Chapter 2 – A Black Sky
His toes were killing him.
Why God had seen it fit to give him ingrown toenails, Emess did not know. A year after he had been exiled from all Overlander communities, his malformed toenails had made themselves known.
Hey, Emess, you can't ignore us toenails. We're going to infect you every now and then just so you don't get bored. Oh, and we're raising bets for when you cut your toes off just to stop the god-awful pain.
He had hacked at them with sharp stones, tried to pry them loose and they only hurt even more. And how they hurt. Twenty jagged knives fixed deep into each side of his ten toes, the nails felt as if they would burst out of his flesh with every step he took. He tried to ignore them. And tried, and failed, and tried again. Then, God took pity on Emess, but He didn't let him off right away. Two years after they had started gnawing into his toes, Emess found a shiny stainless-steel thing, abandoned just outside the camp of Overlanders.
Hallelujah, praises to God, the Lord is mighty! He had found a nail-clipper. He remembered screaming aloud while snipping for the first time in three years. Lord knows, he never knew they were that deep, but good God, he just didn't care. In less than six hours (had to take a few breaks from self-inflicted torture, you know) he had removed the offending toenails and wept for joy while blood flowed from his feet like a river.
Well, now his toes were killing him again. Nails don't stop growing until you're dead. He bit his lower lip hard and resolutely dug into his big toe.
***
The nail-clipper dangled from his neck on a tarnished silver chain while he tramped through the forest. His toes stung but the pain was bearable, maybe he had missed a few splinters. A few days ago the birds had brought him rumours of a Freedom Fighter City, where all the furry folk from the Great Forest now lived. Indoor plumbing, electric light and all sorts of gadgets he hadn't laid eyes upon for well over two decades. He saw the tallest buildings, long before the trees had thinned out, and broke into a run. Jubel bounded on all fours at his side, she ran faster that way.
"It's going to be bigger than the Forest, the birds said."
"Will they accept us?"
"They will. We're all forest folk, right?"
Jubel looked into the clear brown eyes of Emess.
"Will they accept you?"
Emess looked down at his stolen clothes. Five years after being kicked out from his home village, he had to find new clothes or else he'd be walking around naked with some frayed strings here and there on his shoulders. So he thought, the Overlanders steal from the forest, so it's only fair that the forest steals from the Overlanders. Shoes were out of the equation, permanently. When he was lucky he stole khaki pants, and sometimes even denim jeans. A jersey would do for a couple of months. For this occasion, however, he had stolen a white designer shirt and black trousers a size too small for him. Damn outfit was tight in the armpits and groin but he didn't want to try another raid until next month.
"No fur."
"But you have us. That should convince them you're a friend."
"We'll see, God willing. How about thirty of us storm the city in two days?"
"What, like an Overlander base?"
"It won't be any less of a surprise to them."
***
To three hundred and ninety four people, Freedom Fighter City did not mean "Freedom."
The Penitentiary (the officials didn't have the heart to name it "Freedom Penitentiary") was a compact mass of gray buildings near the heart of the city. There were 2,000 cells: ten by ten feet, two inmates per cell. Just because it was at 10% holding capacity did not mean its inmates got private cells. The bigger a city, the higher its crime rates, and FF City was going to be big, the mayor promised. And it was the mayor (to be politically correct, their hatred of the mayor) who had encouraged most of those inmates to become criminals, in the name of ARM.
The Anti-Robotropolis Movement was formed to oppose the mayor's most momentous decision (made one week after being installed as mayor, oh how the voters regretted choosing him after that speech):
"FF City will grow until, like a giant white blood cell, it will absorb the diseased remains of Robotropolis! A healthy future awaits our great city!"
Most of the crowd was confused with the biological analogy but they understood anyway.
"We don't want our children to grow up on that bloody land!"
Countless arguments ensued (will your children even care? Of course they will, we'll tell them stories!), which the new mayor stood up to bravely. At the end he was forced to leave the 'discussion' under a hail of bottles and whatever readily available trash the angry mob could find. Thus ARM was born. They didn't want the mayor simply booted out of office; they wanted to kill him.
Between the hours of nine to five, however, killing the mayor was proven to be impossible because of the mayor's bodyguard (hastily hired but well chosen). It was this bodyguard who cheerfully (and sometimes angrily) delivered inmates to the Penitentiary.
