Chaos Control: Nightmare Chronicles

Chapter 1: A Not So Friendly Reunion

When Tails came back into consciousness, he remembered the scene in his workshop and quickly stood up. All he could see was a vast blackness surrounding him. He was defiantly standing on something solid, but he could not see anything but himself.

'Sonic?' He called out into the darkness. 'Damn machine screwed up.' He kicked himself, realizing that he was stupid to have put two Chaos Emeralds into his machine.

With another surge of energy, Tails' world went black again.

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'Mom! I'm home!'

An affirmative thump above my head confirmed that my mother did indeed know I was home. I had just come back from a trip to the movies with some of my friends; it was 10:21 pm according to the clock on the wall. My legs felt great as I walked into the kitchen, intending to get something to feed my now rather large apatite. Walking 15 kilometers can sure take a lot out of you.

I pushed aside milk, eggs and something that looked like old blue moss to grab a slice of leftover pizza from last night.

I walked up the stairs to the third floor where my room was, munching on the pizza as I went. I passed my parents room on the second floor; my mom and dad were watching god knows what show. I walked up yet another flight of stairs. I was glad that I had a separate floor all to myself. I closed the door that separated the stairwell from the last flight of stairs that actually led to my room.

As soon as I closed the door, the floor began to rumble. I only assumed that it was the air conditioner at work, but as it continued as I went up the stairs, faint beeping noises could be heard.

'Okay, what the hell is going on?'

I pressed my ear to the wall in an attempt to uncover the source of the rumbling. As it grew louder, I began to get worried that the whole house might be coming down. And with a few bangs, I dropped my pizza as a light that seemed to appear out of thin air blinded me. After the light cleared and cleared my eyes of spots, I looked about my room; everything seemed to be in the same place as they had always been.

'TV, corner.

Gamecube, floor.

Bed, corner.

Dresser, wall.

Closet, wall.

Fox, floor.'

I paused at that last word.

'Fox?'

I did a double take back to the section of the floor I had been looking at. Indeed, lying on the floor there, unconscious, was a rather familiar looking orange fox.

'Hey, are you all right?' I rushed over, knelt down and lifted the head of the fox. 'Tails?' Under the fox, was an even more familiar set of twin tails. 'Wake up Tails.'

I poked and prodded the fox in an attempt to wake him up. After a while, I got impatient and pinched him in the arm, and with a small yelp, the fox sprang to life again.

'Tails, it's me.'

The fox jumped out of my hands. He looked a little scared that I was calling him by name.

'It's me, Alex.'

'Who?'

'Prower. You helped me a few years ago.'

'Alex? Am I ever glad to see you! You'll never believe what happened. But…' He paused and looked me up and down. 'You look different.'

I certainly had grown since I had last seen Tails two years before, after the second time I had been pulled into his universe. I was getting used to dimensions crossing.

I had grown an extra 5 inches, my face had smoothened out and I had gotten thinner as I had grown taller. I didn't blame Tails for not recognizing me.

'What did happen Tails?'

'My new invention fucked up, and Sonic… Sonic.' The fox now looked worried. 'I wonder if he got caught in the vortex.'

'Vortex?'

'The Chaos Control caused a vortex between my world and yours. I'm worried that Sonic might have gotten caught in it as well.'

'Wouldn't that mean that he got stranded here too?' I asked as I went and sat on my bed. 'I mean he would have…' I stopped, my heart pounding as though it would burst, I could hear footsteps coming up the stairs to my room. I bolted to the stairs, took them three at a time and managed to lock the door to my room before they could come in.

'Are you okay Alex?' Asked a voice I recognized as my sister's.

'I'm fine Vic.' I shouted as I tried to hold the door back from my sister's persistent efforts to open it.

'I thought I heard a bang.'

'That was just my TV. Not to worry.'

After about a minute, I could hear footsteps, meaning that my sister had left. I climbed up the steps back to my room to find that Tails had flown up to one of my shelves and was reading one of my schoolbooks on physics.

