Science centers around explaining how the world works in terms that all can find common.

Faith is about explaining WHY the world works in terms one cannot ignore.

The two are rarely compatible. And Magic's foundation is found in faith. The elements of the world, the manipulation of time and space, the healing of any and all wounds, these are possible with magic, as long as you remember...

All magic has a price.

Nothing...is free...

Episode Twenty-Seven

ノクターン 章 読み取り あなた

In Nocturne, Chapter Reads YOU!

Tikal Nahuatl stood before her new pupils, arms folded as she then paced slowly back and forth, hands held behind her back, eyes closed peacefully as she took in a deep breath. Her new pupils were a mismatched bunch of oddities. One was some kind of lizard with fiery, molten skin, who had stupid-looking eyes and was anxiously fidgeting in his seat. Another was a human with a very large, rounded nose and bad sideburns. Still another was a red hedgehog with a fine set of quills, another was a pink rabbit with very large muscles, an outfit that was making his package bulge a bit too big for the other's comfort, and brightly shining golden eyes.

And another was none other than Shadow the Hedgehog himself.

"Now, understand this." Tikal told them all, wheeling around to intently. "I am going to put you through the most intense training that you've all ever known. But you asked me, you CAME to me because you expected the best of the best. And if you're to gain the best knowledge and skill in magic you can gain, you will need to remember the price you pay will be high."

She then nodded firmly. "So don't complain to me that things are 'too hard'. Everything worth DOING is hard. I insist you give your all and won't accept anything else. Now then, go work on reading your texts to prepare for your first foray into your new magic field. Ibilis, Shadow, Robbie, you three are together in this room. You two remaining shall be together with me. We'll be looking over some Islamic texts on fire magic."

With a nod, she left with the hedgehog and the human, the hedgehog grinning at them all. "Ha, I've mastered all the other elements so far, and I'm gonna master this one easy! Nothin's too hard for Rad the Hedgehog!"

"You should be a LOT more concerned!" Ibilis, the burning-skinned lizard insisted. "Ms. Nahuatl's the most powerful magic-user I've ever seen. To say you can so easily master any of her magic is akin to BLASPHEMY, you...you...HERETIC!" He snapped. "Watch your tongue or I'll cut it out!"

"Fah." Rad laughed. "Nothing's too hard for Rad the Hedgehog!" He said, pointing at his handsome, well-built form, his beautiful face glittering. "Rad's gonna ace everythin'-"

"Martin Stu, if you please?" Tikal called out from the other room. "Your friend Rastapopoulos has already started on the second page."

Rad took off into the other room as Ibilis began looking over a book on chaos magic and the energy it could create as the rabbit named Robbie approached Shadow. "Good to see you're here, Shadow. I was getting concerned after I heard about you getting into some kind of little "issue" with our lord, Dr. Eggman. I was worried he might have fired you. Glad to see you just decided to take some time off for training."

"...uh, do I know-" Shadow began.

The rabbit took out the contacts it was wearing, revealing distinctly blue eyes, and Shadow's eyes bulged in surprise. "...Van...ill...a?" He squeaked out. "...is...that...?" He murmured, pointing at the disguise she was wearing.

"Oh no, no, this isn't ACTUAL rabbit skin, I assure you." She went on. "What, did you think I was going to take my dead husband's body, skin it, and wear it as a suit?"

"Actually, that's not too bad of a guess considering the amount of Nightmare Fuel that author's introduced to the story." Ibilis remarked, looking up from his book with a bit of a grin.

"Huh?" The other two said, staring at him.

Ibilis just went back to reading. "Hmm. Disana! Diatas batu karang! Hmm. This is...Indonesian, yeah, Indonesian. Such a pretty language!"

"He's an odd one." Vanilla remarked before turning back to Shadow. "I've been here a few times before, and I tell you, I've seen his nose in a book every single time. I think he's attended her classes a dozen times over. Yet all I really now about him is his name."

"I'm actually rather glad you're here. I've some bad news to tell you." Shadow told him as he looked over a book on Chaos Energy.

...

...

...

... "I seeeeee." Vanilla said, frowning darkly. "All of them are in on a conspiracy, huh?...even my dear old little birdie friend." She sighed.

Shadow had not told her about Dr. Eggman actually being a Golem. Only that they were being CONTROLLED by some. He was glad she didn't ask about whether or not her husband was being used, or one of the ones doing the using.

"And to think, now all of your men are scattered all over Mobius." She gave him a sympathetic nod and a smile. "You know...not too many years ago, I met with Speedy for a little cup of tea." She sighed deeply. "He asked me an odd question after we'd gotten to dicuss the old days when we'd been out in the field."

