Tails slowly opened his eyes. He was in a dark hut; it was late as Tails could here the crickets chirping away. He felt his forehead that was wrapped up pretty well; the lump on the back of his head was hurting a good deal and his arm also hurt when he moved it. He took a few deep breaths and slowly began to cry.
"Aunt Sally is going to be so mad at me." started Tails.
He only gave off a few sniffs when he could hear Sally in the background just outside the hut, Tails calmed down a little bit and began to listen carefully to the conversation outside.
"Sonic, I said no and the answer is still no!" stated Sally firmly.
Sonic's voice came in pretty loud now as he raised his voice a little. It was unlike Sonic, he would normally just pass Sally of with a cool calm attitude.
"Come on Sal! At this rate Tails isn't even going to become 'old enough' as long as he keeps getting beat up." urged Sonic.
Sally didn't say anything for the moment and Tails stopped crying for the moment, as he didn't want them to hear him and know he was awake.
"The answer is still no." replied Sally.
Tails could hear even Sonic's sigh, as he didn't do anything to hide his disappointment.
"So what are we going to do? Ask Ant to stay and baby-sit?" taunted Sonic.
Sally voiced raised a few levels and it was pretty clear that Sally didn't take that comment in fun.
"SONIC! Antoine is a Freedom Fighter, you should have some respect." stated Sally.
"Ya, ya I gotcha, respect the chicken." replied Sonic.
Sally gave a sigh now as she had given up on trying to teach Sonic manners.
"So what should we do Sal? Leave Tails behind and let him get beat up again? He nearly drowned!" stated Sonic.
Sally was taken back by Sonic's voice as his voice was filled with a note of anger, which was very unlike Sonic. He clearly was being very protective of his best bud.
"I don't know." replied Sally.
"Give him a chance Sal." asked Sonic.
There was that eerie silence for almost a whole minute as both of them didn't say anything, and Tails was pretty sure that they were staring at each other with solid looks.
"I'll think about it ok?" answered Sally.
"I can look out for him." explained Sonic.
"That's what I'm worried about." replied Sally.
Tails could hear Sally leaving the porch and walking away from the hut. He had a good bet that Sonic had a surprised look on his face.
"Hey! What's that suppose to mean? Sal!" demanded Sonic.
Tails heard Sonic leave the porch now and most likely following Sally. Tails slowly bent forward to sit upright in his bed as he could see Sonic in the window as he was still talking to Sally. Tails mind went back to the fight and how he hurt that kid. He looked at his hands for a few moments. He then lay back down and stared at the ceiling, he didn't want to think about what was going to happen. He just wanted to wake up and find out it was all some bad dream.
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A black hedgehog was sitting in a tree somewhere far away from Knothole. His black and reddish colors easily defined his character. He stared into the pitch-black sky with no real interest, as he didn't know what to do to pass the time. He seemed out of place in nature but the hedgehog didn't like the city, it was filled with too many people for his tastes. The forest seemed the only place were he could be at peace without interruptions. He held a green Chaos Emerald in hand, his only real duty to protect his possession like his emerald. He needed it to perform his Chaos Control and leaving such a powerful object laying around in some security vault didn't do any good last time, so he decided he would use it and defend it.
"Maria."
He quickly thought to how things changed so rapidly to him and how now he felt lost in the world. He didn't really have any goals or objectives in life but to protect the world, the world that Maria loved.
"Huh?"
The green chaos emerald began to change colors slowly between gray and its normal green, the power of the emerald fluxing between its full power and no power at all rapidly. Shadow could feel the energy of the emerald changing rapidly as the balance of magical energy had been suddenly lost.
"The emerald becoming unstable."
Shadow stood up on the tree limb and looked up at the stars and the night sky. He looked back at the emerald that kept changing colors. He stood thinking for a few moments before suddenly jumping off the limb and onto the next one at blaring speeds as he began to make his way through the forest.
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"The Master Emerald!"
