For miles around Fellena was a burned and scorched land, made completely barren by the thousands of Dragons that soured the skies. Most of the time these giant beasts slept on the ground below, conversing their energy as with their growing numbers food was becoming scarce; this left the skies free of fire most of the time. This was why when a ball of dazzling light suddenly erupted in thin air none were awake to see it. A surge of power rippled through the air and sent spiralling out of the light came the Egg Carrier 4.
The ship screamed towards the ground, the engine thrusters cut out and without and thrust to keep it up it was plummeting straight towards the hard ground. At the last second however, Becoe regained propulsion control and with a deafening roar the engines came back online. A pillar of blue flame shot out the main thrusters before the ship's crashing flight path began to level up, the hence-bot steering the ship into a climb moments before its tip could ram into the ground. Disturbed from their slumber by the intrusion, several large wedge shaped heads rose up on long scaly necks to stare after the ship as it began its escape back to the clouds. Having never seen a carrier before, these Dragons instantly thought that this giant was another form of food. Having been starved of sustenance for days and driven by hunger, they were prepared to attack anything on even the smallest chance of a meal.
Their wings spread and one by one they took to their air, trying to beat their rivals to the goal. As the largest got within range it reared its head back before throwing its haws forward spitting a thick glob of chemicals at the ship. These combusted with the oxygen in the air and burst into a torrent of flames that literally screamed as it flew. The blast struck the Egg Carrier along the starboard bow causing it to tip violently to the side.
Several trap doors pulled themselves aside as turrets rose up to take their place. A moment later the air was full of laser fire, riddling one of the flying beasts with severe burn marks. It screeched angrily before pulling back away to abandon the chase, smoke trailing in its flight path. The other two pressed on, determined not to let this meal escape.
Energy blasts came out of nowhere, striking the lead beast head on. The head went flying from the shoulders in a spray of blood and the Dragon tumbled down towards the ground trailing red. Metal Sonic soured through the air, the jets on his back full blazing. His long armoured arms spread out either side with talons held ready. Coming up close to the final creature, a direct strike down the side sent it reeling back in pain; red flying from a series of horizontal cuts along its neck.
Angry it reared its head back and vomited another batch of burning chemicals straight at the robotic hedgehog as he soured past.
"Chaos Spear!" A rapid series of yellow bolts ripped across the sky, dissolved the chemicals as they past and struck home directly into the centre of the beast's heart. There was a momentary silence before it exploded in a red haze.
"I don't recall asking for you assistance." Metal Sonic called down to the ground as pieces of dragon began raining all around. Down on the edge of a cliff below was Shadow, his hand raised with fresh smoke rising from between his fingers.
"If you hadn't been so stupid you wouldn't need it." The black hedgehog replied, turning away in a certain amount of disgust.
Glancing around, he observed the new landscape around it. Barren and scorched like the top of a volcano, blackened with thick rivers of lava coursing through the land like blood vessels. From the vantage point of the cliff overlooking a frothing aqua green sea Shadow could see it all for miles. A wasteland, not even a single tree or shrub anywhere. Far in the distance he could hear the distant cries of more dragons and he could see their winged forms on the distant horizon. The sky above was orange and the sun giant and blood red. One thing was clear at once. He was not on earth anymore.
The ring was a dimensional gateway. Gerald had used it to look across realms when Earth and Mobius were separated. When Metal Sonic attacked the ring it absorbed the energy of his blast and transmuted it into its own power source. Activating a Chaos Control warp, but releasing it without any constraints; throwing them across dimensions to wherever this was. Shadow glanced down at his left hand. Grasped tightly between his fingers was the ring. Apparently the unexpected and uncontrolled warp had diminished it. It had shrunk to the size of an ordinary ring, as if it were now one of the items Sonic used for energy pick-me-ups. The surface did not glow through like the others. Black swirled with gold inside like oil and water. Well, at least now it was out of Eggman's greedy hands.
The Egg Carrier had swung down to the ground nearby, jutting into the ground at the base of the cliff. Smoke was rising from it at various points. It would be a while before the Doctor would be getting it up into the air again.
"Can you tell where we are?" Shadow asked, looking back over his shoulder. Standing behind him like his shadow was Tikal, her guardian the loyal watery demon Chaos in a melted puddle behind her.
