I'm back again! And I'm updating! Cheer for me! Or just applaud those damn little plot bunnies who won't leave me alone...
Disclaimer: It's so sad, but I don't own Sonic. I do however, own Kim. She is MINE! But if you want to write a story with her feel free to ask me. Oh who am I kidding.
Chapter 2: The Chaos EnergyRobotnik had seized control of the chaos emeralds. He had tried to use them as weapons to wipe out villages and cities, but their raw energy had been too much for him to handle, and he lost control of them. Which left Sonic and the newly formed Freedom Fighters where they were now. Trying desperately to control a wildly erratic energy that did NOT want to be controlled, and seemed to have a mind of its own.
The seven emeralds were spinning in the air, so fast now that the individual colors could no longer be distinguished. They were just one big blur. The energy suddenly peaked again, and the emeralds imploded to form a small spec of light. The group stared at it for one horrified moment, then without warning the energy exploded outwards again and a form materialized in the center, then crumpled to the ground. The emerald's energy died suddenly, as if it had never been, and they fell to the ground, forming a perfect circle around the crumpled form in the center. The group stood in stunned silence for several minutes, until Sally finally broke it.
"What happened?" she asked in a disbelieving whisper.
Sonic shook his head. "I have no idea," he said, his voice expressing as much disbelief as Sally's.
"What iz eet?" came from Antoine.
"Her." They all turned to stare in surprise at Knuckles, who was carefully examining the creature on the ground. "It's a her," he repeated.
"Well what iz she?" Antoine repeated. No one answered him. No one knew. The girl began to stir then, moaning quietly and shifting her weight. With a quiet sigh her eyes fluttered open she sat up, then began to take in her surroundings.
"Daddy?" she whispered, her face drawn in confusion. Then she called again in a more panicked voice. "Daddy!" Her terrified tone made most of the group wince, and Sally rushed into the circle of gems to comfort the frightened girl.
"Who are you?" Sonic was glad that Antoine had refined his earlier question. He had been afraid that Antoine had been going to ask "What are you?"
"My name is Kim," the girl whispered. She was trembling with shock and fright, so Sally draped a comforting arm across her shoulders.
"How old are you? Where are you from?" Sonic asked, also stepping into the circle and dropping to one knee in front of Kim.
"I'm eleven," Kim said, starting to calm down a little. "I'm from America." She looked around again. "Where am I now?"
"Kingdom Acorn on the planet Mobius." Sonic had a sneaking suspicion that the girl wasn't even from this world. He was proved correct.
"I'm not on Earth anymore?"
Sonic shook his head. He had never heard of 'Earth' before.
"Kim began to shake again. "I want to go home," she whispered.
Sonic didn't know how to respond. He didn't know how she had gotten here in the first lace, much less the way to send her back. This fact seemed to be sinking home with Kim. Her lip trembled and she began to cry. She brought her knees up to her chest, wrapped her tail around her feet, ducked her head down, and wrapped her wings tightly around herself. The sounds of her muffled crying drifted out from underneath her wings.
"What do we do?" Sonic asked quietly as the rest of the group slowly came closer to the trio.
Sally shook her head, her arm still around Kim's shoulder. "I don't know," she said. "But I suppose we should take her back with us. She had no where to go."
"We should stay here tonight," Knuckles put in. He nodded at Kim. "Because I don't think she's up to going anywhere else today."
So without another word the Freedom Fighters began to set up camp. Night had fallen and the group had a good fire blazing when Kim finally raised her head again. Tear streaks were running wet trails down her cheeks. She sniffed and rubbed a hand across her eyes, wiping away the last of her tears. She unfolded from her huddled ball and wandered over to sit with the group by the fire. Sonic shifted over and she sat next to him.
"Hungry?" he asked. Kim nodded so Sonic held a plate out to her. "Like chili dogs?" he asked.
"I've never had them before," Kim said, accepting the offered plate. Sonic looked dumbfounded, as if the idea were unreal. Sally took one look at his face and burst out laughing.
"You should see your face Sonic!" The others around the circle began to laugh too. "My name is Sally," Sally said to Kim when she finally managed to stop laughing.
"Sonic," said the blue hedgehog to Kim's right.
"My name's Miles. But you can call me Tails," said the little yellow fox to Kim's right. Turning to him Kim saw that he had two tails instead of one.
"Knuckles," said the red Echidna across the fire.
"Antoine."
Kim smiled tentatively. "How old are you?" she finally asked.
"I'm eleven," said Sonic. "So are Sally and Antoine. Tails there is eight, and Knuckles is twelve."
Kim blinked in surprise. "Where are your parents?" she asked. She was confused as to how kids like herself would be allowed out on their own, especially this late at night.
"My mom died when I was a baby and my dad's back at the castle." Sally's expression soured a bit as she said the last part.
"I never really knew my mom," Knuckles said. "And my dad disappeared over two years ago."
"My parents and my uncle were robotisized."
"Mi mama died years ago," Antoine said. "Mi papa," he cleared his throat. "Mi papa 'az been robotisized as well." It was Knuckles who noticed Kim's confused look.
"It means that they were turned into robots," he clarified. She looked mortified.
"You can do that?" she asked, incredulous.
"Robotnik does it to any Mobian he captures," Sonic told her. "He turns them into his mindless slaves." Kin still looked mortified, but she shook it off and turned to Tails.
"What about your parents?" she asked him quietly, almost fearing the answer.
Tails stared absently into the fire for a moment before answering. "My dad disappeared right after I was born, my mother a while after that."
Kim turned her gaze to the fire. She hadn't had it easy where she came from, but she at least had parents who loved her. These were children like her, and they didn't even have that. Sally was the only one of the group with a parent, but from the way her face had soured when she mentioned him, she apparently didn't quite see eye-to-eye with him.
'At least I usually get along with my parents,' Kim thought, then froze. Her parents. Her family. She may never see them again. She felt a wave of despairing panic threaten to drown her but she refused to give in. At least her parents were still living and normal, no one else in the party could say that for a fact. She refused to give in to tears again.
Only one other of the party watched while Kim struggled to fight back her despair, the others were lost in their own thoughts. Knuckles watched her across the fire as she fought back despair, and won. He watched her sink into an exhausted heap as unconsciousness finally claimed her whirling mind. So much had happened to her in one day. Knuckles studied her sleeping features.
An innocent child, dragged from her home and unceremoniously dumped in a strange, war-strewn land. He knew that her child innocence would soon be shattered, it couldn't long survive in this war, but for the time being he envied her that innocence that he had never really had. But this was the life he had grown up in, was used to. She wasn't. Her lifestyle had been vastly different and she couldn't long survive here without help.
"I don't think that we should be trusting 'er," Antoine said suddenly. Knuckles realized that he and Antoine were the only ones awake anymore. He didn't bother to reply. If he were to fall asleep Antoine would likely explain his remark to the thin air around them.
"She could 'ave been sent by Robotneek," Antoine said. "She could be part of a plot to invade the kingdom."
Knuckles shook his head. He was surprised by his sudden desire to defend the girl. He felt like a protective older brother all of a sudden.
"She's not," Knuckles said to Antoine. "You saw what the rest of us did. The chaos energy brought her here, and Robotnik had nothing to do with it. Unless you count his triggering the chaos energy in the first place, but no one had any control over what it did, least of all her."
Antoine fidgeted. "But still-"
"Knuckles cut him off. "Antoine you know I'm right, so don't bother her." He yawned then. God but he was tired. "We can talk more tomorrow if you want. Night Ant."
Antoine muttered a goodnight as Knuckles followed the other's examples and gave in to the lure of sleep.
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