The red echidna, Knuckles stood before the Master Emerald Shine and the massive gem that was known as the Master Emerald. The massive gem was changing colors and fluxing between green and gray as its powers became unbalanced. A floating pink ball stood hovering over Knuckles shoulder watching the Master Emerald as well as its powers became weaker.
"The Master Emerald is being drained of its powers. If this keeps up the island..." started the pink ball.
The island gave a shake as the Floating Island began to lower back to the planet at a rapid pace. Knuckles was thankful that it was slowly landing instead of the sudden falling of the entire island, like when the emerald was shattered. It didn't set everything clear as he still wondered what why was this happening.
"What possibly could be powerful enough to drain the Master Emerald?" asked Knuckles as he looked towards the floating pink ball.
The ball moved around and the Master Emerald and then came back to Knuckles, if it had a face of its own it might have been very grave.
"Only someone who understands the full potential of the emeralds could possibly do something like this." it explained.
Knuckles put her hands together as he thought about what could be happening. Tikal, Chaos, and himself were the only ones that even had a small concept of the emeralds power but who could have enough understand to do something on this scale.
"Wait! Shadow!" exclaimed Knuckles.
Shadow was the only person that even understood the Chaos Emeralds powers more then he did, his move Chaos Control.
"Maybe Shadow is controlling the emerald." explained Knuckles.
The light ball moved up to Knuckles a bit and didn't speak for a moment, then spoke with a thoughtful voice.
"I don't see it likely. He does have a decent level of control over the CHAOS emeralds but to drain the master with his level of skill would be impossible since the nature of the Master and the Chaos are completely different." explained the light ball.
"Then who?" asked Knuckles.
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"I sense four. How interesting, there are only suppose to be three but I sense four."
A large furry hand comes out from the shadows holding a ball of light, instead the wall the image of a black hedgehog running thought the forest can be seen. The hedgehog suddenly stops and stares directly at holder of the ball as if he knows he is being watched. The ball disappears from the furies hands and the figure begins to laugh. The drip of water from the cave was the only thing that broke the laughter.
"Well, it appears he is more sensitive to the chaos emeralds then the others. He already is searching. He might be very interesting indeed, but still I can't afford to be careless. I think I entertain him for a little while."
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Shadow had stopped and was looking directly into the sky.
"I felt chaos energy... being controlled."
It was very odd and confusing, it felt like chaos energy was everywhere but yet he could see nothing. It was the same feeling he got from chaos control but this time it felt like it was being used on him.
"Huh?"
Several balls of light began to appear around him from all different directions, he could feel them but why could he feel them was what was brothering him and also why this events were happening. He didn't get much time to think as several of them began to fire beams of light at him all once from all directions.
"CHAOS CONTROL!"
Everything stopped around him, the trees, the wind, the leafs, but the light balls and there attack didn't as he got hit from all sides and virtually fainted from the blast of pain. It was hard to tell where he was hit as all his fur was black, but he was pretty sure that he had been hit everywhere once. If it wasn't for the fact he was used to getting beaten up in this fashion he might have passed out from the pain.
"Heh... that hurt... still he could do better."
His mind went to Sonic for a second as he though about how they beat the crap out of each other when they first met. He was wondering why Chaos Control didn't work on them as realty around him returned to normal. He had to do something as the energy balls launched another volley of beams at him from all directions. He jumped upward as energy swirled around him and tried a different tactic.
"ACIENT LIGHT!"
He launched himself at one light ball and passed though it and then was redirected to another and passed though that one as well. He would have hit everyone as he flew though each ball once before finally stopping a little ways away from light balls.
"Wha... they aren't even real."
The balls fired off another volleys, all there attacks seem to be timed to fire at the same time. Shadow dodged all of the attacks by swiftly moving left and right with his speed. He quickly thought of something, it was risky but he needed to know. He stopped and waited for the next volley of fire that came at him all at once. He focused his mind on the beams instead of the emerald he had with him.
"Chaos CONTROL!"
The beams disappeared and there energy went into the emerald he had.