"Safe to say in another dimensional realm." She replied giving the strange sky a glance. "But I can not tell you which one and can't transport us away either." Being part of the Master Emerald for so long, Tikal had developed special powers because of it. She could teleport herself distances, even across certain dimensional realms. Also she could call up Chaos from the ether to protect her. But her abilities could be cancelled out by certain types of magnetic waves. Shadow could feel such an energy grid in the air. It was making his short fur stand up on end.
There was a loud thud and turning back they both saw Metal Sonic stand up out of the scorch he landed in. Since they saw him fighting Krish he had changed his overall amour design. It was much blockier around the legs and his cape was blood red instead of purple. On the back of it, printed in gold was the symbol of the Metal X Machine federation.
"Our arrival in this place might not be…entirely…my fault." The robotic hedgehog stated, his cape flapping out to the side.
"And how do you figure that?" Shadow asked, folding his armed with a severely annoyed expression on his face.
"My sensors are detecting Sonic's energy signature within four miles of our location." He replied. "The excess chaos energy abundant within it suggests he had also recently been through a Chaos Control."
"Sonic…here? You sure?" Tikal asked looking mutely surprised. Metal Sonic simply nodded.
"I believe we tried to transport at the same time he did, but since our warp was unstable it latched onto his exit point. I thought Sonic was involved in this somehow."
"So in other words, we just hitched a ride on his Chaos Control?" Shadow asked butting in.
"More or less." Metal Sonic replied. The black and red hedgehog forged a stark frown.
"Well that didn't doesn't chance the fact that you were the one that attacked the ring."
"Just what were you and Eggman doing with it anyway?" The robot shot back, his eyes glowing red in annoyance.
"That's none of your concern!"
"What I'd like to know is what Sonic's doing in a place like this?" Tikal asked cutting in before a serious argument could start, glancing around at the utterly barren landscape all around her. Strewn with ashes and volcanic activity it appeared as if the apocalypse had come and gone.
"I guess we just go ask him." Shadow announced.
---
"I don't suppose the old "I come in peace" line will cut any ice around here?" Sonic asked with a nervous smile taking a step back as the shadows of the felines around him eclipsed him from the light. One of them drew a dagger, the other un-strapped a claymore from a sheath on his back and the last readied a large axe blade. Several more around them cracked their knuckles loudly as the woman hurried their children away.
A few of the youngsters stayed to watch, excited by the prospect of battle and by the strange blue creature they had never seen before. "Nope, never does." The blue hedgehog remarked to himself, his ears dropping at each side. One of the felines lunged at him with the axe, swinging the blade down in arch at Sonic; who dodged the swing with ease. Another made a jab with the dagger and this Sonic easily avoided, swinging around their attacks as if they were moving in slow motion. "Come on, how many of you guys do I have to beat the living crap out of before you get the idea?" He asked, folding his arms and tapping his foot.
The last with the sword looked like he was going to strike, hoisting his sword up into the air; but as he did so he stopped; his face suddenly adopting a stunned expression. Sonic watched him carefully for a moment. To the hedgehog's surprise, the large cat simply dropped to one knee bowing to something. All the others around him did the same, even those who had just attacked him. Sonic looked confused. This was just getting stranger by the second.
"Well this is certainly an unpleasant surprise." Shooting around at the sound of a voice Sonic instinctively went into a fighting stance. Standing there behind him was the feline had had tried to stop at the heart of Area 99, the one attempting to steal that yellow crystal. Clearly a female, she was almost completely surprise with darkened pieces of fur at the end of her pony tail and at the end of her long tail. She had changed from her leather and metal armour to a purple gown Sonic would have expected those upper class loaded families would wear to social gatherings. It came to her calves but did not pass her ankles. Her shoes were a dark shade of pink and healed, the white top jagged like a six pointed star. In one hand she was holding the hilt of a long-sword. Bandage wrappings had been tied around her shoulder, a dark brown stain revealing they were patching a wound of some kind.
"Hey how's tricks Blaze?" The hedgehog asked with a faint smile, lifting a hand up in the air in greeting. "Hope you don't mind if I crash here for a while." He looked around. "Nice pad by the way. Love what you've done with the place."
"You don't belong here." She told him.