"What was the question?" He asked.

"Wouldn't you like to have a cyborg army?" She told him. "He told me a cyborg army would make all the difference in a battle. They'd be powerful, immortal, loyal, all the "uhl" words you most want to hear."

"What did you say?" Shadow inquired, looking interested.

"I told him "Listen you whiny little prick, I know you lost all your men in the war, but trying to create a home-grown army to fill the void in your heart is just egotistical and self-serving. Crying over the past never helped anyone". He began to cry for half an hour, took off sobbing, and the next day, I was transferred." Vanilla explained calmly.

"You really got the short end. If you'd been in charge of the Eastern-wait." Shadow frowned slightly. "...the Eastern...near that town of "Knothole" where the Metal Brotherhood went to..." He mumbled. "Something's not right. Things should have quieted down after the Eastern Forces of our army headed in..."

"That worked for all of fifteen seconds until the CENTRAL forces came marchin' in." Vanilla told him. "Things started going to hell in a handbasket after that. But after hearing what you've told me...well..."

She grinned at him, eyes glittering. "I can feel my ambition filling me once again. I'll do what I can to bring them down. Tomorrow I'll head back to Central and I'll make little Cream proud!"

There was a loud whistle, and they turned their heads to see Tikal was standing there, holding onto some envelopes as Rad and Rastapopoulos stood by her. "I'm giving you all a specific allotment of money. You're not to use any of your own: you're to spend it on food and food alone, understand?" She said, handing them each an envelope.

"Ha! The RAD is gonna bring back some yummy-yummy-yummy to put into my tummy!" Rad said as Rastapopoulos smelled the envelope, grinning broadly.

It wasn't long before all of them were outside in Mystic Ruins, looking around for delis and restaurants. Rad, unfortunately...had spent all of his money already due to the fact that he'd dropped his envelope into a sewer grating by accident.

Well, actually, not ALL of his money. He had two dollars in his pocket, and what Tikal wouldn't know wouldn't hurt her! There had to be SOMEWHERE around here that-

"Wait...that smell..." Rad murmured. "There's no doubt about it! Bread! Sweet, toasty, buttery bread!" He remarked happily, seeing Ibilis leave the bakery with a sack filled with large loaves of bread. The magma-scaled lizard noticed Rad and blinked stupidly a few times before he finally took off running, Rad right on his heels.

"C'mon! GIMME!-GIMME!-GIMMEEEE!" Rad shouted, jumping on his bag, trying to paw at the bread, forcing Ibilis to the ground as the lizard tried to push him away.

"Gerroff me!" The lizard growled.

"Gimme that bread! I can tell from the smell alone it's WONDERFUL, I must have it!"

"Hey, that's enough!" Shadow called out, approaching him, frowning darkly at him. He tossed Rad off of Ibilis and helped him up. "You get out of here or I'll throw you halfway across the city."

Rad muttered angrily under his breath about how they'd suffer his "rad-venge" and took off as Shadow held up a six pack of Cherry Coke. "Want some?" He asked.

Ibilis blinked a few times, then extended his bag of bread, grinning. "Take some!" He insisted.

Soon the two were sitting down, munching away on the bread. "I hope you don't think I'm intruding on your lunch." Shadow told him, unaware that Tikal was watching from a distance, smiling in approval.

"Uh-uh." Ibilis said cheerily, biting into his bread.

"So, I've heard you go to Ms. Nuahatl's classes often. Is this true?" Shadow inquired, interested.

The magma-scaled lizard swallowed a large chunk of bread, then nodded firmly. "All the time! I kinda just watched her from afar at first, but then I got interested in learning more about what she did. So I took some classes from her on basic magic...and then I got into the more advanced field...and now I'm going through chaos training, just like you." He told Shadow. "My big specialty's a type of Fire Magic and crystallization through..." he scratched his head. "What's the term? Oh, right! Synthesis with the Earth Element. I combine them to create neat little things."

He held out one three-clawed hand and concentrated as a burning chunk of rock began to form in his hand, oozing up from his body. It began to harden and cool, slowly transforming into a rough diamond...

And then that rough diamond had taken on the shape of a little hedgehog. A wild one, not a sapient. He handed it to Shadow, who looked it over. "Oh my. This is...this is very impressive." Shadow said, feeling the texture.

"My whole body underwent experimentation." Ibilis said. "My creator was trying to replicate the creature from old tales of djinn and the like. I suppose he succeeded in a sense, my body's practically living magma."

Ibilis then bit into another loaf, a smaller one, swallowing it down in one gulp before cheerily waving goodbye to Shadow. "See you back at the training hall!" He called out as Shadow waved goodbye to him as well.