'Who was that?' He asked as he closed the book and flew back to the floor.

'My nosey sister. So.' I sat back down on my bed. 'You're in my universe now. I should thank you for getting me back home in one piece. I think it's about time to return the favor. What do you suppose caused the Chaos Control vortex?'

'I had created a machine that was designed to multiply the power output power of the Chaos Emeralds.'

'You mean like this one?'

I snapped my fingers and in a small flash of light, the red Chaos Emerald appeared in my hand.

'Wow, you've been practicing Alex.'

'What happened then?'

'Shadow gave me his Emerald. Since I knew that he would have my ass if Sonic had his Emerald done before his, I had to put both in at the same time.'

'And this caused the vortex? Wait, don't the Chaos…' But I was cut short. A faint crackling could be heard again.

'What's that?' Tails could hear it much better due to his fox ears.

'I'm not sure.' I said as I stood up to hear better. 'But it sounds like what I heard before you came, but I think…'

'What you think should be the last thing on your mind.' Said the horrified Tails; he was staring transfixed at something below my right elbow.

I turned to see what he was looking at. A circle of black light was growing steadily larger from that corner of my room.

'What the fu…?'

But before I could confirm what I was seeing, what looked like a long, sharp black tree branch, shot out, and attempted to skewer Tails. Before I could react, it swung around in my direction. Tails managed to jump out of the way, but I was caught in the chest and got thrown against the wall. I hoisted myself to my feet.

'Just perfect.'

I saw that I had been thrown into the wall next to my window. Tails quickly opened the window and flew out into the night. Following his lead, I climbed out onto the roof and ducked, just as the arm shot right out of the window behind me, missing me by inches. Tails was already on the ground.

'Jump Alex!' He shouted.

'Tails! Look out!'

The arm had aimed directly for Tails, Tails could not dodge quickly enough and it hit him full in the chest.

I saw him smash against the tree and crumple to its base, I saw his blood splatter over the tree and it's roots.

'Tails!'

Since my roof was over 15 feet tall, I was very tentative about jumping. But, obviously, the branch had no interest in my safety as it sung in my direction again.

'What the hell.' I jumped, just missing being hit.

I landed on the ground and my legs bent accordingly to absorb the shock. I ran over to Tails and lifted his head.

'Wake up Tails! Come on!' but he wouldn't budge. He was bleeding quite badly. I took one of his tails and pressed it to the gash in his stomach to stem the bleeding.

It looked like this… thing, could grow as long as it wanted as it snaked in our direction again.

'Won't this thing give up already?'

I scooped up Tails and backed up onto my driveway. As soon as I stepped onto the concrete, I tripped the automatic light, flooding the front of the house with light.

The arm got caught in the light. I watched, as the arm seemed to burn in the light, it looked like it was in great pain. It finally retracted back into the window.

'Tails. Are you okay?'

I set Tails back onto the ground; he had finally woken up.

'Damn that thing was strong.' Gasped Tails. He looked at the gash. 'We need to stop this, and fast.'

'Chaos Heal.' I muttered as I raised my Chaos Emerald up to Tails chest. Tails' gash glowed a bright red, and as the light disappeared, so did the gash and the blood.

'Thanks Alex.' Said Tails. 'You have been practicing.'

I looked down at myself. In my efforts to help Tails, a lot of his blood had soaked my clothing. We stood there for a few seconds, me in my blood soaked clothes, Tails with his blood soaked fur. When even more crackling sounds could be heard from the direction of my window.

I ran back to the door and up the stairs.

'Alex!' My sister watched as I dashed past her on the second floor. 'What happened? Is that blood?''

I didn't answer her, and as I reappeared on the landing, the black light was shrinking, until finally with another crack, it was gone.

'What was that thing Tails?' I asked as I collapsed onto my bed.

Tails had flown through the window, as not to attract attention to himself by going through the house.

'I don't know.'

I didn't do this in the last chapter: I own squat in this story but myself.