"Yeah I got the message from those two guys outside the dome. You may wanna check on them, I had-ta rough them up a little." Blaze hissed out through her nose. "Look am I gonna have to do this fighting with you crazy catz all day?" The blue hedgehog asked. "It's getting real old and I haven't eaten since this morning." A loud emphasizing growl escaped from his stomach. He outstretched his hand towards her. "Can't we call a truce? You don't want me here and I don't wanna be here. I know someone'll be along for me soon enough so can't we all get along until my ride turns up?" The other felines around watched the blue hedgehog, their eyes occasional glancing up to Blaze as if to see what her reaction would be. The girl feline's face was unreadable. Suddenly she sighed and sheathed her sword.
"I'm tired and fatigued from fighting for now." With that she turned to leave. The cats around her watched as she simply walked away. Suddenly, she stooped; looked back over her shoulder directly towards the blue hedgehog. She looked him over properly, before saying clearly; "Come with me."
-
Everything hissed around like a trapped animal, steam and smoke drifting out from damaged equipment. Half the Egg Carrier's systems were off line, the engines knee deep in leaking fuel and to top it off, the prized ring, Eggman's inheritance was gone. This would not go unanswered. Unfortunately, Eggman had no more robots to send out for recon never mind military deployment besides Decoe and Becoe and he needed them here to help him repair the ship. The only ones left he could deploy were in the 'reject room'.
"Those outdated relics?" Decoe nearly exclaimed in utter surprised.
"Well since all my other elite robots are…" Eggman paused to give the scorched remains in the repair program pods behind him a glance. Metal Knuckles was the first being worked upon. His outer frame had been shredded and most of the inner circuitry damaged. Even with the help of Nano-bots it was going to take some time before he was combat ready again. "…in the shop, I'll just have to get this old E100 shell out of storage."
"But Doctor." Becoe began sorting through the scattered remains of the laboratory around him. "You haven't used an E100 series robot since the first Egg Carrier. They're horribly outdated."
"And they still out class the Dreadnaughts and we need protective hardware fast." Eggman insisted, sliding a door at the side of the metal wall open. As he did so a cloud of mist floated out, the air beyond the door icy cold. There was a sudden faint mechanical clunk as sensors registered the open door and slowly a row of metal poles slid out. Hanging from them like clothes were old robots Eggman had put to use over the years. There were Egg Pawns, several variations of the Dreadnaught and even several Badniks, deactivated and just hanging there. The ones Eggman was after was directly in the middle.
They had a round middle bulk and long limbs, like all E100 units, a cloven mechanical hand on the left arm and a laser rifle on the right. A white stripe ran vertically down the chest plate from the almost flat flaxen yellow head. A rail around along the outside of the middle, attached to the front was an electric light and at both ends were exhaust pipes. The letters: E102 were plastered on the right hand side.
"Gamma?" Decoe asked looking perplexed. "But Doctor, I thought all the E100 series we made were destroyed?"
"They were." Eggman replied. "But when Gamma proved to be such a useful servant I had his designs saved to disk. Then I had this replacement shell built to replace him if he was ever destroyed in battle."
"Well not have used him before now?" Becoe queried.
"I would have, but this unit has a slight…. problem, so I had it placed in storage." The Doctor stated, before running his hand over a command console. The two robots exchanged glances.
"What sort of problem?" They asked together.
"Command regulations are shot in this one." Eggman paused to consider himself. "It may or may not obey me. It didn't during the beta testing. Since it's been offline for so long I've no way of knowing until I fire it up."
Gamma slid to the floor silently, until his feet slammed against the metal with a loud thud. Eggman and his two robots quickly picked the metal shell back up, propping it against the wall as best they could. The doctor ran his hand over a computer panel at the back of the head and a short metallic panel leading into the robots main body slid open with a loud click.
"Doesn't an E100 series robot need organic batteries like the Badniks?" Decoe asked as Eggman reached inside and began rummaging around with the internal devices.
"My technology has evolved beyond that limitation." The doctor replied, concentrating on feeling around for what he required. His face lit up once he had it and then he withdrew his arm, dragging glass ball with it, thick wires and cables attached to the underside. This was the central power core; it drained the electrical energy of the life form inside and transferred it to the robots battery. Since Eggman was now without a life form small enough to put inside, he had to improvise.
"A Chaos Drive?" Becoe looked amazed at the Doctor's choice of power supply. It was a tube about the size of a pencil, a large red crystal puzzling in the centre. G.U.N used these to power their various combat systems, such as Laser Hunter units and even some Mech's.