Reyes was one of those inmates who had felt the angry side of the mayor's bodyguard ("Hell?"). He was now bald, with memorable burn scars across his pate and face. The rest of him was a snub-nosed black canine of indeterminate breed. Time in the slammer had caused Reyes to wax poetic. He scribbled on his wall whenever the muse took him. His cellmate Zeb, not an ARM member, loathed the continual scritch-scratch of Reyes' claw on the wall, sometimes at two in the morning. Zeb couldn't get violent or else the guards would throw him into solitary, and Zeb was claustrophobic.
"Vengeance on the fire, my ire, burns higher…"
Zeb disliked it even more when Reyes quoted. He turned to the wall and jammed the flat pillow against his ears. He wished for sleep… Wait, there was the guard bringing breakfast. But there was no sunlight in the cell. Zeb sat up and listened. Three pairs of boots were clomping closer. He heard other cells stirring, but then fall silent as the boots passed.
All along the corridor there were light bulbs in iron cages screwed to the ceiling. At night they were dim. Three figures, masked, were outside Reyes' and Zeb's cell, and by the pale yellow light Zeb saw the mystery guests were armed.
"How'd you get past the guards?"
Reyes was talking to them. Zeb scrunched himself back against the wall and stopped moving.
"Tranquilizers in their coffee. We're here to set you free, Reyes."
Oh, the sweet breath of relief!
"I knew ARM wouldn't let me rot here. I just need new equipment and a suit maybe, that smartass bodyguard won't know…"
Zeb thought he heard a discreet fart come from one of the three. He heard the sound five times more before his eyes became wide and he remembered what that sound meant.
"Silencers make a funny noise when they work…"
"You shouldn't have sold out Justin, Reyes."
Zeb heard something sit heavily and then fall over. The scent of blood filled his nostrils until the guards served breakfast four hours later, and screamed.
***
"Who da baby? Are you da baby? Yes you are, yesh you are!"
Sally was nose to nose with her child Paula, a girl squirrel, and the cutest most flawless bundle of brown fur Mobius had ever beheld. She was also squalling something awful in the happy home of Sonic and Sally Hedgehog.
"Here, let me try,"
Sonic still had trouble believing he and his wife were, uh, compatible. The genetic chaos he thought he had started (the kid will be a mutant, Destiny help us) had ended up in her, Paula, who was undeniably squirrel and nothing else.
"Toss the baby!"
Paula jumped three feet out of his paws and he caught her again.
"Sonic! What are you doing?"
"Don't worry Sal, she likes it!"
The volume of bawls increased. Sally took her (What does a hedgehog know about raising a squirrel?) and tried shushing her with more coos and baby talk. She was incorrigible after ten minutes with her mother. They had changed her diaper, fed her enough, burped her, and changed her diaper again, so what on Mobius was wrong with her?
All this madness, and another baby on the way?
Lazer poked his quilled head through the door.
"Good morning?"
"No," the couple said, now seated on their sofa. Lazer leaned against the doorframe and smiled at the baby's loud protests at life in general.
"How is she?"
"Deafening," Sally replied.
"What's up, samurai boy?" Sonic asked. He had to leave for work in a few minutes: it was his only reason for escape. Sally was using a rattle while the child caterwauled. He'd give anything to get away from this constant noise.
"In today's headlines, someone was murdered, in The Penitentiary. ARM left their calling card."
Sonic was on his feet, glancing anxiously at the open door.
"Well, I'd better head off to work."
"Whoa, mister, not with this banshee," Sally warned. The pain on Sonic's face was palpable. Damn, damn, damn, he needed to go to work.
"She wants to be warm," Lazer suggested.
"But she's wrapped in a blanket. And she has a lot of fur for a two-month old."
"I mean," Lazer said, "The warmth from here," he placed a paw against his chest. Sonic smirked.
And there was peace.
Paula lay between Sally's breasts in perfect contentment. Her amazing green eyes opened, staring at Sonic with curious intelligence (at least she inherited something from me, he thought).
"The heartbeat," Lazer explained. He crooked a finger at Sonic and left the house.
"His kid's not even born yet, and he knows more than both of us," Sally murmured.
"He cheats. It's the Emeralds, has to be. Bye Sal."
A brief kiss, then Sally was left in the company of her two children, one unborn. It was November 20th, a Monday.
***
"I don't know what to buy her for our first anniversary."
"You haven't forgotten? That's amazing."
Soon the wasteland between the Great Forest and FF City would become urbanized. Right now the landscape was post-apocalyptic, with mounds of robotic remains strewn about. Here was the greatest battlefield between the Freedom Fighters and Robotropolis. Lazer grinned wryly as they sped past a particularly battle-scarred area, remembering a dark feline girl and her Emerald.
