Disclaimer: I only own Leon, Garion, and Rolm.
I WAS planning on leaving it a one chapter, but since someone who reviewed it wanted more, here it is!
Sometimes I wonder how even I could do that to Tails... I KNEW five sodas in one night and midnight writing wasn't such a good idea...
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I screamed and yelled some more as the darkness kept eating into me. How long had I been tortured like this? A couple seconds? A minute? An hour? A day? A week? A month? A year? All time seemed to just dissolve into thin air as though it didn't matter anymore. All I could feel was the pain, the endless burning pain in both my body and my soul.
Suddenly the darkness disappeared and I opened my eyes. I gasped. I could see the others...but they were...no, they couldn't be...they were...
"Whoa, whoa, calm down, Tails," Leon said as he floated towards me. "You'll adjust soon enough."
I looked down at myself to find myself in no better shape than they were. I was transparent, and I was slightly hovering off the ground.
I closed my eyes and a tear crept down my face.
"Hey, cool it, man. You're with us," Garion said.
"Are we...dead?" I asked.
"Beyond dead," A voice said from my right. I turned to see the ghost of a human floating there. I gasped. He looked a little scholarly, with glasses and a thin look to him.
"Don't be alarmed," he said. "I'm no different than you."
"Who are you?" I asked. "And what do you mean, 'beyond dead'? Dead is as bad as it gets!" I shouted. I looked over to see Sonic and Knuckles still lying unconscious on the floor. But at least they were alive.
"It gets worse," the ghost replied. "My name is Brad. I was the son of the people who owned this place. I, too, am a victim of that evil force that occupies this house. After all my time I have been here, studying it, I still cannot completely figure it all out. However, this force completely erases all traces of an organism from the world. This seems to be its only purpose. I have observed that it doesn't like light, however, and that it cannot pass through solid objects or attack people in a group."
"Wait a second, hold up!" Rolm shouted. "If we are erased from existence, why are we ghosts?"
Brad smiled. "Not ghosts, but close enough to call it that. You're memories. The only reason you are the way you are now is because you exist in the minds of these two," he said as gestured towards Sonic and Knuckles. "Not even the force can take away memories."
I didn't like the situation I was in at all, but I was beginning to accept it. What else could I do? I curled into a ball and tried to shut everything else out.
"Hey, don't give up so soon!" Leon's voice pierced through the barriers I had set. "There has to be a way out of this!" I felt a little encouraged at his words, and I got back up. Maybe we could do something...
"If there is, I haven't found it yet," Brad said as he frowned. "Although I do remember reading something..."
"What is it?" Rouge asked as Brad held his head in his hands.
"Follow me," he said after a moment's concentration. We followed him out of the room and in a couple of minutes we were in the library.
"Here it is," he said as he pulled a dusty book off the shelf. "I remember looking in here just after I got erased," he said as he handed the book to me. I opened it and read the index. I flipped to the page dealing with the 'erased ones,' which I guessed were us.
"The only way to get back from being erased is to have someone who has memories of the erased person use the 'Dream Stone' to bring the erased person back," I read.
"Yep, that's it," Brad replied.
"Why didn't you try it out?" Rolm asked Brad.
"Well, my parents never came back into the mansion after I disappeared. I am half-glad that they did, so their own lives are out of danger, but as for me..." he let his voice trail off.
Suddenly the lights in the mansion turned back on. It startled most of us, but Brad only smiled.
"The force is running out of energy! Now is the time to get the Dream Stone!" he shouted.
"Where is it?" Garion asked.
"Umm...shoot! I forgot!" Brad exclaimed.
"WHAT!?" I shouted.
"Sorry, but in this form you start to forget things more easily... We'll have to look for it," Brad replied.
"Great. I'll check upstairs," Rolm said as he zoomed through the ceiling.
"Oh, no you don't! You're not getting out of my sight again after what happened!" Garion shouted as he zoomed after him.
"I'll check the basement," Rouge said as she drifted through the floor.
"I'll stick with you," Leon said. "Brad, do you remember ANYTHING about where it's at?"
"Well...I remember putting it...In a box under something. Yeah, that's it!"
"Under something, eh? Let's go, Tails. Let's hurry before Sonic wakes up! If he gets up, he may leave and never come back!"
Leon flew through the wall and I followed him.
'Hey, this is kind of cool,' I thought to myself as I went through the wall. 'But still, I have to get back.'
We entered the kitchen and looked under the refrigerator. Nothing. We headed out of the kitchen and went into the dancing hall. We checked under all the chairs there but found nothing.
We zoomed down another corridor and entered a dining room. The only thing we could look under there was the table, and it wasn't there.