"Even if it was invented by armatures like the military, this type of fusion power is rather effective." Eggman announced, before sliding the cylinder inside the glass ball through a small door. Shutting it after him, Eggman then proceeded to push the ball back into the robot itself; careful not to disturb anything important inside. Once his arm was withdrawn, he typed away on the console and the door leading into the main body closed shut.
Almost instantly, the pair of glass optics that sat directly at he front of the curved head lit up accompanied by a loud bleeping noise as the internal systems all began activating one by one. "Ah, welcome back Gamma." Eggman announced as the long arms and legs began to twitch, before finally moving more fluidly. Supporting its own weight, the robot heaved itself back up to its feet.
Its large heaved rotated from side to side, scanning the occupants of the room. When the eyes latched onto Eggman, it brought the barrel of its rifle hard so fast it made the Doctor jump. For a moment it, looked like the robot was about to shoot him. Then it brought the arm over its chest in salute and dropped down to one knee.
"Main server online; awaiting instructions."
-
The felines were confused by what so many strangers were doing in the city and why they were not being attacked by the guards. Void had managed to avoid any unpleasantness by opening his porthole straight into the spiral centre of the settlement, much to the alarm of the palace guards. Several shouts and calls to arms began echoing across the battlements Once they saw Jack come with them however, they were unsure of whether to attack or mind their own business.
The situation was already quite strange for Amy and the others, not that their lives had ever been anything but strange, but this took it to souring new heights. It got even stranger when they were ushered into a main chamber and there, sitting nearby stuffing his face with the food laid out on a long oak table was Sonic. A large pile of empty plates sat at once side and a collection of pastry products stood waiting for attention on the other.
"Hey guys. Took you long enough." The hedgehog called over, before whipping the crumbs from his mouth with the back of his sleeve.
"Sonic!" The blue hedgehog barley had enough time to say hello when Amy tackled him to the cross, her arms wrapping around him a bear hug so tight he could hardly breathe; the food in his hands catapulted across the room to splatter across the walls. Sitting at the far end of the table was Blaze herself. As they entered the room, she and Okida locked gazes. The major's eyes darted from her face to the bandages around her shoulder and the apology could be read on his face.
Blaze diverted her attention away from him and turned to cast a glance around the others, whom her guards had informed her moments ago, had decided to pay them a visit.
"Ah, Jack!" She began sighting her second in command. "You're alive!"
"Yes sir." He replied lowering his head in respect. "I was held captive." He cast a glance towards Void behind him. "I think I'm part of a prisoner exchange." Blaze slowly rose out of her chair, her eyes locked onto Void with a piercing glare like a spear thrust.
"Your kind are not welcome here." Blaze told him, staring Void right in the face. "I give you friendly advice; leave this dimension before someone sticks a knife in your back." Void was silent for a moment, before all of a sudden a wide smirk crossed his face.
"I'll just take my chances if that's all the same with you." Blaze forged an unimpressed frown before turning away.
"Be it on your own head." She muttered. Jack stared directly at Sonic for a moment, before snorting out through his nose and following after his commanding officer.
"Friendly people aren't they?" The blue hedgehog muttered, putting his arms behind his head, a goofy smile on his lips.
"We've been tearing our hair out worrying about you." Amy chided him with a cross expression on her face.
"And all this time you were eating cake?" Knuckles asked folding his arms. Sonic just shrugged with a looped grin.
"I take it you're here for an explanation?" Blaze asked, pausing at the doorway. Everyone looking in the direction of her and his giant subordinate. "If one from Maginaryworld is with you, it means that, finally, we have support."
"Well that depends." Void replied folding his arms. "I'm here to investigate and incursion by your kind on planet Earth. Unless you can give me just cause as to 'why' I should overlook it never mind help you, I'll still have to recommend disciplinary action to queen Illumina."
"I'm confused." Knuckles admitted with a puzzled expression. Blaze managed a short smirk.
"Allow me to show you something…"
At the centre of the city and the giant tower was a giant central chamber. Everything, corridors, buildings, streets had been build so they pointed to this exact spot. Amongst the almost renaissance themed city, this chamber seemed out of place. It was made completely of metal and devices they would normal contribute to Eggman running down every wall. Directly in the centre was a towering metallic pillar with thick segmented metal cables running to it from the ceiling and the floor. About halfway up it's length it had a flat pedestal that spurt out for a two foot radius.