"I dunno if I should take her to a restaurant, or for a walk on the beach, or if we should just stay at home and take care of Paula."
"My anniversary's April 16th next year. Ashlar will be born before then, and I bet I'll be in the same dilemma."
"You're not helping me, samurai boy."
Traces of civilization began to appear. Bulldozers clearing the ground, workmen were setting up electricity pylons for future households. Progress.
"You know where I work?"
"San Agustín Pizzeria?"
"The owner is promoting me to manager."
"That takes care of the kid's college fund."
"You read my mind… hey!"
"Sorry. Ever since Rebecca got pregnant it's become easier to pick up thoughts, and other things."
"Then you'd better stay the hell away from my house at night, samurai boy."
Laughing, they hit the pavements and slowed their pace among the local pedestrians. They easily hopped over the traffic at stoplights (there weren't any laws prohibiting jumping the lights) and entered San Agustín Pizzeria. Sonic clocked in one minute early and picked up his personalized hat from the rack.
"Thought you were manager?"
"Not until I finish my training courses. I'm gonna hate the paperwork but the pay's astronomical compared to what I'm doing now."
"Sonic!" a voice called from the open kitchen door, "Twenty nine orders for breakfast!"
"No prob!" he called back. He said to Lazer, "Hey, have breakfast here why doncha? Put the mayor's money to good use, for a change."
"Nah, I have work too, and don't you think my wife took care of breakfast?"
"And I wonder what else. Whatever man, see you later."
***
Freedom Hall was a place of sunshine and long shadows. Lazer walked directly into the mayor's office, bypassing all security with an ID card issued by the city council. The monarchy of the Acorn family would regain control when its army (severely depleted by the war) was replenished. Until then King Acorn entrusted the city and citizens to the mayor.
"Ah, it's my life preserver. Are you sure you won't reconsider living in my household? Muriel and I have rooms to spare for any family you have."
"Good Morning, Sir," Lazer began, standing a respectful distance from the sizeable teak desk, "Permission to speak freely?"
"This isn't a military institute, boy, go ahead," the Mayor chuckled.
"Rebecca and I will have a son in about three months. We are considering the purchase of our own house in this great city. Therefore I request a larger salary, both for the house and for the future of my son."
The mayor smiled easily. He was proud of his smile; it had made him the first mayor of a thriving metropolis. He was also proud of his people skills, and his ability to deal with… subordinates.
"Lazer. You have been my bodyguard for, what, a year and a half now? You are exceptional in your work. After all, I'm still alive after precisely fifty nine attempts on my life."
"Fifteen of which have been in the last month. Mayor, ARM is becoming desperate. They've already killed one of their telltale members. When my family comes to this city, ARM will undoubtedly attack them in order to get to me. To continue my services, I require a fifty percent pay raise."
The mayor chuckled at Lazer's forwardness.
"Lazer. As you said, ARM is becoming desperate. They will not last much longer. The truth is, I do not perceive the need to increase your pay when the single threat to my life is about to dwindle away."
Lazer smiled.
"Very well. I resign. I do, after all, need to think of my child's future. Here is the card of my new employer, they offered me triple whatever you're paying me."
Lazer placed the card – the same card he had found in The Penitentiary – onto the mayor's desk. Three golden letters were printed neatly in serif style: ARM.
The mayor became deathly pale.
"B – But you cannot! The police, the Acorn family would be against you! And… and I will hire mercenaries!"
"You threaten me with your police force?"
Lazer laughed softly and the mayor sweated.
"There is no lost love between the Acorn family and I. As for your mercenaries, they are all sympathetic to ARM."
Lazer turned to go.
"Goodbye."
"Wait! Don't go! I… I'll pay you the fifty percent extra."
The ruse was successful, but Lazer was saddened. The flood of emotions and thoughts, that only he could hear, flashed from the mayor's mind to his.
The years that I've spent wondering if I would amount to anything… now my city is growing so well…I can't die now…
The mayor suffered from an all-too-common problem: a lack of meaning. What would his life mean if he did not survive ARM? He would be written off in the history books as "The first rejected draft", not the pioneer that led FF City into its golden age.
"I'm sorry for you."
"What did you say?"
"Nothing, Sir. Thank you."
***
During Sonic's lunch hour his wristband beeped.
"Huh?"
Tails' voice followed.
"Sonic. Hey! Sonic!"
