Chapter 5 - In the dark

Slowly I wake up. I still feel the pain in the back of my head. I open my eyes. My sight is still blurred, but I notice immediately that i'm not lying on the ground. Instead, i'm all tied up, on a horizontal standing platform, somewhere on the side of a big hall. It's pretty dark inside. Only the half-barred windows let through some light. About 30 feet to the left of me is a black, unknown hedgehog who's also captured. Even further is the captured Regulus. In the middle of the room is a hedgehog in a capsule. He has a black head and red fur. One of the few who wears a pants for a change too, a yellow one. It's silent. Not one of them is awake. It seems I was the first one.

After several minutes of this awkward silence, I hear some people coming. I'm about to pretend that i'm still unconscious, but I notice a camera hanging. It won't have much use if they saw me, so I'll just keep staring at them. Trying to annoy them. There are 2 of them. They come close enough for me to make out what they look like. But... I don't recognize any of them. "Boss will come soon? Jackal can't wait much more longer!" I recognize that voice! It's the one who took me down in a flash. He doesn't seem to have things all straight in his mind. I think that he is Jackal, because people like that always talk about themselves in 3rd person. I wonder why he didn't kill me? "Hmpf, you fool. Why do you always act like a clown? Boss will get here tonight. Hopefully Summers will be awake by then." A girl? Yeah, it's definitely a girl. But... what's with her spikes? She doesn't seem to be all that... girly or... fresh. Maybe it's the gothic style of hedgehogs? She wears black leather clothes after all. And she's grey, very pale too. The clown-like man starts laughing in a really twisted way. I never liked the sound of people that laugh like that. You never know what they might do. He notices that i'm awake, and continues to stare at me. He's totally freaking me out. "What do you want from me? Who are you?" I ask. He starts laughing, yet again in that twisted way. "Cut that out, you fool!" says the girl. She slowly walks toward me. "You have guts for asking questions while you're captured, don't you? Alright, i'll answer your questions." I notice she has holes in her body, blood dried up. Her spikes are rotten, and one of them is even halfway gone. I didn't want her to get closer. But she kept walking. "I am Revenant." She stops about 6 feet in front of me. "That fool over there is Jackal Night. And what do we want with you, you asked? Boss asked us to collect hedgehogs from another wor" Jackal interupts her, and speaks fast. "What are you doing Revenant you fool. You shouldn't tell them our plans, our PLANS! Boss won't like that! Boss won't like that at all." Revenant runs up to Jackal and slaps him in the face. "Huh, there! You could have said it another way, you freak. Don't insult me again." Revenant starts leaving the room. I hear Jackal mumbling to himself, thanks to my great hearing. "Freak freak freak freak." Now he starts laughing again. Ugh... i'm getting sick of it.

I hear some noise. I look up, and a few seconds later someone busts in through a barred window. No it's not just one. A few seconds later someone busts in from another side. The black hedgehog and Regulus are waked by the noise. "Hey there, Hero and Regular. You're in a bit of pinch, aren't ya?" It's Overdrive! "Hey, my name is Regulus you bastard! You always say my name wrong!" Overdrive apologizes for it... as usual. "I'm sorry. I'll get it right next time." I wonder... who's that fire colored hedgehog? He frees Regulus, and i'm freed by Overdrive. The black hedgehog is freed by... a small blue flying hedgehog with a giant Windmill shuriken? Looks a lot like a Chao to me. "Jackal shall take care of you guys!" Jackal says. Revenant looks at the fire colored hedgehog. "Let's get out Jackal. We can't beat 6 opponents, and there's a flame user among them." She's afraid from fire? "We have to take Summers." Jackal responds. They run to Summers, but the fire colored hedgehog breaks the capsule, and carries him away on his shoulder before Jackal and Revenant can get there. Both of them stop. Revenant says something. "Go ahead, leave. We'll get all of you back in a few days anyway." Then they run away.

We leave the building, it's broad daylight outside. The black hedgehog leaves with his small buddy. But he introduces himself first and his buddy too, and apologizes for what he did. His name is Solar Blade, and his buddy is named Chao. Seems I was right about his buddy. And he was the one that Regulus knocked out with a single punch last night. They captured him too because he was told lies about us, and then decided to help Revenant and Jackal. We hire some rooms in an inn. We talk about what we should do now. Summers is still unconscious. No one can tell when he'll wake up.

Me: "So... you're Blaze Krezne?"

Blaze: "You know me?"

Me: "I heard about you before. You're some kind of traveling hero, right?

Blaze: "Heh, yeah you got that right. Your buddy asked me for help, and I was already waiting for a chance to free Summers."