"This is the Arcanum." Blaze exclaimed, gesturing up at the giant yellow crystal as it floated in place. "It is what keeps this entire landmass floating in the air." Knuckles simply stood stark still, staring up at the jewel with a dazed expression on his face. Was this what the Master Emerald wanted him to see? Another version of itself, a mirror image? If that was so, then why? "It also acts as a repellent. Dragon's can't stand being within a certain distance of its radiation. It has kept us safe for over fifty years now." Jack added in.
"This here is Sebastian." Blaze announced, introducing the feline nearby. He wore a red robe with a hood hiding his eyes. From what they could see he was old, his form hunched as he walked and he required a walking stick. "He is the court magician and overseer of the Arcanum."
"Fat lot of good he was protecting it the first place." Jack remarked callously, folding his large muscular arms. The ears under the old feline's hood twitched.
"If I recall, you were nowhere to be seen when the metal creepers attacked either." He stated, pushing back his hood to reveal his face. A wrinkled old feline he was, with bald patches in his fur across his forehead and underneath his mussel.
"Are you calling me a coward?" Jack snarled, barring his fangs; uncrossing his arms with his claws held ready.
"Enough." Blaze called out silencing them both. Amy looked over at Sonic.
"I don't get it." She admitted gaining his attention. "I thought they were stealing this from the military?" Blaze's left ear twitched as she turned around.
"We are not the ones who did the stealing." The feline told the pink hedgehog with a stern glare that made Amy stand almost rigidly to attention. Sonic tried to suppress a giggle and failed. "The Apes or the… military… as you call then, stole the Arcanum from us first." Void forged a frown and folded his arms in front of himself.
"G.U.N doesn't have dimension travelling technology." He stated narrowing his eyes and Blaze slowly turned to face him. "How could they have stolen it if they were incapable of getting here in the first place?" The feline was utterly silent before a smile broke past her lips.
"You don't believe me?" She asked.
"Not without proof." Void replied. She smiled at him coyly.
"Then you shall have it." She snapped her fingers and Sebastian bowed then made his way to the controls at the side of the giant metallic tower, before running his hands over the controls. There was a brief buzz before a projector cast a holographic image directly into the centre of the room, focusing it into a perfect circle. Within this sphere, they observed the dome that encircled the city and the jungle surrounding it. "This is a recording taken from our patrols. Several weeks ago, a hole in the sky was opened." As she spoke it happened, the sky in the hologram opened up, stretching out with its edges sparking with bolts of lightning. "We have been intruded upon by dimension travellers before, but they always left in a hurry once they discovered the Dragon Blood. These people however…." Almost on cue, several large long legged objects dropped out of the hole and landed with a deafening thud between the trees.
Okida blinked, recognising them instantly as the latest G.U.N Mech's; those Creepers that had attacked them outside Area 99. The 'G' symbol across their armoured fronts was unmistakeable. They stomped over everything in their path, crushing entire clumps of trees underfoot and made a direct B-line towards the dome.
"Very well." Void sighed, having no wish to see any more. "I will accept that G.U.N did… somehow… cross dimensions to get here. Once that assumption is made, the rest of the story rights itself."
"The military stole the Arcanum… so you come to our world to get it back." Knuckles put in, folding his large arms in front of himself. Blaze nodded once.
"This island can only stay up for so long without it and we risk the inevitable prospect of attack by Dragons. Retrieving it was of utmost importance." She stated, turning away to look up at the giant crystal. The red jewel directly in the centre of her forehead glowed brightly in response to its closeness to the Arcanum, a beacon of blinking light.
"Well that explains why you were attacking the army." Amy began rolling her eyes towards the ceiling in thought. "But why would G.U.N take a Dragon back from here to our world?" The picture of that giant flying reptile bursting out of the base in a spray of brick dust was firmly lodged in all their minds. "They must have known how dangerous it was?" Okida shook his head.
"I don't think it was deliberate." He stated gaining everyone's attention. "If the Dragon Blood is really a disease, then I guess one of those Mech pilots must have caught it while he was here."
"Taking it back to our world…" Rouge added in.
"Where he kept mutating until he became one of them." Knuckles almost said from
between clenched teeth. Blaze nodded.
"And possibly spreading it onto others." There was a sudden silence as the group digested this information, the stunned expressions on their faces playing testament to the unique horror of the situation.
"Just how fast does this infection spread?" Void asked, now finally seeing the seriousness of the situation.
"It can kill an entire town in a week." Was Blaze's flat reply as she fixed him with an iron stare. "And produce an entire swarm of Dragons in a month."