There had been something slightly unusual about that thing's eyes. They'd been such a dark, dark shade it had been hard to see into them...

A FEW DAYS LATER...

"UUUUUUGGGGHHHH." Sonic moaned as he lay sprawled across a dozen or so books in the Central City library. "Bored-bored-bored-bored-bored-bored-bored-bored..." He sang out.

"SHHH! This is a LIBRARY!" The Wax whispered from behind a bookshelf before heading back to work.

"I've been at this for two hours and I haven't found a thing." Sonic muttered to himself, sitting back at one of the library's tables, resting his head in his palms. "This library's supposed to have the biggest amount of books in all of Mobius and there's not one single book about Soleanna!"

"Hello there, Sonic." Knuckles said, putting down the newspaper, suddenly appearing right next to Sonic.

"What the? How did you sneak..." Sonic spluttered.

"SHH. Library." Knuckles whispered, putting a finger to his mouth. "Listen, I've got good news. I heard you were looking for a girl who has a koala for a pet? Well, I was at the train station seeing Shadow off when I noticed just such a girl getting on a train to the North...heading towards Nocturne!"

He then smiled. "And up there at the cliffsides of Nocturne at Camp Nocturnus, that's where my sister lives. But, uh...don't piss her off." He added with a bit of a grin, knowing Sonic would do just that as he cheerily waved goodbye.

Elsewhere in the library, looking through a large pile of books, Tails sighed, burying his head in a large tome. "This is going nowhere. There's not one single scrap of information on Yakin Shīru or Soleanna! We don't even know how it works..." He thought to himself. "And it could be the edge we need to-"

It was then that he noticed a small chao with a pink bow tie was staring up at him, eyes filled with awe, little stars sparkling around him as he stood near a small rabbit with a pretty dress and blue eues.

"Ooooooooh!" It said. "It's you, it's YOU! You're Miles Per Hour, aka Tails! You're the brother of Sonniku, aren'tcha?" It asked happily.

"It's LOVELY to meet you, sir." The rabbit told him, giving a curtsy.

"It's "Miles PROWER", but yes, I'm Tails." Tails told him, looking down at the chao in surprise. He'd seen so many talking chao lately this wasn't TOO surprising, but here in a public place? Who was this strange being?

"Whatcha lookin' at?" The chao asked, bouncing up to the table and looking down. "My sister Cream here's got a stupid ol' Assigned Reading List that the school makes her go through. She's had to read "Catcher in the Rye" eighteen times though! It's so boring!"

"Ah, I'm trying to research the magical Ring Arts of the holy kingdom of Soleanna." Tails informed the two.

"Ooooooh! Soleanna? I've heard of that place!" The rabbit, apparently named Cream, said, clasping her hands together. "It's supposed to be really, really beautiful! But..." She then tilted her head to the side slightly in confusion. "Why are you looking up other types of magic?"

Tails did the first thing that came to mind. He lied.

"It's for world peace." He explained.

BGM: My Country Tis of Thee

"For you see, Yakin Shīru specializes in the field of medicine!" Tails went on, placing one hand upon his heart, speaking dramatically as The Wax held up a small stereo, the music playing dramatically in the background. "I'm always looking for new ways to better save lives and help improve this country!"

"Ohhhhhh." The chao said happily, hugging Cream. "See? I TOLD you he and his brother were amazing!"

"You're right, Cheese! These guys are real saints!" Cream said, nodding her head.

"Hey, Tails!" Sonic called out, entering the room. "Get your stuff packed! I've got a new lead on that...who're they?" He asked, noticing the chao and the rabbit.

"Ooh, it's the Blue Blur!" Cheese said, pointing at Sonic. He then poked him in his stomach. "Looking "prosperous" there! Hey, is it hard to see your feet over this stomach of yours?" He wanted to know.

Sonic immediately turned gold, a red glint in his eyes, lightning crackling around his fist as he held it up in the air. "Wanna run that by me AGAIN?" He muttered darkly.

"It's true, you DO snap when somebody calls you fat! Hey, you know, you'd get a liposuction free if you go to Dr. Mario's place and say Luigi sent you. You shoulda seen my daddy's BUTT back a few years back, it was HUGE until Dr. Mario sucked it out and-" Cheese went on.

"Wait...are you...Cream and Cheese?" Sonic asked suddenly, turning back to normal as Vanilla entered the room with a small guard surrounding her.

"Yes, these are my children. I'm sorry Cheese is so excitable, he's always admired you." Vanilla told Sonic with a laugh.

"And I just LOVE Magic!" Cream added as she hugged her mother, Cheese doing the same. "One day I wanna be a State Metallurgist so I can help out my daddy!"