Between chews of breadsticks dipped in hot sauce he pressed the small "Talk" button.
"Yo, Tails. What up?"
"Knuckles' back!"
"Mmph?"
Sonic spat out what remained of his lunch.
"You kidding me?"
"No. He's back! Julie-Su called…"
"Give me a minute."
When Sonic said to 'give him a minute', he meant it. He clocked out (tossed his hat on the rack) and tore up the ground all the way back to Knothole.
"Status report!"
He crashed into the side of Tails' hut and stumbled through the door. Tails took off his headset and handed it to Sonic. The familiar female voice came through the headphones.
"Sonic?"
"Su. He's really back?"
"Yeah. I didn't think of calling until just now."
"How is he?"
"He didn't sleep at all last night. I'm so…"
"Worried, yeah. Oh, man, six years..."
He turned to Tails.
"We're going."
Tails took his pilot's goggles down from a shelf.
"We're there."
***
A cloudless, soft blue sky reflected the deep dark ocean glittering in the hot sunshine. Sonic noticed neither. Feeling cramped in the seat behind Tails he wished there weren't so many mysteries surrounding Knuckles. Born the Guardian of Floating Isle, being confused about his place in life, and utterly disappearing for six long years, to suddenly return without warning...
"Hope you found answers," Sonic muttered.
The Tornado taxied to a halt on the landing strip. Julie-Su and the Chaotix were waiting, with Knuckles.
"Red!"
Sonic jumped out of the Tornado and looked at his red echidna comrade. Knuckles was taller, his dreadlocks an entire foot longer. A hint of stubble was on his chin. Most of all, those dark eyes of his (once blue, now green) were grimmer than ever.
"Blue. You and Tails are the first two."
"Um. What?"
Knuckles took in a deep breath and recited in a loud voice,
"Two, greatest of friends. One sleepless Guardian. One Master of Five. One perceives the truth. One in whom all magic lives. And one mistress of darkness."
The six others were agape at Knuckles, unable to react to this outburst. Even the wind had stopped. Sonic, feeling he was on the verge of something weird and wonderful, spoke first.
"What?"
Knuckles coughed and glared at him.
"Those are the Seven that I must find. Two, greatest of friends, one…"
"Yeah, yeah. Hold it. You come back after all this time to recite bad poetry and not a word of where you've been?"
Those frowning eyes were far away, looking at some other time and place, while he spoke.
"I've been with the Ancient Walkers. They allowed me to experience several epochs in history, especially what happened about two years ago when five of the Seven appeared. I believe, now, my purpose was to gather this knowledge of history. I have already found all seven beings."
Sonic was patient. He knew, firsthand, how much the Three Walkers could change someone.
"Red, why are these Seven so important? Did the Ancients tell you?"
Great sadness replaced the mystery in Knuckles' eyes.
"More than tell me, oh, how much more than simply tell me! They made me know the…"
The calm air was disturbed. It had begun to move, quickening the dust underfoot.
Knuckles suddenly looked stricken with… fear. The pupils in his eyes became tiny dots of terror as he backed away from Sonic, from Tails, from Julie-Su and the Chaotix. In one sweeping motion he pointed his paw to the heavens.
"They made me know the Evil that is coming!"
And they all felt it then, the fear that Knuckles felt. They dared not look upward but their eyes would not be spared. And they heard it! A deep, deadly roar, coming from…
The sky. The sky had changed.
A fathomless vortex was growing larger, infecting the clear blue colour of the sky with an ugly, disgusting shade of black. It roared and raged with untamed fury and black lightning, declaring its presence to the citizens of Floating Isle that were paralyzed with fear. And Knuckles, eyes ablaze, his dreadlocks streaming like snakes in the wild gales of wind, with one paw upheld to the new horror, thundered in the voice of a Prophet of Doom,
"He… is… here!"
***
Lazer jumped upward. Cabinet members murmured. The mayor choked on his sip of water. Without a word of apology Lazer flew out the nearest open window and about two miles above FF City. Far, far away a monstrous storm was gathering.
"By the Walkers. It's begun."
***
A certain black feline with eyes of jade awoke with a gasp. Forgetting the warm male in bed beside her (still asleep, the oaf) she hurried, tripping over their clothes strewn on the floor, and stuck her head out the apartment window. FF City was oblivious to the threat that her psychic sense was fully alert to.
"The servant's master! But I'm not ready…"
***
Emess frowned. A new voice was calling to all of Mobius, supremely triumphant. He could hear the mysterious new Presence, speaking of power and of glory, but its undertones were of pride and lies, the voice held a nameless Evil.