"If Dragon Blood is loose in our world…" Rouge began, but she was already stating what everyone was already thinking. If it was running amok through their world then it could render the entire planet just as barren as this one; and do it very quickly.
"I think it's about time I knew everything there is to know about this disease." Void stated.
--
Blaze showed them to a more comfortable room in the higher levels. Her own personal study was a towering library with rows of books going up the walls all the way to the ceiling. The floor was carpeted with red and the furniture was a fine varnished oak. A chandelier hung from the ceiling. A tall tainted green window looked out across the city on the far side of the room, casting a strange emerald light into the room. It made everything look quite strange in some way.
"My lady." A feline solider rushed up to the entrance before Blaze could close the door after them. "More strangers have arrived; they claim to know the blue one." She gestured with a nod of his head towards Sonic.
"Exactly how many people have you invited?" Blaze asked looking back at Sonic irritably.
"Hey this is news to me." The blue hedgehog replied holding his hands up. Blaze sighed out load in irritation.
"Show them in." The solider bowed respectfully and left, the sound of his armour clattering against itself echoing down the hall.
"Impressive collection." Void commented looking upon the books in the bookcases on the floor level. "An avid reader?" He asked looking back towards the feline. Blaze shook her head.
"This was my grandfather's study." She replied. "He liked to read a lot. He was king when the Dragon Blood first came, then he died and then my father shortly after. I look over from him." No one said anything about it after that.
"I should have known." A familiar voice stated from the doorway. Sonic looked up in mute surprise to see Shadow standing in the doorway, a frown spread over his face. His deep scarlet eyes were locked onto the blue hedgehog. He appeared most annoyed. "Why is it whenever something horribly out of the ordinary happens, you guys are at the heart of it all?" He asked again stepping fully into the room. Tikal following him, waving to Amy.
"Just lucky I guess." Sonic replied shrugging.
"How'd you get here?" Okida asked out load looking a little surprised.
"I could very well ask of you the same question." Even as Shadow spoke, Metal Sonic stepped into the room after him. It was if someone had dropped a cat into a box full of rats, Amy took hold of her war hammer and held it ready. Knuckles adopted a fighting stance with Rouge on either side. The major tore his long barrelled shot gun out of the holster at his side, the barrel instantly flicked in the robotic hedgehog's direction.
Sonic just smiled and said…
"Hey Metal how's it hanging?" The robotic hedgehog looked up at him, the red glow to his half eclipsed eyes dying away to a minimum.
"Fine, considering I find myself once again wrapped in another of your misadventures." Sonic's smile turned goofy and he scratched the back of his head absently. "So just what is happening this time?"
"Fire breathing Dragons, jumps across reality, death raining from the skies and military conspires."
"So business as normal for you then?" Sonic just laughed at the remark. Sensing that the robotic hedgehog had no intentions to attacking them, closed fists and weapons were lowered.
"I take it you know these three?" Jack asked Okida.
"Yeah they're…" The vampire bat paused to give Metal Sonic a look over. "Friends of ours." A brief period was spent swapping stories, which with Sonic's low attention span took some time. Shadow quickly gave an account of their tangle with Eggman and Metal Sonic intrusion and their arrival in this new realm, with the robotic hedgehog insisting that he was not entirely to blame for that incident. Since the blue hedgehog was on the verge of utter boredom, Amy recounted their story of their fight at Area 99 and their own trip here. Blaze sat back outside the conversations having no idea what they were talking about.
"So you were saying about the Dragon Blood?" Void asked Blaze.
"It came to us a few decades ago." She replied without looking at him. "From another world by the hands of a sadist."
"What are you saying?" Void asked suddenly well alarmed. "That the Dragon Blood isn't from this dimension to begin with?" Everyone went silent from their own conversations and stopped to stare.
"Yes. That was why we tried to contact Maginaryworld for help." She adopted a frown. "And were completely ignored."
"Hold on." Shadow remarked quickly butting into the conversation. "If it didn't come from this world, just where originate?" Blaze sighed and hoisted herself out of her chair.
"Some decades ago, our world was visited by a multidimensional entity. He arrived in Fellena accompanied by a multitude of creatures he had gathered from other realties. Those amongst them were the beings people from Earth refer to as 'Dragons'" She began wandering of to the book case.
"Who was it?" Void asked impatiently.