"We have to hurry!" i shouted. "We are wasting valuable time!"
I raced through the wall and found myself in a guest bedroom. I looked under the dresser, while Leon checked under the bed.
"Ah HA!" Leon said as he pulled out a box. "I think I found it!"
He opened the box to reveal a gem almost identical to a Chaos Emerald, except for the fact that it was white.
Suddenly Rouge flew up through the floor and gave me quite a scare.
"It's important," she said. "He's getting up."
We flew through the house as fast as we could to find Rolm and Garion watching Sonic get up.
"Sonic!" I yelled as I flew towards him. He didn't seem to hear me.
"It's no use," Brad stated. "He won't be able to see or hear you. But I see you've found the Dream Stone. That's great!"
"I know what I can do!" I shouted as I raced out the door. "Let's put the Dream Stone right in the middle of the hallway, where he can't miss it!"
Leon, who had followed me, nodded and set the Dream Stone down on the floor. Sonic came out of the room a few seconds later followed by everyone else.
"Knuckles!" Sonic yelled as he checked Knuckle's pulse. "Thank god you're alive." Sonic suddenly stood up and walked our way. He tripped on the gem as he walked past and fell to the ground.
"Ow, what did I trip on?" he said as he looked at the Dream Stone. "Ah, can't worry about it now! I have to find Tails and the others!" he shouted as he threw the gem back down onto the ground and walked down the corridor.
"You ignorant moron!" Garion yelled as he picked up the Dream Stone, took aim, and threw it at Sonic. It hit him right in the back of his head, and he fell to the ground again.
"OW!! What the hell!?" he said as he looked at the gem again. "Who flung this thing?"
Garion was cracking up and was holding his stomach, laughing. "Maybe I should stay like this for awhile. It's fun!"
"...And become a common poltergeist?" Brad asked as he entered the hallway. Garion didn't like the term 'common' and shut up.
I was more concentrated on Sonic, however. He was gazing at the Dream Stone, deep in thought.
"It's all up to him now," Brad said.
"Maybe, if I try using this like a Chaos Emerald..." Sonic said to himself as he closed his eyes. Then I heard my name. My own name, coming from Sonic. There was a bright flash and I was back to normal.
"Sonic!" I shouted as I ran over to him.
"Tails!?" he yelled back, still a little unsure of the whole situation.
I gave him a big hug and he messed up my hair again.
"What happened?" he asked.
"I'll give you the details later," I said as I noticed a floating flowerpot coming towards us. I wretched the Dream Stone out of Sonic's hands and focused for a second and then said his name. Garion appeared in a flash holding the flowerpot behind his head.
"It was YOU!" Sonic shouted as he charged towards Garion. "I'll make you pay for that bump you gave me on the back of my head!"
Garion dropped the flowerpot and started running in the other direction, closely followed by Sonic. I laughed and then concentrated on the emerald again. Rolm appeared in a flash and immediately ran after them.
Another flash and Leon was standing beside me, but only for a second. He teleported the moment he was back to normal. Where he went, though, I hadn't the slightest clue.
One final flash and Rouge was bending over Knuckles, slapping him awake. I concentrated once more on the Dream Stone and tried to bring back Brad, but I couldn't. I saw some writing being scratched onto the wall. I read it.
"You cannot bring me back because you never knew me before I got erased," I read aloud. "Don't worry, Brad, I'll bring you back...I'll get you back with the help of your parents!" I shouted as I ran down the corridor and out of the mansion, quickly followed by Rouge carrying a still-unconscious Knuckles.
Outside it was getting to be sunrise. I suddenly realized how tired I was and I had to slow down. The others were all outside. Sonic was chasing Garion around and around the outside of the mansion. Rouge finally got Knuckles awake and was filling him in on what happened. Leon was leaning against a nearby tree, conversing with Rolm.
I walked up to them and we talked a little about Brad.
"You know, we might not be able to get his parents to come out here," Leon pointed out. "According to him, they have been too freaked out to set foot in the place since he disappeared."
"That may be so, but we have to try and never give up!" Rolm shouted. "We owe him one BIG time for letting us use the Dream Stone."
"Yes, we will definitely have to try and get him back. We owe him that much," I agreed.
"Let's do it tomorrow then, because, right now, I'm bushed," Leon said with a yawn.
Rolm gazed at the sunrise. "Morning sucks," he said. "But it's even worse that I haven't gone to sleep yet!"
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End of Chapter 2. Chapter 3 will be up...probably Saturday or Sunday. See you then!
Note: I am writing this chapter and the next...because I can't help writing adventure! And it seemed like the original first chapter wasn't enough, so, I made this.
