" She summoned the angelic power within her, inherited from her father, and formed a pair of beautiful, white-feathered wings on her back.
"Foolish woman…you cannot hope to defeat me, even WITH the Emeralds."
"Who said anything about me doing it?" The Master Emerald began to glow, as did the Chaos Emeralds. Nazo scowled, but only watched as the Chaos Emeralds suddenly flew off in different directions, each one landing on a different continent. The blue Emerald, however, dropped into the artic sea to the north. Before Nazo could act, Vahtri and the Master Emerald warped away as well.
"Damn it…I was so close too…" Nazo grumbled. He sighed, and looked at the crystal platform he stood on. He snapped his fingers, and the platform began to rumble…
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"…W-w-w-w-w-what the heck is happening?!" Scratch exclaimed as the sudden earthquake begun. Metal Sonic, who was hovering, seemed surprised as well. Even Robo Knux seemed a bit concerned at this sudden and violent activity. They were silent for the whole ten minutes that it took for the world to reshape itself.
Before much else could be said, about thirty malevolent spirits came careened toward the robots, and immediately gained corporeal form upon landing. Their shapes were numerous, but all terrible. Some were worm-like, others were reptilian, and still others resembled massive insects. Scratch and Grounder immediately rushed into each other and held on, scared stiff.
"The new order of monsters has arrived!" one of the creatures rasped. "Bow down before the awesome might of our new king, Nazo!" Metal Sonic wasn't about to take that lying down, attacked the monster who had spoken with several hundred rounds of machine gun fire.
"I am the one who is to be king!" Metal Sonic roared. "Tell your master that he will soon learn that Metal Sonic is to be the true overlord of Mobius!" The monsters cackled with laughter. Even the death of one of their own was no concern.
"It seems I have not made myself clear…RK, Scratch, Grounder…engage battle mode!"
"It's about time I got to bash some heads in…" Robo Knuckles chuckled, extending his knuckle claws and assuming a fighting stance. Scratch and Grounder let go of each other and uneasily assumed their own fighting poses. Finally they clashed…and that was the first resistance to the new world order.
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The heroes of this tale, however, were in more dire straits. The airship had somehow been caught in a massive tornado filled with debris and flames. The heat and the battering caused the structure of the flying machine to quickly lose its integrity. Everyone was in a panic, even the normally level-headed JJ. Only Scarlet kept any of her cool, and frantically searched for the book.
Quickly she called Salamander, who appeared in a much less violent than previously. The fiery spirit quickly realized the gravity of the situation, and quickly shielded Scarlet as the room suddenly began to heat to extreme temperatures. This suddenly gave her an idea.
"Salamander, can you shield everyone on board from the heat?" she asked frantically.
"Of course I can, I am Salamander, perfect…"
"JUST DO IT, DAMN IT!" Scarlet screamed. The spirit quickly called forth his power to shield Scarlet's friends…and it was not a moment too soon.
The airship's fuel tank suddenly detonated, consuming the entire airship in a massive fireball. The entire group, protected from the flames, was tossed into the firestorm, and sent spinning around. Just as the world finished rearranging itself, the storm ceased as suddenly as it had appeared. But the law of inertia remained true, which caused the group to be flung in different directions, far across the planet. They would all end up alone, save for Elias and Nadja, who were holding each other tightly throughout the entire time…
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"Is life really worth living anymore, Tahra? My son, my son Janus…is dead…I felt it. It was the same feeling I had when Shadow died…surely you felt it too…like a white-hot spear thrust through your chest.
"Yeah, I know what you mean…"
"I can only assume Nadja, my dear Nadja…has died in this terrible disaster. My children were my whole world. I longed to be with them more than once or twice a month, but I was too much of a coward to keep them around…"
"Don't blame this on yourself, Amy. I was afraid of Mephiles for a while, but I had no choice but to let Locke stay. Mikael was in the defense corps, so he couldn't do much for him. You had Maria."