"Yeah, he's the BEST!" Cheese said, nodding eagerly.

"You...really love him, don't you?" Sonic said softly.

"Even though neither of us are blood relations, and even though I'm a "lab rat"..." Cheese admitted. "He still cares for us like we're his own flesh and blood." The talking chao said. "People were unnerved by the idea of me being his son, but he cares for us so much that all they can see is the love he has for us, and I couldn't be happier!"

"He's so devoted to his family." Vanilla said. "Though I tell you, he didn't understand a THING about dating." She added with a wink, beginning to giggle. "Hee-hee-hee...oh, Ivo is gonna kill me for saying this, but on our first date, he..."

Dr. Eggman, who had been overhearing everything from hidden cameras installed in the library, grabbed ahold of his hair, pulling in horror. "AAAAAAAAAA!" He screamed.

Soon the three of them had to say goodbye to Sonic and Tails, who looked at each other. "Those poor guys ain't got a clue what their loving husband and devoted father really is." Sonic told Tails sadly. "I do NOT wanna be the one to tell them the bad news." He admitted.

"In any case, let's head to the train station." Tails said. "If we're lucky, we'll be able to reach Nocturne by tomorrow!"

...

...

...

... "This sucks." Sonic announced.

He and Tails were now trudging along a battered, weary-looking road as a torrential downpour came down in a thick deluge above their heads. Not wanting to waste magical power on trying to create some kind of perpetual umbrella, they'd just brought along raincoats. But even THESE weren't really doing a good job in keeping them dry.

"Next time, let's bring umbrellas instead of raincoats." Sonic insisted. "I HATE all this water."

The continuing deluge of rain was like the beating of a large, powerful series of drums all around them, filling their ears with the "pumpa-pumpa-pump" sound of continuously falling raindrops. Shivering slightly, Sonic and Tails continued down the road, wading through thick water...not noticing that the water around their feet was rising.

Meanwhile, somebody else was busy being seemingly oblivious to clear danger. Omega was sneaking onto another train, helping a fat-looking figure get into a carriage in the back. Bean grinned, taking out the match from his mouth and smirking slightly as he slunk along the railway, sneaking onto the back car, waiting to hear Omega's thick footprints leaving.

All he needed was five seconds alone with this fat cat, he thought, quickly sliding inside the car, the enormous, rotund figure stopping stock still, apparently in shock upon being caught, it's back turned to Bean.

"Did you really think you were just going to be able to skirt away without getting caught?" Bean asked, calmly approaching, grabbing at the hooded cloak that the fat cat was wearing. "How stupid do you really think we are, dear Big-"

The cloak was pulled away, revealing Nack, who promptly opened up his mouth as a small muzzle stuck out to point in Bean's face.

"Ohshit." Bean mumbled.

BUDDA-BLAM! A sharp plasma blast knocked him out of the carriage car as Bean snarled furiously, looking up to see a robot standing above him...claws clenched tightly. "If you are so clever, why is it that you have never heard the term "distraction"?" Omega commented with an unmistakable air of smugness in him as Bean leaped up on top of the car that he was on.

"...you." Bean spoke quietly, smirking slightly as Omega now got a good look at Bean. A very, VERY good look at him. He'd heard stories about the Dynamite Metallurgist, but now this being's face was all-too-familiar. "There was a robot much like you who was in the 2nd District of Shanazar. He had the Greek symbol "Gamma" on his shoulder...chicken legs...and he was standing right in front of you when I blew the place to blazes."

Bean absentmindedly put a hand on his hip, sniggering slightly. "Do tell me! How IS he?"

Omega's claws twitched. "..."

"I am NEVER doing that move again!" Nack swore as he quickly ran to the back of the car, panting, the rings around his hat glittering. "I'd forgotten how DISGUSTING the taste of gun was..." He thought out loud as an enormous explosion rocked the roof of the car.

As for Sonic and Tails, they'd finally noticed the rising water level. They were trying desperately to call on their magic power to just fly away, but with the heavy rain and winds tearing into their fur and flesh, it wasn't looking good. The two of them weren't able to go any further than a few dozen feet before they slammed into a set of trees, falling down into the rising floodwaters as Sonic desperately clung to Tails, determined not to drown.

"I can't see five feet in front of me!" Tails yelled out as a clap of thunder tore through the air, lightning splitting the sky. "It's too dangerous to fly! I'll t-t-try and-try and...climb-climb up the...AAACHOOOOO!" He sneezed raucously, as Sonic nervously looked at him, then at the water.