"He did not give us his name. No one ever saw him, just heard his voice." Blaze relied, withdrawing a book from the third shelf. It was thick and heavy, the cover simple brown leather. "He announced he was here for the purpose of experimentation and if we left him alone, he afford us the same courtesy." She went back with the book in hand and handed it to Void. "This is my grandfather's journal. The last few pages tell the story far better than I can." Void shot her a sceptical glance before looking down at the book. It had the royal crest he had seen on the shield outside placed on the top and inscribed in the top in gold letters was the name; Sebastian Lynx. Flipped the book open he scanned through the last few pages. Suddenly he paused and looked up at Blaze. Everyone followed his gaze. The feline's expression was unreadable.
"December the first: Our visitor has, since his arrival, given us no trouble. Thus far he had kept his word to leave us alone." Void began reading out load for everyone's benefit. "But an unnerving silence has settled over the capital. Something had changed; I taste it in the air but am unsure of what. Those around me can feel it too. This new atmosphere is unsettling."
"Sets the mood doesn't it?" Sonic asked no one in particular.
"December 5th." Void continued after casting the blue hedgehog a glare for interrupting. "Strange howling can be heard at night coming from the craters the visitor has made his home. Our scout group reporting seeing the corpse of one of the winged reptiles the Visitor brought with him. According to their report it was horribly warped, mangled out of shape. Nothing known to us could do this to an animal so large. When our visitor claimed he was here simply for the purposes of Experimentation I admit I did not think much of it. Now I ponder exactly what 'experiments' he could be performing."
"It gets worse." Blaze assured him. "Read on."
"December 15th. The sickness was first reported as a viral outbreak in the outlying colonies. Only too late did anyone realize it was much more than that. It spreads too rapidly to effectively combat and more people are falling sick each passing day." Everyone listened in mute horror, even Metal Sonic, as Void read from the book. "More and more flying reptiles can be seen in the skies each day and reports are that they becoming increasingly aggressive. Something is clearly wrong here. The children have started calling our visitor: the Dark One, believing he is the source of our troubles and I'm not sure I disagree with them."
Void flipped the page to discover the last journal entry. It was hastily written, the ink splattered across the page at the end of the last sentence. "December 20th." He began, only to stop there as he read. He looked up to see all eyes on him. "This will, in all likely hood, be my last entry. While I do not understand the science behind it, it is now clear that our visitor has been using our world as the target of a heinous experiment.
Attempting to create hybrid soldiers for an army, he was trying to merge both ourselves and the reptiles he brought with him. The result of his efforts is the disease now ravaging my people. When they die, they become deranged eating machines that burn everything in their path. The people have dubbed this, the Dragon Blood.
I go now to lead the army. We march on the craters. The dark one will answer for his crimes against the Feline people, against Fellena and against nature itself." There was a short silence after that as Void had reached the end of the book.
"They didn't last five minutes." Blaze stated. Tikal gasped and put her hands to her mouth.
"Just who is this 'Dark One'?" Shadow asked giving Void a glare. The small impish being put the book down on the table in front of him.
"I honestly don't know. But what am I am sure of now…" He looked up at Blaze. "Is that my people have caused you a great wrong. This is clearly a case of extreme dimension intrusion and we ignored you when you asked for help."
"A bit too late for apologies now." The feline reminded him sourly. "Almost half of Fellena has been burnt to ashes by those Dragons and whatever remains of this world will soon follow."
"Not if we stop it first." Sonic remarked. Blaze shot him an icy glare.
"And how do you intend to go about doing that? We've been fighting the Dragon Blood for years, we know all there is to know about it and believe when I tell you, it is unbeatable."
"No I don't think it is." Okida remarked. All eyes were suddenly on him. "It occurs to me, from what I've seen at least, you've been trying to fight the Dragons using weapons to blast them out of the sky. But your forgetting it's not really them you're fighting against; it's the virus that creates them."
"Our technological level is not sufficient enough for us to acquire the same science as the Dark one." Blaze replied. "And even IF we had that science, there is no way we could unravel precisely how he went about creating the Dragon Blood."
"Well…" Metal Sonic began. "This story hints at the possibly of genetic experimentation. I have extensive files one this subject from experiments by own Federation once conducted." The robotic hedgehog stopped in mid sentence to consider something. "Have any been to these 'craters' where your visitors was supposed to be?" Blaze shook her head.
"No. They lie deep within the hunting territory of the Blood. It's impossible to get near them without being scorched alive." Sonic cracked his knuckles.