"Still, we could have stopped that monster. I should have been there. New Sylvania, and now the whole world, is ruined because of my cowardice and reluctance to go to where she lived. It's better off if I were to just fade away."
"No! You have to live your life as best as you can. I'm sure we can pull through somehow. It may take time, but the world WILL get better. Instead, fight back for their sake! Fight back in their memory!"
"You're right. We may be a bit rusty in the joints, but I still think we can hold our own…"
"That's the Amy I know!"
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"Are you truly willing to give up your own life force, Devlin?"
"Yes. My grandson and all his friends are this world's hope for peace. Besides, I have lived too long as it is. I refuse to lose both my son and grandson while I still live. Better that I die and he go on."
"And you too, Eberon? You are not even related to the one you wish to save."
"…If I do not donate my life, then who will? I owe it to Amy, my successor. Surely she felt the shock of her son's death. I will not allow her to live in misery."
"You are both kind-hearted souls."
"This is what we desire. We Devlin and Eberon, give up our life forces to Janus and Locke, the successors to the Chosen four, who succeeded us! Give them our breath of life…and give this world a second chance"
"It is as you wish…"
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"Hey, big dude!" a voice called to Elias. He slowly opened his eyes, and sat up, rubbing his head. He looked around through his still somewhat blurred vision. He finally saw someone sitting on a chair near his bed. He wore simple street clothes, including jeans and a t-shirt. He looked like an echidna, but his quills were spiky, though hanging limp like an echidna's. It took a moment for Elias to realize that he was seeing a hedgchidna, a crossbreed. But he did not learn the hatred for such individuals, and instead began to ask what one would normally ask when suddenly in an unfamiliar place.
"You're in the Sanctuary for the Unwanted…it's where orphaned crossbreeds have a chance to live and grow up in peace with other crossbreeds," the hedgchidna replied. "We're not far from Quadtalia, where all the kitsune live."
"Okay…so…who are you?" Elias then asked.
"The name's Voyant," the hedgchidna replied, thrusting out his chest slightly and pointing at himself with his thumb. "I'm one of the Sanctuary's guardians. I basically keep the young ones out of harm's way, and keep any nasty folks from doing them harm." At that moment, Nadja poked her head in.
"Oh, hey, Nadja…" Voyant said to her. "He's awake, you can come in." As she approached, Elias noticed that a bit of the girl's original shine had returned to her eyes.
"Some of the kids who wandered into the bit of forest in the Sanctuary's borders found you two lying there, surprisingly alive. She came too in a only a few days, but you've been out for three weeks!"
"…Three weeks!?" Elias exclaimed. Voyant nodded as Nadja sat on Elias' bed.
"Yeah," Voyant replied. "During that time, I worked with Nadja a bit. From the first words out of her mouth I could tell she was completely nuts. But I've been able to work with her a bit. It's going be a long road to recovery, but she's already acting a bit normal than what she was before." Elias was overjoyed to hear that, but then inquired as to how he did it.
Voyant answered by focusing his attention on a small wooden box in the far corner of the room, extended his hand and began to concentrate. It began to glow green, and it slowly rose off the floor as Voyant slowly lifted his hand. Elias' jaw dropped open, while Nadja clapped gleefully.
"Do it again! Do it again!" Nadja cheered. Elias could only start babbling incoherently, so much in shock was he. Voyant lowered the box and grinned.
"You're looking at the world's only psychic hedgchidna!" Voyant proclaimed with a massive amount of pride. Elias rolled his eyes. And so it came that the Twelve and the Summoner were dispersed across the new face of Mobius, and a new chapter would open in their lives…and that of the whole world.
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Me: And so ends the first saga of our tale. Next chapter, we begin the next saga and find out how the others are faring! And it looks like we'll be seeing Janus and Locke again. And just to clear it up, Voyant IS another member of the Twelve.
Janus: Yay! I'm not dead!
Locke: Yay! I'm not dead either! Let's have gay sex!!
Janus: Hahahahahahahahaha NO.
Locke: I'm just kidding.
Rydia: Awww….