Me: "What's up with Summers?"

Blaze: "He is supposed to posses some amazing powers. I don't know what they are. But I have to prevent them from getting into the hands of The Malicious?"

Me: "The Malicious?"

Blaze: "He's the most powerful guy there is. He's evil too. If he gets Summers, he'll be invincible."

Regulus: "Ah... yeah... right. There is no such thing as some überpowerful guy."

Overdrive: "Yeah, I think so too."

Blaze: "The 3 of you, don't know about him? He's destroyed whole cities. After the rumours I heard I went to check it out. I've seen him destroy a whole city by himself!"

Overdrive: "You must be kidding, man!

Blaze: "I'm not. And... why don't you guys know about him. Everyone here knows."

Me: "I know Regulus and I are from another world. How about you, Overdrive?"

Overdrive: "You're from another world? Me too!"

Me: "I didn't notice... oh well. That clears things up."

Blaze: "Hmm, from another world, ey?

We speak about things for a few more hours. It's decided that when that Summers guy wakes up, we go to the north. There's been a sighting of a really weird looking hedgehog. Possibly from another world too. And we need to get away from here, because The Malicious is after us. Oh man, I really wanted to train for the tournament.

End of chapter

New character(s)

Name: Solar Blade
Age: 18
Gamefaqs member name: Soolar121
Color: Pitch Black
Spike style: Really sharp, straight backwards
Others: Has a Chao-like hedgehog named Chao, whom carries his Windmill Shuriken most of the time
Side: Good
Time in Hedgehog Mania world: about 1,5 years when he gets introduced into the story
First appearance: Chapter 4
Role: Ninja hedgehog. He's on the good side, but sometimes not.
Personality: Tries to act like a ninja, but because he isn't a real ninja he often makes himself look like a fool by doing so. He's a bit easy to manipulate too.
Backround: Someone that liked ninja's a lot, and trained himself to become one. After he got transported to the Sonic universe for some unknown reason, he could actually strive to really become one. His powers increased a bit too. He saved a chao, and just named him Chao. Now they're best buddies that train together. Chao also carries Solars Windmill Shuriken. That's a big, four bladed shuriken. A few months later he got transported to the Hedgehog Mania world, and became a hedgehog. A hedgehog with many new powers. So he uses them to his advantage, and is a full fledged ninja when it comes to skill. Not just that, his skills make him better than real ninjas. His character however, doesn't. Chao became a hedgehog too. Solar roams the Hedgehog Mania world as a mercenary. He got tricked by Jackal Night, and ended up helping him to take capture Hero and Regulus.
Special power: None yet

Status growth:
Power: 6/10
Battle speed: 9/10
Endurance: 6/10
Melee fighting: 8/10
Strategy: 7/10
Running speed: 10/10

Name: Chao
Age: 2
Gamefaqs member name: Fictional character that Soolar121 made.
Color: Dark blue
Spike style: All pointing to the back, closing in on eachother
Side: Whatever side Solar is on, and that's good most of the time
Time in Hedgehog Mania world: about 1,5 years when he gets introduced in the story
First appearance: Chapter 5
Role: A ninja Chao, buddy of Solar Blade.
Personality: Always ready to help his friends Solar when needed, though if Solar does something wrong he doesn't give him any help. He's quite smart too, for a Chao. But that's because he was transformed into a hedgehog when he was transported. He's still adapting and becoming smarter.
Backround: Look at Solars backround
Special power: Fly

Status growth:
Power: 2/10
Battle speed: 3/10
Endurance: 1/10
Melee fighting: 2/10
Strategy: 7/10
Flying/running speed: 5/10

Name: Revenant
Age: Unknown, but she was a young adult when she died
Gamefaqs member name: Gemerl
Color: Pale Grey with sickly green patches
Spike style: Pointing down, and down diagonally backwards, most rotten and cracked, central spine is halfway gone
Others: Wears black boots with spikes, spike armlets, black pants and black top, wears an earring
Side: Evil
Time in Hedgehog Mania world: About 22 years before she gets introduced into the story
First appearance: Chapter 5
Role: Loyal, but not so smart minion of The Malicious.
Personality: She doesn't make plans. She just rushed into the situation, and fights. If she can't possibly win, she's smart enough not to fight. If she doesn't have any orders she won't fight unless it's self-defence. Because she tends to forget things sometimes, she often gets into arguements with her fellow minions.
Backround: Still a secret
Special powers: Zombie, weak against fire and light, immune against most magic and psionics

Status growth:
Power: 10/10
Battle speed: 9/10
Endurance: 10/10
Melee fighting: 9/10
Strategy: 2/10
Running speed: 6/10