"Emess?" Jubel said. She had seen the darkness overshadow his face, and knew something was very wrong. In a tone of voice he had not used in thirteen years, he spoke:
"And the Lord said, you shall have no other gods before me…"
***
Sonic was aware of a trembling Tails welded onto his arm. Julie-Su approached Knuckles and reached for him, Knuckles responded and drew her close. The Chaotix were clinging together, reduced to four frightened children.
But the vortex was not done yet. A roaring funnel reached down from the epicenter of the vortex, swirling with the vilest colour of black. It hovered menacingly above a particular spot on Floating Isle.
"The Emerald Chamber! He can't be allowed to reach the Master!" Knuckles shouted above the sound and fury. Shrugging off Julie-Su he broke into a desperate run. Sonic dragged Tails along with him, not knowing what else to think or do.
The funnel was so close to the ground now, about to become a tornado. Small animals and all other sorts of critters scrambled terrified in its wake. Knuckles led Sonic and Tails into the underground cavern and the three of them had just enough time to place their paws upon the Master Emerald when the black tornado struck home.
They were protected in a bubble of green light while the chamber dissolved around them in a cyclone of indescribable violence. The Seven Server Emeralds that once ringed the Master whirled upward.
They shattered. And then even the shattered fragments were gone.
"By the Walkers," Knuckles said, "I have seen a Chaos Emerald broken into pieces, but never completely destroyed…"
"Red. What the hell is going on here?" Sonic yelled. The tornado raged all around them with increased fury, but was unable to pop the protective green bubble.
"The Ancient Walkers call him… Thanatos!"
"Thanatos?"
"Thanatos," Tails whimpered, "All my nightmares came true. Oh Sonic I'm so scared, I'm so scared!"
Even when safe under the Master Chaos shield, Tails clung tightly to Sonic. His eyes were screwed up and leaking tears.
"Fourteen years, and still a kid," Sonic sighed. He patted Tails' head and asked Knuckles, "Can we, like, get out of here?"
"I believe that I can move it…"
Knuckles closed his eyes and paced both paws firmly on the smooth facets of the Master. The green bubble carried its occupants out of harm's destructive way and rested them gently beside Julie-Su and the Chaotix. The ground was shaking convulsively beneath.
"Hey! You're alive!" Espio called by way of greeting.
"That thing's drilling a hole all the way through Floating Isle! I can feel it. We can all feel it!" Mighty announced. They waited a few seconds more and, sure enough, there was a great cracking sound and the ground moved in waves. Everyone fell over, except the Master, which floated calmly above, and Charmy, whose wings saved him.
"Thanatos hasn't just drilled a hole," Knuckles said, "He's split the entire Island in half! Look at the mountains!"
The southern end of Floating Isle, that held Lava Reef and other mountains, was sinking from their view.
"Great Destiny!" cried Julie-Su, "But that means the other half will fall!"
"You're right!" yelled Knuckles, "Without the Master Emerald, or the Server Emeralds, the other half doesn't have any support!"
Helplessly, everyone watched the mountains disappear from sight. The demonic tornado, seemingly satisfied with its handiwork, retreated to its dark source in the sky. The fearful vortex receded, and closed with a murmur of thunder. The sky became blue again.
But half of Floating Isle crashed into the sea.
A beautiful creature of Light he was, moving smoothly across the ground as a serpent might slither over sand.
"It is he," the Living Creatures cried, reaching for their swords, but by the prompting of the Word, they checked their zeal. As the creature of Light passed, the Living Creatures turned their eyes away, one by one.
There it was - The Sword of Fire that turned in all directions! His own sword in hand, he approached, and The Sword (with a radiance of ten thousand suns) turned to face him.
With a single mighty stroke a fragment was carved off The Sword! So violent was the blow that the fragment flew heavenward and was seen no more. The Sword of Fire retaliated with a single stroke, also, grievously burning him with divine fire. A roar of rage went up and the Light of his being diminished, giving way to the Darkness within. He struck once more, but he was weak, and a smaller fragment was cut, flying skyward never to be seen again. A second blow from The Sword of Fire broke his own sword and forced him to retreat. Astonishing was this power! His beautiful wings smouldered with pain. He swore vengeance a thousand times over until the flaming Sword began to move toward him. With terror in his eyes he slithered away, from the holy Host and The Sword, never to challenge such power until the final day…