"That sounded like a challenge to me." Blaze hissed loudly in his direction.
"Don't be a fool!" She told him. "I know how fast you can run, but trust me when I say this. You'll be outnumbered. The Dragons will surround you within seconds and burn you to a crisp." The smile on Sonic's lips refused to leave.
"Who said anything about running?" With a short buzzing, he disappeared in the midst of a Chaos control warp and then nearly instantly reappeared next to the feline, who meowed loudly leapt out of her seat, telekinetically drawing her sword.
While the arguing began, Void pulled Knuckles aside to speak to him privately.
"I need your help." The echidna blinked in surprise.
"What for?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I need you to come with me to see the Black Arms on Mars." The Echidna looked a little stunned. "This Dark one…" Void continued, looking back over his shoulder to see if they were being overheard. "I don't want to say anything in front of Blaze, but I have heard rumours."
"Rumours?" Knuckles asked raising an eyebrow.
"Quite a few people all different realities come and go across dimension planes and it's a hard job to keep track of all of them." Void explained. "I won't hinder you with the details of it as this and your dimensions have enough problems to worry about, but just to sum it up, I have heard scattered reports of various calamities being caused in different dimensions. According to the residents of those worlds, it all begins when a stranger arrives in their land." He paused briefly to consider something. "A few times we've investigated over the years but since we couldn't find any evidence of dimensional travel we just let it go at that." He brought a forefinger and thumb to his chin. "But now I'm beginning to wonder if they all might be connected?"
"Well we'll know more once we examine those canyons won't we." Knuckles put in. Void sighed and hovered up, folding his arms in front of himself.
"Something is very wrong here." He stated. "I feel as if…" Void stopped, before straitening his shoulders and slowly glancing around the room. Jack was still trying to calm Blaze done and Sonic and Shadow were arguing as to who would go explore the canyons. "As if we're being watched somehow."
"Watched?" The Echidna repeated, glancing around him. Apart from those in the study with them there was no one lurking around and Knuckles could sense no other presence within listening distance. An eerie silence followed and the echidna could feel the fur on his arms and legs stand on end. "I see nothing." He admitted.
"Watching with eyes we can not see." Void added slowly, glancing from left to right. "I can not see it either, but… somehow I just feel someone's eyes on me." Knuckles was silent for a moment before sighing out load.
"Perhaps we're just getting a little paranoid." Void remained utterly silent for at least a minute, his eyes darting across all in front of him as if what he was looking for was within glancing distance.
"Yeah…" He relented eventually. "I guess we have been stretching ourselves a little far in the last few years." He loaded his arms behind his head with a sigh. "Perhaps I'm just looking for things that aren't there."
"Must be." Knuckles added in. "But why do we need the Black Arms?"
"Because if Metal Sonic is right and this is a chase of genetic engineering gone wrong, I want the best minds in the subject on the job and the Black Arms are those minds." Void replied simply.
Their watcher turned his attention away as their conversations were drifting to less important matters. So, this was the Overseer of Maginaryworld, second in command to Queen Illumina herself? The renowned Void? Pitiful.
Better late than never that he started to suspect something, but even then he didn't know exactly what game he was now entangled in. But even if he did, the notion that he could do something about it was highly comical.
Directing his attention away, the watcher knew that the time was almost here. The actors he had cultivated for so long were already warming up for their roles and the play itself would begin in less than two years time and once it did, there was no stopping it.
"My son's have done a good job moulding you into the creature you are." He whisper, arching his hand forward and calling forth the image of a hedgehog. Long blade quills with red stripes running down either side. "The time for your central role in my grand play is nearly here Shadow." His fingers expanded and more images began running along that of the black and red hedgehog. Sonic was there, along with Metal Sonic and Amy Rose. "And of course, I have roles planned out for your little friends as well." A pair of glowing orange eyes narrowed with sadistic delight, a third directly above opening with a wet slap.
The fingers contracted and Sonic was left on his own. "Especially this one." A thick surge of hate boiled through before the watcher let the illusion drop and he turned his thoughts to other things. The arrival of both Sonic and Shadow in this dimension, not to mention the rude intrusion on behalf of the humans' military, was an unexpected event that could throw a giant wrench into the works. That had to be countered and quickly. "Rest assured you'll know more soon enough." He muttered, before all three eyes glowed brightly. "But I can't let you discover too much until I'm good and ready."