I WAS planning on leaving it a one chapter, but since someone who reviewed it wanted more, here it is!
Sometimes I wonder how even I could do that to Tails... I KNEW five sodas in one night and midnight writing wasn't such a good idea...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------
I screamed and yelled some more as the darkness kept eating into me. How long had I been tortured like this? A couple seconds? A minute? An hour? A day? A week? A month? A year? All time seemed to just dissolve into thin air as though it didn't matter anymore. All I could feel was the pain, the endless burning pain in both my body and my soul.
Suddenly the darkness disappeared and I opened my eyes. I gasped. I could see the others...but they were...no, they couldn't be...they were...
"Whoa, whoa, calm down, Tails," Leon said as he floated towards me. "You'll adjust soon enough."
I looked down at myself to find myself in no better shape than they were. I was transparent, and I was slightly hovering off the ground.
I closed my eyes and a tear crept down my face.
"Hey, cool it, man. You're with us," Garion said.
"Are we...dead?" I asked.
"Beyond dead," A voice said from my right. I turned to see the ghost of a human floating there. I gasped. He looked a little scholarly, with glasses and a thin look to him.
"Don't be alarmed," he said. "I'm no different than you."
"Who are you?" I asked. "And what do you mean, 'beyond dead'? Dead is as bad as it gets!" I shouted. I looked over to see Sonic and Knuckles still lying unconscious on the floor. But at least they were alive.
"It gets worse," the ghost replied. "My name is Brad. I was the son of the people who owned this place. I, too, am a victim of that evil force that occupies this house. After all my time I have been here, studying it, I still cannot completely figure it all out. However, this force completely erases all traces of an organism from the world. This seems to be its only purpose. I have observed that it doesn't like light, however, and that it cannot pass through solid objects or attack people in a group."
"Wait a second, hold up!" Rolm shouted. "If we are erased from existence, why are we ghosts?"
Brad smiled. "Not ghosts, but close enough to call it that. You're memories. The only reason you are the way you are now is because you exist in the minds of these two," he said as gestured towards Sonic and Knuckles. "Not even the force can take away memories."
I didn't like the situation I was in at all, but I was beginning to accept it. What else could I do? I curled into a ball and tried to shut everything else out.
"Hey, don't give up so soon!" Leon's voice pierced through the barriers I had set. "There has to be a way out of this!" I felt a little encouraged at his words, and I got back up. Maybe we could do something...
"If there is, I haven't found it yet," Brad said as he frowned. "Although I do remember reading something..."
"What is it?" Rouge asked as Brad held his head in his hands.
"Follow me," he said after a moment's concentration. We followed him out of the room and in a couple of minutes we were in the library.
"Here it is," he said as he pulled a dusty book off the shelf. "I remember looking in here just after I got erased," he said as he handed the book to me. I opened it and read the index. I flipped to the page dealing with the 'erased ones,' which I guessed were us.
"The only way to get back from being erased is to have someone who has memories of the erased person use the 'Dream Stone' to bring the erased person back," I read.
"Yep, that's it," Brad replied.
"Why didn't you try it out?" Rolm asked Brad.
"Well, my parents never came back into the mansion after I disappeared. I am half-glad that they did, so their own lives are out of danger, but as for me..." he let his voice trail off.
Suddenly the lights in the mansion turned back on. It startled most of us, but Brad only smiled.
"The force is running out of energy! Now is the time to get the Dream Stone!" he shouted.
"Where is it?" Garion asked.
"Umm...shoot! I forgot!" Brad exclaimed.
"WHAT!?" I shouted.
"Sorry, but in this form you start to forget things more easily... We'll have to look for it," Brad replied.
"Great. I'll check upstairs," Rolm said as he zoomed through the ceiling.
"Oh, no you don't! You're not getting out of my sight again after what happened!" Garion shouted as he zoomed after him.
"I'll check the basement," Rouge said as she drifted through the floor.
"I'll stick with you," Leon said. "Brad, do you remember ANYTHING about where it's at?"
"Well...I remember putting it...In a box under something. Yeah, that's it!"
"Under something, eh? Let's go, Tails. Let's hurry before Sonic wakes up! If he gets up, he may leave and never come back!"
Leon flew through the wall and I followed him.
'Hey, this is kind of cool,' I thought to myself as I went through the wall. 'But still, I have to get back.'
We entered the kitchen and looked under the refrigerator. Nothing. We headed out of the kitchen and went into the dancing hall. We checked under all the chairs there but found nothing.
We zoomed down another corridor and entered a dining room. The only thing we could look under there was the table, and it wasn't there.