"It's alright, I'LL carry you!" Sonic insisted, holding onto Tails and trying to climb up the tree, panting and heaving as a dark chill began to spread through his body like an infection. He panted and heaved as he continued to try and pull himself and Tails's body up, but he felt so cold...so cold...

His gloved hands began to slip...

KRA-KROOOOOWWWW!

A lightning bolt struck his right arm, at the ring, and all Sonic knew was blackness as he and Tails plummeted into the rising flood below...

Well...the bad news was...they were dead.

The good news...they could feel God's thick, furry hands holding them up...carrying them away...

...

...

...

... "Wh-what?" Sonic muttered as he awoke to find a gentle warmth bringing him back to the land of the living, Tails's head resting against his own. "What's going on?"

"You should drink." A rough voice spoke up. Sonic had something thrust into his hands as he looked up at the sight of a roaring fire situated some distance from what was clearly a very, very advanced landing pad for a NASA-esque facility. There were enormous dark red and purple beams holding up large structures, with a shuttle situated on the launch pad gazing up at the skies.

The owner of the rough voice was a bear. He was a light beige bear with dark red eyes and a little red cap atop his head like those that Alaskans wore. He had thick brown and orange shoes and thick, boxing-esque brown gloves with a large green scarf around his neck.

"Uh...who are you?" Sonic asked as Tails began to awake from his unconscious state, shuddering because his body was soaked with water. Now he'd have to be wrung out!

"Bark."

"Uh...woof-woof?" Sonic barked nervously.

"No. My name Bark. Me Russian." The Polar Bear told them, folding it's muscular arms, frowning darkly at them.

"...uh...Me Sonic." Sonic said, pointing at himself as Tails held one hand and squeezed it, wringing the water out of it as the Polar Bear gave the strange, moving doll a "okay, that's just weird" look. "Him Tails." Sonic said, pointing at his brother. "You're really Russian?"

The bear nodded. "Yes."

"...can you say "Moose and Squirrel"?" Sonic asked with a grin. "Just once?"

"Americanski humor. Very funny." Bark mumbled, giving out a sharp whistle a moment later as Sonic and Tails found themselves surrounded by a large horde of people in stylish black outfits. There were faintly glowing blue tattoos on these outfits, and all of them appeared to be echidnas of some sort. There was even room for their dreadlocks to drape down from the back in strange "helmets" they wore, and had odd-looking buster cannons on each of their right arms.

"Good lord, they're EVERYWHERE." Tails gasped.

"Who do we have here?" A voice called out.

Sonic and Tails turned to see a female echidna in black armor hovering over to them in a floating hoverchair. Tails looked on in awe at the sight. "How are you able to get that flying?" He asked, noticing the simplistic, yet vaguely mystical structure of the chair. It too had faintly glowing blue tattoos all over it. "Is that...superconductor-electromagnetism?"

"Indeed." The woman said, nodding firmly.

"Super-whuh?" Sonic remarked.

"Superconductor-electromagnetism!" Tails told him, shaking his head. "Surely you've heard of it! It levitates bullet trains from Tokyo to Osaka."

"I'm using it to levitate my hover chair." The woman went on as she hopped down from the chair. "And it will also...levitate..."

Sonic blinked a few times.

"ME." She whispered, her form slowly rising up into the air, slowly circling around Sonic and Tails.

"...er..." Sonic mumbled. "...you do know you're just standing on your tippy-toes, right?" He asked.

The woman came back to the ground, "harrumphing" as she reached up, taking her helmet off to reveal a vaguely orange/red-colored echidna with lilac eyes and a black headband...with a very visible pink symbol in the center of it. She had a set of silver rings around her wrist, and a limber, smooth-looking body. "I am Shade."

"Are you Knuckles's sister?" Sonic asked.

"...you...know him?" Shade inquired. "Tell me, how is he doing?" She asked calmly.

"Well, he's as strong as ever." Tails said as he wrung out his other hand. "And he still has "The Pink" working well for him."

All of the soldiers saluted at the mention of "The Pink" as Shade nodded firmly.

"Good, good, upholding the family honor just like always." Shade said. She then whistled, as the other soldiers lowered their weapons. "Alright. Tell me. What are you two doing here...and why a doll is talking to me right now."

"...well..." Sonic sighed, turning to Tails. "Should I explain it, or should you?"

"I can handle this." Tails said. "But you should know, it's something worth being court-martialed over..."

"That's alright, ALL of us have here have done things we are not proud of here in Nocturne. My uncle Dimitri was so ashamed of me he laid down and died!" Shade told them.

Sonic and Tails gaped at her, then shook their heads. "Uhhhh...yeah, you go ahead." Sonic remarked.

"Well, you see...it's a long story..." Tails began.