Aeliran, Mylin, and the Jewel Warriors/Keepers are the only characters that belong to me in this story. Sonic Characters are copyright to SEGA.

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Chapter 3
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Super Sonic had had just about enough. As if being trapped and giving himself a concussion wasn't enough, he'd just broken off about two of his claws on that barrier. Normally, he wouldn't mind that at all, but this time he'd HAD to cause them to cut into the quick.

After wearing himself out cursing and stomping around the cave, he sat down to give the matter a little thought.

"And it would help if that flipping chant would shut up!" he shouted at the chant that was echoing around the cave again, "I don't care if Chaos is power! I just want OUT!!" trying to ignore the chant again, he murmered, "It's not if I don't know the chant anyway. Emeralds know how many times I've said it. That time with Chaos, then Shadow..."

He stood straight from his cross legged sitting, and paced in a couple circles.

"If I don't get outta here soon..."

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Mylin looked to the sky, and wished for a half second that he hadn't been talking about battles.

That's all the time he had to curse himself, though, before he had to backflip out of the way of an attacking power creature.

This thing was about six times the height of Mylin, covered in slimy, poison spikes. It was faster than a hornet on speed and drooled a bluish substance out of it's mouth. The creature began shrieking,

"GRRRRAAAAEEERREEE!!"

((myl...Myli...MYLIN!! Ignore it!!)) Aeliran's breathless voice finally reached the grounded hedgehog.

((Whuh?)) looking up, Mylin's eyes widen as the power creature roared at him again. He leaped out of the way, just as the thing tried to bite him. "Yeez, ugly!!" he brought his staff to meet the creature's open mouth, knocking it to the ground.

Aeliran was doing some arial acrobatics around a flying demon. Trading height for speed, he tucks his wings close to him and shoots past it in a dive. Following suit, the demon twisted around so the birdhog couldn't get behind him.

((Your momma must've died when she layed your egg!)) Aeliran taunted, as he snapped his wings open to give a kick to the demon's head, ((Because you had to have cracked while in her! I hope you enjoy your meeting with--)) here, Aeliran shrieked in pain and blind rage as the mind bond between him and Mylin--the only thing keeping him half sane-- was severed.

From a controlled dive, Aeliran began falling as if he was shot.

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Super Sonic had knotted up again, not understanding where this memory of a fallen winged hedgehog came from.

"Hah!" spat a throaty growl, "You were a coward to begin with, and you still are! They call you the Mobian terror!!" as Super unknotted, he witnessed a scale winged biped with horn like projections all over it's body, "Hello again...and farewell..."

"Who are you and what do you mean?" Super demanded, getting to his feet. The creature sneered,

"They were right! Well...I'll make it easy on you. It IS the last thing you'll know, after all. I am Sear'ca."

"'Sear'ca'?" Super echoed, puzzled. He was interrupted from his thinking as Sear'ca knocked him against the wall of the barrier.

"YES YOU FOOL! The final key is to destroy the Warrior! And I shall!"

"The...Warrior?..."

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Aeliran, who was fighting the insanity of a broken mind link, had run away the demon. The power creature was in shreds on the ground...hearing a weak whimper, he tosses the rest of the thing to the ground. The broken warrior tried to call his partner's name,

((M..li.?))

Another whimper answered, and Aeliran set to find it. What he found made his blood run cold. Mylin looked as if he'd been chewed, and then beaten. The bruises were visible through his yellow fur...The winged hedgehog quickly knelt down beside him, and moved as to check for a pulse.
Not able to help himself, Aeliran recoiled from the touch. Mylin's arm had felt like there was nothing but mush in a tight fitting casing. Tears fell freely from Aeliran's firelike eyes,

((M..li.. Wha....pp..ened?)) of course, he knew what had happened. The creature Mylin had been fighting produced a variant of spider venom. Mylin exhaled one last time, and his chest failed to rise again.

After he performed final rites for Mylin, Aeliran buried him in a cave with a barrier to protect the grave from robbers. That was the last thing that the Warrior did before he was captured by the demon that he'd carelessly let escape.

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Coming to himself with a start, Super Sonic barely had enough time to kick Sear'ca away where he couldn't be bitten. "YOU! You hired that thing that killed Mylin!!"

"Hmm...good things don't last do they?" the demon snarled, "But you are trapped, I can kill you on my time."

"Think again..." Super growled, and as the chant began again, he spoke, "Chaos is power, enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the chaos...The controller is no jewel. Rather a Warrior. I have fallen from my former grace, I beg you allow me another chance...there's no way I can fight this as I am!"

The same barrier that had been keeping Super trapped now was keeping the demon from attacking through it, as a pair of wings slowly faded in on Super. First yellow, then orange, then red, and finally a flame colored blue...In a flash of multi-colored light, an emerald pendant appeared on his chest...
He opened his eyes, which had changed from red, demonic swirls to irises that were half green and half purple.

"All right, Sear'ca...time to finish my job! Fire fall and wisdom's failed! I shall DESTROY your evil trail! SEVEN COME TO THE ONE!" as he was speaking, the barrier fell, and Sear'ca lunged toward Aeliran.

Aeliran fell to his back, and kicked Sear'ca into the wall behind him, headfirst. He then hops up and sends a blast of emerald power and lunged forward with an ancient knife he grabbed from the floor of the cave. Shielding himself from the power attack, Sear'ca copies the kick that had been used on him.
Rolling on the ground in a spindash type trick, Aeliran spins into Sear'ca's wing, leaving it useless. He then uncurls and punches the demon in the throat. Staggering back, the demon pauses a second and then uses his claws to rip the hedgehog's wings.

"You missed!" Aeliran taunts, keeping to himself the fact that he won't be able to fly for awhile, and immediately dodges to keep from having the whole wing torn off. Sear'ca floors Aeliran with a left hook and smirks,

"Fool...You claim to be the Warrior...it will be as fun seeing you die as it was that usless keeper..."

"No. I'm tired of playin with you." Aeliran growls, and fires a glob of purple onto the demon, "You can die like Mylin did..." while the demon tried to wipe the poison off, he jumped up and stabbed it in the heart, then the eyes to make sure.

As the demon faded from sight, so did Super's wings.

Thank you, Mylin, for putting a good word in. May you rest in peace forevermore...