"We have to hurry!" i shouted. "We are wasting valuable time!"
I raced through the wall and found myself in a guest bedroom. I looked under the dresser, while Leon checked under the bed.
"Ah HA!" Leon said as he pulled out a box. "I think I found it!"
He opened the box to reveal a gem almost identical to a Chaos Emerald, except for the fact that it was white.
Suddenly Rouge flew up through the floor and gave me quite a scare.
"It's important," she said. "He's getting up."
We flew through the house as fast as we could to find Rolm and Garion watching Sonic get up.
"Sonic!" I yelled as I flew towards him. He didn't seem to hear me.
"It's no use," Brad stated. "He won't be able to see or hear you. But I see you've found the Dream Stone. That's great!"
"I know what I can do!" I shouted as I raced out the door. "Let's put the Dream Stone right in the middle of the hallway, where he can't miss it!"
Leon, who had followed me, nodded and set the Dream Stone down on the floor. Sonic came out of the room a few seconds later followed by everyone else.
"Knuckles!" Sonic yelled as he checked Knuckle's pulse. "Thank god you're alive." Sonic suddenly stood up and walked our way. He tripped on the gem as he walked past and fell to the ground.
"Ow, what did I trip on?" he said as he looked at the Dream Stone. "Ah, can't worry about it now! I have to find Tails and the others!" he shouted as he threw the gem back down onto the ground and walked down the corridor.
"You ignorant moron!" Garion yelled as he picked up the Dream Stone, took aim, and threw it at Sonic. It hit him right in the back of his head, and he fell to the ground again.
"OW!! What the hell!?" he said as he looked at the gem again. "Who flung this thing?"
Garion was cracking up and was holding his stomach, laughing. "Maybe I should stay like this for awhile. It's fun!"
"...And become a common poltergeist?" Brad asked as he entered the hallway. Garion didn't like the term 'common' and shut up.
I was more concentrated on Sonic, however. He was gazing at the Dream Stone, deep in thought.
"It's all up to him now," Brad said.
"Maybe, if I try using this like a Chaos Emerald..." Sonic said to himself as he closed his eyes. Then I heard my name. My own name, coming from Sonic. There was a bright flash and I was back to normal.
"Sonic!" I shouted as I ran over to him.
"Tails!?" he yelled back, still a little unsure of the whole situation.
I gave him a big hug and he messed up my hair again.
"What happened?" he asked.
"I'll give you the details later," I said as I noticed a floating flowerpot coming towards us. I wretched the Dream Stone out of Sonic's hands and focused for a second and then said his name. Garion appeared in a flash holding the flowerpot behind his head.
"It was YOU!" Sonic shouted as he charged towards Garion. "I'll make you pay for that bump you gave me on the back of my head!"
Garion dropped the flowerpot and started running in the other direction, closely followed by Sonic. I laughed and then concentrated on the emerald again. Rolm appeared in a flash and immediately ran after them.
Another flash and Leon was standing beside me, but only for a second. He teleported the moment he was back to normal. Where he went, though, I hadn't the slightest clue.
One final flash and Rouge was bending over Knuckles, slapping him awake. I concentrated once more on the Dream Stone and tried to bring back Brad, but I couldn't. I saw some writing being scratched onto the wall. I read it.
"You cannot bring me back because you never knew me before I got erased," I read aloud. "Don't worry, Brad, I'll bring you back...I'll get you back with the help of your parents!" I shouted as I ran down the corridor and out of the mansion, quickly followed by Rouge carrying a still-unconscious Knuckles.
Outside it was getting to be sunrise. I suddenly realized how tired I was and I had to slow down. The others were all outside. Sonic was chasing Garion around and around the outside of the mansion. Rouge finally got Knuckles awake and was filling him in on what happened. Leon was leaning against a nearby tree, conversing with Rolm.
I walked up to them and we talked a little about Brad.
"You know, we might not be able to get his parents to come out here," Leon pointed out. "According to him, they have been too freaked out to set foot in the place since he disappeared."
"That may be so, but we have to try and never give up!" Rolm shouted. "We owe him one BIG time for letting us use the Dream Stone."
"Yes, we will definitely have to try and get him back. We owe him that much," I agreed.
"Let's do it tomorrow then, because, right now, I'm bushed," Leon said with a yawn.
Rolm gazed at the sunrise. "Morning sucks," he said. "But it's even worse that I haven't gone to sleep yet!"
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End of Chapter 2. Chapter 3 will be up...probably Saturday or Sunday. See you then!
Note: I am writing this chapter and the next...because I can't help writing adventure! And it seemed like the original first chapter wasn't enough, so, I made this.