"These balls are made out of Chaos Energy, then that means..."
The balls fired another round but this time Shadow ran forward dashing between the beams till he got his hand on one of the balls.
"CHAOS CONTROL!"
The ball dispersed and its energy went into his emerald as well. The energy from the balls was the same energy being stolen from the emeralds and Shadow was returning the energy back to the emerald. He was about to go after the others but they flew off and disappeared on their own.
"Don't want to loss more of your power... who ever you are."
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"He has the power to control the chaos energy as well. His level control is nowhere close to mine but his ability still makes him more entertaining. I guess I will simply have to watch and see what he does."
The furry laughed heavily and its deep voice echoed, though out the cave.
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"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"
Tails sprung up from his bed to his dark room. It must have been late but cause he had gone to bed early he was wide-awake now. The dream he had was getting more clear and more defined and now it was fixed on one voice now of a heavily laughing person. He remembered these dreams from when he was much younger but Sonic always told him not to be scared of Robotnik and he wouldn't have the nightmares anymore. The dream however was clear enough now for Tails to realise that it wasn't Robotnik who was laughing heavily in his dreams.
"It isn't Robotnik, then who?"
"Tails!"
Tails saw the light come on in his room as Sally and Sonic must have heard him yell and came running. He looked away from the two as he remembers what he had done to the kid before.
"I'm sorry, Aunt Sally." apologized Tails.
Sally smiled and sat down on the bed with Tails.
"You shouldn't let them get to you." explained Sally.
"Its easy for you to say Sal, its kind of hard NOT to let it get to you when they do that." said Sonic.
He pointed at Tails head bandage that was still firmly on his head. Sally gave a scowling look towards Sonic that he had grown far to use too over the years from Sally. Sonic just shrugged in reply to her scowl as he leded against the wall.
"Its alright it my fault I have two tails, so it can't be helped." sadly replied Tails.
Sally and Sonic both reacted. Sonic stood up straight and Sally straighten up as well.
"No, it's not your fault!" Sally voiced raised a bit.
Tails looked up at his Sally and Sonic as they began to lecture him.
"It's the people who can't accept people who are different then them fault! If they can't accept you then that's their problem! Those tails are a gift, something that no one else has!" explained Sonic.
"You should listen to him. He got made fun of all the time." replied Sally.
"Sonic did?" asked Tails.
Tails was surprised to hear that Sonic, who everyone though was there hero in this war against Robotnik, was made fun of at some time in his life.
"Oh ya, mainly when I was younger and elementary and such. The 'freak speed demon', you know how often I was accused of cheating?" explained Sonic.
"You were accused of cheating?" asked a surprised Tails.
Sonic nodded and so did Sally, as she seemed to recall those days as well.
"Ya, I'm not the best at schooling and stuff but whenever I got good grades the kids accused me of running back and forth between my desk and the teacher's to look at the answer sheet. I didn't pay it much attention as it was such a lame excuse that I didn't even NEED to try and tell the teacher that wasn't true." explained Sonic.
Sally elbowed Sonic pretty hard in the ribs.
"Ow! What was that for?" demanded Sonic.
She simply looked at him and shook her head.
"Remember when we first met?" reminded Sally.
Sonic's eyes went wide as he remembers. Tails leaned forward more it was defiantly something Tails always wondered.
"Ooooohhhh! I almost forgot about that!" exclaimed Sonic.
"Even as a young princess I did attend the same school as Sonic. I got in simply cause of royalty as for Sonic, since his uncle served in the military also was able to send Sonic to a high ended school... even if he was a slacker." snickered Sally.
Sonic turned away and put on a fake smile.
"It wasn't like I was that bad!" stated Sonic.
"What happened when you first met Aunt Sally?" asked Tails.
Sally put her finger up to her mouth and thought for a moment.
"It's a little bit of a long story." explained Sally.
"I don't mind!" excitedly replied Tails.
Sally smiled as she started to explain when Sonic and them first met, to an excited young two tailed fox.